A. M. 2108. A. C. 1896; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3398. A. C, 2013. GEN. CH. xx-xxv. 11. in his resolution, the thing was referred to Rebecca, who consented to go with him as soon as he pleased: so that all things being presently made ready, and having a the bridal blessing bestowed upon her, she took her leave and departed, with her nurse, 6 (whose name was Deborah,) and other servants appointed to attend her. the grief he had long conceived for the loss of his mother. After this happy marriage of his son, Abraham still finding himself strong enough to make a new addition to his family, took another wife, e whose name was Keturah, by whom he had six sons: but lest they Whilst Eliezer was conveying his fair charge to his should interfere with Isaac in his inheritance of Canaan, master's house, Providence had so ordered the matter, as they grew up, he portioned them off, and sent them that Isaac, taking a solitary walk in the fields that eve-away towards the east, where, settling in Arabia and ning, happened to espy his servants and camels upon Syria, they became in time heads of different nations; the road, and thereupon went forwards to meet them. whereof we have footsteps both in sacred and profane As soon as Rebecca was informed who he was, she history. alighted, and © throwing her veil over her face (as the manner of women then was) she waited to receive his first compliments. d Isaac, with great respect, addressed himself to her, and conducted her into his mother's tent, which was fitted up for her apartment. Not long after they were married together, and Isaac grew so fond of her, that the love he had for his wife helped to alleviate The blessing is comprised in these words: Be thou a mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them;' which was afterwards made a solemn form of benediction in leading the bride to the bridegroom. Gen. xxiv. 60. And they blessed Rebecca.' Nuptial benedictions were used both by the Jews, Greeks, and Romans. That of the Jews was in this form-" Blessed be thou, O Lord, who hast created man and woman, and created marriage," &c. This was repeated every day during the marriage week, provided there were new guests.-ED. ¿ Gen. xxiv. 59. And they sent away Rebecca their sister, and her nurse.' Nurses were formerly held in very high esteem, and considered as being entitled to constant and lasting regard. "The nurse in an eastern family is always an important personage. Modern travellers inform us, that in Syria she is considered as a sort of second parent, whether she has been fostermother or otherwise. She always accompanies the bride to her husband's house, and ever remains there, an honoured character. | Thus it was in ancient Greece."-Siege of Acre, b. 2. p. 35, note. In Hindostan the nurse" is not looked upon as a stranger, but becomes one of the family, and passes the remainder of her life in the midst of the children she has suckled, by whom she is honoured and cherished as a second mother."- Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. 3. p. 134. "In many parts of Hindostan are mosques and mausoleums, built by the Mahommedan princes, near the sepulchres of their nurses. They are excited by a grateful affection to erect these structures, in memory of those who, with maternal anxiety, watched over their helpless infancy; thus it has been from time immemorial. How interesting is the interview which Homer has described between Ulysses and Euryclea.”—Ib. 3. p. 141.-ED. e The use of the veil was the universal practice among all nations, as far as history can inform us, except the Spartans, who are reported to have been singular, in that their virgins were permitted to appear without a veil, but after they were married, they were never to be seen in public withcut it. It was from this practice of veiling the bride, when she was brought to the bridegroom, in token both of modesty and subjection, that the presents which he made her upon this occasion, were by the Greeks called &vaxaйgia and thus the poets, in celebrating the marriage of Proserpine to Pluto, have this fiction - That, upon unveiling his bride, he presented her with the island of Sicily, in lieu of her veil, which he took from her.-Bibliotheca Billica, vol. 1. It may seem a little strange, that upon so singular an occasion no mention should be made of Abraham, who was a principal party concerned herein; but for this some account by supposing that Abraham, before this, had married Keturah (though, not to break in with the account of his son's marriage, the history relates it later) and resigned his estate, and the government of his family, into the hands of Isaac, choosing to live the remainder of his days in retirement with his new consort. This is the substance of what the sacred history relates concerning the great patriarch Abraham. g At length, laden with honours and outworn with age, after he had lived the space of an hundred and seventy-five years, he took leave of this world; and by his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, was