wrought all our works in us and for us; this is the green fir-tree from me, said our Lord, thy fruit is found. Now, when the creature is thus one with the Creator, precisely as he said to the Father, I in them, and thou in me, that we may be made perfect in one; what is it but a comprehensive character, forming a complete whole ?

A single woman stands in her own right; if she contracts debts she is answerable, and the law attaches her in her own person. But let her take a husband, and the ground is changed; were an action brought against her in her maiden name, her creditor would be non-suited, his action would not stand. So it is in the gospel dispensation, arrested under the law; we can plead our marriage, and positively pronounce, our name is not in the writ; we can assure the officer of this truth, and should he still insist, we should reply, that was my name, but I am married; you must make application to my husband. In every legal process, in every possible arrangement, this plea would be admitted as perfectly conclusive.

The twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis furnishes a narration full to my purpose. The venerable patriarch, Isaac, addressed his eldst son, Esau, and said:

"Behold now I am old, and I know not the day of my death: "Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison: "And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat: that my soul may bless thee before I die.

"And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it."

It would seem that Esau had been in the habit of attending to the wishes of his father in this particular. The truth is, his character is amiable; he is represented as affectionate and dutiful; he is the object of his father's affection, and in every view superior to his youngest brother. Yet Jacob was the favorite of his mother; nor is this by any means a solitary instance; it has been frequently observed in many respectable families, that if a boy in the family be will and eccentric, wandering in devious paths, he is immediately regarded by his mother with an eye of partiality, and, in consequence of this absurd preference, the sex in general have been subjected to many unkind remarks. But admitting the truth of this observation, the manifested kindness may originate in a laudable source. A consciousness in the bosom of the mother, that

the offender is her son, would teach her sympathy and commiseration; and this would apparently augment her stock of tenderness, and give her an additional and glowing interest in every thing that affected him. I once knew a mother, who sometimes complained of her children, but if we agreed with her, it immediately divested them of their errors, and she affirmed they were not worse than others. It was true they had their faults, but who from faults were free? and it was also true, her children had their virtues too, and a great many virtues, &c. &c. &c. I love to see and hear a fond mother conversing of her children, for it always reminds me of the words of our great Master: "If ye being evil can thus think, thus speak, and thus act toward your children. How much more perfect will be the dispositions of the almighty Parent, toward his children?"

But to return to the family of the patriarch. Rebekah listening to what Isaac had said to his favourite son, determined to avail herself of the discovery she had so clandestinely made, and when Esau departed on his filial employment, she spake unto Jacob her

son:

"Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.

"Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two kids of the goats; and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth:

"And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death."

Although this son had previously given evidence of his self-love, in the unwarrantable advantage he had taken of the sufferings of his eldest brother, in the memorable transaction relative to the birth-right, yet in the present instance, alarmed by the fear of detection, he objected to the proposed fraud, by observing:

"Behold Esau, my brother, is an hairy man, and I am a smooth

man:

may

feel me,

"My father peradventure and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing."

But to render her favourite perfectly easy on this head, his mother said unto him: "Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, only follow my council, and leave the event to me." The youth certainly hesitated; he was convinced it was a wrong

action to rob his eldest brother, and impose upon his father; but his mother loved him and he loved her, nor had he any objection to becoming supreme head of his family. Many were the privileges which in those days were annexed to eldership, and to the blessing, which was considered as appertaining to the eldest son.

Possibly Rebekah might believe, that as her son Esau had parted with this birth-right for so paltry a consideration, she could easily persuade her husband, that the blessing of course appertained thereto, and that Esau himself would be indifferent. However this may be, the matter was soon determined; the kids were brought, and the wily mother engaged in preparing them. Surely she must have felt horridly while preparing this same savory dish, and her confidence in her ascendency over the mind of her husband must have been prodigious. Yet, possibly, she might have had some intimation given her, by him who hath access to the inmost recesses of the mind, of the designs of God. Perhaps she knew, that her youngest son was to be the favourite of the everlasting Father, and that providence had over-ruled the affair of the birth-right, not only leading to, but pointing out her present course. At any rate, her heart was in the hands of her Maker, and it is not in woman any more than man, to direct her steps.

