And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
Ver. 30. Esau his brother came in.] All too late. Detained he was by the devil, say the Hebrews, who not seldom makes a fool of hunters, and leads them about. A sweet providence of God there was in it, certainly, that he should come in as soon as Isaac had done and Jacob was gone, and no sooner. Like as there was in that which Master Fox a reports of Luther, that on a time, as he was sitting in a certain place upon his stool, a great stone there was in the vault, over his head; which being stayed miraculously so long as he was sitting, as soon as he was up, immediately fell upon the place where he sat, able to have crushed him in pieces. A warrant once came down, under seal, for the execution of the Lady Elizabeth: Stephen Gardiner was the engineer, and thought he had been sure of his prey, but God pulled the morsel out of his mouth; for one Master Bridges, mistrusting false play, presently made haste to the queen, who renounced and reversed it. b Another time, while Sir Henry Benningfield, her keeper, was at court, one Basset, a gentleman and a great favourite of Stephen Gardiner's, came, with twenty men well appointed, to Woodstock to have murdered her. But by God's great providence, Sir Henry had left so strict a charge behind him, that no living soul might have access unto the princess, upon what occasion soever, till his return, that they could not be admitted, whereby their bloody enterprise was utterly disappointed. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver his". 2Pe 2:9 "He keepeth all their bones, not one of them is broken". Psa 34:20
a Act. and Mon., fol. 793.
b England's Elizabeth, by Heywood.