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great body of the Jews by a more incontestable evidence, than the infinity and grandeur of his miracles? The crippled limb straightened; the paralytic re-invigorated; - the deaf restored to hearing; the dumb to speech; the blind to sight; - the sick healed; ~ the evil spirits ejected; the dead raised again to life,-shew his Power over mankind. Inanimate nature alike acknowledged his supremacy. At his word, the winds cease; the tempest becomes a calm. At his will, the sea becomes hardened to his footstep, and bears him harmless on its surface. The tree flourishing in full vigor fades into a sapless ruin. The water, drawn from the pure stream, is converted into wine. The bread, scarcely sufficient for the disciples, multiplies itself at his command, the abundant food of famished thousands. Add to these outward demonstrations, a perfect knowledge of the most secret thoughts of all who came before him; - the knowledge of the excellencies of some; the hypocrisy of others; the guilelessness of Nathaniel; — the perfidy of Judas; the faith of the scorned Publican; and the hatred of the proud Pharisee. Add the free unravelment of the master springs, either to evil or good, of every human heart, to the prophetic perception of all that should happen to himself and to the religion that should be established by his death; and in the reception of these testimonies, the Power of Christ on earth will scarcely need a confirmation.

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And "the blessing," truly, of the Lord was upon the Egyptian's house and in the field, in the dominance of the Messiah !-What darkness had overspread the earth!-the preternatural night of Pharaoh,

"the darkness that might be felt." The Gentile so enwrapt in superstition and idolatry, that the few leading axioms of Truth which tradition had preserved to him, were rendered useless as the object of national belief; and chiefly revered as the nucleus of speculative doctrines and ideal impressions to the wise of their generation. God had left none without witness; but it was perverted, and the religion of the multitude was, almost to the letter, unmitigated error. The Jew, to whom alone of all the earth, the oracles of God had been specially entrusted, so regardless of the nature of the charge, and the real glory of his pre-eminence, that the Sadducee had risen up in the nation, denying angel and spirit,' and renouncing futurity. The Jew-possessing the knowledge of the Truth, and fortified in his belief by such impressive sanctions, and such a long stream of preternatural history-stood in his disregard of God and the false principles of his conduct, almost in an equal state of degradation as the Heathen. He had sacrificed the revelations he had received on the altar of human pride, and required new acts of interference from the Deity to prevent his religion from fading into nothingness. In such a state of the world Christ descended into the human nature to sustain and to preserve it. How beautifully was the blessing" displayed in his doctrines! what beneficence in his language!-what richness in his promises !-what comprehensiveness in his love! The earth darkened and bewildered received light and safety from his presence. The mind recovered from its torpor. A vivifying principle was implanted in it; and it brought forth fruits in much profusion;

-"some thirty; some sixty, and some an hundred fold." The dominion of Christ was felt in every nation of the ancient world; and wherever it prevailed, the nation was blessed. The deepest stains of irreligion became "white as wool" in the recognition of Christ's Faith, and the acknowledgment of his superintendence. The whole world was alienated from God; and God, through the Atonement of his Son, became reconciled unto the sinner. In the might of his faith, he came forth pure in the sight of God; and in the Confession of Jesus, received a blessing from the Lord.

But though in undisputed command of such boundless authority over the world, Jesus, like Joseph, had no means—that is, consistent with the success of his Mediation-of warding off the malice and animosity of men;-nor of arming himself against the effects of a false accusation. The ruler of the world, -he was yet exposed to the malignity of men. He was still, in the strongest sense that language can give to the term, the slave of human nature;-the captive of the oppression of Egypt; the bondservant unto death. But to return to Joseph.

Falsehood has prevailed. The Egyptian, angered at his imaginary guilt and presumption has exercised the power, which God has suffered him to exercise, against him. He has bound him fast in "the king's prison;" and casting aside all further care and anxiety about him, has left him to waste his strength in solitude, hopeless of release ;-the victim of a moral death. It is the figure of Christ condemned by Pilate, and consigned to the tomb. The metaphor is easy. The grave is to the soul, what the prison is

to the body;-and we pass it over with a single comment. Both equally preserved their power while bound; the one in the figurative, the other in the actual tomb. The sepulchre of Christ was the real and virtual seal to the full extension of his dominion; -and in the king's prison in Egypt, the keeper committed all things into Joseph's hand; and whatsoever was done there "he was the doer of it."

But the third year of Joseph's captivity, like the third day of the grave of Christ, having commenced, he rises from the darkness of the dungeon to appear before the throne of Pharaoh. The dreams are interpreted. The decrees of Heaven are made known. The years of plenty, and the years of famine are fully revealed to the king; and the whole region of Egypt his last and perfect recompence--is placed under his single and individual control.

The more I read and reflect on the reign of Christ from the period of his resurrection, and the powers bestowed on Joseph from his emancipation out of prison, the more strongly is the idea impressed on me, that it is one of the most wondrous correspondencies of Scripture. "Thou shalt be over my house,"-exclaims Pharaoh-" and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled; only in the throne will I be greater than thou. See I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, 'Bow the knee;' and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."* If the

* Gen. xli. 40.

sacrifice of Isaac can be considered typical of Christ. If the High Priest entering into the holiest of holies "once every year, not without blood,"* can be considered typical of Christ,-which St. Paul in a very lengthened and minute argument, has affirmed it to be. If the scape-goat, innocent in its own nature, and laden with the sins of the people, can be received as a type.-In short, unless the existence of signs and emblems in Scripture meet with a denial altogether, I confess I see not how the acts of Joseph under review can be excluded from their number. Christ on his resurrection, having "fulfilled all righteousness," and complied with all the conditions through which the Atonement was to have made effectual, resumes the power and majesty which as God, he had asserted before the creation of the worlds. The second Essence of the Holy Trinity, he receives from the Father that supremacy over the world, of which, in the day of his captivity, he had been, to a certain extent, deprived. Allowing the existence of type and shadow, what can more perfectly express this lordship over the earth, than the rule granted to Joseph on his exaltation in the court of Pharaoh ?" According unto thy word shall all my people be ruled; only in the throne will I be greater than thou. See I have set thee over all the land of Egypt." And passing from this sovereignty to the principle of adoration, in what stronger language could the worship, which at a distant period should be accorded to Christ, be glanced at, than the command of Pharaoh to his subjects: "Bow the knee" and the assurance to Joseph, "I am Pha* Heb. ix. 7.

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