HISTORY OF ISAAC. LECTURE XXI. And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father; fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed, for my servant Abraham's sake. And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.-GENESIS XXVi. 23-25. placid and contemplative, sought the happiness of communion with God in calmness and solitude, and satisfied itself with the secret, untumultuous delight of beholding his family built up, and the promises of God advancing to their accomplishment. The faith of Jacob, active and persevering, wrought upon and excited by the peculiarities of his ever-varying condition, supported a life of much bustle and industry, and surmounted disappointments and afflictions the most mortifying and oppressive. For it is the office of this divine principle, not to alter, to suppress, or eradicate the natural tempers and dispositions of men, but to guide, impel, or control them, in conformity to their proper destination. Ir is a pleasing and an instructive view of counter the most threatening dangers, to unthe Divine Providence, to consider one and dertake the most difficult employments, and the same great design as carried on to ma- to render the most painful and costly sacriturity, in periods and by persons the most re-fices at God's command. The faith of Isaac, mote from each other, without communication of intelligence, without concurrence or exertion among themselves; to behold the great God moulding, guiding, subduing the various passions, purposes, and private interests of men to his own sovereign will; to behold the building of God rising in beauty, advancing towards perfection, by the hands of feeble workmen, who comprehend not the thousandth part of the plan which they assist in executing, and who, instead of co-operating, frequently seem to counteract one another. One digs his hour in the quarry; another lifts up his axe, and strikes a stroke or two in the forest; a third applies the square and the compass to the stone which his neighbour had polished. But their labours, Abraham, sensible of the ungovernable, their views, their abilities, however different, encroaching spirit of Ishmael, of the numerall promote the same end; and though they ous and pressing claims of his younger chiland their endeavours be frail and perishing, dren, and of the gentle, yielding, unresisting the work in which the Almighty employs nature of Isaac, had, with the prudent forethem is progressive, is permanent, is immor- sight of a good parent, made such a disposi tal.-Here a shepherd, there a king; here a tion of his temporal affairs in his life time little child, there a sage; here a legislator, as was most likely to prevent contention and there a conqueror; here a deluge, there a mischief after his death. Ishmael had been conflagration, fulfils the design of high Hea- dismissed many years before, had already beven; and the glorious fabric of redemption come the head of many numerous and powerrises and rises, though patriarchs, and pro- ful tribes, "twelve princes according to their phets, and apostles sink, one after another, nations,' "* and from habit, inclination, and into the dust. Man often begins to build, but necessity, had contracted a fondness for a is unable to finish, because he had not counted roving, erratic course of life. He had been the cost; but God "seeth the end from the be- brought into a transient connexion with his ginning." He can never want an instrument, brother Isaac, by an event which softens the who has heaven, earth, and hell at his dis- most rugged and obdurate dispositions, the posal. Surely, O Lord, the wrath of man shall death of their common father; and their repraise thee," Satan is thy chained slave, and sentments, for a time at least, perhaps for"ten thousand times ten thousand mighty ever, are buried in the tomb of him to whom angels minister unto thee." How then can thy they owed their birth. But difference of aim be defeated? How can thy counsels fail? interest, affection, and pursuit speedily sepaThe personal characters of the three lead-rates them again. Ishmael betakes himself ing patriarchs of the house of Israel, differ to his favourite occupations in the desert, exceedingly in many respects, and their man- and Isaac abides quietly in his tent, and tendner of life differs as much, while their ruling ing his flocks, by the well Lahai-roi. principle is the same. The faith of Abraham, The sons of Abraham by Keturah had been ardent and intrepid, was ever ready to en* Genesis xxiv. 13-16. more recently removed, with a suitable provision, into a distant part of the country.* So that upon his father's demise, Isaac found himself in the quiet possession of by far the greatest part of his immense wealth, but excluded from the society of those whom his own sweetness of temper and sense of duty, and the proximity of blood, would have led him to cultivate and cherish. And thus riches, the object of universal desire and pursuit, create more and greater wants than those which they are able to remove. By exciting envy, jealousy, and suspicion, they separate those whom nature has joined; friendship is sacrificed to convenience; and, to enjoy in security what Providence has given him, the unhappy possessor is constrained to become an alien to his own brother. We cannot refrain from bestowing, in this place, a posthumous praise upon Abraham, who, uninfected by the tenacity of old age and selfishness, cheerfully surrendered, while he yet lived, a considerable part of his property, in order to insure the future peace of his family, and wisely left his principal heir a poorer man, that he might leave him happier and more secure. How unlike those sordid wretches, who will scatter nothing till death breaks into the hoard; and who care not what strife and wretchedness overtake those who come after them, in the very distribution of their property, provided they can keep it all to themselves, were it but for one day longer! The distresses which embittered the remainder of Isaac's life, were chiefly internal and domestic; and, alas! had their source in his own infirmity, namely, a fond partiality in favour of his elder son; the mischief of which was increased and kept alive, by a partiality, equally decided, which Rebekah had conceived in favour of Jacob. "Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison; but Rebekah loved Jacob."