buried in the cave of Machpelah (where, above forty years before, he had reposited the remains of his beloved wife Sarah), leaving a name famous to all posterity behind him. e Keturah is supposed, by some Jewish interpreters, to be the same with Hagar, whom Abraham, after his wife's death, sent for again, and by her had all the six sons here mentioned: but, besides that Hagar must by this time have been above eighty years of age, and consequently too old to bear so many children, the text itself seems to be against this supposition; for it informs us, that Abraham added, or proceeded to take another wife, which is a different thing to his recalling the old one. The more probable opinion therefore is, that this Keturah was a domestic of his own, a Canaanite perhaps, whom he had converted to the true religion; but then the difficulty is, how Abraham could dispose of so many sons, in so short a space as that which intervened between his wife's and his own death. To solve this, some have supposed that this Keturah became his wife, that is, wife of the second order, long before the death of Sarah, even immediately after he parted with Hagar; but then this supposition is contrary to the sense of the original; and therefore, if we are minded to adhere to that, we must say, that Abraham's living almost forty years after Sarah's death gave him time enough to dispose of the sons begotten of Keturah, as the renovation of his strength, which was certainly miraculous, (for forty years before he is said to have been dead to all such purposes, Rom. vi. 19.) enabled him to beget them.-Calmet's Dictionary, Ainsworth's Annotations, and Universal History, b. 1. c. 7. f His sons were, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah, whereof Jokshan had Sheba and Dedan; Dedan had Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim; and Midian had Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abidah, and Eldaah, Gen. xxv. 2, &c. And the footsteps we find of these in history, according to the best conjectures, are such as follow. From Zimran, in all probability, were descended the Zamarens, a people mentioned by Pliny (Natural History, b. 6. c. 28.) From Sheba, the Sabeans, mentioned in Job i. 15. From Dedan, the Dedanim, mentioned in Isaiah xxi. 13. From Midian, the Midianites, mentioned in several places. From Shuah, the Shuites, mentioned in Job ii. 11. From Ephah, was a town of the same name, mentioned by Isaiah lx. 6. From Hanoch, a country called Canauna, mentioned by Pliny (Natural History, b. 6. c. 28.) And, to name no more, from Medan, a country called Mediana, in which is the famous city of Mecca, where Mahomet was born.-Bedford's Chronology, b. 3. c. 4. and Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 1. g This account of Abraham's death is given by way of anticipation; for when the text has recited his sons and their settlement, it brings him and Ishmael to their graves; not that they died before the birth of his two grandsons, Jacob and Esau, as the text has placed things (for Abraham lived till they were fifteen years old, and Ishmael till they were sixty-three), but having no more to say of the father and the son, Moses here concludes their history at once.-Lightfoot. Thus the desire of a numerous issue, the beloved wife, and the supposed innocence of in that age, may, in some measure, plea excuse in assuming Hagar to his bed. B shall we say for his turning her away so ab a starving condition, after she had lived so in the capacity of a wife, and had borne hir clear up this matter, we must inquire a al time and occasion, as well as the manne quence of this her dismission. A. M. 2108. A. C. 1897; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3398. A. C. 2013. GEN. CH. xx.—xxv. 11. shall come forth out of thine own bowels, shall be thine heir: but still the second doubt remained, whether he was to be his heir by Sarah, or by some other woman, which, for the farther trial of his patience, God thought proper to conceal. No wonder then if Abraham, (having no longer hope of issue by his wife, finding her indeed as impatient for a child as himself, and desirous to have such a child as she might account her own, being begotten by her husband and her maid,) yielded to her importunity, not so much to please himself as to gratify her desire. And this seems to be the reason why Sarah made choice of a slave (as Hagar is called in the text) rather than a free woman, to bring to her husband's bed, namely, that the child which the former might happen to bear, might, imputatively at least, be accounted hers; whereas one conceived by a woman that was free, would properly belong to the mother herself. 