then enfued the murder of Conftans; and also the invasion of the empire by the Franks and Saxons: Flood,) it could not but be well remembered and known 392, that the original age of the life of man upon earth was about a thousand years: and therefore yɛveà, a generation, might very well be understood, at that time, to mean, prophetically, a thousand years; and especially as Shem, an antediluvian patriarch, was actually fill living on earth, even when this divine vifion was vouchfafed. And if yɛved, a generation, in this inftance was understood by Abraham to mean a thousand years, then even the very end of the fourth generation, from the time of the vifion, brings us down only to the year 2080; and therefore IN the fourth generation is fomewhere about the times alluded to by thofe prophecies, which feem to terminate between the years 1800 and 2000. The prophecy delivered to Abraham, as it is one of the first, is one of the most fublime and awful of all thofe contained in the Holy Scriptures; and feems clearly to have a more important intent than that accomplishment of it which related merely to what is now long fince past, the temporal state of the Jews in the land of Palestine. Genefis, ch. xv. ver. 12—20. 12. Περὶ δὲ ἡλία δυσμὰς ἔκτασις ἐπέπεσεν τῷ ̓Αβραμ, καὶ ἰδὲ φόβΘ σκοτεινὸς μέγας ἐπιπίπτει αὐτῷ. 13. Καὶ ἐῤῥέθη πρὸς Αβραμ· Γινώσκων γνώσῃ ὅτι πάροικον ἔσαι τὸ σπέρμα σε ἐν γῇ ἐκ ἰδίᾳ, καὶ κακώσεσιν αὐτὸ, καὶ δελώσεσιν αὐτὸς, καὶ ταπεινώσεσιν αὐτὸς τετρακόσια ἔτη. 14. Τὸ δὲ ἔθνΘ ᾧ ἐὰν δελεύσωσιν, κρινῶ ἐγώ· μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ἐξελεύσονται ὧδε μετὰ ἀποσκευῆς πολλῆς. G 3 15. Σὺ 390. Saxons; and moreover, a perfecution of Christians by Christians; and fuch an inun 393. dation 15. Σὺ δὲ ἀπελεύσῃ πρὸς τὰς πατέρας σε μετ' εἰρήνης, ταφείς ἐν γήρει καλῷ. 16. Τετάρτῃ δὲ γενεᾷ ἀποτραφήσονται ὧδε· ἔπω γὰρ ἀναπεπλήρωνται αἱ ἁμαρτίαι τῶν ̓Αμορραίων ἕως τὸ νῦν. 17. Ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐγένετο ὁ ἥλιΘ- πρὸς δυσμαῖς, φλοξ ἐγένετο· καὶ ἰδὲ κλίβανΘ καπνιζόμενΘ, καὶ λαμπάδες πυρὸς, αἳ διῆλθον ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν διχοτομημάτων τέτων. 18. Ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ διέθετο ΚύριΘ τῷ "Αβραμ διαθήκην, λέγων· Τῷ σπέρματί σε δώσω τὴν γῆν ταύτην ἀπὸ τὸ ποταμός Αἰ γύπλε ἕως τῆ ποταμᾶ τὸ μεγάλο Εὐφράτε 19. τὰς Κεναίες, καὶ τὰς Κενεζαίος, καὶ τὰς Κεδμωναίες, 20. καὶ τὰς Χετλαίος, καὶ τὰς Φερεζαίες, καὶ τὰς Ραφαεὶν, καὶ τὸς ̓Αμοῤῥαίες, καὶ τὰς Χαναναίες, [καὶ τὸς Εὐαίες,] καὶ τῆς Γερα γεσαίες, καὶ τὰς Ἰεβεσαίες. 12. And when the fun was going down, Abram was feized with ecfacy, [and fell into a trance;] and lo a great horror of darkness fell upon him! 13. And it was faid to Abram, Knows, apprehending it [with due attention], that thy feed fall be a fojourner in a land that is not theirs; and they shall afflict [thy feed], and [thoje of thy feed fall ferve them, and they fall humble them four hundred years. 14. But the nation to which they shall be in fervitude, I will judge. And after these things they shall come out hither, zoith much fubfiance [and fpoil]. 15. And as for thee, thou Thalt depart to thy fathers, in peace, buried in a good old age. 16. And IN THE FOURTH GENERATION they shall be RETURNED dation of barbarous invaders, on all fides, as in every prophetical fenfe truly resembled a form of bail, mingled with fire and blood. For RETURNED hither again: for the fins of the Amorraioi† 394. are not yet fully accumulated. 17. And when the fun was quite fet, there was a flame; and behold a smoking furnace, and lamps of fire, which passed in the midft [between] thofe divided pieces. 