FROM AN OLD AUTHOR

A nation would be truly blessed if it were governed by no other laws than those of this blessed book. It is so complete a system, that nothing can be added to it, or taken from it. It contains everything needful to be known or done. It affords a copy for a king, and a rule for a subject; it gives instruction and counsel to a senate; authority and direction for a magistrate. It cautions a witness; requires an impartial verdict of a jury, and furnishes the judge with his sentence. It sets the husband as lord of the household, and the wife as mistress of the table; tells himhow to rule, and her how to manage. It places honor on parents, and enjoins obedience to children. It prescribes and limits the sway of the sovereign, the rule of the ruler, and the authority of the master; commands the subject to honour, and the servants to obey; and promises the blessing and protestion of its AUTHOR to all that walk by its rules. It gives directions for weddings and for burials; it promises food and raiment. and limits the use of both. It points out a faithful and an eternal GUARDIAN to the departing husband and father; tells him with whom to leave his fatherless children, and in whom his widow is to trust; and promises a father to the former, and a husband to the latter.

It teaches a man how to set his house in order, and how to make his will: it appoints a dowry for the wife, and sets forth the right of the first-born; and shows how the younger branches shall be left: It defends the rights of all; and reveals vengeance to every defrauder, over-reacher, and oppressor.

It is the first book, the best book, and the oldest book in all the world. It contains the choicest matter, gives the best instruction, and affords the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that ever was revealed. It contains the best laws, and profoundest mysteries that ever were written. It brings the best tidings, and affords the best of comfort to the inquiring and disconsolate. It exhibits life and immortality, and shows the way to everlasting glory.

It is a brief recital of all that is past, and a certain prediction of all that is to come. It settles all matters in debate, solves all doubts, and eases the mind and conscience of all their doubts. It reveals the only living and true GOD, and shows the way to Him; and sets aside all other gods, and describes the vanity of them, and all that trust in them. In short it is a book of laws to show right and wrong; a book of Wisdom, that condemns all folly, and makes the foolish wise; a book of truth, that detects all lies, and confutes all errors; a book of life, and shows the way from everlasting death. It is the most all-inclusive book in all the world; the most authentic, and the most entertaining history that ever was published: it contains the most early antiquities, strange events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, unparalleled wars. It describes the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal worlds; and the origin of the angelic myriads, human tribes, and infernal legions.

It will instruct the most accomplished mechanic, and the profoundest artist; it will teach the best rhetorician, and exercise every power of the most skilful mathematician; puzzle the wisest anatomist, and exercise the best critic. It corrects the vain philosopher, and guides the wise astronomer; it exposes the subtle sophist, and makes diviners mad. It is a complete code of laws, a perfect book of divinity, and unequalled narrative; a book of lives, a book of travels, and a book of voyages. It is the best covenant that ever was agreed on, the best deed that ever was sealed, the best evidence that ever was produced, the best will that ever was made, and the best testament that ever was signed.

To understand it, is to be wise indeed; to be ignorant of it, is to be destitute of wisdom. It is the king’s best copy, the magistrate’s best rule, the housewife’s best guide, the servant’s best directory, and the young man’s best companion. It is the school-boy’s spelling book, and the learned man’s masterpiece! It contains a choice grammar for the novice, and a profound treatise for a wise man. It is the ignorant man’s dictionary, and the wise man’s directory. It affords knowledge of witty inventions for the ingenious, and dark sayings for the grave; and it is its own interpreter. It encourages the wise, the warrior, the overcomer; and promises an eternal reward to the conqueror.

And that which crowns all is, that the AUTHOR is without partiality, and without hypocrisy, for “in Him is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.”

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