him, or inherit his possessions, God promised
him an heir, and countless progeny--"Look now toward heaven and tell
the stars, if thou be able to number them--So shall thy seed be. And
he believed the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."
What an occasion of joy? What strange manifestation of divine favor?
They are scarcely paralleled in the history of man. But how sudden the
reverse? The same day--_when the sun was going down_; lo! the
brightness disappears, and _an horror of great darkness fell upon
him_.

A deep _sleep fell upon Abram_. This was not a natural sleep. There is
no probability that he would have given way to weakness, and fallen
into a common sleep, while engaged in covenanting with God; binding
himself with solemn engagements, and receiving tokens of the divine
favor, and the promise of blessings for a great while to come. If he
could have slept while receiving such manifestations of the divine
friendship, it is not probable that his dreams would have been
terrifying: His situation would rather have inspired joyful
sensations, and exciting pleasing expectations. THAT which for want of
language more pertinent and expressive, is here termed sleep, seems to
have been divine ecstasy--such influence of the holy spirit operating
in the soul, as locked it up from everything earthly, and shut out
worldly things, as effectually as a deep sleep, which shuts up the
soul and closeth all its avenues, so that nothing terrestrial can find
admittance.

This was often experienced by the prophets, when God revealed himself
to them, and made known his will. Thus Daniel, when the angel Gabriel
was sent to solve his doubts, and let him into futurity--"Now as he
was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the
ground." The holy prophet, filled with fear at the approach of the
celestial messenger, could not have fallen asleep, like some careless
attendant in the house of God. Yet such is the language used to
express his situation at that time, and afterwards on a similar
occasion.* The three disciples, who witnessed the transfiguration,
experienced similar sensations--sensations which absorbed the soul,
and shut out terrestrial objects, which the evangelist compares to
sleep.

* Daniel viii. 18, x. 9.

But why was Abram's joy, occasioned by the communications of the
morning, so soon turned to horror.

The reasons are with him "Whose judgments are unsearchable, and his
ways past finding ou