Imatges de pàgina
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nifh their oppreffors, and bring his children into the land which he had promifed him, whilft himself should

according to Eufebius, begat Amram in his feventieth year, and Amram begat Mofes much about the fame age; to which if we add the eighty years of Mofes's age when he led them out, the whole will make two hundred and twenty, from which may be fubftracted five years, the fuppofed age of Kohath, when Jacob left Canaan, and the remainder will be the time of their abode in Egypt, namely, two hundred and fifteen years (40).

Hence it is plain, that the four hundred years of Abraham's feed fojourning in a ftrange land, muft be reckoned, not from their coming into Egypt, but from the birth of Ifaac. For all the time of their fojourning in the land of Canaan, Gerar, or any other, was still in a strange land, in which they had not a foot of ground, if we except the cave of Macpelah. As to what is added, that they fhall likewife ferve and be ill treated, it is commonly understood to be fpoken circumftantially, and might be put in a parenthefis, thus; they shall fojourn and be ftrangers (and likewife ferve and be oppreffed) during the fpace of four hundred years, as St. Auftin and others have fully proved (41). Accordingly, we find Isaac op

be

preffed in Gerar, his wells filled up by its inhabitants, and himself forced still farther from them; and Jacob ferved, and was oppressed by Laban near twenty years, yet neither of them laboured under a continual oppreffion. The Egyptian servitude did not commence till after Jofeph and his brethren were dead (42): before that, the Ifraelites lived in peace and plenty. Allowing therefore, that Levi was forty-four years of age at his first coming into Egypt, which is the moft that can be fuppofed, he muft have lived ninety-three years in Egypt, because the text tells us, that he died in the hundredth and thirty-feventh year of his age (43). And thefe ninety-three years being fubftracted from two hundred and fifteen, the time of their abode there, there will remain but an hundred and twenty-two years of thraldom, even fuppofing it to have begun immediately after his death. The natural fenfe therefore of this prophecy to Abraham, can be only this, that his feed, from Ifaac on, fhould be strangers in a land that was not theirs, during the fpace of four hundred years, during fome part of which they should be oppreffed, afflicted, and at length

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be gathered to his fathers in a good old age. After this, Abraham faw a fmoking furnace, and a burning lamp, pass between the victims, which in all probability confumed them. Thus was this new and glorious covenant ratified between GoD and Abraham, who, highly pleased with all these promifes, went to impart his joy to his beloved wife t.

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SARAH not dreaming that he was to be the happy Year of mother of the promifed child, and having moreover all flood 437the convincing proofs that a woman can have, of her Bef. Chr. being paft all poffibility of having any of her own, re-1911. folved to be at least a mother by proxy, according to the cuftom of that age and country. To this end fhe perfuaded her husband to take her hand-maid Hagar to him, that if he had a child by her, fhe might bring it forth upon her knees. Abraham acquiefced, and Hagar no fooner found herself pregnant, than fhe became haughty and infolent towards her miftrefs. Sarah, impatient to fee herself infulted by a flave, whom her kindness had raifed, could not forbear breaking out into bitter complaints against them both; and Abraham, willing to convince his wife that he loved her as much as ever, left it to her, to do herself juftice in what way the fhould think fit; which the accordingly did; but with fuch severity, that Hagar, not being able to bear it, ftole away from her, Hagar is and went and fat down by a fountain on the road to Sur, forced to leading to Egypt. Here the angel of the LORD met her, fly from and perfuaded her to return, and fubmit herself to her her mifmiftrefs; affuring her that fhe would be foon delivered of a tress. fon, whom the fhould call Ishmael (L); that his pofterity would multiply exceedingly, and that both he and they fhould prove fierce and warlike; that their hand should be against every man, and every man's against them (M);

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t. Gen. xv. 9, & feqq.

brought under bondage; which term being expired, they fhould find a happy delive

rance.

(L) Ifmael is compounded of the words ynw and jifhmagh and El, the LORD hath, or will hear. The reafon of which name is imme

and

diately fubjoined by the angel,
namely, because the LORD had.
heard her complaint.

(M) This prediction has
been exactly verified in the fe-
veral tribes of the Arabs, Ish-
mael's defcendants, who are
generally cruel, warlike, and
given to rapine; and whofe
habitation

and that they should dwell in the face of all their brethren ". Hagar hearing this comfortable news, was foon Is perfuad-perfuaded to take the angel's advice; and, in memory of ed by an this furprifing vifion, fhe called the well Beer-lahai-roi, angeltore- which fignifies the well of him that lives and fees me. This turn, and well was between Cadesh and Barneah w. Soon after her Submit. return fhe brought forth the promised son, and called him Year of Ishmael, according to the angel's word. Abraham was flood 437. now eighty-fix years of age, and did not expect another Bef. Chr. fon, but brought this up as the heir of all his fubftance, and of ail God's promifes, and Hagar, whofe intereft it was not to undeceive him, thought fit to conceal what the angel had revealed to her; fo that it was not till al moft thirteen years after, that God plainly promifed him a fon by Sarah his wife.

1911.

Abram's

name

ham.

