It is a point on which he might have spoken differently, and yet not have excited the smallest suspicion that he was speaking inaccurately. Suppose he had said that Abraham's son had taken for a wife the daughter of Nahor, instead of the grand-daughter, who would have seen in this any thing improbable? and to a mere inventor would not that alliance have been much the more likely to suggest itself?

Now here, again, the ordinary and extraordinary are so closely united, that it is extremely difficult indeed to put them asunder. If, then, the ordinary circumstances of the narrative have the impress of truth, the extraordinary have a very valid right to challenge our serious consideration too. If the coincidence almost establishes this as a certain fact, which I think it does, that Sarah did not bear

Isaac while she was young, agreeably to what Moses affirms; is it not probable that the same historian is telling the truth when he says, that Isaac was born when Sarah was too old to bear him at all except by miracle ?-when he says, that the Lord announced his future birth, and ushered him into the world by giving him a name foretelling the joy he should be to the nations; changing the names of both his parents with a prophetic reference to the high destinies this son was appointed to fulfil ?

Indeed the more attentively and scrupulously we examine the Scriptures, the more shall we be (in my opinion) convinced, that the natural and supernatural events recorded in them must stand or fall together. The spirit of miracles possesses the entire body of the Bible, and cannot

be cast out without rending in pieces the whole frame of the history itself, merely considered as a history.

IV.

THERE is another indication of truth in this same portion of patriarchal story. It is this-The consistent insignificance of Bethuel in this whole affair. Yet he was alive, and as the father of Rebekah was likely, it might have been thought, to have been a conspicuous person in this contract of his daughter's marriage. For there was nothing in the custom of the country to warrant the apparent indifference in the party most nearly concerned, which we observe in Bethuel. Laban was of the same country and placed in circumstances somewhat similar; he too had to dispose of a daughter in marriage, and that daughter also,

like Rebekah, had brothers;* yet in this case the terms of the contract were stipulated, as was reasonable, by the father alone; he was the active person throughout. But mark the difference in the instance of Bethuel-whether he was incapable from years or imbecility to manage his own affairs, it is of course impossible to say, but something of this kind seems to be implied in all that relates to him. Thus, when Abraham's servant meets with Rebekah at the well, he inquires of her, "whose daughter art thou; tell me, I pray thee, is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?" She answers, that she is the daughter of Bethuel, and that there is room; and when he thereupon declared, who he was and whence he came, "the damsel ran and told them of her mother's house" (not of her * Genesis, xxxi. 1. + Ibid. xxiv. 23

father's house, as Rachel did when Jacob introduced himself,*) "these things." This might be accident; but "Rebekah had a brother," the history continues, and “his name was Laban, and Laban ran out unto the man" and invited him in. Still we have no mention of Bethuel. The servant now explains the nature of his errand, and in

this instance it is

Bethuel answered;

said, that Laban and

Bethuel being here in

this passage, which constitutes the sole proof of his being alive, coupled with his son as the spokesman. It is agreed, that she shall go with the man, and he now makes his presents, but to whom? "Jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, he gave to Rebekah." He also gave, we are told, "to her brother and to her mother

*Genesis, xxix. 12.

Ibid. xxiv. 50.

+ Ibid. xxiv. 29.