5.  I shall give you some brief directions, concerning the method and course I wish you to pursue, in reading the Holy Scriptures.  May you be enabled to make the best use of this most precious gift of God—­this sacred treasure of knowledge!—­May you read the bible, not as a task, nor as the dull employment of that day only in which you are forbidden more lively entertainments—­but, with a sincere and ardent desire of instruction; with that love and delight in God’s word, which the holy Psalmist so pathetically felt and described, and which is the natural consequence of loving God and virtue.

6.  Though I speak this of the bible in general, I would not be understood to mean, that every part of the volume is equally interesting.  I have already said, that it consists of various matter, and various kinds of books, which must be read with different views and sentiments.

7.  The having some general notion of what you are to expect from each book, may possibly help you to understand them.  I shall treat you as if you were perfectly new to the whole; for so I wish you to consider yourself; because the time and manner in which children usually read the bible, are very ill-calculated to make them really acquainted with it; and too many people who have read it thus, without understanding it in their youth, satisfy themselves that they know enough of it, and never afterwards study it with attention when they come to a mature age.

8.  If the feelings of your heart, whilst you read, correspond with those of mine whilst I write, I shall not be without the advantage of your partial affection, to give weight to my advice; for, believe me, my heart and eyes overflow with tenderness, when I tell you how warm and earnest my prayers are for your happiness here and hereafter.

Of Genesis.

9.  I now proceed to give you some short sketches of the matter contained in the different books of the Bible, and of the course in which they ought to be read.

10.  The first book, Genesis, contains the most grand, and, to us, the most interesting events, that ever happened in the universe:  The creation of the world, and of man; the deplorable fall of man, from his first state of excellence and bliss, to the distressed condition in which we see all his descendants continue:  The sentence of death pronounced on Adam and on all his race; with the reviving promise of that deliverance, which has since been wrought for us by our blessed Saviour:  The account of the early state of the world; of the universal deluge:  The division of mankind into different nations and languages:  The story of Abraham, the founder of the Jewish people, whose unshaken faith and obedience, under the severest trial human nature could sustain, obtained such favour in the sight of God, that he vouchsafed to stile him his friend, and promised to make of his posterity a great nation; and that in his seed—­that is, in one of his descendants—­all the kingdoms of the earth should be blessed.  This, you will easily see, refers to the Messiah, who was to be the blessing and deliverance of all nations.