was a very wicked man, or that God hated and punished him for an immoral life. For, 1. The sentence here against him is said expressly to be founded not upon his actions, because it was determined before the children had done good or evil. 2. God's hatred of Esau, here spoken of by St. Paul, was not a hatred, which induced him to punish him with any evil; for Esau was as happy in all the blessings of this life, as either Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob; and his posterity had a land designed by God to be their possession as well as the children of Jacob. They were also enabled to drive out and dispossess the inhabitants of it, as Israel did to the land of his possession, and they were put in possession of it much sooner than the Israelites. God was pleased moreover to protect them in the enjoyment of it, and to caution the Israelites against invading them with a remarkable strickness,P as he also cautioned them against invading the land which he designed to give to the children of Lot. Now as God was pleased thus to bless Esau and his children in the blessings of this life, even as much as he blessed Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, if not more; why may we not hope to find him with them at the last day, as well as Job, or Lot; or any other good and virtuous man, who was not designed to be a partaker of the blessing given unto Abraham? For, 3. All the punishment inflicted on Esau, was an exclusion from being heir of the blessing promised to Abraham and to his seed; which was a favour not granted to Lot, to Job, or to several other very virtuous and good men.

4. St. Paul, in the passage before cited, does not intend to represent Esau as a person who had particularly merited God's displeasure; but to shew the Jews, that God had all along given the favours which led to the Messiah where he pleased; to Abraham, not to Lot; to Jacob, not to Esau; as, at the time St. Paul wrote, the Gentiles were made the people of God, and not the Jews. 5. Esau is indeed called profane, (Benλ ;) but I think that word does not mean wicked or immoral (aσ¤ns or aμagtwλos); he was called so for not having that due value for the priest's office which he ought to have had. In this point there seems to have been a defect in his character; hunting and such diversions of life were more pleasing to him, than the views and prospects which the promises of God had opened to his family; and which his brother Jacob was more thoughtful about than he. Therefore, though I think it does not appear, that he was cut off from being the heir of them, by any par ticular action in his life; yet his temper and thoughts appear to be such, as to evidence, that Gon's purpose towards Jacob was founded upon the truest wisdom; Jacob being in himself the fittest person to be the heir of the mercies, which God designed for him.

When Joseph was sold into the family of Poti. phar, he soon obtained himself a station, in which he might have lived with great comfort. His master saw, that he was a youth of great sense and diligence, and very prosperous in his undertakings; therefore in a little time he made him his steward, and put all his

affairs under his management. Being thus in a condition of life, in which he might have been very happy, his mistress fell in love with him; but in the integrity of his heart he refused to comply with her desires, and took the liberty to reprove her, and shunned all opportunities of being at any time alone with her. Whether she feared by his manner and behaviour that he might accuse her to her husband; or whether she was enraged at the slight she thought hereby offered, upon his peremptorily refusing to com ply with her, she accused him to Potiphar of a design to ravish her, and had him laid in prison. Joseph being kept in prison above two years, got into favour with the keeper of the prison; and was entrusted by him with the management of all the affairs belonging to the prison, and with the custody of the prisoners." Two years and something more after Joseph's imprisonment, the king of Egypt dreamed two very remarkable dreams, both which seemed to be of much the same import. The king had a great uneasiness about them, and the more, because none of his Magi could interpret, or tell them. In the midst of his butler or cup-bearer called self had been some time before under the king's, displeasure, and in prison with Joseph; and that Joseph had very punctually interpreted a dream of his, and another of the king's baker, who was in prison with him. He gave the king an account of it, which

* Gen. xxxix. 8, 9, 10.
* Chap. xli. 1.

him the meaning of perplexity, his chief to mind, that him

occasioned Joseph to be sent for. Joseph came, and heard the king's dreams, and told him their meaning, that there would be all over Egypt, first of all seven years of plenty, and then a severe famine for seven years; and added, that since it had pleased GOD thus to inform the king what seasons he intended, he hoped he would make a right use of the information, and appoint some discreet and wise person, with proper officers under him, to gather a fifth part of each plenteous year's product, and lay it up in store against the time of scarcity. The king conceived a very great opinion of Joseph, both from his interpretation of the dreams, and from the advice he gave upon them; and thought no one could be so fit to manage the office of gathering the corn in the years of plenty, as he who had so wisely thought of a scheme so beneficial; and therefore immediately made him his deputy over the land of Egypt. Joseph was, I think, above twenty years old when his brethren sold him; and he was thirty when Pharaoh thus advanced him; so that it pleased GoD in less than ten years to promote him, from a lad, the younger son of a private traveller, through various changes and accidents of life, by several steps, and not without a mixture of some severe misfortunes, to be the head of a very potent kingdom, inferior only to him who wore the crown. He wore the king's ring, had all the marks and distinctions that belong to the highest rank of life; rode in Pharaoh's second chariot; and wherever he passed, the offices appointed cried before him, bow

2 Gen. xli. 38-41.

a Ver. 46.

the knee. Pharaoh called Joseph Zaphnathpaaneah, and married him to the priest of On's daughter; by whom he had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim."

In the years of plenty Joseph had gathered a sufficient stock of corn, not only for Egypt, but to supply the neighbouring countries; and in the years of famine, when he opened his stores, and sold out his provision, he acquired immense riches for the king. The Egyptians bought his corn with money, until all the money of the land of Egypt, and all that could be procured out of the land of Canaan, was in Pharaoh's treasury. Then they exchanged their cattle for corn, until Pharaoh had purchased all them also; and in the last place, they sold their lands and possessions, so that by Joseph's conduct, Pharaoh was become sole proprietor of all the money, cattle, and lands of all Egypt. There are two or three particulars very remarkable in Joseph's management of this affair. When the Egyptians had parted with all their money,

1.

b Gen. xli. 41-44. The best expositors do not take the word Abrek, to signify bow the knee, as our translation renders it; but they suppose it to be a name of honour, which Pharaoh caused to be proclaimed before Joseph. See Ver. LXX. Targum Onkelos. Vers. Samaritan. Vers. Syriac. Vers. Arab. & Castelli Lexicon Heptaglotton, in verb 7 Abrek, vox Egyptia est Пalanopos quidam. See Pool. Synopsis in loc.

< The name which Pharaoh gave Joseph is an Egyptian pame, and signifies a discoverer of things hidden.

• Ver. $1.

e Gen. xlvii. 18.