* Most of the evils of a man's lot may be easily traced up to some weakness in which he has indulged himself, some error into which he has fallen, some opportunity he has let slip, or some crime which he has committed. Of all the infirmities to which our nature is subject, none is more common, none is more unreasonable, unwise, and unjust, none more easily guarded against, none more fatal in its consequences to ourselves and others, than that of making a difference between one child and another. It destroys the favourite, and discourages those who are postponed and slighted; it sows the seeds of jealousy and malice, which frequently produce strife, and end in violence and blood. It sets the father against the mother, and the mother against the father; the sister against the brother, and the brother against the sister. It disturbed the repose of Isaac's family, and had well nigh brought down Jacob's hoary head with sorrow to the grave. Parents ought to examine, and to watch over themselves carefully on this head. If they are unable to suppress Isaac had hitherto trusted every thing to the feeling, the expression of it, at least, is the wisdom and affection of his kind father, in their power; and policy, if not justice, and to the care of an indulgent Providence, demands of them an equitable distribution even so far as to the choice of his partner of their affection, their countenance, and for life. But his father being now removed their goods. For, if there be a folly which, by death, and his own children growing up more certainly than another, punishes itself, fast upon him, he is under the necessity of it is this ill-judged and wicked distinction arising and exerting himself. For the bless- between equals. One is ashamed to think ing of Providence is to be asked and ex- of the reason which is assigned for Isaac's pected, only when men are found in the way preference of his elder to his younger son, of their duty, and wisely employing lawful" Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his and appointed means of prospering. We accordingly find him, with the prudent sagacity of a good husband, father, and master, directing the removal of his family from place to place, as occasion frequently required; forming alliances with his powerful neighbours, for their mutual security; and presiding in the offices of religion, his favourite employment. And though Providence has deprived him of the counsel and protection of an earthly parent, he finds, in his happy experience, that the man whom God continues to protect and bless, has lost nothing. "Father and mother have forsaken him, but the Lord has graciously taken him up," "hedged him round on every side," and put the fear and dread of him into all the neighbouring nations, who, though they envied, durst not hurt him. * Gen. xxv. 6. venison." The original language expresses it still more forcibly, "because his venison was in his mouth." By what grovelling and unworthy motives are wise and good men often actuated! And what a mortifying view of human nature is it, to see the laws of prudence, and justice, and piety, vilely controlled and counteracted by the lowest and grossest of our appetites! It was not long before the effect of parental partialities appeared. A competition for precedency, and the rights of primogeniture, engaged the attention of the two brothers, and whetted their spirits against each other, from their earliest years. The pretensions of each were supported respectively by the parents according to favour, to the disregard of every maxim of good sense, and of the destination and direction of the Divine Providence.Gen. xxv. 28. Who it was that prevailed in this conten- | of God over the hearts of men. The dreadtion, and by what means, will be seen in the sequel. While the family of the patriarch was thus torn with internal dissension, Providence was pleased to visit him with a grievous external calamity. "There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham."* This, for a while, represses animosity. Distress, common to all, teaches them to love one another; and, instead of a struggle for precedency, the weightier concern, "Where shall we find bread?" now occupies their thoughts. This dispensation was probably intended as a reproof and correction to all parties. The parents were admonished of the folly of aiding and increasing the unavoidable ills of life, by wilfully sowing discord among brethren. Esau, ready again to perish with want, is stung with remorse to think, that in one hasty impatient moment of hunger, he had sold, for the transient gratification of a low appetite, what no penitence could undo, no money repurchase. And Jacob, feeling himself the cravings of hunger, was chastised for taking an unkind advantage of his brother's necessity; and, ready in his turn to perish, might be constrained to adopt the words of starving Esau, "behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me." For, although God serves himself of the weaknesses and vices of men, he approves them not, nor will suffer them to pass unpunished. Isaac, warned of God, removes not into Egypt, the land which had afforded his father shelter and subsistence in a similar storm, and which has often proved an asylum to the church; but retires to Gerar, one of the cities of Palestine, situated between Kadesh and Shur. Abimelech was the prince who at that time reigned over the Philistines. The same person, according to Josephus, with whom Abraham had formed a connexion so friendly, and with whom, for that reason, Heaven now directed Isaac to sojourn, till the famine should be relieved. This conjecture of the Jewish historian, though not insupportable, from a physical impediment seems highly improbable; if we consider that seventy-five years have elapsed