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far as to represent Joseph's coat of many colours, the distinguishing badge of his father's partial affection, as typical of the body prepared for Christ, "curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth." When imagination, unrestrained by reason, and unconducted by scripture, is set to work, any thing may be made to resemble any thing. But if the interests of true piety be promoted, we must give, as we need and expect, much allowance; and so long as a metaphor presumes not to pass for a text or an argument, let metaphorical language be examined with candour, and the bold flights of an honest heart be treated with tenderness and respect. While we thus plead indulgence for others, we are perhaps making an apology that is necessary to ourselves; and far, very far from this place be the vanity of thinking that "surely we are the people, and that wisdom shall die with us."

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faithful and just to Potiphar and to Pharaoh; Joseph in the form of a servant, and the business and affairs of his master prospering in his hand, lead us directly to him of whom it is spoken in prophetic vision, "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high."* Joseph assaulted with temptation, resisting and overcoming, conducts us with our tempted Saviour to the top of the exceeding high mountain, to the pinnacle of the temple, and shows us all the fiery darts of the wicked one falling harmless on the ground, because striking on the shield of faith; and "the sword of the Spirit, the word of God," like lightning, penetrating and piercing the armour of the adversary. Joseph unjustly accused, condemned, and punished, without straining for an allusion, points to Jesus, "numbered with transgressors," charged with crimes which he never committed, and We remarked of Joseph, that in making upon a trial, a mockery of all legal proceedhis observations upon, and in giving the re-ing, condemned with the vilest of mankind port of his brothers' conduct, a mixture of to the death of a slave. self-sufficiency, malevolence, and presumption might possibly insinuate itself; but in the censure and reproof administered by the Brother and Friend of mankind, we always discover unmixed benevolence and gentleness; severity against the offence, without acrimony towards the offender; slowness to condemn, readiness to forgive; a disposition to palliate and excuse the worst of crimes, instead of eagerness and zeal to detect, magnify, and expose the least. Jacob's affectionate embassy to his sons in the wilderness, by the mouth of his beloved Joseph, in all its circumstances, has already been noticed as exactly typical of the message borne from the compassionate Father of men, to his wandering exile children, by the Son of his love. Who can think of Joseph following his brethren from place to place with thoughts of peace, and meeting in return with hatred and violence, without reflecting the next moment on the words of the evangelist, "he came to his own, and his own received him not." "Not this man, but Barabbas." 66 Away with him, crucify him, crucify him.” "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not."* Joseph was sold at the suggestion of Judah to the Ishmaelites for a few pieces of silver. The counterpart of this forces itself upon our imagination. "The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men;" "mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me."t "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" Joseph

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But we see Joseph even in prison and disgraced, preserving dignity, exercising usefulness, disclosing futurity to his fellow-prisoners, restoring the one to the presence and favour of Pharaoh, leaving the other to perish under the weight of the royal displeasure. Thus we see Jesus, from the exalted infamy of the cross, dispensing more than life and death, opening and shutting the gates of heaven, assuming to himself the right of disposing of seats in the paradise of God; carrying the penitent with him to the presence of his father and his God; leaving the impenitent to die in his sins. But there is here this remarkable difference, Joseph besought the chief butler to remember him, hoping to owe his enlargement to the powerful, compassionate, and grateful intercession of that officer; but Jesus, as Lord of the worlds visible and invisible, as the sovereign disposer of all things, by his own power exalts his fellow-sufferer from the cross to a throne above the skies. Behold Joseph translated from the dungeon to the palace, from the condition of a prisoner and a slave, to that of a mighty prince; and in that, behold Jesus emerging from the tomb, ascending above all height, exalted to the sovereign administration of all things in heaven and in earth. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?"† "It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Joseph revealed to Pharaoh and to all Egypt what was the will of heaven concerning them for many years to come: thus Jesus revealed to a guilty, perishing world the will of God for their salvation, and made Luke xxiv. 26. † Heb. ii. 10.

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Isaiah lii. 13.

timely provision, not for the transient and ineffectual support of a few fleeting years, but for the eternal entertainment and felicity of men, who were devoted to death, and threatened with everlasting misery. Joseph employed the pressure of famine to enslave Egypt, and to subject a whole people to the will of the sovereign: but Jesus, armed with all power for our destruction, employed it only for our deliverance; and instead of sinking and degrading the subjects of his government, such is his love, he raises them all to the dignities, privileges, and possessions of the sons of God. He is the true prophet, "the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world," "in whom the Spirit of God is; none so discreet and wise as he," Zaphnathpaaneah, the true revealer of secrets, who "is worthy to take the sealed book," which contains the secrets of the eternal mind, and to open its seven seals. The clemency of Joseph to his unkind, unnatural brothers, is a lively and affecting representation of the patience, gentleness, and mercy of Christ to his brethren after the flesh, in the first instance, and to guilty, ungrateful men in general. "Father, forgive them," said he, as he was expiring on the cross, "they know not what they do." And not many days after that with wicked hands men had crucified and slain him, many thousands of these very men were made to taste of his grace, were admitted into his family, and exalted to a place with him on his throne. But we must not pursue the similitude through every particular; it would protract our discourse to an immoderate length. Finally then, Joseph piously referred every thing that befel him to the provident, wise, and gracious destination of the Almighty: and what saith Jesus? "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." 66 My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."

