Thus we find Job performing the office of Priest for his children, after they were departed from him, and settled in separate families. Each of his sons had been entertaining the rest in their several houses, and had called their sisters also to feast with them. "And it was so, that "when the days of their feasting were gone

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about, that Job sent and sanctified them ; "and rose up early in the morning, and offered "burnt offerings according to the number of "them all: for Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually." What an amiable image of sincere devotion, of tender paternal piety! Nor can any thing be of more force in support of the present argument, for the universality of piety and virtue, of the knowledge and fear of God in the early ages of the world, than the characters and sentiments of Job and his friends. Whoever reads that book with any degree of attention, must observe, that their moral sentiments, their piety and devotion, their awe and veneration for the Supreme Being, appear more natural and sincere; their sense of his omnipresence, of his universal providence, and interposition in human affairs, more immediate and genuine; and their ideas and conceptions of his nature and operations, more just, more noble and sublime,

down beyond the death of Abraham : So that it is not impossible that he might be this very Melchizedek.

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in a word, more worthy of the Almighty, than are to be met with in any other writings, either sacred or profane. But these men were all of the Gentile Nations, and each of a different lineage, and seem to have had no acquaintance with any particular revelation recorded in Sacred Writ; yet even among them we find the clear knowledge and firm belief of a Divinė Redeemer. I know, says Job, that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. This, it must be confessed, is in the original, and in most translations which I have seen, a very obscure and difficult passage of Scripture, in some indeed scarce intelligible. Our Translators, it is true, by the help of a great many adscititious words have presented us with a very plain and important sentiment, in very elegant and intelligent language-but I doubt whether either they themselves, or any other person, could find in the original the signification they have suggested, or trace from it the sentiments they have grafted upon this passage. But the sentiment is not the less just, and important.

This book of Job exhibits the most just, and the most sublime view of true piety, of the genuine Religion of Nature, that can be found in any writings sacred or profane. And as the Dramatis Personæ, the Speakers in that Book are evidently Edomites, the descendants of Esau; this suggests to me the persuasion, that

the true Religion, as practised by Abraham and Isaac, was preserved and continued, among the Edomites at least as pure as among the Israelites. We read of the Idols and Idol worship of all the neighbouring nations, the Philistines, the Syrians, the Moabites, the Ammonites, &c.; but in the whole Old Testament, we do not, I think, find once mention made of the Idols of the Edomites. Not that we can suppose them, in that age, to have been entirely free from idolatry, more than the Israelites themselves. Why should I mention further on this subject Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, the Priest of Midian ? Why, Balaam the son of Beor, a Moabite; his extraordinary communications with God, and regular offering of sacrifice, in consulting the Deity; and in particular, his remarkable prophecies, evidently alluding to the Universal Restorer? Why, the candour and liberal piety of Hiram King of Tyre, in the days of Solomon? Solomon had sent to Hiram to request the assistance of his subjects in preparing the materials for building the Temple of God at Jerusalem : "And when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be "the Lord this day, who hath given unto David a wise son over this great people." I might here add the sentiments of the Queen of Sheba at the same period." And the Queen of Sheba "said unto Solomon, Blessed be the Lord, which delighted in thee to set thee on the Throne of

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"Israel; because the Lord loved Israel for ever, "therefore made he thee king to do judgment "and justice." I might further mention the Widow of Zarephath, a Zidonian; Naaman the Leper, a Syrian; instances adduced by our Lord himself in support of the same argument, which I would now wish to establish. To these I might add the Ethiopian Eunuch, of the court of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia, who had come from thence to Jerusalem to worship the true God: Cornelius the Centurion, an officer of the Roman army, whose sincere piety, devotion, and charity, we scarce find equalled in any character of any religion. And we find the piety and devotion of both these persons was acknowledged and accepted with God before they were formally acquainted with Christianity; but we also find that they did not supersede the expediency, not to say the necessity, of their being made acquainted with it, and embracing its doctrines when they were made known unto them.

The whole book of Daniel abounds with wonderful instances of the interposition of the Divine Providence, and of its effects in the universal preservation of the knowledge and fear of God in the world. And though the Babylonish captivity and the dispersion of the ten tribes, are in scripture principally considered as 'the punishment of their own wickedness and impiety; that being the light in which they, to whom the predictions and threatenings con

cerning it were immediately directed, were most concerned to view it; yet may we not with good reason suppose, that the providence of the Universal Sovereign had, besides this, other more important ends and purposes to accomplish by it? Might it not be intended to be the means of reviving and disseminating universally the knowledge and fear of the One True Eternal God, among those nations where the original and natural notions and impressions of his Nature and Being were in a great measure worn out and lost? And by thus reviving them in the empire of Assyria and Babylon, they were sure to be disseminated through almost all the then known world. And it is probable that the miraculous interposition in behalf of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the fiery furnace, and of Daniel in the den of lions, was not intended merely for the immediate preservation of those individuals, which the Divine Providence could have effected by natural means; but more especially to promote this Important Design. And how much they really contributed to this purpose, we may learn from their immediate effects and consequences; since we find that they not only impelled those Monarchs, who were immediate witnesses of them, to the acknowledgment and adoration of the true God; but were the occasion of several public edicts and decrees, prohibiting all impiety and contempt of the Deity under the severest penalties, and enjoining the acknowledgment and adoration of