duct of providence towards Isaac and Jacob; but I shall only mention them very briefly. Isaac had no children by Rebekah during the term of twenty years after he took her to wife; and we read in Genesis xxv. 21. that Isaac in'treated the Lord for his wife, because she was 'barren; and the Lord was intreated of him, ' and Rebekah his wife conceived.'

Jacob, who inherited the promise, that of his loins the Messiah should proceed, in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, (Gen. xxviii. 14.) was more than eighty years of age when he married Leah, the daughter of Laban; of whom Judah, the progenitor of the promised seed, was born. In the cases of both these patriarchs, we therefore see, first, the giving of the promise; and, secondly, a long and trying delay in the accomplishment of it; and the inference to be deduced from both, with respect to the probable course of the procedure of God to the Messiah, is the same as has been - already made.

One of the most remarkable histories in the

Old Testament, and which tends most strongly to support the analogy we are now tracing, is that of the patriarch Joseph. Early distinguished from his brethren for superior wisdom and piety, he became the favourite son of his aged father, who probably discerned in him the seeds of those great and amiable qualities which so illustriously shone forth in his subsequent conduct in life. Actuated, perhaps, more by the excess of parental fondness, than by sound judgment, the patriarch made for his beloved Joseph a coat of many colours, thus openly giving him the preference over the rest of his sons. This distinction, however, as is common in such cases, only moved the envy and hatred of his brethren ; and these malignant passions were further excited by two supernatural dreams, in which God was pleased to give Joseph a pre-intimation of his future greatness. (Gen. xxxvii. 5.) • And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told his brethren; and they hated him yet the more. And

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' he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream

which I have dreamed. For, behold, we were

'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

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