since Abraham resided at Gerar: and history furnishes few, if any examples, of reigns of so long continuance. It is more probable that Abimelech was then the general appellative name of the princes of that part of Palestine, as Pharaoh was that of the kings of Egypt. When we behold the patriarchs thus removing from place to place, a feeble, unwarlike, encumbered band, through nations fierce, envious, and violent, their safety is to be accounted for only from the restraining power Gen. xxvi. 1. Gen. xx. 1. † Gen. xxv. 32. §Gen. xx. 14, 15. ful judgment of Sodom, where Lot dwelt; the blindness which punished the attempt to violate his guests, and the more tremendous destruction which avenged just heaven of their ungodly deeds, might operate powerfully, so far as these events were known and their memory was preserved, to overawe the neighbouring nations, and to procure for Lot's family and kindred, the attention and respect which fear, if not love, inspires. And, as a proof of his supremacy, that God, "in whose hand the heart of the king is, and who can turn it which way soever he will," has frequently constrained the enemies of his church and people to be their friends and protectors. This repeated visitation of Canaan by famine, was a repeated trial of the patriarch's faith. The promise of a land, so frequently unable to sustain its inhabitants, could have little value in the eye of a worldly mind. But faith in God discerns the principal worth and importance of temporal blessings, in their being connected with, and representing spiritual objects; and examines events, not by their agreement with preconceived opinions, and extravagant expectations, but by their moral effects and consequences. A region uniformly and unfailingly plenteous, might betray its possessor into the belief that its fertility flowed solely from natural causes, and God might be forgotten and neglected. A year of scarcity is calculated to teach man his dependence, and to force him to implore "the blessing which maketh rich, and causeth the earth to yield its increase." While he sojourned among the Philistines, Isaac falls into the same infirmity which dishonoured his father in Egypt. Misled, by suspicion unworthy of an honest man, and fear unworthy of the friend of God, he violates sacred truth, and sins against his own conscience: for when interrogated concerning Rebekah, "he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife, lest, said he, the men of this place should kill me for Rebekah: because she was fair to look upon."* The criminality of this mistrust is greatly aggravated by the clearness and fulness of the heavenly vision, whereby he had been admonished to bend his course to the court of Abimelech. "And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father. And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Because that Abraham obeyed my * Gen. xxvi. 7. voice, and kept my charge, my command- the flocks and the herds, For without water, ments, my statutes, and my laws." Slight temptations frequently prevail, after trials more formidable have been successfully resisted and overcome. The wise, therefore, will reckon no danger small, no foe contemptible, no condition perfectly secure. The faithful will learn to speak truth, to do good, to trust in the Lord, and fear nothing. Virtue is not hereditary in families, it descends but in rarer instances; whereas frailty, alas! descends from every father to every son. Virtue is the water in the particular pool; vice the torrent in the river, which sweeps every thing before it. The moderation, honour, and good sense of Abimelech, are the severest imaginable reproof of the disingenuousness of the prophet, and happily prevented the mischief, which Isaac, seeking by improper means to shun, had well nigh occasioned. "the cattle upon a thousand hills" are a Isaac prudently gives way. Under the protection and friendship of this prince, he has now obtained a settlement in the land; and by the blessing of Heaven upon his honest industry, he prospers and increases in the midst of difficulties. "Isaac sowed in the land, and received in the same year an hundred fold: and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew, until he became very great. For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants." But we are by no means to imagine, that worldly success is ever proportioned to promising means and favourable opportunities. "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." Some men's sails seem to gather every breath of the wind: they get forward in spite of every obstacle. Others feel the tempest continually blowing in their faces. All things are against them, and though they set out with the fairest, most flattering prospects, unac-ages afterwards, as one of the extreme bouncountably thwarted and disappointed, they "wax poor, and fall into decay." Let not prosperity, then, be deemed an infallible proof of wisdom, or worth, or of divine favour. Neither let want of success be always derived from folly, or vice, or the curse of Heaven; for in this mixed, imperfect, probationary state, "time and chance happen to all men," neither can a man tell "what is good for him all the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow." daries of the holy land. But the unrelenting jealousy of the Philistines pursues him from the city into the field. No sooner has he by industry procured for his family that important necessary of life, water, than the herdmen of Gerar, endeavoured by violence to possess themselves of it. Isaac, fond of peace, chooses rather to recede from his just right, than to support it by force; and still retires, seeking relief in patience and industry. He finds himself still pursued by the Every temporal advantage has a corres- pride and selfishness of his neighbours; but ponding infelicity. Isaac grew rich and great, at length conquers by yielding. A victory but "the Philistines envied him." And, "who the most certain, the most honourable, and can stand before envy?" That dark, malig- the most satisfactory. And the tranquillity nant