elty as to prolong his death. And now, when he hath comforted himself with hope of the favour of dying, behold, death exchanged for bondage: how much is servitude, to an ingenuous nature, worse than death! For, this is common to all; that, to none but the miserable. Judah meant this well, but God better: Reuben saved him from the sword, Judah from famishing: God will ever raise up some secret favourers to his own, amongst those that are most malicious.

How well was this favour bestowed! If Joseph had died for hunger in the pit, both Jacob and Judah and all his brethren had died for hunger in Canaan. Little did the Ishmaelitish merchants know what a treasure they bought, carried, and sold; more precious than all their balms and myrrhs. Little did they think that they had in their hands the lord of Egypt, the jewel of the world. Why should we contemn any man's meanness, when we know not his destiny?

One sin is commonly used for the veil of another: Joseph's coat is sent home dipped in blood, that, while they should hide their. own cruelty, they might afflict their father, no less than their brother. They have devised this real lie, to punish their old father, for his love, with so grievous a monument of his sorrow.

He, that is mourned for in Canaan, as dead, prospers in Egypt under Potiphar; and, of a slave, is made ruler. Thus God meant to prepare him for a greater charge; he must first rule Potiphar's house, then Pharaoh's kingdom: his own service is his least good, for his very presence procures a common blessing: a whole family shall fare the better for one Joseph.

Virtue is not looked upon alike with all eyes: his fellows praise him, his master trusts him, his mistress affects him too much. All the spite of his brethren was not so great a cross to him, as the inordinate affection of his mistress. Temptations on the right hand are now more perilous and hard to resist, by how much they are more plausible and glorious; but the heart that is bent upon God knows how to walk steadily and indifferently, betwixt the pleasures of sin and fears of evil. He saw this pleasure would advance him; he knew what it was to be a minion of one of the greatest ladies in Egypt; yet resolves to contemn: a good heart will rather lie in the dust, than rise by wickedness. How shall I do this, and sin against God?

He knew that all the honours of Egypt could not buy off the guilt of one sin, and therefore abhors not only her bed, but her company he, that will be safe from the acts of evil, must wisely avoid the occasions. As sin ends ever in shame, when it is committed, so it makes us past shame, that we may commit it: the impudent strumpet dare not only solicit, but importune, and in a sort force the modesty of her good servant; she lays hold on his garment; her hand seconds her tongue.

Good Joseph found it now time to fly, when such an enemy pursued him how much would he rather leave his cloke than his virtue! and to suffer his mistress to spoil him of his livery, rather

than he should blemish her honour, or his master's in her, or God in either of them!

This second time is Joseph stripped of his garment; before in the violence of envy, now of lust; before of necessity, now of choice; before to deceive his father, now his master: for behold, the pledge of his fidelity, which he left in those wicked hands, is made an evidence against him, of that which he refused to do; therefore did he leave his cloke because he would not do that, of which he is accused and condemned because he left it: what safety is there against great adversaries, when even arguments of innocence are used to convince of evil? Lust yielded unto is a pleasant madness, but is a desperate madness when it is opposed: no hatred burns so furiously as that, which arises from the quenched coals of love.

Malice is witty to devise accusations of others, out of their virtue and our own guiltiness. Joseph either pleads not, or is not heard. Doubtless he denied the fact, but he dare not accuse the offender: there is not only the praise of patience, but oft-times of wisdom, even in unjust sufferings: he knew that God would find a time to clear his innocence, and to regard his chaste faithfulness.

No prison would serve him, but Pharaoh's. Joseph had lain, obscure and not been known to Pharaoh, if he had not been cast into Pharaoh's dungeon: the afflictions of God's children turn ever to their advantage. No sooner is Joseph a prisoner, than a guardian of the prisoners. Trust and honour accompany him where. soever he is. In his father's house, in Potiphar's, in the gaol, in the court; still he hath both favour and rule.

So long as God is with him, he cannot but shine in spite of men: the walls of that dungeon cannot hide his virtues; the iron cannot hold them. Pharaoh's officers are sent to witness his graces, which he may not come forth to shew; the cupbearer admires him in the gaol, but forgets him in the court. How easily doth our own prosperity make us either forget the deservings or miseries of

others!

