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ART. II. The Jewish Bard. In Four Odes, to the Holy Mountains. By John Wheeldon, A. M. Rector of Wheathamstead, Herts, and Prebendary of Lincoln. 4to. I s.

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Goldsmith. 1779.

ERE, with no common flight, Urania foars
Up to the holy mountains, and from Horeb,
From Hermon, Carmel, Tabor, pours such strains,
As fuit not mortal tongues to utter,
Nor mortal ears to hear.

Perchance, above, around, these holy mountains,
Is found that "brightest heaven of invention,"
To which the Avon bard long fince aspired:
And there the "Muse of fire" fits on a cloud,
From whence she looks disdain on things below.
It may be so-but what can mortals know?
Such dazzling light! Oh, 'tis too much for man!"
I faint beneath " th' intolerable day,"

And " drink amazement at this source of light."

But hark! she sings! From Horeb bursts the mighty found!

Mortals attend, and wonder! for wonder
Much ye may, but must not understand.

• Jehovah reigns! awake my harp of Salem!
Hail, everlasting mountains! holy hills!
And hallow'd streams! - Apollo never here
Rock'd a young poet on his golden lyre,
Foft'ring the feeds of fancy. Say, ye swans
Of Greece and Mantua! how a Cherub fings.
Ye faint-ye faulter-lead them on, my eagle,
Deep in the glorious circle of the rainbow
Which the Most High hath bended, wave their wings;
'Then wearied with their gazes at the fun,
Shade them at night in Horeb's vocal pines,
And let them think unutterable things.

So flept the prophets of Dodona's grove,
* Their feet unwash'd, their slumbers on the ground:
So the fair cygnets of Idæan Jove,
In folemn-breathing mutings more profound †.
Thou swan of Avon ! how I love thy strains!
Cherub of Eden || ! clap thy gorgeous wings:
Tell the sweet fingers how the lark maintains
Gay from the grassy bed her airy rings:
Dash'd by the fighings of an eaftern wind,
The pretty warbler wheels and pants for fear;
And feeing heaven before, and earth behind,
Drops to her nett, and whispers,-God was there.

• While their light'ning eyeballs fleep
Quench'd in slumber dark and deep,

* Hom. Il. Lib. xvi. 289.' ‡' Shakespeare.'

+

' Homer and Pindar." • Milton.'

Now

Now my harp of Elohim!
Sing the sweets of Shufannim *.
Let the lillies droop and figh;
Let the roses blush and die:

Walk in brightness, friendly moon :
Pour, O fun, the liquid noon :
Gibeon and Ajalon's vale
Bade your halting chariots hail :
Circle, Chemosh † ! every sphere,
Measure heav'n's eternal year :
Gebor +! issue from the east
Glittering in thy bridal vest.

* Praise to Jehovah in the fires! in thine
Thou giant fun! fee, from his gaudy chamber
Opening a little eye of heaven, he chases
Spirits of darkness-dawning now he gilds
The fringes of a cloud-o'erpeeps the hills,
Thrusting his golden horns, like those, which deck'd
The brow of Mofes forc'd to wear a veil,
Because himself had seen the face of God.

He saw in wisdom's vivifying glass

The new born fun coursing the garnish'd heavens,
The ferpent's dragon wing-the buxom air
Swaddling the multitudinous abyss;
At this vast picture of almighty mind
Shout all the fons of God and man for joy.

• Cease ye from man-a cherub's tongue hath flais
That image fair of God's eternity.
Cease ye from joy-unless, an happier train
Of flaming cherubs tear him from the sky.
Shall beauty breathe in curfes? and infold
An hollow heart beneath a polish'd skin?
Shall Eden bloom with vegetable gold
And all be unsubstantial sponge within ?
Earth! hide thy bloody fins two thousand years,
Thy shame, O Sodom! and Gomorrah! thine:
The clouds shall weep in universal tears,
And flames of anger purge your drosses fine.

• Wrath is past-the welcome dove
Full of tremour, full of love,
Bears a branch to Noah blest,
Arar heaves his ark to rest.

