both delight the fenfe, and improve the intellectuals: yet fuch as have little tafte for mufic at all, must allow others, yea, even all good judges, to agree with the forefaid eminent Mr. POPE, (in his encomium he makes of this beavenly art, as one expreffes it, and in the advantage, as well as pleasure, it may always furnish to a well turned mind,) in the following words:

Mufic the fiercest grief can charm
And fate's fevereft rage difarm:
Mufic can foften pain to eafe,

And make defpair and madness please :
Our joys below, it can improve,

And antidate the blifs above..

And hence it may be faid, efpecially of facred and fpiritual fongs, the more mufical, the more celeftial.

The following POEMS, of whatever fort, are fubjected to what they cannot efcape, namely, the cenfure of the public; a gantlet not easily run in fuch a learned and critical age, especially as the Songs are fpiritual, fet out into the midst of a carnal and corrupt age, most part whereof will, indeed, never beftow a glance of their eye upon them, and therefore their cenfure needs not be feared; or if they do, it is like it may be with fuch contempt of them, in comparison of wanton and profane fonnets, as a certain English poet expreffes, in the following lines:

This lewd and wicked age can't bear the wit
Of bymns and fonnets, from the facred writ:
But let one blafphemy and baudy write,
The lewd and modeft both will take delight:
The blufhing virgin pleas'd does love to look,
And plants the poem next ber prayer-book.

RALPH ERSKINE

GOSPEL-SONNETS:

OR,

SPIRITUAL SONGS,

IN SIX PARTS.

I. THE BELIEVER's ESPOUSALS,
II. THE BELIEVER's JOINTURE,
III. THE BELIEVER's RIDDLE,
IV. THE BELIEVER's LODGING,

V. THE BELIEVER's SOLILOQUY,
VI. THE BELIEVER's PRINCIPLES,

Mira canam, fed vera canam. BUCHAN. Pfalm. Ixxviii.

THE

HE first edition of the firft five parts of this little book, came forth under the title of GOSPEL-CANTICLES: and though I own a copy was got out of my hand under that name, and fo was carried to the prefs by another hand: yet, upon the publication thereof, I was fometimes uneafy at its going abroad under that title, feeing one of the books of the holy fcripture is ordinarily defigned by the name of CANTICLES. And though the name, in itself, is much of the fame fignificancy with that which is now affigned to this book; yet, left it fhould not be reckoned fo fober and becoming as were needful, I have embraced the first opportunity of altering the fame, only allowing the other part of the title, which is but an adjunct, to ftand; because the main design of the book being, to hold forth fome evangelical truths, I thought I might prefume to allow it to pass under the title of GOSPEL SONNETS.

Several places and books of feripture, fuch as the book of Job, the Pfalms of David, the Song of Solomon, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, &c. in the original Hebrew, or firft language, are delivered to us in a certain kind of verfe, or holy poefy; and fince the great God, by his holy Spirit, pleased to speak to us, as it were, in metre, I hope, that any poor effay, to fet forth fome of the most neceffary, fcriptural, and gofpel truths, fhall not be the lefs regarded, that it is framed into the mould of common metre and homely rhyme. I own, that these who are skilled this way, will eafily difcern that I cannot pretend to lofty poely; but perhaps it is better ordered, that my talent is not of fuch a foaring nature, as to please the critical palate of a learned age: feeing that, as there are heroic poems in abundance gone abroad, fitted for gratifying thofe of a polite education; fo the exalted turn

of thought, and poetical flights, which would have made the fe lines capable of giving delight to the refined tafte, would, in all likelihood, have rendered them unintelligible, and confequently unferviceable to thofe of a meaner capacity, and to the common fort of people, for whose inftruction and edification thefe lines are principally defigned.

I am abundantly fatisfied, on the one hand, that the matter contained in thefe Sonnets, is not below the confideration of the most learned and knowing perfons, fince there is a brief effay, therein, at the elucidation, or opening up of fome of the great mysteries of the gospel, "Which things the angels defire to pry into;" and, therefore, cannot but adminifter a fpecious field for exercising the moft elevated thoughts of men; yea, they are fuch as tranfcend their most fublimated apprehenfions, and none but these that are Orodidantos, or taught of God, can have the faving and fpiritual uptaking of. I am fufficiently apprifed, on the other hand, that the manner wherein these truths are here delivered, is for the most part fo low and flat, as may be difagreeable to the guft of the moft learned and intelligent, into whofe hands thefe lines may perhaps fall; yet I could with, that fuch perfons would be fo merciful to the reft of the rude and illiterate world, as to be well-pleafed and content that fome effays of this nature are funk to the level of vulgar capacities, confidering that to the poor the gospel is preached.

I can offer no other apology for my rudeness of expreffion, befides the want of a cultivated poetical genius, than this, That most of thefe lines are fet down in the very first unrefined drefs, wherein they were prefented to my mind, when I thought and wrote upon these subjects; nor could the vacant minutes, borrowed from my other weighty work, allow me leifure to ftudy that politeness and elegancy of phrafe, which more time, leafure and paius, might have hammered out: Which is the reafon alfo, that, in the whole book, I have confined myself to four forts of metre, which are fuch as moft natively occurred to myfelf; and yet, I fuppofe, moft adapted for gratifying only thofe of the most common tafte. The favour, therefore, that I afk of the more judicious Readers efpecially is, that their Chriftian charity may excufe what weakness is found in the manner of treating; and that they, together with all the ferious Readers, may have their minds principally intent upon the weight

of the matter.

If there be any miflake, as well as defects, in the matter of thefe Sonnets, it may be an excufe, that you have this treasure in earthen veffels only let not the treasure be rejected, because of either the coarseness or chinks of the veffel. As the falvation of finners is not of the free-will of man, nor of works; but of the free-will of God, and of grace fo the main defign of the gospel, is, to deprefs felf, and felf-righteoufnels, to the loweft, and to exalt Chrift, and his righteoufnels, to the higheft; and my great defire, in thefe lines, is to fall in with this defign. I am convinced that many dark apprehenfions concerning the gospel, flow from miftaking the nature of

the