"the counsel of the Lord, it fhall ftand, and will bring it to pafs." "The Lord taketh wife in his own craftinefs; "he ordereth things in heaven above, and in the earth neath." "Go to now, ye that fay, to-day to-morrow we will go into fuch a city, and co tinue there a year, and buy and fell, and gain: whereas ye know not what fhall be on t morrow; for that ye ought to fay, If the Lo will, we fhall live, and do this or that."

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Jofeph's brethren, while they were bowi down, did not know Jofeph, for he made hi felf ftrange unto them, and spake roughly, fa ing," Ye are fpies! to fee the nakedness the land you are come. And they faid, Na my Lord, but to buy food are we come. are twelve brethren from the land of Canaa and behold the youngeft is this day with o father, and one is not. And Jofeph faid aga Ye are fpies!" and then added he," but here! fhall ye be proved, whether there be truth you. One of you fhall go and fetch his brothe while the reft fhall be kept in prifon. And kept them all in ward three days. Jofeph, ho ever, after this lets them all depart, one on excepted; and he gives them corn in their ba to carry home, bidding them all to come agai and redeem the brother they had left behind, bringing the next time, their youngest broth Benjamin. Now all this feems to have be done by Jofeph, for the purpofe of collecti every one of his brethren round him, before

would difcover himself to them; and perhaps he was led to practice rather too much art, by his anxiety to fee them gathered together.

Then faid Jofeph's brethren one to another, "We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguifh of his foul, when he befought us, and we would not hear; therefore, behold alfo, his blood is required of us."

Oh! how dreadful is a guilty confcience! It will caufe our fins to haunt us, years after they have been committed. Now, have none of my readers ever felt the like kind of terror, in confequence of their having done fomething amifs? After the commiffion of a crime, did you never fancy, that every one you met obferved you; and that every common accident was a judgement of God upon you; and if any trouble happened to befal you a long time afterwards, have you not been apt immediately to imagine, that it had fome connection with your former guilt? Sin does not always leave this fting behind it, for fome people are quite hardened by their crimes; neverthelefs, it often does. If the fin be great and dreadful, if it be fomething particular and extraordinary, like the felling of a brother, or the thought of putting him to death, then, though years fhould pass away quietly, yet it is probable that confcience will awake and cry out against us at laft. In the present cafe, it appears to me, that Jofeph's brethren had no clear ground to fuppofe that the trouble they dreaded was caufed by their havi

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brother Jofeph. They feem not to have argued very correctly on the occafion; "We faw, faid they, the anguish of his foul, and we would not hear, and therefore now is his blood about to be required of us."-But this was not a very found way of reasoning, for it was not clear that his blood was now going to be required of them at all. It was not clear that any trouble whatever was about to happen to them; and, even if fome trouble fhould happen to them, their having once fold their brother, might not be the caufe; but guilt is fearful. A man that has fome undiscovered crime within him, is apt to feel unreasonable frights and fears; his imagination becomes difturbed; he grows fufpicious beyond all reafon; he fees an enemy, perhaps, as Jofeph's brethren did, in his best friend, and the very things that are for him, if they happen to go aukwardly for a day or two, are thought to be most dreadfully against him. In fhort, a person whose confcience has become burthened with fome great fin, has often no comfort in his life, until he has fairly confeffed it, and repented of it.

No fooner had Jofeph's brethren expreffed their fright, than Reuben lifts up his voice, and obferves to them, how "he had intreated them not to hurt their brother, and they would not hear. Therefore, alfo, fays he, is his blood required of us." Here again we may difcern a iaure of what often happens among those who every one of his iniquity. When the time

of trouble comes, then those who have had lefs hand in the guilt, begin to reproach the others for having been principals in the business. Like Reuben, they begin to juftify themselves, and fay: Did I not tell you at the time, to take care what you did, but you would not mind me, and therefore now you have brought down all this trouble on your felves, and not on yourselves only, but on me alfo." Nothing is more common than for those who are all, more or less, joined in the fame crime, to fall out and reproach one another for it afterwards.

Jofeph overheard all this converfation among his brethren, and he turned himself about from them, and wept, and returned to them again, and communed (or had converfation, by means of an interpreter) with them, and took from. them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. Jofeph then commanded that their facks fhould be laden with corn, and that every man's money fhould be restored into his fack; which being done they departed; and as one of them opened his fack to give his afs food at the inn, he efpied his money, for behold it was in his fack's mouth. And when he told it his brethren, all their hearts failed them, and they faid one to another, "What is this that God hath done unto us."

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again, their difpofition to take fright feems to have fhewn itself. I fuppofe they now thought that fome judgment of God would fall upon them in their way home, on account of the fame fin of felling Jofeph.

And they came unto Jacob their father, and told him all that had befallen them, faying: "The man who is lord of the land, fpake roughly to us, and took us for fpies; and we faid unto him, "We are true men; we are no fpies, we be twelve brethren." Methinks it would be fome relief to Jofeph's brethren, to tell their father how harfhly they had been spoken to, and how unjustly they had been fufpected when they were in Egypt; for whenever a man has fome great and real fin on his mind, he is glad to turn to any thing right, or innocent in his conduct, in which, nevertheless, he has been accused of finning. Jacob's fons had used their father ill in felling Jofeph, but they themselves had been used ill on the old man's account, when they went to buy corn for him in Egypt. It would be a comfort, therefore, to talk to him of what they had fuffered for his fake, fince it would feem to make amends in fome measure for the ill which they were confcious of having done him.

Let us beware, however, of difguifing our guilt, by dwelling on fome fmaller point, in which it may be true that we are innocent. To do fo is one of the common fhifts of wicked men, and there are none fo wicked, as not to have fome part of their conduct on which they can dwell with pleasure, and felf-complacency.

But when Jofeph's brethren proceeded to explain to their father, how the lord of the country had commanded them to bring to him their bro.