female heart, if it would not much rather be wooed with the attentions and assiduities of an agreeable man, than by the prudent and disgusting formalities of settlements, and deeds, and reversions. Rebekah was courted by proxy, with presents and promises; Rachel, by her destined husband in person, with the looks and the language, and the service of love. Betwixt the union of Isaac and Rebekah, that match of interest and prudence, no obstacle, except the trifling distance of place, interposed; but many difficulties occurred to retard, to prevent, and to mar the union of Jacob and Rachel, founded in esteem and prompted by affection. They become insensibly attached to each other. For love does not give the first warning of his approach to the parties themselves. But it did not long escape the penetrating selfish eye of the crafty father and uncle; who, from the moment he observes this growing passion in his nephew and daughter, casts about how best to convert it to his own advantage. men of the present generation, who persist in the neglect of nature's clearest, plainest law, from, I know not what, pretended reasons of caution and wisdom, which would fain pass for virtue; but are in reality the offspring of pride and luxury, pusillanimity and self-love. The proposal is no sooner made than accepted. And Laban has the satisfaction of at once betrothing his daughter to wealthy Isaac's son and heir, and of securing for himself the present emolument of Jacob's labour, care and fidelity for seven good years. Thus, the rights of humanity, the laws of hospitality, and the ties of blood, are all made basely to truckle to the most sordid and detestable of all human passions. And behold the freeborn grandson of Abraham sinks into abject servitude, and, the worst of all servitude, subjection to a near relation. But, as every blessing of life has its corresponding inconvenience, so every evil has its antidote. Jacob is contented and happy, while his pains and fatigue are alleviated by the conversation of his beloved Rachel; and, what is it to him, that the stern, discontented father frowns and chides, so long as the beautiful daughter receives him with complacency and smiles? He bears with patience and cheerfulness the ardour of the meridian sun, and the cold chilling damps of the evening, in the hope of that blest hour, when tender sympathy shall sooth his distresses, and every uneasiness shall be lulled to rest, in the bosom of love. In this sweet commerce, the years of slavery glide imperceptibly away: and what absence would have rendered insupportably long, the presence of the beloved object has shortened into the appearance of a few days. Such is the inconceivable charm of virtuous love. "Jacob served seven years for Rachel: and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her."* Jacob had frankly told him his whole situation, and laid open all his heart. He informed him, that he had indeed purchased the birthright, and obtained the prophetic blessing; but that through fear of his brother he had been constrained to flee from home, and to seek protection in Syria. This was, by no means, a situation likely to engage the attention and to procure the kindness of a worldly mind. An empty, nominal birthright, and a blessing which promised only distant wealth, were very slender possessions, in the eye of covetous Laban. He could not help comparing the splendid retinue of Eleazer, seeking a wife for his master's son, with the simple appearance of Jacob, come a courting to his family, with only a staff in his hand; and he finds it greatly to the disadvantage of the latter. But it is the interest of avarice to put on at least the appearance of that jus- Jacob, having faithfully fulfilled his part of tice which it secretly dreads and hates, if not the covenant, now calls on Laban to fulfil of that generosity which it despises. Jacob what was incumbent upon him. The better had, unsolicited, and without a stipulation, to conceal the fraud which he was meditating, hitherto rendered Laban his best services for he feigns compliance: and, believing, Jacob nothing. Indeed he was thinking of but one is amused with all the usual apparatus of a thing in the world, and that was, how to ren- marriage feast. In conformity to the custom der himself agreeable to his amiable cousin. of those eastern nations, the bride was conWhen, therefore, Laban, who must clearly ducted to the bed of her husband, with sihave foreseen the answer, under an affect- lence, in darkness, and covered from head to ed regard to the interest of his relation, in- foot with a veil; circumstances, all of them quires into and proposes the condition of his favourable to the wicked, selfish plan, which future services, he without hesitation men- Laban had formed, to detain his son-in-law tions a marriage with his younger daughter. longer in his service. Leah is accordingly And, having no marriage portion to give the substituted in room of her sister. And he father, as the custom of the times and of the who by subtilty