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 life again.
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 : as when he said, ' Let there be light, there was light;' Gen. i. 3. by that very word, 'commanding light to shine out of darkness ;' 2 Cor. iv. 6.
These demonstrations of God's all-sufficiency he consi- dereth in peculiar reference to what he was to believe ; to wit, that 'he might be the father of many nations ;' ver. 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,' ver. 19. he rests on God 'as quickening the dead,' in believing 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 implanting 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 accomplishment of such things as are altogether im- possible to any thing, but that all-sufficiency, is faith in- deed, and worthy our imitation. It is also the wisdom of faith, to pitch peculiarly on that in God, which is accom- modated to the difficulties wherewith it is to wrestle. Is Abraham to believe, that from his dead body must spring a whole nation? He rests on Cod, as 'he 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
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260 THE STEADFASTNESS OF PROMISES,
promise of God ;' ver. 20. ' He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.' And particularly the matter of that promise is pointed at, ver. 11. 18. that he should be ' the fatlier of many nations ;' that was his being a ' father of many nations,' of having * all nations blessed in his seed.' A matter entangled with 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 impossibilities, 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 believing, which is ex- pressed four ways.
1. * Aoainst hope, he believed in hope;' ver. 18. Here is a twofold hope mentioned ; one that was against him, the other that was for him.
(1.) He believed against hope, that is, when all argu- ments 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-suffi- ciency. This is an adjunct cf 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 ac- complished, then to believe with unfeigned hope, is a com- mendable faith.
2. He * was not weak in faith ;' ver. 19. jur) acr^ivriaag, 'minime debilis,' Beza. He was by 'no means weak:' a ne- gation, that by a figure, fiticjaig, doth strongly assert the contrary, to that which is denied. He was no way weak ; that is, he was very strong in faith, as is afterward expressed, ver. 20. ' He was strong in faith, giving glory to God.' And the apostle tells you, wherein this his not weakness did ap-
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pear : saith he, ' He considered not his own body being now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb ;' ver. 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 accomplish- ment of the promise.
It is mere weakness of faith, that makes a man lie poring on the difficulties and seeming impossibilities that lie upon the promise. We think it our wisdom, and our strength, to consider, weigh, and look into the bottom of oppositions, and temptations, that arise against the promise. Perhaps it may be the strength of our fleshly, carnal reason ; but certainly it is the weakness of our faith. He that is strong in faith will not so much as debate, or consider the things, that cast the greatest seeming improbability, yea impossi- bility, on the fulfilling of the promise : it will not afford a debate or dispute of the cause, nor any consideration. 'Being not weak in faith, he considered not.'