with Benjamin, would lead us to suppose that it was expressed and overcome in a short time, and with no great effort. Yet we incidentally hear from Judah that this family struggle (for such it seems to have been) had occupied as much time as would have sufficed for a journey to Egypt and back.* As a third instance. The several blessings which Jacob bestows on his sons have probably a reference to the past as well as to the future fortunes of each. In the case of Reuben the allusion happens to be to a circumstance in his life with which we are already acquainted, here, therefore, we understand the old man's address; but in the case of several at least of his other sons, where there are probably similar allusions to events in their lives too, which have not, however, been left on record, *Genesis, xliii. 10. † xlix. 4.

there is much that is obscure-the brevity of the previous narrative not supplying us with the proper key to the blessing. It is needless to multiply instances, all that I wish to impress is this, that in the Book of Genesis a hint is not to be wasted but im

proved; and that he who expects every probable deduction from Scripture to be made out complete in all its parts before he will admit it, expects more than he will in many cases meet with, and will learn much less than he might otherwise learn.

Having made these preliminary remarks, I shall now proceed to collect the detached incidents in Genesis which appear to point out the existence of a Patriarchal Church. And the circumstance of so many incidents tending to this one centre, though evidently without being marshalled or arranged, implies veracity in the record itself, for it is a

very comprehensive instance of coincidence without design in the several parts of that record.

Cain

1. First, then, the Patriarchs seem to have had places set apart for the worship of God, consecrated, as it were, especially to His service. To do things" before the Lord," is a phrase not unfrequently occurring, and generally in a local sense. and Abel appear to have brought their offerings to the same spot-it might be, (as some have thought,*) to the East of the Garden, where the symbols of God's presence were displayed; and when Cain is banished from his first dwelling, and driven to wander upon the earth, he is said to have " gone out from the presence of the Lord;" as though, in the land where he was henceforward to live, he would no

* Vide, Mr. Faber's Three Dispensations, vol. i. p. 8, and Comp. Wisdom, ix. 9. † Genesis, iv. 16.

longer have access to the spot where God had more especially set his name. Again, of Rebekah we read, that when the children struggled within her," she went to inquire of the Lord," and an answer was received prophetic of the different fortunes of those children. And when Isaac contemplated blessing his son, which was a religious act, a solemn appeal to God to remember His covenant unto Abraham, it was to be done

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before the Lord." The place might be an altar such as was put up by Abraham at Hebron, by Isaac at Beer-sheba, or by Jacob at Beth-el, where they respectively dwelt; it might be a separate tent, and a tent actually was set apart by Moses outside the camp, before the Tabernacle was erected, where every one repaired who

* Genesis, xxv. 22.

Ibid. xiii. 18. xxvi. 25.

+ Ibid. xxvii. 7.
xxxv. 6.

sought the Lord;* or it might be a separate part of a chamber of the tent; but however that was, the expression is a definite one, and relates to some appointed quarter to which the family resorted for purposes of devotion. Accordingly the very same expression is used in after-times, when the Tabernacle had been set up, confessedly as the place where the people were to assemble for prayer and sacrifice. "He shall offer

it of his own voluntary will at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation before the Lord, and he shall kill the bullock before the Lord."† "Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose." Here there can be no question as to the meaning of the phrase; it occurs, † Leviticus, i. 3.

* Exodus, xxxiii. 7. Deuteronomy, xvi. 16.