That the Caphtorim were situated near to the Casluhim, is inferred not only from Moses’s putting them next one to another in the forecited place of Gen. x. but also from this, that the Philistines, who are, in Gen. x. 13. said to be descended of the Casluhim, are elsewhere denoted by the name of Caphtorim, as Deut. ii. 23. Jer. xlvii. 4. and Amos ix. 7. which perhaps cannot be better accounted for than by supposing the Casluhim and Caphtorim to be neighbours, and so in time to have been mutually intermixed, or to be looked upon as one and the same people. Now the name Caphtor seems to be preserved in an old city of Egypt called Captus, from which, as the name of Captetes is still given to the Christians of Egypt, (whence the translation of the Bible used by them is called also the Coptick translation,) so it is not unlikely that the common name of Egypt was derived from it, it being called Ægyptus, for Ægoptus, as if one should say in Greek Greek or Hebrew the land of Koptus. And it is a good remark of the learned Mede, that the Greek Greek or Hebrew, or Æa, is likely derived from the Hebrew Greek or Hebrew, ai, or Ei; to which may be very pertinently subjoined this remark, that in Jer. xlvii. 4. what we render the country of Caphtor, is in the Hebrew text termed Ai Caphtor, which are the two words which we suppose the Greeks to have moulded into the name Greek or Hebrew. Our translators observe on the forementioned place in Jeremy, that the Hebrew word translated the country in the text denotes also an isle, as it is rendered in the margin, agreeably to which it is observable that the city of Captus stood on a small island, so that upon the whole we need not doubt thereabout to fix the first settlement of the Caphtorim.

Of the four original nations descended from Ham, there remains now only that of Phut to be spoken of; and the first settlement of this is with good reason supposed to be in the parts of the Libyan or African continent, which join on next to those possessed by the descendants of Mizraim. For in Africa, properly so called, below Adrumentum, was a city named Putea, mentioned by Pliny; and in Mauritania there is a river mentioned by Ptolemy called Phut. St. Jerome is very full to the point, telling us that there is a river in Mauritania which was until his own time called Phut, and from which the adjacent country was called Regio Phytensis, the country of Phut. Mr. Bedford supposes it was the river Niger that was called by this name, and that the posterity of Phut settled themselves chiefly on that river, (as the first inhabitants of the earth were wont to choose the neighbourhood of rivers for their settlements,) and from thence spread themselves into other parts.

[415] Gen. x. l. These things are evidences that all mankind are originally from one head or fountain, and of one blood, viz. 1. That all agreed in the same custom of sacrifices, which could be from nothing else than tradition from their progenitors. 2. Their all agreeing in counting by decads, or stopping at ten in their numerical computations, which Aristotle says, all men, both Barbarians and Greeks, did use. 3. Their having every where anciently the same number of letters, and the same names (or little varied) of them. 4. The remarkable affinity of all ancient languages. 5. Their dividing time into weeks, or systems of seven days, of which practice to have been general there are many plain testimonies. 6. Their beginning the day or revolution of twenty-four hours with the night. Yea, perhaps, if one consider it, the whole business concerning matrimony. Thus, Dr. Barrow, vol. ii. of his Works, p. 93.

[405] Gen. x. 1, 2. Concerning Japhet, the son of Noah. Neptune is the same with Japhet, who is called the god of the sea, because mountains, places, islands, and the great peninsulas of Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and Spain, were peopled by his posterity. The name Neptune is derived from the same radix that Japhet is, even from Greek or Hebrew, to enlarge, whence Greek or Hebrew, Japhet, and Greek or Hebrew, Nephta, in niphal, according to the allusion of Noah, Japht Elohim Japhet, Gen. ix. 27.“God shall enlarge Japhet:” proportionably whereunto Neptune was called by the Greek Greek or Hebrew, which grammarians in vain attempt to deduce from the Greek tongue, seeing, as Herodotus in Euterpe asserts, the name Poseidon was at first used by none but the Libyans or Africans, who always honoured this god. Poseidon is the same with the Punic word Greek or Hebrew, Pesitan, which signifies expanse, or broad, from Greek or Hebrew, Pasat, to dilate or expand. Japhet’s name, and what is said of him, God shall enlarge Japhet, well suits with Neptune’s character among the heathen, who is styled, Late imperans and Late-sonans, as also one that has a large breast. The genealogy of Neptune confirms that he is Japhet: he is the son of Saturn, i. e. Noah. See note on Gen. i. 27. Gale’s Court of the Gen. p. 1. b. 2. c. 6. p. 73, 74.

[400] Gen. x. 6. Now what the heathen said of Jupiter is evidently taken from Ham, the son of Noah. Noah is the Saturn of the heathen, as is evident by note on Gen. i. 27. It is fabled that Saturn had three sons, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, who divided the world between them. Sanchoniathon says, “The son of Saturn was Zeus Belus, or Baal, the chief god among the Phœnicians. It was a name assumed by Jehovah, the God of Israel, before abused to superstition, as appears by Hosea ii. 16. It is elsewhere written Greek or Hebrew Beel, or Greek or Hebrew which answers to the Hebrew Baal Shamaiim, the Lord of heaven. Greek or Hebrew is derived from Greek or Hebrew, which signifies to be hot, and answereth exactly to the Hebrew Cham, from the radix Chamam, to wax hot. Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians called Jupiter, Ammon, from their progenitor Ham; whence Egypt is called Ps. cv. 23, 27the land of Ham,” Ps. cv. 23, 27. Also Plutarch testifies that Egypt in the Sacreds of Isis, was termed Greek or Hebrew whence this, but from Cham? And Africa of old was called Hammonia. The Africans were wont to worship Ham under the name of Hanmon. These things are more largely treated of by Cudworth, p. 337, 338, 339.

Again: Sanchoniathon terms Jupiter, Sydyk, or as Damascius in Photius, Sadyk. Now this name is evidently taken from the Hebrew Saddik, the just, which is a name given to God, as also to the first patriarchs, whence Melchizedek. The name Jupiter is evidently the same with la Pater, or Greek or Hebrew, that is, Father Jah, or Jeu. That God’s name, Jah, was well known to the Phœnicians, who communicated the same to the Grecians, is evident by what Porphyry says of Sanchoniathon’s deriving the materials of his history from Jerombatus, the priest of the god Greek or Hebrew. So Diodorus tells us that Moses inscribed his law to the god called Jao. So the oblique cases of Jupiter are from God’s name, Jehovah, as Jovi, Jove, &c. The same name, Jai, in the oracle of Clarius Apollo, is given to Bacchus again. Jupiter was Sabasius, from that title of God, Jehovah, Sabaoth. (This Cudworth also notices, p. 259, 260.) The fable of Jupiter’s cutting off his fathers genitalia, seems to arise from Ham’s seeing his father’s nakedness. Again, in the metamorphosis of the gods of Egypt, it is said that Jupiter was turned into a ram; which fable Bochart supposes to have had its rise from the cognation between the Hebrew words Greek or Hebrew or Greek or Hebrew, and Greek or Hebrew a ram, the plural number of both which is the same, Elim. The tradition of Bacchus being produced out of Jupiter’s thigh, seems to come from that known expression to signify the natural proceeding of posterity from a father, their coming out of his loins. Gale’s Court of the Gen. p. 1. b. ii. l. 1. p. 10, 11, 12, 13.