But as God cannot neglect his own, so least of all in their sorrows. After two years more of Joseph's patience, that God, which caused him to be lifted out of the former pit to be sold, now calls him out of the dungeon to honour. He now puts a dream into the head of Pharaoh: he puts the remembrance of Joseph's skill into the head of the cupbearer; who, to pleasure Pharaoh, not to requite Joseph, commends the prisoner, for an interpreter: he puts an interpretation in the mouth of Joseph: he puts this choice into the heart of Pharaoh, of a miserable prisoner, to make him the ruler of Egypt. Behold: one hour hath changed his fetters into a chain of gold, his rags into fine linen, his stocks into a chariot, his gaol into a palace, Potiphar's captive into his master's lord, the noise of his chains into Bow the knee. He, whose chastity refused the wanton allurements of the wife of Potiphar, had now given him to his wife the daughter of Potipherah. Humility goes before honour; serving and suffering are the best tutors to government.

How well are God's children paid for their patience! How happy are the issues of the faithful! Never any man repented him of the advancement of a good man.

Pharaoh had not more prefered Joseph, than Joseph had enriched Pharaoh; if Joseph had not ruled, Egypt and all the bordering nations had perished. The providence of so faithful an officer hath both given the Egyptians their lives; and the money, cattle, lands, bodies of the Egyptians to Pharaoh. Both have reason to be well pleased. The subjects owe to him their lives; the king, his subjects and his dominions: the bounty of God made Joseph able to give more than he received.

It is like the seven years of plenty were not confined to Egypt; other countries adjoining were no less fruitful; yet in the seven years of famine, Egypt had corn when they wanted. See the difference betwixt a wise prudent frugality, and a vain ignorant expence of the benefits of God: the sparing hand is both full and beneficial; whereas the lavish is not only empty, but injurious.

Good Jacob is pinched with the common famine. No piety can exempt us from the evils of neighbourhood. No man can tell by outward event, which is the Patriarch and which the Canaanite. Neither doth his profession lead him to the hope of a miraculous preservation. It is a vain tempting of God, to cast ourselves upon an immediate provision, with neglect of common means. His ten sons must now leave their flocks, and go down into Egypt, to be their father's purveyors.

And now they go to buy of him whom they had sold; and bow their knees to him for his relief, who had bowed to them before for his own life. His age, his habit, the place, the language, kept Joseph from their knowledge; neither had they called off their minds from their folds, to inquire of matters of foreign state, or to hear that a Hebrew was advanced to the highest honour of Egypt. But he cannot but know them, whom he left at their full growth, whose tongue, and habit, and number were all one; whose faces had left so deep an impression in his mind, at their unkind parting : it is wisdom sometimes to conceal our knowledge, that we may not prejudice truth.

He, that was hated of his brethren, for being his father's spy, now accuses his brethren, for common spies of the weakness of Egypt: he could not without their suspicion have come to a perfect intelligence of his father's estate and theirs, if he had not objected to them that which was not. We are always bound to go the nearest way to truth. It is more safe in cases of inquisition, to fetch far about that he might seem enough an Egyptian, he swears heathenishly how little could they suspect, this oath could proceed from the son of him, which swore by the fear of his father Isaac ! How oft have sinister respects drawn weak goodness, to disguise itself even with sins!

It was no small joy to Joseph, to see this late accomplishment of his ancient dream; to see the suppliants (I know not whether more

brethren, or enemies) grovelling before him in an unknown submis sion: and now it doth him good to seem merciless to them, whom he had found wilfully cruel; to hide his love from them, which had shewed their hate to him; and to think how much he favoureth them, and how little they know it: and, as sporting himself in their seeming misery, he pleasantly imitates all those actions reciprocally unto them, which they in despight and earnest had done formerly to him; he speaks roughly, rejects their persuasions, puts them in hold, and one of them in bonds. The mind must not always be judged by the outward face of the actions. God's countenance is oft-times as severe, and his hand as heavy, to them whom he best loveth. Many a one, under the habit of an Egyptian, hath the heart of an Israelite. No song could be so delightful to him, as to hear them in a late remorse condemn themselves before him, of their old cruelty towards him, who was now their unknown witness and judge.

