was no question prompted by distrust; but merely a supplication for a more distinct explanation, if it so pleased his Almighty benefactor. This is clearly shewn by that, which follows. God fully explained, that one born in Abram's house, a mere son by adoption, was not to be the promised seed; but his own real and legitimate offspring. The Lord answered"this shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” And, again, 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." (Gen. xv. 5.) "And he believed immediately received the exceed"He believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness." He received that greatest of all blessings—justification by Faith. He received it from Him, whose divine High Priesthood he had seen, and acknowledged, as represented by the typical consecration of the king of Salem ; whose future High Priesthood on earth he beheld, through the vista of two thousand years to come. Yes!" He rejoiced to see that glorious day; and he saw it, and was glad! This faith was "counted to

in the Lord,” and ing great reward.

دو

him for righteousness."

It was not a righteousness, which he could claim as a personal merit of his own. "There is none that doeth good-no not one." (Ps. xiv. 3.) "There is none good but one-that is God." (Matt. xix. 17.)

Righteousness must be imputed, it cannot be inherent. The reward is of grace, not of works. It is not abstract faith, which justifies; but "belief in Him, that justifieth the ungodly." (Rom. iv. 5.) This is the faith, which is counted for righteousness.

The next incident in this vision, at which we arrive, relates, not so much to the spiritual destiny of Abram, as to his temporal and actual possession of the land, in which he was then residing only as a sojourner. "I am the Lord, that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land." Here, again, Abram, who, as yet, had possession, rather by sufferance, than of right, even in the plain of Mamre, where he had built an altar unto the Lord, wished to have some indication of his future establishment in the country. He asked for some sensible token. "Lord God! whereby shall I know, that I shall inherit it?" As if he had said, I trust in thy promise, but to that promise wilt thou vouchsafe to add some sensible sign, which may mark the progress of its fulfilment? The requiring a sign may be instigated by two very distinct and different principles. It may be the presumptuous requisition of incredulity; or it may proceed from sincere faith, merely seeking some means, by which to know the process of events to come. Thus, when the Scribes and Pharisees demanded of our Lord, saying, "Master, we would see a sign from thee." This was an act of defiance; the taunt of contemptuous scepticism. Our Lord con

sequently reproved it in these words, "an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." (Matt. xii. 38.) But, it was not a spirit of unbelief, but merely one of inquiry, which induced his disciples to ask him "privately-Tell us, when shall these things be; and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matt. xxiv. 3.) The destruction of their temple and of the Jewish state had been foretold, and they asked for some token, by which they might judge of its approach. Our Lord does not upbraid them for these questions, but proceeds to caution them against the deceptions of false pretenders; and against erroneous inferences from political events. These, he assures them, will be no indications of an approaching end of the world, and final judgment. He therefore counsels them, to draw no such inference from that dreadful destruction of their city and temple, which some of them should live to witness: but to take care for their personal safety, and escape. He also gives them one certain sign, by which they shall at least know, when the end is not at hand-" This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then (that is not before) shall the end come."

It was evidently in a spirit of simple inquiry, that Abram, who was at that time childless, and nearly a hundred years old, having also no territory in the land, which he could call his own, put this question

to God; "whereby shall I know, that I shall inherit it?" The Almighty vouchsafed an answer to his appeal. He directed him first, to offer up a sacrifice of a peculiar nature; and he subsequently caused a vision to appear before him. The Lord said unto him-"Take me an heifer of three years old; and a she-goat of three years old; and a ram of three years old: and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon." "And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another; but the birds divided he not." To this sacrifice there was a special numeral applied. There were to be three animals; and each animal was to be three years old. The sacrificial ceremony, as all acknowledge, originated, from its earliest institution by Abel, as a type of the great sacrifice, by which "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head." That great and final sacrifice was accomplished in three days. Whether the number three, so remarkably applied on this occasion, was intended significantly in reference to this, or to any other point in divine revelation, the reader will exercise his own judgment.

The three three-yearling animals were a sacrifice. The turtle-dove and young pigeon evidently represented the "sin-offering," which was, in after years, ordained by the law of Moses-namely "a lamb, or two turtle doves, or young pigeons." (Lev. xii. 6.) This latter part then, is a clear, direct, and substantial prophecy of a particular ceremony in the law,

which was to be announced four hundred years after the time of Abram. What was the object of that particular offering? It was the offering of purification, for the birth of a son or daughter. Here then was a sign, by which was revealed to Abram, one peculiar feature in the ceremonial law, which should be enjoined on his descendants; and in connection with that special ceremony, he celebrated, as it were by anticipation, the birth of his own promised heir. He was required to make the offering of purification, before the child was born.

In like manner, the paschal "Lamb" of the Israelites denoted the offering of purification for the child which should be born: as well as the atoning sacrifice of Him, that should be offered up for the sins of all mankind. If shewed forth the new birth unto righteousnes; as well as the death unto sin. Thus, this offering by Abram of a turtle-dove and young pigeon (the prescribed substitutes for the lamb) was at once a figurative and anticipated consummation of his own promised issue; a prophetic image of the law to come; and a perspective vision of that blessed birth and sacrifice, to which all three preparatory emblems ultimately tended. We can hardly doubt, that the significance of this offering, in the several respects to which we have referred, was made known to, and understood by the patriarch, to whom so much had already been revealed,

0 2