catastrophe, which naturally struck great terror all around. To this, perhaps, Abimelech's expostulation with the Lord, obliquely referred,—“ Wilt THOU also destroy a righteous nation!” xx. 4. Sarah's pregnancy would, in the next year, naturally have discovered the imposition put upon the king by Abraham; which was noticed in the former article, of his visit to Egypt. Abraham now settled at Beersheba, in the neighbourhood of Abimelech, xxi. 14-34.

ISAAC BORN.

Sarah not only bore Isaac, when she was ninety years old, but she also suckled him. In the joy of her heart she said, "GOD hath made me to laugh; so that all that hear, will laugh with me;" or rejoice at this miraculous dispensation of Providence, xxi. 6.

When Isaac was weaned, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, who was now about fifteen years of age, offended Sarah by some mockery or ill-treatment of Isaac; the original word signifies elsewhere, "to skirmish, or fight," 2 Sam. ii. 14. And St. Paul represents Ishmael as persecuting him, Gal. iv. 29. Sarah therefore complained to Abraham, and said, "Cast out this bond-woman and her son, for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son Ishmael;" but God approved of Sarah's procedure, and again excluded Ishmael from the special covenant of Grace; "for in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Nevertheless, the son of the bond-woman will I make a nation also, because he is thy seed." And GOD renewed this promise to Hagar, during her wanderings in the wilderness of Beersheba, when she despaired of support;-" Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hands, for I will make him a great nation. And GOD was with the lad, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and became an archer. And his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt," xxi. 8-21.

“And Abraham planted a grove, [or place of worship,] in Beersheba, (signifying "the well of the oath," from the convention into which he there entered with Abimelech,) and called there on the name of THE LORD, THE ETERNAL GOD," or his " EVERLIVING REDEEMER," in the language of Job.

ABRAHAM'S LAST TRIAL.

After a residence of many days at Beersheba, xxi. 34, when Isaac was come to the age of twenty-five years, according to Josephus, Ant. I. 13, 2. God was pleased to prove Abraham, by the last and greatest trial of his faith and obedience, after he had passed through nine trials, according to the Jewish doctors, 1. in quitting his native country, Chaldea; 2. his flight to Egypt from famine in Canaan; 3. the first seizure of Sarah in Egypt; 4. the war for the rescue of Lot; 5. his taking Hagar to gratify Sarah; 6. his circumcision; 7. the second seizure of Sarah in Gerar; 8. the expulsion of Ishmael; 9. the expulsion of Hagar.

XXII. 2. "And the Lord said unto Abraham, Take now thy son, thy only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee unto the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell thee."

3. "And Abraham arose early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went towards the place which God told him."

4. "And on the third day [of the journey], Abraham lift up his eyes, and saw the place [Mount Calvary] afar off. And Abraham said unto his here with the ass, young men, Abide ye while I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and return again to you. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and they went both of them together."

7. "And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father and he said, Here am I, my son: and he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt

offering? And Abraham said, GOD* will see

66

(or provide) for

Isaac was not the "only son," as in the English Bible. The Hebrew TT, (Jehid) is rendered by the Septuagint here, povoyevns, only begotten," which is adopted by St. Paul, Heb. xi. 17. Only," ," is the literal translation of the Hebrew ; and in the usual latitude of speech, frequently "pre-eminent," or "excellent." In this sense, THE FATHER is styled the ONLY TRUE GOD, John xvii. 3; without excluding THE Sox from being THE TRUE GOD also, 1 John v. 19. And in the concluding Hymn of the Communion Service, THE SON is invoked in a similar sense, "Thou only art HOLY; thou only art THE LORD; thou only, O CHRIST, with the HOLY GHOST, art most high in the glory of God the FatheR. Amen."

From the name given to this place by Abraham, Jahoh Jireh, "THE LORD will

venty-five years old, took as a second wife, or concubine, her handmaid, Hagar, an Egyptian. And when Hagar conceived, she despised her mistress; who dealt hardly with her, Abram giving her up to his wife's discretion; so that she fled towards Egypt from the face of her mistress; but was stopped in her flight by the ANGEL OF THE LORD, who foretold that she should bear a son called Ishmael, because "THE LORD heard" her affliction, and that his race should be numerous, rapacious, and unconquered; so remarkably fulfilled in the Ishmaelites, or Arabs, even to the present day! And Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael, chap. xvi.

ISAAC PROMISED.