Nothing doth so powerfully call home the conscience, as affliction; neither need there any other art of memory for sin, besides misery. They had heard Joseph's deprecation of their evil with tears, and had not pitied him; yet Joseph doth but hear their mention of this evil which they had done against him, and pities them with tears he weeps for joy to see their repentance, and to compare his safety and happiness with the cruelty which they intended, and did, and thought they had done.

Yet he can abide to see his brother his prisoner, whom no bonds could bind so strong, as his affection bound him to his captive: Simeon is left in pawn, in fetters; the rest return with their corn, with their money, paying nothing for their provision, but their labour; that they might be as much troubled with the beneficence of that strange Egyptian lord, as before with his imperious suspicion. Their wealth was now more irksome to them, than their need; and they fear, God means to punish them more in this superfluity of money than in the want of victuals, What is this, that God hath done to us? It is a wise course to be jealous of our gain, and more to fear than desire abundance.

Old Jacob, that was not used to simple and absolute contentments, receives the blessing of seasonable provision, together with the affliction of that heavy message, the loss of one son and the danger of another; and knows not whether it be better for him to die with hunger, or with grief for the departure of that son of his right hand. He drives off all to the last protraction is a kind of ease in evils that must come.

At length, as no plea is so importunate as that of famine, Benjamin must go one evil must be hazarded for the redress of another what would it avail him, to see whom he loved, miserable? How injurious were that affection to keep his son so long in his eye, till they should see each other die for hunger!

The ten brothers return into Egypt, loaded with double money in their sacks, and a present in their hands: the danger of mistak ing is requited, by honest minds, with more than restitution. It is

not enough to find our own hearts clear in suspicious actions, except we satisfy others.

Now hath Joseph what he would, the sight and presence of his Benjamin; whom he therefore borrows of his father for a time, that he might return him with a greater interest of joy. And now

he feasts them whom he formerly threatened, and turns their fear into wonder: all unequal love is not partial; all the brethren are entertained bountifully, but Benjamin hath a five-fold portion: by how much his welcome was greater, by so much his pretended theft seemed more heinous; for good turns aggravate unkindnesses, and our offences are increased with our obligations.

How easy is it to find advantages, where there is a purpose to accuse! Benjamin's sack makes him guilty of that, whereof his heart was free crimes seem strange to the innocent: well might they abjure this fact, with the offer of bondage and death; for they, which carefully brought again that which they might have taken, would never take that which was not given them. But thus Joseph would yet dally with his brethren; and make Benjamin a thief, that he might make him a servant; and fright his brethren with the peril of that their charge, that he might double their joy and amazement, in giving them two brothers at once: our happiness is greater, and sweeter, when we have well feared, and smarted with evils.

But now, when Judah seriously reported the danger of his old father and the sadness of his last complaint, compassion and joy will be concealed no longer, but break forth violently at his voice and eyes. Many passions do not well abide witnesses, because they are guilty to their own weakness. Joseph sends forth his servants, that he might freely weep. He knew he could not say, I am Joseph, without an unbeseeming vehemence.

Never any word sounded so strangely as this, in the ears of the patriarchs. Wonder, doubt, reverence, joy, fear, hope, guiltiness, struck them at once. It was time for Joseph to say, Fear not: no marvel if they stood with paleness and silence before him; looking on him, and on each other: the more they considered, they wondered more; and the more they believed, the more they feared: for those words, I am Joseph, seemed to sound thus much to their guilty thoughts; "You are murderers, and I am a prince in spite. of you my power and this place give me all opportunities of revenge; my glory is your shame, my life your danger; your sin lives together with me.

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But now the tears and gracious words of Joseph have soon assured them of pardon and love, and have bidden them turn their eyes from their sin against their brother to their happiness in him, and have changed their doubts into hopes and joys; causing them to look upon him without fear, though not without shame. His loving embracements clear their hearts of all jealousies, and hasten to put new thoughts into them of favour and of greatness; so that now, forgetting what evil they did to their brother, they are thinking of what good their brother may do to them. Actions salved up