[410] Gen. xi. 3, 4., &c. Concerning the building of Babel and confusion of tongues. Bochart, in his preface to his Phaleg, about the middle, says, “What follows concerning the tower of Babel, its structure, and the confusion of tongues ensuing thereon, also of its builders being dispersed throughout various parts of the earth, is related in express words by Abydenus and Eupolemus in Cyrillus and Eusebius.” Bochart, in his Phaleg, gives us a description of the tower of Babel, out of Herodotus, parallel to that of the Scripture, and where it is said, Gen. xi. 9. that it was called Babel, because the Lard confounded their language. Hence pagan writers called those of this dispersion, and their successors Greek or Hebrew, men of divided tongues. So Homer, in the Iliad, Greek or Hebrew, generations of men, having divided tongues. Abydenus affirms, that it was a common opinion, that the men whom the earth brought forth gathered themselves together, and builded a great tower, which was Babel, and the gods being angry with it, threw it down. Gale’s Court of Gen. p. 1. b. 3. c. 8. p. 83.

[430] Gen. xi. 3, 4., &c. Concerning the tower of Babel, Cyril, b. 1. against Julian, quotes these words out of Abydenus, “Some say that the first men that sprang out of the earth, grew proud upon their great strength and bulk, and boasted they could do more than the gods, and attempted to build a tower where Babylon now stands; but when it came nigh the heavens, it was overthrown upon them by the gods with the help of the winds; and the ruins are called Babylon. Men, until then, had but one language, but the gods divided it, and then began the war between Saturn and Titan.” Grotius de Verit. b. i. sect. 16. Notes.

Dr. Winder supposes that the crime of the builders of Babel was an obstinate renouncing the orders before given by Noah, and agreed to by his sons, under the divine direction for a general dispersion and division of the earth among the various families of mankind, and that the builders of Babel were not the whole body of mankind, but that part of them which, according to the forementioned orders and regulations, were to be settled in parts that were to be westward of the original settlement where Noah dwelt; and that, after they had dwelt in Shinar, ambition might inspire some of their leaders with the thoughts of setting up a great empire. But that this supposes that there were at that time other tribes elsewhere, against which they might direct their ambitious projects. There appears (says he) to have been something of ambition either for power or fame, or both, in their design; for they said, Let us make us a name.

“There is” (says Dr. Winder, p. 127.) “a most noble authenticated confirmation of the Mosaic history, by this city or country retaining the name Babel, or Confusion, by which every age and nation called this great city, the supposed seat of the first empire, even according to heathen writers, which seems to be a name of infamy and reproach, which its own princes or inhabitants would not have given it without some such notorious undeniable circumstances obliging them to it. What a signal defeat (says he) was here given by Providence to this ambitious plan ”Let us make us a name;” for what they aimed to erect as a monument of their grandeur and glory, God indeed suffered to stand long, but then it was as a monument of their own infamy and folly, the impotency of their rebellion, and their decisive defeat.”

[240] Gen. xi. 7. Concerning the confusion of languages. The state of the world of mankind, with respect to variety of language, now and in all past ages that we can learn any thing of from history, does exceedingly confirm this account of the confusion of languages. Without this, it is very unaccountable how there should be so great a variety of language in so little a time, or indeed ever at all. Concerning this, the author of “Revelation Examined with Candour,” observes as follows: “It is true that the English and all living languages are in a perpetual flux; new words are added, and others die, and grow obsolete. But whence does this arise? Not at all from the necessary mutability of human things, but most evidently from the mixture of other tongues. Scholars add new words or terminations from the learned languages, either through affectation of learning or desire of adorning their native tongue with some words of more elegance or significance; and others from a commerce with other countries of different languages, naturally adopt some of their phrases and expositions into their own. And so our language varies; and what then? How does this affect the question concerning the continuance of the same language, where no other was ever taught or heard? The Jews spoke the same language from Moses to the Babylonish captivity: if their polity had continued, would they not speak the same language to this day?” [And here I would insert what Bedford in his Scripture Chronology observes, viz. that “the Arabic continued the same from the time of Job till later ages. The Arabic spoken by Christians in Asia at this day, is the same with that spoken by Mahomet, the impostor, which was much the same with that used in Job’s time; and the Chaldee remained the same from the time of Iaco till the date of the Babylonish Talmud; and the Greek continued the same from the days of Homer to Chrysostom.” See Bedford, p. 291 and 512.] The author of Revelation Examined with Candour, goes on. “Some of the inland inhabitants of Africa are found to speak the same language now which they spoke two thousand years ago (and in all probability the same observation is true of our neighbours, the Welch). Could they keep to one language for two thousand years, and could not the descendants of Noah keep to one language two hundred years? Could they keep their language amidst a variety of so many others about them, and when it is scarcely possible that they should be clear of all commerce with people of different tongues; and could not these keep their language, when it was impossible that they should have any commerce but with one another? Those Africans, to say nothing of the Welch, now keep their own tongue, though there are so many others in the world to taint, and by degrees to abolish it. If there were no other language in the world but theirs, does any man believe they would not continue to speak it for two thousand or ten thousand years more, if the world lasted so long? It is true, as arts increased, and customs changed, new terms and phrases might be added; when then new words would increase and adorn the tongue; but sure no man would say it would destroy it, unless it be believed that new branches, or fruit, or flowers, do daily destroy the tree they shoot out from.”

“The learned author of the letter to Dr. Waterland seems to think, that all other languages sprang as naturally from the Hebrew, as many shoots from the same root, or many branches from the same stock: but I am confident, whoever carefully considers the genius of each of the ancient languages now extant, will find as little reason to believe that they all had their original from the Hebrew, as that all the variety of the forest and fruit-trees in the world were originally but so many shoots and branches from the palm-tree of Judea.

“Besides all this, if we consider that the language of Adam (if we could suppose it imperfect in him, when it was demonstrably inspired by God, yet) had time enough to arrive at full perfection in 1656 years; and that Noah and his sons had time enough to learn it in perfection before the flood; the youngest of his sons being about 100 years old at that time, and himself 600; we cannot with any colour of reason imagine that there could be any necessity of adding so much as one word to it before the building of Babel.” Thus far the author of Religion Examined with Candour.

