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He has hardly strength left to mention the name of Benjamin. But nature, while death leaves to Jacob any remainder of her empire, continues possessed of a sound memory, a discerning judgment, and glowing affections. But she can no more; the voice fails, the limbs contract, the breath departs, the artery beats no more; the heart of Jacob is at length at rest.

Lord, in whom the royal line terminated; in | band of Rachel, before his nerves are forever whose trial and condemnation the posterity unstrung, his eyes forever closed, his tongue of Jacob solemnly renounced all regal and forever silent, dwelling on the name of her judicial authority, and voluntarily submitted beloved offspring, turning the almost exto Cæsar as their sovereign; and to whom, tinguished orbs towards his amiable counteProvidence, by a chain of miracles at first, nance, and straining his darling Joseph in and an uninterrupted interposition, for al- his last embrace. most one thousand eight hundred years, has drawn and united the nations of the earth, according to the letter of the prophesy, "to him shall the gathering of the people be." We pretend not to say, that the dying patriarch had a clear and distinct foreknowledge of the object; or that his words are a full historical description of the period to which they refer. It is sufficient for our purpose, if events which have certainly come to pass, are such as warrant a sober application of them to a prediction so singular, in circumstances so peculiar, and at a period so remote. A very close investigation of the history, character, and local circumstances of the six tribes whose fathers are next named in order, would probably be found to justify what their prophetic parent here foretold concerning them. But, with him, we hasten them by, with him to come at a nobler, dearer object; where parental affection fixes with peculiar delight; which the understanding, the heart, and the prophetic soul unite to establish, to exalt, to enlarge.

The death of a parent is an event peculiarly affecting. The source of our own life seems thereby as it were dried up. While our parents live, we think we have a barrier betwixt us and the grave: but that being removed, the bold invader appears advancing upon us with hastier strides. If we look forward, behold no bulwark to defend us; if backward, our very children are warning us of the necessity of our departure; they press upon our heels, they are ready to lay their hands upon our eyes. Death ever so long expected, ever so visibly approaching, nevertheless shocks and surprises when it comes at length.

Joseph, having given way to a burst of sorrow over the lifeless clay of his honoured father, sets about the speedy execution of his solemn trust, in discharge of the oath which he had taken. The highest respect we can pay the dead, is to fulfil their living desires. He accordingly gives commandment to have the body embalmed according to the manner of the Egyptians. This practice, which had its origin in necessity, degenerated in process of time into the grossest ostentation, and the most absurd vanity.During the inundations of the Nile, it was necessary to employ art to preserve dead bodies from putrefaction, till the waters subsided. But what was at first merely a temporary expedient against the inconveniency

The only way to do justice to the prophet, to the prophesy, and to the Spirit which inspired the one to utter the other, is simply to read the words, and then to ponder them in our hearts. "Joseph is a fruitful bough even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob: from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty who shall bless thee, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast, and of the womb. The blessings of thy father have prevailed, above the bles-of heat, moisture, and corruption, at a season sings of my progenitors: unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be refined, shall I say? in the hands of that on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of ingenious people, into a work of infinite skill the head of him that was separate from his and expense. For so silly and vainglorious brethren."* Is there an appearance of in- is the human mind, that it strives for the coherence here, is there a redundancy of gratification of pride, in objects the most expression, is there a mixing of metaphor? humiliating and mortifying. We are far It is but the more emphatically expressive of from charging Joseph with acting from a the meltings, the overflowings of an affection-motive so wretched. The journey to Canaan ate heart, collecting its last remains of vigour, retarding for a moment the stroke of death, returning yet once again but to return no more-to ancient feelings and propensities; expiring in the contemplation of the lasting felicity of a dearer self: the lover, the hus

* Gen. xlix. 22-26.

