to thee—and to thy seed after thee] So it was said to Abraham, Genesis 17:8. yet he was not possest of a foot of it, Acts 7:5. viz. as a chiefe owner, but as a ojourner, or not as taking possession of Gods promise, for that must needs be made to Abrahams, Isaacs, and Jacobs posteritie, by warre upon the Canaanites, and victory over them by Gods assistance: yet may the Land be said to be given to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, because it was given (to those that did possesse it) for their sakes; so they that fed the hungry, gave drinke to the thirsty, cloathed the naked, and visited the sicke and imprisoned, are said to do all this to our Saviour (whom they never saw) because they did it to others for his sake, Matthew 25:40. And as in the intention of the giver, Abraham was he in whose name the originall grant was made (so that whosoever was not of the seed of Abraham could have no right unto it, no nor all the seed of Abraham, for Ishmael was excluded, as Esau of the seed of Isaac) so in the acceptation of the receiver, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob tooke that whereof their posterity was possessed, as if they had injoyed it themselves. Or if by the land of Canaan we understand the Canaan above, (as by the seed of Abraham, the true beleever, see Annot. on vers. 11.) we may say that to him, and his spirituall seed is that good Land given, and therefore they that are possessed of it are said to rest in the bosome of Abraham, Luke 16. 22.