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in others. Rebecca, presuming upon the oracle of God and her husband's simplicity, dare be his surety for the danger, his counsellor for the carriage of the business, his cook for the diet, yea, dresses both the meat and the man; and now puts words into his mouth, the dish into his hand, the garments upon his back, the goat's hair upon the open parts of his body, and sends him in, thus furnished for the blessing, standing, no doubt, at the door, to see how well her device succeeded. And if old Isaac should, by any of his senses, have discerned the guile, she had soon stept in and undertaken the blame, and urged him with that known will of God concerning Jacob's dominion, and Esau's servitude, which either age or affection had made him forget.

And now she wishes she could borrow Esau's tongue as well as his garments, that she might securely deceive all the senses of him which had suffered himself to be more dangerously deceived with his affection. But this is past her remedy: her son must name himself Esau with the voice of Jacob. It is hard if our tongue do not bewray what we are, in spite of our habit. This was enough to work Isaac to a suspicion, to an inquiry, not to an incredulity. He that is good of himself, will hardly believe evil of another, and will rather distrust his own senses than the fidelity of those he trusted. All the senses are set to examine; none sticketh at the judgment, but the ear: to deceive that, Jacob must second his dissimulation with three lies at one breath: I am Esau ; -as thou badest me; -my venison. One sin entertained, fetcheth in another; and if it be forced to lodge alone, either departeth or dieth. I love Jacob's blessing, but I hate his lie. I would not do that wilfully which Jacob did weakly, upon condition of a blessing. He that pardoned his infirmity would curse my obsti

nateness.

Good Isaac sets his hands to try whether his ears informed him aright; he feels the hands of him whose voice he suspected: that honest heart could not think that the skin might more easily be counterfeited than the lungs. A small satisfaction contents those whom guiltiness hath not made scrupulous. Isaac believes, and blesses the younger son in the garments of the elder. If our heavenly father smell upon our backs the savour of our elder brother's robes, we cannot depart from him unblessed.

No sooner is Jacob gone away, full of the joy of his blessing, than Esau comes in, full of the hope of the blessing; and

now he cannot repent him to have sold that in his hunger for pottage, which in his pleasure he shall buy again with venison. The hopes of the wicked fail them when they are at highest; whereas God's children find those comforts in extremity which they durst not expect.

Now he comes in, blowing and sweating for his reward, and finds nothing but a repulse. Lewd men, when they think they have earned of God, and come proudly to challenge favour, receive no answer but"Who art thou?" Both the father and the son wonder at each other; the one with fear, the other with grief. Isaac trembled, and Esau wept; the one upon conscience, the other upon envy. Isaac's heart now told him, that he should not have purposed the blessing where he did; and that it was due to him unto whom it was given, and not purposed. Hence he durst not reverse that which he had done with God's will, besides his own: for now he saw that he had done unwilling justice. God will find both time and means to reclaim his own, to prevent their sins, to manifest and reform their errors. Who would have looked for tears from Esau? Or who dare trust tears when he sees them fall from so graceless eyes?

It was a good word," Bless me also, my father." Every miscreant can wish himself well: no man would be miserable if it were enough to desire happiness. Why did he not rather weep to his brother for the pottage, than to Isaac for a blessing? If he had not then sold, he had not needed now to beg. It is just with God to deny us those favours which we were careless in keeping, and which we undervalued in enjoying. Esau's tears find no place for Isaac's repentance; except it were, that he hath done that by wile which he should have done upon duty.

