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blissful state by the wilful tranfgreffion of their Maker's command; the fatal effects of this original violation of duty; the univerfal wickednefs and corruption it gradually introduced among mankind; and the fignal and tremendous punifhment of that wickednefs by the deluge; the certainty of which is acknowledged by the most ancient writers, and very evident traces of which are to be found at this day in various parts of the globe. It then relates the peopling of the world again by the family of Noah; the covenant entered into by God with that patriarch, the relapfe of mankind into wickedness; the calling of Abraham; and the choice of one family and people, the Ifraelites (or as they were afterwards called the Jews) who were separated from the reft of the world to preserve the knowledge and the worship of a Supreme Being, and the great fundamental doctrine of THE UNITY; while all the reft of mankind, even the wifeft and moft learned, were devoted to polytheism and idolatry, and the groffeft and most abominable fuperftitions. It then gives us the history of this people, with their various migrations, revolutions, and principal transactions. It recounts their removal from the land of Canaan, and their establishment in Egypt under Jofeph; whose history is related in a manner fo natural, so interesting and affecting, that it is impoffible for any man of common fenfibility to read it without the strongeft emotions of tenderness and delight.

In the book of Exodus we have the deliverance of this people from their bondage in Egypt, by a series of the most aftonifhing miracles; and their travels through the wildernefs for forty years under the conduct of Mofes ; during which time (befides many other rules and directions for their moral conduct) they received the Ten Commandments, written on two tables of stone by the finger of God himself, and delivered by him to Mofes with the most awful and tremendous folemnity; containing a code of moral law infinitely fuperior to any thing known to the rest of mankind in those rude and barbarous ages.

The books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are chiefly occupied with the various other laws, institutions, and regulations given to this people, refpecting their civil

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government, their moral conduct, their religious duties, and their ceremonial obfervances.

Among thefe, the book of Deuteronomy (which concludes what is called the Pentateuch, or five books of Mofes) is diftinguished above all the reft by a concise and striking recapitulation of the innumerable bleffings and mercies which they had received from God fince their departure from Horeb; by ftrong expoftulations on their past rebellious conduct, and their fhameful ingratitude for all thefe diftinguifhing marks of the Divine favor; by many forcible and pathetic exhortations to repentance and obedience in future; by promises of the most fubftantial rewards, if they returned to their duty; and by denunciations of the feverest punishments, if they continued disobedient; and all this delivered in a strain of the most animated, fublime, and commanding eloquence.

The hiftorical books of Jofhua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, continue the hiftory of the Jewish nation -under their leaders, judges, and kings, for near a thousand years; and one of the most prominent and inftructive parts of this history is the account given of the life and reign of Solomon, his wealth, his power, and all the glories of his reign; more particularly that noble proof he gave of his piety and munificence, by the conftruction of that truly magnificent temple which bore his name; the folemn and fplendid dedication of this temple to the fervice of God; and that inimitable prayer which he then offered up to Heaven in the prefence of the whole Jewish people; a prayer evidently coming from the heart, fublime, fimple, nervous, and pathetic; exhibiting the jufteft and the warmest fentiments of piety, the most exalted conceptions of the Divine nature, and every way equal to the fanctity, the dignity, and the folemnity of the occafion.

Next to thefe follow the books of Ezra and Nehemiah,. which contain the hiftory of the Jews for a confiderable period of time after their return from a captivity of 70 years in Babylon, about which time the name of Jews feems first to have been applied to them. The books of Ruth and Efther are a kind of appendage to the public records, delins eating the characters of two very amiable individuals, diftinguifhed by their virtues, and the very interefting incidents

which befel them, the one in private, the other in public life, and which were in fome degree connected with the honor and profperity of the nation to which they belonged.

In the book of Job we have the history of a perfonage of high rank, of remote antiquity, and extraordinary virtues; rendered remarkable by uncommon viciffitudes of fortune, by the most splendid profperity at one time, by an accumu. lation of the heavieft calamities at another; conducting himfelf under the former with moderation, uprightnefs, and unbounded kindness to the poor; and under the latter, with the most exemplary patience and refignation to the will of Heaven. The compofition is throughout the greater part highly poetical and figurative, and exhibits the nobleft representations of the Supreme Being and a fuperintending Providence, together with the most admirable leffons of for titude and fubmiffion to the will of God under the severest afflictions that can befall human nature. The Pfalms, which follow this book, are full of fuch exalted strains of piety and devotion, fuch beautiful and animated defcriptions of the power, the wisdom, the mercy, and the goodness of God, that it is impoffible for any one to read them without feeling his heart inflamed with the most ardent affection towards the great Creator and Governor of the universe.

