"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 "presence." If Virgil, Homer, or Pindar, were to prepare an equipage for a defcending 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 instead of horses, 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 66 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 fir with his Neganysριζα Ζεύς, and Hefiod with his Ζευς υψιβρεμέτης. Jupiter, that raises up the clouds, and that makes a noise, 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; (c 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 flood and measured the earth: He be"held and drove asunder the nations, and the everlast"ing mountains were scattered: The perpetual hills

"did bow; his ways are everlasfting." Then the prophet "faw the tents of Cufhan in affliction, and the "curtains of the land of Midian did tremble." Hab. iii. Nor did the bleffed fpirit which animated these writers forbid them the ufe of visions, dreams, the opening of scenes 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 uninspired 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 proposal 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 Deifin; while they must have been forced to confefs at least the divinity of all the poetical books of Scripture, when they see 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 dehightful drefs? Shall the French poet affright us, by faying,

毁

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

* Boileau.

† Rapin.

C 4

"the

"the holiness of its laws, the purity of its morals, the

:

heighth of its myfteries, and the importance of every "subject that belongs to it, requires a grandeur, a no"bleness, a majefty, and elevation of ftyle, fuited to the "theme fparkling images and magnificent expreffions "must be used, and are beft borrowed from Scripture: "let the preacher, that aims at eloquence, read the Pro"phets inceffantly, for their writings are an abundant "fource of all the riches and ornaments of speech.” And, in my opinion, this is far better counfel than Horace gives us, when he says,

Vos exemplaria Græca

"Nocturnâ verfate manu, verfate diurnâ."

As, in the conduct of my ftudies with regard to divinity, I have reafon to repent of nothing more than that I have not perused the Bible with more frequency; fo if I were to set up for a poet, with a design to exceed alk the modern writers, I would follow the advice of Rapin, and read the Prophets night and day. I am fure, the compofures of the following book would have been filled with much greater fenfe, and appeared with much more agreeable ornaments, had I derived a larger portion from the Holy Scriptures.

Befides, we may fetch a further anfwer to Monfieur Boileau's objection, from other poets of his own country. What a noble ufe have Racine and Corneille made of Chriftian fubjects, in fome of their best tragedies! What a variety of divine fcenes are difplayed, and pious. paffions awakened, in thofe poems! The martyrdom of Polyeucte, how doth it reign over our love and pity, and

at

at the fame time animate our zeal and devotion! May I here be permitted the liberty to return my thanks to that fair and ingenious hand that directed me to fuch entertainments in a foreign language, which I had long wished for, and fought in vain in our own. Yet I muft confefs, that the Davideis, and the two Arthurs, have fo far answered Boileau's objection, in English, as that the obstacles of attempting Chriflian poefy are broken down, and the vain pretence of its being impracticable, is experimentally confuted †.

It is true, indeed, the Chriftian myfteries have not fuch need of gay trappings as beautified, or rather compofed, the Heathen fuperftition. But this ftill makes for the greater eafe and furer fuccefs of the poet. The wonders of our religion, in a plain narration and a fimple dress, have a native grandeur, a dignity, and a beauty in them, though they do not utterly difdain all methods of ornament. The book of the Revelations feems to be a prophecy in the form of an opera, or a dramatic poem, where divine art illuftrates the fubject with many charming glories; but ftill it must be acknowledged, that the naked themes of Chriftianity have fomething brighter and bolder in them, fomething more.

*Philomela.

+ Sir Richard Blackmore, in his admirable preface to his laft poem, entitled Alfred, has more copioully refuted: all Boileau's arguments on this fubject, and that with great juftice and elegance. 1723.—I am perfuaded: that many perfons who defpife the poem would acknow. ledge the just fentiments of that preface.

fur

furprizing and celestial, than all the adventures of gods and heroes, all the dazzling images of falfe luftre that form and garnish a heathen fong: here the very argument would give wonderful aids to the Mufe, and the heayenly theme would fo relieve a dull hour, and a languishing genius, that when the Mufe nods, the fenfe would burn and fparkle upon the reader, and keep him feelingly awake.

With how much lefs toil and expence might a Dryden, an Otway, a Congreve, or a Dennis, furnish out a Christian poem, than a modern play! There is nothing amongst all the ancient fables, or later romances, that have two fuch extremes united in them, as the eternal God becoming an infant of days; the poffeffor of the palace of Heaven laid to fleep in a manger; the holy Jefus, who knew no fin, bearing the fins of men in his body on the tree; agonies of forrow loading the foul of him who was God over all, bleffed for ever; and the sovereign of life stretching his arms on a cross, bleeding and expiring: The Heaven and the Hell in our divinity are infinitely more delightful and dreadful than the childish figments of a dog with three heads, the buckets of the Belides, the Furies with fnaky hairs, or all the flowery stories of Elysium. And if we furvey the one as themes divinely true, and the other as a medley of fooleries which we can never believe; the advantage for touching the springs of paffion will fall infinitely on the fide of the Chriftian poet; our wonder and our love, our pity, delight, and forrow, with the long train of

and fears, muft needs be under the command of