when sepulture was impossible, by degrees

was long; it was needful to use the common methods, to keep the corpse from becoming offensive; perhaps he deemed it decent and wise to conform, in a matter not directly sinful, to the practice, and to yield to the prejudices of the people among whom he dwelt. Whatever were his motives, certain it is,

that in embalming persons of distinction, a of distresses of the most disastrous and overconsiderable time was employed, and large whelming nature; he was stricken, smitten sums expended. Threescore and ten days there where the heart most sensibly feels. at least were necessary; forty in filling the But let us turn the page, and examine the body with aromatic drugs and spices, and articles which make for him. An early dethirty in hardening and drying it with salt clared, and continually supported favour and and nitre. Some Jewish writers, fond of preference of Heaven in his behalf-Early, magnifying in every thing their extraction, constant, habitual impressions of piety-The give out, that Jacob, by express order of covenant promise and presence of the AlPharaoh, was embalmed after the manner of mighty-The testimony of a conscience void the princes of Egypt, as a farther mark of of offence-The aggrandizement, and the gratitude and respect to Joseph; and that virtues of his beloved son-Seventeen years this explains the account we have in scrip- of uninterrupted quiet, with daily growing ture, of the general mourning of the Egyp- prospects of prosperity to his family; and the tians for him, during the seventy days of the consolation of expiring at last in the arms of embalming. Joseph-O, the balance is greatly in his fayour! Who shall dare to say God has dealt hardly with him? We shall make Jacob himself judge of the case now, and defy him to say, "All these things are against me." The patriarch makes a greater figure in death than ever he had done in his life. The house of Israel, the seed of Abraham is now beginning to make a considerable appearance in the world. Egyptians forego their prejudices to do honour to the remains of the old shepherd of Beer-sheba; and the nations of Canaan are awakened to attention and respect, to a family which they hated or despised.

At the end of that period, Joseph makes application to the king for liberty to go to Canaan, to bury his dead father. And here we have another not unamusing picture of the ancient manners of an Egyptian court. Joseph the saviour of Egypt, the second man in the kingdom, might not go into the royal presence in a mourning habit. At such pains has the world been, and such pains it still takes, to keep truth from the eyes and the ears of kings. Unhappy wretches! How can they be wise and good? Every creature with whom they are connected is in a conspiracy to keep them from the knowledge of themselves. The poor man called a monarch must not see a memorial of death, because death brings him to the level of other men. Pity it is, so well conditioned a prince as Pharaoh should want any help to wisdom. Studious of the honour and comfort of so good and faithful a servant, he grants an immediate assent to his request, and permits him to employ the whole pomp of Egypt, if it might testify respect to the memory of the honest patriarch. Mark, my friends, how short the transition, how sudden the change. It is but a few short years since the wagons of Pharaoh were sent, with much form, to carry Jacob into Egypt; and now the same pomp is employed to convey his breathless clay back to Canaan again. Alas, alas! the ceremonies of a coronation, and of a funeral differ only in a few trifling circumstances. Jacob is embalmed by the physicians; but Dehold he is preserved by a more precious perfume than all the spices of Egypt-the pious tears of a dutiful and affectionate child; and his memory preserved on this never dying record, sends forth a fragrance which time cannot waste, nor use diminish.

The account is now at length closed, and the balance struck. And how does it stand? A life of one hundred and forty-seven years in all; of which not above a ninth part passed in any tolerable degree of peace and comfort, and that portion of it at a period when the heart has scarcely any taste of pleasure at all. The early, the susceptible part of his life was filled with a succession

But, while the world is conferring empty, unavailing respect on the insensible dust, the immortal spirit has winged its flight to those bright regions, where the faithful repose in perfect and everlasting peace; where the smile of God obliterates all recollection of the favour of princes, and buries in eternal oblivion the pains and sorrows of a few transitory years. If saints in glory have any recollection of what passed upon earth, as undoubtedly they have, what satisfaction must it afford the glorified patriarch to call to remembrance the various stages of his pilgrimage state, the dark and dreary paths through which Providence led him, and which he once feared were leading him to destruction and death, now that he finds them all certainly and directly tending to his Father's house above? If saints in glory have any knowledge of what passes upon earth, as perhaps they may, what must it have been to Jacob from the lofty height of a throne above the skies, to mark the order and course of Providence, in bringing to pass upon his family the things which were seen in prophetic vision, darkly, and at a distance, and spoken in much weakness and obscurity? What must it be to see the Gentile nations gathered together to Shiloh; to see the glory with the sceptre departed from Judah, but a crown, whose lustre shall never fade, put upon the head of Messiah the Prince? If saints in glory have any intercourse with their fellow partakers in bliss, what must it have been to Jacob, after treading in the

