Jacob, having communicated his intention to his family, and obtained their hearty concurrence, takes advantage of Laban's occu picture of a covetous man in still livelier, | pose; a family such as this, was in a conbut therefore the more odious colours. From dition very unfavourable to the journey which it we learn, that the sordid father, not con- they are about to undertake, especially, liable tented with exacting of his son-in-law the as they were to be pursued and overtaken by rigorous performance of his hard bargain, incensed Laban; or, intercepted and cut off according to the rules of strict justice, (and by the way, by the equally incensed Esau. the justice of a miser is stern, unfeeling, and But, Jacob is following the direction of Heasevere indeed) frequently had recourse to ven, and therefore proceeds with humble contrick and chicane to over-reach and defraud fidence. What a destroyer of human comhim. No fidelity could please, no submission fort is wealth, that universal object of pursuit! mollify, no attachment subdue, no tie of jus- See, it has alienated the affections of one tice bind, no call of nature awaken his im- man from his own family; it has driven penetrable, selfish heart. "Ye know that another to flee from that person as an enemy, with all my power I have served your father whom he had once sought unto as a friend. And your father hath deceived me, and In one shape or another, this evil affection, changed my wages ten times, but God suf- the love of riches, is, I am afraid, at the botfered him not to hurt me.' "And Rachel tom of most of the ill we do, and of most of and Leah answered and said unto him, Is the ills which we suffer. there yet any portion of inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not counted of him strangers? For he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money."+pation in the business of his sheep-shearing, Whom do men commonly cherish and love with peculiar tenderness! Their daughters and grandchildren. For whom do men usually save, and gain, and lay up in store? For their daughters and grandchildren. But behold, here is a father who has sold his daughters for hire, who treats them as strangers to his blood, defrauds them of their undoubted right! Behold a grandfather taking pleasure, not in the innocent prattle, not in the dawning genius, not in the increasing stature of the young ones who descended from his own loins; not in smoothing for them the rugged path of life, not in extending and brightening their prospects, not in rearing and establishing their fortunes! but, in diverting the streams of their subsistence; but, in grasping to himself the hard-earned fruits of their father's industry; but, in undermining, counteracting, destroying their interests and their hopes! How happy it is for the world, that this vile passion is neither immortal nor omnipotent! God is, in spite of Laban, fulfilling to Jacob the covenant and promise which he entered into at Bethel. Jacob had stipulated but moderate things for himself, "bread to eat and raiment to put on," whilst he was from home; and a peaceable and safe return to his father's house and lo, an indulgent Providence has far exceeded his expectations, and even his desires. But, if he be increased, he is also encumbered; if his stock be larger, so is also his care; have his comforts multiplied? he is but the more vulnerable. A retinue, consisting of two wives and as many concubines; twelve children, the eldest but thirteen years old, and the youngest under seven; of the servants necessary to a family so numerous; of a live stock so extensive, to be removed, and of the attendants absolutely needful for that pur to steal away homeward. And he has the felicity of gaining three days' journey, before the news of his flight have reached the uncle. But encumbered as he was, this is but a slight advantage, if a pursuit were attempted; and he must be indebted for his safety, after all, to the protection of that God whom he was following, and not to his own wisdom, foresight, speed, or force. Jacob, I dare say, was scrupulously careful to remove nothing but what was, by a clear and undoubted title, his own. He who had repeatedly and patiently submitted to imposition and oppression, for the sake of quietness, was not likely to provoke enmity, and justify vengeance, by robbery and plunder. But Rachel, in what view, and for what reason, it is not easy to determine, has "stolen away the images which were her father's." Many solutions have been attempted, of this strange and unaccountable piece of theft. Some of them I shall just mention, leaving you to form your own judgment of the matter. It is alleged by some Rabbins, that she carried off the Teraphim or idols, lest her father, by consulting them, should discover the route which Jacob had taken, and so pursue with the greater certainty of overtaking him. Some ascribe her conduct to piety and natural affection, as if she meant to make Laban sensible of the weakness of deities which would suffer themselves to be stolen away, without giving notice of such a design, and were incapable of making any resistance; thereby hoping to detach her father from the absurdity and impiety of idol wor ship. Others, less charitably disposed towards her, represent her as a true daughter of Laban, instigated by covetousness, to purloin the deities, for the value of the precious materials of which they were composed, or whereby they were ornamented. And Chrysostom, with almost equal severity, accounts But, figure to yourselves Jacob's surprise, when charged by Laban with having stolen his gods. If there was a thing about Laban's house more odious and contemptible than another in his eyes, it was his Teraphim.