"was shewn that the LORD HE IS "GOD-there is none else beside "him: Know therefore this day, and "consider it in thine heart, that the "Lord he is God: in heaven above, "and upon the earth beneath, there "is none else."

The miraculous proofs of his immediate presence which the Almighty vouchsafed to the Israelites, and to which Moses here appeals, were not given to gratify an idle curiosity, or to solve unreasonable doubts; they were only such as were necessary to establish a certainty that the laws and ordinances given through Moses were from God.

Without such proofs of almighty power as were obvious to the senses, laws such as those promulged by Moses, would never have been accepted by a gross and ignorant people, whose minds were incapable of

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conceiving the meaning of ceremonies and observances, which in general had a reference to a far distant event. God therefore saw fit, in ushering in what is aptly termed the law of works, to make a display of that power, which, while it only operates by general laws, works unthought of and unseen, but which, to the reflecting mind, is no less wonderful in the formation of the simplest flower, or in the organization of any living creature, than in all the mighty things which he did in the sight of our fathers in the land of Egypt and in the field of Zoan."

The promulgation of the law of Moses forms such an interesting epoch in the history of the world, as God's world, and has in it so many circumstances which it concerns us to know, that it must be made the subject of another letter. Permit me, however,

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to recommend to you never to lay down this or any book of instruction without fixing in your mind a summary of what you have been reading. Consider its purport and its tendency; reflect upon the arguments which have appeared to you most convincing, and treasure them in your heart.

May God in this and all things

LETTER III.

UNDER a full conviction of the

advantages that result from having a clear, distinct, and comprehensive view of Divine revelation presented to the mind of youth, I shall, in the prosecution of my plan, endeavour to simplify the subject as much as possible. I am nevertheless still sensible that in order to embrace these general views, the faculties must be exerted with a degree of vigour, such as I cannot now expect my dearest Lady

Lady Elizabeth to possess. Some passages will, I am persuaded, excite attention; but the unremitted attention necessary to grasp the whole, it may not be in your power to command. You must therefore return to it, and by repetition you will impress it upon your mind. I beg you to recollect how many things, that at first view appeared totally above your comprehension, you by degrees got so thoroughly acquainted with, as to wonder how you could have remained so long in ignorance concerning them. Recollect how much you used to delight, when, in comparing your present ideas with the past, you were sensible of the acquisitions you had made, especially with regard to such branches of knowledge as had at first appeared most difficult; and let the remembrance of these circumstances encourage you to apply your mind

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