The next Lecture will conclude the history of Joseph, and the book of Genesis, and bring down that of the world to its two thousand three hundred and ninth year, one thousand six hundred and ninety-five years before Christ.

footsteps of Abraham and Isaac his fathers, | naan, was a token and pledge to his family, to overtake and be joined to them in that that in due time they should return thither, world, where men are as the angels of God and enjoy lasting possession; the resurrecin heaven; and to see his faithful children, tion and ascension of Christ's glorious body, his Joseph in particular, gathered unto him, | gives full security to all his spiritual seed, every one in his own order, their day of trial that "those who sleep in Jesus, God will also over, and their warfare accomplished? bring with him;"-"Christ the head first, What must it have been to all the ransomed afterwards they that are Christ's at his comof the Lord, to see their common Saviour re- ing." The possession, of which Jacob's burial turning on high, leading captivity captive, was the pledge, was itself partial and transitriumphing over principalities and powers? tory, was long ago forfeited, and has long If there be joy in heaven over one sinner ago expired; but the succession ensured by that repenteth, what must have been the joy the ascension of Christ, is" to an inheritance of that day, when an elect world, in the per- incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not son of their divine Head, took possession of away." Egyptian art might keep together a throne eternal in the heavens? the dust of Jacob for awhile; but the power of God, through the grace that is in Christ, guards every fragment and shred of it even until now, and "will raise it up again at the last day." The afflicted man Jacob saw the end of all his troubles in the friendly tomb; Jacob, the believer, the saint in bliss, sees no end to his joy, but a still beginning, neverending eternity. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." To me to live let it be Christ, and then to die it shall be gain. Let us be followers of them "who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises." "Be faithful unto death, and ye shall receive a crown of life." "The hour cometh, when all who are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall live." "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.' * Rev. xx. 6.

Jacob, like his forefathers, died, and was buried, and saw corruption; but he whom God raised up died indeed, and was buried, but saw no corruption. Jacob could observe, be offended with, and reprove the faults of his children, but Christ has power to forgive sins, and to change a sinful nature. The day which Jacob saw afar off, is that which arose under Jesus in all its meridian splendour, and continues to shine unto this day. The body of Jacob, by the skill of physicians, was for awhile saved from putrefaction; the body of Christ, by the almighty power of God, was preserved, so that not a bone of it was broken on the cross, not a particle of it lost and left in the grave. The corpse of the patriarch, deposited in the cave of Machpelah, in Ca

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HISTORY OF JOSEPH.

LECTURE XXXV.

And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land, unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.-GENESIS 1. 24-26.

THE events of a short and uncertain life | the attention and pursuit of man? What is upon earth, denive all their importance from reputation? A breath of empty air; honour, the relation which they bear to a future and a bubble; riches, a bird eternally on the wing; eternal state of existence. Remove the pros- youth, beauty, health, fading flowers of the pects of immortality, and what is left worthy spring; the splendour of kings, childish pa

geantry; a crown, a toy. That alone is va- | seph, not knowing who he was, and so fulluable which time cannot impair, nor mortality filled the dreams of his early youth, which destroy; that which, though the man die, con- had given them such mortal offence. With tinues to live and speak; that which, de- a meanness equal to their former haughtiness, spised or neglected of men, is of high esti- they now voluntarily prostrate themselves in mation in the sight of God. If in this life his presence, and humbly deprecate that only there were hope, the happiest of man- wrath which they had so unjustly provoked. kind were a wretched, dark, comfortless What a pitiable, what a contemptible figure being. But for the consolations of religion, a man makes, overtaken and reproved by his Jacob must have sunk under the accumulated own wickedness! weight of calamity upon calamity: and Joseph, destitute of a principle of grace in the heart, had fallen in the hour of temptation, or despaired in the day of adversity; had risen into pride when exalted to honour, or deviated into resentment and revenge when armed with power. But, directed and supported by this celestial guide, he descends into the pit undejected, undismayed; spurns with holy indignation the solicitations of il-lented, and anger must have turned to pity. licit desire; preserves moderation in the height of prosperity, and sinks the resentments of the injured man, in the meekness and gentleness of the affectionate brother. A character so near perfection seldom occurs; we have therefore been tempted to dwell upon it the longer, and now that we must part with it, we bid it farewell, with no little regret.

