was the chief and head of the whole nation. Its signification was not derived from any essential quality of its own, but was, rather, symbolical and typical. It designated, negatively, the inability of human procreation to set forth the promised seed in a sinless and holy state, while it, positively, indicated a procreation from which every spot and blemish of original sin should be removed (?? 125, 126). All that circamcision represented symbolically, is completely realized in the generation of the man Jesus by the creative omnipotence of God (Luke 1: 35; John 1: 13). It was directed that each new-born son should be received into the covenant of God on the eighth day. Now the eighth day is the commencement of a new week, a new cycle or period; that day was, consequently, appointed for the introduction of the child into a new sphere of life, into a new world, into the kingdom of God.

§ 28. Appearance of the Lord in Mamre.-Sodom and Gomorrah.

1. Gen. ch. 18.- Three men, among whom the Angel of the Lord is soon recognized, are hospitably entertained by Abraham. The visit is, however, intended for his wife rather than for himself, and, hence, the first inquiry of the guests is: "Where is Sarah thy wife?" For it is needful that she too should learn to exercise faith, before she can become the mother of the promised seed (Heb. 11 11). Jehovah repeats the promise that Sarah shall bear a son at the appointed time, in the hearing of Sarah, for whom these words are intended, although she believes that she listens, in the interior of the tent, without the knowledge of the guests. In place of considering the power of Him who makes the promise, she thinks only of the circumstance that she is past age; and the contrast between the reality and the promise provokes her to laughter. The Lord then speaks with her, rebukes her on account of her laughter, repeats the promise in the most explicit terms, and refers to his omnipotence. She is ashamed of her unbelieving laughter, and this change in her feelings becomes an avenue conducting her to faith. - Abraham accompanies the In virtue of the covenant that had been established, Abraham is the friend of God (James 2:23; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isaiah 418), and hence, as one friend imparts his counsel to another, the Lord communicates to him, on the way, that it is his purpose

men.

to execute judgment in the case of the cities in the vale of Siddim, since the measure of their sins is full. Abraham derives such alacrity and courage from his great vocation to be the bearer and medium of the divine blessing and salvation for all nations, that he immediately pleads for the cities which are threatened with destruction, and appeals from the wrath to the mercy of God. His prayer, proceeding from the deepest humility ("Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes"), becomes more bold and importunate, and, at length, receives the answer, that Sodom shall be spared for the sake of even ten righteous men only, if so many shall be

found in it.

2. Gen. ch. 19.-The two attendants of Jehovah (angels, ver. 15) had, in the mean time, proceeded to Sodom, and had been hospitably received by Lot. The Sodomites purpose to offer violence to the strangers; Lot, who exposes his own life in attempting to protect his guests, is himself rescued by them, and the wicked people are smitten with blindness. In obedience to the command of the two angels, Lot departs early on the following morning from Sodom with his family, after having in vain urged the men to whom his two daughters were betrothed, to accompany him in his flight. Amid a rain of brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim (Deut. 29: 23) are overthrown. The district which they occupied was probably overspread with the waters of the Dead Sea, which now admonished the inhabitants of the whole land with enduring earnestness of the duty of repentance, and furnished them with an impressive example of the punitive justice of God (§ 22. 2). Lot's wife, who looked behind, contrary to the express command of the angels, became a pillar of salt. Lot himself fled to Bela or Zoar, which, in answer to his entreaty, was granted to him as a place of refuge, and spared by the Lord. His two incestuous daughters bare sons, namely, Moab and Ammon, the fathers of the Moabites and Ammonites.

OBS. 1.-The grounds of the command that Lot and his family should not look behind and stay in any part of the plain, are both external and internal. According to the former aspect, it was given lest any one who remained might be reached by the destruction of

the cities in its rapid progress, and be involved in the great overthrow. According to the latter, it referred to the sentiments of the individual, of which the expression would be a glance behind. Such a glance would imply, on the one hand, unbelief respecting the divine warning, and, on the other, an affinity in sentiment or feeling with the inhabitants of Sodom, and an attachment of the heart to the lusts of Sodom. The punishment of Lot's wife is, by no means, too rigorous. Christ directs our attention to it as a warning example in reference to the day of the Son of man: "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32; see also Luke 9: 62).- Nothing could be more unlike any metamorphosis described by Ovid or any author of fictions, than this occurrence. Lot's wife was probably overtaken by the destruction, while she delayed for the purpose of looking behind, and, like the whole region, was enveloped in a mass of salt.

