remain'd therefore for her, but to think of adopting a fon of her bondwoman? And in confideration of this, the perfwades her husband, who had no inclination to any fuch thing by any thing that appears (at least precedent to this defire of his wife) to take her unto him. He fought the feed of God, that is, the feed which God had promifed, as Malachy expreffes it, Mal. II. 15.

At least it is certain, that the Jews have taken these words of Malachy (x) in this fenfe for a very long time, as they do ftill to this day.

We may easily perceive, that this was a predominant impreffion throughout that whole family, if to what we have already obferv'd of Lot's daughters and of Sarah, we do but add the forrow Rebecca conceived because of her barrennefs, and the contentions happening between the wives of Jacob, for their husband's company, without which fuppofal, the relation of fuch a matter, would be a thing of no impor

tance.

Certainly, as it would be ridiculous to suppose, that so wise an historian as Mofes was, fhould stoop to the recital of fuch mean and low particulars (not to speak worse of them) without aiming at something very high and confiderable, fo it is rational to believe, that in all thefe relations, he pointed at the promise of the Meffiah, which at that time was the great object of the religion of the faithful, which God in procefs of time did explain by little and little more diftinctly.

The jealoufie also which arose between Ishmael and Ifaac, is no less confiderable. Ishmael was the eldest son of Abraham, and circumcis'd as well as Ifaac; he was faved from death by the miniftry of an angel; and was the head of a great people, who from that time to this have always been circumcifed.

very day,

It may be alfo of great ufe to take notice here, that Ishmael could not but be inftructed by Abraham concerning the promise God had made to him, to which he pretended, as being the elder, and therefore mocked at the great ftir was made at the weaning of Ifaac, as thinking that he being the eldeft, could not be deprived of the natural right of his primogeniture. At least, it is very probable, that except it had been thus, Sarah's anger (approved by God himself) would not have prov'd fo violent, as well againft Ishmael, as Hagar, who flatter'd him in these pretenfions, nor would Abraham fo far have comply'd with it.

And forafinuch, as Ifaac on the other fide, was born to fulfil a particular promise, was circumcifed, and faved from death by an angel; and that befides all this, Ishmael and he had been equally educated in the practice of religion, 'tis impoffible, but that this conformity of events (which has been the caufe of fuch lafting contests between them and their posterity) must have engaged them to inquire into the truth of the creation, and the promise of the Meffiah, and into all other matters which did any way concern them.

We have a like inftance, if not stronger for our purpose, in Esau and Jacob, who were both born of the fame mother, but Efau being the firft-born, we find the fame jealousie arising between them, as before be(x) Targ, Jonath. in h. 1. & Kimchi in h ̧ 1. R

VOL. I.

tween

tween Ifhmael and Ifaac. Sarah feem'd fomewhat cruel in cafting out her adopted fon Ihmael, and here we fee that Rebecca preferred Jacob before Efau her first-born, and affifted him in robbing his elder brother of the bleffing due to him of right: but without queftion, her defign in all this was to entail this bleffing on her family, by making it fall on Jacob, as being afraid (and that not without caufe) that Efau by his fins and his marriage with the Canaanites, had made himself uncapable thereof.

Now as this was the occafion of a great difpute between these two Patriarchs educated in the fame belief and religion, fo it plainly fhews us how ftrong a perswafion they had of the creation, and the promise of the Meffiah.

And befides, it is further very remarkable.

Firft, That Mofes reprefents Efau as a prophane person, for which, not only this reafon may be alledged, that he fold his birth-right for a mefs of pottage, to which birth-right the priesthood was always annexed, but we muft further take notice.

That he being educated by his father in the hopes of this bleffing, he feem'd to laugh at it in all his actions; for firft he married the daughter of Heth, by which he fufficiently intimated, that he neither minded the bleffing nor the curfe of God; for Canaan and his pofterity had in a very folemn manner been curfed by Noah, with a particular regard to the promife of the Meffiah, as I hinted before.

In the fecond place, he married a daughter of Ishmael, as if he intended to renew the pretenfions of Ishmael against Ifaac his father.

In the third place we fee, that when he repented of this prophane humor, he was pierced with extream forrow for the crime he had committed, because he could not obtain pardon for it.

This jealoufie and difference between Efau and Jacob, is the more confiderable, because Efau was the head of a great nation, viz. the Edomites, a people circumcifed as well as the Jews, jealous of the pofterity of Jacob, and living upon the borders of Judea, as well as the Moabites, Ammonites, and Ishmaelites, but yet put by their hopes by that oracle, The greater people fhall ferve the leffer.

