than could be collected within the fame compafs from all other books that were ever compofed, in any other age; or in any other idiom. The two parts of which the scriptures confift, are connected by a chain of compofition, meaning the prophetic books, which bear no refemblance in form or ftyle, to any other that can be produced, from the ftores of Grecian, Perfian, or Arabic learning. The antiquity of those compofitions no man doubts, and the unreftrained application of them to events long fubfequent to their publication, is a folid ground of belief, that they are genuine productions, and confequently inspired.” THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. IT is said, that Mr. Burke derived much of the sublimity and energy of his most admired public fpeeches from his attentive perufal of the facred oracles. He remarks, in fpeaking of the power of the Deity, that "the fcripture alone can fupply ideas anfwerable to the majesty of this subject. In the scripture, where ver God is reprefented as appearing or speaking, every thing terrible in nature is called up to heighten the awe and folemnity of the divine prefence. The Pfalms and the prophetical books are crowded with inftances of this kind. The earth fhook, fays the Pfalmift, the heavens alfo dropped at the presence of the Lord. what is remarkable, the painting preserves the same character, not only when he is fuppofed defcending to take vengeance upon the wicked, but even when he exerts the like plenitude of power in acts of beneficence to mankind. Tremble thou earth! at the prefence of the Lord; at the pref And ance of the God of Jacob; which turned the rock into fland ing water, the flint into a fountain of waters." Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful. THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. Mr. ADDISON, who is allowed to excel in a neat and elegant ftyle, obferves, that there is a certain coldness and indifference in the phrafes of our European languages, when they are compared with the original forms of fpeech; and it happens very luckily, that the Hebrew idioms run into the English tongue with a particular grace and beauty. Our language has received innumerable elegancies and improvements from the infufion of Hebraifms, which are derived to it out of poetical paffages in holy writ. They give a force and energy to our expreffions, warm and animate our language, and convey our thoughts in more ardent and intense phrases, than any that are to be met with in our own tongue. There is fomething fo`pa thetic in this kind of diction, that it often fets the mind into a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us. How cold and dull does prayer appear, that is composed in the moft elegant and polite forms of fpeech, which are natural to our tongue, when it is not heightened by that folemnity of phrafe, which may be drawn from the facred writings. It has been faid by fome of the antients, that if the gods were to talk with men, they would certainly talk in Plato's ftyle; but I think we may fay, with jus tice, that when mortals converfe with their Creator, they cannot do it in fo proper a ftyle as in that of the holy fcriptures. Addifon's Evidences. THE SUBJECT CONTINUED.. THE ftyle of the gospel bears intrinfic evidence of its truth. We find there no appearance of artifice, or of party spirit; no attempt to exaggerate on the one hand, or depreciate on the other; no remarks thrown out to anticipate objections; nothing of that caution which never fails to diftinguish the teftimony of thofe who are con scious of impofture; no endeavour to reconcile the reader's mind to what may be extraordinary in the narrative ; all is fair, candid, and fimple; the hiftorians make no reflections of their own, but confine themselves to matter of fact, that is to what they heard and faw, and honeftly record their own mistakes and faults, as well as the particu lars of the story. Beattie's Evidences. THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. MONSIEUR PASCAL made a great number of very particular obfervations on the ftyle of the holy fcriptures, of the gofpel efpecially. Amongst other things, he was wont to admire the native fimplicity; and if we may fo term it, the coldnefs and unconcernednefs, with which our Lord feemed to speak of the greatest and most important subjects: as, for inftance, of the kingdom of God, of the glory of the faints in heaven, and of the pains of hell; without dilating upon these topics, as the fathers and other writers are obferved to do. And, he faid, the true reafon of this difference was, that the particulars before mentioned, though infinitely noble and fublime in respect of us, were by no means fo in refpect of Jefus Christ; and that therefore it was natural for him to speak of them without aftonishment or admiration; as we hear a general fpeaking of the fiege of fome place of confequence, or of his fuccefs in a mighty battle, without being moved or affected; or as a king expreffeth himself with indifference about a fum of many thousands, which a private perfon, or a mechanic, could not name without the higheft exaggeration. Pafcal's Thoughts. SECTION XIX. The heroic Fortitude with which the Apostles and Martyrs fuffered the most cruel Tortures and Death, for the Cause of Christianity, affords an Argument in favour of its Truth. I CANNOT omit, fays Mr. Addi fon, that which appears to me a ftanding miracle in the three first centuries; I mean that amazing and fupernatural courage or patience, which was fhown by innumerable multitudes of martyrs, in those flow and painful torments which were inflicted on them. Their trials, under the most exquisite and lingering fufferings, seem to me above the strength of human nature, and able to overbear duty, reason, faith, conviction; nay, and the most absolute certainty of a future ftate. Humanity, unbiased in an extraordinary manner, muft have fhaken off the present preffure, and have delivered itfelf out of fuch dreadful diftrefs, by any means that could have been suggested to it. We can eafily imagine, that many perfons in fo good a caufe might have laid down their lives at the gibbet, the stake, or the block; but to expire leifurely among the most exquifite tortures, when they might come out of them, even by a mental refervation, or an hypocrify, which was not without a poffibility of being followed by repentance and forgiveness, has something in it so far beyond the force and ftrength of mortals, that we cannot |