No motive can cause a good heart to repent that he hath done well. How happy a thing it is to know the seasons of grace, and not to neglect them! How desperate to have known and neglected them! These tears were both late and false; the tears of rage, of envy, of carnal desire. Worldly sorrow causeth death. Yet while Esau howls out thus for a blessing, I hear him cry out, of his father's store, "Hast thou but one blessing, my father?" Of his brother's subtilty," Was he not rightly called Jacob?" I do not hear him blame his own deserts. He did not see, while his father was deceived, and his brother crafty, that God was just, and himself incapable. He knew himself profane, and yet claims a blessing

Those that care not to please God, yet care for the outward favours of God, and are ready to murmur if they want them; as if God were bound to them and they free. And yet so merciful is God, that he hath second blessings for those that love him not, and gives them all they care for. That one blessing of special love is for none but Israel; but those of common kindness are for them that can sell their birthright. This blessing was more than Esau could be worthy of: yet, like a second Cain, he resolves to kill his brother, because he was more accepted. I know, not whether he were a worse son or brother; he hopes for his father's death, and purposes his brother's, and vows to shed blood instead of tears. But wicked men cannot be so ill as they would: that strong wrestler, against whom Jacob prevailed, prevailed with Esau, and turned his wounds into kisses. An host of men came with Esau; an army of angels met Jacob. Esau threatened, Jacob prayed; his prayers and presents have melted the heart of Esau into love. And now, instead of the grim and stern countenance of an executioner, Jacob sees the face of Esau as the face of God. Both men and devils are stinted; the stoutest heart cannot stand out against God. He that can wrestle earnestly with God, is secure from the harms of men. Those minds which are exasperated with violence, and cannot be broken with fear, yet are bowed with love: when the ways of a man please God, he will make his enemies at peace with him.

CONTEMPLATION II.—OF JACOB AND LABAN.

ISAAC's life was not more retired and quiet, than Jacob's was busy and troublesome. In the one I see the image of contemplation; of action in the other. None of the patriarchs saw so evil days as he; from whom justly hath the church of God therefore taken her name. Neither were the faithful ever since called Abrahamites, but Israelites. That no time might be lost, he began his strife in the womb; after that, he flies for his life from a cruel brother to a cruel uncle. With a staff goes he over Jordan alone, doubtful and comfortless, not like the son of Isaac. In the way, the earth is his bed, and the stone his pillow; yet even there he sees a vision of angels. Jacob's heart was never so full of joy as when his head lay hardest. God is most present with us in our greatest dejection, and loves to give comfort to those that are forsaken of their hopes.

He came far to find out an hard friend, and of a nephew becomes a servant. No doubt, when Laban heard of his sister's son, he looked for the camels and attendance that came to fetch his sister Rebecca; not thinking that Abraham's servant could come better furnished than Isaac's son: but now, when he saw nothing but a staff, he looks upon him, not as an uncle, but a master; and while he pretends to offer him a wife as the reward of his service, he craftily requires his service as the dowry of his wife.

God

After the service of a hard apprenticeship hath earned her whom he loved, his wife is changed, and he is in a sort forced to an unwilling adultery. His mother had before, in a cunning disguise, substituted him, who was the younger son, for the elder; and now, not long after, his fatherin-law, by a like fraud, substitutes to him the elder daughter for the younger. comes oftentimes home to us in our own kind; and even by the sin of others pays us our own, when we look not for it." It is doubtful whether it were a greater cross to marry whom he would not, or to be disappointed of her whom he desired. And now he must begin a new hope, where he made account of fruition. To raise up an expectation once frustrate, is more difficult than to continue a long hope drawn on with likelihoods of performance: yet, thus dear is Jacob content to pay for Rachel fourteen years' servitude. Commonly God's children come not easily by their pleasures. What miseries will not love digest and overcome? And if Jacob were willingly consumed with heat in the day, and frost in the night, to become the son-in-law to Laban, what should we refuse to be the sons of God?

Rachel, whom he loved, is barren: Leah, which was despised, is fruitful. How wisely God weighs out to us our favours and crosses in an equal balance; so tempering our sorrows that they may not oppress, and our joys that they may not transport us! Each one hath some matter of envy to others, and of grief to himself.

