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útmoft fplendor of power, affluence, and SERM, prosperity.

Jofeph, the elect and favourite of God, preordained by the Almighty as a chofen inftrument to fet forth his divine power and goodness, was the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob; he is introduced to us by the inspired writer in his early youth when he was but seventeen years old we find him feeding the flock with his brethren: The firft circumstance recorded of him is, that the lad was with the fons of Bilbab, and with the fons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and Jofeph brought unto his father their evil report. The feeds of virtue which were fown in his mind began even in this tender age to fprout forth in an abhorrence of vice, riot, and debauchery. He faw fomething in the conduct of his brethren and companions which difpleafed and disgufted him,

B 3

SERM. him, which the natural openness of foul,

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ever attendant on this period of life, ftrongly prompted him to disclose: and accordingly we find that he brought to his father their evil report; that is to fay, he acquainted Jacob with their ill conduct; the natural confequence of which was to bring on him the hatred and ill-will of his brethren: and thus it ever happens to the good and virtuous; those who detect vice and falfehood are fure to be perfecuted and oppreffed by the vicious and the falfe, who feldom forgive the witneffes of their guilt, or the difcoverers of their hypocrify. But another circumftance confpired alfo to render Joseph the unhappy object of envy and abhorrence. Ifrael, we are told, loved Jofeph more than all his children; and the reason is immediately added, because he was the child of his old age.

We

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We shall find in the courfe of the hif- SERM. tory, that the extraordinary regard and tenderness which Jacob expreffed for his darling Jofeph, instead of contributing to the happiness of his child, was the fource of all his mifery from whence we may obferve, as we pafs along, that providence doth frequently feem (as in the cafe before us) by a kind of interfering justice, to punish the unwarrantable partiality of parents in the unequal diftribution of love and affection towards their children; which one would think might convey fome useful reflections to those who come after them. How many amongst us every day imitate the folly of Jacob, in loving to excefs the children of their old age! How few are happy in feeing that fondness fo amply repaid as in the example of Jofeph. So weak and fo fhort-fighted is man, that the very means which he makes ufe of to procure

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SERM. to himself pleasure and fatisfaction, are often the visible and only cause of all his trouble and calamity. Thus the love of Ifrael for his fon Jofeph, by raising the jealousy of his brethren, involved him in that whole feries of misfortunes which afterwards befel him. The coat of many colours, which we are told his father had made for him, immediately pointed him out as an object of envy. This mark of fuperiority might, however, have paffed unnoticed and unpunished, had not another far more prevailing distinction alarmed and awakened their animofity. Jofeph dreamed a dream : Behold, faid he to his brethren, we were binding fheaves in the field, and lo, my Sheaf arofe and stood upright; and behold, your 'fheaves flood round

fance to my fheaf.

about, and made obei

There is a remark

able propriety in this dream, which I I do not remember to have been obferved,

and

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and which yet fufficiently appears in the SERM. fequel of the ftory; 'namely, the visible allufion which the image carries with it to the dearth of corn in Judea they were binding fheaves in the field, and their fheaves made obeifance to my fheaf. This dream, we may obferve, demanded no extraordinary capacity in the interpretation of it: the meaning of it was extremely obvious, and could not poffibly be mistaken by them, being no less than a plain and positive prediction of Joseph's future fortune, the fuperiority which he was born to enjoy over them, and their total fubmiffion to him; a circumstance which worldly wisdom (a wisdom he was a ftranger to) would doubtless have perfuaded him to conceal: he foon, indeed, found reason to repent his unguarded disclosure of it; for, being fent a little time after by his father on a meffage of love and friendship to his brethren, to

fee