weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were nota." This passage St. Matthew applies to the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem, to which, in its primary sense, it had no reference b: nevertheless, the citation of it was just, and the accommodation beautiful. A similar use the same evangelist makes of a passage primarily referring to the atonement which Christ should offer for the sins of mankind : he applies it to his miraculously healing their bodily disorders0. These examples, and others which might be adduced, would justify a considerably greater latitude of observation than we propose to adopt on the present occasion. In con- sidering this portion of sacred history, we do not found upon it any doctrine relating to the Gospel: we do not even insinuate that it was originally intended to illustrate any of the peculiar doctrines of Chris- tianity : we shall merely take occasion from it to in- troduce to your notice some useful observations, with which indeed it has no immediate connexion, but with which it has a very striking correspondence.
Joseph having made known himself to his brethren, and cautioned them against " falling out by the way," (an event too probable in their circumstances,) sends them back to their father, with orders to inform him of all that they had seen and heard, and to bring him and their respective families down to Egypt. Jacob, when first he received the information, could not credit it : but upon further conversation with his sons he was convinced of the truth of their report, and determined to accept the invitation which his beloved Joseph had sent him.
Now we propose to notice,
I. The grounds of his doubts —
There seem to have been two reasons for his ques- tioning the truth of the information he received ;
1. The report contradicted all that he had before received for truth —
a Jer. xxxi. 15. b Matt. ii. 17, 18.
c Compare Isai. liii. 4. with Matt. viii. 16 — 18.
57.] Jacob's resolution to visit josepii. 293
[' He had above twenty years before had reason to believe that his son Joseph had been torn in pieces by a wild beast ; he had even seen his son's coat torn and drenched in blood ; nor had the lapse of so many years brought him any other information : how then could this son be the person that pre- sided over the kingdom of Egypt at this time ? There might be some one that resembled him in name ; but it could not possibly be his darling son : had Joseph been alive, he must long since have heard of him : whoever therefore the person might be, or whatever he might profess to be, he could not be the long-lost son of his beloved Rachel.' Such were Jacob's arguments, and such his reasons for rejecting the testimony of his sons.
And do we not here see one ground on which the testimony of those who preach the Gospel is rejected? We find men rooted in certain sentiments, which, in their opinion, they have adopted on very sufficient grounds. The general acceptance which those sentiments meet with, and the coiifirmation of them during a long course of years, concur to render them, as it were, fixed principles in their minds. But the doctrines of the Gospel are directly the reverse of those which pass current in the world. The extreme depravity of human nature, the desert and danger of all mankind, the insufficiency of any good works to recommend us to God, the necessity of seeking justification by faith alone, the nature and extent of true holiness, and the impossibility of being saved without an entire consecration of ourselves to the service of God, are as opposite to the doctrines and sentiments of the world, as light is to darkness : and on this account they are rejected by the generality with scorn and contempt. It was on this ground that Nicodemus rejected the doctrine of the new birth ; " How can these things be ?" ' I have never held this sentiment ; therefore it cannot be true.' And on the same grounds it is, that the preaching of the Gospel is at this time, no less than in former ages, accounted foolishness.]