The last office in which we left Joseph employed, was the burial of his venerable parent. In this he at once acquitted a solemn obligation; fulfilled the law of humanity, gratitude, and filial duty; and acted faith in the covenant and promise of God given to his forefathers. He is never so much an Egyptian, as to forget he is an Israelite; but, engaged in the duties of a son of Israel, he remembers he was a naturalized Egyptian. Having deposited the sacred pledge in the cave of the field of Machpelah, he and his brethren, and all his retinue return into the land of Egypt.

A little mind would have enjoyed this triumph of acknowledged superiority, if it did not resort to retaliation. But a great soul like Joseph's gives only into emotions worthy of itself. Seeing his father's children thus humbled before him, he dissolves into tears. Had he been ever so much inclined to vengeance, adjured by the awful names of his father and his God, his heart must have re

But in truth, he had never harboured one thought of revenge, and the offenders possessed an infinitely better security in the generosity and compassion of their brother, than in the protection of their father's feeble arm, parental authority, or frail life. Being at no variance with them, entertaining no grudge, mark what pains he takes to reconcile them to themselves; "But as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now, therefore, fear ye not: I will nourish ye and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them."*

Such is the exalted triumph of true goodness. Not satisfied with merely bestowing forgiveness, it strives to close the wounds which guilt has made: it aims not only at bettering the external condition of the penitent, but also at meliorating his inward frame; it not only proclaims peace to the offender, but likewise generously studies the means of reTerror ever haunts the guilty conscience; storing him to peace with his own conand men, whether they be good or bad, are science. This is the glorious triumph of God apt to judge of others by themselves. The himself, who overcomes evil with good, turns brothers of Joseph considered the life of their enmity into love, and obliterates the foul father as the only bulwark betwixt them and traces of undutifulness and ingratitude, by their brother's anger. Knowing themselves painting over them the fairer, softer features to be criminal, they conclude he must be re- of filial tenderness and dutiful submission. And sentful; knowing he had the power, they in no one respect can human nature so nearsuppose he must needs have the inclination ly resemble the divine, as in pardoning transto punish them. O how guilt degrades, de-gression, in showing mercy, in bestowing bases the spirit of a man! In bad minds, how on the guilty outward and inward peace; and quick the transition from extreme to extreme! burying and effacing painful and mortifying How nearly allied to each other, vices seem- recollections in total and everlasting obliingly remote, contradictory, and opposite! vion. Thus Joseph comforted his brethren, These reflections are all strikingly exempli- and spake kindly unto them. This spirit a fied and illustrated in the conduct of Jacob's greater than Joseph, by precept, by example, sons. We see malice and cruelty passing and by the model which he prescribed for our into suspicion and timidity: insolence but a devotions, has recommended and enforced; single step removed from fawning, flattery, and thus, by habitually drinking into it, and submission; and bold defiance of Heaven" men shall at length become perfect, as changing in a moment into superstitious hor- their father in heaven is perfect." ror. They had before done obeisance to Jo

* Gen. 1. 20, 21.

