a support under his present trials! what an antidote against any future calamities!

Thus it is that God interposes on the behalf of his people, and "repents himself for them, when their strength is gone, and there is none shut up or left." When the contrite soul is bowed down under a sense of guilt, and ready to say, There is no hope; then does God speak peace unto it, saying, "Be of good cheer, I am thy salvation." Just as, in Hagar's extremity, God sent his angel to point out to her a spring, whereby the life of her child was unexpectedly preserved, so in ten thousand instances he appears for us, when we are ready to despair of help: and though his interpositions on our behalf are less visible than these, yet every one of us has reason to acknowledge the truth of that proverb, " In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." Let us but review our lives, and call to mind the aids of his Spirit under temptations, trials, difficulties; let us see how marvellously we have been upheld when conflicting with sin and Satan, and we shall confess indeed, that "he is a present, a very present, help in trouble."]

III. He imparts them suitably

[It is probable that Jacob's reply to the advice of his mother was now, in his apprehension, about to be verified; and that he expected a curse rather than a blessing. His evil conscience now might well suggest to him such thoughts as these: God has forsaken me, and some great evil will come upon me. I can never hope to return again to my father's house in peace, or to enjoy the blessing which I have so treacherously gained.' To remove these apprehensions, God vouchsafed to him exactly such tokens of his regard, as were best calculated to allay his fears. In the vision, God shewed to him both his providential care, and his redeeming love: for doubtless, while he discovered to him the ministry of angels who were commissioned to protect him, he also shewed him that promised Seed, who was in due time to spring from him, and whom at that very instant he typically represented. In the promise, he assured him, that his presence should follow him; that his power should preserve him; that he would bring him back again to that very land; and that not one of all the promises that had been ever made to him, should fail of accomplishment.

In this respect also we may trace the tender mercies of our God towards all his people. His manifestations of himself to them, and his application of promises to their souls, are wonderfully suited to their several necessities. We cannot indeed

This is more fully opened in the preceding Discourse.

justify those, who open the sacred records, and expect that the portion of Scripture, on which they cast their eye, shall be a kind of literal direction to them; (a most unwarranted and delusive method of ascertaining the mind of God!) but this we must affirm, that, whatever we want, whether wisdom, or strength, or grace of any kind, it shall be given us, if we ask in faith. And the experience of all the saints attests the truth of that promise," Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."]

IV. He continues them faithfully

[God had given promises, not to Abraham only and to Isaac, but to Jacob also, while he was yet in his mother's womb. But instead of fulfilling them to him after this flagrant instance of misconduct, he might well have said to him, as he did to his unbelieving posterity, "Thou shalt know my breach of promise:"" I said indeed, that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me for ever: but now it shall be far from me: for them that honour me I will honour; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemedi." But he had spoken, and would not go back: for his word's sake he would not cast off his offending child, or even suffer one jot or tittle of his promises to fail.

Thus to his descendants in future ages did God manifest his fidelity; insomuch that Joshua, after eighty years' experience, could appeal to the whole nation, saying, "Ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof."

To us also will he approve himself faithful. "He will not cast off his people, because it hath pleased him to make us his people'." He has said, I will never leave thee, I will never, never forsake theem. "He may indeed hide his face from us for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will he have mercy on us: the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but the covenant of my peace," says he, "shall not be removed: for like as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee"."] IMPROVEMENT—

1. For caution

[We have seen that Jacob inherited the blessing which he had gained by treachery; and that, where sin had abounded,

grace did much more abound. But shall we do evil that good may come; or commit sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We must never expect the blessing of God but in the way of duty.]

2. For encouragement—

[If through temptation we have fallen into sin, let us not flee from God, like Adam, but go to him in humble hope that he will magnify his mercy towards the chief of sinners.]

XLV.

JACOB'S PILLAR AT BETH-EL.

