Sermons Practical and Occasional Dissertations, Translations, Including New Versions of Virgil's Bucolica, and of Milton's Defensio Secunda, Seaton Poems, &c. &c. By the Rev. Francis Wrangham ... In Three Volumes |
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JOSEPH
MADE KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN:
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 | Sermons Practical and Occasional |  |
JOSEPH MADE KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN:
A SEATON PRIZE POEM, 1812.
And plenty crowns the banquet, plenty long
To their sunk eyes unknown. With wonder each,
Even in the hall of strangers, views himself
By Zaphnath-paaneah's high command
(Such name in grateful Egypt Joseph bore)
Seated in rank precise, as each from birth
Derives precedence: lustful Reuben here;
There Simeon prone to blood, and Levi link'd
In station as in guilt; with lion-port
Next Judah, from his loins ordain'd to breed
Imperial Shiloh; follow righteous Dan
And Naphtali, with Zilpah's offspring, Gad
And Asher, on whose line wait happier days
And regal dainties, crouching Issachar,
And Zebulun; last, from his anxious sire
Reluctant torn, ingenuous Benjamin
The circle fills. In blameless revelry
The sparkling cup goes round; and Want and Woe,
Lull'd by the scene, relax their horrid grasp.
The mantling goblet and the festal blaze,
Fastens on Benjamin the banquet's Lord
Such look intense, as beams in fondest hour
From doting parent's eye? Liberal to all,
Cull'd from the table's choicest luxuries,
Sends he in the o'erflowing of his soul
The five-fold mess?
Which binds them to their sympathising host,
They are his Brothers! All in infancy,
Offspring of different mothers, with like pride
Press'd the same father's knee; in boyhood all
Shared the same games, deeming the summer's day
For their joint sports too short: and had not Vice,
Jealous of One untainted by her wiles,
Their holy bond dissolved, all still had slept
Beneath the same dear roof. But Benjamin
With double force encircled Joseph's heart.
Fruit of a common womb, from Rachel both
Quaff'd the rich stream of life. Revenge, alas!
And Envy, hellish fiends, with mildewing breath
Nipp'd in their elder-born the tender shoots
Of love fraternal. To a roving band,
Of crimes divulged, caresses scant bestow'd
Resentful, favour'd Joseph they consign'd.
To Egypt borne, strange fortunes he endured,
Storm and alternate sunshine—sunshine still
Within his breast, while all without was gloom!
A salve; a cherish'd steward, to his charge
Spite of temptation trusty, though his faith
Devoted him to bonds; not even in bonds
Deserted of his God: of Pharaoh's throne
Next raised the grace and guard, in golden car
From his full garners, minister of fate,
He scatters life. Egypt the hoarded grain
Buys with her birth-right; and all-whelming Nile,
When with his annual flood he floats the land,
Through many a clime at Joseph's bidding breathe,
Droop if he doubts, and if he dooms expire.
Their wonted wealth even Canaan's fields deny;
Canaan, hereafter with the bee's rich toil
Ambrosial and the nectar'd vine ordain'd
To gladden Israel. Memphis in the throng
Of supplicants importunate beholds
The Patriarch Ten, his right-hand's son alone
Left to console their solitary sire.
By Joseph recognised, himself unknown
(For twenty summers with embrowning suns
Had changed his hue, and dignity's stiff garb
Cumber'd his form, while tones of mimic wrath
His yearning heart belied) with sifting tongue
Their story he elicits; and demands,
Price of his future bounty, Benjamin
Companion of their mission. Conscience now,
Oft sleeping long, but ever sure to wake,
Stirs in their bosoms. Joseph's anguish'd cries
Entreating mercy, as with shrinking glance
He eyed the pilgrim-traders, thrill their ears
With pangs unfelt before. But Vengeance just,
Sternly retributive (so Conscience deems)
Exacts their cherish'd brother. Hardly wrung
From Jacob's arms—his Rachel's last remain,
His age's child—with many a tender charge,
And many a bribe to sooth the despot's heart,
The blooming envoy joins their train; and hence,
Loading the board the banquet's luxuries,
The mantling goblet and the festal blaze.
