1 them by their discourses and writings, to inform their fellow-creatures of the being and attributes of the Deity, to possess their minds with the sense of a future state, and not only to explain the nature of every virtue and moral duty, but likewise to persuade mankind to the practice of them by the most powerful and engaging motives, is a thing so excellent and necessary to the well-being of the world, that nobody but a modern Freethinker could have the forehead or folly to turn into ridicule. The light, in which these points should be exposed to the view of one who is prejudiced against the names, religion, church, priest, and the like, is to consider the clergy as so many philosophers, the churches as schools, and their sermons as lectures, for the information and improvement of the audience. How would the heart of a Socrates or Tully have rejoiced, had they lived in a nation, where the law had made provision for philosophers, to read lectures of morality and theology every seventh day, in several thousands of schools erected at the public charge throughout the whole country, at which lectures all ranks and sexes without distinction were obliged to be present for their general improvement! And what wicked wretches would they think those men, who should endeavour to defeat the purpose of so divine an institution! It is indeed usual with that low tribe of writers, to pretend their design is only to reform the church, and expose the vices, and not the order, of the clergy. The author of a pamphlet printed the other day (which, without my mentioning the title, will on this occasion occur to the thoughts of those who have read it) hopes to insinuate by that artifice what he is afraid or ashamed openly to maintain. But there are two points, which clearly shew what it is he aims at. The first is, that he constantly uses the word priest in such a manner, as that his reader cannot but observe 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 impostors. The other is, his raking together and exagge Q rating, with great spleen and industry, all those actions of churchmen, which, either by their own illness, or the bad light in which he places them, tend to give mẹn an ill impression of the dispensers of the gospel: all which he pathetically addresses to the consideration of his wise and honest countrymen of the laity. The sophistry and ill-breeding of these proceedings are so obvious to men who have any pretence to that character, that I need say no more either of them or their author. Z. SECTION VII. DIGNITY OF THE SCRIPTURE LANGUAGE. Οἱ δὲ πανημέριοι μολπῇ θεὸν ἱλάσκοντο, Μέλποντες Εκάεργον· ὃ δὲ φρένα τέρπετ' ἀκούων. Ηom. THERE is a certain coldness and indifference in the phrases of our European languages, when they are compared with the oriental forms of speech; 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 infusion of Hebraisms, which are derived to it out of the poetical passages in holy writ. They give a force and energy to our expressions, warm and animate our language, and convey our thoughts in more ardent and intense phrases, than any that are to be met with in our own tongue. There is something so pathetic in this kind of diction, that it often sets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us. How cold and dead does a prayer appear, that is composed in the most elegant and polite forms of speech, which are natural to our tongue, when it is not heightened by that solemnity of phrase, which may be drawn from the sacred writings. It has been said by some of the ancients, that if the gods were to talk with men, they would certainly talk in Plato's style: but I think we may say with justice, that when mortals converse with their Creator, they cannot do it in so proper a style 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 speech mix and incorporate with the English language; after having perused the book of Psalms, let him read a literal translation of Horace or Pindar. He will find in these two last such an absurdity and confusion of style, with such a comparitive poverty of imagination, as will make him very sensible of what I have been here advancing. Since we have therefore such a treasury |