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 subtlety, Was he not rightly called Jacob? I do not hear him blarne 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 wrest ler, against whom Jacob prevailed, prevailed with Esau, and turned his wounds into kisses. A 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. Gen. xxv, xxvi, xxvii.

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 a 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 a 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 a reward of his service, he craftily requires his service as the dowry of his wife.

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 father-in-law, by a like fraud, substitutes to him the elder daughter for the younger: God 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, who 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 staid God's leisure, and would rather have endured her barrenness than her husband's polygamy! Now she shews 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 unto, 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.

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 loth to part. Even Laban's covetousness is made by God the means to enrich Jacob.

But God meant him yet more good.

Behold, his strait master entreats him to that recompence, 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 few spotted sheep and goats, until Jacob's covenant; then, as if the fashion had been altered, they all ran into party-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 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 till 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 frustrated, and when they are gone to the utnost 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 gainmg 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.

Gen. xxix, xxx, xxxi, xxxi, xxxiii,

OF DINAH.

I FIND but one only daughter of Jacob, who must needs there fore 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 Shechen

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 Tamar as much after his act, as before he loved her; and beat her out of doors, whom he was sick to bring in. But Shechem would 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 deflouring 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 hers, to herself, to her brethren; intreating 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.

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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. 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 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 shew 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 so; why might not an uncircumcised 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 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.

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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