All this time the son, to whom the father was attached, the son whom the father loved, the willing, the obedient son, was performing the part proper to an obedient son, having no suspicion of the treachery practising against him, and no doubt he greatly rejoiced when he had procured and made ready the food which the father loved.

But Jacob's kids were dressed by the skilful house-wife, who probably was prompt in her directions, relative to the conduct of her favourite. Did not the heart of Jacob palpitate, as he entered the presence of his revered parent? was it possible he did not dread the consequences? Yet Rebekah had taken every precaution; she had dressed the young man in the goodly raiment of her eldest son; she had put the skins of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck. It is observed by Bochart, that in the eastern countries, "Goats hair is very much like human hair;" and, thus equipped, Jacob approached his fond expecting parent, and said, "My father." His father answered: "Here am I; who art thou my son?

"And Jacob said unto his father: I am Esau thy first born; I have done according as thou badest me. And Isaac said unto his son:

VOL. II.

How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? Because the Lord thy God brought it to me." Isaac betrays some suspicion of his son's veracity, and knowing himself blind, was determined to call in the aid of the sense, which he still retained: "Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.

"And Jacob went near unto Isaac, his father; (what at that moment must have been his sensations?) and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. So he blessed him. Yet still he doubted, and still he questioned, Art thou my very son, Esau? and he said, I am; and he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands. And he said, Bring near to me the savory meat, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee." Now, if believing can produce that which was not previous to our belief, then Jacob was really Esau, for the patriarch really believed he was; but this by the by.

"So, when Isaac had eaten of his son's venison, he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his elder son's raiment, and blessed him, and he said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field, which the Lord hath blessed." The father's doubts vanished, when revived by the odoriferous scent of this garment. It was, therefore, to him, as a field which God had blessed by an abundance of sweet-scented flowers.

The affection of the venerable patriarch for his eldest son, appears to be very ardent; it was on him, he designed to bestow the profusion of blessings which he enumerated. Had Jacob appeared before his father in his own name, and supplicated his father to bless him for Esau's sake, he would himself have defeated his own pur'pose; every thing depended upon his personating his elder brother, upon its being understood that he was indeed Esau, the very Esau, Jacob's first-born son. This is coming immediately to the text. The disciples had hitherto asked nothing, for they had not asked in faith; but he now informs them after what manner their petitions were to be preferred: Ask, said Emmanuel, in my name; this must be in faith, it would not be asking in his name, if they merely mentioned his name, which is the method generally adopted. If, as has been observed, Jacob had said, Bless me, O my father, for

my brother Esau's sake, he could not have been said to have asked in his brother's name, nor would he have obtained the blessing. In Revelations, ii. 17, "We hear of a new name which is the gift of God."

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving him that receiv eth it."

When the figure of the second Adam was put forth, the man was not without the woman, and the Lord called their names Adam. Thus in the marriage union, the same name is named upon the, husband and the wife. The marriage union was considered by the apostle Paul, as a striking figure of that union, which subsists between the divine and human nature, Ephesians v. 31, 32: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

"This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

The head and members is another striking exemplification of this union, this mysterious union. It is pointed out in various parts of sacred testimony. "I in them, and thou in me, that we may be made perfect in one." Hence we are admonished to look with a single eye. Let thy eye be single, and thy whole body shall be full of light, John xiv. 13:

"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

It appears to me that the union between the divine and human nature is manifest, by, I had almost said, countless testimonies. It is the grand point at which," Mercy and truth meet together, and \righteousness and peace embrace each other." Nor can we ever see the truth as it is in Jesus, in any other view.

This mysterious, this glorious union, is the union of heaven and earth; here the scriptures all harmonize; here there is no yea and nay, but every requisition and every promise, is yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Hence we derive peace and joy from believing, and every faculty of our souls acknowledge the word of God to be full of grace and truth.

O, that men were wise, that they understood the sayings of their everlasting Father, with what pleasure would they then contem