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paffages in ancient Writers, not only that vocal and inftrumental mufic were made use of in their religious worship, but that their moft favourite diverfions were filled with fongs and hymns to their refpective 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 divine impulfes in the foul, which every one feels that has not ftifled them by fenfual and immoderate pleasures.

Mufic, when thus applied, raifes noble hints in the mind 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 those which accompany any tranfient form of words that are uttered in the ordinary method of religious worship.

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R. Tillotfon, 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 laft day out of Holy Writ, has this remarkable paffage.

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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 devised 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 Elysian Fields, and the Infernal Regions, how infinitely do they fall fhort of the majefty 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 childish and trifling; and yet perhaps he had the most regular and moft govern'd L 2

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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 be to whom God hall 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 just tafte and judgment, or advanced it merely for the fervice of his doctrine as a clergyman.

I am very confident whoever reads the Gofpels, 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 episode in either of those wits, who were the chief of mere mankind.

The last thing I read was the xxivth chapter of St. Luke, which gives an account of the manner in which our bleffed 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 fadnefs he obferved in

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their countenances ; or whether it was from any public caufe? Their wonder that any man fo near Jerufalem fhould be a ftranger 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 heavinefs he took notice of, are all represented in a ftile which men of letters call the great and noble fimplicity. The attention of the Difciples, when he expounded the Scriptures concerning himfelf, his offering to take his leave of them, their fondnefs of his ftay, and the manifestation of the great gueft whom they had entertained while he was yet at meat with them, are all incidents which wonderfully please the imagination of a Christian reader, and give to him something 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, those Gentlemen who are qualified for it, L 3. and.

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and called to it, will forgive me, and confider that I fpeak as a mere fecular man, impartially confidering the effect which the Sacred 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 his 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 eafily diftinguifhed from the reft by a paf fionate zeal and love which the painter has thrown in their faces; the huddle group of those who ftand most distant are admirable reprefentations of men abashed with their late unbelief and hardnefs 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.

'Tis 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.

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