tranfported from their native place, and fent by their Mafter, or his Steward or Overfeer, to work in his different Plantations, merely for their keep; for all the land was the property of Pharaoh, and the portion of the yearly produce of it, which they were allowed, is faid to have been given them only for feed of the field, for their food, thofe of their boufhelds, and their little ones. 6. The laft and most interefting circumftance, in my opinion, attending this fingular tranfaction, is the manner in which Jofeph proceeded to effect his purchafe. For, in confequence of that prophetic fpirit, with which the Almighty had especially favoured him, and by which he forefaw the wonderful fertility of the land for feven years to come, and the extreme fterility of it for as many years after, he engroffed all the corn that grew in Egypt during the first feven years of plenty, and laid it up against the time of impending famine (f). When this began to rage in the land, he opened his ftores, and made the Egyptians pay ready money for their corn: being entirely drained of cash, for Jofeph gathered up all the money, that was found in the land of Egypt, he refufed to fupply them with bread, unless they gave all their cattle in exchange; which, accordingly, they did, for fuch proportion of corn as would keep them one year being now reduced to the laft extremity, and entirely deftitute of provifions, as well as of every means of procuring them, fave their lands and perfons, he availed himfelf of this favourable opportunity to effect a purchase, for which he had gradually paved the way: a bargain was accordingly concluded between him and Pharaoh's fubjects, by which he bought all their lands and perfons for as much corn, as would keep the latter D 2 (f) Gen. c. 41. V. 47, 49, 55, 56. the the space of one year; which, from the circumstance of giving them feed, wherewith to fow the land, appears to have been the laft of that feptennial dearth. So, that, even taking advantage of the extreme indigence of his fellow-creatures, when able to relieve them, in order to reduce them to the condition of Slaves, was not deemed by this righteous, and inspired Man, with whom the Lord was, an infraction of those facred laws of Nature, which were the invariable rule of his conduct. XXI. How far Jofeph's conduct in every stage of this remarkable transaction, so favourable to the SLAVETRADE, may appear equitable or otherwife to the present humane advocates for African Liberty, through the feeble light of mere human reafon and fenfe, I know not: this however is most certain, that there is not fo much as one Jor in the Sacred Writings of the Word of God, that feems to difapprove in the most diftant manner any one part of his conduct, either in this or in any other tranfaction of his long and holy life (g). On the contrary, in every place of Scripture, where this eminent Perfonage is introduced, whether before or after this tranfaction, he is conftantly reprefented as one of the most faithful and acceptable fervants of God, under whofe particular protection he lived and thrived (b); by whofe immediate direction he acted (i); and who did nothing whatever, but the Almighty made it to profper (k). The very transaction, we are speaking of, when rehearsed by one of the infpired Writers (), a Man according to God's own heart (m), is fo far from being (i) Gen. ibid. and cc. 40. 41. (*) Gen. 39. 23. (Ŋ) PC 105. V. 16—24(m) 1 Kings, c. 15. 3. being taxed with the leaft intimation of guilt in any one circumstance attending it, that the whole procefs, without any exceptions whatever, is there reprefented as the effect of that divine Wisdom, with which he was infpired from above. XXII. A FURTHER fcriptural evidence, that the conduct of Jofeph in purchasing fo many millions of his fellow-creatures, and reducing them to the condition of Slaves, met the intire approbation of God, and was therefore perfectly confonant to the facred laws of Nature, is that remarkable declaration of the Word of God, registered in the First Book of CHRONICLES, C. 5. V. 1-3, which affigns the true reafon for transferring the right of Primogeniture, or First-born, from the Family of Reuben, eldest son of Jacob, to the Family of Jofeph; which, as it is expressly mentioned in that place, was Reuben's inceftuous converfation with Bilhah, his Father's concubine (n).—But is it credible, confiftently with the effential justice of God, that he fhould deprive Reuben's children of their Primogeniture or birth-right, for having once tranfgreffed one of the Laws of Nature, and yet should at the fame time, even in preference to Judah the Meffiah's progenitor, give it to thofe of Jofeph, who, by the very act of enflaving fo many millions of his fellow-creatures, and ufing them as he did, must have neceffarily incurred the horrid guilt of reiterated tranfgreffions of feveral of those facred Laws, if, what is fo confidently afferted be true, that the SLAVE-TRADE, or the purchafing of Slaves, is an iniquitous unnatural purfuit, and a crime of the blackeft die, in direct oppofition to every principle of Nature? How could any one in fuch chimerical fuppofition reconcile the visible par-tiality (n) Gen. 35. 22. tiality of God's conduct with his own Scriptural declarations of the eternal and immutable rectitude of his justice? XXIII. ONE evidence more, drawn from the fame fcriptural fource of conviction, will, I hope, be fufficient to evince the irreproachablenefs of Jofeph's conduct in the tranfaction now before us. Every body knows, who knows any thing of Scripture, that the fpeeches made to their Children by the holy Patriarchs of old, prior to their departure from this world, called in the language of Scripture Blessing the Children (0), were fo many prophetic declarations of the Word of God, predicting to them the future events that should diftinguish them and their families, and entailing upon them and their pofterity that portion of happiness or mifery, to which their moral or immoral conduct entitled them. This being an undoubted truth, let us now examine with an attentive eye fome of the most material circumstances of that folemn Bleffing, which Jacob bestowed on Jofeph and his Brethren a little before his death (p). 1. This Bleffing was bestowed on Joseph and his Brethren about ten years after Jofeph had enslaved all the inhabitants of Egypt, excepting those of the Sacerdotal Order (q). 2. Jacob in this Bleffing reproaches Reuben, his eldest fon, with the infamy of his inceftuous crime in the strongest terms; and declares, that, in punishment of it, he should not excel, but should be as unstable as water. 3. Simeon and Levi are branded by the holy Patriarch with being Inftruments of cruelty; he abhors their counfels; calls their company diffionourable; curfes (0) Gen. 27. v. 4, 7, 10, 12, 19, &c. (p) Gen. 49. v. I, &c. curfes the fierceness of their anger, and the cruelty of their wrath, because in their anger, fays he, they flew a man; meaning Shechem the Hivite and his father Hamor, together with all his male fubjects, whom they flew with the fword (r); and, as a punishment of their barbarous cruelty, he declares they thould be divided and scattered in the land of Promise. 4. When the Holy Patriarch comes to blefs his fon Jofeph, he expreffes himself in the following emphatic and divine strain. "Jofeph is a fruitful bough; even 66 a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run "over the wall. The archers have forely grieved him, "and fhot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode "in ftrength, and the arms of his hands were made ftrong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob: "from thence is the Shepherd, the ftone of Ifrael; " even by the God of thy father, who fhall help thee, "and by the Almighty, who fhall bless thee with bleffings of heaven above, bleffings of the deep that "lieth under, bleffings of the breast, and of the womb. "The bleffings of thy father have prevailed above "the bleffings of my progenitors: unto the utmost "bounds of the everlasting hills, they fhall be on the "head of Jofeph, and on the crown of the head of "him, that was separate from his brethren (s)." IN these prophetic and beautiful expreffions, exhibiting in the most pleasing colours the perfonal character of Jofeph, and the bleffings entailed on his pofterity, literally fulfilled afterwards, we can perceive nothing but what neceffarily supposes in Jofeph the greatest innocence of heart, the most unimpeachable rectitude of conduct, and the most gracious acceptance with his Creator. No part of his conduct is here branded (r) Gen. 34. v. 25, 26. (s) Gen, 49. v. 22—27. |