2 Whether polygamy, in the age of the patriarchs, was innocent or no, is a question that has much employed the pens of the learned. a Most of the ancient fathers of the church maintain its lawfulness, and some of our latter divines can hardly persuade themselves, that a practice which the most holy and venerable men ordinarily engaged in, and during that engagement continued an intimate conversation and familiarity with God; a practice which God never blamed in them, even when he sharply reproved other vices, and for which they themselves never showed the least remorse or tokens of repentance, should be detestable in the sight of God. Our blessed Saviour, who has restored matrimony to its primitive institution, has certainly declared it to be criminal; but whether it was so, under a less perfect dispensation, is not so well agreed. At present, if we suppose it only tolerated by God in the time of the triarchs, we shall soon perceive another inducement for Abraham's complying with his wife's request; and that is, namely, the passionate desire for a numerous progeny, which, in those days, was very prevalent; so very prevalent that we find men accounting of their children as their riches, their strength, their glory, and several families reckoning them up with a sort of pride, and placing the chief of their renown in the multitude of them; For children, and the fruit of the womb, are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord; like as arrows in the hand of a giant, so are young children. Happy is the man that has a quiver full of them; he shall not be ashamed when he speaketh with enemies in the gate.' 34 pa The whole account of this transaction is by the sacred historian. And the child ( child Isaac) grew, and was weaned, and Al a great feast the same day that Isaac was w Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, born unto Abraham, mocking; wherefore s Abraham, cast out this bond-woman and he son of the bond-woman shall not be heir even with Isaac. And the thing was ver Abraham's sight, because of his son. And ( Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sigl the lad, and because of thy bond-woman Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto h in Isaac shall thy seed be called: and als of the bond-woman will I make a nation, thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in and took bread, and a bottle of water, an Hagar (putting it on her shoulder) and sent her away, and she departed, and wa wilderness of Beersheba.' What the manner of celebrating this we feast of initiation was, we can only co certain circumstances, and some parallel customs. There are no more than the wea and the weaning of Samuel, (two very persons, both foretold by the spirit of ] both miraculously born,) which are taken n sacred history. And (if we may be allow a parallel between them) as the feast at th Samuel was a sacred feast, and kept be (for the child was brought by his mother to there presented, and there initiated, or de high-priest, whereupon a sacrifice first, an did ensue); so we may suppose," 1. That ; feast of Isaac, there was a burnt sacrifice, w as priest and prophet, might early in the in order to sanctify both the feast and thos communicate in it: 2. That there wer raiment given to all the guests, and to all to keep the feast in, and that, without the a The words of St Ambrose, b. 1. c. 4, concerning the patri- no one was allowed to sit down at the tab arch Abraham, are very remarkable, and comprehend indeed the sentiments of most of the rest:-"Let us consider, in the first new sort of vesture was given to Isaac, place, that before the existence of the law of Moses and the gos- distinction, by which he was declared heir pel, no interdict was laid on adultery. The punishment of a and the most honourable, next to his fa crime begins with the promulgation of a law prohibiting that crime. there was a dedication of the child, or an 1 It is not before but after the existence of a law, that there is any of him, in a very religious and solemn manr condemnation of a culprit. Therefore Abraham did not sin against a law, he only anticipated it. Although the Almighty by both the parents: 5. That there wa applauded the married state in paradise, yet he did not condemn commemoration of the entertainment of adultery." Durandus, Tostatus, Selden, Grotius, and others, are 1 Heidegger's Hist. Patriar, vol. 2. Essay 6. "See Saurin in Dissertation 19. 3 Ps. cxxvii. 3, &c. clearly of opinion, that before the promulgation of the law, poly-grim's habit, and of the joyful message gamy was no sin; but as their error turns upon this, that the together with the killing of the fatted first institution of marriage between one pair in paradise was provisions made for them: and, 6. That u not designed by God for a law, so have they received an ample confutation from the learned Heidegger, in his Historia Patriar. vol. 1. Essay 1, and Essay 7. and vol. 2. Essay 6. Gen. xxi. 8, &c. 51 Sam. Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1. Occasional Anx A. M. 2108. A. C. 1897; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3398. A. C. 2013. GEN. CH. xii-xxv. 11, use of words, and pretend thereby to discover their | with Abraham, when he dismissed him so honourably. thoughts, they impose upon their hearers, if they do not She was an Egyptian indeed, very probably one of those really express what they pretend; and in this the very servants that were given to Abraham, and was employed formality of lying does consist, namely, in a settled about Sarah's person as her waiting-maid: but we have intention to deceive others. "For whatever is said, no grounds to think, that a woman of her extraction (had whether in itself it be true or false, whether it agrees she been Pharaoh's daughter) would have condescended with the thoughts of the speaker or not, yet if it plainly to serve in any capacity. However this be, Sarah seetends to deceive the hearer; if he who says it perceives ing herself now grown old and barren, and knowing that the tendency, and accordingly uses it to this end, how- God had promised a numerous posterity to Abraham, beever disguised it is, under whatever forms it is expressed, lieved that, in order to contribute to the accomplishment it is, to all intents and purposes, a lie." of these promises, she ought to give her servant to him for a wife; and accordingly she is introduced as making the first offer: Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing, I pray thee go in unto my maid; it may be, that I may obtain children by her.' This proposal (as St Chrysostom observes,) and the soft manner of making it, discovered a very uncommon love and respect to her 5 It is in vain, then, to pretend to assoil the patriarch from the imputation of lying or dissimulation in this case; but then this may be said in extenuation of his fault, that it proceeded from a weakness of faith, and a prevalency of fear, which are sometimes found to be incident to the best of men. He considered himself as a stranger among a licentious sort of people, and ex-husband; that she herself should persuade and urge him posed to the power of an arbitrary government; and, from a principle of worldly caution, both to preserve his own life and his wife's modesty, he concluded that this would be the best expedient; but much more wisely had he done, had he committed the whole matter to God's management, in reliance on his promises, and in confidence of his protection. to this expedient, in order to make him easy in that particular, which gave him so much disturbance, the want of issue, the default of which she supposed to be owing to herself: a and it was purely in compliance to this solicitation of hers, that he took Hagar to his bed. Sarah, undoubtedly, was by far the more beautiful woman, at least if so good judges as the king of Egypt and his subIt cannot, however, with any tolerable construction be jects may be depended on. Abraham had now lived many charged upon him, that he went about to betray his wife's years, without giving any occasion to have his modesty chastity, since, according to his present sentiments, he and continence suspected. Hagar too was no more took the most effectual method to prevent it. 2 For, in than his wife's servant, and inferior to her in person as declaring her to be his sister, he made it known that she much as in condition. In a short time after, when, upon was committed to his care and disposal; and from hence her conception, she grew undutiful to her mistress, he supposed it would come to pass, that if any of the Abraham never interposed in her favour, but left her country was minded to make his addresses to the sister, entirely to her lady's discretion: from all which circumhe would, of course, come and apply himself to the stances it appears that his taking Hagar to be his brother. The first motions of love he knew were most concubinary wife, was not from any motive of sensualiimpetuous, and apt to hurry men into violence and out-ty, but from a true principle of conjugal affection to rage; and therefore he thought with himself, that if he should pass for her husband, such as were in love with her would have no other way of accomplishing their desires but at the expense of his life; whereas, if he passed for her brother, time might be gained, the treaty of marriage prolonged, and several unforeseen accidents happen, that might give the divine providence a seasonable opportunity to interpose in his favour, as we find it did. Nor can the presents which both Pharaoh and Abimelech gave Abraham, upon the delivery of his wife, with any justice, be imputed to his management; since they were voluntary acknowledgments for his interceding for them; oblations of gratitude for their recovery from the sore plagues wherewith God had afflicted them; and a kind of commutation for the injury and affront they had put upon persons so highly favoured by God, that at what time they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong, but reproved even kings for their sakes.' Sarah. ❝ God had indeed promised him the land of Canaan, and a numerous issue to succeed him; but whether the son, from whom that issue was to spring, was properly to be his own, or only adoptive; or if his own, whether begotten of Sarah or of some other woman, was not revealed to him. Seeing, therefore, he had no children of his own, and yet stedfastly believed the promises of God, the only way that he could devise whereby to have these promises accomplished, was by way of adoption; and therefore he says, 7 Lo! one born in my house is my heir;' upon which God clears the first of these doubts to him, namely, whether his seed was to be natural or adoptive; This shall not be thine heir, but one that In Locum, Hom. 38. Augustinus contra Faustum, b. 22. c. 32. 