The word 'tempt,' in the simple notion of it, signifies to try, to experiment, to prove, as when a vessel is pierced, that the nature of the liquor it contains may be ascertained. Hence God is said sometimes to tempt, and we are commanded as our duty to tempt, or try, or search ourselves to know what is in us, and to pray that God would do so also. So temptation is like a knife that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.-Owen. 5 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell of. › And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. Whatsoever is dearest to us upon earth, is our Isaac. Happy are we, if we can sacrifice it to God; indeed, the only way to find comfort in an earthly thing, is to surrender it into the hands of God.-Bp. Hall. We think Abraham was tried to purpose when called to take his son, his son Isaac. his only son, whom he loved,' and offer him up with his own hands, and no other. Yet what was I that to this? 'Soul, take thy lust, thy only lust, which is the child of thy dearest love, thy Isaac, the sin 8 7 which has caused thee most joy and laughter, from which thou hast promised thyself the greatest return of pleasure or profit; as ever thou expectest to see my face with comfort, lay hands on it, and offer it up; pour out the blood of it before me; run the sacrificial knife of mortification into the very heart of it; and this freely, joyfully; for it is no pleasing sacrifice that is offered with a countenance cast down; and all this now, before thou hast one more embrace from it. Truly this is a hard chapter; flesh and blood cannot bear this saying. Our lust and thy soul thy neighbours; shut me up in the most retired room thou hast in thy heart, from the hearing of others, if thou wilt only let me now and then have the wanton embraces of thy thoughts and affections in secret.' If that cannot be granted, then Satan will seem only to desire execution may be delayed awhile, as Jephtha's daughter, of her father; 'Let me alone a month or two, and then do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth' (Judges xi. 36, 37); well knowing, few such reprieved lusts, but at last obtain their full pardon; yea, recover their favour with the soul. Now, what resolution doth it require to break through such violence and importunity, and notwithstanding all this, to do present execution!-Gurnall. 11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. God's charges are ofttimes harsh at the first, but in the end always comfortable. True spiritual comforts are commonly late and sudden. God defers on purpose, that our trials may be perfect, our deliverance welcome, and our recompense glorious.-Bp. Hall. 18 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. 15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba. 20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor; 21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah. 'In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.' This, it seems, became a proverb similar to that in our own language, Man's extremity is God's opportunity.' When God's people are straitened; when the policy of artful and designing men has been aimed against them; when the counsels of hell have baffled their wisdom and efforts; then has God always delighted to show forth His glory in parental and seasonable deliverance. This He did at the sea, when His people were delivered, and their enemies sank as lead in the mighty waters.' This He did when He commissioned an earthquake to shake the stocks from the limbs of Paul and Silas, and an angel to open Peter's prison door. This He did when He delivered the church from the fires of the persecution, by the abdication of Dioclesian, from the AN · throne; this He did at a later period, when His servants broke the papal bonds, and defied the corruptions of Rome and hell. When the church has been trembling under the apprehension that God had forgotten to be gracious, and has had scarcely faith enough to own His name before the world, then has He magnified His parental care in her protection, and in working terrible things she looked not for.' He always chooses emergencies to show His glory in His care for those who cannot defend themselves, and seek protection at His hand. It is in straits that we see God's salvation, if ever. He looks upon extremities as motives to constrain Him to raise Himself up, a comfort to Zion, and a terror to the enemies of the cross.Anon. CHAP. XXIII. ND Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. It is worthy of remark that Sarah is the only woman whose age, death, and burial are distinctly noted in the Sacred Writings. Tears are a tribute due to our de 4 3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. the diamond's brilliancy, and glanced a sight of his once enchanting fair one, what a startling astonishment would seize him! Is this the object I not long ago so passionately admired? I said she was divinely fair, and thought her somewhat more than mortal. Her form was symmetry itself; every elegance breathed in her air, and all the graces waited on her motions. 'Twas music when she spoke; but, when she spoke encouragement, 'twas little less than rapture. How my heart danced to those charming accents! And can that which, some weeks ago, was to admiration lovely, be so insufferably loathsome? Where are those blushing cheeks? Where the coral lips? Where that ivory neck, on which the curling jet in such glossy ringlets flowed; with a thousand other beauties of person, and ten thousand delicacies of action? Amazing alteration ! Delusory bliss! Fondly I gazed upon the glittering meteor. It shone brightly, and I mistook it for a. star; for a permanent and perpetual good. But how is it fallen! fallen from an orb not its own! And all that I can trace on earth is but a putrid mass! Lie, then, poor Florella ! lie deep, as thou dost, in obscure darkness! Let night, with her impenetrable shades, always conceal thee. May no prying eye be witness to thy disgrace; but let thy surviving sisters. think upon thy state, when they contemplate the idol in the glass. Let these seasonable reflections regulate the labours of the toilet, and make them more solicitous to polish the jewel than to varnish the casket. It. might then become their highest ambition to have the mind decked with divine virtues, and dressed after the amiable pattern of the Redeemer's holiness!-Hervey. 9 "And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6 Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you. 10 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, " Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it 11 thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. 12 And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land, 18 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me : I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. 14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. 16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. V.16. Our English word 'scale,' which is the instrument by which we weigh, is well considered to come from the Hebrew word here used (shakal), signifying to weigh anything, but especially to weigh coin or money, as in the transactions here recorded. It was the custom of those times, as it is with us now, instead of counting, to weigh their money; and this was the most exact and ready way of payment. And from this word 'shakal,' signifying to weigh money, comes the Hebrew word for one special sort of money, the shekel, because they weighed by the shekel, which they used as a standard coin, by which all other coin was weighed and estimated. -Caryl. From the use of the metals as a medium of exchange, we may infer that commerce had made extensive progress as early as the time of Abraham.-L. 17 And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure 18 Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. 20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth. The provident care of the patriarchs respecting a sepulchre for their descendants, is a convincing proof that they accounted it a heavy calamity to be deprived of burial, and a blessing to be interred among their ancestors. They held it as a matter of indifference, where their tombs were erected, A whether in a field, or orchard, a mountain, or a garden, provided they could but secure the possession of the purchase. They were, however, curious to have them, if possible, cut into a rock, which was no difficult matter in so mountainous a country.-Mavor. CHAP. XXIV. ND Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, |