Leah envies Rachel's beauty and love: Rachel envies Leah's fruitfulness: yet Leah would not be barren, nor Rachel blear-eyed. I see in Rachel the image of her grandmother Sarah, both in her beauty of person, in her actions, in her success. She also will needs suborn her handmaid to make her a mother, and at last, beyond hope, herself conceiveth. It is a weak greediness in us to affect God's blessings by unlawful means. What a proof and

praise had it been of her faith, if she had stayed God's leisure, and would rather have endured her barrenness than her husband's polygamy! Now she shows herself the daughter of Laban: the father for covetousness, the daughters for emulation, have drawn sin into Jacob's bed: he offended in yielding, but they more in soliciting him, and therefore the fact is not imputed to Jacob, but to them. In those sins which Satan draws us into, the blame is ours: in those which we move each other into, the most fault and punishment lies upon the tempter. None of the patriarchs divided his seed into so many wombs as Jacob; none was so much crossed in his seed.

Thus, rich in nothing but wives and children, was he now returning to his father's house, accounting his charge his wealth. But God meant him yet more good. Laban sees that both his family and his flocks were well increased by Jacob's service. Not his love, therefore, but his gain, makes him loath to part. Even Laban's covetousness is made by God the means to enrich Jacob.

Behold, his strait master entreats him to that recompense, which made his nephew mighty and himself envious. God, considering his hard service, paid him wages out of Laban's folds. Those flocks and herds had but a few spotted sheep and goats, until Jacob's covenant; then (as if the fashion had been altered) they all ran into parted colours; the most and best (as if they had been weary of their former owner) changed the colours of their young, that they might change their master.

In the very shapes and colours of brute creatures there is a divine hand, which disposeth them to his own ends. Small and unlikely means shall prevail, where God intends an effect. Little peeled sticks of hazel or poplar, laid in the troughs, shall enrich Jacob with an increase of his spotted flocks: Laban's sons might have tried the same means, and failed. God would have Laban know, that he put a difference betwixt Jacob and him; that as for fourteen years he had multiplied Jacob's charge of cattle to Laban, so now, for the last six years, he would multiply Laban's flock to Jacob: and if Laban had the more, yet the better were Jacob's. Even in these outward things, God's children have many times sensible tastes of his favours above the wicked.

I know not whether Laban were a worse uncle, or father, or master: he can like well Jacob's service, not his wealth. As the wicked have no peace with God, so

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the godly have no peace with men: for if they prosper not, they are despised; if they prosper, they are envied. This uncle, whom his service had made his father, must now, upon his wealth, be fled from as an enemy, and like an enemy pursues him : if Laban had meant to have taken a peaceable leave, he had never spent seven days' journey in following his innocent son. Jacob knew his churlishness, and therefore resolved rather to be unmannerly than injured. Well might he think that he, whose oppression changed his wages so often in his stay, would also abridge his wages in the parting; now therefore he wisely prefers his own estate to Laban's love. It is not good to regard too much the unjust discontentment of worldly men, and to purchase unprofitable favour with too great loss.

Behold, Laban follows Jacob with one troop, Esau meets him with another, both with hostile intentions: both go on to the utmost point of their execution; both are prevented ere the execution. God makes fools of the enemies of his church; he lets them proceed, that they may be frustrate; and, when they are gone to the utmost reach of their tether, he pulls them back to their task with shame. Lo now, Laban leaves Jacob with a kiss; Esau meets him with a kiss: of the one he hath an oath, tears of the other,.peace with both. Who shall need to fear man that is in league with God?

But what a wonder is this! Jacob received not so much hurt from all his enemies, as from his best friend. Not one of his hairs perished by Laban or Esau, yet he lost a joint by the angel, and was sent halting to his grave. He that knows our strength, yet will wrestle with us for our exercise, and loves our violence and importunity.

O happy loss of Jacob! he lost a joint and won a blessing. It is a favour to halt from God, yet this favour is seconded with a greater. He is blessed, because he would rather halt than leave ere he was blessed. If he had left sooner, he had not halted, but he had not prospered. That man shall go away sound, but miserable, that loves a limb more than a blessing. Surely if Jacob had not wrestled with God, he had been foiled with evils. How many are the troubles of the righteous!

