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"Canaan I have always regarded as "the lot of mine inheritance, the land "promised to my fathers, to them and "to their feed; with them let me take "poffeffion of it; and as a fign that I die "in the faith of my fathers, bury me "not in Egypt, but bury me with my "fathers in their burying place."

THE filial piety of Jofeph would not fail to perform the last request of his dying parent and he faid, I will do as thou haft faid. But old age is timorous, and prone to fufpect deceit, the natural confequence of a long acquaintance with mankind. Jacob knew that in the warmth of affection we readily promife, but that afterwards. in the cooler moments of reflection when difficulties intervene, our promifes are too often evaded, and we fhamefully fail in the performance.

He therefore binds his only fon by an oath by that facred oath which his fathers used, when they were mindful of God's holy covenant with them and their feed. And he faid, fwear unto me, and he fware unto him.

And

THIS fatisfied the old man Ifrael bowed himfelf upon the bed's head. He turned his face towards the head of the bed, and worshipped; weak and infirm of body, he could not kneel, he could not ftand up to pray, he could only proftrate himself upon the bed, to acknowledge the goodness of God, in granting him all he wifhed. A ftranger and pilgrim upon earth, he wanted no more than to repofe in the fepulchre of his fathers, as a fign and token of his bleffed hope and confidence, that as his body was depofited with theirs in the earthly Canaan; fo

would his fpirit be affociated with their fpirits, in that better land of promife, the heavenly Canaan.

O MAY we die the death of the righteous, and may our last end be like his! When we come to die, may we have nothing to do but to die, may no worldly folicitudes disturb, no guilty fears alarm, or interrupt the communion of God with the foul; but as the weary pilgrim after the toil and fatigue of the day composes himself to reft at night, fo may we refign ourselves to the fleep of death till the morning of the refurrection!

WHAT Jofeph was to Jacob, all this, and more, is CHRIST to us, the fupport and comfort of our fuffering humanity. He who in the time of famine fed our fouls with the bread of life,

will not cease his tutelary care, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forfake thee. We fee Jofeph attending upon his father to the laft, nor is the son OF MAN lefs folicitous for our welfare, or lefs attentive to the wants and weakneffes of human nature. He knows we are full of doubts and fears; He has therefore given us exceeding great and precious promises; He has entered into covenant with us; that covenant he hath confirmed by an oath When God made the promise to Abraham, because he could fwear by no greater, he fware by himfelf; — willing to fhew the immutability of his counfel, he confirmed it by an oath. Here then we have two immutable things for our fecurity, the promife, and the oath of God. He hath not only promised, but he hath even fworn to be our covenant God; the Hebrew word Elohim, which we

tranflate God, fignifies as much, "God " in covenant with man." When God engages to be our God, he engages to be every thing to us, every thing we can want or wifh, our God and our All..

THE fear of death is a bondage we all labour under, and I hope all labour to overcome; nature fhudders at diffolution; the foul fhrinks back upon herself, and startles at deftruction. Bury me not in Egypt, is the language of every heart to the myftic Jofeph, "tranflate me to the pro"mifed land of mine inheritance" "bury me with my fathers in their

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burying-place, grant that I may be "with them and partake their bleffed

nefs." The answer is, I will do as thou haft faid; God hath both faid and fworn, and he will furely perform his

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