and falsehood stole away the country required, he offers, as an equivalent, blessing intended for his brother, is punished seven years personal servitude and labour. for his deceit, by finding a Leah where he What is loss of ease, loss of liberty, loss of life, expected a Rachel. He who availed himself to love? When I behold Jacob, at such a price, of an undue advantage to arrive at the right ready and happy to purchase the object of his of the first-born, has undue advantage taken affection, whether shall I pity or contemn of him in having the first-born put in the the cold, timid, selfish hearts of the young | Gen. xxix. 20. other man have what may be called a weak side, avarice is quicksighted as the eagle to discern it, and not more penetrating to discover than dexterous to convert it to its own emolument. Unfortunately, Jacob's infirmity was clear as the sun at noon. His unextinguished, unabated passion for Rachel was well known to her rapacious father; who had, with a joy which the worldly mind alone can feel, seen his flocks multiply, and his wealth increase, under Jacob's care. Unsatisfied and insatiable, he builds upon this well-known attachment the project of a farther continuation of Jacob's servitude, with all its accumulation of riches and consequence. place of the younger. He who could practice upon a father's blindness, though to obtain a laudable end, is in his turn practised upon by a father, employing the cover of night to accomplish a very unwarrantable purpose. Laban was base, treacherous, and wicked; but Heaven is wise, and holy, and just. Let the man who dares to think of doing evil in the hope that good may come, look at Jacob, and tremble. The shame, vexation, and distress of such a disappointment, are more easily imagined than described. And, what are all the votaries of sinful pleasure preparing for themselves? Treasuring up shame and sorrow, when the delirium of passion is over, and the returning light of reason awakens them to reflection The proposal which avarice made without and remorse. They thought it "to be Ra- a blush, love accepted with perhaps too much chel, but in the morning behold it was Leah." precipitation. We are not framing an apology The next day, as may well be supposed, for Jacob's conduct, but delivering the feaexhibited a scene of no pleasing kind: ex-tures of his character, and the lines of his postulation, upbraiding, and reproach. Laban, as avarice seldom chooses to avow its real motives, endeavours to justify his treachery and breach of faith, by a pretended regard for the laws and manners of his country, which permitted not the younger to be given in marriage before the first-born. An honest man would have given this information when the bargain was first proposed. It was an insult, not an indemnification, to produce it now. What will not this base passion make a man do? To deceive the unsuspecting and unwary; to oppress the weak; to practise upon the stranger, are among its simpler and more customary operations. Behold it leading a father, to by what name shall I call it?-prostitute his own daughter. If there be a crime blacker than another; if, Satan, there be a purpose thou wouldst accomplish, which modesty shudders to think of, which the hand trembles to perpetrate, from which the conscience in horror recoils; infuse into some dark heart the demon of covetousness, the love of money; place gain in one eye, prostitution and parricide in the other, and the work of hell is done. Mark how easy and flexible the conscience of a miser is. Let interest blow the gale, from whatever quarter it be, and lo, with the rapidity of thought, the understanding and conscience of the covetous wretch are veered round with it! The man, who last night shuddered at the thought of violating a foolish and absurd fashion of the country is not ashamed, the very next morning, to propose polygamy and incest; and to make his own children the instruments of them. Whence this strange inconsistency? It was for his advantage to adhere to the custom of the country; and to dispense with the laws of God and nature. What does it concern him, that disorder and distress are introduced into his daughter's family, so long as it can any how redound to his private benefit? If an history, from the sacred record. But this much we may venture to affirm, that Jacob, left to himself, and to the honest workings of a heart inspired by the love of an estimable object, would never have dreamt of a plurality of wives; much less of assuming the sister of his beloved Rachel, to be her rival in his affections. It does not appear, that the solemnization of Jacob's marriage with Rachel, was deferred till the expiration of the second term of seven years. Provided Laban got sufficient security for performance of the agreement, it was indifferent to him when the other got possession of the bride. It is probable, therefore, that he gave way immediately to Jacob's wishes; and the more so, that his business was likely to be executed with greater fidelity and