days, nor end of life: but made like unto the son of God,—and abideth a priest continually." (Heb. vii. 3.) This divine High-Priest was prophetically foreshewn to Abraham, the father of the promise, in the person of "Melchisedek" the king of Salem, when the Patriarch returned from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings." (Gen. xiv. 17—24.)

SECTION XXIX.

Abraham, a prototype of the fundamental Christian doctrine; "Righteousness imputed to faith which worketh by lobe."

Let us now take a short view of Abraham's history, from its earliest period. We shall see in that history, how significantly and clearly it sets forth a prophetic type of that gracious and merciful dispensation of salvation, which Almighty God has decreed in his own eternal counsels should be, not a debt due from him to the meritorious works of his creatures, but his own free gift. If St. Paul be the Apostle of the Gentiles, we, as Gentiles, are bound to accept his exposition of the divine decrees. He clearly establishes the five following points.

1st. That eternal life will be restored to man, not by works of righteousness, which we have done." (Titus iii. 5.)

2ndly. That salvation will be vouchsafed through "the righteousness of God, which is by faith of

Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all that believe." (Rom. iii. 22.)

3rdly. "That this Faith worketh by love." (Gal. v. 6.)

4thly. That the love, by which faith worketh, is nothing less than "the obedience of faith." (Rom. xvi. 26.) Our works then, are not works of meritorious righteousness-they are simply works of obedience, effected by love towards our Saviour and Creator; and, therefore, proceeding from, and also manifesting our faith in Him. Unless therefore we have such love to our Saviour, as shall work in us an obedience to his laws, through sanctification of the Spirit, we cannot have a saving faith.-Thus :

5thly. Salvation is the free, unmerited gift of God; not conferred on account of man's works, but conferred by God's free and gracious election of all, who possess such a faith, as worketh obedience (although imperfect) by love of Him in Christ. And so salvation is "according to the election of grace." The argument is thus conclusive: because "if it be by grace, then is it no more of works. Otherwise grace

is no more grace. But if it be of works-then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work." (Rom. xi. 5, 6.)—By such a doctrine the grace of God would be altogether superseded by the works of his own fallen creature man!

We shall see how this doctrine of the gospel, which St. Paul has so clearly expounded, is prophetically

prefigured in the history of Abraham, who, together with his descendants, was appointed as the means to bring it to perfection, in the fulness of time.

Abram had accompanied his Father Terah, from Ur of the Chaldees, to Haran, in Mesopotamia, north of the Euphrates. After Terah's death, by God's command, he left Haran and established himself at Sichem, in the plain of Moreh, in the land of Canaan, by the Almighty's direct appointment. "Get thee unto a land that I will shew thee." (Gen. xii.) Before his departure, he had also received his first promise. "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee,"-" and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." At Sichem God further confirmed this promise as to the great nation, which should proceed from Abram. "Unto thy seed will I give this land." This occurred 1900 years before Christ. We know that 430 years after Abram had settled at Sichem, the Israelites were established, as a national confederacy in this very land, and so far that portion of God's prophetic promise to Abram was then literally accomplished. At Sichem, Abram "built an altar to the Lord." This altar was the first of those several sanctuaries, which were subsequently set up by himself, and by his posterity. It was erected at Sichem, or Shechem, near Mount Gerizim. This circumstance is a parallel

of the fact of which the woman of Samaria reminded our blessed Lord. "Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye (of the tribe of Judah) say, that in Jerusalem is the place, where men ought to worship." (John iv. 20.)

Samaria was the seat of government of the ten revolted tribes, in which Ephraim and Manasseh (sons of Joseph) were included. After the captivity and dispersion, Shalmaneser and Esarhaddon had colonised this country from Babylon, Cuthal, and other places. This people adopted a kind of mixed religion, ingrafting the worship of Jehovah on their own idolatrous superstitions. “They feared the Lord, and served their own gods." Thus the revolted tribes were succeeded in their territory by those half-converted heathen colonists.

In Samaria, therefore, we find an exact epitome of the heathen world, established in the inheritance of Joseph's sons and the other tribes; and, even at that time, partially instructed by the priesthood of those tribes in the knowledge and worship of the true God. For though at first, "they knew not the manner of the God of the land;" yet "the king of Assyria commanded, saying, "carry thither one of the Priests, whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land." (2 Kings xvii.)

Thus in Samaria, and at Mount Gerizim, in the future portion of Ephraim, there was, at so early a