1 duces it. For this striking dissimilarity, the difference of subject will account. There is one God: this is perfect simplicity. He is omniscient, omnipotent, infinite, and eternal: this is sublimity, beyond which nothing can rise. What evinces this to be the real source of excellence in Hebrew poetry is, that no instances of the sublime, in the whole compass of human composition, will bear a comparison with what the Hebrew poets say of the Almighty. For example: what in all the poetry, even of Homer, is to be compared with this passage of David? "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I climb up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."

It is a peculiarity of Hebrew poetry, that it alone, of all the poetry we know of in the world, retains its poetic structure in the most literal translation; nay, indeed, the more literal the translation, the less the poetry is injured. The reason is, that the sacred poetry of the Hebrews does not appear to depend on cadence or rhythm, or any thing merely verbal, › which literal translation into another language necessarily destroys; but on a method of giving to each distinct idea a two-fold expression, so that when the poetry of the Old Testament is perfect, and not injured by erroneous translation, it exhibits a series of couplets, in which the second member of each couplet repeats the same, or very nearly the same sense, in a varied manner. As in the beginning of the ninety-fifth psalm :

O come, let us sing unto the Lord,

Let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation;
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
And shew ourselves glad in him with psalms:

For the Lord is a great God,

And a great King above all gods:

In his hand are the deep places of the earth,
And the strength of the hills is his also.

The motive for adopting such a structure, we easily conceive to have been, that the composition might be adapted to responsive singing. But, can we avoid acknowledging a much deeper purpose of infinite Wisdom, that that poetry which was to be translated in all languages, should be of such a kind as literal translation could not decompose?

On the subject of Hebrew poetry, however, it is only necessary to refer the reader to bishop Lowth's work already mentioned; and to that shorter, but most luminous discourse on this subject, prefixed to the same excellent author's translation of Isaiah.

Moral philosophy, in its truest and noblest sense, is to be found in every part of the scriptures. Revealed religion being, in fact, that "day-spring from on high," of whose happy effects the pagan philosophers had no knowledge, and the want of which they were always endeavouring to supply by artificial but most delusive contrivances. But the portion of the sacred volume which is most distinctly appropriated to this subject, are the books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. In the former of these, amid some difficult passages, obscured to us by our ignorance of ancient nations and manners, there are some of the deepest reflections on the vanity of all things earthly, and on the indispensable necessity of sincere religion in order to our ease and happiness, that ever came from the pen of man. It asserts the immortality of the soul, of which some have supposed the Jews ignorant, in terms the most unequivocal : "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.' And it ends with a corollary to

which every human heart ought to respond, because all just reflection leads to it: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man.— For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

The Proverbs are an invaluable summary of every species of practical wisdom. The first nine chapters being a discourse on true wisdom, that is, sincere religion, as a principle, and the remainder a sort of magazine of all its varied parts, civil, social, domestic, and personal, in this world; together with clear and beautiful intimations of happiness in a life to come. As for example: "The path of the just is as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Here one of the most delightful objects in nature, the advancing dawn of he morning, is adduced as the emblem of that growing comfort and cheerfulness which inseparably attend a life of piety. What then, by inevitable analogy, is that perfect day in which it is made to terminate, but the eternal happiness of heaven? Both these books, with the greater part of the Psalms, have this suitable peculiarity to the present occasion, that they issued from a royal pen. They contain a wisdom, truly, which belongs to all: but. they also have much in them which peculiarly concerns those who, by providential destination, are shepherds of the people. The 101st psalm, in particular, may be considered as a kind of abridged manual for princes, especially in the choice of their company.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Holy Scriptures.-The New Testament.

THE biographic part of the New Testament is above all human estimation, because it contains the portraiture of" him in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily." If it were, therefore, our hard lot to say what individual part of the scriptures we should wish to rescue from an otherwise irreparable destruction, ought it not to be that part which describes to us the conduct, and preserves to us the instructions, of God manifest in the flesh? Worldly Christians have affected sometimes to prefer the Gospels to the rest of the New Testament, on the intimated ground that our Saviour was a less severe preceptor, and more of a mere moralist, than his inspired followers, whose writings make up the sequel of the New Testament. But never surely was there a grosser delusion. If the object be to probe the heart of man to the centre; to place before him the terrors of that God, who to the wicked "is a consuming fire;" to convince him of that radical change which must take place in his whole nature, of that total conquest which he must gain over the world and himself, before he can be a true subject of the Messiah's spiritual kingdom; and of the desperate disappointment which must finally await all who rest in the mere profession, or even the plausible outside, of Christianity; it is from our Lord's discourses that we shall find the most resistless means of accomplishing each of these awfully important purposes.

To the willing disciple, our Saviour is indeed the gentlest of instructors; to the contrite penitent, he is the most cheering of comforters; to weakness, he

is most encouraging; to infirmity, unspeakably indulgent; to grief or distress of whatever sort, he is a pattern of tenderness. But in all he says or does, he has one invariable object in view, to which all the rest is but subservient. He lived and taught he died and rose again, for this one end, that he might "redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." His uniform declarations, therefore, are— "Ye cannot serve God and mammon. -Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."—" If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee." 66 Except a man deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me, he cannot be my disciple."

To corrupt human nature, these lessons can never be made engaging. Their object is to conquer, and finally to eradicate, that corruption. To indulge it, therefore, in any instance, is wholly to reject them; since it is not with particular vices that Christ contends, nor will he be satisfied with particular virtues. But he calls us, indispensably, to a state of mind which contains, as in a root or principle, all possible virtue, and which avoids with equally sincere detestation every species of evil. But to human nature itself, as distinct from its depravity, to native taste, sound discriminating sense, just and delicate feeling, comprehensive judgment, profound humility, and genuine magnanimity of mind, no teacher upon this earth ever so adapted himself. In his inexhaustible imagery, his appropriate use of all the common occurrences of life, his embodying the deepest wisdom in the plainest allegories, and making familiar occurrences the vehicle of most momentous instruction, in the dignified ease with which he utters the profoundest truths, the majestic severity which he manifests where hollow hypocrisy, narrow bigotry, unfeeling selfishness, or any clearly