7 Gen. xv. 3. s Gen. xv. 4. 4 Gen. xvi. 2. a The words of St Austin upon this occasion are very nervous and very significant:"Abraham used Hagar to rear an offspring for him, not to gratify his lust: he did not insult but rather complied with the wishes of his wife, who believed that it would be a com Hagar, according to the opinion of some of the rab-fort for her barrenness, if he should go in unto her maid, since she bins, who love to magnify every matter, was one of the 1 Bishop Smalridge's Sermon on Lying. 2 Psalm cv. 13, 14. herself was incapacitated by old age. There is here no desire of wantonness-no disgraceful criminality; for the sake of offspring the maid is given by the wife to the husband, and, for the same reason, is she received by him."-De Civit. Dei, b. 16. c. 25; where he concludes with these exclamatory words, "O virum viriliter utentem fœminis, conjuge temperanter, ancilla obtemperanter, nulla intemperanter." Thus the desire of a numerous issue, the entrea beloved wife, and the supposed innocence of concul in that age, may, in some measure, plead Abra excuse in assuming Hagar to his bed. But then shall we say for his turning her away so abruptly, a starving condition, after she had lived so long w in the capacity of a wife, and had borne him a soi clear up this matter, we must inquire a little in time and occasion, as well as the manner and quence of this her dismission. A. M. 2103. A. C. 1897; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3398. A. C. 2013. GEN. CH. xx.—xxv. 11. shall come forth out of thine own bowels, shall be thine heir' but still the second doubt remained, whether he was to be his heir by Sarah, or by some other woman, which, for the farther trial of his patience, God thought proper to conceal. No wonder then if Abraham, (having no longer hope of issue by his wife, finding her indeed as impatient for a child as himself, and desirous to have such a child as she might account her own, being begotten by her husband and her maid,) yielded to her importunity, not so much to please himself as to gratify her desire. And this seems to be the reason why Sarah made choice of a slave (as Hagar is called in the text) rather than a free woman, to bring to her husband's bed, namely, that the child which the former might happen to bear, might, imputatively at least, be accounted hers; whereas one conceived by a woman that was free, would properly belong to the mother herself. Whether polygamy, in the age of the patriarchs, was innocent or no, is a question that has much employed the pens of the learned. Most of the ancient fathers of the church maintain its lawfulness, and some of our latter divines can hardly persuade themselves, that a practice which the most holy and venerable men ordinarily engaged in, and during that engagement continued an intimate conversation and familiarity with God; a practice which God never blamed in them, even when he sharply reproved other vices, and for which they themselves never showed the least remorse or tokens of repentance, should be detestable in the sight of God. Our blessed Saviour, who has restored matrimony to its primitive institution, has certainly declared it to be criminal; but whether it was so, under a less perfect dispensation, is not so well agreed. At present, if we suppose it only tolerated by God in the time of the patriarchs, we shall soon perceive another inducement for Abraham's complying with his wife's request; and that is, namely, the passionate desire for a numerous progeny, which, in those days, was very prevalent; so very prevalent that we find men accounting of their children as their riches, their strength, their glory, and several families reckoning them up with a sort of pride, and placing the chief of their renown in the multitude of them; For children, and the fruit of the womb, are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord; like as arrows in the hand of a giant, so are young children. Happy is the man that has a quiver full of them; he shall not be ashamed when he speaketh with enemies in the gate.' 36 Ps. cxxvii. 3, &c. 