rious wildnefs of a fever. "God is a fpirit, "and they that worship him must worship him "in fpirit and in truth." Whatever is fpiritual is difpaffionate. Such is God himself, and such ought to be the worfhip we offer him.. Adieu! my Conftantia. May God keep you in his protection, and enlighten you by his Grace. THEODOSIUS is not dead. The polite Theodofius ftill lives in the venerable Father Francis. When I received your last favour, my hand trembled, and my heart fhrunk. Every idle, every wild expreffion, every effusion of vain imagination and uncorrected paffion, that had dropt from my -pen when I laft wrote to you, rofe up and reproached me before your feal was broken. While I read the first period of your letter, I frequently took my eys from the paper, and endeavoured to recollect the contents of my own. With fear and apprehenfion I proceeded from line to line; but when I found that you had overlooked many of my foibles, and touched the reft with fo delicate, fo indulgent a hand-O my paternal friend! what floods of tender forrow fell from the eyes of your Conftantia! Surely the kindness of those whom we revere, and are confcious of having offended, is more cruel than their severity could be. The heart would oppofe itself against fevere treatment, and call in pride to its aid: but against the force of kindness there is no fhield. In what an amiable light do you represent that Goodness which brought us into being! Confcience was undoubtedly one of his gracious gifts. That moral infpector, whofe fuggeftions fo lately gave me pain, is now the principal author of my happiness, and I find that confcience is not more fevere as an enemy than kind as a friend. Was it not this that supported the fufferer of Uzz, and was he not animated by the fuffrage of Confcience, when he wished that man might be purImitted to plead his caufe with God. If I am mistaken, correct me, my guide, my father and my friend! CONSTANTIA. LETTER V. THEODOSIUS TO CONSTANTIA. I AM pleafed with your reference to the book of Job, as it gives me an opportunity to tell you with what delight I have always read that beautiful dramatic poem. The divine author of it had facrificed to truth and nature. His character of the pious fufferer, however exalted, is not exaggerated by any unnatural ftrokes. While he is not permitted to fall into impiousexclamation against the decrees of Providence, he complains of his diftrefs with the sensibility of a man to whom wearifome nights were appointed. Hence the afflicted patriarch fometimes alarms us with paffionate wishes for death, and fometimes awakens our compaffion with affecting fighs for his former happiness. In the paffage you have referred to, we are prefented with another turn of mind. "I am "fenfible (fays he) of the innocence of my life. "I have done no wrong, neither has any vio"lence been found in my hands, and yet my " face is deformed with weeping; and the sha"dow of death frowns upon my eye-brows. Yet "thus circumstanced, and thus innocent, my prayer furely may be heard.-Behold, even "now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate "is in the realms of the higheft. My friends "continually deride me; but my tears plead fi "lently with God. O that a man might plead "his caufe with God, even as the son of man "pleadeth the cause of his friend." In another. of his fpeeches there is a paffage much to the fame purpose. "O that I knew where I might “find him, that I might come even to his feat, "I would order my cause before him!" There is no doubt, Conftantia, that in these fentiments the Patriarch was animated by the fuffrage of confcience. And there is not a paffage in his whole ftory that is fraught with more im portant inftruction: For it may teach us that, under all the circumstances of human calamity, our only refuge is in the eternal Providence; and that our peace must be derived from that approving conscience which may encourage us to refer our caufe to God. From what other fource can we, in fuch circumftances, look for happiness? Dependant beings have it not to bestow. Were man in his social nature a more exalted creature the difpenfation of peace would not be in his power. He could not remove from others those evils to which he should himself be expofed, nor brighten the prospects of futurity, whither his influence cannot reach. Man, as a being circumfcribed in his nature and subject to events which he cannot command, muft, if left to himself, fluctuate in uncertainty, and struggle with disappointment; he, therefore, that would hope with confidence, and enjoy with fecurity, must have a resource which time and chance cannot affect. This can only be in that independant Being, in whofe hands are the iffues of life and death. "The Shall we truft to human power? "strength of man is but as the grafs of the field, "and all the goodliness thereof as the flower that fadeth." Shall we truft to human riches? "Riches profit not in the day of wrath." Shall we trust to human wifdom? "Wisdom herself "is the daughter of affliction." Shall we truft to human friendship? In the day of adverfity "there is no hope in man." Can power preclude |