God for his deliverance, makes use of this very comparison He maketh my my feet like hinds feet. So in like manner the prophetabakkuk Although the fig-tree fhall not bloffom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive fhall fail, and the fields fhall yield no meat; the flocks fhall be cut off from the fold, and there fhall be no herd in the falls Here have conflict with tempyou

tation. Now mark the fequel, and you will fee the hind let loofe, and utter goodly words of praise__Yet, fays he, will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my falvation. The Lord God is my ftrength, and he will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

Ar length the old man comes to Jofeph, and feems to dwell on the fortunes of his favourite fon, with pe

culiar delight-Jofeph is a fruitful

bough

a tree that bears much fruit,

a tree of life to his brethren _____ even a

flourishing,

and plentifully fupplied from the

fruitful bough by a well

fprings of living water

whofe branches run over the wallprotecting the proud palaces of Egypt with their friendly fhade.

You fee the language is highly figurative. As a tree which bears much fruit, and spreads its branches far and wide, fo was Jofeph—fo is the мYSTIC JOSEPH, the true tree of life, which grows by the throne of God, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, and whofe fruit, for the nourishment of the foul.

BUT Jofeph is further defcribed The archers have forely grieved him, and

Shot at him, and hated him. Thefe archers were his brethren, who grieved him by their ill-treatment, shot at him with bitter words of reproach, and hated him for his dreams, and because his father loved him; they could not peak peaceably to him, they mocked him, conspired to kill him, ftripped him of his raiment, caft him into a pit, and then fold him to ftrangers.: In all this, a type of Chrift, who experienced the like ill treatment from the Jews, his brethren.

BUT his bow abode in ftrength. Like a fteady bowman, Jofeph ftood firm. As his enemies were compared to archers, fo is he; but the weapons of his warfare were not as theirs, the virtues and graces he was poffeft of, such as innocence, chastity, fortitude, prudence, patience, faith and hope, re

mained unmoved against all their attacks for the arms of his hands were made ftrong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacobhere was his fupport and stay—from thence is the fhepherd the ftone of Ifrael from the God of Jacob is Jofeph fent into Egypt, as a fhepherd to feed his father's family, and as a stone to uphold and fupport them: Here alfo the type of Christ, the true fhepherd, and we the fheep of his pasture; the ftone of Ifrael, of whom it is faid Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a ftone, a tried ftone, a precious corner ftone, a fure foundation. This is that ftone which the builders rejected, and the fame is become the head of the corner. Whofoever shall fall upon that ftone fhall be broken, but on whomfoever it Jhall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Nn

JACOB goes on to defcribe the bleffednefs of Jofeph. Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, with bleffings of heaven above, bleffings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breafts and of the womb: The bleffings of thy father have prevailed above the bleffings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlafling hills: They fhall be on the head of Jofeph, and on the crown of the head of him who was feparate from his bre

thren.

THE mighty God of Jacob is the helper of Jofeph. Parents, by their piety and obedience, procure bleffings for their offspring the bleffings of heaven above of all thofe gracious influences which defcend like the rain and dew from heaven

of the deep that licth under

the bleffings of all those