OBS. 2.- Zoar was probably situated on the peninsula which divides the Dead Sea into two unequal portions (8 22. 2), and which strongly resembles a tract of land that has escaped the effects of a violent convulsion to which the entire region had been exposed. The present appearance of the whole, in connection with the circumstance that the Jordan could not have previously flowed into the Red Sea, which presents a much higher level, indicates that the Dead Sea existed before the catastrophe of the four cities occurred that is, the portion only which lies north of the peninsula; the very shallow southern part was, in all probability, not formed till that occurrence took place. It has been conjectured that the muddy and slimy bottom on the south-west shore covers the ruins of Sodom; ancient traditions support this view. A vast and lofty mass of pure rock-salt which is found in this part of the coast still bears the name of Usdum (Sodom).*

$29. Isaac's Birth and Offering.

1. Gen. ch. 21.—At length, when Abraham is one hundred years old, and Sarah ninety, the son of promise is born; he is named Isaac. The rude Ishmael mocks him, and is sent away with Hagar (when he is at least fifteen years old), on the demand of Sarah; the Lord approves of this demand, but mitigates its

* [For a description of the pillar of solid salt seen by Lieut. Lynch, on the eastern side of Usdum, see his Narrative, &c. (referred to in a former note), page 307.-TR.]

severity by a promise in reference to Ishmael; the latter and his mother are saved from perishing in the wilderness by the angel of God. The lad grew, and dwelt in the wilderness; he was a wild man; his hand was against every man, and every man's hand was against him (ch. 16: 12); from this powerful ancestor, twelve Arabian princes and founders of tribes proceeded (ch. 25 : 12-16).

OBS.-The birth of Isaac is again a decisive event in the line of the generation of the promised seed (? 14. OBS. 1). At this new point of beginning in the line of promise, divine mercy and power indicated already that which would be assuredly accomplished in an infinitely higher and more glorious manner, at the conclusion of the line. The wonderful generation of Isaac, the son of parents whose bodies were now barren and dead, Rom. 4: 19, is a type and a pledge of the birth of Christ, the son of a virgin.

2. Gen. ch. 22. -It is not, however, merely the son of the bond-maid whom Abraham is required to dismiss from his embrace; even the son of promise is to be taken from him and devoted to death. For after these things, God did tempt Abraham, and said: "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." On the third day Abraham reaches the appointed place; Isaac, who is obedient to his father unto death, carries the wood of the burnt-offering himself. He is bound and laid on the altar upon the wood, and Abraham already stretches forth his hand and takes the knife; at that moment he is arrested by the voice of God out of heaven, and receives that son alive again whom he had already offered in his heart. The ram which he finds in a thicket is offered up as a substitute for his son. All the former promises of God are now renewed in the most solemn manner, and then Abraham, accompanied by his son, returns to his home.

OBS.- Abraham loves Isaac, because he is the son of promise, the gift of divine omnipotence and grace- but he loves him, too, because he is his own son, begotten of himself. Now if that faith of Abraham, which is imputed to him for righteousness, is to be made perfect, it is needful that he should renounce this (latter mode of)

love which he entertains for his son, according to the flesh, as completely as he had already, in faith, forsaken the land of his birth, and dissolved all other ties of friendship and affection. For the purpose of affording a visible and unequivocal proof that he had renounced his paternal love in as far as it originated in the fleshly bond between himself and his son, he is required to resign the object of that love, so that he may receive that son again as a gift of grace alone, and love him solely as the son of promise. Human sacrifices, and particularly those of first-born children, occur among all pagan nations; such worship as these render to gods that are false and "nothing in the world" (1 Cor. 8: 4), Abraham is expected to render to Him who is the true and only God. Abraham, a hero in selfdenying faith, must, in every respect, surpass all others in self-denial; he is commanded to resign the son for whom he had hoped and waited during twenty-five years, on whom all the precious and glorious promises which he had received, depended-and, nevertheless, it is required of him, also, that his faith in these promises should remain unshaken! On this single point his trial hinged (Heb. 11: 17-19). He endured the trial by faith, "accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure," (see Matt. 3: 9). It was in this faith that he said with so much confidence to his young men: "I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." These views, however, by no means present the whole of the deep significance of this occurrence. The universality of human sacrifices indicates a general and deep feeling in the pagan religion of nature-a feeling, however, entirely misunderstood and horribly degenerated—that other or ordinary sacrifices were insufficient, and that a more precious offering than they are, was demanded. The truth that lies in this feeling is acknowledged, in its pure form, by the command to offer up Isaac ; the frightful disfigurement of this feeling in heathenism is judged and condemned by the present interposition of God. By the offering up of the ram the substitution of animal sacrifices is divinely authorized, and their (temporary) validity solemnly acknowledged. The selection of a mountain in the land of Moriah involves an intimation of the temple and its sacrificial worship; and the whole occurrence furnishes a prefiguration and a pledge of that future sacrifice of the only-begotten Son of God, which shall possess eternal validity.