But ere I speak of the relief or comfort which this has for us when thinking of Isaac, I take occasion to inquire, What was the nature or character of this blessing by the patriarchs upon their children, which we find again and again in the Book of Genesis? A blessing was in the hand of Melchizedek in chap. xiv.; as again, long after, there was a blessing in the hand of Aaron in Num. vi. These instances we may easily understand--these blessings were conferred or pronounced by reason of _office_. They were delivered through priesthood ordained of God. There was nothing prophetic or oracular in them. The words which these priests used were rather _prepared_ than _inspired_; words already prescribed by divine provision, rather than communicated at the moment by divine illumination, at least in the case of Aaron. With the patriarchal blessing, however, it was as clearly otherwise. There was a prophecy or an oracle in Isaac’s words on Esau and Jacob here in chap. xxvii.; and so was there afterwards in Jacob’s words on his children in chap. xlix., and in his words on Joseph’s children in chap. xlviii.; and so was there before, in Noah’s words, in chap. ix., on Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But why, I inquire, was this great matter thus committed to the patriarchs? If I mistake not, some of the secrets of patriarchal religion, patriarchal worship and ministry, are involved in the answer to this. Religion had, in these earliest days, the same great truths which it still has for its spirit and principle. The Fall and Recovery of man, or Ruin and Redemption, were then made known, and they were received by faith. The altars of the fathers, and the ordinance of clean and unclean, tell us of faith and of the apprehensions of faith in those days. The tent of the living patriarchs, and the Machpelah of the departed patriarchs, tell us that they understood the stranger’s calling, and a coming resurrection; and Abraham’s grove at Beersheba (chap. xxi.), and his alliance with the Gentile at the well of the oath, tell us likewise, in clear though symbolic language, that they understood some of the bright and happy secrets of the millennial age, or of "the world to come."