God shewed him that he was guarded || he, I have every thing, and have had with angels on every side, both from the great happiness to meet thee in Laban and Esau; therefore Jacob cal- kindness and love. Esau offered to led the name of the place Mahanaim, attend him on his journey to mount or the double camp. Fearing the re- Seir; but Jacob, not overfond of his mains of Esau's resentment, he sent company, begged he would not troumessengers to inform him of his re- ble himself, as the flocks and little ones turn, and to supplicate his favour. Ja- could but move very slowly. After cob, informed by his messengers that Esau's departure, Jacob coming to Esau came to meet him with 400 the spot where Succoth was aftermen, justly suspected his intentions wards built, reared an house for himwere murderous, and sent off before self, and booths for his cattle. Not him a large present of 220 goats, 220 long after, he crossed the Jordan sheep, 30 milk-camels with their colts, westward, and coming to Shalem, he 40 kine and 10 bulls, 20 she-asses bought a piece of ground from Haand 10 foals. These he divided into mor the father of Shechem, for an five droves, and ordered the drivers of hundred pieces of silver, probably each to tell Esau as they met him shekels, and so a little more than that it was a present to him. By this 49 dollars. Here he erected an altar, means he hoped to appease his bro- and called it El-Elohe-Israel, importther's anger. Meanwhile, he spent ing, that it was sacred to the mighty the whole night in solemn prayer. and worshipful God of Israel. Gen. Our Redeemer appeared to him in xxxii. and xxxiii. He had not dwelt the form of a man, and to check him long here, when Dinah his daughter, for attempting to detain him by force, an handsome girl of about 14 years of touched the hollow of his thigh, till it age, at some ball, or similar occasion, shrank, and made him always after go went to see the young women of the halting; to commemorate which, his country. Shechem the son of Haposterity never eat of the similar si- mor, and prince of the city of Shenew in animals: but by weeping and chem, captivated with her comeliness, supplication to the appearing Son of took her and defiled her. He and his God, he obtained a change of his father begged her in marriage for name to Israel, because as a prince, he him, and he offered them any price had wrestled with God, and had pre- they pleased to obtain her. Jacob vailed, and obtained a solemn bles- waited till his sons came home. They sing on himself and his seed. Having deceitfully proposed that the Shecrossed the Jabbok, he divided his fa- chemites should be all circumcised, mily into three divisions, that if Esau as the only terms of obtaining Dinah, murdered the foremost, the others This they proposed as a means to ren might flee. The two handmaids and der them incapable to defend themtheir children were foremost; Leah selves, horridly abusing the seal of and her's next; and Rachel and Jo- God's covenant, to promote their seph last, that she might have most murderous intentions. Dreading noopportunity to get off if there was thing, Hamor and Shechem, by hintdanger. According to Jacob's direc-ing to their people how it would gain tion, they all, in the humblest manner, did obeisance to Esau. Partly moved by this deportment, and chiefly by the providence of God, Esau met Jacob with the most tender affection, generously refused his present, because he had much wealth already; but Jacob urged him, because, said

them the wealth of Jacob's family, persuaded them to undergo the operation. On the third day, when they were at the forest, Simeon and Levi, and perhaps a number of servants, entered the city and murdered the inhabitants; and the other sons of Jacob coming up seized on the spoill

was detained a prisoner, and the governor of Egypt had demanded a sight of Benjamin his darling, and, as he thought, the only surviving son of his beloved Rachel. Pinching famine, and the repeated entreaties of his children, particularly of Reuben and Judah, obliged him to permit Benjamin to go with the rest on their

he found that Joseph was yet alive, and governor of Egypt, and that he had sent for him and his family to come hither for subsistence. He, with great joy, left the plain of Mamre near Hebron, and moved towards Egypt. At Beersheba he offered sacrifices to the Lord, and the Lord en

