It is a fearful example of the dreadful length | that goodness cannot mollify, what nature so which the human mind is capable of going, when the restraints of shame are once broken through. obdurate that the power of the Almighty cannot reach? The profession of a gaoler is unfriendly to benevolence; it is a characSome kinds of temptation are boldly to be ter which implies sternness and severity. encountered, and resolutely overcome.- But whether this man were formed of gentler There are others only to be conquered by clay, or whether the meekness and modesty flight, and disarmed by removing to a dis- of Joseph had wrought even upon a rocky tance. Joseph dwells only on one circum- heart; or whether Providence specially instance, in order to settle and determine his terposed to further its own deep designs, so conduct the all-seeing eye of God, and the it is, we find our good young man in high danger of offending him; "how then can I favour with his keeper. Wherever we find do this great wickedness, and sin against Joseph,-in Potiphar's house, in prison, or God."* Pleasure, and interest, and passion, at court, we find a man faithful, and diligent, blind the eyes; but conscience with scrupu- and trusty; and we find a man honoured, lous attention, always and every where re-esteemed, and confided in, by all with whom veres an omnipresent Jehovah. The lower he has any connexion. Let a man be inprinciples of our nature respect and are re- flexibly honest and true, and he will never gulated by consequences. This great prin- have reason to accuse the world of want of ciple is moved only by a sense of right and confidence. But it is no wonder if the diswrong. Interest and desire are contented honest knave find men full of doubt and suswith inquiring, "is there no danger of be-picion. As his master's house before, so the ing found out?" But conscience is only to be satisfied by ascertaining, "whether it be sin or duty." prison now, prospers on Joseph's account. The world is not always sensible of its obligation to the presence of good men. But Sodom was in a fearful state the moment righteous Lot went out of it; and when the people of God, "the salt of the earth," are all removed from it, the end of the world cannot be at a great distance. The consequence to Joseph, was such as might be expected from the temper of a shameless woman, false, lascivious, and resentful. The demon of lust turned into those of rage and revenge, she accuses of an attempt to seduce her, the man, whom no con- By a strange concurrence of circumsideration of pleasure, or of advantage, could stances, which the Divine Providence alone for a moment seduce from the right path.- could have brought together, Joseph has for This accusation, however false, being uncon- his fellow prisoners two of the chief officers tradicted, is admitted as true; and Joseph, as of the king of Egypt, who had fallen under the reward of faithfulness almost without their master's displeasure; and had been for example, is immured in close custody, to be some time in confinement, uncertain of their dragged forth at a proper opportunity to doom. The great God is whetting his instruseverer punishment. And here again we ments, making his arrangements, marshalhave a fresh instance of the greatness of his ling his forces, at very different times, and in mind. He chooses rather to incur his mas- very different places. The envy of Jacob's ter's groundless displeasure, and to sink un-sons, the lasciviousness of Potiphar's wife, der the weight of a false accusation, than to vindicate his own honour, by exposing the shame of a bad woman; and he leaves the clearing up of his character and the preservation of his life, to that God with whom he had entrusted still higher concerns, those of his immortal soul. And thus, the least-assuming, the shamefaced, feminine virtues, temperance, and chastity, and innocence, and self-government, are found in company with the most manly, the heroic qualities, intrepidity, constancy and contempt of death. No place is frightful to a good man but the dungeon of an ill conscience. Free from that, Joseph is at large, though in prison. It is the favour or displeasure of God that makes this or the other spot comfortable or irksome. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; but to the guilty, the whole world is a place of confinement. God, who delivered him out of the pit accompanies him also to the prison. And what heart so savage *Gen. xxxix. 9. the disobedience of Pharaoh's servants, the anger of the king himself,-all, all meet, strange to think! in one point, the elevation of Joseph to the right hand of the throne. Remove but one link, and the chain is broken asunder. Take away but a single stone, and the fabric falls to the ground. But "this work and counsel is of God, and therefore it cannot be overthrown." "He willeth, and none can let it." It is not at all surprising, that he who had been preparing his work in places and in minds so remote from, so unlike to, and so unconnected with each other, should bring it to a conclusion by means somewhat uncommon and supernatural. It happened, that in one and the same night, the chief butler and the chief baker of Pharaoh dreamed each a dream, which laid fast hold of their minds and memory. And being men, like the rest of their country, strongly tinctured with superstition, and at that time in circumstances which peculiarly disposed them to receive superstitious impressions, their spirits | tentates of the earth, and marshals the whole are considerably affected by the vision of the night; not doubting, that it portended the speedy approach of some great good or evil. Joseph attending them in the morning, in the course of his duty, observed the deep concern which was engraved on their countenances; and sympathy being always one of the native effusions of an honest heart, he kindly inquires into the cause of it. By the way, how pleasant is it to observe this excellent young person with so much cheerfulness and good nature performing the humble offices of a gaoler's servant? He was accustomed to be waited upon, to be ministered unto; but