Gen. xxviii. 16-19. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep; and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God; and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.*

ON whatever side we look, we see abundant evidence that "God's ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts." With us, there are laws of equity prescribed for the regulation of our conduct in the whole of our intercourse with men ; and on our strict observance of them the welfare of society depends. But God is not restrained by any such rules in his government of the world: men having no claims whatever upon him, he has a right to dispose of them, and of all that pertains unto them, according to his own sovereign will and pleasure. This right too he exercises in a way, which, though inexplicable to us, is manifest to all. In the conversion of St. Paul we see this in as striking a point of view as it can possibly be placed. St. Paul,

* Preached at the chapel erected and endowed by the Rev. Lewis Way, in Stansted Park (Sussex), on the day previous to the consecration of it by the Right Rev. Lord Bishop of St. David's, and the Hon. and Right Rev. Lord Bishop of Gloucester, on January 24th, 1819 : the day on which is annually commemorated the Conversion of St. Paul.

even to the very moment of his conversion, was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of our Lord, having voluntarily enlisted himself in the service of the high-priest to execute against them his cruel decrees. He was, as he himself tells us," a blasphemer, and injurious, and a persecutor;" nor had so much as one penitential pang, till he was arrested by the grace of God, and favoured with a sight of that very Jesus, whose interests he was labouring to destroy. Somewhat of a similar display of God's grace may be seen in the history before us. Jacob had been guilty of base deceit in relation to his brother's birthright. He had even represented God himself as confederate with him in that wicked act, and as facilitating by an extraordinary exercise of divine power the attainment of his object. By this treacherous conduct he had greatly incensed his brother against him, and rendered any longer continuance under his father's roof unsafe. Rebekah, who had instigated him to this wickedness, recommended him to flee: and, to reconcile Isaac to his departure, proposed that he should go to his uncle Laban, and take a wife from amongst his own relatives, and not connect himself with any of the daughters of Canaan, as his brother Esau had done. This however was a mere pretext: the true reason of his departure was, that he feared the wrath of Esau, and fled to avoid the effects of his merited indignation. Thus circumstanced, it could not fail but that he must at this time be in a state of much disquietude, not only as being driven from his family at the very time that his pious and aged father was supposed to be dying, but as having brought this evil on himself by his own base and treacherous conduct, and as having provoked God to anger, as well as man, by his impiety. Wearied with fatigue of body and anxiety of mind, he laid himself down to rest under the open canopy of heaven, with nothing but the bare ground for his bed, and a stone for his pillow. If it be asked, why he did not go into the adjacent city to seek a more

comfortable lodging there; I answer, that it was altogether owing to the state of his mind: and his conduct in this respect was perfectly natural; the pain of a guilty conscience uniformly indisposing men, not only for society, but even for any corporeal indulgence.

Who would have thought that under such circumstances he should so speedily be honoured with one of the most wonderful manifestations of God's love that ever were vouchsafed to mortal man? Yet on this very night did God draw nigh to him as a reconciled God, and pour into his bosom all the consolations which his soul could desire.

Well might Jacob express surprise at this marvellous display of God's love and mercy: and I pray God that somewhat of the same holy feelings may be engendered in us, whilst we consider,

I. His unexpected discovery, and

II. The grateful acknowledgments which it drew from him.

I. We notice his unexpected discovery

There were two things with which Jacob was favoured on this occasion; a vision, and a voice. In the vision, he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and angels ascending and descending upon it, whilst God himself stood above it to regulate their motions. This imported, that, however destitute Jacob at this time was, there was a God, who ordered every thing both in heaven and earth, and who by means of ministering angels would effect in behalf of his believing people whatsoever their diversified necessities might require. By the voice, he was informed, that all which had been promised to Abraham and to Isaac, respecting the possession of Canaan by their posterity, and the salvation of the world by the promised Seed, should be fulfilled, partially in his own person, and completely in his posterity. Thus did God exhibit himself to him on this occasion as a God of providence and of grace, and, under both characters, as his God for ever and ever.