thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone if mischief befal him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.

LECTURE XI.-HISTORY OF JACOB AND JOSEPH.

65 GEN. XXXVII. 3, 4.—Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. 71 GEN. XXXIX. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.-And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him and he made him overseer over his house and all that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass, from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake: and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat; and Joseph was a goodly person, and well-favoured.

LECTURE XII.-HISTORY OF JOSEPH.

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LECTURE XIII.-HISTORY OF JOSEPH. GEN. XLI. 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44.-And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled only in the throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had and they cried before him, Bow the knee and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

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LECTURE XIV.-HISTORY OF JOSEPH.

85 GEN. XLV. 3, 4, 5.-And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him: for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph saith unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you: and they caine near; and he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither for God did send me before you to preserve life.

LECTURE XV.-HISTORY OF JACOB AND JOSEFA. 92 GEN. XLV. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.-So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father; and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die.

LECTURE XVI.-HISTORY OF JACOB AND JOSEPH. 99 GEN. XLIX. 1, 33.—And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befal you in the last days. 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.

LECTURE XVII.-HISTORY OF JOSEPH.

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GEN. L. 24, 25, 26.-And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land, unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

LECTURE XVIII.-HISTORY OF MOSES. 111 EXOD. II. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.-And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, 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 woman 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.

SACRED BIOGRAPHY.

LECTURE I.

ZECHARIAH I. 5, 6.

Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

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REFLECTIONS upon the shortness of human life, and the uncertainty of sublunary enjoyments, naturally present themselves, in the various changes which we daily observe, and daily feel. But alas, our reflections are too superficial and transitory, to produce habitual superiority to the world, uniform submission to the will of God, and efficacious impressions of eternity. Wasting and decaying every hour, we form and prosecute schemes of futurity, as if Our strength were the strength of stones, and our bones brass." Reasoning and reflecting as men, we live and act as children; and pursue the bauble of the moment, as if it were "the pearl of great price." When the drama of human life is ended, and the curtain drops, lo, it has shrunk to a measure so small, and contains events of so little importance, that it is difficult to render a reason why man should have existed at all; and we are constrained to cry out with the Psalmist, "Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity; surely every man walketh in a vain shew; surely they are disquieted in vain."* But my text greatly relieves this apparent insignificancy of our fleeting existence in this world, by conveying to us this important idea, that the Divine Providence is carrying on its great and wise designs, by feeble, short-lived and even worthless instruments. And the date of our latter end is wisely and mercifully hid from our eyes; and every man is taught to consider himself, his life, his actions, as of importance, that we may exert ourselves to the last, and "do with our might whatsoever our hands findeth to do." Though our fathers are no more, and the prophets do not live forever, yet the words and statutes which God commanded his servants the prophets, "took hold of our fathers, and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." This leads us, in a direct road, to make a just estimate of the lives and actions of other men; and to consider seriously how we ought to order our own conversation, how we ought to spend our own days and years.

In the preceding course of these Lectures we endeavoured, beginning at Adam, and ending with Abraham, historically to delineate, and practically to improve, the lives of those venerable men, by whom the world was first peopled, instructed and governed: and who, in their persons, by their actions, or the events which befel them, successively typified, or foretold to their contemporaries, the great Saviour and Deliverer of the human race, during a period * Psalm xxxix. 6, 7.

Vol. II.

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of more than two thousand years. By entering into the spirit of the prophet Zechariah, in the words now read, we shall be enabled to review that period with profit and delight. And this review shall serve to introduce the history of the other lives, which the sacred volume, in succession, presents to our observation, and has sketched for our information and improvement.