Thirteen years after, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, THE LORD appeared to him by the name of EL SADI, “ GOD ALMIGHTY;" changed his name from Ab-ram, signifying a high father," to Abraham," a father of a multitude of nations *." And solemnly renewed the covenant, to "be A GOD unto him and to his seed;" and instituted the rite of circumcision in token thereof, for an everlasting covenant. He also changed his wife's name from SARAI, signifying "my princess," to SARAH," the princess," promised him a son by her, and declared that she should be "a mother of nations." And when Abraham laughed inwardly with joy at the prospect of a son, when he was a hundred years old, and Sarah ninety; and prayed for a blessing on Ishmael: the LORD promised that Ishmael should beget twelve princes, and be the founder of a great nation: but that His peculiar covenant should be limited to the son which Sarah should bear that time twelvemonth; and who should be called Isaac, "he laughed," to record the foregoing circumstance.

The self-same day, in obedience to the Divine ordinance, Abraham himself, his son Ishmael, and his household servants, and slaves, were all circumcised, xvii. 23-27.

About three months after, THE LORD was pleased to renew the promise to Abraham that Sarah should bear a son; when HE and two attendant angels, in human form, to make trial of Abraham's hospitality, visited, conversed, ate and drank with

• From N, (Ab,)

a father;", (rab,) in Chaldee, "great;" and DM, (Ham,) the abridgment of (Hamun,) “multitude;”—Abraham, Ab-rab-ham,

him. Sarah also laughed inwardly at the good tidings; which at first she disbelieved, on account of her great age, and that it had" ceased to be with her after the manner of women." But THE LORD rebuked her, and said, “Is any thing too hard for THE LORD? at the time appointed I will return to thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall bear a son." The original term which this Divine Person here applies to himself, is the awful and venerable name, T, (IAHOH,) usually ren

dered "THE LORD," xviii. 1-14.

The faith of both Abraham and Sarah on this occasion, are celebrated in the New Testament, in the following passages, more closely translated.

“Abraham, against hope, believed in hope, that he should become a father of many nations, according to the saying, So shall thy seed be. And not being weakened in faith [by the increase of his age,] he considered not his own body, now deadened, (vεvekowμevov,) when he was about a hundred years old, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb; and staggered not, through unbelief, at the promise of God, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God; being fully persuaded, that what HE had promised, He was able to perform: and therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness," Rom. iv. 18-22.

"By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and bore [Isaac] when she was past the seasonable age, because she accounted HIM faithful who had promised."

"Therefore there sprang from one, and he too deadened, (vεveкowμɛvov,) in these respects, [a seed] like the stars of heaven for multitude, and as the sand on the sea shore innumerable," Heb. xi. 11, 12.

The enormous wickedness of these cities of the plain, now ended in their total overthrow. Unmindful of the merciful warning they had recently received in their defeat and captivity by their Assyrian masters, and their deliverance by the valour and generosity of Abraham, principally for Lot his brother's sake, they persisted in their evil courses; and so universally had they corrupted their ways, that when Abraham was informed by his divine guest, immediately after the preceding transaction, of his intention of punishing their wickedness, if the report of it were well founded; mindful of Lot, he ventured to intercede with the

righteous Judge of all the earth, with much humility, for the devoted city of Sodom; and emboldened by the Lord's gracious acceptance of his repeated intercessions for sparing the city, at first if there were fifty righteous, and at last if there were only ten found therein; his conduct on this occasion furnishes a powerful instance of the efficacy of well-directed prayer; and an encouragement to the faithful at all times, to continue instant in prayer, watching thereunto with all perseverance; without fainting indeed, but with all humility of mind. Though Abraham did not succeed for the guilty Sodom, his intercession was powerful to save Lot and the righteous part of his family; for "it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that GOD remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow." And one of the five cities, Zoar, was saved from the general destruction, by the sole intercession of Lot; and, by a gracious impossibility, Sodom itself, the largest and the guiltiest could not be destroyed, while one righteous person remained therein.-" See, I have accepted thee," said THE LORD to Lot,-" that I will not overthrow this city for which thou hast spoken: Haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither."

These are remarkable and comfortable instances of the mighty efficacy of intercession before the throne of grace: "Much availeth the energetic supplication of the righteous," James v. 16, not only for themselves, but for their families and friends, and for their country, and even for strangers: while the destruction of Sodom, because there were not ten righteous found therein, furnishes a most awful and awakening example, that every obstinate and incorrigible sinner, is not only an enemy to himself, but an enemy to his family and to his country; by contributing to swell the tide of national guilt, which will not fail to end in national calamity, whenever the measure of the iniquity of the individuals that compose the community, shall come to the full! -The inhospitality of the inhabitants of Sodom to the two attendant angels, who went thither while Abraham was pleading their cause before THE LORD, who designedly remained behind to give him this opportunity; and their ingratitude to their benefactor Lot, to whom they owed their deliverance from captivity, completed their complicated crimes, and hastened their catastrophe.

"GOD having consumed to ashes the cities of Sodom and