their anxiety, their hopeless distraction is beau tifully represented! While prayer, the natural refource of men in neceffity, is introduced as gloriously efficacious; and you are filled with an awful astonishment, while you contemplate that tremendous power, who hears, relieves, and in a moment speaks a calm to the lawless tempeft, and the roaring wave. He maketh the form a calm. He fpeaks, and the most unruly elements inftantly obey him: not a murmur is heard, not a gale whifpers: all is hufhed into the profoundest calm!-If Longinus commends fo much the fublime brevity of the description in Genefis, would he not be equally large in his applauses here?-The conclufion too, I apprehend, would meet with no fmall praise from that critic; wherein that "fervency of devotion fo naturally glows, which fuch grand occurrences are apt to kindle in the minds of the thoughtful -Oh that men would praife the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men!" No man can deny that a defcription of this kind, can be applicable only to the fovereign ruler of heaven and earth, the Lord God omnipotent. What an irrefragable proof then have we of the true divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, from his real performance of that, which the pfalmift here fo nobly describes ? When there was a great tempeft in the fea, inVOL. II. fomuch, E fomuch, that the fhip was covered with waves, and in danger of finking; when his disciples cried to him in their distress, and all feemed loft and hopelefs; He made the form a calm.He arofe and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm! who, less than Jehovah, could have done this? Well might the men remark, "what manner of person is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” Matth. viii. 24. We know too when, upon another occafion, he exerted his divine authority, and caused that element, as it were, to change its nature, and bear him, as a ready fervant, upon its liquid furface, fafe as on the folid marble! Could this be any other than God? For my own part I confefs, that these acts of omnipotence convince me, beyond any other argument, of that important truth, which some affect to deny, the true and proper divinity of our God and Saviour.-And may I be allowed to remark, Good Sir, though it is in fome fort affuming your province, and going out of my own way; that a serious reflection on this uncontroulable power of the Supreme, must diffuse the most gladfome acquiefcence in his fatherly protection through every pious breast. For well may that man fay, who confides in his God, and repofes his fteady hope in him; "shall I doubt his ability to accomplish my welfare, fhall I fear his ability to deliver me from danger, when when I fee, that the ftorm trembles at his word, and the ocean's vaft billows rife or fall at his command! He is Almighty, and I will reft my eternal concerns with perfect fatisfaction in his hands; he is all good, and I commit the dispo fal of all my present condition with chearfulnefs to his unerring love." But as I intend rather a critique on the Pfalmift's description, than any moral remarks, you muft allow me to bring a paffage or two, from the poets, which however fublime, will ferve to thew the fuperiority of David. Virgil's description is not more famous than excellent; and I should not hesitate to place it next to this, from the facred fcriptures. It is not I think to be doubted, that Virgil had read the facred books; and it is well known that he was like a bee, culling fweets from every flower; his manifeft and frequent imitations of Theocritus, Homer, &c. are undoubted proofs. Why then. may we not suppose him to have improved his own defcription from this of David's; whose Pfalms he would certainly be led, even from curiofity to read? And whoever will confider the manner in which he introduces Neptune, arifing and ftilling the storm, and commanding the winds to retreat, will obferve a strong imitation of the intervention of Jehovah, at the cries of the diftreffed failors.-Such is Virgil's defcription,' in Mr. Dryden's tranflation. E. 2 The The raging winds rufh through the hollow wound, And dance aloft in air, and fkim along the ground. Then fettling on the fea, the furges sweep; Raife liquid mountains, and disclose the deep; South, Eaft, and Weft, with mix'd confufion roar, And roll the foaming billows to the fhore. I am the rather apt to believe, that Virgil had read David's defcription, fince I do not recollect any paffages in Homer, where these ideas are to be found * ; and because I remember that O vid, *This gentleman is, I believe, right upon the whole as to this point. There is no defcription in Homer parallel to this. But there is a fimile taken from a storm, which Longinus greatly commends for the poet's judicious choice of circumstances He burft upon them all, Barts as a wave, that from the cloud impends, vid, (who had doubtless read the sacred writings) has almost a translation of our Pfalm, and frequent allufions to it Speaking of a ship, he fays, in the 11th book of his Metam. Et modo fublimis veluti de vertice montis Defpicere in Valles, imumque Acheronta videtur. Nunc ubi demiffam curvum circumfletit æquor; Sufpicere inferno fummum de gurgite cœlum, &c. As on a mountain's top fhe rides on high, And from the clouds beholds the nether sky: Then finking with the wave on which she rose Down to the bottom of the deep she goes. Whence as from hell's abyss they lift their sight, And distant far fee heaven's fuperior light. DRYDEN. He alfo fpeaks of the failors diftreffes, fo finely painted in the Pfalm Non tenet hic lachrymas; ftupet hic, &c. One weeps and wails - despairing of relief, One ftupid ftands, his fears congeal his grief; E 3 White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud This Pope's Iliad, B. xv. ver. 752. |