river springing by Rabba, the metropolis of the Ammonites, and issuing into Jordan beneath the Sea of Galilee, Num. xxi. 24 ; Deut. ii. 37 ; Judges xi. 13, 15 ; Deut. iii. 16. Jacob did never enjoy so much of the presence of God as when he had left the company of men. Oh ! the sweet communion that Jacob had with God when he was retired from his family, and was all alone with his God by the ford Jabbok ! Cer- tainly Jacob was never less alone than at this time, when he was so alone. Saints often meet with the best wine and with the strongest cordials when they are all alone with God.
(3.) Thirdly, You have the time of the combat, and that was the night. At what time of the night this wrestling, this duel began, we nowhere read ; but it lasted till break of day, it lasted till Jacob had the better of the angel. How many hours of the night this conflict lasted, no mortal man can tell. God's design was that none should be spectators nor witnesses of this combat but Jacob only ; and therefore Jacob must be wrestling when others were sleeping.
(4.) Fourthly, You have the ground of the quarrel, and that was Jacob's fear of Esau, and his importunate desire for a blessing. Jacob flies to God, that he might not fall before man ; he flies to God, that he might not fly before men. In a storm, there is no shelter like to the wing of God. He is safest, and happiest, and wisest, that lays him- self under divine protection. This Jacob knew, and therefore he runs to God, as to his only city of refuge. In this conflict God would have given out : * Let me go, for the day breaketh/ ver. 26 ; but Jacob keeps his hold, and tells him boldly to his very face that he would not let him go unless he would bless him. Oh the power of private prayer ! It hath a kind of omnipotency in it ; it takes God captive ; it holds him as a prisoner ; it binds the hands of the Almighty ; yea, it will wring a mercy, a blessing, out of the hand of heaven itself. Oh the power of that prayer that makes a man victorious over the greatest, the highest power ! Jacob, though a man, a single man, a travelling man, a tired man, yea, though a worm, that is easily crushed and trodden under foot, and no man, Isa. xli. 14, yet in private prayer he is so potent, that he overcomes the omnipotent God ; he is so mighty, that he overcomes the Almighty.
(5.) Fifthly, You have the nature or manner of the combat, and that was both outward and inward, both corporal and spiritual. It was by might and flight ; it was as well by the strength of his body as it was by the force of his faith. He wrestled not only with spiritual strug- glings, tears, and prayers, Hosea xii. 4, but with corporal also, wherein God assailed him with one hand, and upheld him with the other. In this conflict, Jacob and the angel of the covenant did really lay arm on arm, and set shoulder to shoulder, and put foot to foot, and used all other sleights and ways as men do that wrestle one with another. The Hebrew word p2^*\ from p3X^ that is here rendered vrrestled, sig- nifies the raising of the dust ; because those whicli did wrestle of old did not only wrestle naked, as the manner then was, but did also use to cast dust one upon another, that so they might take more sure hold one of another. Some, from this word abak, do conclude that Jacob and the angel did tug, and strive, and turn each other, till they sweat again ; for so much the word imports. Jacob and the angel did not
180 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MAT. VI. 6.
wrestle in jest, but in good earnest ; they wrestled with their might, as it were, for the garland ; they strove for victory as for life.
But as this wrestling was corporal, so it was spiritual also. Jacob's soul takes hold of God, and Jacob's faith takes hold of God, and Jacob's prayers takes hold of God, and Jacob's tears takes hold of God, Hosea xii. 4, 5. Certainly Jacob's weapons in this warfare were mainly spiritual, and so ' mighty through God.' There is no overcoming of God but in his own strength. Jacob did more by his royal faith than he did by his noble hands, and more by weeping than he did by sweating, and more by praying than he did by all his bodily strivings.
(6.) Sixthly and lastly. You have ilie issue of the combat, and that is, victory over the angel, ver. 28. Jacob wrestles in the angel's arms and armour, and so overcomes him. As a prince, he overpowers the angel by that very power he had from the angel. The angel was as freely and fully willing to be conquered by Jacob, as Jacob was willing to be conqueror. "When lovers wrestle, the strongest is willing enough to take a fall of the weakest ; and so it was here. The father, in wrestling with his child, is willing enough, for his child's comfort and encouragement, to take a fall now and then ; and so it was between the angel and Jacob in the present case. Now in this blessed story, as in a crystal glass, you may see the great power and prevalency of private prayer ; it conquers the great conqueror ; it is so omnipotent that it overcomes an omnipotent God.
Now this you may see more fully and sweetly cleared up in Hosea xii. 3, 4, ' He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God : yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed ; he wept, and made supplication unto him : he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us.' When Jacob was all alone and in a dark night, and but on one leg, yet then he played the prince with God, as the Hebrew hath it. Jacob by prayers and tears did so prince it with God as that he carried the blessing. Jacob's wrestling was by weeping, and his prevailing by praying. Prayers and tears are not only very pleasing to God, but also very prevalent with God. And thus you see that this great instance of Jacob speaks out aloud the prevalency of private prayer.
See another instance of this in David : Ps. Ixvi. 8, 9, 'I am weary with my groanings : all the night make I my bed to swim : I water my couch with my tears.' These are all excessive figurative speeches, to set forth the greatness of his sorrow, and the multitude of his tears. David in his retirement makes the place of his sin, viz. his bed, to be the place of his repentance. David sins privately upon his bed, and David mourns privately upon his bed. Every place which we have pol- luted by sin, we should sanctify and water with our tears : ver. 8, ' De- part from me, all ye workers of iniquity ; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.' As blood hath a voice, and as the rod hath a voice, so tears have a voice. Tears have tongues, and tears can speak. There is no noise to that that tears in secret make in the ears of God. A prudent and indulgent father can better pick out the wants and necessities of his children by their secret tears than by their loud com- plaints, by their weeping than by their words ; and do you think that God can't do as much ? Tears are not always mutes : Lam. ii. 18, * Cry
Mat. YT. 6.] the privy key of heaven. 181