An exposition with practical observations upon the three first chapters of the book of…

Hence when Sarah-Abraham's wife was dead, Abraham thus bespeaks the people among whom he dwelt, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, &c. (Gen. 23.8.) It did afflict the heart of Abraham with sorrow, to see the body of his deceased wife, or the coffin wherein she lay, whom he had so entirely loved, therefore bury her out of my sight. It is very observable, that when Joseph would do somewhat purposely to afflict and touch the heart of his brethren with more remorse for their former unkindness unto him, the history saith, (Gen. 42.24) that he took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes; He heard them in their private conference, whisper one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear, therefore is this distress come upon us. When Joseph perceived their consciences began thus to work, he resolves to give them a pill at their eyes, (even a doleful spectacle, yet the lively picture of their dealing with him) to make their consciences work faster, with godly sorrow: He took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. And Judah when he pleadeth afterward, chap. 44. for the carrying back of Benjamin, you know what a pathetical oration he makes; O, saith he, do not detain Benjamin, for ⟨p. 395⟩when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us, (seeing that his life is bound up in the lads life) It shall come to pass, that when he seeth that the lad is not with us, he will dye, ver. 30, 31. That very sight will kill my father: and for me to see my father dye, will be death to me also; For so he concludes, ver. 34. How shall I go to my father and the lad be not with me, lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come upon my father. Oh (saith he) let me carry him back, my father will die if he see not the lad, and so shall I, if I see the evil that shall come upon my father; he knew that sight would be as a sword to his heart and as a dagger in his bowels. The Lord threatens his people thus in case of disobedience, Deut. 28.31. Thine Ox shall be slain before thine eyes, thine Ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given to another people, &c. So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see, ver. 34. and ver. 67.