beauty. Our language has received innumerable elegancies and improvements, from that infufion of Hebraifms, which are derived to it out of the poetical paffages in Holy Writ. They give a force and energy to our expreffions, warm and animate our language, and convey our thoughts in more ardent and intente phrafes, than any that are to be met with in our own tongue. There is fomething fo pathetic in this kind of diction, that it often fets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us. How cold and dead does a prayer appear, that is compofed in the most elegant and polite forms of fpeech, which are natural to our tongue, when it is not heightened by that folemnity of phrase, which may be drawn from the facred writings. It has been faid by fome of the ancients, that if the gods were to talk with men, they would certainly talk in Plato's ftyle; but I think we may fay with justice, that when mortals converfe with their Creator, they cannot do it in so proper a style, as in that of the Holy Scriptures.

If any one would judge of the beauties of poetry that are to be met with in the divine writings, and examine how kindly the Hebrew manners of fpeech mix and incorporate with the English language; after having perufed the book of pfalms, let him read a literal tranflation of Horace or Pindar. He will find in these two laft, fuch an absurdity and confufion of ftyle, with fuch a comparative poverty of imagination, as will make him very fenfible of what I have been here advancing.

Since we have therefore fuch a treafury of words, fo beautiful in themselves, and fo proper for the airs of mufic, I cannot but wonder, that perfons of diftinction fhould give fo little attention and encouragement to that kind of mufic, which would have its foundation in reason, and which would improve our virtue in proportion as it raised our delight. The paffions that are excited by ordinary compositions, generally flow from fuch filly and abfurd occafions, that a man is afhamed to reflect upon them seriously; but the fear, the love,

the

the forrow, the indignation, that are awakened in the minds by hymns and anthems, make the heart better, and proceed from fuch caufes, as are altogether reafonable and praife-worthy. Pleasure and duty go hand in hand, and the greater our fatisfaction is, the greater is our religion.

Mufic, among those who were ftyled the chofen people, was a religious art. The fongs of Sion, which we have reafon to believe were in high repute among the courts of the eaftern monarchs, were nothing elle but pfalms and pieces of poetry, that adored and celebrated the Supreme Being. The greateft conqueror in this holy nation, after the manner of the old Grecian lyrics, did not only compofe the words of his divine odes, but generally fet them to mufic himself: after which, his works, though they were confecrated to the tabernacle, became the national entertainment, as well as the devotion of his people.

The first original of the drama, was a religious worship, confifting only of a chorus, which was nothing elle but an hymn to a deity. As luxury and vuluptuoufnefs prevailed over innocence and religion, this form of worship degenerated into tragedics; in which, however, the chorus fo far remembered its first office, as to brand every thing that was vicious, and recommend every thing that was laudable; to intercede with heaven for the innocent, and to implore its vengeance on the criminal.

Homer and Heliod intimate to us, how this art fhould be applied, when they reprefent the mufes, as furrounding Jupiter, and warbling their hymns about his throne. I might fhew from innumerable paffages in ancient writers, not only that vocal and inftrumental mufic were made ufe of in their religious worship, but that their most favourite diverfions, were filled with fongs and hymns, to their respective deities. Had we frequent entertainments of this nature among us, they would not a little purify and exalt our paffions, give our thoughts a proper turn, and cherish thofe di

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vine impulfes in the foul, which every one feels that has not ftifled them by fenfual and immoderate pleasures.

Mufic, when thus applied, raises noble hints in the minds of the hearer, and fills it with great conceptions. It ftrengthens devotion, and advances praife into rapture. It lengthens out every act of worship, and produces more lafting and permanent impreffions in the mind, than thofe which accompany any tranfient form of words that are united in the ordinary method of religious worship. 0.

Tillotson, in his difcourfe concerning the danger of all known fin, both from the light of nature and revelation,' after having given us the defcription of the last day, out of Holy Writ, has this remarkable paffage.

