Having laid down this, in the next place he gives us a description of that faith of Abraham whereby he became inheritor of those ex- cellent things, from the adjuncts of it; — that as his justification was proposed as an example of God's dealing with us by his grace; so his faith might be laid down as a pattern for us in the receiving that gi-ace.
Now, this he doth from, —
First, The foundation of it, whereon it rested.
Secondly, The matter of it, what he believed.
Thirdly, Tlie manner of it, or how he believed.
First, From the bottom and foundation on which it rested, — viz., the omnipotency or all-sufficiency of God, whereby he was able to fulfil whatever he had engaged himself unto by promise, and which lie called him to believe, verse 17, " He believed Go<l, who (juickeneth the dead, and cidleth those things which be not as though they were."
AND SINFULNESS OF STAGGERING. 213
Two great testimonies are here of the power of God.
1. That he " quickeneth the dead : "—able he is to raise up those that are dead to Hfe asfain.
2. He " calleth things that are not as though they were : " — by his very call or word gives being to those things which before were not, a^ when he said, " Let there be light, and there was light," Gen. i. 3 ; by that very word " commanding light to shine out of dark- ness," 2 Cor. iv. 6.
These demonstrations of God's all-sufficiency he considereth in peculiar reference to what he was to beheve; to wit, that " he might be the father of many nations," verse 11, — of the Jews, "according to the flesh,"— of Jews and Gentiles, according to the faith whereof we speak. For the first, " his body being now dead, and Sarah's womb dead," verse 19, he rests on God "as quickening the dead," in believ- ing that he " shall be the father of many nations." For the other, that he should be a father of the Gentiles by faith, the Holy Ghost witnesseth that they " were not a people," Hos. ii. 23. The implant- ing of them in his stock must be by a power " that calleth things that are not, as though they were," — giving a new nature and being unto them, which before they had not.
To bottom ourselves upon the all-sufficiency of God, for the accom- plishment of such things as are altogether impossible to any thing but that all-sufficiency, is faith indeed, and worthy our imitation. It is also the wisdom of faith to pitch peculiarly on that in God which is accommodated to the difficulties wherewith it is to wrestle. I.s Abraham to believe that from his dead body must spring a whole nation ?— he rests on God, as " him that quickeneth the dead."
Secondly, His faith is commended from the matter of it, or what he did believe; which is said in general to be "the promise of God," verse 20, " He staggered not at the promise of God through unbe- lief" And particularly, the matter of that promise is pointed at, verses 11, 18,— that he should be " the father of many nations;" that was, his being a " father of many nations," of having " all nations blessed in his seed :"— a matter entangled ^vith a world of difficulties, considering the natural inability of his body and the body of Sarah to be parents of children. But, when God calls for believing, his truth and all-sufficiency being engaged, no difficulty nor seeming im- possibilities that the thing to be believed is or may be attended withal, ought to be of any weight with us. He who hath promised is able.'
Thirdly, From the manner of his beheving, which is expressed four ways.
1. " Against hope, he believed in hope," verse 18. Here is a two- fold hope mentioned;— one that was against him, the other that was for him.
214} THE STEADFASTNESS OF THE PROMISES,
(1.) Ke " believed against hope; " that is, when all arguments that might beget hope in him were against him. "Against hope," is against all motives unto hope whatever. All reasons of natural hope were against him. What hope could arise, in or by reason, that two dead bodies should be the source and fountain of many nations ? so that against all inducements of a natural hope he believed.
(2.) He " believed in hope ;" that is, such hope as arose, as his faith did, from the consideration of God's all-sufficiency. This is an ad- junct of his faith, — it was such a faith as had hope adjoined with it. And this believing in hope, when all reasons of hope were away, is the first thing that is set down of the manner of his faith. In a decay of all natural helps, the deadness of all means, an appearance of an utter impossibility that ever the promise should be accomplished, — then to believe with unfeigned hope is a commendable faith.
2. He was "not weak in faith," verse 19, [j^n achrf^soLc, "minimb debilis," Beza. He was by "no means weak;" a negation that, by a figiire, iMii'jxsig, doth strongly assert the contrary to that wliich is denied. He was no way weak; that is, he was very strong in faith, as is afterwards expressed, verse 20, He " was strong in faith, giving glory to God." And the apostle tells you wherein this his not weak- ness did appear : saitli he, " He considered not his o\vn body being now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb," verse 19. It was seen in this, that his faith carried him above the consideration of all impediments that might lie in the way to the accomplishment of the promise.