The Proverbs of Solomon, which come next in order, contain a variety of very excellent maxims of wisdom, and invaluable rules of life, which have no where been exceeded except in the New-Teftament. They afford us, as they profefs to do at their very first outfet, "the inftruction of wif dom, justice, judgment, and equity. They give fubtility to the fimple; to the young man, knowledge and difcretion."

The fame may be faid of the greater part of the book of Ecclefiaftes, which also teaches us to form a just estimate of this world, and its feeming advantages of wealth, honor, power, pleasure, and science.

The prophetical writings prefent us with the worthieft and most exalted ideas of the Almighty, the jufteft and purest notions of piety and virtue, the awfulleft denunciations against wickednefs of every kind, public and private; the

most affectionate expoftulations, the most inviting promifes, and the warmest concern for the public good. And befides all this, they contain a series of predictions relating to our bleffed Lord, in which all the remarkable circumstances of his birth, life, ministry, miracles, doctrines, fufferings, and death, are foretold in fo minute and exact a manner (more particularly in the prophecy of Isaiah) that you would almoft think they were defcribing all these things after they had happened, if you did not know that these prophecies were confeffedly written many hundred years before Christ came, into the world, and were all that time in the poffeffion of the Jews, who were the mortal enemies of Christianity, and therefore would never go about to forge prophecies, which most evidently prove him to be what he profeffed to be, and what they denied him to be, the Meffiah and the Son of God. It is to this part of fcripture that our Lord particularly di rects our attention, when he fays, "fearch the Scriptures, for they are they that teftify of me."* The teftimony he alludes to is that of the prophets; than which no evidence can be more fatisfactory and convincing to any one that reads them with care and impartiality, and compares their predic tions concerning our Saviour with the hiftory of his life, given us by thofe who conftantly lived and converfed with him. This hiftory we have in the New Teftament, in that part of it which goes by the name of GOSPELS.

It is these that recount those wonderful and important, events with which the Christian religion and the divine Author of it were introduced into the world, and which have produced fo great a change in the principles, the manners, the morals, and the temporal as well as the spiritual condi tion of mankind. They relate the first appearance of Chrift upon earth; his extraordinary and miraculous birth; the teftimony borne to him by his forerunner John the Baptift; his temptation in the wilderness; the opening of his divine commiffion; the pure, the perfect, the fublime morality which he taught, especially in his inimitable sermon from the mount; the infinite fuperiority which he fhewed to every other moral teacher, both in the matter and manner of his difcourfes; more particularly by crufhing vice in its very

* John v. 39.

cradle, in the first rifings of wicked defires and propenfitics in the heart; by giving a decided preference of the mild, gentle, paffive, conciliating virtues, to that violent, vin.. dictive, high-fpirited, unforgiving temper, which has been always too much the favorite character of the world; by requiring us to forgive our very enemies, and to do good to them that hate us; by excluding from our devotions, our alms, and all our other virtues, all regard to fame, reputation, and applaufe; by laying down two great general principles of morality, love to God and love to mankind, and deducing from thence every other human duty; by conveying his inftructions under the eafy, familiar, and impreffive form of parables; by expreffing himself in a tone of dignity and authority unknown before; by exemplifying every virtue that he taught in his own unblemished and perfect life and converfation; and above all, by adding thofe awful fanctions, which he alone, of all moral inftructors, had the power to hold out, eternal rewards to the virtuous, and eternal punishments to the wicked. The facred narrative then represents to us the high character he affumed; the claim he made to a divine original; the wonderful miracles he wrought in proof of his divinity; the various prophecies which plainly marked him out as the Meffiah, the great deliverer of the Jews; the declarations he made, that he came. to offer himself a facrifice for the fins of all mankind; the cruel indignities, fufferings, and perfecutions, to which, in confequence of this great defign, he was expofed; the ac complishment of it by the painful and ignominious death to which he fubmitted; by his resurrection after three days from the grave; by his afcenfion into heaven; by his fitting there at the right hand of God, and performing the office. of a mediator and an interceffor for the finful fons of men, till he comes a fecond time in his glory to fit in judgment on all mankind, and decide their final doom of happiness or mifery for ever.

These are the momentous, the interesting truths, on which the GOSPELS principally dwell.

The ACTS OF THE APOSTLES continue the history of our religion after our Lord's afcenfion; the aftonishing and rapid

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