men other day, (which without my tioning the title, will on this occafion Occur to the thoughts of those who have read it) hopes to infinuate by that artifice what he is afraid or afhamed openly to maintain. But there are two points which clearly fhew what it is he aims at. The firft is, that he conftantly uses the word Prieft in fuch a manner, as that his reader cannot but obferve he means to throw an odium on the Clergy of the church of England, from their being called by a name which they enjoy in common with Heathens and Impoftors. The other is, his raking together and exaggerating, with great fpleen and industry, all those actions of church-men, which, either by their own illness or the bad light in which he places them, tend to give men an ill impreffion of the difpenfers of the Gofpel: All which he pathetically addreffes to the confideration of his wife and honeft countrymen of the laity. The fophiftry and ill-breeding of these proceedings are fo obvious to men who have any pretence to that character, that I need fay no more either of them or their author. Z SECT. SECT. VII. Dignity of the SCRIPTURÈ Language. Οἱ 5 πανημέριοι μολπᾷ θεὸν ἱλάσκοντα, T Hom. HERE is a certain coldness and indifference in the phrafes of our European languages, when they are compared with the oriental forms of fpeech; and it happens very luckily, that the Hebrew idioms run into the English tongue with a particular grace and 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 intenfe phrases, 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 moft elegant and polite forms of fpeech, which are natural to our tongue, when it is not heightened by that folemnity of phrafe, which may be drawn from the Sacred 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 ftile 9 but I think we may fay with justice, that when mortals converfe with their Creator, they cannot do it in fo proper a ftile 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 translation of Horace or Pindar. He will find in thefe two laft fuch an abfurdity and confufion of ftile, with fuch a comparative poverty of of imagination, as will make him very fenfible of what I have been here advancing. Since we have therefore fuch a treasury of words, fo beautiful in themselves, and fo proper for the airs of mufic, I cannot but wonder that perfons of distinction fhould giye 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 raifed our delight. The paffions that are excited by ordinary compofitions generally flow from fuch filly and abfurd occafions, that a man is afhamed to reflect upon them seriously; but the fear, the love, the forrow, the indignation that are awakened in the mind by hymns and anthems, make the heart better, and proceed from fuch caufes as are altogether reasonable and pra worthy. Pleasure and duty go hand hand, and the greater our fatisfaction the greater is our religion. Mufic among those who are ftiled the chofen people, was a religious art. The fongs of Sion, which we have reason to believe were in high repute among the courts of the Eastern Monarchs, were -no nothing else but Pfalms and pieces of Poetry that adored or celebrated the Supreme Being. The greatest conqueror in this Holy Nation, after the manner of the old Grecian Lyrics, did not only compose the words of his Divine Odes, but generally fet them to mufic himself: After which, his works, tho' they were confecrated to the tabernacle, became the national entertainment, as well as the devotion of his people. The firft original of the Drama was a religious worship confifting only of a Chorus, which was nothing else but an hymn to a Deity. As luxury and voluptuoufnefs prevailed over innocence and religion, this form of worfhip degenerated into Tragedies; in which however the Chorus fo far remembred 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 Hefiod intimate to us how this art should be applied, when they reprefent the Muses as furrounding Jupiter, and warbling their hymns about his throne. I might fhew from innumerable L paf |