'binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf

arose, and also stood upright; and behold, your 'sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance "to my sheaf. And his brethren said unto him, 'Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they

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hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet ' another dream, and told his brethren, and

said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, the sun, and the moon, and the ' eleven stars, made obeisance to me. And he 'told it to his father and to his brethren; and

his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? 'Shall I, and thy mother, and thy brethren, in'deed come to bow down ourselves unto thee to • the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.'

There can be little doubt that these dreams made a deep impression upon the youthful mind of Joseph, and were considered by him as intimations from God, that he was destined

one day to be raised above all his brethren; and it is probable that the remembrance of them was greatly instrumental in supporting him under the severe and long-continued trials which he afterwards underwent, before he was raised to glory and empire. Jacob also seems to have considered the dreams in the same light, for we are informed by the sacred historian, that he observed the saying.

But, instead of finding the promises of God immediately fulfilled to Joseph, we see him, soon after he related his dreams, overwhelmed with a long course of the severest trials. When sent out by Jacob to see his brethren, he was cruelly seized by them, and they first proposed to murder him; but, departing from this purpose, they sold him to a company of Ishmaelites as a common slave. By the Ishmaelites he was carried into Egypt; and they sold him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, and captain of the guard. (Gen. xxxvii.) Advanced to a station of trust and confidence in the family of Potiphar, he became the object

of the adulterous desires of a worthless woman, whose earnest and persevering solicitations had no other effect but that of displaying, in a more illustrious manner, the excellency of his character, and the power of the grace of God, which could preserve him without spot under so dangerous a temptation. But, though he thus conquered the lusts of the flesh, he fell a sacrifice to the vile calumny of the wife of Potiphar, disappointed of the gratification of her desires. He was accused by her of an attempt to violate her person; and was cast into the prison where the king's prisoners were bound. Here he was permitted to remain for several years; and though he gained the esteem and unlimited confidence of the jailor, there was no apparent probability of his recovering his liberty.

It was not till fourteen years had elapsed, from the time that he was sold to the Ishmaelites, that Joseph was sent for out of prison to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh, and was raised to the highest dignity in his kingdom. Eight or nine years more elapsed before the

complete fulfilment of Joseph's dreams. (Gen. And the sons of Israel came to buy

xlii. 5.)

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corn among those that came, for the famine

' was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was 'the governor over all the land; and he it was 'that sold to all the people of the land; and

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Joseph's brethren came and bowed down ' themselves before him, with their faces to the ' earth. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he

knew them, but made himself strange unto 'them, and spake roughly unto them; and he ' said unto them, Whence came ye? And they

said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food.

And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew 'not him. And Joseph remembered the dreams ' which he had dreamed of them.'

The history of Joseph does, therefore, in the fullest manner, confirm the analogy which we have observed, both in the government of the natural world, and in the procedure of God towards the patriarchs; and we hence see new reason to presume, a priori, that in the kingdom of the Messiah a similar procedure was to be

expected; and that the glorious establishment of his kingdom was not to take place for many ages after his first appearance in the world.

*

The history of Moses, the great and chosen leader and legislator of the children of Israel, is another example of the same analogy. It seems evident, from Exod. ii. 11-14, that Moses had some secret hope, or pre-sentiment, that God was, by him, to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage; and, actuated by love for his oppressed brethren, he was impatient to begin the glorious work of their redemption, which he was prepared to expect as being near at hand, from a traditionary knowledge of the promise made to Abraham, that, at the appointed time, God would bring his people out of the land of Egypt. (Gen. xv. 14.) Filled

* I am not, perhaps, at liberty to quote the New Testa ment as a book of authority in a controversy with Jews; but I cannot help remarking, that, from Stephen's expression in Acts vii. 25, it seems probable that it had been made known to Moses by divine revelation, that he was chosen by God to effect the deliverance of Israel.