zeal, by a servant and son gratified, indulged, and obliged, than by one soured by disappointment, dissatisfied and irritated by unkindness and deceit. Behold then Jacob, at length, at the summit of his hopes and desires. After much delay, through many difficulties, which have strengthened, not extinguished affection, Rachel is at last his wife. But alas, human life admits not of perfect bliss! The seeds of jealousy and strife are sown in Jacob's family. The wife who enjoyed the largest share of the husband's affection, is doomed to sterility; the less beloved, is blessed with children. Thus a wise and gracious Providence, by setting one thing against another, preserves the prosperous from pride and insolence, and the wretched from despair. Twenty years did Isaac and Rebekah live in wedlock without a child, though the inheritance and succession of all Abraham's wealth and prospects depended upon it; whereas the family of Jacob, a simple shepherd, earning his subsistence by the sweat of his brow, the servant of another man, is built up and increases apace. The good things of life seem, to the superficial and discontented, to be unequally divided; but [and ye are every thing. Be arrogant, imthere is no balance so exact as that in which petuous, self-sufficient, imperious, unreasonall conditions and all events are weighed. able, and ye sink into nothing. I tremble to The great Governor of the world does not think of the dreadful length a woman will go indeed conform himself, in the dispensations to gratify her own spleen, and to mortify a of his providence, to the misconceptions and rival. In truth, she ceases to be a female, prejudices of short-sighted, erring men; but where certain feminine points are to be carhe is affording ignorant, erring men, if they ried; and the leading, distinguishing characwill but be attentive, perpetual cause to teristics of the sex are lost and sunk in the adore and admire his wisdom and justice, his feelings of the individual. What! the jeamercy and faithfulness. Leah bears to Jacob, lous, envious Rachel, who found her beloved as fast as the course of nature permitted, four husband had already one wife too many, to sons one after another; and, what is remark- think of throwing another into his bosom! able, not only is the hated wife first honoured But her too happy sister and rival is to be with being a mother, but with being the mortified; and she cares not what pangs it mother of the two tribes destined to the costs her own heart. O, my gentle friends, priesthood and to royal dignity; nay, the you are yourselves the framers of your own mother, remotely, of the chosen seed; a dig- fortunes. Be yourselves, and I will answer nity after which every mother, since the first for my own sex. But quit the ground on dawning of the promise, eagerly aspired. which God and nature have placed you, and you are indeed to be pitied. If I might venture to hazard an opinion, not altogether unwarranted by the history, and which I am convinced by experience to be well founded: you much oftener lose your object by over eagerness than by inattention. You may, now and then, succeed by address, or vehemence, or force; but you will succeed more certainly, and much more pleasantly with God and with man, by meekness, and gentleness, and submission. The fruitfulness of her sister violently excites Rachel's envy. The partiality of Jacob to her, and all his profusion of tenderness, avail her nothing. She is unable to suppress her chagrin and mortification; and, in the bitterness of her heart, forgets both the respect which she owed her husband, and the submission she ought to have paid to the will of God. "And she said unto Jacob, Give me children or else I die."* How odious, how pitiable are the sentiments, the looks and the language of passion, to the calm and dispassionate; nay, to the passionate man himself, when the fit is over, and passion has spent itself! "And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead; who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?" What! and can the anger of Jacob be kindled against his Rachel, his first, his only love! to obtain whom he cheerfully served fourteen years! My fair hearers, presume not too far on the fondness of the men who love you. Be calm, be moderate, be unassuming, be reasonable, be submissive, † Gen. xxx. 2. * Gen. xxx. L Thus was Jacob most grievously wounded, there, where he was most vulnerable; most violently disturbed, there, where he promised himself perfect repose. Thus, our heaviest crosses arise out of our dearest comforts; and the pursuits of " vanity," issue in "vexation of spirit." Thus, all things conspire to give full assurance to the children of men, "that this is not their rest;" and invite them to seek "another country, that is an heavenly, where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain," and "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." HISTORY OF JACOB. LECTURE XXVI And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place and to my country. Give me my wives, and my children for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry, for I have learned by experience, that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And he said, appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little which thou hadst before I came: and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also?