— He would justly have reckoned such an impure mixture among his goods as the corrupter and destroyer of the whole. His defence therefore is simple, yet forcible; because it is the language of genuine truth, and of conscious innocence and integrity. I like Jacob's speech throughout. It is the for the robbery from her predilection in fa- | mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with vour of idolatry. harp? And hast not suffered me to kiss my Thus Jacob left his father-in-law: or, to sons and my daughters? Thou hast now use the marginal reading, which is sufficient-done foolishly, in so doing."* But truth will ly warranted by the Hebrew words, "stole appear through the closest disguise. With away the heart of Laban the Syrian;" that all this pompous parade of kindness and afis, either he acted with so much prudence fection, he is weak enough to avow the vioand caution, that Laban suspected not, fa- lent purpose with which he had undertaken thomed not his design; or, he stole away the pursuit, and, from his father-in-law's own that which was dear to him as his heart and lips, Jacob has the satisfaction to learn that soul, his precious, precious wealth. The se- he owed his safety to the kind interposition quel abundantly justifies this latter interpre- of a heavenly, not to the altered mind of an tation. For Laban is no sooner informed of earthly parent. his son-in-law's escape, than, without the shadow of a pretence to molest him on his way, or to force him back, makes after him with a powerful body of his friends, if not to plunder and murder him, at least, to oblige him to return. After seven days' hasty marching, he overtakes him and his cumbersome train, in Mount Gilead; and he is ready to seize on his defenceless prey. But the God in whom Jacob trusted, plants around him a fence more impenetrable than the adamantine rock. Laban's gods could not hinder themselves from being stolen away by a sim-language of a good and honest heart. Your ple woman, and packed up among other lum- time permits me not to make any commenber, to be conveyed off: but Jacob's God is tary upon it. Indeed it needs none. Obwatching and protecting him night and day; serve only, in general, how generous is the nay, watching his enemy too, to check and fear which he expresses, lest Laban should repress him. For, the vision of the Almighty, violently resume the wives whom he had is not only with them that fear him, to direct given him. Some of them had been obtruand comfort them, but sometimes also with ded upon him by fraud, others by persuasion; them that fear him not, to restrain, to threaten, but they are the mothers of his children, and and to terrify them. therefore he cannot bear to think of parting God, in a dream by night, charges Laban, with them, though he might have been perin a manner which he could not but under-mitted. How noble is the disdain and instand, feel, and remember, charges him at his peril to offer Jacob any injury in word or deed: "for when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemy to be at peace with him." Thus warned, he comes up with his nephew next morning; and, like many, who, when they are galled by an ill conscience, endeavour to ease themselves of its reproaches, by transferring the blame from themselves to the persons whom they have wronged; he reproaches Jacob with a conduct, which, he well knew, had resulted entirely from his own harshness and severity, and upbraids him with unkind behaviour to his daughters, fully convinced all the while, that they had no ground of complaint against any one, so much as against their own unnatural, unkind father, who had counted them as strangers: "for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money." It is pleasant to hear a miserly wretch talk of the liberal and generous things which he intended to have done, after the call and occasion are over, and his generosity is in no danger of being brought to the test."Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me? and didst not tell me that I might have sent thee away with dignation which he expresses, on being charged with the theft of Laban's gods! How manly the recapitulation of his past services and sufferings! How bold the defiance he bids to malice and resentment! But, it discovers too much of a great and generous spirit, to be passed over thus slightly. I must therefore take the liberty to resume it, and to enlarge a little upon it-and now hasten to conclude, with this single idea, of the analogy which we never wish for a moment to lose sight of. Jacob, leaving Canaan, solitary and poor, banished from his father's house, and degraded into slavery: and Jacob, returning, loaded with the spoils of churlish Laban, and blessed with a numerous, prosperous, and increasing family, without a violent stretch of thought, prefigures to us-Jesus, descending from heaven, and the original splendours of his nature; voluntarily depressing himself into the form of a servant, and meekly submitting, for a season, and to accomplish a great and important purpose, to the want of the smiles of his heavenly Father's countenance: and "the glory that followed"-his triumphant return to heaven, adorned with the spoils of *Gen. xxxi. 27, 28 † Gen. xxxi. 36-42 death and hell, and attended by an innumerable train of spiritual sons and daughters, acquired in a strange land, adopted into the family of God, constituted the heirs of glory, and in due time to be exalted, together with their glorious Head, to heavenly thrones. May we, beloved, swell the triumph of that day, and find eternal rest from the toils and dangers of the way, in the bosom of our Father and our God. Amen. HISTORY OF JACOB. LECTURE XXVII. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant : for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.-GENESIS xxxii. 9-11. ness. THE man who is instructed to " acknowledge God in all his ways," and he only, has found out the road that leads to true happiThe cup of prosperity wants its choicest ingredient when the love of our heavenly Father, is not tasted in it. The bitterest potion, when mingled by his hand, we can drink with confidence and cheerfulness. It is pleasant to a man, to see his own sagacity and diligence crowned with success. But very imperfect is that pleasure unless he can look up and say with submission and gratitude, "the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow therewith." There is a virulence in the ills which we bring upon ourselves, or which flow from the unkindness and injustice of others, that corrodes the heart, and depresses the spirit. But calamity, the appointment of Heaven, calamity the discipline of a Father's care and wisdom, brings its own relief along with it. The very poison, if administered by his hand, becomes its own antidote, and what threatened to kill, effects a cure. It would greatly tend to improve our wisdom, to promote our piety, and increase our pleasure, to take frequent and particular reviews of our own life; and to observe the changes which have taken place in our circumstances from time to time, in connexion with the means and instruments which Providence more clearly or more obscurely has employed, and through which our enterprizes have succeeded or failed. Many, very many, have arrived at situations to which once in their lives they durst not have presumed to aspire. But their present elevation and prosperity want their brightest ornament and their firmest support if they be destitute of that spirit which good Jacob breathes in the words which I have read-that spirit which ascribes every acquisition, every blessing to the wonder-working hand of indulgent Heaven. Few men have experienced greater varieties, greater reverses of condition than our patriarch. But we find him perpetually gathering strength from the hardships which he endured, supporting a life of uninterrupted, unutterable affliction with patience and fortitude, suffering and feeling as a man but enduring and overcoming as a saint, and at length closing the extended scene of wo with the triumph of a believer exulting in the bright, unclouded prospects of immortality. One general remark may be applied to his whole history. His deepest distresses sprung out of his choicest comforts; his most signal successes took their rise from his heaviest afflictions. The attainment of the birthright and the blessing drove him into banishment; the labour, watchfulness, and anxiety of a shepherd's life conducted him to opulence and importance. The elevation which he too eagerly grasped at was the cause of his depression; the humiliation to which he voluntarily and patiently submitted became the foundation of his future greatness. The partial fondness of a mother exposed him to the unnatural unkindness and severity of an uncle; the jealousy and envy of malevolent and selfish brothers-in-law forced him back to the calm delights of his father's house. After twenty years' hard service under Laban, which that ungenerous kinsman repaid with harshness, injustice, and deceit, but which God was pleased bountifully to reward by a numerous and thriving progeny and large possessions, he sets out secretly, in order to shun the mortification which he daily endured, for the land of Canaan. He is hotly pursued, and with hostile dispositions, by his father-in-law, and overtaken, encumbered as he was, on the seventh day, in Mount Gilead. Providence once more interposes in his behalf, and protects him from Laban's fury.Charged with undutifulness and disrespect, and accused of a robbery which he would rather have died