that you have been with Jefus, and adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour by a fuitable life and converfation.

K

SERMON IV.

THE HUMILIATION OF THE BRETHREN.

GENESIS, xlii. 1-5.

Now when Jacob faw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob faid unto his fons, Why do ye look one upon another? And he faid, Behold I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get ye down thither and buy for us from thence, that we may live and not die. And Jofeph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Jofeph's brother, Jacob fent not with his brethren, for he faid peradventure mifchief befal him. And the fons of Ifrael came to buy corn among thofe that came, for the famine was fore in the land.

AFTER a long abfence we again vifit the house of the aged Jacob; we left him mourning for the fuppofed death

of his favourite son, and refufing to be comforted: We return and ftill find him bowed down with affliction; we see the venerable old man furrounded with a numerous family, but their looks are clouded with deep diftrefs: The famine is in their borders, and all the horrors of want and mifery rife in profpcct before them.

BUT Jacob though caft down is not deftroyed; though perplexed, he is not abandoned to defpair. Ey fome means or other, he hears that there is corn in Egypt; anxious for the welfare of his family he roufes his fons from their defpondency, and urges them to go down thither to buy food.

THE ten elder of his fons immediately fet out for Egypt, but Benjamin, his youngest fon, and Jofeph's bro

ther, Jacob fent not with them: He did not chufe to truft the only remaining fon of his beloved Rachel on fo hazardous a journey, for he faid, left peradventure mischief befal him.

WHEN they arrive in Egypt, they are informed that the affairs of the kingdom are under the adminiftration of a wife and underftanding man, who had provided against the approach of the famine, and now dealt out corn to all that needed.

THEY appear before Jofeph: But his new name, his exalted station, the change of his drefs, and the feverity of his deportment, effectually concealed him from their knowledge. It never entered their minds. that their brother whom they fold for a flave was now governor of Egypt. But Jofeph