DEATH of JACOB.

PASSAGE.

AND IT CAME TO PASS, AFTER THESE THINGS, THAT ONE TOLD JOSEPH: BEHOLD THY FATHER 15 SICK; AND HE TOOK WITH HIM HIS TWO SONS, MANASSEN AND EPHRAIM.

SON

AND ONE TOLD JACOB, AND SAID: BEHOLD, THY JOSEPH COMETH TO SEE THEE; AND ISRAEL STRENGTHINED HIMSELF, AND SAT UPON HIS BED.

WITH what affectionate zeal Jofeph

haftened to his father, upon hearing of his fickness! There is beauty and nature in the behaviour of Jacob on this tender occafion. As foon as he heard that his fon was coming, he ftrengthened himself, and fat upon the bed. Notwithstanding all the languors of decay, he exerted himself to perform the last paternal offices of love the very idea of his Jofeph, so far ftrengthened

But

strengthened him, that he fat upon the bed. Of fuch potency, to the very last, are the finer fenfibilities of the human heart. this interview was not more affecting, than important. How interefting was the ancient ceremony of bleffing! Indeed, the benediction of an expiring man is always defirable; but when the dying is a father, and that father deferves the name, with what an aweful idea it affects the foul! Behold the good old man, when he had given proper directions for his funeral, ftretching forth his hallowed hand, to blefs. And hear, in what language he begins: "God, before whom my fathers, "Abraham and Ifaac, did walk; the God "which fed me all my life long, unto this day; the angel, which redeemed me from "all evil, blefs the lads: Let my name be "named on them, and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Ifaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of "the earth." What a flow of eloquence and fublimity is here; how glowing. the fentiments; how pathetic the occafion! By

this time his ftrength: was more exhausted, and he hastily adverted to another interesting fubject" Behold, I die, Jofeph, but "I have given to thee one portion, above "thy brethren, which I took out the hand "of the Amorite, with my fword and with

my bow." This manner of distinguishing Jofeph from the rest of his brethren by a legacy, which was particularly dear to the teftator, and which, indeed, was an inftance of his early skill in manly exercises, strongly fpeaks his fenfe of Jofeph's generous behaviour in the day of neceffity, while the famine was yet fore in the land. Those · points being properly adjusted, the good man makes one effort more, and difcharges the last duty of a father, for, he calleth his other fons together, to blefs them. The verfe which fummons them, has a folemnity fuited to the occafion: Gather your"felves together, ye, fons of Jacob; and "hearken ye fons of Ifrael." When they are affembled, with what pomp of words, and inspiration of ideas, doth he address them! The advances of death feem to

have

have been loft, or, rather, Death himself was enamoured of his eloquence; he stood, as it were, suspended, and could not filence the tongue till every fyllable was uttered. The prophet-the parent-I had almost faid, the God-is in every sentence of this noble chapter, and he who can read it without catching fome part of the enthu fiafm, muft have as little relish for compofition, as for religion. And here, I cannot help wondering, that the Bible is not oftener quoted and read, as an authority, by the lovers, even of polite learning, and literary tafte. The names of Pindar, Demofthenes, and our own Mr. Gray, are confidered, by many, in point of fublimity, as the very children of the fun, while the Bible lies gathering the dust of difufe upon fome folitary shelf, like an ineftimable jewel in poffeffion of a peafant, who is unconscious of its value. And yet, it were no difficult labour to prove, by parallel paffages, that the boldest and nobleft flights of thefe moderns (however elegant they may be when not brought to so fevere a teft), are very

feeble

feeble efforts, when compared to that glowing fire of imagination-that irresistable force of language, and that fublimity of arrangement, fo remarkable in many parts of the fcriptures. As an inftance or two, let us run the enraptured eye over a few verfes of this very chapter.

"Reuben, thou art my firft-born, my "might, and the beginning of my strength; "the excellency of dignity, and the excel"lency of power!" Was there ever a bolder, or more finished climax! At the fiftieth perufal, it would afford a man of taste, fresh beauty to begin again.

"Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my fon, thou art gone up: he "stooped down, he couched as a lion, as "an old lion; who fhall rouse him up ? "Binding his fole unto the vine, and his "affes colt unto the choice vine; he wash"ed his garments in wine, and his cloaths "in the blood of grapes. His eyes fhall "be red with wine, and his teeth white "with milk.".

Once