Were it needful to afford a greater light to these reflexions, I might here add a very natural one, from the oath which Abraham made his fervant Eliezer take, when he fent him to Padan Aram, to procure a wife for Ifaac. We may eafily judge, that he was not willing he fhould marry a Canaanite as Lot had done; and that for fear of forfeiting his hopes, and weakening the juft pretenfions of Ifaac to the right of accomplishing the promife, from whence the Canaanites were excluded by the prophecy deliver'd by Noah. But that which made Abraham to oblige his fervant to fwear, putting his hand under his thigh; that is, touching that part which was the fubject of circumcifion (y), and which bore the mark of the covenant, deferves a further confideration.

We find first of all, that the Patriarch Jacob, obferves the fame cuftom, when he made his fon Jofeph to take an oath, that he should not bury him in Egypt.

Secondly, We find that this custom of beholding that member which

received

(y) St. Jerom.

received circumcifion, as a part confecrated to religion, did by little and little take place in the land of Canaan, and gave occafion to the worship of Baal Peor, fo famous among the Moabites and Ammonites; a very furprifing and strange worship indeed, and yet celebrated with festivals, and hymns, and was the rife of that worship which the heathens afterwards gave to Priapus. What I have here observed, hath been in part acknowledged by the Jews, where they speak of the worship of Baal Peor, and the reafon which made God prefcribe to the priest the ufe of linen drawers, that their nakednefs might not appear during the functions of their ministry.

After all that I have now faid, concerning those jealousies which Mofes relates with so much care, it seems that the folidity of these observations cannot be difputed. Efpecially if we confider, that it is these jealoufies, and these pretenfions to the promise of the Meffiah that gave rife to the cuftom of calling God, the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob: for tho' he might as well have been called the God of Adam, the God of Enoch, and the God of Noah, forafmuch as all these Patriarchs were alfo depofitaries of the promife of the Meffiah: yet it is probable that God was called fo, because of the particular promises which had been made firft to Abraham, fecondly to Ifaac, and laftly to Jacob, and in oppofition to the pretenfions of fome people near neighbours to the Ifraelites, and jealous of their hopes: the God of Abraham, and not of Lot, as the Ammonites and Moabites Lot's pofterity, pretended; the God of Ifaac, and not of Ishmael, as the Ishmaelites pretended; the God of Jacob and not of Efau, as the Edomites who were the offspring of Efau pretended.

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CHA P. XVI.

That this very Perfwafion feems to have been kept up amongst the Pofterity of JACOB, until MOSES's time.

XT is yet easier to fhew, that the diftinct knowledge of the cre*ation, and of the promise of the Messiah, did continue from **Jacob to Jofeph, and fo on to Mofes.

The following arguments will clearly demonftrate it.

First of all, we fee that Jacob (z) being poffefs'd of the bleffing, and fo depofitary of the promife, obey'd Ifaac's command, who forbad him to take a wife, but out of his own family; and that accordingly he went to Padan-Aram, to feek and get a wife amongst those of his kindred, as Abraham had formerly fent for one of the fame countrey for his fon Ifaac.

We fee in the second place, this Patriarch imitated Lamech (a) in fome refpect, by his falling into polygamy: for who can doubt but he, who was confcious to himself of having furpriz'd, as he thought, the bleffing defign'd

R 2

(x) Genef. xxviii.

(a) Genef. xxix.

defign'd for his elder brother, did act in this occafion by the fame principle which Lamech had formerly acted by? Thus we fee that barren Rachel follows Sarah's example, and adopts the fon of that maid-servant, whom she gave to Jacob; wherein Leah follow'd her, and gave one of her maids to her husband: all this was evidently grounded upon the fame principle which afterwards bred thofe diffenfions betwixt Jacob's wives about the getting children by him: for it is very natural to believe, that Jacob did not conceal from his wives his advantages and hopes.

It appears, that Jacob's children which were born, for the moft part in Laban's houfe in Chaldea, where they had feen Abraham's native countrey, and those of their own kindred, from among whom God had commanded Abraham to depart, and to go into Canaan, did entertain very lively notions of thofe important truths, efpecially after they were ftrengthened and confirm'd by the cares and inftructions of old Ifaac, to whom they were brought by Jacob; and after they began to practice in Canaan, the worship and religion of their own family, and to compare it with the doctrine they had learnt in Chaldea.