duty calls, and with alacrity he ministers to the necessity of others. But what do I see? An under gaoler starting up all at once into an interpreter of dreams, possessing a sagacity that reaches into futurity, directed and taught by a Spirit whose piercing eye penetrates into eternity, and discerns all the wonders of the world unknown! How much wiser, how much more noble, how much more excellent, are they who live in communion with God than other men! For though they do not all attain the gift of prophesy, the gift of working miracles, the gift of speaking with tongues; yet they all are dignified by the spirit of prayer, the spirit of adoption, "the spirit of faith, the spirit of love, and of a sound mind." Joseph, from the different complexion of their several dreams, and inspired no doubt by wisdom from above, predicts their approaching doom; the speedy restoration of the one to his former trust and dignity; a sudden and ignominious death to the other. Nothing but inspiration could have borne Joseph through a declaration so bold and decisive, and which was to be brought to the awful test of confirmation or disappointment in so short a space as three days. So confident is he of the certainty of his interpretation, that he founds all his hopes of enlargement upon it. And there is something inexpressibly tender and pathetic in his application to the chief butler to that effect, "but think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing, that they should put me into the dungeon."* The event justified the prediction; and it is an awful and affecting illustration of the observation of the wise man, "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will." A youth, a stranger, a prisoner, could have no power over the counsels of Pharaoh. But the power which controls all the po↑ Prov. xxi. 1. * Gen. xl. 14, 15. host of heaven is bringing his own word to pass, and performing his own pleasure. The chief butler, we may suppose, readily promised Joseph his best services when he should be again restored to place and power; but like a true courtier, he thinks no more of his promise, nor of his fellow prisoner, after his own turn was served. So selfish, so thoughtless, so ungrateful is man! Had he been under no personal obligation to the young stranger, for his tender assiduities while in confinement, and for the agreeable and certain intelligence which he received from him of his approaching deliverance, common humanity, awakened by the simple tale of innocence and misery which he had told, ought to have prompted his immediate and most earnest exertions in his behalf. And yet he suffers two full years to linger away, without caring to reflect whether such a person existed or not. And when he thinks of him at last, it is not the generous recollection of kindness and attachment; but the selfish remembrance of courtly adulation, eager to gratify his prince, not to rescue talents, and innocence, and worth, from unmerited oppression. Pharaoh hanged him not for the offences which he had committed against his sovereign, but for his forgetfulness and ingratitude to Joseph, let him be hung up an object of detestation and contempt to all generations of mankind. How very differently do God and men often judge of one and the same object! If there be in all Egypt a person more forlorn and inconsiderable than another, it is an Hebrew slave in a dungeon. But "God raiseth the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with princes." Pharaoh himself now begins to act a part in this wonderful drama. For kings, in the hand of God, are only instruments of an higher order, and of more extensive operation. Kings are liable to hunger and thirst like other men; kings must sleep, and may be disturbed by dreams like other men-and thus it happened to the mighty sovereign of Egypt. With vision upon vision, in one night, was his rest troubled; the strange coincidence and mysterious import of which greatly perplex his waking thoughts. In a country teeming with gods, and overrun with superstition, no circumstance was overlooked which in any manner seemed to portend a future event. No wonder then that the prince, who has not always the best informed nor the firmest mind of any man within his dominions, should be rendered uneasy by a repetition of dreams, so singular in themselves, so similar to, and yet so unlike one another. It is not less wonderful, that in a country so prolific of magicians and soothsayers, not one should be found bold enough to affix a meaning, or guess at an interpreta tion. Was it that the true God confounded | describable charm in true wisdom, in unafand silenced their vain imaginations? or that fected goodness, that forces approbation, and Pharaoh, dissatisfied with their idle conjec- carries the heart captive at once. There is tures, and prompted from above to make far- a native dignity in virtue, which, while it ther inquiry, rejected the usual modes of so- never assumes, nor pushes itself forward, is lution, that, heaven-directed, Joseph might never timorous, embarrassed or awkward. emerge out of obscurity to save a great na- Joseph possesses unaffected ease and comtion, to preserve his father's house in famine, posure in the presence of Pharaoh and all the and to fulfil the prediction and promise made court; and the court on this occasion, we to Abraham, concerning the future fortunes have reason to think, was a very splendid, of his posterity? public, and crowded one. So good a thing it is to have the heart established by the fear of God. It casts out every other fear. But the days of his depression are now ended, and every step he has trod through this valley of humiliation, is a progress made to the having conducted Joseph to the right hand of the throne; and beholding him ready to mount the second chariot, while admiring nations proclaim before him, "bow the knee." The king's vexation interests and affects the whole court. And then for the first time, the chief butler bethinks himself of his faults. and of his promise, and of his obligations to his fellow prisoner, and relates in the hearing of the king, the very extraordinary circum-glory that follows. And here we break off, stances of his own imprisonment and enlargement; of his dream, the interpretation and the issue. He is of consequence led to mention the character and situation of the interpreter. This instantly effects for Joseph, what his friendship, had it been exerted, perhaps would not have produced-an immediate order to set the prisoner free, and to bring him without delay into the royal presence. When men can be subservient to the interest, the pleasure, or the ambition of princes, they are in the sure road to preferment; and a man is often more indebted for success to a fortunate incident than to a righteous cause. Joseph's affairs are now in a train such as his warmest friends could wish; and again we see another saying of the wise man verified: "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men."