WHEN God said to Abraham, (Gen. xvii. 7.) “I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee, in their generations for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee,” His meaning was, that as He was the God of _believing Abraham_, so He would be the God of all Abraham’s _believing children and descendants_. And when He farther promised to “give unto Abraham and to his seed after him, the land in which he was a stranger, even all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession,” the same limitation as to “his seed” was also intended. That these, and these only, are the “seed” referred to, is as clear as the declarations of Holy Scripture can make it. In the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians this matter is placed beyond a doubt. The “seed” must partake of _the character of the father_, and then the promises were theirs, as well as his. In the ivth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and the 12th verse, the Apostle, speaking of Abraham, says, that he was to be “the father of circumcision to them _who are not of the circumcision only_, (that is, who are not only circumcised in the flesh) _but also walk in the steps of that faith of Abraham_, _which he had yet being uncircumcised_.” Could any thing be plainer than this? St. Paul is here speaking of the circumcised Jews, (he had spoken of the uncircumcised Gentiles in the former verse, the 11th,) and he says distinctly, that Abraham was a father to those circumcised ones who should “walk in the steps of his faith.” So that the following is evidently the Apostle’s meaning in the 11th and 12th verses: ‘Both Jew and Gentile may see, in God’s dealings with Abraham, an exhibition of the plan in which each is to seek the imputation of righteousness. Let the uncircumcised believe in God, as Abraham, when yet uncircumcised, believed in God; and his faith shall be counted to him for righteousness, as Abraham’s was. Let the Jews, too, learn from the case before them, that though, like circumcised Abraham, they bear in their bodies the seal of the Covenant, yet _the sign of circumcision alone will not ensure the blessing signified_, _unless at the same time they are found resembling Abraham in the exercise of that faith_, _in consequence of which the seal was fixed upon him_.’ {88} These, then,—_believers_,—are the “seed” of Abraham, with whom the Covenant was made, and to whom the promises were given. And this is confirmed by what follows. In the next verse the Apostle goes on to say; “For the promise that he should be the heir of the world,”—(which is the inspired exposition of the other part or promise of God’s Covenant with Abraham; “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, for an everlasting possession;”)—“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_:” and again, in the 16th verse;