Thofe feveral voyages which God obliged the Patriarchs to undertake, as that of Abraham out of Ur of Chaldea; that of Jacob out of Canaan (we ought to make the fame judgement of Mofes's forty years fojourning amongst the Midianites) did evidently oblige them to examine more carefully, what was the tradition received in the feveral countries into which they travelled, and fo to imprint the more deeply into their minds the belief of thofe important truths, which were the foundation of their religion, and the fole object of the meditations of the faithful.

One fees in fhort, the effects of thefe impreffions.

1. By that cuftom which feems to have begun in Jacob's time, and which afterwards got the authority of a law, I mean the custom of taking to wife ones own brother's widow to raise him up feed.

2. The fin of Onan is reprefented fo odious, only because by it, he acted against the belief of the promife."

3. We fee the fame thing in the action of Thamar, Juda's daughterin-law; for having been deceived by Judah, the in exchange, furpriz'd him into an inceft, the commiffion whereof, according to the observation of a Greek commentator (b), fhe fought to perpetuate, only because she had a vehement defire to get children out of a family, which fhe lookt upon as folely intrufted with the promise of the Meffiah, and out of which he was accordingly to be born.

It is neceffary to make that obfervation, because we ought always to remember, that fhe was formerly a Canaanite, and that confequently the left off and renounc'd the impiety and idolatry of her kindred, when the embrac'd the religion and hopes of Jacob's family. Therefore we fee that particular mention is made of her in our Saviour's genealogy, and of Ruth who likewife gave over all the pretenfions of her own people, and fo forfook her religion to enter into the tribe of Judah, as well as of Bathshebah, who was wife to a Hittite; whereupon an ancient father hath very well obferved (e), according to the Jewish opinion, that Shimei's revilings

(b) Theoph. in Mat. c. i.

(c) S. Hieronym. in Tradit, Heb. ad 1. Reg. 3.

revilings against David, when he went out of Jerufalem, during Abfalom's rebellion, reflected upon his birth out of the pofterity of Ruth the Moabites, as the Jews even to this very day do understand it.

We may make the fame reflexion upon the confideration of that implacable jealoufie which Jofeph's dreams raifed in the minds of his brethren.

1. We may reasonably conceive, that he being the firft-born of Rachel, and the wife which Jacob his father had firft made love to, he had been brought up with hopes of the birth-right, as well as Isaac, who was but the fecond fon of Abraham.

But 2. He might befides, very well fuppofe, that the crimes of his brethren born of Leah (whom in all likelihood he lookt upon as the fole, legitimate heirs, the others being born of maid-fervants) did rank them with Efau, whom God had rejected. That outragious fury which Jofeph's brethren fhew'd against him, because they lookt upon him as preferred of God by those dreams to those that were born before him, is fo like that of Cain, of Lot, of Ifmael, and of Esau; that it had, in all probability, the fame cause and original.

Do we not fee afterwards, another effect of the fame jealoufie, in the affectation that Jacob and his family fhew'd in the land of Egypt, when they refused to live promifcuoufly with the Egyptians, which were the pofterity of Ham, and begg'd of them a countrey where they might live by themselves; as we fee on the contrary, the Egyptians fhewing an ex tream averfion against Jacob and his family, which was of Sem's pofterity.

Certainly it cannot be denied, that as this feparation was an effect of the antipathy of thofe nations, fo it might alfo be in fome refpect, the confequence of Jacob and his childrens pretenfions upon the promife of the Meffiah, the execution and accomplishment whereof, they stood up for as belonging to themselves.

To all this we may add, that the perfecution of the Egyptians against the Ifraelites obliged them to make particular reflexions upon the promise which Jacob on his death-bed made to them from God: that perfecution was chiefly intended against the male children, Pharaoh commanding the extirpation of them, becaufe he was afraid of the Jews growing too ftrong for him, and of their joyning with his enemies; and perhaps alfo, because the Jews entertaining a certain expectation of the Meffiah's coming, and fo boasting and glorying of it upon all occafions, the Egyptians defign'd to fruftrate, and cut off their hope thus, by hindering the accomplishment of the promise.

However there was no real difficulty to keep up the diftinct remembrance of thofe important facts. Jacob died in the year of the world, 2315. Jofeph died in the year of the world, 2428. There are then but 58 years between Jofeph's death, and Mofes's birth: Mofes might have feen not only Amram his own father, who had feen Levi, but also Kohath his grandfather, who had seen Jacob.

And it is for that reafon, that Mofes feems to have obferv'd, that Jofeph faw his own children's children (4), that is to fay, the third ge

neration.

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(4) Gen. 1. 23.

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