in bliss. Give all diligence to be found of God in peace; to know the things which belong to your eternal peace; to make your calling and election sure; to lay up treasures in heaven. Be watchful and careful to live under the powers of the world to come, that you may finish your course with joy; that an abundant and triumphant entrance may be ministered to you into the kingdom of our Father who is in heaven. Amen, and Amen.

SERMON

SERMON VIII.

THE DEATH OF JACOB CONSIDERED AND APPLIED.

GENESIS xlix. 18.

I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!

In this and the former chapter the inspired historian describes a family-scene as tender and interesting as we can well imagine. Jacob, that venerable person, who was so much distinguished among the patriarchs for faith, patience, and devotion, has reached his hundred and forty-seventh year; the time of his departure draws nigh, his natural strength is decayed, and he is given to know that in a few days he must sleep with his fathers.

You behold this aged saint, after so long a course of sufferings and exertion, laid on a

death

66

death-bed, and longing for the time of his departure. You behold Joseph, his favourite son, now the second man in Egypt, attending on his aged parent, administering to his wants, and entreating his father's blessing for himself and his children. You behold the good old man, at the voice of his beloved son, raising his head from the pillow, reclining on his staff, laying his hands on the head of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's sons, lifting up his eyes to Heaven, and devoutly praying, May that God, before whom my fathers walked, the God who fed me all my days, the Angel who redeemed me, bless the lads." He has strength to add no more. Nature fails, and he sinks down in the arms of Joseph. When a little revived, he calls for all his family, and pronounces in their hearing his last solemn prophetic benediction. The text is a part of this farewell advice. It contains his dying testimony to the honour of religion, and expresses the triumph of his faith, amidst the infirmities of dissolving nature. I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord! Thou didst call thyself my God, when I held fellowship with thee at Bethel; and there thou didst promise me the portion of thy

chosen,

I

chosen, even an everlasting inheritance. have since that day accounted myself a pilgrim on earth, and have lived in the faith and hope of a better, even an heavenly country; and now I rejoice to feel that my journey is finished, and that I am to obtain the end of my faith, that salvation for which I have so long waited.

It is not improbable that Jacob intended this declaration as his concluding words, after he had blessed all his children; but, by the time he had spoken to Dan, his strength being exhausted, he felt as it were the hand of death, and utters the expressive words of the text. And may we not suppose, that those things which, in the spirit of prophecy, he was constrained to utter against four of his sons, Simeon, Levi, Reuben, and Dan, had so affected his mind, as to impair the small remains of his bodily strength, though they could not diminish the faith of his soul. In this view, the connection of the text with the preceding verse, is exceedingly affecting: Thou, Dan, after the example of the old serpent, shalt pervert the good ways of God, and endeavour to draw many into sin and idolatry : but thanks be to God, I will be beyond the

reach

reach of thy snares and the power of thy malice, for I am on the borders of that better world, where no tempter can enter, and no temptation can assail. For this deliverance from evil I have long waited; and to attain it, I am this moment willing to leave you, my children, and all that is dear on earth. "Come quickly, O Lord, for I have longed for thy salvation."

Commentators have with good reason supposed, that in the text Jacob has an immediate reference to Christ Jesus, that promised Messiah whose day Abraham saw afar off, and rejoiced, and who, in innumerable passages of scripture, is styled the Salvation of God. In him Jacob believed, and of him Jacob had just been speaking; for, in the tenth verse, he styles him the Messiah, under the title of the Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, who was to come, and to be manifested in the flesh. Jacob now knew that Christ would not appear in the flesh in his day, though he had long looked for him; but Jacob also knew, that he was now going to be with Christ; and here he expresses his persuasion of dwelling with him in heaven, together with his ardent desire for that fellowship with the Saviour for which he had waited. Like

Paul.