In Adam, we behold at once our natural first father, and our federal head: from whom, as men, our existence is derived, and by whose conduct our character has been deeply affected, and our state in some respects determined. "Our father Adam, where is he?" He fulfilled his day, he accomplished the purposes of the eternal mind, he then fell asleep, and is now seen no more. But, however remote the date of his formation, and of his death; however distant from us the region in which he lived, however apparently unconnected with us in interest, in fame, or fortune, we are, we know, we feel ourselves deeply involved in what he was, in what he did. In Adam we all died; we all forfeited a natural, and lost a spiritual and divine life: and, in Adam, we received the promises which have since been fulfilled, and to him first were opened prospects, which the course of providence has realized, even the restoration of our fallen nature, by one greater man," who has regained for us seats more blissful than those from which by transgression he fell 1; namely, the "seed of the woman, who has bruised the serpent's head." Our first father, where is he? Lost indeed to us, but not to God. All traces of him, excepting those only which perpetuate the memory of his guilt and its woeful consequences, are effaced and forgotten; but his station before God remains unchanged, his importance undiminished. Dead to us, he lives to Him, with whom "a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years."

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Can we meditate upon the first man who was created upon the earth, without rising in our thoughts to Him who created him out of the dust of the ground, and "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life? And who has of one blood formed all nations of men to inhabit upon the face of the whole earth." Can we think of our father after the flesh; and not connect with him the idea of our Father who is in heaven? Is not the painful recollection of him in whom all died, happily relieved and done away by reflecting on the glorious second Adam, in whom an elect world is made alive? And O, how is the loss of an earthly paradise compensated by the promise of "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;" that paradise of God, in the midst of which grows the tree of life, always blossoming, always bearing fruit, and exempted from the dangerous neighbourhood of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

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Our brother Abel, where is he? Cut off in the bloom of life; fallen, fallen by the hand of a brother; but immortal by his faith and piety, qualities not liable to the stroke of death. By faith he offered to God" an excellent and an acceptable sacrifice. In presenting the firstlings of his flock, he had a respect to the great Lamb of atonement, and thereby, "being dead he yet speaketh." Prematurely taken away, but not for a crime; a victim to malice and envy, he typified "Messiah, the Prince, cut off, but not for himself," crucified and slain in the prime of life, by the impious hands of his nearest kindred. And, living under the influence of the same principle, we too shall become immortal, shall endure as seeing Him, who is invisible, and present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service."*

In the life, and more particularly in the exit of the patriarch Enoch, life and immortality were more clearly brought to light. Hitherto, men had ter

* Rom. xii. 1.

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minated their earthly course by descending into the grave and seeing corruption. But, when we come to inquire concerning Enoch, "where is he ?" The scriptures reply, "By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."* "He was not, for God took him." Our thoughts here settle, not on the gloomy mansions of the dead, "the house appointed for all living," but on the regions of eternal day, irradiated with the glory, and beautified with the presence of God. We rise in faith and hope to that bright world from which Christ descended, and to which, having finished his work, and achieved his victory, he afterwards reascended, leading captivity captive. And all who are partakers of the same precious faith, contemplate with joy that same mansion of everlasting rest, prepared for them from the foundation of the world," and "ready to be revealed in the last time," when the body shall be redeemed from the power of the grave, and the Saviour, lifted up on high, shall "draw all men unto him." In Enoch "walking with God," and passing immediately, soul and body, from earth to heaven, the world that then was, saw, in a figure, Him that was to come, whose meat and drink it was to do the will of his heavenly Father, and who has opened a passage, through the very gates of death, into the heavenly world, and that not for himself only, but for all who believe on his name, and who love his appearing. Enoch, our father, where is he? There, O my soul ! there, O my christian friend, where, through the grace that is in Christ Jesus, we have everlasting consolation, in the good hope of arriving also. "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory! Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord."+