And besides all this, the greater excellency and regularity of some of the ancient languages so early, when arts were in their first beginning, as the Latin and Greek, the latter of which was in great perfection in the days of Homer, seems to argue something divine in it. If the arts and learning of the nation had so early brought their language to such a pitch of perfection, they had made infinitely greater progress in this than in other things that pertain to human life.

The manner in which God confounded the languages of the posterity of Noah, seems to be by confounding their memory with respect to their former language, but not utterly destroying it; so that they still retained some notion of many of the words and phrases of their former language; hence it is found that other languages have in many words affinity to the Hebrew.

[275] Gen. xiii. 10. “And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoar.” Zoar here probably is the same city which was elsewhere called Zoan, which was of old the chief city of Egypt. (See No. 254.) The Hebrew letter Greek or Hebrew, Nun, seems easily convertible into Greek or Hebrew, Resch, as in Achon, Achor. Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar. Zoan was probably at this time the most famous and the royal city in Egypt. It stood in the Delta of Egypt, or that part of it that was near the sea, through which the river Nile ran in many branches, so that it was well watered every where, as the land about Sodom is here said to be; for “it had not only the river Jordan running through it, but the river Arnon from the east, the brook Zered (Numb. xxi. 12.) and the famous fountain Callirhoe (Pliny, lib. 5. c. 16.) from the south, falling into it.” (Complete Body of Divinity, p. 350.) Probably this fountain is the same with the well, which the princes of Israel digged with their staves, Numb. xxi. 16, 17, 18. And probably being a low flat country, which is sometimes called a plain, sometimes a valley, Gen. xiv. 10. was in the time of the swelling of Jordan overflowed, as Egypt was with the Nilus.

[302] Gen. xiv. 15, 16., &c. Abraham in thus conquering the great kings and princes of the earth, and their united hosts, is a type of Christ and of the church. God seems to have granted this great victory to Abraham, as some earnest of those great blessings he had promised to him; the belief of which promises was attended with so much difficulty. Here was given some specimen of what Abraham’s promised seed should do, which includes Christ and his church. Abraham might well represent Christ, for Christ is Abraham’s seed, and he might well represent the church, for he was the father of the church, the father of all that believe, as the apostle testifies. And besides, Abraham and his household was then as it were God’s visible church; God had separated Abraham from the rest of the world to that end that his church might be continued in his family. And though there were as yet some other true worshippers of God, who were not of his family, yet soon after the church was confined to his posterity. This victory of Abraham was doubtless intended as a sign and earnest of the victory that Christ and his church should obtain over their enemies, and over the nations of the world; because God himself makes use of it to this purpose in the 41st. chap. of Isaiah.: “Keep silence before me, O islands, and let the people renew their strength; let them come near, then let them speak; let us come near together in judgment: who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.” It is not probable that this victory of Abraham would be spoken of in such lofty language, and in expressions so much like those that are elsewhere made use of to represent Christ’s glorious victories over the powers of earth and hell, if the one were not a type of the other. This victory of Abraham is in this place mentioned to that end, that the church, the seed of Abraham, might take it as a sign and evidence that they should not be subdued, but should subdue and conquer the world, as appears from what follows, ver. 8. “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.” Ver. 10, 11. “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish.” Ver. 15. “Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth, thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.”

Abraham conquered the chief nations and princes of the world, which was a seal of what God promised him, that he should be the heir of the world. Rom. iv. 13. “For the promise that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” He conquered them not with a hired army, but only with the armed soldiers of his own household. So the armies that go forth with Christ unto battle to subdue the world, (Rev. xix. 14. “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,) they are his church, which is his household. Abraham conquers the kings of the earth and their armies united, and joining all their force together, and therein his victory was a type of Christ’s victory, as in the 41st Isa. 6, 7. speaking of this victory, “They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering: and he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved.” Abraham by his conquest rescued Lot his kinsman; so Christ our near kinsman by his victory over our enemies, who had taken us captive, delivers us. Abraham redeemed Lot and the other captives freely, and would take nothing of them for his pains: so Christ freely redeems us. Abraham redeemed the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, that wicked people; which is a type of Christ’s redeeming sinners.

[129] Gen. xv. 17. “Behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passes between those pieces.” The smoking furnace, I am ready to think, signified the same as fire from heaven to consume the sacrifices, that is, the wrath of God in the midst of Jesus Christ. The furnace passed between the pieces, that is, as it were, through the midst of them. The burning lamp which followed was a fire of another nature; it was a clear bright light; whereas the other, though exceeding hot like a furnace, was all smoking. This signified the Holy Ghost, who is often compared to fire; and the lamp signified that light, glory, and blessedness which followed Christ’s enduring wrath, and was purchased by it, both for himself and for his people. And doubtless this also has respect to the church in Egypt of Abraham’s seed, and signified those things that God was now telling Abraham in his deep sleep. The smoking furnace signified their suffering grievous persecutions and afflictions in Egypt, which is called the iron furnace; and the shining lamp signified their glorious deliverance in the fourth generation, and being brought into the land of Canaan. Isa. lxii. 1. “And the salvation thereof shall be as a lamp that burneth.” The birds coming down, that Abraham frayed away, were to typify the devils, and their endeavours to devour Jesus Christ and the church; this thing may also signify the terrors and consolations that attend the wish of conversion and deliverance out of spiritual Egypt.

[363] Gen. xv. 17. “And it came to pass, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” Here were four things that were significant of the death and last sufferings of Christ, all at the same time.

1. There were the sacrifices that were slain, and lay there dead and divided. Christ feared when his last passion approached, lest Satan should utterly devour him, and swallow him up in that trial, and cried to God, and was heard in that he feared; and those fowls were frayed away that sought to devour that sacrifice, as Abraham frayed away the fowls that attempted to devour this sacrifice while it lay upon the altar.

2. The smoking furnace that passed through the midst of the sacrifices.

3. The deep sleep that fell upon Abraham, and the horror of great darkness that fell upon him.

4. The sun, that greatest of all natural types of Christ, went down, and descended under the earth, and it was dark.

“It is probable this furnace and lamp which passed between the pieces, burned and consumed them, and so completed the sacrifice, and testified God’s acceptance of it, Judg. vi. 21. xiii. 19, 20. and 2 Chron. vii. 7. This was of old God’s manner of manifesting his acceptance of sacrifices, viz. kindling a fire from heaven upon them; ‘and by this we may know that he accepts our sacrifices, if we kindle in our souls a lively fire of divine affections in them.’ ” Henry.