I appeal to any man, whether this be not a reprefentation of things very proper and fuitable to that great day, wherein he who made the world, fhall come to judge it? And whether the wit of man ever devifed any thing fo awful, and fo agreeable to the majesty of God, and the folemn judgment of the whole world? The defcription which Virgil makes of the Elyfian Fields, and the Infernal Regions, how • infinitely do they fall fort of the majesty of the Holy Scripture, and the defcription there made of heaven and hell, and of "the great and terrible day "of the Lord!" So that in comparison they are childifh and trifling; and yet, perhaps, he had the most regular and moft governed imagination of any man that ever lived, and obferved the greatest decorum in his characters and defcriptions. But who can declare "the great things of God, but he to whom God thall "reveal them?"

This obfervation was worthy a moft polite man, and ought to be of authority with all who are fuch, fo far ⚫ as to examine, whether he spoke that as a man of a

jult

just taste and judgment, or advanced it merely for the fervice of his doctrine as a clergyman.

I am very confident, whoever reads the Gospels with an heart as much prepared in favour of them, as when he fits down to Virgil or Homer, will find no paffage there, which is not told with more natural force than any epifode in either of thofe wits, who were the chief of mere mankind.

The last thing I read was the 24th chapter of St. Luke, which gives an account of the manner in which our blefled Saviour, after his refurrection, joined with two difciples on the way to Emmaus, as an ordinary traveller, and took the privilege, as fuch, to enquire of them, what occafioned a fadnels he obferved in their countenances; or whether it was from any public caufe their wonder that any man fo near Jerufalem, fhould be a stranger to what had paffed there; their acknowledgment to one they met accidentally, that they had believed in this prophet; and that now, the third day after his death, they were in doubt as to their pleafing hope, which occafioned the heaviness he took notice of, are all reprefented in a ftyle, which mer of letters call the great and noble fimplicity.'

The attention of the Difciples, when he expounded the Scriptures, concerning himself, his offering to take his leave of them, their fondness of his ftay, and the manifeftation of the great guest whom they had entertained, while he was yet at meat with them, are all incidents which wonderfully pleafe the imagination of a christian reader; and give to him, fomething of that touch of mind which the brethren felt, when they faid one to another, did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?'

I am very far from pretending to treat these matters as they deferve; but I hope thofe gentlemen who are qualified for it, and called to it, will forgive me, and confider that I fpeak as a mere fecular man, impartially confidering the effects which the Sacred Writings

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Writings will have upon the foul of an intelligent reader, and it is fome argument, that a thing is the immediate work of God, when it fo infinitely tranfcends all the labours of man. When I look upon Raphael's picture of our Saviour's appearing to his Difciples after their refurrection, I cannot but think the juft difpofition of that piece, has in it the force of many volumes on the fubject: the Evangelifts are easily distinguished from the rest, by a passionate zeal and love, which the painter has thrown in their faces; the huddled group of those who stand most distant, are admirable representations of men, abashed with their late unbelief, and hardness of heart. And fuch endeavours as this of Raphael, and of all men not called to the altar, are collateral helps not to be defpifed by the minifters of the Gospel.

It is with this view that I prefume upon fubjects of this kind, and men may take up this paper, and be catched by an admonition, under the difguife of a diverfion.

All the arts and fciences ought to be employed in one confederacy against the prevailing torrent of vice and impiety; and it will be no finall step in the progress of religion, if it is as evident as it ought to be, that he wants the best taste and beft fenfe a man can have, who is cold to the beauty of holiness.'

As for my part, when I have happened to attend the corpfe of a friend to his interment, and have feen a graceful man at the entrance of a church yard, who becomes the dignity of his function, and affumes an authority which is natural to truth, pronounce "I am the retur rection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet fhall he live; and whofoever liveth, and believeth in me, fhall never die: I fay, upon fuch an occafion, the retrofpe& upon past actions between the deceafed, whom I followed, and my elf, together with the many little circumftances that ftrike upon my foul, and alternately give grief and confolation, have vanished like a dream; and I have been relieved as by

a voice