graces and virtues which rife up in the heart of man, as fountains and fprings out of the earth the bleffings of the breafts and of the womb of fruitfulness and increase in the multiplication of the divine mercies.

WELL might he faythe bleffings of thy father have prevailed above the bleffings of my progenitors. The bleffings which Jacob had, and beftowed upon, his offspring, are greater and more numerous than thofe of his forefathers, Abraham and Ifaac; they are more diftin&tly foretold, and approach nearer their fulfilment. Unto the utmost bounds of the everlafting hills far as the prophetic eye could pierce into the diftant regions of futurity-they fhall be on the head of Jofeph, on the crown of the head of him who was feparate from his brethren.

THE bleffednefs of Chrift is here defcribed, as well as that of Jofeph. the bleffednefs of Chrift, exalted by God the Father, and fet at his own righthand in the heavenly places, far above all ́ principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named both in this world, and that which is to come. Thou madeft him, O God, a little lower than the angels, thou crowneft him with glory and honour, and didft fet him over the works of hands; thou haft put all things in fubjection under his feet! We fee Jefus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the fuffering of death crowned with glory and honour. I beheld, fays St. John, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people, stood before the throne, and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, fuying, falvation to our God,

which fitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and fuch as are in the fea, and all that are in them, heard I faying; bleffing, and honour and glory, and power, be unto him that fitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

SUCH are the bleffings of him who was holy, harmlefs, undefiled, separate from finners, that he might be head over all things to his church, as Jofeph was feparated from his brethren to rule over the land of Egypt.

LAST of all comes Benjamin, of whom little is faid, only the warlike spirit and fuccefs of the tribe of Benjamin is defcribed under the emblem of a ravenous wolf. Benjamin fhall ravin as a wolf, in the morning he shall de

vour the prey, and at night he fhall divide the spoil.

We have now gone through the

characters and fortunes of the twelve fons of Jacob, as deferibed in the prophetic language of the dying patriarch: We are fenfible that the explanation here given is very incomplete; but to have defcended into particulars with minute investigation, inftead of a fermon, would have produced a volume: We have therefore contented ours with giving a general idea and outline of the most obvious fenfe, interpreting Scripture, by Scripture, according to the plan followed throughout thefe difcourfes.

AND now for a few words by way of application.

THOUGH not affembled to hear our future fortunes from the lips of a dying parent, we are met together, as in the prefence of God, to be inftructed from his word, and to be reminded of that which fhall befal us in the latter days., We know that after death is the judg ment: Are we then prepared to die? We are told that the day of the Lord fo cometh as a thief in the night: How ftand our accounts with God? Are we ready, if our Lord fhould come, perhaps in an hour when we are not aware, to obey the awful fummons, to quit this tabernacle of clay, and to refign our fpirits into the hands of him who gave them? Are we ready to depart from this world of fin and forrow, this land of Egypt, fo remote from the heavenly Canaan, and to go home, where all our fathers are gone before us where our brethren are going as well as we