of the increase of his seed:- He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them and he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness." Gen. xv. 5, 6. The gospel, then, must have been involved in the promise thus given and believed:-for it will not surely be disputed, that it was by the faith of the gospel that Abraham was justified.

But what most of all surprises me, in regard to this hypothesis, is, that that covenant which is supposed to be a covenant of temporal blessings only, to the natural offspring of Abraham, should be the very covenant of which the terms are most distinctly, and most frequently quoted, in the New Testament, with a spiritual interpretation. That Mr. Maclean should have been guilty of this oversight, affords, I fear, only one exemplification amongst many, of a defect to which even the acutest and most vigorous minds are liable, the unconsciously blinding influence of attachment to system. But let me bring a proof or two of my position:

nations

1. Gen. xvii. 4, 5. "As for me, behold my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many have I made thee."-It was not, a priori, probable, that the memorable circumstance, of the divinely intimated change of the patriarch's name, should have been associated with any covenant inferior to that which contained the best and highest blessings; which God here, as in many other places, appropriately designates "my covenant."-Accordingly, the very promise in the above verses is most expressly applied, by the apostle, to the spiritual seed of Abraham as the father of the faithful,-the spiritual father of believers in all nations:-Rom. iv. 16, 17. "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,") &c.—Nothing can be more explicit than this.

2. "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, to be a God, to thee and to thy seed after thee."

As to this promise, which certainly sounds very like one of the "exceeding great and precious promises" of the new covenant, it is of essential consequence first of all to notice, that in whatever sense God promises here to be a God to Abraham, he promises, in the same sense, to be a God to his seed. The promise is one. No hint is ever given of his being the God of Abraham in one sense, and the God of his seed in another.-Now who are the seed to whom Jehovah thus engages to be a God? Surely the seed specified in the preceding terms of the covenant. And who are they? Have we not the answer given us by inspired authority, in the apostle's interpretation of the words" Thou shalt be a father of wany nations." If this means, as Paul teaches us, his being the spiritual father of believers in all nations, then must not these be the seed of Abraham to whom he promises to be a God ?—If objections are brought to this, they ought, I think, to be brought against the apostle.

The New Testament interpretation of the promise itself "I will be a God to thee," "I will be thy God," is in perfect accordance with this view of the seed to whom the promise is made.-Jehovah has been the God of his people, in every age, upon the same ground; and that ground is intimated by our Lord Jesus Christ to be their connection with him, when he says to Mary Magdalene, after his resurrection, "Go, tell my disciples, I ascend "to my father and your father, to my God and your God.” John xx. 17.-The full import of the interesting designation may appear from the following passages of scripture :

"But as

In Matt. xxii. 31, 32. Jesus concludes his reply to the Sadducees, respecting the resurrection and a future state, with these words, in evidence of his doctrine :touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."-From this passage it is evident, without entering

into any discussion of the nature and extent of the entire argument, that, as their God, continuing and declaring himself such long after their decease, he had received their spirits to blessedness with himself, and also, as the resurrection of the dead was the subject in question, that he was to raise their bodies from the grave,-to "show them the path of life,"-to put them in possession of those "pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore ;" and so to fulfil to them the promise of "everlasting inheritance."

Compare with this passage, Heb. xi. 13-16. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned: but now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city." The faith, and hope, and desire, of the patriarchs, are here represented as having for their object the heavenly country. This they expected to receive from God as their God, according to the promise of his covenant; and we are assured, that as their God he would not disappoint their most enlarged and elevated hopes, founded as they were on his own word. "God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city." Can any inference be more simple or direct from such a passage, than that God would have been ashamed to be called their God, had he not provided for them such a city, as is here referred to, the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker he himself is," ver. 10.—that he would have been ashamed to represent himself in so endearing a relation to them, had the title been accompanied with the bestowment of a mere earthly inheritance-a temporal blessing only; had he prepared for them anything that would have fallen short of their hopes, and failed to satisfy the utmost extent of their desires? The title and the gift would have been incongruous; as when a man raises

our expectations by high professions of friendship, and then puts off with a comparative trifle. His gifts are more worthy of himself, and of the relations which he has graciously assumed, and revealed himself as sustaining, towards his people.

This promise, indeed, "I will by thy God," is often expressed as a principal one amongst the engagements of the new covenant, and, has ever been acknowledged and felt by his people, as "the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ." In evidence of this, the reader may consult the following passages of the Old and New Testament scriptures; and, if he is well acquainted with his Bible, he will be able to add to them many more. Jer. xxxi. 33. xxxii. 38-40. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, 30, 31. xxxvi. 25-28. xxxvii. 27. Heb. viii. 10. 2 Cor. vi. 16 -18.

It is no valid objection to this, that God is so often spoken of as the God of the nation of Israel; and that, in assuming this relation to them, as a nation, he represents himself as remembering his covenant with their fathers. Exod. vi. 4-8. Lev. xxvi. 12. &c.-It should be recollected, that the nation of Israel, springing from Abraham, in the line of Isaac and Jacob, was the Church of God. Now God has been the God of his church, collectively considered, and regarded as containing the true Isreal, in the same sense, in all ages. I will not multiply passages in proof of this. Let the following, from the prophecies of Isaiah, serve as a specimen. Any reader, who is familiar with his Bible, will be able to add parallels to an almost indefinite extent. Isa. xliii. 1-7. "But now, saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord THY GOD, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I

give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not; for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, give up; and to the south, keep not back: bring my sons from far, and thy daughters from the ends of the earth: even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." In these verses, is a reference to what God had done, in manifestation of his love to his people, and of the value he set upon them; and there are, at the same time, promises of what he was to do for them in future times—yet he speaks of himself as bearing the same relation to them all along-from the beginning to the end -when he "gave Egypt for their ransom," and when, in the latter days, he "brings his sons from far, and his daughters from the ends of the earth :"-" I am Jehovah THY GOD, the Holy One of Israel, THY SAVIOUR."

It is worthy of particular notice, that the appearance of Jehovah to Abraham recorded in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, is the only occasion on which this promise is made to the patriarch. It is not to be found either in the twelfth, or in the fifteenth, or subsequently in the twentysecond. If, therefore, the covenant in the seventeenth chapter was a covenant of temporal promises only, then this promise was never made to Abraham at all in its spiritual meaning; in that meaning which alone gave it real worth, in which alone it is applicable to the follow.. ers of Abraham's faith, and in which the New Testament scriptures explain and make so much of it! Is this credible, is this possible?

3. "And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession."-The question is not, whether this is a promise of the earthly Canaan. No one, I presume, ever questioned that. But is it a promise of the earthly Canaan only? That the promise of the temporal inheritance does, in one or other or all of its occurrences, include under it the promise of the eternal, must be very evident from this one consideration, that if it be not so, the eternal inheritance was never, so far as appears, promised at all. Yet it was upon the ground,