'Heidegger's Hist. Patriar. vol. 2. Essay 6. See Saurin in Dissertation 19. a The words of St Ambrose, b. 1. c. 4, concerning the patriarch Abraham, are very remarkable, and comprehend indeed the sentiments of most of the rest:-"Let us consider, in the first place, that before the existence of the law of Moses and the gospel, no interdict was laid on adultery. The punishment of a crime begins with the promulgation of a law prohibiting that crime. It is not before but after the existence of a law, that there is any condemnation of a culprit. Therefore Abraham did not sin against a law, he only anticipated it. Although the Almighty applauded the married state in paradise, yet he did not condemn adultery." Durandus, Tostatus, Selden, Grotius, and others, are clearly of opinion, that before the promulgation of the law, polygamy was no sin; but as their error turns upon this, that the first institution of marriage between one pair in paradise was not designed by God for a law, so have they received an ample confutation from the learned Heidegger, in his Historia Patriar. vol. 1. Essay 1, and Essay 7. and vol. 2. Essay 6, The whole account of this transaction is thus 1 by the sacred historian. And the child (meani child Isaac) grew, and was weaned, and Abrahan a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned, Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which born unto Abraham, mocking; wherefore she sai Abraham, cast out this bond-woman and her son, son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with 1 even with Isaac. And the thing was very grie Abraham's sight, because of his son. And God sa Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight, bec the lad, and because of thy bond-woman; in Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voi in Isaac shall thy seed be called: and also of of the bond-woman will I make a nation, becau thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in the m and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave Hagar (putting it on her shoulder) and the ch sent her away, and she departed, and wandered wilderness of Beersheba.' What the manner of celebrating this weaning feast of initiation was, we can only conjectu certain circumstances, and some parallel passa customs. There are no more than the weaning o and the weaning of Samuel, (two very extra persons, both foretold by the spirit of prophe both miraculously born,) which are taken notice sacred history. And (if we may be allowed to a parallel between them) as the feast at the we Samuel was a sacred feast, and kept 5 before t (for the child was brought by his mother to the sa there presented, and there initiated, or dedicate high-priest, whereupon a sacrifice first, and thei did ensue); so we may suppose, 1. That at the feast of Isaac, there was a burnt sacrifice, which A as priest and prophet, might early in the morni in order to sanctify both the feast and those that communicate in it: 2. That there were cha raiment given to all the guests, and to all the to keep the feast in, and that, without the festiv no one was allowed to sit down at the table: 3 new sort of vesture was given to Isaac, as an distinction, by which he was declared heir of the and the most honourable, next to his father: there was a dedication of the child, or an holy i of him, in a very religious and solemn manner, pel by both the parents: 5. That there was prob commemoration of the entertainment of angels grim's habit, and of the joyful message then br together with the killing of the fatted calf, and provisions made for them: and, 6. That upon this Gen. xxi. 8, &c. $ 1 Sam. i. 24. Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1. Occasional Annotations, A. M. 2108. A. C. 1897; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3398. A. C. 2013. GEN. CH. xx-xxv. 1]. sion, there was certainly a sumptuous entertainment made for their guests, suitable to the character of the master of the feast, who was a prince as well as a prophet, and answerable to the end and design of it, which was to commemorate the highest divine blessing that could be given, not to one family only, but to all the generations of the world. On this festival occasion, it was very probable, that Sarah perceived Ishmael treating her son with contempt and derision. The initiation of Isaac, and his father's declaration concerning him, which Ishmael, who thought he had a prior right, was not able to bear, was enough to exasperate his rough nature to commit such rudeness, 23 could not but break the merriment of the feast, and thereupon provoke Sarah to exert her authority, by showing the difference between the son of a bond-woman, and the heir apparent of the family. I say, to exert her authority;1 for as Hagar was Sarah's dotal maid-servant, she was entirely at her disposal. Abraham had no cognisance of her; from his jurisdiction she was exempt, and by marriage-articles (as we call it) reserved to her mistress in property; and therefore we find God interposing in the affair, and advising Abraham, in all that · Sarah should say unto him, " to hearken to her voice.' The expulsion of Hagar and her son is represented indeed, by our translation, under circumstances somewhat dolorous; but if we inquire into particulars, we shall find them not near so full of distress as this representation seems to make them. Abraham is said to have sent them away early in the morning; but this might be done on purpose to prevent what might pass between them, at so sorrowful a parting, from being observed by too many