Homeward the Hebrews haste; and much they talk
Of Egypt, though not yet her Pyramids,
Work of a royal artist, with their tops
Sky-piercing fix'd the traveller's curious gaze:
Much too of him their hospitable host,
His questionings harsh, his liberal courtesies
(Wondrous alike in both) with grateful warmth
They converse hold. Nor think they not of One,
Whose thoughts are still with them, their distant sire;
Ever—so Fancy views his reverenced face—
Turn'd anxiously to Egypt, if perchance
Some rising cloud, some hum of cheerful sounds
May note their glad approach—When, O! what tongue
Their terror shall describe?—on steed of foam
A messenger, with charge of pilfer'd cup
Augurial, stays their speed. As when the sun
And hill and vale in rich embroidery drest
Drink the full radiance; if the Power of storm
Spread his black wing across the gorgeous scene,
Instant the landscape droops, and deeper gloom
Sits on the lurid air: the Patriarchs thus,
From their bright noon of joy precipitant,
Sink to profoundest woe. And was it thine,
All-lovely as thou seemest, Benjamin,
Thine the foul deed? Requital infamous
Of tenderness peculiar! But thy blush,
Ingenuous boy, the slanderous charge repels.
Thy sacred load thou knew'st not. Backward now,
Mournful and slow, to Joseph's presence borne,
With generous intercession Judah pleads
The trembler's cause; the vehemence recounts,
Which tore him from their parent's straining clasp,
That parent's love and too-prophetic fears,
By Want alone surmounted; last, himself
(His brother's promised pledge) to servitude
He proffers with more virtuous eagerness,
Than others covet freedom. Farther suit
Their judge endures not: Nature long constrain'd,
With ecstasy too great to be suppress'd,
Forces her way. From public gaze withdrawn,
And all the pomp and garb of state thrown by,
While tears and cries announce his labouring soul,
He stands disclosed to the astonish'd train
Erst victim. From his soft forgiving glance
They shrink confounded; but his gentle tones
Breathe love and peace—“I am your brother, He
“Whom once ye sold to Egypt; but, be sure,
“You I not therefore blame. Auspicious heaven
“Guided the dread achievement; and through me
“Treasured it's swelling harvests, to sustain
“My father's house. Transporting destiny,
“More than equivalent for all my woes,
“By me my Father lives! O hie ye home,
“Tell him his Joseph's all-but-royal state,
“And, best prerogative of royalty!
“His power to bless, from Famine's ruthless gripe
“Wresting exhausted kingdoms. Bid him haste,
“Himself and his (so sovereign Pharaoh wills)
“To share at once, and double all my joys.”
Thus saying, with th' unblemish'd culprit twined
In close embrace, he melts in happy tears.
Faint, as distrustful of so high a bliss
(For love most doubts, what still it most desires)
Jacob at length, by proof resistless won,
Quits unrepining Hebron's flowery vales,
And Egypt to her shepherd-denizens
Cedes Goshen's verdant pastures. He beholds,
Theme of a realm's unprostituted praise,
His long-wept son, pursued where'er he moves
By every eye, by every knee adored,
And blest by every tongue; yet 'midst his weal,
As 'mid his woes, unalter'd. He beholds:
And streams of transport flood his aged cheeks.
To glory in their offspring, speak the bliss
Such consciousness imparts! To be extoll'd,
Whate'er your toils, by hosts of your compeers,
And read your triumphs in a nation's eyes,
Is noble recompence, which to disclaim
(Were such the arduous sacrifice injoin'd)
Scarce lies in man's frail nature. But a meed
Still purer waits the good man at his home,
Far from the clamorous crowd; when He, whose lip
The infant spirit breathed, whose lessons urged,
Whose life allured to virtue, clasps his boy
Charged with a people's well-earn'd eulogies,
And with his strong reflected radiance glows.
Hold still their onward course, with frequent sigh
Given to their prosperous orphanship; and think,
As o'er the venerated dust they bend,
How sweet it were if He, whose pious care
Tended the flexile scion, hail'd perchance
Enraptured the full promise of it's bloom,
And by his morning and his evening prayer
Drew on it's head the nurturing dews of spring,
Could taste it's ripen'd fruit: yet deem it crime
To call his liberated spirit back,
To mark their joys; joys haply not unshared
Even of blest souls, if bliss of mortal source
May rise permitted, incense-like, to heaven.
Rather the lore paternal, from the grave
Borrowing a sacred charm, they meditate;
To some weak brother fill the lost One's place,
And trace the copy blazon'd in the skies.
Co-heirs of Freedom, whose unceasing care
Watch'd o'er our tender childhood. Hers we are,
By every filial tie in her great cause—
Who guard it's base—bound to resist her foe;
To lose whate'er of life is worth the grasp
Equally destined, should or force or fraud
To that fierce foe give entrance. Wider still
Extends the Christian chain. That golden bond,
What nation clasps it not! Britannia, long
With gospel-harvests have thy valleys laugh'd,
And largely hast thou reap'd the plenteous crop.
