and lo! God hath shewed me also thy seed. And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.” Nothing can well be more solemn or interesting, than this interview; more honourable or consoling to old age; or more expressive of the dignified piety of the best of sons, and the greatest of men. We now approach the last scene of this eventful history, and the best testimony, which it was possible for Joseph to give, of the love and reverence with which he had never ceased to treat his father, and that upon the occasion of his death, and the bonours which he paid to his memory; honours, vain no doubt to the dead, but so far as they are significations of gratitude or affection, justly deserving of commendation and esteem. "And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his Sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. And the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days. And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house : and there went up with him both chariots and horsemen and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan; and there they mourned with a great and a very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days." Thus died, and thus was honoured in his death, the preserver of the Jewish nation, who, amidst many mercies, and many visitations, sudden and surprising vicissitudes of afflictions and joy, found it the greatest blessing of his varied and eventful life, that he had been the father of a dutiful and affectionate son. there is no It has been said, and, as I believe, truly, that man character, of which there is not some distinct no relation in which we can be placed, no duty and eminent example to be found in the Bible; serve a pattern for it in the sacred history. Of the which we have to discharge, but that we may obmaintained under great singularities and variations duty of children to parents, of a son to his father, of fortune, undiminished, nay, rather increased by absence, by distance, by unexampled success, in this most interesting and conspicuous of all histories, as amiable an instance, as can be met with in the records of the world, in the purest, best virtuous quality belonging to the hu TO THINK LESS OF OUR VIRTUES, AND MORE OF My sin is ever before me.-Psalm li. 3. THERE is a propensity in the human mind, very general and very natural, yet, at the same time, Favourable in a high degree to the Christian chaer; which is, that, when we look back upon lives, our recollection dwells too much upon virtues; our sins are not, as they ought to be, fore us: we think too much of our good quali es, or good actions, too little of our crimes, our corruptions, our fallings off and declension from God's laws, our defects and weaknesses. These we sink and overlook, in meditating upon our good properties. This, I allow, is natural; because, undoubtedly, it is more agreeable to have our minds occupied with the cheering retrospect minds; and yet neither right, nor safe. When I say that it is wrong, I mean, that it is not the true Christian disposition; and when I say that it is dangerous, I have a view to its effects upon our salvation. I say, that it is not the true Christian disposition; for, first, how does it accord with what we read in the Christian Scriptures, whether we consider the precepts which are found there applicable to the subject, or the conduct and example of Christian characters. Now, one precept, and that of Christ himself, you find to be this: "Ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do."* It is evident, that this strong admonition was intended, by our Saviour, to check in his disciples an overweaning opinion of their own merit. It is a very remarkable passage. I think none throughout the New Testament more so. And the intention, with which the words were spoken, was evidently to check and repel that opinion of merit, which is sure to arise from the habit of fixing our contemplation so much upon our good qualities, and so little upon our bad ones. Yet this habit is natural, and was never prohibited by any teacher, except by our Saviour. With him it was a great fault, by reason of its inconsistency with the favourite principle of his religion,-humility. I call humility not only a duty, but a principle. Humble mindedness is a Christian principle, if there be one; above all, humble-mindedness towards God. The servants, to whom our Lord's expression refers, were to be humble-minded, we may presume, towards one another; but towards their Lord, the only answer, the only thought, the only sentiment, was to be, "We are unprofitable servants." And who are they, that were instructed by our Lord, to bear constantly this * Luke xvii. 10, Nection about with them? Were they sinners, rious sinners! nay, the very contrary; they ere persons "p Were de scription which our Lord gives of the persons to commanded them!" This is precisely the om his lesson was directed. Therefore, you those who had the best pretensions to entertain who had done all those things that opinion of merit is discouraged, even to grow up in the heart, whenever we accustom overweaning opinion of merit, is sure were good. But an opinion Ourselves to think much of our virtues and little of our vices. It is generated, fostered, and cherished, by this train of meditation we have been describing. It cannot be otherwise. And if we would repress it; if we would correct ourselves in this respect; if we would bring ourselves into a capacity of complying with our Saviour's rule, we must alter our turn of thinking; we must reflect more upon our sins, and less upon our virtues. Depend upon it, that we shall view our characters more truly; we shall view them much more safely, when we view them in their defects and faults and infirmities, than when we view them only, or principally, on the side of their d qualities; even when these good qualities eal. I suppose, and I have all along supposed, he good parts of our characters, which, as ad, too much attract our attention, are, neeless, real: and I suppose this, because our our's parable supposes the same. our own salvation with fear and trembling.* Another great Christian rule is, "Work out all contentment,satisfaction, and self-complacency; do not accord with the state of a mind, which is These significant words, "fear and trembling," h is brought into that state by the habit g and regarding those good qualities, person believes to belong to himself, or those good actions, which he remembers to have performed. The precept much better accords rith a mind, anxious, fearful, and apprehensive, and made so by a sense of sin. But a sense of sin exists not, as it ought to do, in that breast, which is in the habit of meditating chiefly upon its virtues. I can very well believe, that two persons of the same character in truth, may nevertheless, view themselves in very different lights, according as one is accustomed to look chiefly at his good qualities, the other chiefly at his transgressions and imperfections; and I say, that this latter is the disposition for working out our salvation agreeably to St. Paul's rule and method, that is, "with fear and trembling:" the other is not. But farther; there is upon this subject a great deal to be learnt from the examples, which the New Testament sets before us. Precepts are short, necessarily must be so, take up but little room, and, for that reason, do not always strike with the force or leave the impression, which they ought to do: but examples of character, when the question is concerning character, and what is the proper character, have more weight and body in the consideration, and take up more room in our minds, than precepts. Now, from one end of the New Testament to the other, you will find the evangelical character to be contrition. You hear little of virtue or righteousness; but you hear perpetually of the forgiveness of sins. With the first Christian teachers, " repent, repent, was the burden of their exhortations; the almost constant sound of their voice. Does not this strain of preaching shew, that the preachers wished all, who heard them, to think much more of offences than of merits? Nay, farther, with respect to themselves, whenever this contemplation of righteousness came in their way, it came in their way only to be renounced, as natural, perhaps, and also grateful to human feelings, but as inconsistent and irreconcilable with the Christian |