out refreshing the memory with it. This care for posterity, and providence for the future, was an argument of true generosity and greatness of mind. The patriarchs enjoyed perfect freedom, and their family was a little state, of which the father was, in manner, king. For what did Abraham want of the power of sovereigns, but their vain titles and inconvenient ceremonies? He was subject to nobody; kings concluded alliances with him: he made war and peace when he pleased. Princes sought the alliance of Isaac.* Ishmael, Jacob, and Esau, were likewise independent. We must not then suffer ourselves to be misled by names, nor think Abraham inferior to Amraphel or Abimelech, because the Scripture does not call him king as well as them. He was certainly equal to one of those four kings, whom he defeated with his domestic forces, and the assistance of his three allies. The greatest difference was, that he did not shut himself up within walls as they did, and that his whole family followed him to any place whither he had a mind to move his tents. All authentic history testifies that kingdoms were very small, even in the east, at that time of day; and we find them so in other countries a great while after. CHAPTER III. Their Riches and Employments. THE riches of the patriarchs consisted chiefly in cattle. Abraham must have had a vast stock, when he was obliged to part from his nephew Lot, because the land was not able to bear them together. Jacob had a great number when he came back from Mesopotamia; since the present that he made to his brother Esau was five hundred and eighty head of different sorts.§ From which we may likewise learn *Gen. xxvi, 26, 28. † Gen. xiv, 14, 15. Gen. xiii, 6. § Gen. xxxii, 13, 15. what sort of beasts they bred, viz. goats, sheep, camels, horned cattle, and asses. There were no horses nor swine among them. It was such plenty of cattle which made them set so great a value upon wells and cisterns, in a country where there was no river but Jordan, and rain very seldom. They had slaves too: and Abraham must have had an abundance of them, since he armed three hundred and eighteen men of those that were born in his house and trained up by himself.* In proportion, he must have had plenty of children, old men, women, and slaves that were bought with money. When he returned from Egypt, it is said he was rich in gold and silver. The bracelets and earrings, which his servant Eliezer made a present of to Rebecca from his master, weighed six ounces of gold; and the purchase of his burying-place shows that money was in use at that time.§ We see likewise that perfumes and costly raiment were made use of by Esau's clothes, which Jacob wore to obtain his father's blessing. With all their riches they were very laborious, always in the field, lying under tents, shifting their abode according to the convenience of pasture, and consequently often taken up with encamping and decamping, and frequently upon the march for they could make but short days' journies with so numerous an attendance. Not but that they might have built towns as well as their conntrymen: but they chose this way of living. It is without doubt the most ancient, since it is easier to set up tents than to build houses; and has always been reckoned the most perfect, as attaching men less to this world. Thus the condition of the patriarchs is best represented, who lived here only as sojourners waiting *Gen. xiv, 14. † Gen. xiii, 2. Gen. xxiv, 22. § Gen. xxiii, 16. Gen. xxvii. 27. But does not this rather intimate that odoriferous plants or herbs, were laid up with the clothes in the chests or coffers where they were kept? A custom that prevails among the inhabitants of some countries to the present day. for the promises of God,* which were not to be accomplished till after their death. The first cities that are mentioned were built by wicked men.† Cain and Nimrod were the first that erected walls and fortifications to secure themselves from the punishment due to their crimes, and to give them an opportunity of committing fresh ones with impunity. Good men lived in the open air, having nothing to make them afraid. The chief employment of the patriarchs was the care of their cattle their whole history shows it, and the plain account which the sons of Jacob gave of themselves to the king of Egypt.