Not long after, Rachel, the comfort of his life, dieth. And when? but in her travail, and in his travel to his father. When he had now before digested in his thoughts the joy and gratulation of his aged father

for so welcome a burden, his children (the staff of his age) wound his soul to the death. Reuben proves incestuous, Judah adulterous, Dinah ravished, Simeon and Levi murderous, Er and Onan stricken dead, Joseph lost, Simeon imprisoned, Benjamin, the death of his mother, the father's right hand, endangered; himself driven by famine, in his old age, to die amongst the Egyptians, a people that held it abomination to eat with him. If that angel with whom he strove, and who therefore strove for him, had not delivered his soul out of all adversity, he had been supplanted with evils, and had been so far from gaining the name of Israel, that he had lost the name of Jacob. Now, what son of Israel can hope for good days, when he hears his father's were so evil? It is enough for us, if, when we are dead, we can rest with him in the land of promise. If the angel of the covenant once bless us, no pain, no sorrows, can make us miserable.

CONTEMPLATION III.—OF DINAH.

I FIND but one only daughter of Jacob, who must needs therefore be a great darling to her father; and she so miscarries, that she causes her father's grief to be more than his love. As her mother Leah, so she hath a fault in her eyes, which was curiosity. She will needs see and be seen; and while she doth vainly see, she is seen lustfully. It is not enough for us to look to our own thoughts, except we beware of the provocations of others. If we once wander out of the lists that God hath set us in our callings, there is nothing but danger. Her virginity had been safe, if she had kept home; or if Shechem had forced her in her mother's tent, this loss of her virginity had been without her sin; now she is not innocent that gave the occasion.

Her eyes were guilty of the temptation; only to see, is an insufficient warrant to draw us into places of spiritual hazard. If Shechem had seen her busy at home, his love had been free from outrage; now the lightness of her presence gave encouragement to his inordinate desires. Immodesty of behaviour makes way to lust, and gives life unto wicked hopes: yet Shechem bewrays a good nature, even in filthiness. He loves Dinah after his sin, and will needs marry her whom he had defiled. Commonly lust ends in loathing. Amnon abhors Thamar as much after his act, as before he loved her; and beats her out of doors, whom he was sick to bring in. But Shechem would

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not let Dinah fare the worse for his sin. And now he goes about to entertain her with honest love, whom the rage of his lust had dishonestly abused. Her deflowering shall be no prejudice to her, since her shame shall redound to none but him; and he will hide her dishonour with the name of a husband. What could he now do but sue to his father, to her's, to herself, to her brethren; entreating that, with humble submission, which he might have obtained by violence? Those actions which are ill begun, can hardly be salved up with late satisfactions; whereas good entrances give strength unto the proceedings, and success to the end.

The young man's father doth not only consent, but solicit; and is ready to purchase a daughter either with substance or pain. The two old men would have ended the matter peaceably; but youth commonly undertakes rashly, and performs with passion.

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The sons of Jacob think of nothing but revenge, and (which is worst of all) begin their cruelty with craft, and hide their craft with religion. A smiling malice is most deadly; and hatred doth most rankle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled. "We cannot give our sister to an uncircumcised man.' Here was God in the mouth, and Satan in the heart. The bloodiest of all projects have ever wont to be coloured with religion; because the worse any thing is, the better show it desires to make; and contrarily, the better colour is put upon any vice, the more odious it is; for as every simulation adds to an evil, so the best adds most evil. Themselves had taken the daughters and sisters of uncircumcised men; yea, Jacob himself did so: why might not an uncirumcised man obtain their sister? Or, if there be a difference of giving and taking, it had been well if it had not been only pretended. It had been a happy ravishment of Dinah, that should have drawn a whole country into the bosom of the church. But here was a sacrament intended, not to the good of the soul, but to the murder of the body. It was a hard task for Hamor and Shechem, not only to put the knife to their own foreskins, but to persuade a multitude to so painful a condition.

The sons of Jacob dissemble with them, they with the people. "Shall not their flocks and substance be ours?" Common profit is pretended; whereas only Shechem's pleasure is meant. No motive is so powerful to the vulgar sort, as the name of commodity: the hope of this makes them prodigal of their skin and blood; not the love

to the sacrament, not the love to Shechem: sinister respects draw more to the profession of religion than conscience. If it were not for the loaves and fishes, the train of Christ would be less. But the sacraments of God, misreceived, never prosper in the end. These men are content to smart, so they may gain.