This they did to revenge Shechem's || in his sack; but more, that Simeon using of their sister as an hariot. Dreading the resentment of the Canaanites around, and directed of God to go up to Bethel and dwell there, Jacob, remembering his vow which he had made as he went to Padanaram, ordered his family to purify themselves, and put away their strange gods; for several of his servants were heathens. They, and no doubt Ra-second journey to Egypt, not without chel among them, delivered up their angry hints that all these things were idols to him, and he hid them under against him, and that he was bereavan oak. Protected of God, by a dreaded of his children. On their return, seizing the Canaanites around, he and his family came safe to Bethel.There he offered sacrifices to God: God appeared to him, and renewed his former blessing. Soon after, Jacob moved southward to Hebron, to visit Isaac his father. Meanwhile, Deborah his mother's nurse died, to the no small grief of the family. Ra-couraged him to go down into Egypt, chel too, who had said she would die if she got not children, died in childbed of her second son, who was called by her in her last agonies, Benoni the son of my sorrow, but by his father Benjamin: she was buried near Bethlehem. Not long after, Reuben committed incest with Bilhah his father's concubine. Jacob had scarce dwelt three years with Isaac his father, when Joseph was carried off from him; for twenty two years he bewailed his loss, imagining that some wild beast had devoured him. About twelve years after, Isaac died, and was buried by Jacob and Esau. It seems the two brothers then inclined to live together, but the vast number of their herds and flocks would not admit it: therefore Esau retired to Seir, leaving Jacob in the south of Canaan. Meanwhile he had his share of affliction, from the disorders in the family of Judah. Gen. xxxv. to xxxviii.

About nine years after the death of Isaac, Jacob, distressed by a famine, sent his ten elder sons to Egypt, to buy corn for their subsistence. At their return, he was shocked to find that each man's money was returned

and assured him that his seed should thence return to Canaan, in the time fixed by the promise; and that there Joseph should attend him in his last moments, closing his eyes. He, and 66 of his offspring, with 8 wives, went down into Egypt, where were already Joseph and his two sons. Informed by Judah, who went before the rest, Joseph met him with the utmost expressions of tender affection. Jacob was by him presented to Pharaoh.He wished that monarch all true hap piness; and inforined him, that he had lived 130 years chiefly in trou bles. Let us learn the fruit of unbro therly conduct, and of obtaining bles➡ sings by unhallowed means. Jacob and his family had lived but 17 years in Egypt, when he fell into his last sickness. Joseph, whom a little be fore he had caused to swear that he would bury him in Canaan, came, with his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim, to visit him. He informed them of God's blessing him at Luz or Bethel; he blessed Joseph, assured him that his sons should form two distinct tribes of the Hebrew nation, but that of Ephraim should be the most

ral his birth! how divinely was he chosen to be the father of the saved nations of elect men! how he took the first Adam by the heel, fulfilling the covenant which he had broken! how he supplanted and overthrew sin and Satan! by what red and bloody sufferings he purchased the mediatorial heirship of all things! What inestimable and irreversible blessings he obtained, by offering himself to God in the likeness of sinful flesh! How fearfully was he exposed to trouble, from Jewish brethren, from Satan the father of his bride, and from his offended Father! How direful his earthly exile! how hard his service! how numerous his sorrows! how unsettled his lot among men! but how noted his plainness and integrity! What love he bears to his mother and spouse the church! how faithful in his work! how prevalent his intercession! how glorious his reward! Ha

umerous and honoured. He assured him, that God would bring all his posterity back to Canaan in due time; and assigned to Joseph's seed a piece of ground near Shechem, which he had first bought, and afterwards recovered by force out of the hand of the Amorites. After this, he convened his twelve sons, gave them his last benediction, and foretold what would befal their families in future ages.Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, he reproached with their sinful conduct; and predicted, how God would chastise them in the fate of their seed. He especially commended Judah and Joseph, and foretold the future glory of their families. He foretold the coming of Christ, and the gathering of the Gentiles to him. Amidst the blessing of his children, he expressed his strong desires of the Messiah's incarnation, and of his own full enjoyment of God. After charging his sons to bury him in the cave of Mach-ving finished his work, and blessed pelah, where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah had been buried, he laid himself down on the bed, and breathed out his last about A. M. 2316, or 2320, and in the 147th year of his life. After his body was embalmed, and a solemn mourning of 70 days performed for him in Egypt, Joseph and his brethren, with the chief men of Egypt, attended his corpse to its interment in Canaan. At the threshing floor of Atad they stopped, and had a second mourning of 7 days: on account of which, the Canaanites called the spot Abel-mizraim, the mourning of the Egyptians. He was interred in the cave of Machpelah, Gen. xlii.—l. His posterity, as well as himself, are called Jacob, or Israel. A well which he used, and perhaps digged, near Shechem, is called his well, John iv. 12. Deut. x. 22. Josh. xxiii. 4. Psal. cv. 10-23.|| Acts vii. 11-16. Hos. xii.

