peak of faith only as the deep fountain of endurance. He cannot now
describe it as the realisation and the proof of things unseen.[110] He
wishes, moreover, to dwell on the oath made by God to Abraham. Even
this, if not an anticipation of what is still to come, is at least a
preparation of the reader for the distinction hereafter effectively
handled between the high-priest made without an oath and the High-priest
made with an oath. But, in the present section, the emphatic notion is
that the promise made to Abraham is the same promise which the Apostle
and his brethren wait to see fulfilled, and that the confirmation of the
promise by oath to Abraham is still in force for their strong
encouragement. It is true that Abraham received the fulfilment of the
promise in his lifetime, but only in a lower form. The promise, like the
Sabbath rest, has become more and still more elevated, profound,
spiritual, with the long delay of God to make it good. It is equally
true that the saints under the Old Testament received not the fulfilment
of the promise in its highest meaning, and were not perfected apart from
believers of after-ages,[111] God's words never grow obsolete. They are
never left behind by the Church. If they seem to pass away, they return
laden with still choicer fruit. The coursing moon in the high heavens
is never outstripped by the belated traveller. The hope of the Gospel is
ever set before us. God swears to Abraham in the spring-time of the
world that _we_, on whom the ends of the ages have come, may have a
strong incentive to press onwards.

But, if the oath of God to Abraham is to inspire us with new courage, we
must resemble Abraham in the eager earnestness and calm endurance of his
faith. The passage has often been treated as if the oath had been
intended to meet the weakness of faith. But unbelief is logician enough
to argue that God's word is as good as His bond; yea, that we have no
knowledge of His oath except from His word. The Apostle refers to the
greatest instance of faith ever shown even by Abraham, when he withheld
not his son, his beloved son, on Moriah. The oath was made to him by
God, not before he gave up Isaac, in order to encourage his weakness,
but when he had done it, as a reward of his strength. Philo's fine
sentence, which indeed the sacred writer partly borrows, is intended to
teach the same lesson: that, while disappointments are heaped on sense,
an endless abundance of good things has be