Thy garners teeming with the sacred store,
Be to the famish'd brotherhood of man
Their Joseph: spread to all thy genial board;
Where'er thy banner streams, thy commerce flows,
Diffuse the hallow'd boon. Freely received,
Freely be it bestow'd. With light from heaven
Cheer Lapland's caverns: quench th' insatiate pyre,
Which feeds on India's dames: her plantain groves
Where green Taïti waves, by many a scene
Of shame defiled, bid lust, bid murther cease:
Teach the stern tribes by Aral's stormy strand
Even on his track of blood, the Calmuc wild
Shall rein his steed, and drop the faltering spear.
Neglectful, with unnatural eye o'erlook
Thine own unfed. And hark! from each lone cot,
Thy floating bulwarks and the tented field,
Bursts the loud prayer: “Give us the bread of life;
Give, or we perish.” Even thy little ones
With mute unconscious eloquence demand
Food, and the skill to use it. Never yet
To British ear rose Want's sad cry in vain.
Thy manna on the wilderness descends,
The living waters flow, and verdure springs,
Fruit of thy godlike bounty. Centuries,
The holy toil: still on thy children's ears
Shall break with gladdening sound the sabbath-bells,
And call th' adoring peasant to his God.
No more in rustic worth Helvetia's sons
Or, Caledonia, thine, through strath and glen
Where Spey's rude torrents seek the wintry main,
Shall stand unmatch'd. High on her island-throne,
Girt by the wrecks of less enlighten'd realms,
In moral dignity shall Britain shine,
In arts, in arts supreme. From her pure lip,
As erst from Solomon's the Southern queen,
Nations shall gather wisdom, for their wealth
(Peruvia's gold, and far Golconda's gems)
Rich barter: o'er th' emancipated globe—
On Niger's banks, by Lena's frozen tide,
Or where in infancy Missouri plays—
Venial idolatry! barbarian hordes
Shall bow them at the name of Englishman.
By actions unbelied, our tongues shall boast
A common derivation: through the earth,
As the wide waters o'er the ocean-bed,
The Holy Volume shall it's stores unfold,
And one vast brotherhood embrace mankind.
See Geddes on Gen. xlv. 10. p. 138, Crit. Rem.; where he doubts whether the seat of government was fixed at Memphis, Heliopolis (On, Gen. xli. 45.), or Tanis. Patrick, from the Zoan of Ps. lxxviii. 43., places it at the latter.
Ipsumque Ægypto præficiens, per annos octoginta (comp. Gen. xli. 46., and l. 26.) purpurâ vestitum et coronâ coronatum in curru aureo incedere fecit: et quùm virtute omni admirabilis esset, omnia ratione disponebat, et potestate concessâ omnibus in rebus humiliter utebatur, quæ res hujusmodi felicitatis apud Ægyptios causa fuit. (F. Jacob. Philippi Bergomensis Suppl. Chronic. fo. xlii.) In this last paragraph the Chronicler, probably, refers to that amiable trait of the Ægyptian character, which disposed them (according to Diod. Sic. lib. I.) ευχαρισως διακεισθαι προς παν το ευεργετουν. Clement of Alexandria likewise informs us, in the First book of his Stromata, that αυτων νομοθετας και διδασκαλους—εθεολογησαν ακριβως.
Ib. xlix. 20. That Sir William Drummond in his ‘Œdipus Judaïcus,’ following generally Kircher and Dupuis, has attempted to resolve Jacob's prophecies in this chapter into a series of astronomical allusions to the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, I am not ignorant. He differs from his predecessors, indeed, in assigning Gemini to Benjamin; and there appears, throughout, a great lack of correspondence in the succession of the two corresponding dozens: not to mention, that in referring Zebulun to Capricorn (to which, however, Gad seems to have what, in any other case, the Right Honourable Author would probably have deemed irresistible pretensions) he is obliged to take for granted, that Kircher had “found some tradition,” though “he has not given the slightest intimation,” upon the subject; and that the parallelism of Manasseh and Sagittarius he has left wholly “to the ingenuity of his readers to supply!!” They seem, indeed, to fall to each other, merely because they are the unappropriated relics of their respective series! But that Reuben is typical of Aquarius, Simeon and Levi of Pisces, Judah of Leo, Issachar of Cancer, Dan of Scorpius, Gad of Aries, Asher of Libra, Naphtali of Virgo, and Ephriam of Taurus, and that Shiloh is a bright star (Shuleh) in Scorpius, is elaborately contended in a profound Essay of forty-three pages!!!
The priests, indeed, retained theirs, Gen. xlvii. 22.: but this would, probably, bear only a small proportion to the whole of the layproperty surrendered to the King upon this occasion.
