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his brethren talked with him. And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's houfe; and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his fervants.

27. And Pharaoh faid unto Jofeph, Invite hither thy father, and his household; and I will give them the good of the land of Egypt; and they fhall eat the fat of the land.

28. And the fpirit of Jacob was revived when he heard thefe tidings; and he faid, My fon is yet alive; I will go and fee him before I die. And he took his journey, with all that he had. And Jofeph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Ifrael, his father, to Gofhen; and prefenting himself before him, he fell on his neck, and wept for fome time.

29. And Jofeph placed his father, and his brethren, and gave them poffeffions in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, as Pharaoh had commanded.

30. This interesting story contains a variety of affecting incidents; is related with the most beautiful fimplicity; and furnishes many important leffons for instruction.

31. It difplays the mifchiefs of parental partiality; the fatal effects of envy, jealoufy, and difcord amongst brethren; the bleffings and honors with which virtue is rewarded ; the amiableness of forgetting injuries; and the tender joys which flow from fraternal love, and filial piety.

A SHORT SYSTEM OF VIRTUE AND - НАР

PINESS.

I WILL fuppofe a virtuous young man forming in his mind the principles of his future conduct, and uttering the refult of his reflections in the following foliloquy.

2. At the age when I am approaching to maturity of reafon, I perceive myfelf placed in a world abounding with external objects; and I alfo perceive within me powers and paffions formed to be powerfully excited and affected by them. I am naturally tempted to interrogate myfelf, What am I? whence came I? and whither am I going?

3. With a view to fatisfy my own inquiries, I confider thers who appear to be juft like myfelf; I listen to the infruction

ftruction of thofe who have obtained a reputation for wif dom and I ́examine, with ferious attention, the volumes in which are written the words of the wife.

4. The refult of the whole inquiry is a fincere conviction, that I am placed here to perform many duties; that I origi nate from a fupreme Creator; and that I am going on in the journey of life, to accomplish fome of his gracious purpofes at the clofe of it, as well as in its progrefs.

5. I divide my duty into three parts, according to the fuggeftions of my own reafon, and the inftruction of books. They confift of the obligations which I owe to myself, to others, and to Him, in whofe hands are both they and myfelf, the great Lord of the univerfe.

6. With respect to myself, as I confift of two parts, a body and a mind, my duty to myself again feparates itself into two correfpondent fubdivifions. My body is a machine curiously organized, and eafily deranged by excefs and irregularity. Sh

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When disturbed in its economy, it fubjects me to pain, and difables me from all neceffary and pleafant exertion. I owe it therefore to myself, to tafte the cup, and partake the banquet, and gratify all my fenfes, no further than thofe limits which are obviously preferibed by reafon and experience.

8. I further learn from the religion of my country, that my body is the temple of the holy Spirit. To pollute it with prefumptuous tranfgreffion cannot but be blafphemy; to devote myself to gluttony, drunkenness, and debauchery, is at once to deaden the growing energies of spiritual life, and to weaken and deftroy the fubordinate, yet neceffary parts of me, my animal and material fabric; it is to shorten life, and to disable me from performing its duties while it

continues.

9. But I have alfo a mind capable of rifing to high improvements by culture, and of finking to a brutal ftupidity by neglect. I will make use of all the advantages of education. I will devote my hours of leisure to reading and reflection.

10. Elegant letters, as well as ufeful feiences, fhall claim my attention; for all which tends to polish the mind, tends alfo to fweeten the temper, and to mitigate the remains of natural ferocity.

11.

My mind, as well as my body, is greatly concerned in avoiding intemperance. Eating to excefs clouds its brightnefs, blunts its edge, and drags it down to all the grofsnefs of materiality. Intemperate drinking not only reduces it, at the time of its immediate influence, to a state of brutality, but gradually deftroys all its vigor.

12. The fenfual indulgencies in general, when they are inordinate and exceffive, debafe, corrupt, and brutalize. Their delights are tranfient, their pains fevere and of long. duration..

13. Instead then of running into the danger of tempta tion, during the ardor of youth, I will fly from the conflict, in which my own paffions are fure to fight against me, and will probably betray me to the enemy.

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14. I fee, indeed, thousands purfuing pleasure, and profeffing to have found it in perfection in the haunts of debauchery. But I fee them but for a little while.. Like: the filly infect which flutters with delight around the taper, they foon receive fome fatal injury in their minds, their per fons or their fortunes, and drop into irrecoverable ruin.

15. Alas! I am too much inclined to vice, from the depravity of my nature, and the violence of my paffions. I will not add fuel to the fire, nor increase the violence of that natural tempeft within me, which of itself is fufficient to accomplish my destruction.

