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who has violated the first law of nature, and of morality, will fall at once, without preparation, into the more complicated duties of the conjugal state. The master of a family may learn of the patriarch, domestic piety and devotion, conjugal felicity and persevering industry.

The selfish and contentious, are reproved by the example of his moderation; by his patience under unkindness and injustice; by his meek surrender of an undoubted right for the sake of peace. Let the affluent learn to adorn rank by humility and condescension, and the afflicted to endure distress with fortitude and resignation.

Let his infirmities be remembered only as an admonition to ourselves; and let us be followers together of him, and of all them, who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

CHAPTER XV.

JACOB.

WE have seen that superiority and pre-eminence, were conferred upon Jacob before he was born; and we shall see that the struggle which early began between the two brothers, did not soon subside.

With more than ordinary reasons for loving each other, the ill judged partialities of parental affection, and the lust of precedency and of power, inflame them to uncommon rancour and animosity.

It cannot be affirmed, that the conduct of Jacob was either pure or praise-worthy, in taking. advantage of his brother's hunger to obtain the birthright, or of his father's blindness, in order to procure to himself the paternal benediction. Providence neither appoints nor approves of crooked and indirect paths to the ends He proposes. Weak and erring men, may not be displeased to have, at times, part of their work taken off their hands; but if we presume to take the work of God upon ourselves, it is both with sin and with danger :

"His counsel indeed shall stand, but the offender shall pay the price of his rashness."

If we inquire what could make Rebekah and her favourite son, so anxious to obtain for him the pre-eminence, it may be answered, First, that the gift of prophecy was known to be conferred upon the patriarch Isaac; and, in consequence, the parental benediction was considered to have the force of a prediction. Secondly, superiority and power over the rest of the family, in patriarchal times, were affixed to priority of birth.-Thirdly, a double portion of the paternal inheritance appertained to the first born. Fourthly, the honour of priesthood resided then, and for many years after, in the first born.And finally, the promise of the Messiah, "the first born among many brethren," was entailed upon the eldest son; and this was justly understood to confer a dignity and lustre, superior to all temporal blessings.

The guilt of Esau consisted, in undervaluing and despising an advantage so distinguished; which Jacob, on the contrary, estimated so highly as to be induced to use unjustifiable means to procure it. He did obtain the birth-right, but thereby he lost a brother; he stole by subtility the prophetic benediction, but he raised up against himself an implacable foe. He is

instantly constrained to become an exile and a wanderer from his father's house; and, when he comes to make the estimate of his own life, near the close of it, what is the amount?" Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been."

Indeed, whilst he was practising deceit upon his nearest relatives in Canaan, Providence was silently preparing the means of requiting him in Padan-Aram, in the person of one already a near relation, and about to be much more closely allied to him, Laban the Syrian, a man much more cunning and selfish, and much less scrupulous than himself; a man who appears, from first to last, invariably attached to his own interest; and so greedy and mercenary, as not to prize any thing but as it ministered to his gain. Such was the man with whom Jacob was to spend a very considerable part of his life; and whose treatment of him," will, in the eyes of the severest judge, be a sufficient punishment for the fallacies he had practised at home.

Behold, then, in the covenant head, and representative of the holy family, a "Syrian ready to perish!" leaving his father's house, without an attendant, without a guide, without a companion; and the affliction of his banishment greatly increased by the consciousness

Seeking

that he had brought it on himself, and by the necessity of enduring it, for wearisome days and nights, by himself alone. Having grasped at more than was right, and hastened to preferment without waiting for Providence, he puts himself just so much further back. rule and pre-eminence in his father's family, he finds severity and servitude in the house of a stranger, If men will carve for themselves, they must not charge the consequences of their rashness and presumption, upon the Divine Beingk.

The scripture informs us, Esau knew of the journey, and the occasion of it; it is therefore probable that Jacob stole away secretly, and without any retinue; the better to elude the vigilance and resentment of his brother, who, he had reason to apprehend, would pursue him to take away his life. Esau had not only despised the counsel of his father, by marrying into an idolatrous family, but insulted his parents, in the highest degree, by bringing, at one time, two wives of that description. The disappointment and vexation consequent upon a step se imprudent, is feelingly set forth in the language of Rebekah : "I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which

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