And

At the death of his father, Joseph was that by entreaty and permission, which once fifty-six years old. The history of the re- he could have enjoyed by authority. His mainder, containing a period of fifty-four pious attention to the dead is now requited years more, shrinks into a few short sen- by the pious attention of the living. tences. But they exhibit a beautiful and in- thus of all the debts contracted by us, none structive picture of a generous spirit, of is so certain of being repaid, as the last sogreat and growing domestic happiness, of a lemn offices of humanity. Here, we only capacious prophetic soul, and of a faithful, give and receive a little short credit; and obedient, and believing heart. He had the the day of our burial hastens on, with rapid satisfaction of living to see his posterity of wings, to bring the account to a balance. the fourth generation, by Ephraim his young- Thus lived, and thus died, Joseph the son er son, and of the third, by Manasseh his of Jacob. A man whom all nations and every first-born. He had the felicity of beholding description of mankind, have united to praise Israel greatly increased, and the promise of and admire. Whose character and fortunes God hastening to its accomplishment; re- the pen of inspiration has vouchsafed to designed to die in Egypt, but looking and long-lineate with singular accuracy, and with ing for a sepulchre in Canaan. Jacob's, a life uncommon strength of colouring. Who, in of almost uninterrupted misery, is length- every stage of life, in youth, in manhood, ened out to the hundred and forty-seventh and even to old age, interests, instructs, and year; Joseph's, with the exception of a very delights every reader of taste, virtue, and few years, a scene of splendour, usefulness, sensibility. Who, in adversity, preserved and prosperity, is cut short at a hundred and inflexible constancy; and, in elevation next ten. But the difference dwindles into mere to royalty, adorned his high station by unafnothing before Him, with whom "a thousand fected simplicity, incorruptible integrity, nayears are as one day, and one day as a thou- tive, unassuming dignity, fervent piety, insand years." Grief has its cure, usefulness variable moderation, and uniform modesty its period, glory its decay, and pride its des- and humility. Who, as a son, a brother, troyer in the grave. As his dying father a servant, a father, a master, a ruler, is held him engaged by a solemn oath not to equally amiable and praiseworthy. Who, to bury him but in Canaan, so Joseph binds his the sagacity of the statesman, added the posterity by a similar obligation to carry his penetration of the prophet, the firmness of remains, when opportunity offered, to the the believer, and the purity of the saint. sacred spot where the sleeping dust of Abra- Who, by the blessing of Providence, was ham, Isaac, and Jacob reposed. Whatever saved through dangers the most threatening, had been his power or possessions in Egypt, to pity, to forgive, and to preserve those who this is all he bequeaths to his children; his meant to have destroyed him; and who, in last, dying will, disposes of nothing but his a word, was miraculously raised up of God bones. But it is not merely the natural desire from an obscure station, to be an instrument of the man, to rest in death with his fathers; of much temporal good to nations; to mait is the zeal, piety, and wisdom of the be- ture and execute the plans of eternal Wisliever, leaving to his family a solemn pledgedom, and to typify to a dark age, Him who is of his dying confidence in the truth and faithfulness of God. Accordingly, the dead body of Joseph becomes no inconsiderable object in the history of Israel, from this time forward, to their final establishment in Canaan. With much pomp it was now embalmed, with much care it was preserved in their deepest distresses and affliction; in all their wanderings it accompanied them, and never, till they rested in the peaceable possession of the land of promise, did it rest in the peaceful tomb.

But had the credit of Joseph declined before his death? Had Pharaoh died, and Egypt forgotten to be grateful, that no royal mandate is issued for a splendid public interment; that an affectionate nation accompanies not, with tears, the son, as they did the father, to his long home? Miserable would Joseph have been, had not his happiness rested on a surer foundation than the smile of kings, or the applause of a multitude. Who shall be vain of any thing, when such a man as Joseph must be content to obtain

fairer than the children of men, and through whom all the blessings of nature, of providence, and of redemption are communicated to mankind. We cannot therefore, as Christians, conclude his history better, than by considering it somewhat more particularly, as a typical representation of the person, the character, the offices, and the work of the Messiah.

We know the generation of Joseph the son of Rachel, and the well beloved of Jacob-but "who shall declare the generation" of the well beloved Son of God, "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth?" Early, unambiguous prognostics foretold the future greatness of Joseph. Thus the tongues of a thousand prophets; signs in heaven, and signs in earth; the disposition of angels singly, and of a multitude of the heavenly host together, before and at his birth, conduct the babe of Bethlehem from the manger to the throne. Some allegorists, who inquire rather curiously than wisely, have carried the analogy so

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