16. But at the fame time, I will not be a cynic. The world abounds with innocent enjoyments. The kind God of nature intended that I'fhould tafte them. But modera tion is effential to true pleasure.

17. My own experience, and the experience of mankind: from their origin, has declared, that whenever pleasure exceeds the bounds of moderation, it is not only highly inju rious, but difguftful. In order to enjoy pleafure, I fee the neceffity of pursuing fome bufinefs with attention..

18. The viciffitude is neceffary to excite an appetite and give a relifh. Nay, the very performance of bufinefs with fkill and fuccefs, is attended with a delightful fatisfaction, which few of the most boasted pleasures are able to confer.

19. While I take care of myself, of my health, of my improvement in morals and understanding, I will not harbor pride, or look down with fupercilioufnefs or ill nature on

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those who live, as it were, at random, and who acknowledge no other guide of their conduct, but the fudden impulfe of a temporary inclination.

20. With all my improvements and endeavours, I fhall ftill feel imperfections enough to humble me. Candor and humility are fome of the leaft fallible marks of found fenfe and fincere virtue. I fhall have fufficient employment in correcting myself, nor fhall I prefane to cenfure others, unless my profeffion or relative fituation render it my duty.

21. My duty to myself is, indeed, intimately connected with my duty to others. By preferving the faculties of my mind and body, and by improving them to the utmost, I am enabled to exert them with effect in the fervice of fociety. I am connected with others by the ties of confanguinity and friendship, and by the common bond of king in the fame humanity.

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22. As a fon, I fhall be tender and dutiful; as a brother, uniformly affectionate; as a hufband, faithful and friendly; as a father, kind and provident; as a man, benevolent to men in whatever circumftances, and however feparated from me by country, religion, or government.

23. But univerfal benevolence must not be an inactive principle. If it proceed not to real beneficence, I fear it will have more in it of oftentation than of fincerity. I will then prove its fincerity by doing good, and removing evil of every kind, as far as my abilities allow me, and my influence extends.

tions.

24. But before I pretend to generofity, I will be ftrictly just. Truth fhall regulate my words, and equity my acIf I am engaged in a profeffion, I will do the duties of it; if in merchandize, I will take no advantage of the ignorant, nor debase my character, nor wound my confcience, for the fake of gain.

25. In all my intercourfe with fociety, I will recollect that heavenly precept of doing to others as I wish they fhould do to me; and will endeavour to obey it. I may, I certainly fhall offend from the violence of my paffions, the weaknefs of my judgment, the perverfenefs of my will, and from miftake and mifapprehenfion.

26. But while I keep the evangelical rule in view, and Sincerely labor to conform to it, I fhall feldom commit fuch

offences

offences against others, as will be either permanently or deeply injurious.

27. With refpect to my duty to my Creator, I derive an argument in favor of religion, from the feelings of my own bofom, fuperior to the most elaborate fubtleties of human ingenuity. In the hour of distress, my heart as naturally flies for fuccor to the Deity, as when hungry and thirsty, I feek food and water; or when weary, repofe.

28. In religion I look for comfort, and in religion, I always find it. Devotion fupplies me with a pure and exalted pleasure. It elevates my foul, and teaches me to look down with proper contempt upon many objects which are eagerly fought, but which end in mifery.

29. In this refpect, and in many others, it effects in the beft and moft compendious method, what has been in vain pretended to by proud philofophy And in felecting a mode or peculiar fyftem of religion, I fhall confider what that was in which myfather lived and died.

30. I find it to have been the religion of Chrift. I examine it with reverence, I encounter many difficulties; but, at the fame time, I feel within me an internal evidence, which, uniting its force with the external, forbids me to difbelieve.

31. When involuntary doubts arife, I immediately filence their importunity by recollecting the weakness of my judgment, and the vain prefumption of haftily deciding on the most important of all subjects, against fuch powerful evidence, and against the major part of the civilized world.

32. I will learn humility of the humble Jefus, and gratefully accept the beneficial doctrines and glorious offers, which his benign religion reaches out to all who fincerely feek him by prayer and penitence.

33. In vain fhall the conceited philofophers, whom fashion and ignorance admire, attempt to weaken my belief, or undermine the principles of my morality. Without their aid, I can be fufficiently wicked and fufficiently miferable.

34- Human life abounds with evil. I will feek balfams for the wounds of the heart in the fweets of innocence, and in the confolations of religion. Virtue, 1 am convinced, is the noblest ornament of humanity, and the fource of the

fublime

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