gained, that the man who had discovered fuch a goodness of foul, that he fought where to weep, because he could not bear the 1truggle of a counterfeited harthness, could never be suspected afterwards of intending a real one;-and that he only waited till their father Ifrael's death, to requite them all the evil which they had done unto him. What still adds to this difficulty is, that his affectionate manner of making himself known to them;his goodness in forbearing not only to reproach them for the injury they had formerly done him, but extenuating and excufing the fault to themfelves, his comforting, and fpeaking kindly to them, and feconding all with the tendereft marks of an undisguised forgiveness, in falling upon their necks, and weeping aloud, that all the house of Pharaoh heard him;

that moreover this behaviour of Jofeph could not appear to them, to be the effect of any warm and fudden tranfport, which might as fuddenly give way to other reflections, but that it evidently fprung from a fettled principle of uncommon generofity in his nature, which was above

the

the temptation of making use of an opportunity for revenge, which the course of God's providence had put into his hands for better purposes; and what might still feem to confirm this, was · the evidence of his actions to them afterwards, in bringing them and all their houfhold up out of Canaan, and placing them near him in the land of Goshen, the richest part of Egypt, where they had had fo many years experience of his love and kindnefs. And yet it is plain all this did not clear his motive from fufpicion, or at least themselves of fome apprehenfions of a change in his conduct towards them. And was it not that the whole tranfaction was wrote under the direction of the Spirit of truth, and that other historians concur in doing juftice to Jofeph's character, and fpeak of him as a compaffionate, and merciful man, one would be apt, you will fay, to imagine here, that Mofes might poffibly have omitted fome circumstances of Jofeph's behaviour, which had alarmed his brethren, betwixt the time of his firft reconciliation and that of their father's death.For they could not

be fufpicious of his intentions without fome caufe, and fear where no fear was.But does not a guilty confcience often ido fo?-and though it has the grounds, yet wants the power to think itself safe.

And could we look into the hearts of thofe who know they deferve ill, we should find many an inftance, where a kindness from an injured hand, where there was least reafon to expect one, has ftruck deeper and touched the heart with a degree of remorfe and concern, which perhaps no feverity or refentment could have reached. This reflection will in fome measure help to explain this difficulty which occurs in the ftory. For it is obfervable, that when the injury they had done their brother was first committed, and the fact was fresh upon their minds, and most likely to have filled them with a fenfe of guilt, we find no acknowledgment or complaint to one another of fuch a load, as one might imagine it had laid upon them; and from that event, through a long courfe of years to the time they had gone

down

down to Egypt, we read not once of any forrów or compunction of heart, which they had felt during all that time, for what they had done. They had artfully impofed upon their parent-(and as men are ingenious cafuifts in their own affairs,) they had, probably, as artfully impofed upon their own confciences; and poffibly had never impartially reflected upon the action, or confidered it in its juft light, till the many acts of their brother's love and kindness had brought it before them, with all the circumstances of aggravation which his behaviour would naturally give it.They then began maturely to confider what they had done, that they had firft undefervedly hated him in his childhood for that, which if it was a ground of complaint, ought rather to have been charged upon the indifcretion of the parent than confidered as a fault in him. That upon a more juft examination and a better knowledge of their brother, they had wanted even that pretence.——It was not a blind partiality which feemed first to have directed their father's affection to him, though then they thought E.4

fo,

fo, for doubtlefs fo much goodness and benevolence as fhone forth in his nature; now that he was a man, could not lay all of it fo deep concealed in his youth, but the fagacity of a parent's eye would difcover it, and that in courfe their enmity towards him was founded upon that which ought to have won their esteem. -That if he had incautiously added envy to their ill will in reporting his dreams, which prefaged his future greatnefs, it was but the indifcretion of a youth unpractifed in the world, who had not. yet found out the art of diffembling his hopes and expectations, and was fcarce arrived at an age to comprehend there was such a thing in the world as envy and ambition :-that if fuch of fences in a brother, fo fairly carried their own excuses with them, what could they fay for themselves, when they confidered it was for this they had almost unanimoufly confpired to rob him of his life; and though they were happily restrained from fhedding his blood upon Reuben's remonftrance, that they had nevertheless all the guilt of the intention to answer for.-That whatever motive it

was,