' They received not the promises.'
He speaks in the plural number, though he mean but one main promise, that is, the Messiah, for all other were types of him. Believers are called ' children of the promise,' Gal. iv. 28. Here they are called promises, for the repeating of them. The promise of the same thing it was made oft :
* That is, 'covered up,' e.g. lap, a covering. — G. t That is, ' clothes,' — G.
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there was no new promise. The promise of the same thing it was seven* times repeated and renewed to Abraham presently one 'after another. So they are called promises, to shew that the promise can never be too much thought on, though it be the same promise of life everlasting ; the same promise of grace and of comfort ; the same promise of the resurrection, &c. All the promises of good things to come we cannot think of too oft, nor receive the sacrament, the seal of the promise, too oft. God knows what we are. He will have us oft receive the sacrament, and oft hear the same things. We see the prophet Isaiah and the rest, how oft they inculcate the same promises of comfort to the people in captivity, concerning their deliverance out of it. They repeat it again and again. The same reason should enforce the soul to have recourse to the promises again and again ; when there is any doubt or darkness ariseth, to comfort the soul with the promise again and again. Satan puts clouds and darkness before the soul every day. There is a repeating of sin, of infirmities and darkness every day. We should every day repeat the promises still, though it be the same promise, and the seal of them. This I observe from the number.
* They received not the promises.'
There is a distinction of the words^ Evangelioji and Epaiu/elia in the Greek, f They have a different signification. Epangelia is of the time of the promises that were before Christ, and they were all in expectation of the promise, of the promised Messiah. The time of that dispensation was Epangelia; Evangelion, that was the time of the gospel, when the promise was brought into performance, when our salvation was wrought by Christ in his first coming. So they lived under the promise, but they lived not under the things promised. They had Epangelia, the promise made to them; but they had not Evangelion, that is, the dispensation of time wherein Christ lived ; which were indeed glorious times, when Christ came in the tiesh. They received not those, yet notwithstanding they died in faith, to shame us, that have so many means and helps, and yet notwithstanding are so earthly-minded, and so stagger and doubt in matters of salvation, and have our faith to seek ; when all these blessed worthies, the patriarchs, died in the faith that they lived in, and yet ' they received not the promises,' no, not the type of the promises. They received not Canaan, which was an earthly type of heavenly Canaan, which was promised them. They came not to reap that till long after, when they came out of Egypt ; as for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they lived in the land of promise as strangers.
* They received not the promises.'
They were comforted notwithstanding, that'their posterity should receive them. Canaan was a type^of Christ and of heaven. I observe this By the way that,
Ohs. God cloth not reveal all things at all times.
God doth leave diverse things to be revealed in diverse ages of the church. God doth not reveal everything in every time, to comfort all ages of the church. We see not everything in our times ; we must be content.
There is to come the conversion of the Jews. Many good souls desire that. There is to come the confusion of antichrist, and many good things that God will bring to pass in another age. Our posterity they shall see it. Let it comfort us. By faith we see the promises. Though we do not receive the things promised, we have the promise in the Scriptures. * Qu. ' several' '?— Ed. t That is, luay/sX/ov. ka/ysX/a — G.
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Let us comfort ourselves in that, that the benefit is reserved to our pos- terity. Every ago hath several privileges : that that one ago hath not, another hath. These grand patriarchs saw not what their posterity saw. Their posterity saw not what those that lived in the time of Christ saw. Those in Christ's time saw not the discovery of antichrist which we see. Our posterity shall see the confusion of antichrist, which, it may be, we shall not see.
Again, this should help us against the common infirmity that Christians are subject unto. We should he thankful for some things, though we have not all that wo would have. These ' received not the promises.' They had the promise, they had the word, though they had not the things pro- mised ; and that comforted them. Though they had not the thing, no, not so much as the type of the thing, not Canaan, — these blessed patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, — yet they were thankful and cheerful, and died in faith.
It is a common infirmity which our nature is too prone to. If the church be not in all things as we would, we will not hear, we care for nothing. Like curst children, if they have not all they would have, they care for nothing. These all, they had the promises, they had not the things pro- mised ; but did they take pet upon this ? Oh no ! * they embraced the promises,' and looked for the things promised in due time, though they bad them not themselves. So it is with particular Christians. Other Christians they see go comfortably in their Christian course, and they have nothing, — no grace, no faith, no love, no goodness. Because they have not all they would have, therefore they have nothing. What an ill afiection is this ! We should be thankful for that we have, that we can deny our- selves ; and we should be content to wait for that we have not. This is the disposition of a Christian that is in a right temper ; and that is it which holds many from comforts, that they do not thankfully acknowledge that they have. Our covetousness and greediness of that that we have not, and yet would have it, makes us that we do not see that we have already. We all look forward, we would have more and more, and are not thankful for the present grace. The patriarchs were not so. They wanted many things that they desired heartily to have, and yet they comforted themselves, and died in faith. Though ' they did not receive the promises,'