And now, that every man lies sore of his own wound, Simeon and Levi rush in armed, and wound all the males to death. "Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce; and their rage, for it was cruel." Indeed, filthiness should not have been wrought in Israel; yet murder should not have been wrought by Israel if they had been fit judges, (which were but bloody executioners) how far doth the punishment exceed the fault? To punish above the offence, is no less injustice than to offend. One offendeth, and all feel the revenge: yea all (though innocent) suffer that revenge, which he that offended deserved not. Shechem sinneth, but Dinah tempted him. She that was so light, as to wander abroad alone, only to gaze, I fear was not over difficult to yield; and if, having wrought her shame, he had driven her home with disgrace to her father's tent, such tyrannous lust had justly called for blood but now he craves, and would pay dear for but leave to give satisfaction.

To execute rigour upon a submissive of fender, is more merciless than just. Or if the punishment had been both just and proportionable from another, yet from them which had vowed peace and affinity, it was shamefully unjust. To disappoint the trust of another, and to neglect our own promise and fidelity for private purposes, adds faithlessness unto our cruelty. That they were impotent, it was through their circumcision: what impiety was this, instead of honouring a holy sign, to take an advantage by it! What shrieking was there now in the streets of the city of the Hivites! And how did the beguiled Shechemites, when they saw the swords of the two brethren, die cursing the sacrament in their hearts, which had betrayed them! Even their curses were the sins of Simeon and Levi, whose fact, though it were abhorred by their father, yet it was seconded by their brethren. Their spoil makes good the others' slaughter. Who would have looked to have found this outrage in the family of Jacob! How did that good patriarch, when he saw Dinah come home blubbered and wringing her hands, Simeon and Levi sprinkled with blood, wish that Leah had been barren as long as Rachel! Good parents have grief enough (though they sustain no blame) for

their children's sins. What great evils arise from small beginnings! The idle curiosity of Dinah hath bred all this mischief; ravishment follows upon her wandering; upon her ravishment, murder; upon the murder, spoil. It is holy and safe to be jealous of the first occasions of evil, either done or

suffered.

CONTEMPLATION IV.-OF JUDAH AND THAMAR.

I FIND not many of Jacob's sons more faulty than Judah; who yet is singled out from all the rest, to be the royal progenitor of Christ, and to be honoured with the dignity of the birth-right, that God's election might not be of merit, but of grace: else, howsoever he might have sped alone, Thamar had never been joined with him in this line. Even Judah marries a Canaanite; it is no marvel though his seed prosper not. And yet, that good children may not be too much discouraged with their unlawful propagation, the fathers of the promised seed are raised from an incestuous bed. Judah was very young, scarce from under the rod of his father, yet he takes no other counsel for his marriage, but from his own eyes, which were, like his sister Dinah's, roving and wanton. What better issue could be expected from such beginnings? Those proud Jews, that glory so much of their pedigree and name from this patriarch, may now choose whether they will have their mother a Canaanite or a harlot; even in these things ofttimes the birth follows the belly. His eldest son Er is too wicked to live; God strikes him dead ere he can leave any issue, not abiding any scions to grow out of so bad a stock. Notorious sinners God reserves to his own vengeance. He doth not inflict sensible judgments upon all his enemies, lest the wicked should think there were no punishment abiding for them elsewhere. He doth inflict such judgments upon some, lest he should seem careless of evil. It were as easy for him to strike all dead, as one: but he had rather all should be warned by one; and would have his enemies find him merciful, as well as his children just: his brother Onan sees the judgment, and yet follows his sins. Every little thing discourages us from good: nothing can alter the heart that is set upon evil. Er was not worthy of any love; but, though he were a miscreant, yet he was a brother. Seed should have been raised to him: Onan justly loses his life with his seed, which he would rather spill, than lend to a wicked

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