[2.] This promise and this blessing seemed to be contradicted as to sense. Jacob's blessing runs thus» ' Be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee,' Gen. xxvii. 29, and yet Jacob was fain to bow and cringe to Esau, Gen. xxxiii. 3. The promise seems to be contradicted by the providence of God. So Gen. ix. 26, ' Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.' Ay, but before Ham was Shem's servant, that is, the servant of the posterity of Shem, viz. , before the Canaanite was subdued by the Israelites, they were subject to Ham's posterity. Ham bore rule over Shem ; for the father of the Egyptians was the son of Ham, and they were in vile subjection in Egypt, and ran many hazards. For a great while the promise seemed to be contradicted, and quite lost, yet they could speak of them as confidently as if they were at hand. Well then, go you and do likewise, get a patient faith, get an obstinate faitli.
(1.) Get a patient i'aitli that will tarry the Lord's leisure though he delays his coming. The good things which faith expects are things to come ; you shall have them in due time. Would you have the meat before it be roasted ? and mercies before they are ready for you ? Get a waiting faith, to depend upon the Lord in the midst of all delays. When your portion is fitted and |)repared for you, then j^ou shall have it.
(2.) Get an obstinate faith that will depend upon God in the face of contradictions ; when the Lord seems to march against us, to believe his heart is with us. When Ham domineers, then to believe _God is making way for his subjection to Shem ; and when Esau lords it, then to think God will bring' him down, and he shall stoop to Jacob. As he in the story which held the boat with his right hand, and that being cut off, he takes hold with his left hand, and when that is cut off he fastens on it with his teeth ; so when one help is cut off, and then another, yet faith doth fasten upon God as long as it hath his word to fasten on ; when God makes breach after breach, then to depend upon
VeE. 20.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 391
him. And as the blind man that was rebuked, yet he cried the more ; so to follow after Grod the more you are rebuked, tliis is a faith indeed.
Herein was Isaac's faith seen in a confident believing of things to come, though he passed through many hazards, and his present condi- tion were mean, and those that were rejected grew great and prince-like in the world.
2. His faith was seen herein, that as soon as he seeth God's hand, against his own natural affection he yields and submits to the Lord. He would fain have settled the blessing upon Esau's head, but God's providence ordered it otherwise, and he would not retract the blessing — 'Jacob is blessed, and he shall be blessed ; ' nay he confirms it again : Gen. xxviii. 3, 4, ' The Lord give the blessing of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed after thee.' Wherein he doth knowingly and purposely, and more explicitly, give the blessing to him, though before he did it by mistake. It is a good work of faith to make the soul to yield to God's will against our own inclinations, or the persuasions of our own reason, and the bent of our heart. Faith knoweth that God is so great, powerful, and glorious, that his will must be obeyed.
ThircUij, I shall give you some lessons from hence, from Isaac's blessing Jacob and Esau.
1. We are to seek blessings for our children. Though we cannot bless as prophets, yet we should bless as parents. What must we do to leave them a blessing ? Found a covenant interest for them in your own persons, this is a way to leave a blessing behind you. All God's blessinfjs run sweetly in the channel of the covenant, therefore do not cut off the right of your children : Gen. xvii. 7, ' I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed.' First to thee, and then to thy seed. And then lay up prayers for them, as Job, who offered sacrifice for his children day by day, according to their number. By head and poll he seeks to God for a blessins: : Prov. xxxi. 2, Bathsheba calls Solomon the son of her vows. With her prayers she mingled vows, so make your children the children of your vows ; as it was said to Austin's mother, Filius tot precum et lacknjmarum perire non p)otest — a child of so many prayers and tears cannot miscarry. And then lay up promises for them. Believe for them too. The faith of a parent doth good to the child ; hereby you remove obstructions, and mercies run out more freely to them. Though the parent's faith be not a principal cause, yet it is an occasional means to stave off" destruction from, and to further the salvation of his children : Heb. xi. 23, ' By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents.' The faith of Closes' parents preserved him in the water when a babe ; the sprinkling of the door-posts preserved the first-born, it was a fruit of the parents' laith. Noah's house was saved by faith, Heb. xi. 7. Faith doth not only look for })ersonal mercies, but for family mercies ; you have God's word for your children as Isaac had. he left his children the blessings of God's word. Therefore believe for them. And then ' bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,' Eph. vi. 4. Let them know God from our mouths, that they may have the awe of God upon them. Acquaint your children with, and urge God's mind to them, as they are capable of instruction. You are not Avorthy of the name of