-GENESIS XXX. 25-30. THERE is no subject of contemplation more | rival sisters, rather than not mortify each pleasing, more instructive, more composing other, voluntarily mortify and degrade themto the mind, than the wisdom and goodness selves, by raising their handmaids to a parof the Divine Providence, in adapting and ticipation of their husband's bed. Envy and adjusting, with such consummate skill, the revenge, if they can but hurt an adversary, understanding, the dispositions, and the ex- regard not the wounds which they inflict at ertions of men, to their various and succes- home. Unhappy Jacob! my heart bleeds for sive situations, relations, employments, and him. His time, and labour, and strength, fortunes. What so feeble, so helpless, so are at the disposal of a selfish, hard-hearted, necessitous as a new-born infant? But its insatiable father-in-law; his very person and proper aliment has accompanied it into the affections are insolently settled, disposed of, world. Its first cry has awakened ten thou- and transferred at the pleasure of two jealous, sand fond affections in one, who, at the ha-wrangling sisters: while, behold a family zard of her life, brought it forth, and at the rising and increasing upon him, without the hazard of her life, is ready to preserve it. power or means of making any provision for What so giddy, rash, inconsiderate as youth? it. The mind of his beloved Rachel, whom But the father is proportionably thoughtful, he had earned at the hard price of fourteen serious, and attentive. Man, of all animals, years painful service, is soured and chastands longest in need of support and pro- grined by the want of one blessing. The latection; therefore natural affection in man bours of the field through the day, are not is more intelligent and of greater duration relieved at night by the tenderness of symthan in any other creature. Instinct and pathy and love, but embittered and aggrareason unite their force, in aid of the length-vated by womanish altercation and strife. ened infancy and childhood of the human What could have supported him but relirace. Parents often, and unjustly, complain, gion? that their care and tenderness meet not with Leah has, at various intervals, borne Jacob reciprocal returns of attachment and affec-six sons and a daughter: and Rachel's grief tion from their children; not considering, that this current sets continually downward, and that the love which we bear to our offspring nature has intended they should repay, not to us, but to their offspring. Do our children grieve and vex us with their levity, and thoughtlessness, and folly? Let us have a little patience. By and by they shall become fathers and mothers; and then shall they be cured of what now gives us so much uneasiness; and then shall they be grieved, vexed, and mortified, in their turn. and despair are at their height, when God, whose counsels move not, nor stand still in complaisance to our desires or caprices, thinks meet to remove her sorrow and reproach; and she becomes the joyful mother of a son. What ingenious pains the silly mothers take to perpetuate the memory of their jealous sentiments and contentions, in the names which they impose upon their children; impiously presuming to drag in Providence as a party to their quarrel; foolishly and wickedly transmitting their contemptible hatred The anxieties which Jacob's dissension and animosity to the disturbance and distress with his brother occasioned to their fond pa- of their posterity; and madly sowing the rents are now thickening upon his own head. seeds of a plague, which might one day break In the last period of his life, we saw the ho- out and consume them! O how different the nest shepherd following his simple employ-jealous spirit which at first dictated the names ment with cheerfulness and joy; drinking delicious draughts of love from the approving eyes of his amiable shepherdess; and beguiling the tedious months of servitude in converse with his Rachel, and with the prospect of that bright hour, which was to crown his hopes, and to reward all his toil. But those soft moments have passed away, and vanished like a dream; their flight was not perceived; their value is understood and prized after they are forever gone. The cares, and troubles, and apprehensions of a father now occupy his mind. Jealousy and strife disturb his repose. Why multiply elaborate arguments against the practice of polygamy? Look into the wretched disorder and discord of those families which have been built upon that unnatural system, and be assured it is not, it cannot be, from Him, who loves the children of men, and all whose institutions aim at making