[241] Gen. xvi. 10-12. “I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude And shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” The following observations are taken principally out of a book entitled Revelation Examined with Candour. This prophecy is remarkably verified in the Arabs. The Arabs are the undoubted descendants of Hagar and Ishmael. Ishmael was circumcised at thirteen years of age; so have all those his sons from him until the establishment of Mahometanism, and many of them to this day, though some of them circumcise indifferently in any year from the 8th to the 13th, but all professing to derive the practice from their father Ishmael. He was an archer in the wilderness; his sons, the Arabs, have been the most remarkable archers in the world, and are so to this day, and in the wilderness too, where culture is not known. Hagar was a concubine and an hireling, and while she dwelt with Abraham, Abraham dwelt in tents, and was continually moving from place to place. Ammianus Marcellinus observes of the Arabs, that they had mercenary wives hired for a time. The learned Dr. Jackson makes it exceeding evident that the Arabs and the Saracens were descended from Ishmael, and also the writers of the life of Mahomet, and the writers of travels and voyages without number. In short, it is a point universally agreed upon all over the east and south. As the Ishmaelites lived under twelve princes by Moses’s account, so these principalities remained till later times, bearing the names of the twelve sons of Ishmael, as Le Clerc makes very evident.

The first part of the prophecy, viz. I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude, is fulfilled in them. The Hagarenes spoken of in Scripture, and the Arabs, especially the Scænitæ, were very numerous, and the Saracens were more numerous than either. But this prophecy is most evidently fulfilled in that vast empire that the Saracens have set up in the world.

The next part of the prophecy is that he should be a wild man. The word which is translated wild, in this place signifies a wild ass: the literal construction of the phrase in Latin is erit Onager Homo: He shall be a wild ass man. The Arabs are above all nations a wild people, and have been so through all ages throughout so many hundred generations. They vary no more from their progenitors’ wild and fierce qualities than the wild plants of the forest, never accustomed to human culture, do from the trees whence they are propagated. The dwelling of those Arabs and the wild ass is alike, and indeed the same. See Job xxxix. 6.

The next part of the prophecy: His hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. He shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. The meaning of which words seems to be that they should be in perpetual enmity with all mankind, and yet should subsist in the face of the world. And such a sense of this prophecy seems to be agreeable to the idiom of scripture phrase. Thus when the Scripture speaks of brethren with respect to nations, sometimes nothing is intended but only other nations that are round about. So when it is said concerning Canaan, Gen. ix. 25. “A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren,” it is not intended only, nor chiefly, and it may be not at all, that he should be a servant of servants to his literal brethren, Cush, Mizraim, and Phut, the other sons of Ham; but that he should be a servant to other nations; and it was fulfilled especially in his posterity’s being subdued by the posterity of Shem and Japheth. When it is said, “He shall dwell,” the meaning is, that they shall remain a nation, and still retain their habitation and possession without being cut off, or carried captive from their own land. In such a sense the word is used, Psal. xxxvii. 27. “Depart from evil and do good, and dwell for evermore.” This expression is explained by other passages in the Psalm, as ver. 3. “Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land.” Ver. 9. “Evil-doers shall be cut off, but those that wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth.” Ver. 10, 11. “Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth.” Ver. 18. “The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be for ever;” and ver. 22. “For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.” Ver. 29. “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.” Ver. 34. “And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it.” It is also agreeable to the scriptural way of speaking, when it is said, “He shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren,” to understand it, that they after all their opposition to it shall see him still subsisting and retaining his own habitation in spite of them: so the expression in the presence of, seems evidently to signify, Psal. xxiii. 5. “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” This is also remarkably fulfilled in the Arabs, for they have ever lived in professed enmity with all mankind, and all mankind in enmity with them; they have continued in a state of perpetual hostility with the rest of their brethren, and yet have subsisted perpetually under it before their faces, and in spite of them all; they have neither been destroyed nor lost by mingling with other nations; they marry only in their own nation, disdaining alliances with all others. Their language continued so much the same through all ages, (as Bedford in his Scripture Chronology observes, that it continued much the same from the days of Job until latter ages,) shows that this nation has never been much mixed with other nations. They and the Jews only have subsisted from the remotest accounts of antiquity as a distinct people from all the rest of mankind, and the undoubted descendants of one man. And the Arabs never were subdued and carried captive, as the Jews have been. Alexander the Great intended an expedition against them, but was prevented by death. What Alexander intended, Antigonus, the greatest of his successors, attempted, but without success; being repulsed with disgrace, and the loss of above eight thousand men, he made a second and greater attempt, but without success.

They had wars afterwards with the Romans and Parthians, but were never either subdued or tamed: resembling in this (the only comparison in nature that suits them) the wild ass in the desert, and sent out by the same hand free, as he whose house is also the wilderness, and the barren land his dwelling, alike disdainful of bondage, scorning alike the multitude of the city and the cry of the driver. Pompey made war with them, and some part of them seemingly submitted, but never remained at all in subjection to him after this they misled and deluded Crassus to his destruction. Antony after this sent his horse to ravage Palmyra, but the city was defended from them by archers, who were probably Arabs. Afterwards their chief city was besieged by Trajan, one of the most warlike and powerful of all the Roman emperors. He went in person with his army against them with great resolution to subdue them, but his soldiers were strangely annoyed with lightnings, thunders, whirlwinds, and hail, and affrighted, and dazzled with the apparition of rainbows, and so were forced to give up the siege. After this, Severus, a great conqueror, after he had subdued all his enemies, marched in person against them with great resolution to subdue them with his greatest force, and warlike preparations, besieged the city twice, but it twice repulsed him with great loss; and when they had actually made a breach in the wall of the chief city, they were strangely prevented from entering by unaccountable discontents arising among the soldiers, and so they went away baffled and confounded. These Ishmaelites, when their wall was broke down, being invited to a treaty with the emperor, disdained to enter into any treaty with him. After this the Saracens set up a vast empire, and so the prophecy of their becoming a great nation that could not be numbered was most eminently fulfilled.

They also have dwelt in the presence of all their brethren, in another sense, viz. that all their brethren, the posterity of all the other sons of Abraham, and even the posterity of Isaac, have seen them remaining and unsubdued, and holding their own dwelling, when they all of them, and even the posterity of Isaac and Jacob themselves, were conquered and carried away out of their own dwellings.

[301] Gen. xvii. 10. Circumcision signified or represented that mortification or the denying of our lusts, that is the condition of obtaining the blessings of the covenant. Totally denying any lust, is represented in Scripture by cutting off. Thus, cutting off a right hand, or right foot, is put for the denying of some very dear lust; so cutting off the flesh of a member so prone to violent lust, signifies a total denying of our lusts. A main reason why lust, or our natural corruption, is represented by the instrument of generation, is because we have all our natural corruption or lust by generation, i. e. by being the natural offspring of the corrupt parents of mankind. Therefore when God would signify that our original or natural corruption should be mortified, he appoints that the flesh of the part specified should be cut off.

