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Gen_20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She [is] my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
Ver. 2. She is my sister.] This is the second time he thus sinned, both against piety by distrust; and charity, in exposing his wife to other men’s pleasure, and his neighbour thereby to God’s displeasure. So Jehoshaphat was twice taken tardy in Ahab’s amity; {2Ch_19:2; 2Ch_20:37} Jonah twice reproved for rebellion; and John for angel worship; Samson, twenty years after he had loved the Philistine woman, goes down to Gaza, and went into Delilah. {Jdg_15:20; Jdg_16:1} Lot committed incest two nights together. Indeed, the orifice of his lust was not yet stopped by repentance. But Jonah had surely repented of his former frowardness; and so had Samson, Jehoshaphat, and Abraham too, {a} of his former hypocrascy; which made the Lord to move Pharaoh to deal kindly with him, so that "he had sheep and oxen," &c. {Gen_12:16} But what shall we say to that example of the apostles, {Luk_22:24} among whom "there was a strife who should be accounted the greatest?" And this was not the first, but the third time they had thus offended by ambition; and even after our Saviour had discoursed unto them of his cross. But this last time, most absurdly, and unseasonably, after that he had foretold his passion to follow within two days; had taught them that he was anointed by the woman for the day of his burial; had administered to them the sacrament, that seal of mutual love; had washed their feet, to teach them humility and charity, &c. Oh, the incredible perverseness of corrupt nature! How strongly do the best still smell of the old cask, taste of the old stock, though ingrafted into Christ, and though poured from vessel to vessel. {Joh_5:14} "And this have ye done again," saith the Lord. {Mal_2:13} A great aggravation, as numbers added to numbers, are first ten times more, and then a hundred, and then a thousand. "How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert". {Psa_78:40} A regenerate man may fall into the same sin again that he hath truly repented of nor can we define how oft, and into how heinous but surely, not oft into the same, that is heinous and scandalous. That is a graceless person that hath "eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin". {2Pe_2:14} An enemy to God, that "goeth on still in his trespasses". {Psa_68:21} It is expressly noted of Judah, {Gen_38:26} that "he knew Tamar again no more."
And Abimelech king of Gerar.] A fit name for a king; and a common name to the kings of this country: it signifies father king. "I was a father to the poor," saith Job. {Job_29:16} And "kings shall be nursing fathers" to the Church, saith Isaiah. {Isa_49:23} Augustus was styled Pater Patriae. And Trajan gloried most in his title Optimus. He desired more to be loved, than honoured, and counted it a greater dignity, Prodesse quam praeesse .{ b} He tare his own garment to bind up therewith the wounds of his soldiers; and professed that he would so carry himself to private persons, now that he was emperor, as he wished, when he was a private man, that the emperors should carry themselves toward him. {c} Titus, for his sweet nature and carriage, was called the world’s darling. {d} Scipio the city’s sweetheart. {e} Julian the apostate, as he came not short of the greatest philosophers for learning, so neither of Titus for lenity, of Antoninus for clemency, of Marcus Aurelius for moderation, setting aside his satanical hatred of the Christian religion. {f} Queen Elizabeth ever accounted devotion and mercy the brightest stars in the sphere of majesty. She always thought it more fit to offend a man, than to hate him, saith Master Camden. In the year 1579, a young man discharged a piece out of a boat, and shot one of the bargemen in the Queen’s barge (where she was then) through both his arms; who was soon apprehended, and led to the gallows for a terror to him. But whereas he religiously affirmed, that he did it unwittingly, and thought no harm, he was discharged: the Queen many times saying, that she could believe nothing of her people that parents would not believe of their children. {g} This made her so beloved at home and admired abroad. Queen Elizabeth was the most glorious and happy woman that ever wore a crown, said that thrice noble Princess Anna Atestina, the mother of the Dukes of Guise and Nemours, as Thuanus hath recorded it {h} Her subjects were ready to say to her, as the senate said to Severus, All is well with us, so long as thou rulest well over us. {i}
{a} Non dubium, quin Abram poenitudine ductus , &c. - Pareus in Gen_12:16.
{b} öéëïõìåíïò ìáëëïí ç ôéìùìåíïò å÷áéñå . - Dio.
{c} Ibid. in Vita Bucholc. in Indice Chronol.
{d} Orbis amor et deliciae .
{e} Corculum appellatus est. - Tusc. Quaest., lib. i.
{f} Parei Medul. Hist. Profan., p. 482
{g} Camd. Elis., fol. 494, 205.
{h} Thuan. Hist., lib. cxxix.
{i} ðáíôåò ðáíôá êáëùò ðïéïõóéí åðåéäáí óõ êáëùò áð÷åéò - Dio.