PRE FAC E.

IT

has been a long complaint of the virtuous and refined world, that poefy, whofe original is divine, should be enflaved to vice and profaneness; that an art, infpired from heaven, fhould have fo far loft the memory of its birth-place, as to be engaged in the interests of hell. How unhappily is it perverted from its most glorious defign! How bafely has it been driven away from its proper ftation in the temple of God, and abused to much difhonour! The iniquity of men has constrained it to serve their vileft purposes, while the fons of piety mourn the facrilege and the shame.

The eldeft fong, which hiftory has brought down to our ears, was a noble act of worship paid to the God of Ifrael, when his "right hand became glorious in power; when thy right hand, O Lord, dashed in "pieces the enemy: the chariots of Pharaoh and his "hofts were caft into the red fea. Thou didst blow "with thy wind, the deep covered them, and they fank "as lead in the mighty waters." Exod. xv. This art was maintained facred through the following ages of the church, and employed by kings and prophets, by David, Solomon, and Isaiah, in defcribing the nature and the glories of God, and in conveying grace or vengeance to the hearts of men. By this method they brought fo much of heaven down to this lower world,

as

as the darkness of that difpenfation would admit: And now and then a divine and poetic rapture lifted their fouls far above the level of that oeconomy of fhadows, bore them away far into a brighter region, and gave them a glimpse of evangelic day. The life of angels was harmoniously breathed into the children of Adam, and their minds raifed near to heaven in melody and devotion at once.

In the younger days of heathenifm the Mufes were devoted to the fame fervice: the language in which old Hefiod addreffes them is this:

Μᾶσαι Πιερίηθεν ἀοιδῆσι κλείουσαι,

Δεῦτε, Δῖ ἐννέπετε σφέτερον πατέρ' ὑμνείουσαι.

"Pierian Mufes, fam'd for heavenly lays, "Defcend, and fing the God your Father's praife."

And he pursues the fubject in ten pious lines, which I could not bear to transcribe, if the afpect and found of fo much Greek were not terrifying to a nice reader.

But fome of the latter Poets of the Pagan world have debased this divine gift; and many of the writers of the firft rank, in this our age of national Chriftians, have, to their eternal fhame, furpaffed the vileft of the Gentiles. They have not only difrobed religion of all the ornaments of verfe, but have employed their pens in impious mifchief, to deform her native beauty and defile her honours. They have exposed her moft facred character to drollery, and dreffed her up in a most vile and ridiculous disguise, for the scorn of the ruder herd of mankind. The vices have been painted like fo many

Goddeffes, the charms of wit have been added to debauchery, and the temptation heightened where nature needs the ftrongeft reftraints. With sweetness of found, and delicacy of expreffion, they have given a relish to blafphemies of the harfheft kind; and when they rant at their Maker in fonorous numbers, they fancy themfelves to have acted the hero well.

Thus almost in vain have the throne and the pulpit cried Reformation; while the stage and licentious poems have waged open war with the pious defign of church and ftate. The prefs has fpread the poifon far, and fcattered wide the mortal infection: Unthinking youth have been inticed to fin beyond the vicious propenfities of nature, plunged early into difeafes and death, and funk down to damnation in multitudes. Was it for this that poefy was endued with all thofe allurements that lead the mind away in a pleafing captivity? Was it for this, he was furnished with fo many intelle&ual charms, that the might feduce the heart from God, the original beauty, and the moft lovely of Beings? Can I ever be perfuaded, that thofe fweet and refiftlefs forces of metaphor, wit, found, and number, were given with this defign, that they fhould be all ranged under the banner of the great malicious fpirit, to invade the rights of heaven, and to bring swift and everlasting deftruction upon men? How will thefe allies of the nether world, the lewd and profane verfifiers, stand aghaft before the great Judge, when the blood of many fouls, whom they never faw, fhall be laid to the charge of their writings, and be dreadfully required at their hands? The Reve

rend

rend Mr. Collier has fet this awful fcene before them in juft and flaming colours. If the application were not too rude and uncivil, that noble ftanza of my Lord Rofcommon, on Pfalm cxlviii. might be addressed to them :

"Ye dragons, whofe contagious breath "Peoples the dark retreats of death,

"Change your dire hiffings into heavenly fongs, "And praise your Maker with your forked tongues."

This profanation and debasement of fo divine an art, has tempted fome weaker Chriftians to imagine that poetry and vice are naturally akin; or at least, that verfe is fit only to recommend trifles, and entertain our loofer hours, but it is too light and trivial a method to treat any thing that is ferious and facred. They fubmit, indeed, to use it in divine pfalmody, but they love the drieft tranflation of the pfalm beft. They will venture to fing a dull hymn or two at church, in tunes of equal dulnefs; but ftill, they perfuade themfelves, and their children, that the beauties of posfy are vain and dangerous. All that arifes a degree above Mr. Sternhold is too airy for worship, and hardly efcapes the fentence of "unclean and abominable." It is ftrange, that perfons that have the Bible in their hands, fhould be led away by thoughtless prejudices to fo wild and rafh an opinion. Let me entreat them not to indulge this four, this cenforious humour too far, left the facred writers fall under the lafh of their unlimited and unguarded reproaches. Let nie entreat them to look

into their Bibles, and remember the ftyle and way of writing that is used by the ancient prophets. Have they forgot, or were they never told, that many parts of the Old Teftament are Hebrew verfe? and the figures are ftronger, and the metaphors bolder, and the images more furprizing and strange, than ever I read in any profane writer. When Deborah fings her praifes to the God of Ifrael, while he marched from the field of Edom, fhe fets the "earth a-trembling, the heavens drop, and he mountains diffolve. from before the "Lord. They fought from heaven, the ftars in their "courfes fought against Sifera: When the river of "Kifhon fwept them away, that ancient river, the "river Kifhon. O my foul, thou haft trodden down ftrength." Judg. v. &c. When Eliphaz, in the book of Job, fpeaks his fenfe of the holiness of God, he introduces a machine in a vifion: "Fear came upon me, "trembling on all my bones; the hair of my flesh food up; a spirit paffed by and food ftill, but its form was undiscernible; an image before mine eyes; and "filence; Then I heard a voice, faying, Shall mortal man be more just than God?" &c. Job iv. When he defcribes the fafety of the righteous, he "bides him "from the fcourge of the tongue, he makes him laugh at “destruction and famine, he brings the stones of the field "into league with him, and makes the brute animals " enter into a covenant of peace.” Job v. 21, &c. When Job speaks of the grave, how melancholy is the gloom that he spreads over it! "It is a region to which I must fhortly go, and whence I fhall not return; it is a

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