fitting down with Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven;" a promife which opens the fublimeft profpects to the human mind. It allows good men to entertain the hope, that feparated from all the dregs of the human mafs, from that mixed and polluted crowd in the midft of which they now dwell, they shall be permitted to mingle with prophets, patriarchs, and apoftles, with all thofe great and illuftrious fpirits, who have fhone in former ages as the fervants of God, or the benefactors of men; whofe deeds we are accuftomed to celebrate; whofe fteps we now follow at a diftance; and whofe names we pronounce with vene

ration.

United to this high afsembly, the blefsed, at the fame time, renew thofe ancient connexions with virtuous friends, which had been difsolved by death. The profpect of this awakens in the heart, the most pleasing and tender fentiment that perhaps can fill it, in this mortal ftate. For of all the forrows which we are here doomed to endure, none is fo bitter as that occafioned by the fatal ftroke which feparates us, in appearance for ever, from thofe to whom either nature or friendship had intimately joined our hearts. Memory, from time to time, renews the anguish; opens the wound which feemed once to have been closed; and, by recalling joys that are paft and gone, touches every fpring of painful fenfibility. In these agonizing moments, how relieving the thought, that the separation is only temporary, not eternal; that there is a time to come of re-union with thofe with whom our happiest days were fpent; whofe joys and forrows once were ours; whofe piety and virtue cheered and encouraged us; and from whom, after we fhall have landed on the peaceful fhore where they dwell, no re

volutions of nature shall ever be able to part us more! Such is the fociety of the blessed above. Of fuch are the multitude compofed, who "ftand before the

throne."

BLAIR

SECTION VI.

The Clemency and amiable Character of the Patriarch

JOSEPH.

No human character exhibited in the records of Scripture, is more remarkable or inftructive than that of the patriarch Jofeph. He is one whom we behold tried in all the vicissitudes of fortune; from the condition of a flave, rifing to be ruler of the land of Egypt; and in every ftation acquiring, by his virtue and wif dom, favour with God and man. When overfeer of Potiphar's houfe, his fidelity was proved by strong temptations, which he honourably refifted. When thrown into prison by the artifice of a false woman, his integrity and prudence foon rendered him confpicuous, even in that dark manfion. When called into the prefence of Pharaoh, the wife and extenfive plan which he formed for faving the kingdom from the miferies of impending famine, juftly raised him to a high station, wherein his abilities were eminently difplayed in the public fervice. But in his whole hiftory, there is nocircumftance fo ftriking and interefting, as his behaviour to his brethren who had fold him into flavery. The moment in which he made himself known to them, was the most critical one of his life, and, the moft decifive of his character. It is fuch as rarely occurs in the course of human events; and is calculated.

to draw the highest attention of all who are endowed with any degree of fenfibility of heart.

From the whole tenour of the narration it appears, that though Jofeph, upon the arrival of his brethren in Egypt, made himself ftrange to them, yet from the beginning he intended to discover himfelf; and ftudied fo to conduct the difcovery, as might render the surprise of joy complete. For this end, by affected severity, he took measures for bringing down into Egypt all his father's children. They were now arrived there; and Benjamin among the reft, who was his younger brother by the fame mother, and was particularly beloved by Jofeph. Him he threatened to detain; and feemed willing to allow the reft to depart. This incident renewed their diftrefs. They all knew their father's extreme anxiety about the fafety of Benjamin, and with what difficulty he had yielded to his undertaking this journey. Should he be prevented from returning, they dreaded that grief would overpower the old man's fpirits, and prove fatal to his life. Judah, therefore, who had particularly urged the necefsity of Benjamin's accompanying his brothers, and had folemnly pledged himself to their father for his fafe return, craved, upon this occafion, an audience of the governour; and gave him a full account of the circumftances of Jacob's family.

Nothing can be more interefting and pathetic than this difcourfe of Judah. Little knowing to whom he fpoke, he paints in all the colours of fimple and natural eloquence, the distressed fituation of the aged patriarch, haftening to the close of life; long afflicted for the lofs of a favourite fon, whom he fuppofed to have been torn in pieces by a beaft of prey; labouring now

under anxious concern about his youngest fon, the child of his old age, who alone was left alive of his mother, and whom nothing but the calamities of severe famine could have moved a tender father to fend: from home, and expofe to the dangers of a foreign land. "If we bring him not back with us, we fhall bring down the grey hairs of thy fervant, our father, with forrow, to the grave. I pray thee therefore let thy fervant abide, inftead of the young man, a bondman to our lord. For how fhall I go up to my father, and Benjamin not with me? left I fee the evil that fhall come on my father."

Upon this relation, Joseph could no longer refrain himself. The tender ideas of his father and his father's house, of his ancient home, his country and his kindred, of the diftrefs of his family, and his own exaltation, all rushed too ftrongly upon his mind to bear any farther concealment. "He cried, caufe every man to go out from me; and he wept aloud." The tears which he shed were not the tears of grief. They were the burst of affection. They were the effufions of a heart overflowing with all the tender fenfibilities of nature. Formerly he had been moved. in the fame manner, when he firft faw his brethren before him.. "His bowels yearned upon them; he fought for a place where to weep. He went into his chamber; and then washed his face and returned to them." At that period his generous plans were not completed.. But now, when there was no farther occafion for coneAraining himself, he gave free vent to the firong emo-tions of his heart. The first minifter to the king ef Egypt was not ashamed to fhow, that he felt as a man,.

and a brother.

"He wept aloud; and the Egyptians,

and the houfe of Pharaoh heard him."

The first words which his fwelling heart allowed him to pronounce, are the moft fuitable to fuch an affecting fituation that were ever uttered;—“ I am Jofeph; doth my father yet live?"-What could he, what ought he, in that impafsioned moment, to have faid more? This is the voice of Nature herfelf, fpeaking her own language; and it penetrates the heart: No pomp of exprefsion; no parade of kindness; but ftrong affection haftening to utter what it ftrongly felt. "His brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his prefence." Their filence is as expreffive of thofe emotions of repentance and fhame, which, on this amazing difcovery, filled their breasts, and stopped their utterance, as the few words which Jofeph fpeaks, are expressive of the generous agitations which ftruggled for vent within him. No painter could feize a more ftriking moment for difplaying the characteriftical features of the human heart, than what is here prefented. Never was there a fituation of more tender and virtuous joy, on the one hand; nor, on the other, of more overwhelming confufion and conscious guilt. In the fimple narration of the sacred historian, it is fet before us with greater energy and higher ef fect, than if it had been wrought up with all the colouring of the most admired modern eloquence.

BLAIR.