whom Jacob remembereth (in his benediction) as his deliverer from all evil, Gen. xlviii. 16. 'Twas that God that appeared to him at Bethel, when he fled from the face of his brother. Gen. xxxv. 7.

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4. Jacob is reproved for his curious enquiring or asking after the angel's name, verse 29. which is a clear argument or demonstration of his majesty and glory, God being above all notion and name. God is a supersubstantial substance, an understanding not to be understood. One being asked, What God was, answered, "That he must be God himself, before he could know God fully." We are as well able to comprehend the sea in a cockle shell, as we are able to comprehend the Almighty, (or that Nomen Mojistativum, as Tertullian phraseth it.) "In searching after God (saith Chrysostom) I am like a man digging in a deep spring; I stand here, and the water riseth upon me; and I stand there, and still the waters riseth upon me.

In this conflict you have not one man wrestling with another, not one man wrestling with a created angel, but a poor weak mortal man wrestling with an immor◄ #al God, weakness wrestling with strength, and a finite being with an infinite being. Though Jacob had no second, though he was all alone, though he was wonderfully overmatched, yet he wrestles and keeps his hold; and all in the strength of him he wrestles with.

Secondly, You have the place where they combated, and that was beside the ford Jabbok, verse 22. (This is the name of a brook or river, springing by Rabba, the metropolis of the Ammonites, and issuing into Jordan beneath the sea of Galilee, Numb. xxi. 24. Deut. ii. 37. Judges xi, 13, 15. Deut. iii. 16.) Jacob never

enjoyed so much of the presence of God, as when he had left the company of men. O! the sweet communion that Jacob had with God when he was retired from his family, and was all alone with his God by the ford Jabbok. Certainly Jacob was never less alone than at this time, when he was so alone. Saints often meet with the best wine, and with the best cordials, when they are all alone with God.

Thirdly. You have the time of the combat, and that was the night: At what time of the night this wrestling began, we no where read; but it lasted till break of the day, it lasted till Jacob had the better of the angel. How many hours of the night this conflict lasted, no mortal man can tell. God's design was that none should be spectators nor witnesses of this combat, but Jacob only, and therefore Jacob must be wrestling while others were sleeping.

Fourthly. You have the ground of the combat, and that was Jacob's fear of Esau, and his importunate desire for a blessing. Jacob flies to God that he might not fall before man; In a storm there is no shelter like to the wing of God. He is safest, happiest, and wisest, that lays himself under divine protection. This Jacob knew, and therefore he runs to God, as to his only city of refuge. In this conflict God would have given out; Let me go, for the day breaketh, verse 26. but Jacob keeps his hold, and tells him boldly to his very face, that he would not let him go unless he would bless him. O the power of private prayer! it hath a kind of omnipotency in it, it takes God captive, it holds him as a prisoner, it binds the hands of the Almighty; yea it will wring a mercy, a blessing out of the hand of

heaven itself. O! the power of that prayer that makes a man victorious over the greatest, the highest power. Jacob though a man, a single man, a travelling man, a tired man, yea, though a worm (that is easily crushed and trodden under foot) and no man, yet in private prayer, he is so potent, that he overcomes the omnipotent God, he is so mighty that he overcomes the Almighty.

Fifthly. You have the nature or manner of the combat; and that was both outward and inward, both corporal and spiritual! it was by might and slight; it was as well by the strength of his body, as by the force of his faith. He wrestled not only with spiritual strugglings, tears and prayers, Hosea xii. 4. but with corporal also, wherein God assailed him with one hand, and upheld him with the other. In this conflict, Jacob and the angel of the covenant did really lay arm on arm, and set shoulder to shoulder, and put foot to foot, and used all other slights

wrestle one with another.

and ways as men do that The Hebrew word Abak that is here rendered wrestled, signifies the raising of the dust, because those which wrestled of old, not only wrestled naked, (as the manner then was) but also used to cast dust one upon another, that so they might take more sure hold: some from this word abak conclude, that Jacob and the angel did tug, and strive, and turn each other till they sweat again; for so much the word imports. Jacob and the angel did not wrestle in jest, but in good earnest, they wrestled with their might (as it were) for the Garland; they strove for victory as for life.

But as this wrestling was corporal, so it was spiritual also; Jacob's prayers, his faith, and very soul takes hold of God, Hosea xii, 4, 5. Certainly Jacob's weapons in this warfare were mainly spiritual, and so mighty through God. There is no overcoming of God but in his own strength. Jacob did more by his royal faith, than he did by his noble hands, and more by weeping than he did by sweating, and more by praying than he did by all his bodily strivings.

Sixthly, You have the issue of the combat, and that is victory over the angel, verse 28. Jacob wrestles in the angel's arms and armour, and so overcomes him; as a prince he overpowers the angel, by that very power he had from the angel. The angel was as freely and fully willing to be conquered by Jacob, as Jacob was willing to be conqueror. When lovers wrestle, the strongest is willing enough to take a fall of the weakest, and so it was here. The father in wrestling with his child, is willing enough for his child's comfort and encouragement, to take a fall now and then; and so it was between the angel and Jacob in the present -case. Now in this blessed story, as in a chrystal glass, you may see the great power and prevalency of private prayer; it conquers the great Conqueror; it is so omnipotent, that it overcomes an omnipotent God.

Now this is fully and sweetly cleared up in Hos. xii. 3, 4. "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him; he found him in Bethel, and there he spake to us." When Jacob was all alone, in a dark night, and but on one leg, yet then

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he played the Prince with God, (as the Hebrew hath it) Jacob by prayers and tears did so prince it with God, as that he carried the blessing. Jacob's wrestling was by weeping, and his prevailing by praying. Prayers and tears are not only very pleasing to, but also very prevalent with God. Thus you see that this great instance of Jacob, speaks aloud the prevalency of private prayer.

See another instance of this in David, Psalm yi. 6, 8, 9. "I am weary with my groanings, all the night make I my bed to swim: I water my couch with my tears." These are all figurative speeches, to set forth the greatness of his sorrow and the multitude of his tears. David in his retirement makes the place of his sin the place of his repentance. Every place we have poluted by sin, we should sanctify and water with our tears, Verse 8. "Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping." Secret tears are very prevalent with God. A prudent and indulgent father, can better find out the wants and necessities of his chil dren by their secret tears, than by their loud complaints, by their weeping than by their words; and, do you think that God cannot do as much. Tears are not always mutes. "Cry aloud (saith one) not with thy tongue, but with thy eyes; not with thy words, but with thy tears; for that is the prayer that maketh the most forcible entry into the ears of the great God of heaven." Penitent tears are undeniable ambassadors, that never return from the throne of grace, without a gracious answer. Tears are a kind of silent prayers, which though they say nothing,