Another reason why the seal of the covenant that God made with Abraham was appointed to be affixed to this part of the body, seems to be that God made this covenant not only with Abraham and for him, but him and his seed. It mainly respected his seed, as abundantly appears by the tenor of the words, in which the covenant was revealed from time to time; and therefore the seal was to be affixed to that part of the body whence came his seed. The covenant was made not with a man, but with a race of men ordinarily to be continued by natural generation; and therefore the sign of the covenant was a sign affixed to the instrument of generation. The sign was a purgation of the member of the body, by which offspring was procured, and was to be a sign of the purification of the offspring. God seeks a godly seed, and children that are holy.

Corol. Hence we learn that seeing the Gentiles now in the days of the gospel are admitted to the seal of Abraham as the Jews were, and are admitted to an interest in Abraham’s covenant, and to the blessing of Abraham, so that Abraham is become the father now, not of one nation, but of many nations in the way of that covenant, as the apostle Paul abundantly teaches; then the posterity of Christians by natural generation are now God’s people, and are a holy seed by Abraham’s covenant, as the Israelites were of old. There are but two ways in which persons can become of Abraham’s covenant, race, or generation: one is by generation by the natural instruments of generation, to which the seal of the covenant was affixed, and so continued from the root to the branches; the other is by ingrafting a new branch into that stock, that shall after ingrafting grow and bring forth branches, and bear fruit upon that stock, as the other branches did that were cut off to make room for them. In this way now many nations or generations are of Abraham’s race, instead of one nation or family.

[355] Gen. xviii. Isaac, the interpretation of whose name is Laughter, was conceived about the same time that Sodom and the other cities of the plain were destroyed, and he was born soon after their destruction. So the accomplishment of the terrible destruction of God’s enemies, and the glorious prosperity of his church, usually go together, as in Isa. lxvi. 13, 14. “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem and when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb; and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servant, and his indignation toward his enemies.” First the enemies of the church are destroyed, and then Isaac is born, as that prosperous state of the church is brought about, wherein their mouths are filled with laughter, and their tongue with singing. So the Egyptians were first overthrown in the Red sea, and then Moses and the children of Israel rejoiced in peace, and liberty, and sung that glorious song of triumph. So first Babylon is destroyed, and then the captivity of Israel is returned, and Jerusalem rebuilt. So when the heathen Roman empire was overthrown, then commenced that prosperous and joyful state of the church that was in the days of Constantine. So when antichrist is destroyed, there will follow that joyful glorious state of the church we are looking for. Isaac was the promised seed of Abraham, the father of all the faithful, the blessing he had long waited for, and when Sarah brought him forth, it represented the same thing as the woman in the 12th chap. of Rev. “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” The accomplishment of the prosperous state of the church is in Scripture often compared to a woman’s bringing forth a child with which she had been in travail. It is so in particular by our Saviour, John xvi. 19, 20, 21, 22. “Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” Hereby is especially represented the accomplishment of the church’s glory, joy, and laughter, after the destruction of antichrist, or the throne of Rome, that is spiritually called Sodom.

[431] Gen. xviii. Concerning the burning of Sodom, &c. Diodorus Siculus, b. 19. where he describes the lake Asphaltites, says, “The neighbouring country burns with fire, the ill smell of which makes the bodies of the inhabitants sickly, and not very long-lived.” Strabo, b. 16. after the description of the lake Asphaltites, says, “There are many signs of this country being on fire, for about Mastada they show many cragged and burnt rocks, and in many places caverns eaten in, and the ground turned into ashes, drops of pitch falling from the rocks, and running waters stinking to a great distance, and their habitations overthrown; which give credit to a report amongst the inhabitants that formerly there were thirteen cities inhabited there, the chief of which was Sodom, so large as to be sixty furlongs round; but by earthquakes and fire breaking out, and by hot waters mixed with bitumen and brimstone, it became a lake, as we now see it. The rocks took five, some of the cities were swallowed up, and others forsaken by those inhabitants that could flee.” Tacitus, in the fifth book of his history, has these words: “Not far from thence are those fields which are reported to have been formerly very fruitful, and inhabited by a large city, but were burnt by lightning, the marks of which remain, in that the land is of a burning nature, and has lost its fruitfulness; for every thing that is planted or grows of itself, as soon as it comes to an herb or flower, or grown to its proper bigness, vanishes like dust into nothing.” Solinus, in the 36th chap. of Salmasius’s edition, has these words: “At a good distance from Jerusalem, a dismal lake extends itself, which was struck by lightning, as appears from the black earth burnt to ashes. There were two towns there, one called Sodom, the other Gomorrah; the apples that grow there cannot be eaten, though they look as if they were ripe, for the outward skin encloses a kind of sooty ashes, which, pressed by the least touch, flies out into smoke, and vanishes into fine dust.” Grotius de Verit. b. i. sect. 16. Notes.

[359] Gen. xix. 23, 24. “The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” This signified that the terrible destruction of the wicked is at the beginning of the glorious day wherein the Sun of righteousness rises on the earth, and at the coming of Christ, Lot’s antitype, and visiting his church, the little city, the antitype of the church. So it was in the days of the apostles, in the morning of the gospel day, when Judea and Jerusalem were so terribly destroyed. So it was in the days of Constantine; and so it will be at the fall of Antichrist; and so it will be at the end of the world. See Job xxxviii. 13. Note.

[336] So Dagon fell once and again before the ark early in the morning; so after the disciples had toiled all night and caught nothing, yet in the morning Christ came to them, and they had a great draught of fishes; so Christ rose from the dead early in the morning. It is said concerning God’s church, that “weeping may continue for a night, but joy will come in the morning.”

The children of Israel were all night pursued by their enemies at the Red sea; in the night they were in the sea, in a great and terrible east wind, but in the morning watch the Lord looked through the pillar of cloud and fire, and troubled the hosts of the Egyptians; and in the morning the children of Israel came up out of the sea, and the host of the Egyptians was destroyed, and the children of Israel rejoiced and sang. Jacob, after wrestling with the angel in the night, obtained the blessing in the morning. “He that ruleth over men shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds: and as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.” 2 Sam. xxiii. 4. Psalm xlix. 14. “The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. In the morning, when the Sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings, the day comes that shall burn as an oven, (as that day burnt in which Lot entered into Zoar,) and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, and the righteous shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be as ashes under the soles of their feet.” Mal. iv. at the beginning. The church in the 59th Psalm, after expressing her great troubles from her enemies, and declaring how God should destroy them, says, verse 16. “But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning, for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.” So likewise the church, in speaking of her troubles, in Psalm cxliii. 8. “Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust; cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee.” It is said of the church, Psalm xlvi. 5. “God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early.” And then in the 8th verse., it is said, “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.” Hosea vi. 1, 2, 3. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind up. After two days will he revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain and the former rain unto the earth.”

