So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram [was] seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Ver. 4. So Abram departed.] He had now enough, having such precious promises, though he previously had nothing else. He parted with his friends and kindred, but is now become the friend of God, and akin to Christ. Let their money perish with them, who esteem all the gold in the world worth one day's society with Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit, said that noble Marquess Galeacius Caracciolus, a who being nephew to Pope Paul V., and a prince of great wealth and power, left all for Christ, living and dying a poor exile at Geneva, that he might enjoy the liberty of his conscience, and serve God according to the truth of the gospel. Remarkable is that which Calvin writes of him in his dedicatory epistle to him, set before his Commentary upon the First Epistle to the Corinthians, - Etsi neque tu ,& c.
And Lot went with him.] Herein Abram was more happy than Caracciolus; for he, being converted by Peter Martyr's Lecture on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and resolving thereupon to leave all and go to Geneva, opened his mind to some of his most familiar friends, and wrought upon them so far, as they promised and vowed to accompany him, &c.; but when they came to the borders of Italy, and considered what they forsook, they first looked back with Lot's wife, and then, without any entreaty, went back as Orphah: so going out of God's blessing into the world's warm sun, as they say, which yet they long enjoyed not; for they were after taken by the Spanish Inquisition, and forced to abjure Christian religion, being neither trusted nor loved of one side nor other. b
And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed.] So he continued a pilgrim for a hundred years together, Gen 25:7 having ten sore trials, and every one worse than other.
a His life is set forth by Mr. Crashaw.
b Life of Caracciolus, by Crashaw, p. 11.