With all their riches they were very laborious, always in the field, lying under tents, shifting their abode according to the convenience of pasture, and consequently often taken up with encamping and decamping, and frequently upon the march; for they could make but short days' journies with so numerous an attendance. Not but that they might have built towns as well as their countrymen; but they chose this way of living. It is without doubt the most ancient, since it is easier to set up tents than to build houses; and has always been reckoned the most perfect, as attaching men less to this world. Thus the condition of the Patriarchs is best represented, who lived here only as sojourners waiting for the promises of GOD," which were not to be accomplished till after their death. The first cities that are mentioned were built by wicked men. Cain and Nimrod were the first that erected walls and fortifications to secure themselves from the punishment due to their crimes, and to give them an opportunity of committing fresh ones with impunity. Good men lived in the open air, having nothing to make them afraid.

The chief employment of the Patriarchs was the care of their cattle; their whole history shews it, and the plain account which the sons of Jacob gave of themselves to the king of Egypt.'Though husbandry be very ancient, the pastoral

b Heb. xi. 9, * Gen. x. 10.

13.

'Gen. iv. 17.

Gen. xlvii. 3.

life is the more perfect. The first, the employment of Cain; the other, that of Abel." The pastoral life has something in it more simple and noble; it is laborious, attaches one less to the world, and yet more profitable. The elder Cato" preferred a stock of cattle, though but a moderate one, to tillage, which yet he thought better than any other way of improving his fortune.

women.

The just reprimand which Jacob gave to Laban shews that the patriarchs laboured hard at their work, and did at no time neglect it. I have served thee twenty years, says he: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. One may judge of the men's laborious way of living by that of the young Rebecca came a good way off to draw water, and carried it upon her shoulders; and Rachel herself kept her father's flock." Neither their nobility nor beauty made them so delicate as to scruple it. This primeval simplicity was long retained amongst the Greeks, whose good breeding we yet admire with so much reason. Homer affords us examples of it throughout his works, and Pastorals have no other foundation. It is certain that in Syria, Greece, and Sicily, there were persons of eminence who made it their sole occupation to breed cattle for more than one thousand five hundred years after the Patriarchs; and who, in

the great leisure that sort of life afforded, and the good humour those delightful countries inspired them with, composed several little pieces of poetry, still extant, of inimitable beauty and simplicity.

CHAP. IV.

Their Frugality.

THE Patriarchs were not at all nice in their eating or other necessaries of life; we may judge of their common food by the pottage of lentiles that Jacob had prepared, which tempted Esau to sell his birthright. But we have an instance of a splendid entertainment in that which Abraham made for the three angels. He set a calf before them; new bread, but baked upon the hearth; together with butter and milk. It seems they had some sort of made dishes, by that which Rebecca cooked for Isaac but his great age may excuse this delicacy. This dish was made of two kids. Abraham dressed a whole calf for the angels, and three measures of meal made into bread, which comes to more than two of our bushels, and nearly to fiftysix pounds of our weight: whence we may conclude they were great eaters, used much exercise,

Gen. xxv. 29, 34. • Gen. xxvii. 9.

b Gen. xviii. 6.

and were perhaps of a larger stature, as well as longer lives, than we. The Greeks seem to think that the men of the heroic ages were of great stature; and Homer makes them great eaters. When Eumæus entertained Ulysses, he dressed two pigs, probably young ones, for himself and his guest; and, on another occasion, a hog of five years old for five persons.'

Homer's heroes wait upon themselves in the common occasions of life: and we see the Patriarchs do the same. Abraham, who had so many servants, and was nearly a hundred years old, brought the water himself to wash the feet of his Divine guests, ordered his wife to make the bread quickly, went himself to choose the meat, and came again to serve them standing. I will allow that he was animated upon this occasion with a desire

e

Odyss. xiv. 1. 74. Ib. 1. 419.

So saying, he girded quick his tunic close,

And issuing, sought the styes; thence bringing two
Of the imprisoned herd, he slaughter'd both,

Singed them, and slashed and spitted them, and placed
The whole well roasted, banquets, spits and all,
Reeking before Ulysses.

f.... his wood for fuel he prepared,

And, dragging thither a well-fatted brawn
Of the fifth year, his servants held him fast
At the hearth-side.

COWPER.

Then with an oaken shive which he had left
Beside the fire, he smote him, and he fell.
Next, piercing him, and scorching close his hair,
The joints they parted, &c.

Gen. xviii. 4.

COWPER.

of shewing hospitality: but all the rest of their lives was of a piece with it. Their servants were to assist them, but not so as to exempt them from working themselves. In fact, who could have obliged Jacob, when he went into Mesopotamia, to travel a journey of more than two hundred leagues (for it was at least so far from Beersheba to Haran) alone and on foot, with only a staff in his hand?" what, I say, could oblige him to it; but his own commendable plainness and love of toil? Thus he rests where right overtakes him, and lays a stone under his head instead of a pillow. And although he was so tenderly fond of Joseph, he does not scruple sending him alone from Hebron to seek his brethren at Sichem, which was a long day's journey; and when Joseph does not find them there, he goes on to Dothan, more than a day's journey further, and all this when he was but sixteen years old.

It was this plain and laborious way of life, no doubt, that made them attain to such a great old age, and die so calmly. Both Abraham and Isaac lived nearly two hundred years. The other Patriarchs, whose age is come to our knowledge, exceeded a hundred at least; and we do not hear that they were ever sick during so long a life. He gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, full of days, is the manner in which the Scripture describes their death. The first time we read

Gen. xxxii. 10.

* Gen. xxv. 8.

'Gen. xxxvii. 15, 17.