[276] Gen. xix. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. Concerning the destruction of Sodom and the parts adjacent. The very ground of that region, great part of it, seems to have been burnt up. For it was in great measure made up of bitumen, or what the Scripture calls slime, Gen. xiv. 10. “And the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.” And because of the abundance of bitumen in the lake of Sodom, it was called of old, and is still called, Lacus Asphaltites. It is full of bitumen, which at certain seasons boils up from the bottom in bubbles like hot water. This bitumen is a very combustible matter. It is in some places liquid, and in others firm; and not only lies near the surface of the earth, but lies sometimes very deep, and it is dug out of the bowels of it. So that the streams of fire that came from heaven set the very ground on fire; and therefore it is here, in the 28th verse., that Lot looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and towards all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. So that the country burning was a very lively representation of the general conflagration; and by the melting of the bituminous ground in many places was probably a burning lake, and so was a lively image of hell, which is often called the lake of fire, and the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. Note, that bitumen is a sulphurous substance, (see Bailey’s Dictionary,) and therefore is fitly compared to hell fire in Scripture, Jude. 7th ver. “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” There seems to be an evident allusion to the manner of the destruction of this country in Isa. xxxix. 9, 10. “And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day: the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.” Deut. xxix. 23. “And the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath;” where we are expressly taught that the very ground of this country was burnt. The ground burning up sunk the land, and made this valley deeper, so that after that the waters of Jordan perpetually overflowed it; and besides, there was probably an earthquake at the same time, by which the ground subsided, as the tradition of the heathen was. It is probable that the same time as the meteors of their air were inflamed, the bitumen and other combustible matter that was in the bowels of their earth was also enkindled, or the fire that was first kindled on the top of the ground might run down in the bituminous and sulphurous veins deep into the earth, and being there pent up, might cause earthquakes, after those cities and inhabitants were all consumed, which might make the country to sink, and turn it into a bituminous and exceeding salt lake. The ground there was doubtless very likely to sink by an earthquake, being hollow, as it is evident it is still, in that since the surface of the earth hath been broken to let down the water at the river Jordan and other streams, there is no outlet out of the lake above-ground, but they have a secret passage under the earth. The bitumen there is mixed with abundance of nitre and salt, which by their repugnant quality might cause a more violent struggle in the fire that burnt down into the caverns of the earth to cause an earthquake. See many of these things in Complete Body of Divinity, p. 351,352.

[239] Gen. xix. 26., Concerning Lot’s wife. Revelation Examined with Candour. “The unreasonable delay of Lot’s wife was without question occasioned by her solicitude for her children, which she left behind her. The story of Niobe weeping for her children, and being stiffened into stone with grief, is doubtless founded upon this history. Possibly, too, the fable of Orpheus being permitted to redeem his wife from hell, and losing her afterwards by looking unseasonably back, contrary to the. express command given him, and then through grief deserting the society of mankind and dwelling in deserts, might be derived from some obscure tradition of this history. Sodom was now the liveliest emblem of hell that can be imagined. It was granted to Lot by a peculiar privilege to deliver his wife thence. He was expressly commanded, Gen. xix. 17. “Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” By her looking back, contrary to this command, his wife was lost; after which he quits the city, and dwells alone in the mountains. Here are all the main circumstances of the fable, and the poets had nothing to do but to vary and embellish as they liked best.

[380] But his wife looked back from behind her, and she became a pillar of salt. What happened to Lot’s wife when she looked back as she was flying out of Sodom, is typical of what commonly happens to men that are guilty of backsliding when they have begun to seek deliverance out of a state of sin and misery, and an escape from the wrath to come. The woman was there stiffened into a hard substance; which signifies the tendency that backsliding has to harden the heart. She became a senseless statue; which signifies the senselessness which persons bring on them by backsliding. There she was fixed, and never got any further; which typifies the tendency that backsliding has to hinder persons from ever escaping eternal wrath.

[361] Gen. xxi. 10, 11. “Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bond-woman and her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.” The son of the bond-woman is men’s own righteousness; which is the son of the first covenant, given at mount Sinai, which is Hagar; and Isaac, the son of the free-woman, is Christ, as applied to the soul by faith: he is the child of promise, and the son of the free-woman: at least this is part of the signification. It is Sarah, the mother of Isaac, that urges the casting out of the bond-woman; so it is the church in its ministry and ordinances, which is the mother of Christ in the souls of believers, that urges the casting out our own legal righteousness. It is Christ that is the heir of the blessings of the covenant; it is by his merits only that we have a right or title to those blessings; we must cast out our own righteousness, and not have any manner of regard to that, as though that had a right, or as though a right came by that. [“And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight, because of his son.”] This signifies how very hard and grievous it seems to persons wholly to cast out their own righteousness, the son of the legal covenant from mount Sinai, because they are our own works, our own offspring, that are dear to us, as Ishmael was to his father Abraham.

[138] Gen. xxi. 8. “And Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.” This typifies the weaning of the church from its milk of carnal ordinances, ceremonies, and shadows, and beggarly elements. Upon the coming of Christ, the church under the Old Testament is represented as being in its minority; and the apostle tells us that babes must be fed with milk, and not strong meat. Christ therefore dealt with his disciples just as a tender mother does with her child, when she would wean it from the breast. There was a great feast provided, which represents the glorious gospel feast provided for souls when the legal dispensation ceased by the coming of Christ. It may also signify the weaning of souls from the enjoyments of the world at conversion, and the spiritual feast which they find instead of them.