18. In that day the Lord established a covenant with Abram, faying: To thy feed will I give the land, from the river of Egypt, even to the great river the Euphrates: 19. The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites; 20. And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, [the Amorraioi,] and the Canaanites, [and the Hivites ‡,] and the Girgafbites, and the Jebufites. The repetition of the mention of a deliverance, and return, in ver. 16, after what was said in ver. 14, feems to indicate * There seems here to be plainly implied a denunciation of a further and greater captivity of the Jews by the Gentiles, and by thofe who would refift the truth. The derivation of this word may be an object of attention to fome curious perfons: it leaves room for much fpeculation concerning the typical meaning. That the word here found in the tranflation of the LXX means the Hivites, although the mention of them is omitted in our verfion, and that they were not the fame people with the Hittites, is obvious from Exod. ch. xxiii. ver. 28. ch. xxxiii. ver. 2. and ch. xxxiv. ver. 11. For the empire was, as it were in an instant, invaded on all parts; which attack continued, indicate that it relates to a fecond and final return. And I cannot conclude without remarking, that the darkness and horror, which fell upon Abraham during this vision, feem to be typical of the state of darkness in which both the Jews and the bulk of mankind should continue till the full performance of the promise: and that the declaration to him, that he should fleep with his fathers, (whilst yet the promife of the land (ver. 7.) was to HIM HIMSELF, as well as to his pofterity,) feems to be added on purpose to lead us to expect a greater and more perfect final accomplishment, than merely that of the Jews' first poffeffion of the land of Canaan under Joshua. It was admirably well intimated by the celebrated Monf. Pafcal, that the prophets have interwoven particu lar prophecies concerning the earlier ftate and condition of the Ifraelites, with thofe greater and more general prophecies concerning the times of the Meffias; that neither the prophecies concerning the Meffias fhould be without their proof in the intermediate fpace of time, nor the 395. particular prophecies without their fruit. For, indeed, the particular event, in the Jewish nation, which every fuch double prophecy foretold, was rather merely, in the first inftance, to confirm the truth of the prophecy, than the end and defign of it. It was merely in order that the Jews, feeing the firft and inferior meaning of the prophecy fo fulfilled, might not doubt of the truth of the other and more important accomplishment, which was to take place only at the remote diftance of many ages. And it is furely a remark most judiciously introduced by Mr. continued, almoft without interruption, till 391. the latter end of the reign of Theodofius. The Mr. Eyre," that the covenant made by Almighty God "with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, (Genefis, ch. xiii. " ver. 15. ch. xv. ver. 7. and ch. xvii. ver. 8. ch. xxvi. ver. 3. ch. xxxv. ver. 12. and mentioned Exodus, "ch. vi. ver. 4, 8. Deut. ch. i. ver. 8, and ch. xi. ver. 21. ❝ and ch. xxx. ver. 20.) was not to their feed or offsprings only, but to themselves. And therefore, if Almighty "God makes good to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, this "His covenant, whereby He undertook to be their God; "then they must needs one day live again to inherit the "promised land, which hitherto they have not done. "For the God that thus covenanted with them, cove"nanted not to make his promise good to them dead, but "living. This is the ftrength of the divine argument, " and irrefragable." To all which I cannot but add, that, from the words of St. Paul himself, it seems most clear, both that the Jews, in his days, did not confider the promise as having been made good, or fulfilled, by any poffeffion of the promised land they had ever had at that time, but expected a more full and literal performance of it; and also that they were right, and to be juftified, in having fuch an expectation. For he fays, in his pleading before Agrippa, Acts, ch. xxvi. ver. 6, 7. 6. Καὶ νῦν ἐπ' ἐλπίδι τῆς πρὸς τὰς πατέρας ἐπαγγελίας γενομένης ὑπὸ τῶ Θεῖ, ἔτηκα κρινόμενΘ * Obfervations upon the Prophecies, p. 5. 7. εἰς 396. |