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rancour.

Envious of Joseph's superior favour and privileges, his brethren had long looked upon him with disgust, till, at last, an unfortunate circumstance turned their jealousy into The innocent and unwary youth inadvertently told them, that in a dream he beheld their sheaves making obeisance to his. "What! my officious favourite, surely this "is too much: your smooth tales and your prattling caresses have caught the heart "and the ear of your unthinking father: but "to grow vain upon your distinction, young

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man-to add insult to treachery-not " contented with robbing your brethren of a "father's favour, would you also deprive "them of their liberty! And do you expect "that those who are your superiors by birth " and age, should bow like slaves to you!"

How specious are such reproaches as these, and what an air of equity and reason do they assume! It is the peculiar misfortune of innocence, that it makes us too inattentive to the consequences of our common actions: and while we never suspect that the world has any other designs or sentiments than such as pass in our own breasts, we find that the most trivial circumstances of our conduct, many times, become a snare to us. Unhappy Joseph! Poor inexperienced boy!"

Little didst thou think that the innocent recital of thy dream should draw upon thee so much obloquy, so much envy. Behold! Unapprehensive of the rage that was already kindled against him, he unwarily lets fall another circumstance, which blows it up to the utmost fury. I dreamed, says he, (with the same undesigning innocence ;) behold! I have had one dream more; and the sun, the moon, and eleven stars, did reverence to me.

Envy, when inflamed to the utmost, vents not itself in idle reproaches, but plots, in horrid silence, the ruin of its object.

The unnatural brethren now no longer threatened or reviled, but at once determined to sacrifice a life so obnoxious to their pride. The scene of this shocking resolution was the field of Dothan, where they were keeping sheep, a scene of pastoral simplicity, but not of pastoral innocence. There Joseph came to seek his brethren. Tell me, said the affectionate youth to a stranger in the way, hast thou seen my brethren? Behold, I am wandering in these lonely fields to seek them ; tell me, I pray thee, where they keep their sheep. They have left the fields of Shechem, replied the stranger, and are gone to Dothan; there wilt thou find them.

Probably this was some more retired place,

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some darker and remoter desert, in which they chose to execute their horrid purpose.

"He comes, they cried, he comes! Be"hold the dreamer! Now, vain boy thou “shalt now suffer for thy pride, thy insolence, "and those coaxing arts thou hast made use "of to seduce the ear of thy father: that ear "is now too far off to hear thy complaints, "neither shall they abuse it any more. Come, "let us slay him, and throw him into a pit : 66 we shall say some wild beast hath devoured

"him."

Thus had the unhappy youth fallen a sa crifice to the envy and the jealousy of his cruel brethren, but Reuben, the generous, the amiable Reuben, interposed.

"Hold, rash men! unnatural and unfeeling "brothers! Let us not in one thoughtless "moment throw away the peace and in

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nocence of our whole lives. Good God! "how am I astonished at the horror of your "resolution! For the sake of heaven, before "your hands are imbrued in the blood of "innocence, a brother's blood! I intreat you, "consider what is the life you are about to "take away! A life derived from the same "fountain with your own, fed from the same "breast, and cherished by the same affec"tion! But this is not all: you will plunge

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'your impious daggers in the author of

your being; you will kill your venerable "father; his children will kill their father. "No matter how you may relate the horrid "tale; no matter, if his child be slain, "whether by savage beasts, or by savage "brothers; for he will weep, poor man! "He will tear his grey hairs, and beat his hoary bosom. And are you yet deter"mined? will you pierce your father's heart “through_the_heart of his child? will you, “indeed, fill his aged eyes with tears, and "bring down his grey hairs with sorrow "to the grave? But, if you are deter "mined, let us not, at least, stain our hands "with his blood. Let us rather cast him "into this pit that is in the wilderness, and "leave him." This he said, continues the sacred writer, that he might deliver him out of their hands, and restore him to his father. But here the generous Reuben was disap pointed. He appears to have left his bre thren on some occasion or other, and they took the opportunity to sell Joseph to some travelling merchants. For afterwards, when Reuben returned unto the pit, behold, he was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes: and returned to his brethren; and said, The child is not yonder; and I, whither shall I go!

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Poor youth! what anguish must his tender heart have felt, when he found his brother taken away, and was ignorant of his fate! No doubt he gave way to all the violence of affectionate grief; for he rent his clothes, crying, "The child is not yonder; and I, "whither shall I go! my dear, poor mur“dered brother! where shall I go to weep

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over thy lifeless body, to embrace thy cold "limbs, and close thy eyes!" How affecting is this brotherly sorrow! But behold a more distressful scene! The venerable Patriarch! an aged and affectionate father mourning for the untimely death of a beloved child! how pitiable is such sorrow as this! our hearts bleed within us while we think of it. "Yes, (complains the father to his ungracious children,) "I perceive too well "the cause of my child's death. Some "evil beast hath devoured him. Yes, my

child, this was thy little coat of divers "colours which thy mother's fondness pro"vided. Ah little did she think that it "should be torn by the bloody teeth of a

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savage! This coat thy sorrowful brothers "found in the desert, all rent and mangled, "and bloody as it is. Joseph is no more. "I will go down into the grave to my son in 24 mourning. There, only, my heart can

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