passion, prompted his surly, jealous foes and ease of Rehoboth, amply compensate to cut off one source of his wealth, " for all the troubles and vexation of Esek‡ and Sitthe wells which his father's servants had dig-nah. Finally, to prevent as far as in him ged in the days of Abraham his father, the lay, every ground of quarrel, he fixes his Philistines had stopped them, and filled them residence at a still greater distance from with earth." This was, in effect, to destroy Abimelech. "He went up from thence to * Gen. xxvi. 2-5. ↑ Ib. 9-11. Ib. 12-14. § Ib. 15. * Gen. xxvi. 16. † Room. Contention. § Hatred. Beer-sheba ;" where feeling himself at home, after so many removals, he at once pitches his tent for repose, and builds an altar for religion; and the hatred and violence of man is lost and forgotten in communion with God. son; who, in the fortieth year of his own life, that is, the hundreth of his father's, introduced two idolatrous wives at once, into the holy family. This was two great evils in one. It was being unequally yoked with infidelity; and carrying on a practice which The expression," he called upon the name has ever been and ever will be fatal to doof the Lord," seems to import, that when hismestic peace. The daughter of a Hittite altar was built, it was consecrated to the would naturally be disposed to interrupt the service of God, with certain extraordinary religious harmony which prevailed in Isaac's solemnities; such as sacrifice, and public habitation, and two wives at once would, as thanksgiving, at which the whole family as- certainly, be disposed to annoy each other, sisted, and in which the holy man himself, and to embroil the whole family in their the priest as well as the prince of his family, quarrels. Isaac was well acquainted with joyfully presided. His piety was speedily the solicitude of his pious father on his own acknowledged and crowned with the appro- account, in the important article, marriage; bation and smiles of his Heavenly Father. and was conscious of a similar anxiety resFor, "the Lord appeared unto him the pecting the settlement of his sons. We may same night, and said, I am the God of Abra- easily conceive, then, how he felt at this acham thy father, fear not, for I am with thee, cumulated irregularity and imprudence of and will bless thee, and will multiply thy Esau. He was wounded there, where as a seed, for my servant Abraham's sake."* His man, a father, and a servant of the true God, meek and placid deportment, together with he was most vulnerable. To be neglected, his increasing power and wealth, and the unacknowledged in a matter of the highest favour of Heaven so unequivocally declared, moment to his comfort, by that son whom he have rendered the patriarch so dignified and had cherished with the fondest affection, and respectable in the eyes of the world, that on whom he rested his fondest hopes; how the prince, who from an unworthy motive mortifying to a father! But besides the had been induced to treat him with unkind- holy descent was in danger of being marred ness, and to dismiss him from his capital, by an impure heathenish mixture; and the now feels himself impelled to court his minds of his grandchildren likely to be perfriendship, and to secure it by a solemn com-verted from the knowledge and worship of pact. Abimelech considers it as no diminution of his dignity, to leave home, attended with the most honourable of his council, and the supreme in command over his armies, in order to visit the shepherd in his tent. The expostulation of Isaac is simple and natural, and his conduct exhibits a mind free from gall, free from resentment. The reply of Abimelech discloses the true motive of this visit. And we are not surprised to find, that fear has at least as large a share in it as love. The worst of men find it to be their interest to live on good terms with the wise and pious: and good men cleave to each other from af fection. The covenant being amicably renewed, and the oath of God interposed, and, "an oath for confirmation is an end of all strife," the king of Gerar and his retinue return in peace, and leave Isaac to the retirement which he loved, and to that intercourse with Heaven, which he prized infinitely above the friendship of earthly potentates. And now, a delightful calm of eighteen years ensued, of which no traces remain to inform or instruct men, but which from the well known character of this patriarch, we may well suppose were spent in such a manner, as to be had in everlasting remembrance before God. At this period, his domestic tranquillity was again cruelly disturbed, and, by his favourite * Gen. xxvi. 24. the God of their fathers. Such is the ungracious return which parents often meet with, for all that profusion of tenderness and affection which they lavish upon their offspring; such their reward, for all their wearisome days, and sleepless nights. The ingrates dispose of their affections, their persons, their prospects, their all, in a hasty fit of passion; as if the father who brought them up with so much toil and trouble, as if the mother who bore them had no concern in the matter. The ungrateful, disorderly conduct of their elder son, and no wonder, was "a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah." Whether it was from the vexation occasioned by this event, from disease, from accident, or some natural weakness in the organs of sight, we are not informed, but we find Isaac, in the one hundred and thirty-fifth year of his life,-in a state of total blindness; and he was probably visited with the loss of that precious sense at a much earlier period. But forty-five years, at least, of his earthly pilgrimage were passed in this dark and comfortless state. All men wish to live to old age; but when they have attained their wish, they are apt to repine at the infirmities and the discomforts which are necessarily incident to it. They would be old; but they would not be blind, and palsied, and feeble. They would be old; but they would not be neglected, wearied of, and forsaken. They would be old; but they would not be |