pears no less so from fact and experience. For we may observe, that by thus becoming strange to our own flesh, they generally become strange to us; their affections are alienated from us, and our authority over them is destroyed. By this method also, we introduce a kind of faction or schism in our own families; since those, whom we think proper to distinguish from the rest of our offspring by an extraordinary degree of regard, will scarce ever fail of being as much distinguished by the hate and envy of the rest of their brethren. And how far these passions may transport them, we may learn from the story before us. But even, though this partiality of ours should not produce such direful effects as are there recorded, yet it will at least weaken one of the best supports, and take away one of the greatest blessings of domestic life, the cordial friendship and affectionate unity of brethren among themselves; and also, by making us more remiss in the care of their education and the formation of their manners, will greatly contribute to their future miscarriages in life. And,

in

in this case, it will become us to consider well in sober sadness, what horror and confusion of face will seize us at the last great day. How it will make our ears tingle, and our knees smite together, to be then reproached by these our neglected children, in some such language as this:"Behold, thou unnatural parent, the "fruits of thy neglect of me! Hadst thou "but bestowed upon me that portion of thy care and love, to which I was equally entitled with the rest of my "brethren; hadst thou not withdrawn

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thy protecting hand, and left my un"sheltered innocence to fall an easy sa"crifice to temptation; hadst not thou driven me to despair and ruin by an ill"timed preference and partiality, which stung my soul with jealousy and rage, "I had not now been condemned for

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ever to this place of torment! Cursed "therefore be the Father which begat me, "and the paps which I have sucked!"

It must be owned, that what I am now condemning is a fault to which even the best of men have been subject; but all parents

parents ought to strive against it, as they would against any other criminal passion. And the only case in which such a behaviour of a parent can admit of any excuse, is that of the patriarch Jacob, whose fondness for one of his sons was chiefly owing to the extraordinary virtue and duty he met with in Joseph, and the scandalous vices and disobedience, which his brethren had been guilty of. But, even in this case, great prudence is requisite in letting our other children see, that it is their vices only we are displeased at; and that by returning to their duty, they will certainly return to an equal share of our love and affection.

There is another circumstance in this story, which we cannot slightly pass over, as it evidently points out to us a remarkable difference between an honest and a vicious heart,-between a genuine virtue and the spurious resemblance of it. When Joseph was solicited by his master's wife to gratify her unlawful desires, he immediately makes her this generous answer:

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Behold, says he, my master wotteth

"not

"not what is with me in the house, and "hath committed all that he hath to my "hand: there is none greater in the house "than I: neither hath he kept back any thing from me, but thee, because thou

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art his wife: How then can I do this "great wickedness, and sin against God?" -Here we see, that the same argument which a base mind would have applied to itself for committing the evil, was to this truly brave and virtuous youth the strongest motive for forbearing it,-even that he could do it with impunity. A regard for this world, and a dread of the temporal inconveniences which may follow a detection, are to the greater part of mankind the only checks on their conduct; and, when these are removed, they seldom stick at any villany, which either the devil or their own corrupt hearts can suggest to them. But the truly virtuous man acts upon nobler motives: the inbred odiousness of vice is to him of infinitely more weight than the shame or resentment of a whole world; and, whilst he has no other witnesses to his actions than God and his own conscience, a regard for them strikes

him with a far greater awe than would arise from the presence and inspection of a million of other spectators and judges. In short, whenever he is tempted to depart. from his duty, he will, like Joseph, suppress every rising lust by this awful reflection: "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"-a reflection which, if duly attended to, would certainly check that enormous and increasing depravity of adultery, which so strongly marks the present age, as to constitute a very material part of the employment of our Senate and our Courts of Judicature.

Lastly, we may consider the whole of this affecting history as a just emblem and representation of the life of a sincere Christian; who, in his passage through this world, will generally be exercised with as severe calamities as Joseph was, and will like him also be at last happily delivered out of them all. He will not perhaps meet with the same cruel usage from unnatural brethren, nor will his virtue and