as the darkness of that difpenfation would admit: And now and then a divine and poetic rapture lifted their fouls far above the level of that oeconomy of fhadows, bore them away far into a brighter region, and gave them a glimpse of evangelic day. The life of angels was harmoniously breathed into the children of Adam, and their minds raised near to heaven in melody and devotion at once.

In the younger days of heathenifm the Mufes were devoted to the fame fervice: the language in which old Hefiod addreffes them is this:

Μᾶσαι Πιερίηθεν αοιδῆσι κλείουσαι,

Δεῦτε, Δῖ ἐννέπετε σφέτερον πατέρ' ὑμνείουσι.

"Pierian Mufes, fam'd for heavenly lays, "Defcend, and fing the God your Father's praise."

And he purfues the fubject in ten pious lines, which I could not bear to transcribe, if the aspect and found of fo much Greek were not terrifying to a nice reader.

But fome of the latter Poets of the Pagan world have debased this divine gift; and many of the writers of the firft rank, in this our age of national Chriftians, have, to their eternal fhame, furpafied the vileft of the Gentiles. They have not only difrobed religion of all the ornaments of verse, but have employed their pens in impious mifchief, to deform her native beauty and defile her honours. They have expofed her moft facred character to drollery, and dreffed her up in a most vile and ridiculous difguife, for the fcorn of the ruder herd of mankind. The vices have been painted like fo many

Goddeffes, the charms of wit have been added to debauchery, and the temptation heightened where nature needs the strongest reftraints. With fweetness of found, and delicacy of expreffion, they have given a relish to blafphemies of the harfheft kind; and when they raut at their Maker in fonorous numbers, they fancy themfelves to have acted the hero well.

Thus almost in vain have the throne and the pulpit cried Reformation; while the ftage and licentious pocins have waged open war with the pious defign of church and ftate. The prefs has fpread the poifon far, and fcattered wide the mortal infection: Unthinking youth have been inticed to fin beyond the vicious propenfities of nature, plunged early into difeafes and death, and funk down to damnation in multitudes. Was it for this that poefy was endued with all thofe allurements that lead the mind away in a pleafing captivity? Was it for this, fhe was furnished with fo many intellectual charms, that the might feduce the heart from God, the original beauty, and the most lovely of Beings? Can I ever be perfuaded, that thofe sweet and refiftlefs forces of metaphor, wit, found, and number, were given with this design, that they fhould be all ranged under the banner of the great malicious fpirit, to invade the rights of heaven, and to bring fwift and everlafting deftruction upon men? How will these allies of the nether world, the lewd and profane verfifiers, ftand aghaft before the great Judge, when the blood of many fouls, whom they never faw, shall be laid to the charge of their writings, and be dreadfully required at their hands? The Reve

rend

rend Mr. Collier has fet this awful fcene before them in just and flaming colours. If the application were not too rude and uncivil, that noble ftanza of my Lord Rofcommon, on Pfalm cxlviii. might be addreffed to them:

"Ye dragons, whofe contagious breath

"Peoples the dark retreats of death,

"Change your dire hiffings into heavenly songs, "And praife your Maker with your forked tongues.”

This profanation and debasement of so divine an art, has tempted fome weaker Chriftians to imagine that poetry and vice are naturally akin; or at least, that verfe is fit only to recommend trifles, and entertain our loofer hours, but it is too light and trivial a method to treat any thing that is ferious and facred. They fub'mit, indeed, to use it in divine pfalmody, but they love the drieft tranflation of the pfalm beft. They will venture to fing a dull hymn or two at church, in tunes of equal dulnefs; but ftill they perfuade themfelves, and their children, that the beauties of poely are vain and dangerous. All that arifes a degree above Mr. Sternhold is too airy for worship, and hardly escapes the fentence of "unclean and abominable." It is ftrange, that perfons that have the Bible in their hands, fhould be led away by thoughtlefs prejudices to fo wild and rafh an opinion. Let me entreat them not to indulge this four, this cenforious humour too far, left the facred writers fall under the lath of their unlimited and unguarded reproaches. Let nie entreat them to look

into their Bibles, and remember the style and way of writing that is used by the ancient prophets. Have they forgot, or were they never told, that many parts of the Old Teftament are Hebrew verfe? and the figures are ftronger, and the metaphors bolder, and the images more furprizing and ftrange, than ever I read in any profane writer. When Deborah fings her praifes to the God of Ifrael, while he marched from the field of Edom, she sets the "earth a-trembling, the heavens "drop, and the mountains diffolve from before the "Lord. They fought from heaven, the ftars in their "courfes fought against Sifera: When the river of "Kihon fwept them away, that ancient river, the "river Kifhon. O my foul, thou haft trodden down ftrength." Judg. v. &c. When Eliphaz, in the book of Job, fpeaks his fenfe of the holiness of God, he introduces a machine in a vifion: "Fear came upon me, trembling on all my bones; the hair of my flesh ftood

46

up; a fpirit paffed by and stood still, but its form “was undiscernible; an image before mine eyes; and "filence; Then I heard a voice, faying, Shall mortal "man be more just than God?" &c. Job iv. When he describes the fafety of the righteous, he "hides him "from the fcourge of the tongue, he makes him laugh at "deftruction and famine, he brings the ftones of the field "into league with him, and makes the brute animals "enter into a covenant of peace." Job v. 21, &c. When Job speaks of the grave, how melancholy is the gloom that he fpreads over it! "It is a region to which I must "fhortly go, and whence I fhall not return; it is a "land

C

"land of darkness, it is darkness itself, the land of the "fhadow of death; all confusion and disorder, and "where the light is as darkness. This is my houfe, "there have I made my bed: I have faid to corrup❝tion, Thou art my father; and to the worm, Thou "art my mother and my fifter: As for my hope, who "shall see it? I and my hope go down together to the "bars of the pit." Job x. 21, and xvii. 13. When he humbles himself in complainings before the almightinefs of God, what contemptible and feeble images doth he ufe! "Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and "fro? Wilt thou purfue the dry ftubble? I confume away like a rotten thing, a garment eaten by the "moth," Job xiii. 25, &c. "Thou lifteft me up to the "wind, thou caufeft me to ride upon it, and diffolveft

my fubftance." Job xxiii. 22. Can any man invent more defpicable ideas, to reprefent the fcoundrel herd and refufe of mankind, than thofe which Job uses? chap. xxx. and thereby he aggravates his own forrows and reproaches to amazement : " They that are younger "than I have me in derifion, whofe fathers I would "have difdained to have set with the dogs of my flock: "for want and famine they were folitary; fleeing into "the wilderness defolate and wafte: They cut up mal"lows by the bushes, and juniper-roots for their meat: "They were driven forth from among men, (they "cried after them as after a thief) to dwell in the cliffs “of the valleys, in the caves of the earth, and in rocks: "Among the bushes they brayed, under the nettles

66

they were gathered together; they were children of

"fools,