LECTURE X.

Heb. xi. 1-16.

NOTES.

(P. 184.) "Substance" or confident persuasion.]—See note on TóσTαoç, ch. i. ver. 3.

(P. 185.) Things expected, whether good or evil.]—¿λπišoμέvwv: see Scapula.

(P. 187.) A richer offering.]—πdɛiova.

δι' ἧς (sc.

(P. 188.) From being a sacrifice.]—Ovoíav. θυσίας, that being the nearest antecedent,) ἐμαρτ. εἶναι δίκαιος, God testifying of his gifts, bearing witness to his acceptance on the ground of (πí) his gifts." In this view of the typical character, and therefore divine origin of the primitive sacrifices, I have the misfortune to differ from individuals whose names I venerate; but it is in company, I believe, with the great majority of divines. To use the words of Dr. Hawkins: “After weighing the opposite improbabilities in either scale, I know not how to ascribe to unassisted human thought the original invention of a sacred rite of such extraordinary significance, and connected afterwards under Noah and Moses most clearly and undisputably, by the Holy Spirit himself, with the great fundamental verity of the Christian faith."-See " Discourses, by the Provost of Oriel, on the Historical Scriptures of the Old Testament," p. 151.

(P. 188.) Though dead, he is not forgotten.]—ëri λadeirai, (see Marg. Tr.) The signification of the other reading is also given.

(P. 190.) Enoch.]-How far the mythological story of Ganymede, whom Jupiter is represented to have taken up to heaven,

to be his cup-bearer (oivóxoos), may have been founded in some tradition of the history of Enoch (Heb. xavwx), it would be interesting to know, if it were possible. The coincidence is remarkable.

(P. 191.) Fear and circumspection.]-evλaßnosis, ver. 7.

(P. 193.) Closed in faith their earthly career.]—Enoch did not die; though his translation, as regards this world, was equivalent to dying.

(P. 194.) He hath prepared for them a city. ver. 16.]—“ IIóλiç Tɩòc enim Græcis dicitur urbs patria in qua aliquis natus est [sive renatus]. Hinc wóλis etiam nudè positum pro urbe patria apud Xenoph." Schleusner.-It is not the town merely, but the state (civitas) or community; and carries with it the idea of home.

LECTURE XI.

FURTHER EXAMPLES ENFORCING CONSTANCY IN

THE FAITH.

HEB. xi. 17-40; xii. 1-3.

Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. xii. 1, 2.

We have already, on a previous occasion, considered some of those eminent examples of faith, by which St. Paul endeavoured to animate his believing countrymen to a patient endurance in the faith of the Gospel. We now return to the interesting occupation: for many examples still remain to be considered, or at least to be adverted to.

By faith Abraham,

In the first place, we have once more to contemplate that of Abraham: for of all examples of faith his is the most remarkable, and especially under

when he was tried, of fered up Isaac: and he that had received the

that severe trial, when he was called upon to offer up, with his

promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That

own hand, his son Isaac, his only in Isaac shall thy seed son by Sarah. Yet he did it, nothing wavering; he-who had ceived most precious promises to be accomplished in this very child,

re

be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead: from whence also he received him in a figure. ver. 17-19.

and which would be altogether frustrated by his death. Mysterious trial! "In Isaac shall thy seed be called" -"thy son, thine only son;" but "get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him up there for a burntoffering." Might not Abraham, both as a father and as a depositary of the promise, have argued against such a command with some appearance of reason, or, at least, with some excuse from those natural affections, and that abhorrence of inhumanity, which God himself had implanted in his breast? But we read of no complaints, no doubts, no hesitation. The command was explicit in its tenor, although mysterious in its bearings, and therefore, albeit his way was covered with clouds and darkness, the faithful patriarch follows implicitly where the word of God conducts him. He doubts not the power of God, in the greatest extremity, to perform what he had promised. He reckons that God can, if necessary, raise up Isaac again even from a state of death. True it was, no such instance had as yet occurred: but what can be impossible to the Almighty? Surely, rather than the divine veracity should fail, God "will shew wonders to the dead; and they shall arise and praise him. His loving-kindness shall be declared in the grave; and his faithfulness in destruction. Yea, his wonders shall be known in the dark, and his righteousness in the

land of forgetfulness1." Of such a character, we are assured by St. Paul, were the reasonings of Abraham : and from the dead did he figuratively receive his son. So far as the patriarch's obedience was concerned, Isaac was slain; in his restoration at the last, Abraham was graciously rewarded, not only with the immediate removal of his agonizing trial, but, perhaps, also with an emblematic prediction or prefigurative representation, in the case of Isaac, of the death and resurrection of the true Child of Promise, the Onlybegotten of the Father, who should come in the fulness of time," that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death." That, even to Abraham, the offering-up and restoration of Isaac were, in some degree, typical of the sacrificial death and resurrection of the Son of God; that he then "saw the day of Christ," less distinctly, no doubt, than we do, yet saw it "and was glad';" that the faith which was "imputed to him for righteousness” had, in this way, some direct reference to the great atonement, is, at the least, not improbable: but, be this as it may, to us the typical resemblance between the offering up of Isaac and that of Christ, as well as between the restoration of the former and the resurrection of our Lord, is clear and striking. In contemplating, therefore, the faith of Abraham, we shall do well to keep in mind, that "it was not written for his sake alone, that his faith was imputed to him for righteousness, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered because of

1 See Psalm lxxxviii. 10, &c.

2 John viii. 56.