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tiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people, and will give this land to thy feed after thee for an everlasting poffeffion. A numerous feed, an everlafting poffeffion in the land of Canaan! On this promife of God, the hopes of Jacob were founded; and though in the letter, the promise seemed of a temporal and worldly nature, yet, he well knew, that in fpirit, it fignified heavenly and eternal bleffings! An everlasting poffeffion on this fide the grave is a contradiction in terms; the good things of the prefent life either foon leave us, or we them; it is only in heaven, that an inheritance that fadeth not away is referved for us.

He goes on addreffing himself to Jofeph: And now thy two fons Ephraim and Manaffeh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt, before I

ance.

came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon fhall they be mine. And thy iffue which thou begetteft after them fhall be thine, and fhall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritThus we fee, he adopts these fons of Jofeph as his own, and appoints them the fame portion with Reuben and Simeon his two elder fons, on which account they are fometimes enumerated in fcripture among the heads of the tribes of Ifrael.

AND as for me, fays the old man, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan, in the way, when there was but a little way to Ephrath, and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath, the fame is Bethlehem.

HERE We have the motive which determined him to confer the bleffing

on the fons of Jofeph; they were the grand-children of his beloved Rachel, the wife of his choice, whofe memory is ftill dear to him. The affection of Jacob fhines forth with undimifhed luftre, neither obliterated by time, nor enfeebled by age. Attachments which regard only this world, our prefent intereft, pleasure, or convenience, are fickle and uncertain things, they all wax old as doth a garment, and as a vefture are they changed; love of Jacob for Rachel was of another fort, it was true conjugal affection, which dies not when the body dies, but blooms in immortal youth, unchangeable and eternal as its heavenly origin.

but the

THE bleffing of Jacob was threefold; it was paternal, facerdotal, and prophetical.

It was paternal, or the bleffing of a father, every father being in his own family the image and reprefentative of hin of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named.

It was facerdotal, or the bleffing of a prieft; it being the office of a priest to mediate and intercede between God and man, to offer up the prayers of finners before the altar of the Moft High, and to pronounce the bleffing of the King of Kings on the humble and penitent worshipper. Jacob, as the head of his family, was the priest of it, and was therefore empowered to bless in God's name.

It was prophetical, or the bleffing of a prophet,foretelling things to come; the knowledge of which God was pleased to reveal to his fervant Jacob,

that he might announce them to his pofterity.

THE objects of this bleffing were the two fons of Jofeph of that Jofeph who had been hated and perfecuted by his brethren, and fold for a bondsman into Egypt. You fee that wordly troubles and perfecution could not deprive him of the bleffing which God had referved for his family. Inftead of inheriting in common with his brethren, he receives a double portion, which is here divided between his two fons, to intimate, that they who fuffer for righteoufnefs fake, fhall in the end be abundantly rewarded. Men may deprive us of our worldly comforts, but they cannot deprive us of the bleffing of God.

THE bleffing which the fons of Jofeph received, properly belonged to

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