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 Muse, and the heavenly 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, blessed for ever; and the fovereign of life stretching his arms on a crofs, 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 ftories 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 fprings 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 hopes and fears, muft needs be under the command of

an

an harmonious pen, whofe every line makes a part of the reader's faith, and is the very life or death of his foul.

If the trifling and incredible tales that furnish out a tragedy, are so armed by wit and fancy, as to become fovereign of the rational powers, to triumph over all the affections, and manage our smiles and our tears at pleasure; how wondrous a conqueft might be obtained over a wild world, and reduce it, at least, to fobriety, if the fame happy talent were employed in dreffing the fcenes of religion in their proper figures of majesty, sweetness, and terror! The wonders of creating power, of redeeming love, and renewing grace, ought not to be thus impiously neglected by thofe whom Heaven has endued with a gift fo proper to adorn and cultivate them ; an art whose sweet infinuations might almost convey piety in refifting nature, and melt the hardest fouls to the love of virtue. The affairs of this life,, with their reference to a life to come, would fhine bright in a dramatic defcription; nor is there any need or any reason why we fhould always borrow the plan. or history from the ancient Jews, or primitive martyrs though feveral of these would furnish out noble materials for this fort of poefy: but modern scenes would be better understood by most readers, and the applica-. tion would be much more eafy. The anguish of inward guilt, the secret ftings and racks and scourges of confcience; the sweet retiring hours, and feraphical joys; of devotion; the victory of a refolved foul over a thouLand temptations; the inimitable love and paffion of a

dying God; the awful glories of the laft tribunal; the grand decifive sentence, from which there is no appeal ; and the confequent tranfports or horrors of the two eternal worlds; these things may be variously disposed, and form many poems. How might such performances, under a divine bleffing, call back the dying piety of the nation to life and beauty? This would make religion appear like itself, and confound the blafphemies of a profligate world, ignorant of pious pleasures.

But we have reafon to fear, that the tuneful men of our day have not raised their ambition to fo divine a pitch; I fhould rejoice to see more of this celestial fire kindling within them; for the flashes that break out in fome prefent and paft writings betray an infernal fource. This the incomparable Mr. Cowley, in the latter end of his preface, and the ingenious Sir Richard Blackmore, in the beginning of his, have so pathetically defcribed and lamented, that I rather refer the reader to mourn with them, than detain and tire him here. The gentlemen, in their large and laboured works of poesy, have given the world happy examples of what they wish and encourage in profe; the one in a rich variety of thought and fancy, the other in all the fhining colours of profuse and florid diction.

If shorter fonnets were composed on sublime subjects, fuch as the Pfalms of David, and the holy transports interfperfed in the other facred writings, or fuch as the moral odes of Horace, and the ancient Lyricks; I perfuade myself, that the Chriftian preacher would find abundant aid from the poet, in his defign to diffuse vir

tue,

tue, and allure fouls to God. If the heart were first inflamed from Heaven, and the Mufe were not left alone to form the devotion, and pursue a cold scent, but only called-in as an affiftant to the worship, then the fong would end where the inspiration ceases; the whole compofure would be of a piece, all meridian light and meridian fervour; and the fame pious flame would be propagated, and kept glowing in the heart of him that reads. Some of the fhorter odes of the two poets now mentioned, and a few of the Rev. Mr. Norris's Essays in verse, are convincing inftances of the fuccefs of this propofal.

It is my opinion alfo, that the free and unconfined numbers of Pindar, or the noble measures of Milton without rhyme, would best maintain the dignity of the theme, as well as give a loose to the devout foul, nor check the raptures of her faith and love. Though, in my feeble attempts of this kind, I have too often fettered my thoughts in the narrow metre of our Pfalmtranflators; I have contracted and cramped the sense, or rendered it obfcure and feeble, by the too speedy and regular returns of rhyme.

If my friends expect any reason of the following compofures, and of the first or second publication, I entreat them to accept of this account.

The title affures them that poefy is not the bufinefs of my life; and if I feized thofe hours of leifure, wherein my foul was in a more fprightly frame, to entertain them or myself with a divine or moral fong, I hope I fhall find an easy pardon.

In the First Book are many odes which were written to affift the meditations and worship of vulgar Chriftians, and with a design to be published in the volume of hymns, which have now passed a second impreffion; but upon the review, I found fome expreffions that were not fuited to the plaineft capacity, and the metaphors are too bold to please the weaker Chriftian: therefore I have allotted them a place here.

Amongst the fongs that are dedicated to Divine Love, I think I may be bold to affert, that I never compofed one line of them with any other design than what they are applied to here; and I have endeavoured to fecure them all from being perverted and debased to wanton paffions, by feveral lines in them that can never be applied to a meaner love. Are not the nobleft inftances of the grace of Chrift represented under the figure of a conjugal ftate, and defcribed in one of the sweetest odes, and the fofteft paftoral that ever was written? I appeal to Solomon*, in his Song, and his father David, in Pfal. xlv. if David was the author: and I am well affured, that I have never indulged an equal licence: it was dangerous to imitate the facred writers too nearly, in fo nice an affair.

The Poems facred to Virtue," &c. were formed when the frame and humour of my foul was just fuited to the fubject of my verfe: the image of my heart is painted in them; and if they meet with a reader whofe

*Solomon's Song was much more in ufe among Preachers and writers of divinity when these poems were written than it is now. 1736.

foul