than commit, he defends himself with the spirit of a man, with the dignity of conscious innocence, and the awful superiority of truth and virtue. Those who have a taste to relish the modest, manly, simple, pathetic eloquence of a good and honest heart, will, I am persuaded, find much pleasure in the perusal of Jacob's reply to Laban's accusation. "And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? What is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? Set it here before my brethren, and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both. This twenty years have I been with thee: thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was, in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle; and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction, and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight."* The power of truth is irresistible, and even Laban, though with an ill grace, is constrained to yield to it; and matters are at length amicably settled to their mutual satisfaction. To prevent as much as possible all future ground of fear and suspicion, a covenant of peace and good will is ratified between them, with all the solemnities of a sacrifice, an oath, a monumental pillar, and a feast of love. In the whole of which transaction, we cannot help remarking, that Laban, the party who had the wicked intention and the guilty conscience, is the first to propose, and the most eager to employ the awful formalities of compacts, and promises, and oaths. He knew that he himself needed to be thus bound, and therefore judges it necessary thus to bind the other. Laws are made for the violent and injurious, covenants for the false and perfidious. The light of an upright heart is its own law, the conscience of an honest man his own faithful witness, his own tremendous judge. What is the opinion of the world to conscious integrity? "The conscious mind is its own * Gen. xxxi. 36-42. awful world." Guilt is timorous, jealous, and suspecting; innocence bold, believing, and generous. Laban employs the most words; Jacob has the purer and more righteous intention. Laban does justice, not from a regard to duty, but through fear of detection and punishment; Jacob speaks and practises truth because he loves it. The form of religion is employed by Laban to perfect the security which he wanted; Jacob scruples not to su peradd the form, where he felt the force of the obligation. Laban swears, that he might hold the other fast; Jacob, because he fears an oath, and is willing at once to satisfy the other and to bind himself. Laban, an idolator, calls to witness the gods whom the ancestors of Abraham and Nahor served "beyond the flood;" Jacob, a worshipper of the living and true God, swears by "the fear of his father Isaac," the God who has power to save and to destroy. The agreement being thus solemnly ratified, and the hour of separation at length come, they part with mutual satisfactionLaban with the self-gratulation of having made a virtue of necessity; and Jacob, well pleased to have escaped so happily from a danger so threatening. Laban returns with his train to Haran, and we hear of him no more. And little does it signify what became of an old miserly knave, whose name had been better blotted out of every record, than transmitted to posterity with so many notes of infamy upon it. Jacob goes on his way rejoicing towards Canaan, beloved of God, and respected of men. He has hardly bidden his father-in-law farewell, when we find the angels of God pressing forward to meet him."* The history. of these superior beings, and of their commerce with mankind, is so brief, so obscure, and so figurative, as rather to excite curiosity than to gratify it. It serves rather to furnish matter for speculation, than to convey distinct, full, and exact information. By the angels of God, who are said to have met Jacob on this occasion, some understand merely human messengers, whether deputed from among his own attendants to examine the country through which he was to travel, or some friendly strangers directed that way of Providence, to warn him of the approach of his brother Esau. But we cannot materially err by taking the words of Moses in their literal acceptation, and according to the more obvious sense which they convey. "Wherefore should it be thought a thing incredible," that the same merciful God who condescended to visit Jacob's sleep at Bethel, with a vision of angels ascending and descending from Heaven to earth, to cheer and encourage his solitary progress to Haran, should vouchsafe to bless his waking thoughts at Mahanaim with a visit of these ministering spirits in a *Gen. xxxii. 