cular direction of Jofeph, his brethren were lodged, to their great furprize, in his own houfe; and after various trials (too well known to render the repetition of them here neceffary), all of which were intended as just inflictions for their unnatural behaviour to him, Jofeph in due time difcovered himself to them. Now enfued a fcene that beggars all defcription. He fell enraptured on the neck of Benjamin, his unoffending brother; and fhedding tears of joy, in broken fentences expreffed his fatisfaction at this unlooked-for happiness. He likewise embraced, with unaffected tenderness, the rest of his brothers; and perceiving that they were overwhelmed with confufion and the upbraidings of their confciences, he endeavoured, by the most affectionate expreffions, to confole them; banishing, thenceforward, from his remembrance, the injuries they had done him." "Be not angry with yourselves," said he, "that you sent me a flave hither: it was God that difpofed you to it, that I might be the means of preferving my family from falling a facrifice to the famine that now reigns. reigns. And the height of grandeur and glory to which I have been raised thereby, fufficiently repays me for the inconveniences I have undergone." Soon after, Jofeph, with the approbation of Pharaoh, fent for his father Jacob, and all his household. On their arrival, he settled them in the land of Gofhem; where this people fo flourished and increased, that when they were led back by Mofes to the land of Canaan, after a refidence of two hundred and fifteen years in Egypt, their number amounted to fix hundred thousand men fit to bear arms. INSTANCE INSTANCE THE THIRD, JO B*. With firm-fix'd eye, and unappalled heart, HE Book of Job, in the Sacred Scrip TH tures, is confidered as a dramatic poem, and, like that species of writing among the Greeks, contains fiction founded on facts. The honour of being its author has been attributed to feveral of the writers who lived in the earliest ages; the probability, however, from many expreffions and circumstances in it, is in favour of Mofes. To whomfoever the merit is due, it certainly is the most ancient and nobleft work of the kind extant; and contains, with one of the moft inftructive leffons on the efficacy of patience and refignation to the will of Heaven, an extra Book of Job. ordinary ordinary inftance of that mutability of fortune we are treating of. The difcriminating eye of the judicious reader will distinguish with facility the fictitious part, that is, the machinery, which is the produce of the author's luxuriant imagination, from the ftory, which appears to have had its foundation in truth. Job, as therein related, was the most opulent of all the men in the east, at the period in which he lived. He poffeffed large tracts of land in the country of Idumea, or Uz; and his fubftance confifted of feven thoufand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred fheaffes, befides a numerous household of fervants and dependants. So that he exceeded. in wealth the richeft of his cotemporarics. among the Arabians, Chaldeans, and all the neighbouring nations; and with these Job poffeffed that ineftimable treasure, a heart enlarged as the vast abundance he enjoyed, together with a mind fraught with every virtue; or, as it is emphatically expreffed in holy writ, "He was a perfect and upright man, one that feared God, and efchewed evil." With these immenfe riches, Job was bleffed with a numerous progeny-with seven fons and three daughters, to whom he had given fuitable establishments. For, at the time the circumftances of his life, here to be noted, took place, the fons entertained each other in rotation, at their feveral houses, and invited their fifters to partake of their banquets. And fo great was their father's anxiety for their happiness, and fuch his innate piety, that as soon as the days of their feafting were concluded, he always offered up facrifices in their behalf, and fent and fanctified them, left, during their mirth and hilarity, they should have been guilty of any impropriety of conduct. Thus, bleffed with affluence, and happy in his connections, did this holy man enjoy uninterrupted tranquillity for fome years. Neither his riches nor his virtues, however, could fecure him from that reverfe of fortune to which mankind are fo liable. For, at one of those periodical revolutions, when the fons of God,-the governing powers of every fyftem throughout the univerfe,—come from every quarter (agreeable to the imagery of the poem) to prefent themfelves before the Univerfal |