forms and circumftances, if their defigning be fo juft
and noble, their difpofition fo artful, and their colour-
ing fo bright, beyond the most famed human writers,
how much more must their descriptions of God and
heaven exceed all that is possible to be faid by a meaner
tongue! When they speak 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 shineth not, and
"the ftars are not pure before his eyes; he is a jealous
"God and a confuming fire." If we speak of strength,
"behold he is strong; he removes the mountains, and
"they know it not, he overturns them in his anger;
"he shakes the earth from her place and her pillars

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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 these are but a portion of his ways; "The "thunder of his power who can understand?” His fovereignty, his knowledge, and his wisdom, are revealed to us in language vaftly fuperiour to all the poetical accounts of Heathen divinity. "Let the pot"fherds ftrive with the potfherds of the earth; but "fhall the clay say to him that fashioneth it What "makeft thou? He bids the heavens drop down from "above, and let the fkies pour down righteousness.

"He commands the fun and it rifeth not, and he "fealeth up the stars. It is he that faith to the deep "Be dry, and he drieth up the rivers. Wo to them "that feck deep to hide their counsel from the Lord; "his eyes are upon all their ways; he understands "their thoughts afar off; hell is naked before him, "and deftruction 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 allthings is most nobly represented when he "fits upon the "circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are "as grafhoppers; all nations before him are as the drop of a bucket, and as the fmall duft of the ba

lance; 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 burning. This God, before whom the whole creation is as nothing, yea, lefs than nothing, and vanity. To which of all the Heathen gods then will ye compare me, faith the Lord, and what shall 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 emptiness. Let us turn our eyes now to fome of the holy writings, where God is creating the Volum: V.

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world: how meanly do the best of the Gentiles talk and trifle upon this fubject when brought into comparison with Mofes, whom Longinus himself, a Gentile critick, cites as a mafter of the fublime style 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 stars, plants and animals, and behold "they are."He commanded, andtheyappearandobey.

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, "and all the hoft of them by the breath of his mouth." This is working like a God, with infinite ease and omnipotence. His wonders of providence for the terrour and ruin of his adverfaries, and for the fuccour of his faints, is fet before our eyes in the Scripture 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 fmoke up out of his noftrils, and "fire out of his mouth devourcth, coals are kindled by "it. He bows the heavens and comes down, and dark"nefs 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 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 inftead of horses, or feats him in chariots of falvation. David beholds him

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riding "upon the heaven of heavens by his name "Jah: he was mounted upon a cherub, and did fly; "he flew on wings of the wind:" and Habakkuk "fends the peftilence before him." Homer keeps a mighty fir with his Νεφεληγερέτα Ζεύς, and Heliod with his Zeus peuirns. Jupiter that raises up the clouds, and that makes a noise or thunders on high. But a divine poet makes the "clouds but the dust of "his feet; and when the Highest gives his voice into "the heavens hailftones and coals of fire follow." A divine poet "difcovers the channels of the waters, and lays open the foundations of nature; at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy no“strils. When the Holy One alighted upon Mount "Sinai his glory covered the heavens; he stood and "meafured the earth; he beheld and drove afunder "the nations, and the everlasting mountains were "scattered; 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. iii. Nor did the blessed Spirit which animated these writers forbid them the ufe of vifions, dreams, the opening of scenes dreadful and delightful, and the introduction of machines upon great occafions: the divine licence in this respect is admirable and surprising, and the images are often too bold and dangerous for an uninspired writer to imitate. Mr Dennis has made a noble effay to dif

cover how much fuperiour 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 Inve been secured 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 human. Who is there now will dare to affert that the doc

trines 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 Cretien les myfleres terribles,

"D'ornemens egayez ne font point fufceptibles?"

But the French critick †, in his "Reflections upon 'Eloquence," tells us "that the majefty of our reli"gion, the holiness of its laws, the purity of its mo"rals, the height of its myfteries, and the importance "of every fubject that belongs to it, requires a gran "deur, a nobleness, a majefty, and elevation of style, "fuited to the theme; sparkling images and magni❤ "ficent expreffions must be used, and are best bor"rowed from Scripture. Let the preacher that aims "atcloquence read the Prophets inceffantly, for their "writings are an abundant fource of all the riches and ornaments of fpeech." And in my opinion