owe to God for the gift of his dear Son — and of his Holy Spirit — and of a preached Gospel ? — What do we owe to God if he has rendered his word in any measure effectual for the enlightening of our minds, and the quickening of our souls ? " What manner of persons then ought we to be ? " How should our hearts glow with love, and our mouths be filled with his praise ! Let us prosecute these thoughts, and we shall soon blush and be confounded before God, and lie low before him in dust and ashes.]
2. To keep us from putting our trust in man —
[Many years had Joseph been confined in prison, and now he thought he should have an advocate at court, who would speedily liberate him from his confinement. But God would not let him owe his deliverance to an arm of flesh : yea, he left him two years longer in prison, that he might learn to put his trust in God only : and then he wrought his deliverance by his own arm. " Till his time was come, the word of the Lord tried him." At last, God suggested to Pharaoh dreams, which no magicians could expound ; and thus brought to the butler's recollection the oppressed youth who had interpreted his dreams, and who Was the only person that could render similar service to the affrighted monarch. Now we also, like Joseph, are but too apt to lean on an arm of flesh, instead of looking simply to the Lord our God : but we shall always find in the issue, that the creature is only a broken reed, which will pierce the hand that leans upon it ; and that none but God can render us any effectual assistance. Let us then trust in him only, and with all our heart, and then we shall never be confounded.]
3. To make us admire and adore the Lord Jesus —
[That blessed Saviour is not less mindful of us in his exalted state, than he was in the days of his flesh. Yea, though not at all indebted to us, though, on the contrary, he has all possible reason to abandon us for ever, yet is he mindful of us day and night ; he makes intercession for us continually at the right hand of God; he considers this as the very end of his exaltation; and he improves every moment in protecting, com- forting, and strengthening those who depend upon him. We challenge any one to say, When did the blessed Saviour forget him 1 We may have been ready to say indeed, " He hath for- saken and forgotten us ;" but " He can no more forget us than a woman can forget her sucking child." Let us then bless his name, and magnify it with thanksgiving. And let us from time to time offer to Him the petition of the dying thief, " Lord, remember me now thou art in thy kingdom : " and not all the glory and felicity of heaven shall divert his attention from us for a single moment.]
53.1 Joseph's advancement. 273