them happy. The of the twelve heads of the tribes of Israel, pas About the time of Joseph's birth, it would appear, the term of Jacob's servitude had expired. He now therefore naturally thinks of the home which he had left so long before, and of the obligations which he lay under, to exert himself in the maintenance and provision of his numerous family. He therefore modestly applies to Laban for his dismission. That greedy kinsman, well aware of the advantages which had accrued to him from Jacob's diligence, fidelity, and zeal, expresses much regret on hearing this proposal. But, it is not regret at the thought of parting with his daughters and grandchildren: it is not the tender concern of bidding a long farewell to a near relation and faithful servant. No, it is regret at losing an instrument of gain: it is the sorrow of a man who loves only himself. that one here and there through the flock Hitherto, the profits of Jacob's industry had been wholly his uncle's. He had most un-conceive uniformly and correspondently, is, generously taken advantage of his nephew's on no principle of nature or of art, to be acpassion for his daughter, to reduce him into counted for. The finger of God is therefore a mere drudge for his own interest. From a to be seen and acknowledged in it. Thus sense of shame, as well as a regard to inte- was the condition of Jacob speedily and wonrest, he is at length constrained to Jacob's derfully changed to the better: "And the sharing the fruits of his own labour with him. man increased exceedingly, and had much And thus, the Laban's craftiness had proved too hard for cattle, and maid-servants, and men-servants, Jacob's candour and integrity; but the wis- and camels, and asses."* dom of Heaven, at last, proves more than a world is instructed, that he who fears and folmatch for even the cunning of a Laban. Ja-lows God, will sooner or later find his reward. But it seems determined of Providence, cob, whether prompted from above, or instructed by natural sagacity, aided by expe- that Jacob should never find a place of rest. rience, proposes as his hire, such a part of Lately, he was poor and dependent, and the flocks which he fed, as should be, in fu- thence anxious in his own mind, and liable ture, produced of a certain description, "the to insult, and unkindness, and oppression ring-straked, speckled, and spotted,"-which from others. Now, he is rich and prosperwere so few in number, that they might ra- ous, and thence exposed to hatred and envy. ther be reckoned the sportings than the re- And envy, like a plague or a torrent, sweeps gular productions of nature. Laban acquiesces every thing before it. We may easily conwithout hesitation in this proposal; wonder-ceive with what watchful jealousy Jacob's ing in himself, I doubt not, that Jacob should be so simple as to make it. An entire separation is accordingly made, without delay, between the cattle of the description which had been stipulated, and the rest of the flock. They are removed to prevent all occasion of suspicion and complaint, to the distance of a three days' journey; and delivered into the custody of Laban's sons, men too like their father to throw any thing into Jacob's scale, either through good-will, neglect, or carelessness. Jacob continues to tend the remainder of the flocks, pure from all mixture, and they were by far the greatest part of the flock, for his father-in-law. carriage and his charge were observed by The device which he employed, and which seems to have been suggested to him in a dream, is well known to all who read the scriptures. It has been disputed, whether the success of it was in the ordinary course of natural cause and effect, or was entirely produced by a miraculous interposition in favour of our patriarch. Indeed, there seems in it a great deal of both the one and the Jacob, however, is unable to stand it. And, other. That the female, in the moment of conception, should be more than usually sus-judging it better for all parties that they ceptible of strong and extraordinary im- should separate, to save himself the distress pressions, and capable of transmitting that of encountering the bitter words and sour impression to her young, so as clearly to looks of unkind relations, and to spare them mark and distinguish it, is too fully proved by experience to be denied. pens too seldom in the usual walk of nature, to permit us to suppose that the extraordinary increase of Jacob's cattle was in the mere current of things, aided a little by human sagacity and skill. That one lamb, or kid, should be marked with "the streaks of the poplar, hazel, and chestnut rods," or, the misery of witnessing his growing prosBut this hap-perity, he proposes to return to his aged, kind parents, from whom he was certain of meeting with a cordially affectionate reception. The dialogue which passed between Jacob and his wives upon this occasion, lets us deeper into the distresses and discomforts † Gen. xxxi. 4—16. of his present condition; and exhibits the 10 * Gen. xxx. 43. |