How unlike to Abraham are many who call themselves his children ! They embark in business, and enter into contracts, without due consideration : they transact their affairs without order, and leave them in confusion : and thus by their indiscreet conduct they involve their names in disgrace, and their fami- lies in ruin. Let us learn from him : let us act with caution : let not even affliction itself render us inattentive to the welfare of our posterity : let us conduct ourselves conformably to that sage advice of Solomon, " Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field ; and afterwards build thine house V In other words, Let deliberation and foresight so regulate our conduct, that they who succeed us may applaud our wisdom, and reap the benefit of our care.]
If the manner of forming this agreement is pro- fitable, much more shall we find it profitable to consider,
II. The ends for which it was made —
There was much more in the mind of Abraham than was known to the people among whom he sojourned. Besides the immediate and ostensible
h Prov. xx. 14. ' ver. 8. k Prov. xxiv. 27.
o2
reason of making that purchase, he had others that were no less important. We shall mention them in their order. He bought the field,
1. To bury his wife —
[Sarah had lived with him to a good old age. But the dearest relatives, how long soever their union may continue, must part at last1. And when the time of separation is come, the most beloved object ceases to please. The soul having taken its flight, the body hastens to putrefaction ; and we are as glad to have it removed out of our sight, as ever we were to enjoy communion with it. To give it a decent interment, and drop a tear over it at the grave, is the last office of love which we are able to shew to our dearest friend : and he who lives the longest, has only to perform this painful office the more frequently, till he sees himself, as it were, forsaken by all, and left desolate, unknowing, and unknown. O that we could all bear this in mind ! We are born to die : the moment we drew our breath, we had one breath less to draw. Every hour we live, we apj)roach nearer and nearer to our grave. If we con- tinue our course, like the sun, from its rise to the meridian, and from its meridian to the close of day, still every moment shortens our duration ; and while we are speaking to you now, we are hastening to the chambers of death. Let husbands and wives, parents and children, and friends who are to each other as their own soul, remember this. Let them sit loose to each other ; and let the time that they enjoy the society of their friends, be regarded by them as the interval allotted to prepare for their interment.]
2. To express his confidence in the divine promise—
[God had promised to him and to his seed the land wherein he sojourned. But Abraham had continued there above sixty years without gaining in it so much as one foot of land"1. But was the promise therefore to be doubted ? No. It was not possible that that could fail. Abraham was as much assured that the promise should be fulfilled, as if he had seen its actual accomplishment. Under this conviction, he purchased the field as a pledge and earnest of his future inheritance. In the prophecies of Jeremiah we have a similar compact made with precisely the same view. The prophet had foretold the speedy desolation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the restora- tion of the Jews to their own land after a captivity of seventy years. His uncle's son, alarmed, as it should seem, by the
1 This idea is judiciously put into the mouths of hoth the parties at the time they betroth themselves to each other at the altar ; " Till death us do part." m Acts vii. 5.