Advancing to the times of Noah, we behold the world first deluged with an overflowing flood of sin, and then with an inundation of waters. The measure of human iniquity full, and the vials of divine wrath filled, in order to punish it, up to the brim, and poured out upon an impious generation, to its utter extinction and ruin. Nevertheless, a remnant is saved, and mercy rejoices in the midst of judgment. Animated by the same principle which inspired his venerable ancestors, that principle which gave value to Abel's sacrifice, which strengthened Enoch to walk with God, and through which he was translated without tasting of death, Noah "prepared an ark for the saving of his house." The history and method of redemption, by the Lord Jesus Christ, are so clearly prefigured in every part of this wonderful event, that he who runs may read them. Noah, " a just man, and perfect in his generations;" Noah, who "walked with God," and was "a preacher of righteousness;" Noah, who, "warned of God of things not seen as yet, and moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house," is evidently in all these characters and actions, a type of the Holy and Just One, whom the world despised and rejected; a type of "the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, and hath declared him" unto men; a type of the great "teacher sent from God," to warn a guilty devoted race to flee from the wrath to come, and to conduct them to a place of safety: a type of him, who, chosen of God, and moved by pity and affection, prepared a present refuge, and an everlasting habitation, for perishing sinners. Of Noah, his pious prophetic father, when he imposed his name, exultingly exclaimed, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed:"‡ and, in the blessed Redeemer of mankind, all his pious, believing children, enjoy the prospect of a period, and a world, wherein "there shall be no more curse ;" and on whom the eternal Father by the tongue of an angel, imposed the name of Jesus, because he should "save his people from their sins."

*Heb. xi. 5.

+1 Cor. xv. 55, 57.

‡ Gen. v. 29.

Noah, our father, where is he? where is the man who was Enoch's contemporary, who conversed with the sages of the old world, who saw the globe one vast ocean, whom all the waters of a deluge could not drown, who received a grant of the whole renewed earth for an inheritance? All these successive changes led but to the grave, and we see him no more. "All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died." Let the possessor of a continent think of this, and check his pride. Let florid, vigourous youth think of three score years and ten. Let him who is rearing a mansion of one thousand feet by five hundred, meditate on one of six by two, and learn to die. The ark which Noah prepared for the saving of his house, where is it? It fulfilled its destination, it escaped the wreck of worlds, it preserved, and rendered up, its precious deposit, then fell into decay. It exists but in description, it has no form but what fancy has bestowed upon it in a picture, or upon a coin. But its fame, its use, its end, its antitype are immortal. That magnificent vessel, not the contrivance of man, but the appointment of God; constructed according to the pattern, formed and prescribed by infinite wisdom; preserved in the wild uproar of conflicting elements, by the almighty power of God;-resting at length on solid ground, and unloading its precious treasure without the loss of a single life--are so many successive, distinct, pleasing, and instructive views of the plan formed, followed, and, in due time, perfected, of man's deliverance from sin, and death, and hell, by the Lord Jesus Christ; who thus speaks of his redeemed, and of himself, in his last solemn address to his Heavenly Father, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost;"* and in another place, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all: and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."†

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The emblems of the raven, the dove, the rainbow, the altar, the sacrifice, and others which enter into the history of this patriarch, are beautiful and significant illustrations of the same interesting, all-important subject. And the whole taken together, satisfyingly demonstrate, that if "death reigned from Adam to Noah," and the "offence abounded," yet grace did much more abound ;" and that out of the ruins of human apostacy, guilt and misery, the hand of Heaven was gradually rearing that glorious fabric of salvation, which, when completed, an enraptured universe shall contemplate with astonishment and delight. "This is the day which the Lord hath made: this is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." The sight of the world restored, renewed and blessed to Noah, the second father of the human race, leads us forward, borne on the wings of promise, to the still more magnificent prospect of the restitution of all things;" to the day when he who sitteth upon the throne shall say, "Behold I make all things new;" when, according to his word, a new, more splendid, and more durable system of the universe shall arise under the plastic hand of the great Author and Finisher of the christian faith, from the wreck of worlds consumed by fire; when Jesus shall bring all his ransomed ones to Zion, with "songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; when sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

Sailing down the current of sacred history, the plains of Mesopotamia and Ur of the Chaldees appear in sight; and we behold an illustrious exile and his family, on their way from their country, kindred, and father's house, like the first pair expelled from Eden,