Was not our Redeemer, who is called JACOB and ISRAEL, prefigured by this patriarch? How long expected, earnestly desired, and supernatuVOL. II.

his disciples, he retired to his rest in the heavenly Canaan! What a multitude of spiritual seed spring from the twelve apostles, these patriarchal fathers of the gospel-church! Psal. xxiv. 6. Is. xlix. 3.

JADDUA, or JADDUS, the son of Jonathan, and high-priest of the Jews. He officiated a considerable time after the captivity, Neh. xii. 11. He is thought to be the Jaddus who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, Josephus says, that Alexander, when besieging Tyre, demanded some assistance. Jaddus begged to be excused, as he had sworn fidelity to Darius the Persian. Highly provoked, Alexander vowed a revenge. After the taking of Tyre, he marched towards Jerusalem. Where the people having exercised themselves before in fasting and prayer, Jaddus and his fellow-priests, directed of God, met Alexander in their sacred robes. Struck with the appearance of the high-priest, he, instead of reproaching him, fell at his feet, and told Parmenio his general, that such a form

B

bad appeared to him in Macedonia, || up for dead. They laughed at him. and promised him the empire of the To punish their derision of him, he world: and, at the high-priest's re- put them to the door; and when no quest, eased the Jews of their tribute. more than her father and mother and But as none of Alexander's historians three of his disciples were present, he mention this matter, it is possibly a took her by the hand, and bade her Jewish fable. arise. She did so, and Jesus ordered to give her some victuals, Matth. ix. 18-26. Mark v. 21-43. Luke viii. 41-56.

JAH. See JEHOVAH. JAHAZ, JAHAZIAH, or JAHZAH; probably the Ziza of Ptolemy, a city nearer Aroer, between Medeba and Diblathaim, on the north frontiers of Moab, and near to the spot where Moses defeated the army of Sihon. It was given to the Reubenites, and by them to the Levites, Num. xxi. 23. Joshua xiii. 18. 1 Chron. vi. 78. After the death of Ahab, it seems, the Moabites seized on it. It shared in the ruinous ravage of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, Is. xv. 4. Jer. xlviii. 21.

JAMES the Great, or Elder, and JOHN the Evangelist, sons of Zebedee and Salome, were originally fishers of Bethsaida in Galilee, and left every thing at our Saviour's call to follow him, Matth. iv. 21. Both were constituted apostles: both were witnesses of Christ's transfiguration : Matth. x. 2. and xvii. 2. Both begged his leave to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans, who refused to receive him; and on this account, as well as for their bold preach

JAIR; (1.) The son of Segub, the son of Hezron, of the tribe of Ju-ing, were called Boanerges, or Bane dah. By his grandmother, the daughter of Machir the Manassite, he fell heir to an estate eastward of Jordan, and conquered the whole country of Argob, as far as the borders of Geshuri and Maachathi, 1 Chron. ii. 21-23. Numb. xxxii. 40, 41. (2.) A judge of Israel, who succeeded Tola A. M. 2795, or 2857, and governed || 22 years. He was a Gileadite, probably of Manasseh. He had 30 sons, who rode on 30 ass colts, and were lords of 30 towns called Havath-jair, or the towns of Jair, Judg. x. 3—5:

regem,the sons of thunder. He checked their furious zeal and told them that they knew not what unreasonable temper they were of, Luke ix. 54. Our Saviour's singular honour of them, and regard to them, occasioned their mother's begging they might be made chief ministers of state in his temporal kingdom. After they had professed their ability to undergo sufferings along with him, he told them, that suffer they must, but his Father had the disposal of eminent places in his kingdom, Matth. xx. 20-24. Mark x. 35-45.* They witnessed

