"fools, yea, children of base men; they were viler "than the earth: And now I am their fong, yea, I am "their by-word," &c. How mournful and dejected is the language of his own forrows! "Terrors are "turned upon him, they pursue his foul as the wind, "and his welfare paffes away as a cloud; his bones

are pierced within him, and his foul is poured out; "he goes mourning without the fun, a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls; while his harp and organ are turned into the voice of them that weep." I must transcribe one half of this holy book, if I would fhew the grandeur, the variety, and the juftnefs of his ideas, or the pomp and beauty of his expreffion; I muft copy out a good part of the writings of David and Isaiah, if I would represent the poetical excellencies of their thoughts and ftyle: nor is the language of the leffer prophets, especially in fome paragraphs, much inferior to thefe.

Now, while they paint human nature in its various forms and circumftances, if their defigning be fo just and noble, their difpofition fo artful, and their colouring fo bright, beyond the most famed human writers, how much more muft their defcriptions of God and heaven exceed all that is poffible to be faid by a meaner. tongue? When they fpeak of the dwelling-place of God, "He inhabits eternity, and fits upon the throne "of his holiness, in the midst of light inacceffible." When his holiness is mentioned, "The heavens are not "clean in his fight, he charges his angels with folly: "He looks to the moon, and it fhineth not, and the "ftars

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"stars are not pure before his eyes: He is a jealous “God, and a consuming fire." If we speak of strength, "Behold, he is ftrong: He removes the mountains, " and they know it not: He overturns them in his anger: He shakes the earth from her place, and her pil"lars tremble: He makes a path through the mighty "waters, he difcovers the foundations of the world: "The pillars of heaven are astonished at his reproof." And after all," Thefe are but a portion of his ways: "The thunder of his power who can understand?" His fovereignty, his knowledge, and his wifdom, are revealed to us in language vaftly fuperior to all the poetical accounts of heathen divinity. "Let the pot

"fherds ftrive with the potsherds of the earth; but "fhall the clay fay to him that fashioneth it, What "makeft thou? He bids the heavens drop down from "above, and let the fkies pour down righteoufnefs. "He commands the fun, and it rifeth not, and he “sealeth up the stars. It is he that faith to the deep, "be dry, and he drieth up the rivers. Woe to them

that feek deep to hide their counfel from the Lord; "his eyes are upon all their ways, he understands their "thoughts afar off. Hell is naked before him, and de"struction hath no covering. He calls out all the ftars by their names, he fruftrateth the tokens of the liars, "and makes the diviners mad: He turns wife men "backward, and their knowledge becomes foolish." His tranfcendent eminence above all things is moft nobly reprefented, when he "fits upon the circle of "the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grass"hoppers:

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"hoppers: All nations before him are as the drop "of a bucket, and as the fmall duft of the balance: "He takes up the ifles as a very little thing; Lebanon, "with all her beafts, is not fufficient for a facrifice to "this God, nor are all her trees fufficient for the burn❝ing. This God, before whom the whole creation is "as nothing, yea, less than nothing, and vanity. Το "which of all the heathen Gods then will ye compare Ime, faith the Lord, and what fall I be likened to ?" And to which of all the heathen Poets fhall we liken or compare this glorious orator, the facred defcriber of the godhead? The orators of all nations are as nothing before him, and their words are vanity and emptineis. Let us turn our eyes now to fome of the holy writings, where God is creating the world: How meanly do the beft of the Gentiles talk and trifle upon this fubject, when brought into comparison with Mofes, whom Longinus himself, a Gentile critic, cites as a mafter of the fublime ftyle, when he chofe to use it; " And the "Lord faid, Let there be light, and there was light; "Let there be clouds and feas, fun and ftars, plants "and animals, and behold they are :" He commanded, and they appear and obey: "By the word of the "Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of "them by the breath of his mouth :" This is working like a God, with infinite eafe and omnipotence. His wonders of providence for the terror and ruin of his adverfaries, and for the fuccour of his faints, is fet before our eyes in the fcripture with equal magnificence, and as becomes divinity. When "he arifes out of his

"place, the earth trembles, the foundations of the hills << are fhaken because he is wroth: There goes a smoke

up out of his noftrils, and fire out of his mouth devour"eth, coals are kindled by it. He bows the heavens, "and comes down, and darkness is under his feet. "The mountains melt like wax, and flow down at his "prefence." If Virgil, Homer, or Pindar, were to prepare an equipage for a descending God, they might ufe thunder and lightnings too, and clouds and fire, to form a chariot and horfes for the battle, or the triumph; but there is none of them provides him a flight of Cherubs inftead of horfes, or feats him in "chariots of fal"vation." David beholds him riding " upon the hea"ven of heavens, by his name JAH: He was mounted <" upon a cherub, and did fly; he flew on the wings of "the wind;" and Habbakuk fends "the peftilence before "him." Homer keeps a mighty ftir with his Negenysρελα Ζεύς, and Hefiod with his Ζεὺς ὑψιβρεμέτης. Jupiter, that raises up the clouds, and that makes a noife, or thunders on high. But a divine Poet makes the "clouds but the duft of his feet;" and when the Higheft gives his voice in the heavens, Hail-ftones and "coals of fire follow." A divine Poet difcovers the channels of the waters, and lays open the foundations of nature; 66 at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of "the breath of thy noftrils." When the Holy One alighted upon Mount Sinai, "his glory covered the

heavens: He stood and measured the earth: He be"held and drove afunder the nations, and the everlast"ing mountains were fcattered: The perpetual hills

"did bow; his ways are everlasting." Then the prophet faw the tents of Cufhan in affliction, and the "curtains of the land of Midian did tremble." Hab. ii. Nor did the bleffed fpirit which animated these writers forbid them the ufe of vifions, dreams, the opening of fcenes dreadful and delightful, and the introduction of machines upon great occafions: the divine licence in this refpect is admirable and furprizing, and the images are often too bold and dangerous for an uninfpired writer to imitate. Mr. Dennis has made a noble effay to discover how much fuperior is infpired poefy to the brightest and best descriptions of a mortal pen. Perhaps, if his propofal of Criticism had been encouraged and purfued, the nation might have learnt more value for the word of God, and the wits of the age might have been fecured from the danger of Deism ; while they must have been forced to confefs at least the divinity of all the poetical books of Scripture, when they fee a genius running through them more than hu

man.

Who is there now will dare to affert, that the doctrines of our holy faith will not indulge or endure a delightful drefs? Shall the French poet affright us, by faying,

"De la foy d'un Chrêtien les mysteres terribles, "D'Ornemens egayez ne font point fufceptibles?" But the French critict, in his reflections upon Eloquence, tells us, "That the majefty of our religion,

* Boileau.

+ Rapin. C 4

"the