And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Ver. 22. And he removed from thence, &c.] See here a pattern of a patient and peaceable disposition, not broken by the continual injuries and affronts of the Philistines, that maligned and molested him, "I am peace," saith David; Psa 120:7 and I, saith Isaac; and I, saith every son of peace, every child of wisdom. How well might good Isaac take up that of David, and say, "My feet stand in an even place" a Psa 26:12 now that he was at Rehoboth especially, and God had made room for him: The scales of his mind neither rose up toward the beam, through their own lightness; nor were too much depressed with any load of sorrow: but, hanging equally and unmoved between both, gave him liberty, in all occurrences, to enjoy himself. Our minds, saith a divine, b should be like to the adamant, that no knife can cut; the salamander, that no fire can burn; the rock, which no waves can shake; the cypress tree, which no weather can alter; the hill Olympus, higher than storm or tempest, wind or weather can reach unto; or rather, "like mount Zion, that cannot be removed, but standeth fast for ever". Psa 125:1 Thus Paul had "learned how to abound, and to be abased". Php 4:11 Bradford, if the Queen would give him life, he would thank her; if banish him, he would thank her; if burn him, he will thank her; if condemn him to perpetual imprisonment, he will thank her; as he told one Cresswell, that offered to intercede for him. c Praeclara est, aequabilitas in omni vita, et idem semper vultus eademque frons, ut de Socrate, idemque de C. Laelio accepimus, saith Cicero, in his books of offices, d which book the old Lord Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth, would always carry about him, to his dying day, either in his bosom or pocket: e and what use he made of it, take M. Camden's f testimony: Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, was wont to say, that he overcame envy more by patience than pertinacy. His private estate he managed with that integrity, that he never sued any man, no man ever sued him. He was in the number of those few, that both lived and died with glory.
a Barthol. Westmer., in Ps. xxvi.
b Ambros.
c Act. and Mon.
d Aelian., lib. ix. - Solln., cap. 8.
e Peacham's Complete Gentleman, p. 45.
f Camden's Elisabeth, fol. 495.