eyes. He is said to have given them bread and a bottle of water;' but as bread and water include eatables and drinkables of all kinds; so there is no doubt to be made but that Ishmael was able enough to carry a handsome competency of provision for a few days, or that his mother might very well carry a large bottle of water, or other liquid, to support them for a week or so, while they were travelling through the wilderness. Their whole misfortune was, in mistaking their way, and wandering about in the desert until their water was consumed; but this was a mere accident, wherein Abraham had not the least concern. Ishmael indeed is, in several places, called a child, and from thence we may suppose, that he was a burden and incumbrance to his mother: but if we look into his age, we shall find that when Isaac was born, he was fourteen; and therefore, allowing two years between Isaac's birth and his weaning, he could not be less than sixteen when Abraham sent him and his mother away, and was consequently a youth capable of being a support and assistance to her. For the circumstances of the world we may observe, at this time, were such, that it was an easy matter for any person to find a sufficient and comfortable livelihood in it. Mankind were so few, that there was in every country ground to spare; so that any one who had flocks or a family might be permitted to settle any where to feed and maintain them, and so grow, and increase, and become wealthy; or creatures 'Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1, Occasional Annotations, 32. See also the note at the end of the Objection, c. iii. of this book. 'Gen. xxi. 12. 'Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. b. 7. in the world were so numerous, that a person who had no flocks or herds might, in the wilderness and unculti vated grounds (as Ishmael we find became an archer) find game enough of all sorts whereby to maintain himself and his dependants, without doing any injury, or being molested for so doing. 46 Ishmael indeed had for sixteen years continued in Abraham's family, and at first perhaps it might be disputed, whether he or his brother Isaac should succeed to their father's inheritance: but after that this point was determined, and God himself had declared in the favour of Isaac, he must of course have become Isaac's bondman or servant, had he continued in Abraham's family. So that it was both kindly and prudently done of his father, to take occasion, from Sarah's disgust against him, to emancipate and set him free, by sending him abroad to acquire an independent settlement, which was all the provision that parents in those days could make for their younger children. It was the same provision that his father Abraham made for the sons which he afterwards had by his wife Keturah; for so we are told, that ' he gave all that he had unto Isaac, but unto the sons of his concubines he gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward, unto the east country.' Nay, it was the same provision which Isaac made for his son Jacob, though he was the heir of the blessing. When he went from his father's house to Padan-Aram, we read of no servants or equipage attending him, nor any accommodations prepared for his journey. He was sent (as we call it now-a-days) to seek his fortune, only instructed to seek it among his kinsfolk and relations, and he went to seek it upon so uncertain a foundation, that we find him most earnestly praying to God to be with him in the way he was to go, not to suffer him to want the necessaries of life, but to give him bread to eat, and raiment to put on;' and yet we see, that by becoming an hired servant to Laban, he both married his daughters, and in a few years became master of a very considerable substance. 6 5 It is our mistake, in the customs of the times therefore, that makes us imagine that Hagar and Ishmael had any hard usage in their ejectment. Whatever the nature of their offence might be, or whatever grounds Sarah might have for her indignation against them, there is no reason to accuse Abraham's conduct in this affair, since what he did was pursuant to a divine direction, which he durst not disobey; was agreeable to the practice of the times wherein he lived; and no more than what all other fathers, in those days, imposed upon their younger sons: since the hardships they suffered were accidental, but the benefits which accrued to them were designed since Abraham, by this means, rescued them from a state of servitude for ever; and, according to the divine prediction, was persuaded that this would be the only expedient to make of Ishmael a flourishing nation. : Abraham's great readiness to sacrifice his son, upon the first signification of the divine pleasure, is an instance of duty and obedience, not to be equalled in all the records of history. Sanchoniatho indeed, (as he is quoted by Eusebius) tells us of one Chronus, king of Phoenicia, who, in a time of great distress, and extreme 5 Gen. xviii. Gen. xxx. 43. Præp. Evan. b. 1. c. 10. 7 Gen. xxv. 6. |