your understanding and affections: and be assured, that the more you increase in love to him, and delight in his laws, the more you will increase in hap-piness, in excellence, and honour :-that, in proportion as you improve in true piety, you will become dear and amiable to your fellow-creatures; contented and peaceful in yourself; and qualified to enjoy the best blessings of this life, as well as to inherit the glorious promise of immortality.

Thus far I have spoken of the first principles of all religion; namely, belief in God, worthy notions of his attributes, and suitable affections towards him;-which will naturally excite a sincere desire of obedience. But, before you can obey his will, you must know what that will is; you must enquire in what manner he has declared it, and where you may find those laws which must be the rule of your

actions.

The great laws of morality are indeed written in our hearts, and may be discovered by reason; but our reason is of slow growth, very unequally dispensed to different persons, liable to error, and confined within very narrow limits in all. If, therefore, God vouchsafed to grant a particular revelation of his will;-if he has been so unspeakably gracious, as to send his Son into the world to reclaim mankind from error and wickedness,--to die for our sins, and to teach us the way to eternal life;surely it becomes us to receive his precepts with the deepest reverence; to love and prize them above all things; and to study them constantly, with an earnest desire to conform our thoughts, our words, and actions to them.

As you advance in years and understanding, I hope you will be able to examine for yourself the evidences of the Christian Religion, and be convinced, on rational grounds, of its divine authority. At present, such enquiries would demand more study, and greater powers of reasoning, than your age admits of. It is your part, therefore, till you are capable of understanding the proofs, to believe your parents and teachers, that the Holy Scriptures are writings inspired by God, containing a true his

tory of facts, in which we are deeply concerned;a true recital of the laws given by God to Moses, and of the precepts of our blessed Lord and Saviour, delivered from his own mouth to his Disciples, and repeated and enlarged upon in the edifying epistles of his Apostles,-who were meu chosen from amongst those who had the advantage of conversing with our Lord, to bear witness of his miracles, and resurrection;-and who, after his ascension, were assisted and inspired by the Holy Ghost. This sacred volume must be the rule of your life in it you will find all truths necessary to be believed; and plain and easy directions for the practice of every duty. Your Bible, then, must be your chief study and delight: but, as it contains many various kinds of writing,-some parts obscure and difficult of interpretation, others plain and intelligible to the meanest capacity; I would chiefly recommend to your frequent perusal such parts of the Sacred Writings as are most adapted to your understanding, and most necessary for your instruction. Our Saviour's precepts were spoken to the common people amongst the Jews; and were there. fore given in a manner easy to be understood, and equally striking and instructive to the learned and unlearned: for, the most ignorant may comprehend them, whilst the wisest must be charmed and awed, by the beautiful and majestic simplicity with which they are expressed. Of the same kind are the Ten Commandments, delivered by God to Moses; which, as they were designed for universal laws, are worded in the most concise and simple manner, yet with a majesty which commands our utmost reve

rence.

I think you will receive great pleasure, as well as improvement, from the Historical Books of the Old Testament, provided you read them as an history, in a regular course, and keep the thread of it in your mind, as you go on. I know of none, true or fictitious, that is equally wonderful, interesting, and affecting; or that is told in so short and simple a manner as this, which is, of all histories, the most authentic.

In my next Letter, I will give you some brief directions, concerning the method and course I wish you to pursue, in reading the Holy Scriptures. May you be enabled to make the best use of this most precious gift of God, this sacred treasury of knowledge! May you read the Bible, not as a task, nor as the dull employment of that day only in which you are forbidden more lively entertainments;-but with a sincere and ardent desire of instruction; with that love and delight in God's word, which the holy Psalmist so pathetically felt, and described, and which is the natural consequence of loving God and virtue!

Though I speak this of the Bible in general, I would not be understood to mean that every part of the volume is equally interesting. I have already said, that it consists of various matter, and various kinds of books, which must be read with different views and sentiments. The having some general notion of what you are to expect from each book, may possibly help you to understand them, and heighten your relish of them. I shall treat you as if you were perfectly new to the whole: for so I wish you to consider yourself; because the time and manner, in which children usually read the Bible, are very ill calculated to make them really acquainted with it; and too many people who have read it thus, without understanding it in their youth, satisfy themselves that they know enough of it, and never afterwards study it with attention, when they come to a maturer age.

Adieu! my beloved Niece!-If the feelings of your heart, whilst you read my Letters, correspond with those of mine, whilst I write them, I shall not be without the advantage of your partial affection, to give weight to my advice: for, believe me, my own dear girl, my heart and eyes overflow with tenderness while I tell you, with how warm and earnest prayers for your happiness here, and hereafter, I subscribe myself

Your faithful friend,

and most affectionate AUNT.

I

LETTER 11.

ON THE STUDY OF THE HOLY
SCRIPTURES.

NOW proceed to give my dear Neice some short sketches of the matter contained in the different books of the Bible, and of the course in which they ought to be read.

The first Book, GENESIS, contains the most grand, and, to us, the most interesting events that ever happened in the universe:-The creation of the world, and of man:-The deplorable fall of man, from his first state of excellence and bliss, to the distressed condition in which we see all his descendants continue:-The sentence of death pronounced on Adam, and on all his race; with the reviving promise of that deliverance which has since been wrought for us by our blessed Saviour: -The account of the early state of the world:Of the universal deluge:-The division of mankind into different nations and languages:-The story of Abraham, the founder of the Jewish people; whose unshaken faith and obedience, under the severest trial that human nature could sustain, obtained such favour in the sight of God, that he vouchsafed to style him his friend, and promised to make of his posterity a great nation; and that, in his seed, that is, in one of his descendants, all the kingdoms of the earth should be blessed.-This, you will easily see, refers to the Messiah, who was to be the blessing and deliverance of all nations, It is amazing that the Jews, possessing this prophecy among many others, should have been so blinded by prejudice, as to have expected from this great personage, only a temporal deliverance of their own nation from the subjection to which they were re

duced under the Romans: it is equally amazing, that some Christians should, even now, confine the blessed effects of his appearance upon earth, to this or that particular sect or profession, when He is so clearly and emphatically described as the Saviour of the whole world!

The story of Abraham's proceeding to sacrifice his only son at the command of God, is affecting in the highest degree, and sets forth a pattern of unlimited resignation, that every one ought to imitate, in those trials of obedience under temptation, or of acquiescence under afflicting dispensations, which fall to their lot. Of this we may be assured, that our trials will be always proportioned to the powers afforded us: if we have not Abraham's strength of mind, neither shall we be called upon to lift the bloody knife against the bosom of an only child: but, if the Almighty arm should be lifted up against him, we must be ready to resign him, and all we hold dear, to the Divine will. This action of Abraham has been censured by some, who do not attend to the distinction between obedience to a special command, and the detestably cruel sacrifices of the heathens, who sometimes voluntarily, and without any Divine injunctions, offered up their own children, under the notion of appeasing the anger of their gods. An absolute command from God himself, as in the case of Abraham, entirely alters the moral nature of the action; since He, and He only, has a perfect right over the lives of his creatures, and may appoint whom he will, either angel or man, to be his instrument of destruction. That it was really the voice of God which pronounced the command, and not a delusion, might be made ccrtain to Abraham's mind, by means we do not comprehend, but which we know to be within the power of Him who made our souls as well as bodies, and who can controul and direct every faculty of the human mind: and we may be assured, that if He was pleased to reveal himself so miraculously, he would not leave a possibility of doubting whether it waa a real or an imaginary revelation: Thus the sa