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As to the character which is given of Ishmael and his posterity, "he shall be a wild man, his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him," &c. ver. 12., whilst it forms a prophetic description of the character and manners of the Turks and Arabians, it determines nothing whatever against their salvability. Such as they are, they will be judged according to their means of knowledge. The inhabitant of the desert will not be condemned for his want of civilization, nor will the child, who has been educated in the errors of Mahometanism, be punished for his want of Christian baptism. It should be remembered that the death of Ishmael is mentioned in Scripture with all the circumstances of that of a pious patriarch. These are the years of the life of Ishmael, one hundred and thirty seven years, and he gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, he died in the presence of all his brethren." Gen. xxv. 17, 18.

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SECTION XVI.

Isaac, Jacob, and Esau.

"ISAAC married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian." Gen. xxv. 20. That these individuals retained some knowledge of the true God is plain, from their answer respecting the marriage,

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the thing proceedeth from the Lord." Gen. xxiv. 50. It is from such incidental circumstances, that we are led to judge favourably of the religious condition of these Gentile nations in those early ages. A still more decisive inference may be drawn from the covenant made between Jacob and Laban, in which "the God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father," is invoked to judge between them. Gen. xxxi. 44—53.

Rebekah had twin-born sons, Esau and Jacob, the blessing of the descent was given to the latter, and there is every

reason to think, that it was decided in favour of the more virtuous and pious. But though the preference was shown to Jacob, there is nothing in Scripture which should lead us to suppose that either Esau or his descendants were excluded from the benefits of the promise; but merely, that they were not chosen as the line by which it should be accomplished.

The expressions of Malachi, "Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord; yet I loved Jacob, and hated Esau," chap. i. 3. are thus commented on by St. Paul: "When Rebekah had conceived by one, even our father Isaac, (the children being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.) It was said unto her, "the elder shall serve the younger." Rom. ix. 10-12.

Here the distinction is clearly made to depend, not on their election to eternal life, but on the distinction as to the temporal promise relating to the land of Canaan, and to the line of the promised

seed. It is admitted, even by Mr. Scott, "that the apostle in thus adducing the case of Isaac and Ishmael, and of Esau and Jacob, did not decide as to the eternal state of either." See his notes on Rom. ix. 69. x. 14. But if so, the argument respecting the salvability of Heathen nations remains quite untouched by any of these providential appointments. God is the judge who appointeth the bounds of all our habitations. To the seed of Isaac, he assigns the land of Canaan, he makes Esau the father of the Edomites, the Moabites and Hagarens; but he judges all according to the circumstances in which he has placed them, and this again reduces every thing to an impartial distribution. It is thus that "every valley shall be exalted, and every hill shall be made low, the rough ways smooth, and the crooked straight, and that all flesh shall see the salvation of our God."

Nor is there any thing in Scripture, which should make us judge harshly respecting the eternal condition of Esau as an 'individual. His resentment against Jacob

soon passed away, and when he met him "he ran to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed him." Gen. xxxiii. They appear always to have lived on terms of friendship, and they both joined in paying the last duties to their beloved father. "Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." Gen. xxxv. 29.

"The promise of Grace," says Bishop

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Hooper, appertaineth to every sort of men in the world, and comprehendeth them all, howbeit, within certain limits and bounds, the which, if men neglect or pass over, they exclude themselves from the promise in Christ. Thus Cain was no more excluded, till he excluded himself, than Abel; Saul, than David; Judas, than Peter; Esau, than Jacob."

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