* In v. 23, our Saviour says-To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give; but (or unless or save or except, as the Greek particle there used sometimes signifies, as in Mark ix. 8.) to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. The words of our translation, it shall be given, seem to be a needless, if not an improper

JAIR, or JAIRUS, a chief ruler of the synagogue at Capernaum. His daughter falling grievously sick, he begged that Jesus would come, lay his hands on her, and cure her. On their way to the house, some from it met him, and told him it was needless to trouble our Saviour, as his daughter was dead. Jesus bid him fear not, but only believe. When they enter-supplement. Such is the greatness of ed the house, the mourners prepared to attend the corpse to the grave, and making a noise, Jesus bade them be silent, as the maid was not to be given

mankind have eternal life but those to Christ in his office-capacity, that none of whom he gives it; and he gives it to all those for whom he has prepared it. And while he has a peculiar delegated and pur

7. It is said, he thereafter preached the gospel to the Parthians and indians; but it is more evident that he preached some time in Lesser Asia. In Domitian's persecution, about A. D. 95, it is said he was cast into a caldron of boiling oil, and coming out unhurt, vigorous, and clean, was ban

Under the Emperor Nerva he was recalled from exile, and returning to Ephesus, preached the gospel there till he died, about 90 or 100 years old. He appears to have been of a most kindly and affectionate temper; and yet it is said he leapt out of the bath whenever he understood that Cerinthus, who denied the divinity of our

his agony in the garden, Matth. xxvi. || 51, John continued a noted pillar of 37. After our Saviour's resurrection, the Christian church in Judea, Gl. ii. it seems they for a while returned to their business of fishing, John xxi. 2, 3. About A. D. 42 or 44, if not 49, James was taken and murdered by Herod, Acts xii. 1; and is now the pretended patron of Spain. Whether his brother John was the bridegroom at Cana of Galilee, we know not; but he was our Saviour's beloved disciple.ished toPatmos, to be starved to death. To him Jesus, as he sat next to him on the couch at the passover, intimated who should be the traitor. It is believed that he went up to the highpriest's hall, and, being known to the servants, introduced Peter! but perhaps that disciple might be Nicodemus, or Joseph of Arimathea, John xviii. 15, 16. He, at our Saviour's dying direction, took home the bless-Saviour, was in it: so great was his ed Virgin to his house, and provided for her. At the Galilean sea he first discovered our Saviour on the shore to Peter, John xix. 25, 26, 27. and xxi. —7. After dinner with our Saviour there, Peter asked him what should become of John? Jesus replied, that it was none of his business though he should live till his coming. This expression, fondly mistaken, made many primitive Christians imagine that John should never die; but himself, and other histories, contradict this ill-grounded fancy, John xxi. 18-25. He for a time shared along with Peter, in preaching, working miracles, and enduring persecution from the Jews at Jerusalem; and at Samaria they conferred the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands, Acts iii. iv. v. and viii. About A. D.

chased right, as Mediator, to do so;-he has also, as God, the same right which the Father has to do so. It is true, that Christ cannot dispose of the heavenly mansions otherwise than according to the agreement between him and the Father in the eternal council of peace; but it is equally true, that the Father cannot dispose of them otherwise. See Dr. Guise's Sermons, en

titled Jesus Christ God-Man.

zeal. In his old age, he wrote three epistles, one to the Jewish Christians in general, another to a noted Lady, and a third to one Gaius. The scope is, to inculcate brotherly love, holy conversation, self-examination, and cautious shunning of false teachers, particularly such as denied the incarnation and true godhead of our Saviour. He wrote an history of Jesus's life, containing a great many things omitted by the other three evangelists, chiefly a number of excellent discourses. It is principally calculated to evince our Saviour's divinity. In the isle of Patmos he had various revelations and visions. Thence, from the mouth of Jesus, he wrote seven epistles to the Asian churches; and in this book of Revelation, under the visions of seals opened, trumpets sounded, and vials poured out, &c. he exhibits the whole state of the Chris

tian church to the end of the world. From the sublimity of his revelations, and his vindication of our Saviour's divinity, he came to be called John the Divine. The book of his travels, and of his acts, and of the Virgin Mary's death, and assumption to heaven, and the creed ascribed to him, contain plain documents of forgery.