1. bodily form, to be the image and the assurance of the divine favour and protection in every hour of danger, in every time of need? What had that man to fear from the rage of an incensed brother, though that brother were followed by an armed host, around whom "the angels of the Lord encamped" in two hosts or bands. sion. The beloved wife and her darling son are placed in the rear, farthest from danger, if danger there were, because first in the attention and respect of the fond husband and father. Unhappy Jacob! whether shall we pity or blame thee? In this management I see the dawnings of that unwise and unfortunate preference, which afterwards raised such a tempest in the family, and pierced through the paternal heart with so many sorrows. The thirty-second chapter of this sacred book concludes with the history of an event in Jacob's life, so very singular and mysterious, as to baffle interpretation, and defy Whether the history, in this passage, is to be understood literally or figuratively; whether these angels were human or supernatural beings; this, in either view, well deserves remark, that Jacob was not induced, in confidence of the vision, to neglect any duty of piety or of prudence. Piety dictates the ad-criticism. I mean, his wrestling with a perdress and recommendation of himself to the God of angels and of men, which we read in the opening of our discourse; and in this he chiefly rested his safety. And prudence made such a wise arrangement of his affairs, as might either gain a brother by kindness, melt him by submission, or oppose him with success. The religion which, aiming at things uncommon, miraculous, or preternatural, neglects or despises the plain track of reason and revelation, is dangerous, and to be suspected. It ministers too much to human vanity; it would establish a standard, vague, variable, and capricious as the wild imagination of man; and, making every one in matters of faith, a law unto himself, would depreciate the "sure word of prophesy," which yields a steady, uniform, and certain light, to illuminate a dark world. son unknown, in the form of a man, whom he afterwards describes as God, and against whom he prevailed in the contest. If this transaction is to be understood according to the letter of the narration, the Spirit of God has seen meet to withhold the knowledge of some particulars which are necessary to a clear and distinct comprehension of it; and the inquirer is stopt short, with the reply of the angel who wrestled, to Jacob's request, "Tell me I pray thee thy name;" "Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?"* safety which wisdom and the necessity of his situation suggested, he again, it is natural to suppose, might have recourse to earnest prayer and supplication, and continue in it during a great part of the night and morn The figurative meaning, and the practical intention and application, are more obvious: and it is this indeed with which we have chiefly to do. Jacob was that very morning to meet Esau, his brother, who was advancing toward him, at the head of four hundred men. Uncertain of his disposition and inThe disposition of his company, which Ja- tentions, conscious of having given him much cob made, in the view of meeting his brother cause of offence, and apprised of the menaeither as a friend or an enemy, discovers the cing and resentful language which he had deepest wisdom and penetration. Every thing formerly held concerning him, he shudders that might revive the memory of their an- to think of the consequences of this formicient grudge is artfully suppressed. If there dable rencounter. And, having first poured appear any ostentation of wealth, it is wealth out his soul to God in such a dreadful emerdevoted to the use and service of a brother.gency, and then adopted the measures for The message which was put into the mouths of the servants who conducted the droves of cattle, to be successively delivered to Esau, is wonderfully calculated to turn away the wrath of an angry man, "my lord Esau," "thy servant Jacob." And the present judi-ing. This, in the forcible and figurative ciously intended to disarm and mollify him, is, with equal judgment, exhibited and tendered not all at once, but slowly and gradually; insensibly to steal upon his heart, and imperceptibly to lull all his resentments asleep. He appears voluntarily paying a tribute of duty and affection as to his sovereign, not haughtily exacting submission and acknowledgment as from his vassal. Fear for his own life had driven him, twenty years ago, from the face of Esau, and now that his being is, as it were, multiplied in the persons of so many, dear to him as his own soul, his apprehension increases in proportion. We cannot but observe, though we need not much wonder at, the partiality discovered in settling the order of this domestic proces phrase of oriental language, might be expressed "by his wrestling" with God "to the dawning of the day;" and is at length prevailing so far as to obtain from God some sensible sign or token, to assure him he should be carried through this, as through his other dangers and distresses, undestroyed, unhurt. The sign given him was calculated at once to express approbation of his faith, fortitude, and perseverance; and to convince him of his inferiority and weakness. The unknown wrestler, though seemingly foiled in the combat, by a simple touch dislocates a joint in the hollow of Jacob's thigh, and thereby disables him from continuing the struggle. Might not the wisdom of God be Gen. xxxii. 29. |