and next morning set out on their return to their father: but Joseph's steward, overtaking them at some distance from the city, accused them of purloining his lord's drinking cup; anc to their inexpressible amazement found the property in Benjamin's sack. Confounded at this terrible accident, and distracted for the safety o the supposed thief, they returned with all possible haste to Joseph, who reprimanded them warmly for their ingratitude; but consented to pardon them all, except the person on whom the cup was found. He therefore told them, that he should retain Benjamin in slavery, and desired the rest to go home in peace.

Upon this declaration, Judah stepped forward to plead the cause of the imaginary culprit. He addressed himself to Joseph in the most pathetic language, expatiating on Israel's extreme fondness; adverting to his own solemn engagement for the safety of the youth; offering himself with unfeigned zeal as an equivalent for his brother: and drawing a lively picture of those incomparable agonies which must inevitably rend the heart of a venerable parent, in case his present pet:tion was disregarded. Joseph listened for some time in silence to this affecting language, but a length his emotion became so visible, that he was forced to send all the by-standers away, whil he made himself known to his brethren. The giving free vent to his tears, he embraced them with inexpressible tenderness, assured them of his forgiveness for their intentional cruelty, an reminded them that his early captivity had, under the direction of Providence, been productive of the greatest blessings to himself, to them, and to Egypt. Pharaoh, being informed in the mea

time that Joseph's brethren were come to buy corn, was pleased to issue out orders for their` removal into his dominions, promising they should never want sustenance or protection; and Joseph, in compliance with the orders of his royal patron, sent immediately for his father.

Jacob, on the return of his sons, inquired eagerly for his beloved Benjamin, and thought himself sufficiently happy in clasping that object of paternal affection once more to his generous bosom. But when he heard the astonishing news of Joseph's safety and exalted situation, the venerable Hebrew fainted beneath the oppressive emotions of his soul, and on reviving seemed to doubt whether it was not an illusion. At length, however, he regained sufficient strength to look on the rich presents, and the carriages, which were sent by Pharaoh's command; when raising his eyes to Heaven, he exclaimed with all the enthusiasm of mingled love and gratitude, "It is enough: Joseph, my son, is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die."

Joseph was no sooner informed of his father's approach, than he went to meet him, and their mutual emotions upon this occasion were such as may be better imagined than expressed. The patriarch and his sons were then presented to Pharaoh, and received the royal permission to settle in the land of Goshen, where they received a constant supply from the granaries during the famine, and were entrusted with the care of the Blocks and herds belonging to the king.

In this situation the family of Israel increased rapidly in wealth and numbers, under the blessing of God and the provident care of Joseph. At length Jacob finding, by the visible decay of his

bodily strength, that his dissolution was at hand, sent for his beloved son, and intreated that his body might be carried, after his decease, to Machpelah, and there deposited with his ancestors. Joseph cheerfully took an oath to fulfil this desire, and Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head, in token of gratitude to his creator.

B. C.

Shortly after this transaction, Joseph 1689. presented his two sons, Manasseh and

Ephraim, to his father, requesting him to bless them before he died. Jacob, at the sight of his grand-children, sat up in his bed, though now in his last illness, and after recapitulating the glorious promises he had received from the Almighty concerning the future acquisitions of his numerous posterity, he observed, that for the sake of his beloved Rachel the sons of Joseph should be called the two tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, and as such should receive a double lot in the division of the Promised Land. The children were then brought to the bedside, and placed, by Joseph, in such a manner that the patriarch might lay his right hand upon the head of the eldest, and his left upon that of the youngest; but Jacob, by crossing his arms, reversed the intended position. This being attributed to a mistake, Joseph attempted to rectify it; but his father told him he acted by a divine impulse, and in blessing the youths he not only preferred Ephraim to Manasseh, but gave him much the nobler benediction.

Israel now caused his other sons to be assem❤ bled, and having pronounced a prophetical blessing to every tribe, reminded them of his carnest desire to be buried in the cave of Machpelah; fter which he composed himself in his bed, and

expired,

expired, in the hundred and forty-seventh year of his age, having resided seventeen years in the land of Goshen.

Joseph, after bedewing the corpse with a profusion of tears, and expressing all the filial sorrow which the loss of so dear a relative could inspire, acquainted his sovereign with the mournful event, and began to make suitable preparations for the funeral. The body was accordingly embalmed with the customary ceremonies; the Egyptians devoted seventy days to respectful lamentation and the mournful procession was attended by all the males of Jacob's family, the chief officers of the king's household, and the grandees of the kingdom. As soon as the cavalcade, consisting of a vast multitude of chariots and horsemen, had crossed the river Jordan, they made a halt of seven days at the threshing floor of Atad, and there performed a funeral ceremony, which induced the Canaanites to call the place Abel-Mizraim, or the mourning of the Egyptians. Then, resuming their march, they proceeded to Machpelah, where the sons of Israel performed his obsequies, and then returned to Egypt with the rest of the company.

Joseph's brethren, being now deprived of their parent's protection, and dreading the resentment of the governor, whom they had once treated with the most unpardonable cruelty, sent an humble message to inform him, that it was their father's earnest wish he should forget all past injuries, and still indulge them with his protection. Joseph immediately sent for his petitioners, received them with all the warmth of fraternal tenderness, and gave them such unequivocal assurances of affection and support, that they departed to their respective

respective families with joyful hearts, though probably astonished at that magnanimous dispo sition, to which they themselves appear to have been utter strangers.

B. C.

Nothing more is recorded of this family 1630. till the period of Joseph's death; when he sent for his brethren, and assured them that God would certainly fulfil his immutable promise, and establish their posterity in the land of Canaan. He therefore requested, that they would not inter his remains in Goshen, but deposit them in some secure place, and, on the accomplishment of his prediction, carry them to the spot of ground which his beloved father had given him by his last will. Having expressed this wish to his brethren, and taken an oath of them for its due fulfilment, Joseph breathed out his soul in the hundred and tenth year of his age, having continued eighty years in possession of those honours, which Pharaoh conferred upon his extraordinary merit,

SECT. IV.

The History of the Jews, from the Commencement of their Egyptian Bondage to their Entrance into the Land of Promise.

THE

HE time when the Israelites were first oppressed in the land of Egypt cannot now be accurately determined, neither would it be

easy