the dead-that lively defcription of a horfe of war, in the thirty-ninth chapter of Job, in which, from the 19th to the 26th verfe, there is fcarce a word which does not merit a particular explication to display the beauties of.-I might add to thefe, thofe tender and pathetic expoftulations with the children. of Ifrael, which run throughout all the prophets, which the most uncritical reader can scarce help being affected with.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.— What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done?-wherefore, when I expected that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? —and yet, ye say, the way of the Lord is unequal.-Hear now, O house of Ifrael, is not my way equal?-are not your ways unequal?-have I any pleafure at all that the wicked fhould die, and not that he should return from his ways and live?-I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled

against me.-The ox knows his owner, and the afs his mafter's crib-but Ifrael doth not know, my people doth not confider.-There is nothing in all the eloquence of the heathen world comparable to the vivacity and tenderness of these reproaches;-there is something in them fo thoroughly affecting, and fo noble and fublime withal, that one might challenge the writings of the most celebrated orators of antiquity to produce any thing like them.-Thefe obfervations upon the fuperiority of the infpired pen-men to heathen ones, in that which regards the compofition more confpicuously, hold good when they are confidered upon the foot of hiftorians.-Not to mention that prophane hiftories give an account only of human achievements and temporal events, which, for the most part, are fo full of uncertainty and contradictions, that we are at a lofs where to feek for truth;-but that the facred history is the hiftory of GoD himself,

the hiftory of his omnipotence and

infinite wisdom, his univerfal providence, his juftice and mercy, and all his other attributes, difplayed under a thoufand different forms, by a feries of the most various and wonderful events that ever happened to any nation, or language-not to infift upon this vifible fuperiority in facred hiftory,there is yet another undoubted excellence the prophane hiftorians feldom arrive at, which is almoft the diftinguishing character of the facred ones; namely, that unaffected, artlefs manner of relating hiftorical facts,-which is fo intirely of a piece with every other part of the holy writings.-What I mean will be beft made out by a few inftances. In the hiftory of Jofeph (which certainly is told with the greatest variety of beautiful and affecting circumftances), when Jofeph makes himself known, and weeps aloud upon the neck of his dear brother Benjamin, that all the houfe of Pharaoh heard him-at that inftant, none of his brethren are introduced as uttering aught, either to

exprefs their prefent joy, or palliate their former injuries to him. On all fides, there immediately, enfues a deep and folemn filence;-a filence infinitely. more eloquent and expreffive, than any thing else could have been substituted in its place. Had Thucydides, Herodotus, Livy, or any of the celebrated claffical hiftorians, been employed in writing this history, when they came to this point, they would, doubtless, have exhausted all their fund of eloquence in furnishing Jofeph's brethren with laboured and ftudied harangues; which, however fine they might have been in themfelves, would nevertheless have been unnatural, and altogether improper on the occafion. For when fuch a variety of contrary paffions broke in upon them, -what tongue was able to utter their hurried and distracted thoughts?-When remorse, surprise, shame, joy and gratitude ftruggled together in their bofoms, how uneloquently would their lips have performed their duty ?-how unfaithfullytheir tongues have spoken the language

VOL. VIII.

of their hearts ?-In this cafe, filence was truly eloquent and natural, and tears expreffed what oratory was incapable of.

If ever thefe perfons I have been addreffing myfelf to, can be perfuaded to follow the advice in the text, of fearching the Scriptures, the work of their falvation will be begun upon its true foundation. For, firft, they will infenfibly be led to admire the beautiful propriety of their language-when a favourable opinion is conceived of this, next, they will more clofely attend to the goodness of the moral, and the purity and foundnefs of the doctrines.The pleasure of reading will ftill be increased, by that near concern which they will find themselves to have in thofe many important truths, which they will fee fo clearly demonftrated in the Bible, that grand charter of our eternal happinefs. It is the fate of mankind, too often, to feem infenfible of what they may enjoy at the eafieft rate.—What might not our neighbouring Romish countries, who groan under the yoke of