whether the providence of God distributes the rewards and punishments of this life in exact proportion to the merit or demerit of each individual. His antagonists suppose that it does; and therefore infer from Job's uncommon calamities, that notwithstanding his apparent righteousness, he was in reality a grievous sinner: they aggravate his supposed guilt, by the imputation of hypocrisy, and call upon him to confess it, and to acknowledge the justice of his punishment. Job asserts his own innocence and virtue in the most pathetic manner, yet does not presume to accuse the Supreme Being of injustice. Elihu attempts to arbitrate the matter, by alleging the impossibility that so frail and ignorant a creature as man, should comprehend the ways of the Almighty, and therefore condemns the unjust and cruel inference the three friends had drawn from the sufferings of Job. He also blames Job for the presumption of acquitting himself of all iniquity, since the best of men are not pure in the sight of God,-but all have something to repent of; and he advises him to make this use of his afflictions. At last, by a bold figure of poetry, the Supreme Being is himself introduced, speaking from the whirlwind, and silencing them all by the most sublime display of his own power, magnificence, and wisdom, and of the comparative littleness and ignorance of man.-This indeed is the only conclusion of the argument which could be drawn, at a time when life and immortality were not yet brought to light. A future retribution is the only satisfactory solution of the difficulty arising from the sufferings of good people in this life.

Next follow the PSALMS; with which you cannot be too conversant. If you have any taste,

either for poetry or devotion, they will be your delight, and will afford you a continual feast. The Bible translation is far better than that used in the Common Prayer Book; and will often give you the sense, when the other is obscure. In this, as well as in all other parts of the Scripture, you must be careful always to consult the margin, which gives you the corrections made since the last translation, and is generally preferable to the words of the text. I would wish you to select some of the Psalms that please you best, and get them by heart; or, at least, make yourself mistress of the sentiments contained in them. Dr Delany's Life of David will shew you the occasions on which several of them were composed, which add much to their beauty and propriety; and, by comparing them with the events of David's life, you will greatly enhance your pleasure in them. Never did the spirit of true piety breathe more strongly than in these divine songs; which, being added to a rich vein of poetry, makes them more captivating to my heart and imagination than any thing I ever read. You will consider how great disadvantages any poems must sustain from being rendered literally into prose, and then imagine how beautiful these must be in the original. May you be enabled, by reading them frequently, to transfuse into your own breast that holy flame which inspired the writer!—To delight in the Lord, and in his laws, like the Psalmist,—to rejoice in him always, and to think "one day in his courts better than a thousand!"-But may you escape the heart-piercing sorrow of such repentance as that of David,-by avoiding sin, which humbled this unhappy king to the dust, and which cost him such bitter anguish, as it is impossible to read of without being moved! Not all the pleasures of the

most prosperous sinner could counterbalance the hundredth part of those sensations described in his penitential psalms;—and which must be the portion of every man who has fallen from a religious state into such crimes, when once he recovers a sense of religion and virtue, and is brought to a real hatred of sin: however available such repentance may be to the safety and happiness of the soul after death, it is a state of such exquisite suffering here, that one cannot be enough surprised at the folly of those who indulge in sin, with the hope of living to make their peace with God by repentance. Happy are they who pre serve their innocence unsullied by any great or wilful crimes, and who have only the common failings of humanity to repent of; these are sufficiently mortifying to a heart deeply smitten with the love of virtue, and with the desire of perfection. -There are many very striking prophecies of the Messiah in these divine songs; particularly in Psalm xxii. Such may be found scattered up and down almost throughout the Old Testament. To bear testimony to him, is the great and ultimate end for which the spirit of prophecy was bestowed on the sacred writers;-but this will appear more plainly to you, when you enter on the study of prophecy, which you are now much too young to undertake.

The PROVERBS and ECCLESIASTES are rich stories of wisdom; from which I wish you to adopt such maxims as may be of infinite use, both to your temporal and eternal interest. But detached sentences are a kind of reading not proper to be continued long at a time; a few of them, well chosen and digested, will do you much more service than to read half a dozen chapters together: in this respect

they are directly opposite to the historical books, which, if not read in continuation, can hardly be understood, or retained to any purpose.

The SONG of SOLOMON is a fine poem; but its mystical reference to religion lies too deep for a common understanding: if you read it, therefore, it will be rather as matter of curiosity than of edification.

Next follow the PROPHECIES, which, though highly deserving the greatest attention and study, I think you had better omit for some years, and then read them with a good exposition; as they are much too difficult for you to understand without assistance. Dr Newton on the Prophecies will help you much, whenever you undertake this study;-which you should by all means do, when your understanding is ripe enough; because one of the main proofs of our religion rests on the testimony of the Prophecies; and they are very frequently quoted, and referred to, in the New Testament: Besides, the sublimity of the language and sentiments, through all the disadvantages of antiquity and translation, must, in very many passages, strike every person of taste; and the excellent moral and religious precepts found in them, must be useful to all.

Though I have spoken of these books, in the order in which they stand, I repeat that they are not to be read in that order; but that the thread of the history is to be pursued, from Nehemiah, to the first book of MACCABEES in the Apocrypha; taking care to observe the chronology regularly, by referring to the Index, which supplies the deficiencies of this history from Josephus's Antiquities of the

Jews. The first of Maccabees carries on the story till within 195 years of our Lord's circumcision; the second book is the same narrative, written by a different hand, and does not bring the history so forward as the first; so that it may be entirely omitted, unless you have the curiosity to read some particulars of the heroic constancy of the Jews, under the tortures inflicted by their heathen conquerors, with a few other things not mentioned in the first book.

You must then connect the history by the help of the Index, which will give you brief heads of the changes that happened in the state of the Jews, from this time till the birth of the Messiah.

The other books of the Apocrypha, though not admitted as of sacred authority, have many things well worth your attention; particularly the admirable book called ECCLESIASTICUS, and the book of WISDOM. But, in the course of reading which I advise, these must be omitted till after you have gone through the Gospels and Acts, that you may not lose the historical thread.-I must reserve, however, what I have to say to you concerning the New Testament, to another Letter. dear!

Adieu, my

LETTER III.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

My dearest Niece,

WE come now to that part of Scripture, which is the most important of all; and which you must make your constant study, not only till you are