DISCOURSE XXXI.

THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF SARAH.

Gen. xxiii.

We have no such account of the death of any woman before, or of the respect paid to her memory, as is here given of Sarah. She was not without her faults, and who is? But she was upon the whole a great female character. As such her name stands recorded in the New Testament among the worthies, and the memory of her was more than usually blessed.

Ver. 1, 2. Observe, (1.) The time of her death. She was younger by ten years than Abraham, and yet died thirty-eight years before him. Human life is a subject of very uncertain calculation: God often takes the youngest before the eldest. She lived, however, thirty-seven years after the birth of Isaac, to a good old age, and went back as a shock of corn ripe in its season. (2.) The place. It was anciently called Kirjath-Arba, afterwards Hebron, situated in the plain of Mamre, where Abraham had lived more than twenty years before he went into the land of the Philistines, and whither he had since returned.* Here Sarah died, and here Abraham mourned for her. We may take notice of the forms of it. He came to mourn; that is, he came into her tent where she died, and looked at her dead body: his eye affected his heart. There was none of that false delicacy of modern times which shuns to see, or attend the burial of near relations. Let him see her, and let him weep: it is the last tribute of affection which he will be able in that manner to pay her. We should

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* See on Chap. xiii. 18. p. 125.

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also notice the sincerity of it: he wept. Many affect to mourn who do not weep; but Abraham both mourned and wept. Religion does not stop the course of nature, though it moderates it; and, by inspiring the hope of a blessed resurrection, prevents our being swallowed up of overmuch sorrow.

Ver. 3, 4. From mourning, which was commonly accompanied with sitting on the ground,* Abraham at length stood up from before his dead, and took measures to bury her. It is proper to indulge in weeping for a time, but there is a time for it to abate; and it is well there is. The necessary cares attending life are often a merciful mean of rousing the mind from the torpor of melancholy. But see what a change death makes. Those faces which once excited strong sensations of pleasure, require now to be buried out of our sight. In those times, and long afterwards, they appear to have had no public burying-places; and Abraham, often removing from place to place, and not knowing where his lot might be cast at the time, had not provided one. He had therefore at this time a burying-place to seek. As yet he had no inheritance in the land, though the whole was given him in promise. We see him here pleading for a grave, as a stranger and a sojourner. This language is commented upon, by the Apostle to the Hebrews: They confessed, says he, that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; and they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. Abraham did not sustain this character alone, nor merely on account of his having no inheritance in Canaan; for Israel when put in possession of the land were taught to consider it properly the Lord's, and themselves as strangers and sojourners with him in it. Even David, who was

king of Israel, made the same confession.

Ver. 5-16. One admires to observe the courteous behaviour between Abraham and the Canaanites, for Heth was a son of Canaan. On his part, having signified his desire, and receiving a respectful answer, he bowed himself to them; and when he had fixed upon a spot in his mind, he does not ask it of the owner, but requests them to entreat him on his behalf: expressing also his desire to

* Job. i. 20. ii. 13. Lam. i. 1. + Lev. xxv. 23.

Psa. xxxix. 12.

give him the full value of it, and refusing to accept it otherwise. Nor is there any thing wanting on their part; but every thing appears generous and lovely, Abraham calls himself a stranger and a sojourner; but they call him a mighty prince among them : give him the choice of their sepulchres; offer any one of them gratis; and when he insisted on paying for it, mention its value in the most delicate manner, intimating that such a sum was as nothing between them. Were commerce conducted on such principles, how pleasant would it be! How different from that selfish spirit described by Solomon, and still prevalent among men : Naught, naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth! Civility, courtesy, and generosity adorn religion. plainness of Christianity is not a rude and insolent one: it stands aloof from flattery, but not from obliging behaviour. Some who are very courteous to strangers, are very much the reverse to those about them; but Abraham's behaviour to his neighbours is no less respectful than it was to the three strangers who called at his tent. It is painful to add, however, that civility and courtesy may be where there is no religion. However it may tend to smooth the rugged paths of life, and however much we are indebted to the providence of God for it; yet this alone will not avail in the sight of God.

The

Ver. 17-20. Respecting the purchase of this sepulchre, I conceive it was an exercise of faith. Jacob and Joseph had certainly an eye to the promise, in requesting their bones to be carried up from Egypt. A sepulchre was like an earnest, and indicated a persuasion of future possession.* It would tend also to endear the land to his posterity. This was so much a dictate of nature, that Nehemiah could urge it to a heathen king, whom no religious considerations would probably have influenced :† and when to this was added, the character of those who should be there deposited, it would render the country still more endearing. Heathens venerate the dust of their forefathers, but contemplate it without hope. It is not so with believers: those who should lie in this sepulchre, walked with God in their generations; and *Isa. xxii. 16. + Neh. ii. 3.

though dead, yet lived under the promise of a glorious resurrection.

Upon the whole, it is natural to wish to mingle dust with those whom we love: Where thou diest, there will I be buried. And sometimes with those whom we only respect: When I am dead, said the old prophet of Bethel to his sons, bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried, and lay my bones beside his bones. But after all, the chief concern is, with whom we shall rise!