* Pharaoh's expectations are not disappointed. He relates his dreams; and God, the author of the visions, and who had sent the interpreter and the explanation, by the mouth of Joseph unfolds its meaning and import. Pharaoh's dream had puzzled himself and all Egypt by its first aspect; but now that it is explained, how easy, how simple, how applicable, how natural every thing appears! The greatest discoveries, after they are made, appear so obvious and so plain, that every one is ready to wonder he did not hit upon it first; and this, instead of diminishing, greatly enhances the merit of the first discoverer.Upon the manifestation of the import of Pharaoh's redoubled vision, it is found, that God, who had given formerly to two of the servants an intimation of their approaching fate, was now giving to the sovereign a premonition of the visitations of his providence, to this great, populous, and wealthy empire. A previous notice of good renders it a double blessing; a warning of evil prepares us to meet it, and thereby diminishes its weight. Joseph's interpretation carried conviction along with it; and Pharaoh immediately resolves to act upon it. There is a certain un *Prov. xxii. 29. R The next Lecture will exhibit the son of Jacob in all the splendour of high life; armed with all the authority of a minister of state, possessing a plenitude of power over the whole kingdom of Egypt. Turn for a moment from Joseph, and behold a greater than him. "The prince of this world came, and found nothing in him." Temptation addressed to "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," had from his lips an instant repulse, "it is written, it is written." "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away;" he suffered as a malefactor, though "he did no sin, neither was guile found in his lips." He was condemned and put to death upon a false accusation. From the triumphant ignominy of the cross, he dispenses life and death to his fellow-sufferers; paradise to the one, everlasting shame to the other. "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or, being his counsellor, hath taught him?" "The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." "No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal him." "He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."* "Fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" "To † Luke xxiv 25, 26. *Phil. ii. 7-11. him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."t our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thouI conclude all in the words of the beloved sand, and thousands of thousands, saying with disciple, who thus describes a more august a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was vision than ever appeared to Pharaoh: "And slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisI beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, dom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the and blessing. And every creature which is elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain: in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which and such as are in the sea, and all that are are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, honour, all the earth. And they sung a new song, glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast and ever. slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto † Rev. ii. 10. * Rev. iii. 21. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever."* *Rev. v. 6-14. HISTORY OF JOSEPH. : LECTURE XXXI. And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled only in the throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck: and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.-GENESIS xli. 38-44. kind. Now the alternate succession of day and night, of fair weather and rain, have not greater beauty and utility in the world of nature, than the successive shades of adversity, and sunbeams of prosperity, which appear on the face of the moral world. If it be pleasant to observe, in particular instances, the providence of God justifying its own procedure, by relieving and vindicating oppressed innocence, or by precipitating prosperous guilt from its lofty seat; what must be the satisfaction and delight of beholding the whole plan of Providence un- Of this unceasing succession or mixture, folded, every mystery in the divine conduct the lot of individuals, the fortune of nations, explained, and all the ways of God to men the state of the globe, perhaps the system of completely vindicated! A very considerable the universe is composed. Nothing is per part of our present distress arises from hasti-mitted to continue too long: no being is sufness and impatience of spirit. We are for fered to go too far out of his station. The rushing to the end at once; we will not af- balance eternally depends from the hand of ford our Maker and Ruler leisure to open his a Being possessed of infinite wisdom; and own designs, to illustrate his own meaning. after a few slight vibrations, the scales We would have the work of Heaven per- speedily bring each other into equilibrium formed in our way; we have settled the again. The swelling of a wave, the rolling whole order of things in our own minds; and of the ship, nay the finger of a child, may for all