[362] Gen. xxii. Concerning Abraham’s offering up his son Isaac. God’s command to Abraham to offer up his son Isaac, considered with all its circumstances, was an exceeding great trial. Abraham had left his own country and his father’s house, and all that was dear to him, and followed God, not knowing whither he went. First, he left Ur of the Chaldees with his father. This was a great trial, but this was not enough. After this he was required also to leave Haran and his father’s house there, after he had been there settled in hopes of a blessing which God encouraged him that he would give him in a posterity. When he came there he found a famine in the land, and was forced to fly the country and go down into Egypt for sustenance; and God appeared unto him time after time, promising great things concerning his posterity. Abraham waited a long time, and saw no appearance of the fulfilment of the promise, for his wife continued barren, and he made his complaint of it to God. God then renewed and very solemnly confirmed his promise; but did not tell him that it should be a child by his wife, and therefore after he had waited some time longer, he went in to his maid; but God rejected her son, and he waited thirteen years longer, till he was an hundred years old, before he obtained the son promised; and then God gave him but one, without any hopes of his having any other. After this, at God’s command, he cast out his son Ishmael, though it was exceedingly grievous to him, on encouragement of great blessings in Isaac and his posterity. And now, at last, God commands him to take him and offer him up for a burnt-offering. He does not merely call to see him die, though that would have been a great trial under such circumstances; but he is to cut his throat with his own hands, and when he has done so, to burn his flesh on the altar, an offering to God to that God that carnal reason would have said had dealt so ill with him, after he had lived long enough to get fast hold of his affections; after he was weaned from Ishmael, and had set all his heart on Isaac; and after there began to be a most hopeful prospect of God’s fulfilling his promises concerning him. And God gave him no reason for it. When Ishmael was to be cast out, the reason assigned was, that in Isaac his seed should be called. But now, in seeming inconsistency with that reason, Isaac must die, and Abraham must kill him; and neither one nor the other must know why, nor wherefore; and, as Mr. Henry observes, how would he ever look Sarah in the face again? with what face could he return to her and his family, with the blood of Isaac sprinkled on his garments? “Surely a bloody husband hast thou been to me,” would Sarah say to him, as Zipporah said to Moses, Exod. iv. 25, 26.

[7] Gen. xxii. 8. “My son, God will provide a lamb for a burnt-offering.” This was fulfilled in Christ.

[350] Gen. xxiii. Concerning Abraham’s buying, in Canaan, the possession of a burying-place. Canaan is the land that God made over to Abraham by covenant; and yet he gave him none inheritance in it to live upon, as Stephen observes; no, not so much as to set his foot on, Acts vii. 5. But the first possession he had in it was the possession of a burying-place, or a possession for him to be in after he and his were dead; which signifies this, that the heavenly Canaan, the land of promise, the rest that remains for the people of God, is a land for them to possess, and abide and rest in, after they are dead: they do not enter upon the possession of it, until after they are dead, and then they are gathered to their possession in Canaan. Therefore it was so ordered that Jacob and Joseph so much insisted on it to be buried in that land.

[161] Gen. xxiv. 15. Rebekah, and Rachel, and Zipporah, Moses’s wife, those types of the church, all found their husbands, who were types of Christ, when coming out to fountains to draw water; which typifies this, that Christ is found by believers in a way of the use of the means of grace. The woman of Samaria found Christ when coming to draw water.

[71] Gen. xxv. 22. “And the children struggled together in the womb.” I believe this had reference to the spiritual war that is in the soul of the believer, Christ’s spouse, between the flesh and spirit: the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary one to another.

[35] Gen. xxvii. 29. “Let the people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” Hence we learn that the prophets themselves may not understand their prophecies, for Jacob thought that this should be accomplished of Esau.

[406] Gen. xxvii. 18, 19. “And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it, and he called the name of that place Bethel,” &c. So, chap. xxxi. 13, 45. and xxxv. 14. From hence the heathen Bætylia, mentioned by Philo Biblius out of Sanchoniathon. The god Uranus excogitated Bætylia, having fashioned them into living stones. Bochart conceives that Sanchoniathon, instead of living stones, wrote anointed stones, D’rj (from the radix tw, Shuph, which, among the Syrians, signifies to anoint) which Philo Biblius read ; whence he changed anointed, into living stones. So Damascius tells us, I saw a Bœtylus moved in the air. The Phœnicians, imitating Jacob at Bethel, first worshipped the very stone which the patriarch anointed. So Scaliger, in Euseb. tells us that “the Jews relate so much, that although that Cippus, or stone, was at first beloved of God, in the times of the patriarchs, yet afterwards he hated it, because the Canaanites turned it into an idol.” Neither did the Phœnicians worship only this stone at Bethel; but also, in imitation of this rite, erected several other Bœtylia, on the like occasion as Jacob erected his pillar of stone as a memorial of God’s apparition to him. So in like manner both the Phœnicians and the Grecians, upon some imaginary apparition of some god, (or dust, rather,) would erect their Bœtylia, or pillars, in commemoration of such an apparition. So Photius, out of Damascius, tells us that near Heliopolis, in Syria, Asclepiades ascended the mountain Libanus, and saw many Bœtylia, or Bœtyli; concerning which he relates many miracles. He relates also that these Bœtylia were consecrated, some to Saturn, and some to Jupiter, and some to others. So Phavorinus says, Bætylus is a stone which stands at Heliopolis, near Libanus. This stone some also called im^m-, which is the same word by which the Seventy render Jacob’s pillar. Gale’s Court of the Gen. p. l. b. 2. c. 7. p. 89, 90.

[169] Gen. xxviii. 18-22. “And he took the stone that he had set for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God’s house.” This anointed pillar is a type of the Messiah, or Anointed, who is often called a stone or a rock, and is the house of God, wherein the Godhead dwells and tabernacles. He was signified by the tabernacle and temple, as Christ tells us, when he says, “Destroy this temple,” &c. And he, we are told, is the temple of the new Jerusalem. This is the stone that was Jacob’s pillow; it signified the dependence the saints have upon Christ, and that it is in him they have rest and repose, as Christ invites those that are weary to come to him, and they shall find rest. The psalmist says he will lay him down and sleep, and awake, the Lord sustaining him. And as the stones of the temple rested on the foundation, so the saints, the living stones, rest upon Christ, building and resting upon that rock. This stone signified the same with the other that he built there when he returned: chap. xxxv. 7. “And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el, because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.” Ver. 14. “And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink-offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.”

[417] Gen. xxxiii. 1-7. As Jacob’s family returned to the land of Canaan, after Jacob had been long banished from thence, so it is probable will be the return of the spiritual Israel to God, its resting-place, and as it were to the promised land, to the land flowing with milk and honey, to a state of glorious rest, plenty, prosperity, and spiritual joy and delights, in the latter days, which is often represented by the prophets as bringing God’s people into the land of Israel, and recovering them from foreign lands, where he had driven them. Jacob, at his first entrance, meets with great opposition from those professors who are often in Scripture represented by the elder brother, as Cain, and Ishmael, and Zarah, the son of Judah, who first put forth his hand, and David’s eldest brother, and the elder brother of the prodigal. But Jacob’s meek and humble behaviour towards his opposing brother, to soften and turn his heart, teaches the duty of Christians. Jacob’s family was divided into several companies, one going before another with a space between; so the return of the church of God will be by several companies, that will come in one after another in successive seasons of the pouring out of the Spirit of God, with a space between. In Jacob’s family, the lowest and meanest went first, and afterwards the more honourable and most amiable, and best beloved; so, in the spiritual return of the church of Christ, God will first bring in the inferior sort of people; he will save the tents of Judah first, agreeable to the prophecy, Zech. xii. 7. “The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, do not magnify themselves against Judah.” And the first outpouring of the Spirit will be the least glorious, and they that are first brought in are not only inferior among men, but the least pure, beautiful, and amiable as Christians in their experiences and practice. In Jacob’s family went first the hand-maids and their children; so this is the blemish of the first children of Christ that shall be brought in at the glorious day of the church, that though they will be true children of Jacob, yet shall they be as it were children of the handmaids, with much of a legal spirit, i. e. spiritual pride and self-confidence. After these comes Leah and her children, who were more honourable and better beloved than the former; she was a true wife, but yet less beautiful and less beloved than his other wife: so after the first outpouring of the Spirit there will be a work of God that will break forth, that will be more glorious and more pure than the first. In Jacob’s family came last of all the beautiful Rachel and Joseph, Jacob’s best beloved and dearest child of all the family; so will it be in the church of God in days approaching. Jacob goes before them all, leads them all, and defends them all; so doth Christ go before his church as their leader and defence.

