ments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools!" "I can write," says Paine," a better book than the Bible myself." We grant this gentleman every merit to which he is entitled; but I cannot help recommending to his attention, and that of his friends, another of this Jewish king's witty sayings: "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him!" Many other jests, uttered by this sagacious monarch, are equally funny with these two, and perfectly applicable to such characters as Paine, and our other vaunting philosophisters. Deists might be abundantly gratified with others of a similar kind, by having recourse to the jest-book itself, to which I recommend them with all speed to apply. A serious application to a book of such admirable humour could not fail of yielding most exquisite entertainment! How different are the opinions of Paine, and Sir William Jones(5) concerning the Sacred Writings? (5) Before this illustrious scholar went to India, he was by no means free from a sceptical bias. But when he resided in Asia, he investigated, with minute and rigid attention, all those intri. cate théological points which had occasioned his doubts; and the result was, not only his own most complete conviction, but the conviction of several eminent scholars, who, till then, had but slightly attended to the proofs for the verity of the Mosaic Writings. These gentlemen, from that time renounced their doubts and errors, and became, like himself, not only almost, but altogether Christians. This declaration was written in one of the blank leaves of his common reading Bible. He has advanced the same sentiments more at large:" Theological inquiries are no part of my present subject; but I cannot refrain from adding, that the collection of tracts, which we call from their excellence the Scriptures, contain, independently of a Divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected within the same compass from all other books that were ever composed in any age, or in any idiom The two parts, of which the Scriptures consist, are connected by a chain of compositions, which bear no resemblance in form or stile to any that can be produced from the stores of Grecian, Indian, Persian, or even Ara The former, who has betrayed the most palpable ignorance, says all manner of evil against them; while the latter, who was an all-accomplished scholar, seems at a loss how sufficiently to express the sense he had of their importance. "I have regularly and attentively read the Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion, this volume, independent of its divine origin, contains more sublimity and beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever language or age they may have been composed." Is it not strange that these contemptible writers, as Paine affects to consider them, should excel all mankind in every sort of composition? They must have been extremely dexterous impostors! Christ, the most pious and moral of men; the most ingenious of deceivers! His apostles, the most ignorant and illiterate of mortals, the wisest and most admirable of writers! What paradoxes a man must embrace before he can become a finished infidel! If then such are the superior excellencies of the Bible; though you find yourselves incapable of receiving it as composed by divine assistance for the instruction and salvation of mankind, you will do yourselves a very serious injury by exploding it in every other point of view. Read it, if it is only as bian learning. The antiquity of those compositions no man doubts; and the unrestrained application of them to events long subsequent to their publication is a solid ground of belief, that they were genuine predictions, and consequently inspired." The last hour of the life of this illustrious character, who was particularly eminent for his attainments in astronomy, chronology, antiquities, languages, music, botany, and law, was marked with a solemn act of devotion. Finding his dissolution rapidly approaching, he desired his attendants to carry him into an inner apartment, where, at his desire, they left him. Returning after a short interval, they found him in a kneeling posture, with his hands clasped, and eyes fixed towards heaven. As they were removing him, he expired. a collection of compositions more ancient, more curious, more excellent, more entertaining, and more important, than any other extant. This is a merit you must allow it to possess, if your mind be ever so little improved in literary attainments. And if this is not your situation, you are ill qualified to judge of the truth or falsehood of a book of such vast antiquity, and which claims derivation from heaven. Several good scholars used to read the Sacred code, merely as a book of entertainment. Others have read it to raise and sublime their minds. Some read it for its history, some for its poetry, some for its eloquence, some for its morality, some for its maxims, some for its sublime views of the Supreme Being, some for the inimitable examples which it affords us of virtue and vice. Be it then true or false, as a system of divine revelation, let it have its due praise, and hold the rank among books to which it is so justly entitled (6) Give every author the honour due unto him, and sing with our epic bard: "Yet not the more This book, which you are unhappy enough to despise, abounds with all the various beauties of the Greek and Roman classics, and in a much higher degree of perfection. It consists, not merely of a collection of chapters, and verses, and distinct aphorisms (6) The beauties of composition to be met with in the Sacred Writings are beyond all praise. It is a neglect unpardonable in classical schools, that they are not read there, as the standard of good taste and of fine Writings, as well as of sound morals and religion. If they abound with such numerous specimens of noble composition in the most literal of all translations, let any man judge what they must be in the original! on trivial subjects, as too many are apt to conceive; but is one grand epic composition, forming sixty-six books, of unequal lengths, and various importance. As the sun, moon, planets, and comets, make one system, and are each of them necessary to the harmony of the whole; so the different books of the Sacred code, though separately considered, and taken out of their connection, may appear unimportant; yet as parts of one large and complicated system, they are all necessary, useful, or convenient to the perfection of the whole. And though the time is longer than is usually admitted in compositions of the epic kind, its beginning being with the birth, and its end with the close of nature itself; yet even this circumstance is perfectly consistent with the rest of the adorable plan; a thousand. years being with the Lord as one day, and one day as a thousand years. The action of it too is one, entire, and the greatest that can be conceived. All the beings in the universe, of which we have any knowledge, are concerned in the drama. The design of it is to display the perfections of the adorable Creator; to rescue the human race from total misery and ruin: and to form us, by example, to glory, honour, and immortality. The epic opens in a mild and calm sublimity, with the creation of the world itself. It is carried on with an astonishing variety of incidents, and unparalleled simplicity and majesty of language.(7) The least and most trivial episode, or under-actions, which are interwoven in it, are parts either necessary, or con (7) "The graceful negligence of nature pleases beyond the truest ornaments that art can devise. Indeed, they are then truest, when they approach the nearest to this negligence. To attain it, is the very triumph of art. The wise artist always completes his studies in the great school of creation, where the forms of elegance lie scattered in an endless variety: and the writer, who wishes to possess some portion of that sovereign excellence, and simplicity, even though he were an infidel, would have recourse to the Scriptures, and make them his model." venient, to forward the main design; either so neces sary, that without them the work must be imperfect, or so convenient that no others can be imagined more suitable to the place in which they are. And it closes with a book, or, to keep up the figure, with a scene, the most solemn, majestic, and sublime, that ever was composed by any author, sacred or profane. "The human mind can conceive nothing more elevated, more grand, more glowing, more beautiful, and more elegant, than what we meet with in the Sacred Writings of the Hebrew bards. The almost ineffable sublimity of the subjects they treat upon, is fully equalled by the energy of the language, and the dignity of the stile. Some of these writings too, exceed in antiquity the fabulous ages of Greece, as much as in sublimity they are superior to the most finished productions of that celebrated people." Moses stands unrivalled by the best of them, both as a poet, orator, and historian:(8) David as a poet(9) and musician: Solomon as a moralist, naturalist, and pastoral writer: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nahum, Joel, and some other of the prophets, as orators, or poets, or both: Homer and Virgil must yield the palm to Job for true sublime: Isaiah excels all the world in almost every kind of composition: the four evangelists are eminent as orators and historians: Peter and James, Luke and John, are authors of no ordinary rank and Paul is the most sublime of writers, (8) Longinus, the best critic of the heathen world, speaks of Moses as no ordinary writer, and cites his account of the creation as an instance of the true sublime. (9) Addison says "After perusing the book of Psalms, let a judge of the beauties of poetry read a literal translation of Horace or Pindar, and he will find in these two last such an absurdity and confusion of stile, with such a comparative poverty of ima gination, as will make him sensible of the vast superiority of Scripture stile." |