By this time Abraham had attained to the ninety-ninth year of his age, when GOD was pleafed to ratify his for changed mer covenant with him, by changing his name from into Abra- Abram to Abraham (N); and by affuring him, that he would make him the father of many nations; that kings fhould come out of him, and that his pofterity fhould furely Year of poffefs the land wherein he was a ftranger. And, as a token, flood 451. or rather trial, of his faith and obedience, GOD commands Bef. Chr. him to circumcife all the males in his family, with a 1898.

further injunction, that for the future all the males that fhould be born of him, or in his family, whether bond or free, none excepted, fhould be circumcifed on the eighth day after they were born; and that if any male remained uncircumcifed, that foul fhould be cut off as a defpifer of God's covenant, from having any fhare in the promifed bleffings defigned for him and his pofterity. Laftly, and to complete his happiness, GOD was pleased to affure him, that Sarah his wife fhould bear him a fon, who fhould be heir to all thefe bleffings; and therefore, that w Ibid. ver. 14.

■ Gen. xvi. 12.

habitation is in tents, within
the neighbourhood of Judea,
Idumea, &c.

(N) Concerning the etymon
of this twofold name, and the
uncertain conjectures of the
learned about it, we fhall re-

fer our reader to what hath been offered in a former vo lume +. As for the reafon of it, it is plainly hinted in the text, viz. that he was to become the father of many na tions.

† l'id. fup. vol. i. p. 350 (K).

her

any

her name fhould be no longer Sarai, but Sarah (P).
Here Abraham falling on his face, probably to conceal
his laughing, which either the ftrangeness or improba-
bility of what he heard, had forced from him, began to
intercede for the life and preservation of Ishmael, beyond
which he thought it unreasonable to afk or wifh for
thing but the Almighty foon affured him, that these
great bleffings were not defigned for Ishmael, but for a
fon to be born of the hitherto barren Sarah, whom he
fhould therefore name Ifaac (Q); that, as to the son of
Hagar, he would indeed blefs him with a numerous po-
fterity; but that Ifaac alone, whom Sarah fhould bear.
within the year
from that very day, was to be in-
titled to the covenant and promife, that in his feed all
nations of the earth fhould be bleffed *.

GOD was no fooner departed, than Abraham took his Year of fon Ifhmael, and all the males in his family, and circum- the flood cised them, as well as himself, without any regard either 45. Bef. Chr. to his own age, which was almoft one hundred years, or to the tenderness of his fon, who was not above thirteen., 1897. All fubmitted alike to the operation, and to GOD's Com- Abraham mand, on the fame day (R); and it was not long before and his fahis mily cir

x Gen. xvii.

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and Sarah of the certainty of
his promife to them, which
none but an all-fufficient power
could fulfil (45).

(Q) Ifaac, or according to
the Hebrew pwy Ifchakh,
fignifies he has, or fall laugh.

(R) Whether this ceremony of circumcifion was firft introduced into the world, by the Hebrews or Egyptians,hath been much contefied by antient and modern hiftorians, critics, and others. Herodotus, who declares he had received all his knowlege of the affairs of Egypt from their priests, gives it indeed for the Egyptians (46); but he feems in fome meature

(45) Oleaft. & al.

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cumcifed.

his obedience was rewarded with a feventh and more reAbraham márkable vifit from GOD. Abraham, who dwelt ftill at

entertains

three an

gels.

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no

to retract, if not to contradict himfelf, in this very point, when he affirms, that nation practifed it, but what received it first from the Egyptians; and a little after owns, that he did not know which of the two had it first, the Egyptians or Ethiopians, though he is inclined to believe the former (46). As for the reft of the antients, who are on that fide the question, as they have blindly followed Herodotus, all their authority centres in him. However, it is certain, that neither they, nor any other nation we know of, the Jewish excepted, did practise it univerfally. The priests were indeed obliged to be circumcifed, but the rest of the people were left wholly at their liberty. Neither doth it appear, that they practifed it upon a religious account, as the Jews did. Philo (47) has given us the reasons why thofe nations ufed circumcifion; namely, first, in order to avoid a diftemper called a carbuncle, to which they, who were not circumcifed, were often fubject. Secondly, for the fake of cleanliness, by cutting off whatever was apt to harbour any filth; and for this reason it was, that they shaved their bodies all over. The third is fymbolical, and foreign to our fubject. The laft is,

Mamre,

that circumcifion is an help to fertility; and that those who are circumcifed, are apter for procreation than those who are not. Now for the modern, we mean the Chriftian writers; thefe do not indeed affirm absolutely,that Abraham learned it from the Egyptians; but that it is poffible he might have seen it in Egypt, and be fo much taken with it, that GOD, in compaffion to his infirmity, whofe faith could not fuftain itself without fome outward and visible symbol, might fanctify this Egyptian ceremony, by retrenching all that was fuperftititious in it, and give it to him, and his pofterity, as a fenfible token of his alliance with them (48).

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Only le Clerc (49) fubjoins an argument, which, in his opinion, turns the scale very much on the Egyptian fide; for, fays he, Abraham's family, at his firft coming into Egypt, was fo inconfiderable, and his pofterity afterwards fo hated and despised by the Egyptians, that it is by no means probable, that proud nation fhould have received fuch a ceremony from them. But might not this be the very motive that determined them in favour of it? Was it not natural for the Egyptians, no lefs fuperftitious than haughty, to infer, that fince it procured

(46) Idem ibid. c. 104. Vid. Calm, differt. de circumcif. (47) Pb l. de circumcif. pag. 81c. ap. eund. (48) Spenc. de leg. ritual. Jud. Le Clerc in loc. (49) Id. biblioth, an. & mod. par.i. p. 250.

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