is wrong that ignorance, fretfulness, and a moment derange the compass; but after presumption are pleased to dislike. Cloudy, trembling an instant or two from point to rainy weather is much less agreeable than point, immediately the needle resumes its serenity; yet it requires but a moment's re-steady, stated northern direction. flection to be convinced that eternal sunshine If there be in history a passage, which would be the reverse of a blessing to man-more than another encourages us patienly and submissively to wait for the end, to fol- plexion they be, to influence the conduct of low and submit to the conduct of Providence, life, so as to induce us to neglect our duty, it is the story of Joseph the son of Jacob. to vex and disquiet ourselves, or disturb What man of humanity would have refused others, is absurd, superstitious, and wicked. to lend his helping hand to rescue the inno- There are three particulars in this part of cent youth from the fury of his unnatural the history of Joseph, which have exercised brothers, to pull him up out of the pit, and to the learning and ingenuity of critics and restore him to his father again? Who would commentators. First, whether the Hebrew not gladly have sacrificed a part of his sub-word, Abrech, translated in our version, "bow stance to purchase his release from Egyptian the knee," had not better have been renderservitude? What friend to truth and virtue ed, as the word will bear, "tender father:" but would have rejoiced to vindicate his cha- an appellation descriptive of his office and racter from the vile aspersions of his infa- character; dignity and gentleness united. mous mistress, and to save him from unde- Secondly, it is inquired, what is the exact served punishment? What heart, alive to import of the name which Pharaoh gave to the feelings of gratitude, but would have se- Joseph upon his promotion? It was customaconded the application of "the chief butler," ry for eastern princes and nations to distinfor his immediate enlargement? But all guish by new titles, persons who had renderthis would have been precipitate, rash, and ed themselves illustrious by superior abilities, absurd. His fond father himself could not or splendid and important actions; as in the have conducted his favourite son to the ho- case of Daniel and the three other children nours which he attained, by a way so certain, of the captivity. That which was given to so safe, and so honourable. Whether we re- Joseph, according to some, is an Egyptian gard Joseph himself, or the interests of his expression which signifies "Saviour of the father's family, or the welfare of Egypt, or world," and this, if just, conveys a high idea the good of the human race, Providence, of the importance which the king ascribed to when we come to the issue, it is found, has Joseph's information and advice. Others secured, promoted, and succeeded them all, contend that it signifies no more than “rein its own wise and gracious method, in-vealer, or expounder of secrets." This last finitely better than they possibly could have been by all the sagacity and foresight of man. By the wonderful steps then which we have seen, behold Joseph exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh, made lord over all Egypt, the lives, the conduct, the liberties, the property of millions entrusted to his care, subjected to his authority. Behold him married to a princess, arrayed in vestures of fine linen, a gold chain about his neck, the royal signet in his hands, riding through the land in the second chariot, while admiring nations bow the knee before him. Behold the dream which boyish vanity, perhaps at first suggested, which fraternal jealousy so keenly reprobated, and so sternly avenged, which a father's wisdom was constrained to check and reprove, and which incredulity, no doubt, would treat as the idle chimera of a disturbed imagination, is verified and brought to pass. When we observe so many of the important events of Joseph's life turning upon the hinge of dreams and their interpretation, we are taught to think respectfully of every method by which God is pleased to communicate the knowledge of his will to mankind. And, when our own dreams, as they sometimes do, either call us to duty, or convince us of sin; when they recal to our memory what is past, or admonish us of what is to come, so that we may profit thereby, we ought to consider them as warnings from Heaven, and the voice of God. But to attend to and seek a meaning in every wandering of a sleeping fancy is silly and childish; and to suffer them of whatever com interpretation has the most numerous, perhaps the most respectable support. The third particular alluded to, involves in it something like a censure of Joseph, as if, hurried away by motives of ambition and pride, he had been eager to form an improper and dangerous matrimonial connexion with an idolatrous woman, nay, the daughter of a man who by profession, as priest of On, or Heliopolis, the city of the Sun, was concerned to support and promote an idolatrous worship. The critics who advance and maintain this opinion, represent Joseph as a mere timeserving sycophant, imbibing in a moment the spirit and manners of a court, and sacrificing principle to conveniency. I confess myself so partial to this amiable and excellent man, that without hesitation I undertake to meet this charge; and would allege in his behalf, that, as the Spirit of God no where reprehends this conduct, which in cases deserving blame is done freely and without reserve, so we ought not, without just cause, and perfect knowledge, to find fault; charity obliging us "to think no evil," where we can think well; to put the best construction on what is doubtful, and to judge of what is not clear and explicit, by that which is. When I see Providence blessing this union by the birth of two sons, raised in process of time to a double rank of dignity and importance in Israel, it is impossible for me to think uncharitably of the union itself, which was the origin of that blessing. What, did Joseph acknowledge God so closely in every thing, even to the very naming of his |