辣。 TO DEVOTION AND PIETY. AI, TO VIRTUE, HONOUR, AND FRIENDSHIP. III. TO THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD. BY I. WATTS, D. D. -Si non Uranie Lyram Cœleftem cohibet, nec Polyhymnia Humanum refugit tendere Barbiton. Hor. Od. I. Imitat, TROY: PRINTED AND SOLD BY O. PËNNIMAN AND CO. Sold alfo by M. Harrison, Lanfingburgh; G. Richards, Utica; 1804. DEC 13 1932 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOR 8 m 33 co. IT has been a long complaint of the virtuous and refin ed world, that poefy, whofe original is divine, should be enflaved to vice and profaneness; that an art inspired from heaven, fhould have fo far loft the memory of its birth place, as to be engaged in the interefts of hell. How unhappily is it perverted from its most glorious design! How bafely has it been driven away from its proper station in the temple of God, and abused to much dishonor! The iniquity of men has constrained it to serve their vileft purposes, while the sons of piety mourn the facrilege and the fhame. The eldest fong which history 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, dafbed in pieces the enemy; the chariots of Pharaoh and his hofts were caft into the Red Sea; thou didst blows 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 the darkness of that dispensation would admit and now and then a divine and poetic rapture lifted their fouls far above the level of that economy 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 raised near to heaven in melody and devotion at once. of In the younger days of Heathenifm, the muses were devoted to the fame fervice: the language in which old Hefiod addreffes them is this; Pierian mufes, fam'd for heavenly lays, 821956 And he purfues the subject in ten pious lines, which I could not forbear 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 first rank, in this our age of national Chriftians, have, to their eternal fhame, furpaffed the vileft of the Gentiles. They have not only disrobed religion of all the ornaments of verse, but have employed their pens in impious mifchief, to deform her native beauty, and defile her honours. They have exposed her most facred character to drollery, and dreffed her up in a most vile and ridiculous disguise, for the fcorn of the ruder herd of mankind. The vices have been painted like so many goddeffes, the charms of wit have been added to debauchery, and the temptation heightened where nature needs the strongest restraints. With sweetness of found, and delicacy of expreffion, they have given a relish to blafphemies of the harshest kind; and when they rant at their Maker in fonorous numbers, they fancy themselves 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 state. The prefs has spread the poifon far, and fcattered wide the mortal infection: unthinking youth have been enticed 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 thefe allurements that lead the mind away in a pleafing captivity? Was it for this, she was furnished with fo many intellectual charms, that the might feduce the heart from GOD, the original beauty, and the most lovely of beings? Can I ever be perfuaded, that those sweet 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 Spirit, 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, shall be laid to the charge of their writings, and be dreadfully required at their hands? The Reverend Mr. Collier has fet this awful scene before them in just and flaming colours. If the application were not too rude and uncivil, that noble stanza of my lord Rofcommon, on Pfalm cxlviii. might be addreffed to them: Ye dragons, whose contagious breath, Change your dire hiflings into heavenly fongs, This profanation and debasement of fo divine an art, has tempted fome weaker Christians to imagine that poetry and vice are naturally akin; or at leaft, that verse 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 ufe 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 themselves, and their children, that the beauties of poesy are vain and dangerous. All that arises a degree above Mr. Sternhold is too airy for worship, and hardly escapes the fentence of unclean and abominable." "Tis ftrange, that perfons that have the bible in their hands, fhould be led away by thoughtless prejudices, to fo wild and rath an opinion. Let me entreat them not to indulge this four, this cenforious humour too far, least the facred writers fall under the lash of their unlimited and unguarded reproaches. Let me 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 stronger, and the metaphors bolder, and the images more furprifing and strange than ever I read in any profane writer. When Deborah fings her praises to the God of Ifrael, while he marched from the field of Edom, fhe fets the earth a trembling, the heavens drop, and the mountains diffolve from before the Lord. They fought from heaven, the ftars in their courfes fought against Sifera: when the river of Kisbon fwept them away, that |