3. He 'was fully persuaded;' ver. 21. irX^potpopr^^tlg, ' persuasionis plenus.' This is the third thing that is ob- served in the manner of his believing. He fully, quietly, resolvedly cast himself on this, that * he who had promised was able to perform it.' As a ship at sea (for so the word imports), looking about, and seeing storms and winds arising, sets up all her sails, and with all speed makes to the harbour. Abraham seeing the storms of doubts and temptations likely to rise against the promise made unto him, with full sail breaks through all, to lie down quietly in God's all-sufficiency.
4. The last is, that ' he staggered not ;' ver. 20. This is that which I have chosen to insist on unto you, as a choice part of the commendation of Abraham's faith, which is pro- posed for our imitation : * He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.'
The words may be briefly resolved into this doctrinal proposition :
Observation. All staggering at the promises of God is from unbelief.
What is of any difficulty in the text, will be cleared in opening the parts of the observation.
Men are apt to pretend sundry other reasons and causes
262 THE STEADFASTNESS OF PROMISES,
of their staggering. The promises do not belong unto them, God intends not their souls in them, they are not such and such, and this makes them stagger ; when the truth is, it is their unbelief, and that alone, that puts them into this stag- gering condition. As in other things, so in this, we are apt to have many fair pretences for foul faults. To lay the bur- den on the right shoulders, I shall demonstrate, by God's assistance, that it is not this, or that, but unbelief alone, that makes us stagger at the promises.
To make this the more plain, I must open these two things :
I. What is the promise here intended.
II. What it is to stagger at the promise.
I. The promise here mentioned is principally that which Abraham believing, it was said eminently, that ' it was ac- counted to him for righteousness.' So the apostle tells us, ver. 5. of this chapter : when this was, you may see Gen. xv. 6. there it is affirmed, that * he believed the Lord, and it was accounted to him for rio-hteousness.' That which God had there spoken to him of, was about ' the multiplying of his seed as the stars of heaven, whereas he was yet childless.'
The last verse of chap. xiv. leaves Abraham full of earthly glory. He had newly conquered five kings with all their host, was honoured by the king of Sodom, and blessed by the king of Salem ; and yet in the first verse of chap. xv. God 'appearing to him in a vision,' in the very entrance bids him * fear not :' plainly intimating, that notwithstanding all his outward success and glory, he had still many perplexities upon his spirit, and had need of great consolation and es- tablishment. Abraham was not clear in the accomplishment of former promises about the blessed seed, and so though he have all outward advancements, yet he cannot rest in them. Until a child of God be clear in the main, in the matter of the great promise, the business of Christ, the great- est outward successes and advantages, will be so far from quieting and settling his mind, that they rather increase his perplexities. They do but occasion him to cry. Here is this, and that ; here is victory, and success ; here is wealth, and peace; but here is not Christ.
That this was Abraham's condition, appears from ver. 2.
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of that chapter, where God having told him, that he was his shield and his exceeding great reward : he replies, ' Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?' As if he should have said. Lord God, thou.toldest me when I was in Haran, now nineteen years ago, that in me and ' my seed, all the families of the earth should be blessed ;' Gen. xii. 3. that the blessed, blessing seed, should be of me : but now I wax old, all appearances grow up against the direct ac- complishment of that word, and it was that, which above all in following thee I aimed at : if I am disappointed therein, what shall I do? and what will all these things avail me? what will it benefit me, to have a multitude of earthly en- joyments, and leave them in the close to my servant?
I cannot but observe, that this sighing, mournful com- plaint of Abraham, hath much infirmity, and something of diffidence, mixed with it. He shakes in the very bottom of his soul, that improbabilities were growing up, as he thought, to impossibilities, against him, in the way of pro- mise. Yet hence also mark these two things : First, That he doth not repine in himself, and keep up his burning thoughts in his breast, but sweetly breathes out the burden of his soul, into the bosom of his God. * Lord God/ saith he, ' what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless ?' It is of sincere faith, to unlade our unbelief in the bosom of our God. Secondly, That God takes not his servant at the ad- vantage of his complaining and diffidence : but lets that pass, until having renewed the promise to him, and settled his faith, then he gives in his testimony, that he believed God. The Lord overlooks the weakness, and causeless wailings of his, takes them at the best, and then gives his witness to them.