§ Though husbandry be very ancient, the pastoral life is the more perfect. The first was the lot of Cain, the brother of Abel. It has something in it more simple and noble; it is laborious, attaches one less to the world, and yet more profitable. The elder Cato** preferred a stock of cattle, though but a moderate one, to tillage, which yet he thought better than any other way of improving his fortune. The just reprimand which Jacob gave to Laban, shows that the patriarchs laboured hard at their work, and did at no time neglect it: I have served thee twenty years, says he, in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes.tt One may judge of the men's laborious way of living by that of the young women. Rebecca came a good way off to draw water, and carried it upon her shoulders ;‡‡ and Rachel herself kept her father's flock.§§ Neither their nobility nor beauty made them so delicate as to scruple it. This primeval simplicity was long retained amongst the Greeks, whose good breeding we yet admire with so much reason. Homer affords us examples of it throughout his works, and pastorals have no other foundation. It is certain that in Syria, Greece, and *Heb. xi, 9, 13. † Gen. iv, 17. Gen. x, 10. § Gen. xlvii, 3. || Gen. iv, 2. **De Re Rustic. in Init. tt Gen. xxxi, 40. Gen. xxiv, 15. §§ Gen. xxix, 9. Sicily, there were persons of eminence who made it their sole occupation to breed cattle for more than one thousand five hundred years after the patriarchs; and who, in the great leisure that sort of life afforded, and the good humour those delightful countries inspired them with, composed several little pieces of poetry, still extant, of inimitable beauty and simplicity. CHAPTER IV. Their Frugality. THE patriarchs were not at all nice in their eating or other necessaries of life; one may judge of their common food by the pottage of lentiles that Jacob had prepared, which tempted Esau to sell his birthright.* But we have an instance of a splendid entertainment in that which Abraham made for the three angels. He set a calf before them, new bread, but baked upon the hearth; together with butter and milk. It seems they had some sort of made dishes, by that which Rebecca cooked for Isaac: but his great age may excuse this delicacy. This dish was made of two kids. Abraham dressed a whole calf for the angels, and three measures of meal made into bread, which comes to more than two of our bushels, and nearly to fifty-six pounds of our weight. Whence we may conclude they were great eaters, used much exercise, and were perhaps of a larger stature as well as longer lives than we. The Greeks seem to think that the men of the heroic ages were of great stature; and Homer makes them great eaters. When Eumæus§ entertained Ulysses, he dressed two pigs, probably young ones, for himself and his guest; and on another occasion, a hog of five years old for five persons. * Gen. xxv, 29, 34. † Gen. xviii, 6. Gen. xxvii, 9. § Odyss xiv, 1. 74, Ib. 1. 419. Homer's heroes wait upon themselves in the common occasions of life; and we see the patriarchs do the same. Abraham, who had so many servants, and was nearly a hundred years old, brings the water himself to wash the feet of his divine guests, bids his wife make the bread quickly, goes himself to choose the meat, and comes again to serve them standing.* I will allow that he was animated upon this occasion with a desire of showing hospitality; but all the rest of their lives is of a piece with it. Their servants were to assist them, but not so as to exempt them from working themselves. In fact, who could have obliged Jacob, when he went into Mesopotamia, to travel a journey of more than two hundred leagues (for it was at least so far from Beersheba to Haran) alone and on foot, with only a staff in his hand? what, I say, could oblige him to it but his own commendable plainness and love of toil? Thus he rests where night overtakes him, and lays a stone under his head instead of a pillow. And although he was so tenderly fond of Joseph, he does not scruple sending him alone from Hebron to seek his brethren at Sichem, which was a long day's journey; and when Joseph does not find them there, he goes on to Dothan, more than a day's journey farther, and all this when he was but sixteen years old. It was this plain and laborious way of life, no doubt, that made them attain to such a great old age, and die so calmly. Both Abraham and Isaac lived nearly two hundred years. The other patriarchs, whose age is come to our knowledge, exceeded a hundred at least, and we do not hear that they were ever sick during so long a life. He gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, full of days, is the manner in which the Scripture describes their death.§ The first time we read of physicians is, when it is said, that Joseph commanded his domestics to embalm the * Gen. xviii, 4. Gen. xxxii, 10. Gen. xxxvii, 15, 17. § Gen. TXV, 8. |