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cular direction of Jofeph, his brethren were lodged, to their great furprize, in his own house; 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, Joseph in due time discovered himfelf to them. Now ensued a scene that beggars all defcription.

He fell enraptured on the neck of Benjamin, his unoffending brother; and shedding tears of joy, in broken fentences expressed his fatisfaction at this unlooked-for happiness. He likewife embraced, with unaffected tenderness, the rest of his brothers; and perceiving that they were overwhelmed with confufion and the upbraidings of their consciences, he endeavoured, by the most affectionate expressions, to console them; banishing, thenceforward, from his remembrance, the injuries they had done him.

"Be not angry with yourselves," said he, "that you fent me a flave hither: it was God that disposed you to it, that I might be the means of preserving 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 Goshem; 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.

JOB*

With firm-fix'd eye, and unappalled heart,
Will PATIENCE see the cheering sun depart;
Brave all the horrors of the stormy night,
And fearless wait the wish'd return of light.

T

HE Book of Job, in the Sacred Scriptures, 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 several of the writers who lived in the earliest ages; the probability, however, from many expreffions and circumstances in it, is in favour of Moses. To whomsoever the merit is due, it certainly is the most ancient and noblest work of the kind extant; and contains, with one of the most instructive lessons on the efficacy of patience and refignation to the will of Heaven, an extra

* Book of Job.

ordinary ordinary instance of that mutability of fortune we are treating of. The difcriminating eye of the judicious reader will diftinguish with facility the fictitious part, that is, the machinery, which is the produce of the author's luxuriant imagination, from the story, 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 possessed large tracts of land in the country of Idumea, or Uz; and his substance consisted of seven thoufand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred sheaffes, befides a numerous household of fervants and dependants. So that he exceeded in wealth the richest of his cotemporaries among the Arabians, Chaldeans, and all the neighbouring nations; and with these Job poffefsed that ineftimable treafure, a heart enlarged as the vast abundance he enjoyed, together with a mind fraught with every virtue; or, as it is emphatically expressed in holy writ, "He was a perfect and upright man, one that feared God, and eschewed 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 circumstances of his life, here to be noted, took place, the fons entertained each other in rotation, at their several houses, and invited their sisters to partake of their banquets. And so great was their father's anxiety for their happiness, and such his innate piety, that as foon as the days of their feafting were concluded, he always offered up facrifices in their behalf, and sent 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 system throughout the universe, come from every quarter (agreeable to the imagery of the poem) to present themselves before the

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