And thus have we finished the history of the patriarch Joseph: the various stages of whose life may be thus calculated. He was born in Haran, in the year of the world two thousand two hundred and fifty-nine, where he lived till six years old. He was then removed with the rest of his father's family into Canaan, where he lived eleven years; at which period he was by his brethren sold U

to the Ishmaelites, and carried into Egypt, where he served Potiphar ten years, and remained in prison three: so that he was thirty, when he first stood before Pharaoh, and was raised immediately to the dignity of viceroy. Supposing the seven plenteous years to commence immediately, he was thirty-seven when they ended: and the second year of famine being ended, he being then thirty-nine, Jacob and his family descended into Egypt; and the aged patriarch lived there, cherished by his son, seventeen years, which brings himself forward to his fifty-sixth year. After his father's death he lived fifty-four years more, in all one hundred and ten. So that Joseph lived in Egypt full ninety-three years: a slave and a prisoner thirteen; a prince and ruler eighty; under several successive monarchs: being justly esteemed a necessary minister of state in all reigns. He died before the birth of Moses sixty-four years, and before the departing of the children of Israel out of Egypt, one hundred and forty-four. And with the account of his death and embalming, ends the book of Genesis, containing the most ancient, authentic, interesting, and instructive history extant; during the space of two thousand three hundred and sixty-nine years: from the deluge, seven hundred and thirteen; and before Christ, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five.

These things seem as a tale that is told. But time is hurrying on a period and an establishment of things, under which Adam and his youngest son shall be contemporaries; in which intervening ages shall be swallowed up and lost; and that only remain, which time, and death, and the grave cannot affect, when the cave of Machpelah shall surrender up its precious deposit; when Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and all the faithful shall live again, and reign for ever and ever. "Blessed are they who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." "Blessed are they who shall come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."*

*Heb. xii. 22-24.

HISTORY OF MOSES.

LECTURE XXXVI.

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman con ceived, and bare a son; and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein: and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the river's side: and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go, and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Go. And the maid went, and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages: and the worhan took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son: and she called his name Moses, and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.-ExODUS ii. 1-10.

knowledge; and the simplicity and candour of his narration are sufficient vouchers of its truth and faithfulness.

Ir the ingenious fictions of ancient bards force, described the characters and lives of afford an innocent and rational amusement, the patriarchs from Adam to Joseph, is now and be therefore held in high estimation; entering on his own wonderful and interestwhat superior obligation is the world under, ing story.. The man who henceforth acts, is to that divine Spirit who has vouchsafed to the same who writes: the events which he is draw into light the most remote antiquity, about to record, come not from the informaand preserve from oblivion the venerable mention of others, but from his own immediate who first cultivated and peopled the earth; and, in the language, not of fiction, but of truth, has delineated the ways of Providence, and unfolded the deep and intricate recesses Sixty-four years had now elapsed from the of the human heart? Were it not for the death of Joseph, and one hundred and thirtysacred pages of divine revelation, we should four from the descent of Jacob into Egypt: have been entirely ignorant of what hap- and what surprising changes have taken pened in the world for at least one half of its place! A little band of seventy persons is duration. But borne on the wings of inspi- multiplied into a great nation: the mild and ration, we fly back to the very birth of nature, gracious prince who took pleasure in cherishwe behold the first dawning of light scattering and protecting the father and brethren, ing the gloom, and converse with the first of Joseph, is exchanged for a jealous and man whom God created upon the earth. And sanguinary tyrant, determined to depress and how much more pleasant, as well as profit- extirpate their descendants: the country able, is it, to expatiate in the field of real which once gave them support and shelter, history, than to wander and lose ourselves in is now moistened with their tears, and with the idle regions of romance! If we owe much the blood of their infant offspring; and fato the illustrious poet of Greece, for his amus-voured guests, made to dwell in the best of ing pictures of early life and manners, how deeply are we indebted to the more illustrious Jewish historian and poet, who has furnished us with so much juster and more exalted ideas of Deity, more faithful and instructive pictures of human life; and who has so successfully interwoven the history of redemption with that of mankind.

The sacred book which has afforded us during the year past, so much pleasing instruction, is altogether extraordinary in its kind, whether we consider the beauty of the composition, the importance of the information which it contains, the internal marks of authenticity which it bears, or the noble purposes to which it has been, and may be made subservient. Moses, its inspired author, who has with so much accuracy, elegance, and

the land, are turned into odious slaves cordemned to the furnace. Such are the alterations which time is continually producing in human affairs, such the impotency of man to secure blessings to his posterity, such the misery of a people subjected to the will of a despotic sovereign.

In vain do men dream of national generosity and gratitude-they exist not: in vain do the claims of humanity and justice oppose themselves to the interest, the ambition, or caprice of princes. Joseph had very unwisely contributed to the aggrandizement of the Egyptian monarchs, and his own family is the first to feel the rod of that power which he had helped to raise. Injustice in princes is always bad policy. A nation so certainly favoured of Heaven as Israel was, must have

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