[126] Gen. xxxvii. 28. “And they lift up Joseph out of the pit.” Joseph was here a type of Christ; he was designed death by his own brethren, as Christ was; he was cast into a pit, whereby his death and burial was signified. He was lifted out again, and his resurrection was an occasion of their salvation from famine and death.

[127] Gen. xxxviii. 28. &c. “Zarah put his hand out first, but Pharez, from whom came Christ, broke forth before him.” This imports much the same thing as Isaac’s casting out Ishmael, as Jacob’s taking hold of Esau’s heel when they were born, and afterwards getting his birth-right of him, and as David’s getting the kingdom from Saul.

[407] Gen. xli. The history of Joseph’*s advancement in Egypt, &c. “The Apis and Serapis of the Egyptians seems to signify Joseph, because, 1. It was the mode of the Egyptians to preserve the memories of their noble benefactors by some significative hieroglyphics, or symbols; and the great benefits which the Egyptians received from Joseph in supplying them with bread-corn, is aptly represented under the form of an ox, the symbol of a husbandman. Thus Suidas (in Serapis) tells us, “that Apis, being dead, had a temple built for him, wherein was nourished a bullock, the symbol of a husbandman.” According to which resemblance also, Minutius, a Roman tribune, was in very like manner honoured with the form of a golden ox, or bull. 2. Joseph is compared to a bullock in Scripture, Deut. xxxiii. 7. “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.” 3. The same may be evinced from the names Apis and Serapis, for Apis seems evidently a derivative from 3, Father, as Joseph styles himself, Gen. xlv. 8. “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God; and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” As for Serapis, it was the same with Apis, and also a symbol of Joseph, which Vossius collects from this: 1. It had a bushel on its head, as a symbol of Joseph’s providing corn for the Egyptians. 2. From the etimon of Serapis, which is derived either from Tier, an ox, or from ^v, a prince, and Apis, both of which are applicable to Joseph.” Gale’s Court of Gen. p. 1. b. 2. c. 7. p. 93, 94.

[128] Gen. xli. 14. “And they brought Joseph out of the dungeon.” By Joseph’s being cast into the dungeon, is signified the death of Christ; by his being delivered, his resurrection; and the ensuing great advancement of Joseph, to be next to the king, signifies the exaltation of Christ at the right hand of the Father. Joseph rose from the dungeon, and was thus exalted to give salvation to the land of Egypt and to his brethren, as Christ, to save his people.

[103] Gen. xliv. 32, 33. “For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bond-man to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren.” Judah is herein a type of his offspring, Jesus Christ.

[382] Gen. xlviii. 21. “And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I die, but God shall be with you.” So Joseph, when he was near his death, said to his brethren after the like manner, Gen. 1. 24. “And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Thus the blessing of the presence of God with the children of Israel, and his favour and salvation, is consequent on the death of their father, and their brother, and Saviour: shadowing this forth, that the favour of God, and his presence and salvation, is by the death of Christ. He, when near death, said to his disciples, John xvi. 7. “It is expedient for you that I go away; for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” And elsewhere he promises that the Father and the Son will come to them, and make their abode with them. Isaac’s and Jacob’s blessing their children before their death, and as it were making over to them their future inheritance, may probably be typical of our receiving the blessings of the covenant of grace from Christ, as by his last will and testament. We find the covenant of grace represented as his testament. Christ, in the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John., does as it were make his will, and conveys to his people their inheritance before his death, particularly the Comforter, or the Holy Spirit, which is the sum of the purchased inheritance.

[403] Gen. xlix. 10. “Until Shiloh come.” “Silenus, so famous among the poets, whom they place in the order of their gods, is derived from hence. Diodorus, lib. 3. says, the first that ruled at Nisa was Silenus, whose genealogy is unknown to all, by reason of his antiquity, which is agreeable to what the Scriptures say of the Messiah, Isa. liii. “Who shall declare his generation?” And elsewhere, “To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the everlasting Father;” and other passages. As for Nisa, where Silenus reigned, it seems to be the same with Sina, (as was showed elsewhere. See No. 401.) The Messiah dwelt there. It was he that dwelt there in the bush. And there he manifested himself and spake with Moses and the children of Israel. This is represented as his dwelling-place several times in Scripture; and therefore, when God redeemed the children of Israel from Egypt, and brought them there, he is represented as bringing them to himself. Near this mountain was the altar called Jehovah-Nissi, which is a name Moses gave the Messiah. Of Shiloh it is said, and to him shall the nnp» the gathering, or the obedience, (as the word signifies,) of the people be. Thus Silenus is made by the poets to be the greatest doctor of his age, and he is called Bacchus’s preceptor, i. e. according to Vossius’s account, Bacchus was Moses, (see No. 401.) and Silenus, or Shilo, or Christ, instructed Moses on mount Sinai, or Nisa, the place where Bacchus and Silenus were said to be. Bacchus and Silenus are made by the poets to be inseparable companions. Another attribute given to Silenus is, that he was carried for the most part on an ass, which Bochart refers to that of Gen. xlix. 11. “Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes.” The mythologists fable Silenus as a comrade of Bacchus, to be employed in treading out grapes; this Bochart refers to, Gen. xlix. “He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes;” and is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah elsewhere in the Scripture, “I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people was none with me.” They characterize Silenus as one that was always drunk, as it is supposed from what follows, Gen. xlix. 12. “His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk,” which Solomon makes the character of one overcome with wine. Prov. xxiii. 29, 30. “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.” They ascribe to Silenus for his meat cow’s milk, which Bochart makes to be traduced from Gen. xlix. 12. “And his teeth white with milk.” That Silenus is the same with Shilo, further appears from that of Pausanius Eliacon 2., the monument of Silenus remains in the country of the Hebrews. See Gale’s Court of Gen. p. 1. b. 2. c. 6. p. 67-69.

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