This, however, is far from being ascertained; as both the period of their erection, and the object of it, are still involved in obscurity. Some, indeed, have regarded them as the result of the Israelitish bondage-labours. Even the date of the opening of the Great Pyramid is unknown. It is hoped, Lieut. Wilford may from Shanscrit records be enabled to elucidate these mysteries.
Gen. xliv. 5. This passage has been the cause of much perplexity. Bishop Wilson proposes a different punctuation, by omitting the point after ‘divineth,’ to take off from Joseph the imputation of using what he calls “unwarrantable practices.” Other Annotators explain, from Julius Serenus, the mode of Divination by the Cup in use among the Egyptians, Abyssinians, and Chaldeans, involving an appeal to diabolical agency; and quote from the celebrated Cornelius Agrippa his, “Erat olim apud Assyrios in magno pretio hydromantiæ species, Lecanomantia nuncupata, à pelvi aquæ plenâ, cui imponebantur aureæ et argenteæ laminæ et lapides pretiosi certis imaginibus, nominibus, et characteribus inscriptæ; ad quam etiam referri potest artificium, per quod plumbo aut cerâ liquefactis et in aquam projectis, rem quam scire cupimus manifestis exprimunt imaginum notis.” (De Occult. Philosoph. I. 57. fo. lxxiii. ed. 1533.) Bishop Patrick suggests two or three solutions, but they are none of them perfectly satisfactory. The original verb, in our version construed ‘to divine,’ admits much variety of interpretation. That Joseph, if our translation be correct, must at least have affected to practise augury, can scarcely be denied after reading his own speech in the fifteenth verse; and this Geddes excuses by suggesting, that ‘the Mosaic Law against divination was not yet promulgated.’ To Kennicott's rendering of v. 5, “Therefore he would certainly discover concerning it,” he strongly objects. See, also, Le Clerc in loc.
In illustration of this passage read the splendid ‘Reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society,’ upon the distribution of the Scriptures near the Euxine and the Caspian Sea.
“A Donation from the Society, with the promise of farther aid, has induced the Ministers of the United Brethren at Sarepta to begin a translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew into the Calmuc dialect; and it is confidently hoped, that they will extend their labours to the whole of the New Testament.”
To the Convicts at Woolwich, Portsmouth, and Sheerness.
To the Prisoners in Newgate, and other Jails throughout England.
To the Refuge for the Destitute, the London Female Penitentiary, and the Female Penitentiaries at Bath and Plymouth.
To the Poor in Workhouses, Hospitals, and Jails.
To the Poor Sufferers by the Great Fire at Chudleigh.
To Foreign Soldiers and their Children, and to Foreign Seamen at various Depôts and Sea-ports.
To the Sea-Fencibles on the Essex Coast.
To the Naval and Military Hospitals, and for sale at reduced prices to Soldiers and Sailors.
To the Crews of Revenue-Cutters, and of the Post-Office Packets.
To the Isles of Mann, Sark, Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney.
To the Sunday and other Schools for the Poor in Ireland.
To the Poor in Ireland, at very reduced prices.
To the Poor, both Protestants and Roman Catholics, in Denmark, Holstein, Norway, Sweden, Prussia, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Silesia, Livonia, Gallicia, Alsace, and France.
To the Foreign Troops in the General Hospital at Lisbon.
To the Poor German Colonists on the Banks of the Wolga.
To France, by Prisoners who have returned in Cartels.
To Spain and Portugal.
To Madeira, the Morea, Malta, Naples, Sicily, Zante, Constantinople, and the Greek Islands.
To the Portuguese in Tanjore and other parts of India.
To the Island of Ceylon.
To the Island of Bourbon, Aleppo, and Smyrna.
To Port Jackson in New South Wales.
To Van Dieman's Land.
To the Cape of Good Hope, for the British Soldiers, the converted Hottentots, and others.
To Senegal and Goree, for the use of the Inhabitants and Garrisons.
To Newfoundland, Bermuda, Quebec, and various parts of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Labrador.
To several Islands in the West Indies, for the use of the converted Negroes and others.
To Paramaribo, Demerara, Buenos Ayres, Chili, Carthagena, Surinam, and the Bay of Honduras.”
pp. 20, 21, 22.
“Total of Bibles and Testaments issued by the Society (exclusive of those printed on the Continent) previously to March 31, 1812.
Bibles — 140,415
Testaments — 291,524.” p. 29.
“Total Net-Receipts this year, including the produce of Sales 43,532l. 12s. 5½d.” p. 30.
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