covenant. When God ratified the everlasting covenant with Abraham, he said, “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; and I will be their God.”* The seed, to whom God promised the land of Canaan, was the same, as the seed, to whom he promised to be a God; a pious seed among Abraham's natural descendants. Hence David said, "O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen ones. He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. Be ye mindful always of his covenant, the word, which he commanded to a thousand generations; even the covenant, which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant; saying, Unto thee I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance."+ Many of the Israelites were not suffered to enter into Canaan, on account of their unbelief. The promise, that the little ones, the children of those, who were men of war, when they went out of Egypt, should enter the land, may be considered as an absolute promise; but as a * Gen. xvii. 8. + I. Chron. xvi. 13—18. promise not implying, that all, who should enter Canaan, would be pious. The covenant made with Abraham may be considered, as containing an absolute promise, that "a great nation" of his natural seed should enter that land, without implying, that they would all have true faith.* Moses, near the end of the fortieth year of the journeyings of the Israelites, said, "Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you." What is here said of the character of the Israelites, not only serves to illustrate what the apostle Paul taught the Roman and Galatian Christians, that the inheritance, which God gave to Abraham and his seed, he gave by a gracious promise, but also makes it appear probable, that some, if not many, who entered Canaan, were not, at the time of their entering it, true believers. The instructions and admonitions, which Moses gave the people, show, that circumcision in the flesh was not a sufficient qualification for their entering the promised land. See, particularly, Deut. x. 12-16. In the 16th verse, Moses says, "Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff necked." (Indeed, many entered Canaan, before they were circumcised in the flesh.) But * See Deut. ix. 4-6. † Deut. ix. 24. See Joshua, v. 3. 7. it may have been the case, that, after all the instructions, counsels, and warnings, which Moses gave the people in the land of Moab, and after the covenant transactions, which there took place, some, if not many, entered Canaan, who were not true believers. However, if any, or ever so many, entered Canaan without true faith, they had not, as to their own character, a covenant right to the promised land. Those, who had, as to their own character, a title to that land, according to the gracious covenant made with Abraham, had a covenant title to the heavenly happiness, of which Canaan was a type. In the promise of Canaan to the patriarchs, was implied the promise of an eternal inheritance. Encouraged by this promise, they "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."* They did not receive the end of their faith in the enjoyment of the earthly Canaan; but "they desired a better country, that is, an heavenly."+ To Christians the sabbath is a type of heavenly rest. "There remaineth," saith the apostle, "a rest to the people of God." This word rest (or sabbatism) probably intimates a day of holy rest, weekly, in the present world, while *Heb. xi. 10. + Heb. xi. 16. + Heb. iv. 9. it signifies an everlasting day of rest in heaven. But many enjoy the external privileges of the christian sabbath, who will not enter into heav en. And many of Abraham's natural descendants dwelt in the earthly Canaan, who, on account of unbelief, were unqualified to enter into the heavenly. 4. God engaged, in his covenant with Abraham, to make him the father of believers of all nations. "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,”*—“ As. for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of many nations"a father of many nations have I made thee."t It is certain, that God designed more by these promises, than that Abraham should be the natural father of many nations. He designed, that Abraham should be the father of believersof all nations; the father of a spiritual seed, who were to be collected out of every nation, including all, whether Jews or Gentiles, who should believe, from that time to the end of the world. * Gen, xv. 5. + Gen. xvii. 4, 5. But how are believing Gentiles the children of Abraham? since, by nature, they "were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world."* They are the children of Abraham by union to Christ, who is emphatically the seed of Abraham. The whole body of Christians, consisting of Jews and Gentiles, is that "seed," which was to serve Christ, and to "be accounted to the LORD for a generation." To the churches of Galatia, consisting partly, if not chiefly, of Gen-. tile converts, the apostle writes thus: "Know ye therefore, that they "who" are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham."—"Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."-" If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the prom. ise." For the promise was to Abraham and his seed. Believing Gentiles, as well as believing Jews, were predestinated by God to the adoption of children to himself through his dear Son, Jesus Christ, to whom they are by faith united. "And if children," says Paul, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."|| * Eph. ii. 12. † Ps. xxii. 30. Gal. iii. 7. 26. 29. |