"Το

* Shushannim-The Lillies. See Title of Pfalm 45. the Giver of the Victory, concerning the Lillies." The emblematical white and pure Believers. The Title of the 60th Psalm is in the fingular : ol Shushen, concerning the Lilly:" i. e. the pure Anointed. Parkhurst's Heb. Lexic, on the Word Shesh-'

+ Chemosh and Gebor-Hebrew names, expressing the different powers of the Sun. See 2 Kings, xxiii. 13. and Pfalm xix. 5.

Mofes :

Mofes floating on the Nile,
Saw the royal daughter smile.
Come from Egypt, lovely fon!
Half thy glories are begun.
Sinai thunders with her God-
Shepherd! wave thy magic rod-
Range thy feeble flock around,
Angels tremble at the found.'

'Tis done retire" This is no mortal business,

Nor no found that the earth owns.”

ART. III. The Dialogues of Eumenes; or the Religion of the Heart, distinguished from teat Attachment to mere Modes, which too frequently deforms the Chrision Timper. Small Svo. 3 s. sewed. Bristol printed, and fold by Dilly, &c. London. 1779.

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HE celebrated Mr. Hervey fucceeded so well in his attempts to unite the flowers of poetry with the thistles of theological controversy, in his Dialogues between Theron and Afpafio, as to introduce among the modern puritans a taste for the gaudy and brilliant in writing, and a fondness for religious books of entertainment, which was unknown to their ancestors. In conformity to this taste, the Author of this work conveys his opinions and ideas respecting religion in the vehicle of fiction; sometimes relating his tale in language exceedingly familiar and colloquial; and at other times rifing, on a sudden, into a kind of flowery and measured profe, which, to give it more completely the air of poetry, the printer has disposed in lines of different lengths.

In the course of these Dialogues, we find a great variety of subjects occafionally touched upon, in a manner which proves the Writer, notwithstanding his occafional censures of Wesley, to be in reality no enemy to the leading tenets, or stranger to the characteristic spirit, of Methodism. The religion of the heart, which it is the professed intention of the work to recommend, in contradistinction to the mere observance of external forms, doth not, according to our Author, confift in those fixed principles and fettled habits of piety and virtue, which are the foundation of a valuable moral character, but in certain ardent emotions and passions, perpetually excited in the mind by acts of devotion, in the continual exercise of humiliation and penitence for fin, and of reliance on the merits of Chrift for falvation. A view of religion, which at the fame time that it encourages every folly of enthusiasm, is unfavourable to the interests of genuine virtue, by leading men to substitute affection for principle, and emotion for action. Of the general strain and spirit of this work, the following dialogue between Eugenius and Dame Jenkins, will give our Readers some idea:

"Dear

"Dear Sir, why you seem to think that my religion, after all, is doubtful! O, Sir, do speak out! What is your real opinion ?" "Really, Dame, I fear it is."

"Dear Sir! What do you think then that poor folks can do! How is it poffible that we can be saved ?"

"As easy," said Eugenius, " perhaps more easy, for the poor than the rich."

"But, Sir, how can that be? The rich may not only go to church to hear the fermon on Sundays; but they may have time to go to prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays, and indeed every faints-day in the year if they will. And besides, you know, Sir, they may be very charitable, as Sophron is, and do a great deal of good to all about them. And therefore, rich folks have greatly the advantage of the poor, in religion as well as in every thing else."

They have indeed, faid Eugenius, in many outward things, at least; but, in religion, there is only one foundation for the rich and the poor.”

"But," said the old Lady, interruping Eugenius, " you seem to be for destroying the very foundation itself! And what then can any of us do!"

By no means, Dame Jenkins. Other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is JESUS CHRIST. And to him I would direct you, and all others, rich and poor, bond and free, young and old; for, in this respect, there is no difference. Nor is there any other name by which any of us can be saved."

"Yes, Sir, to be sure CHRIST is our only Saviour. And was I not baptized into his name, and grafted into the body of his church? You don't suppose surely that I think there is any other Saviour! No, no, Sir, then I should not be a Christian!"

"But yet I am really afraid," said Eugenius, that you may have too great a dependence on the mere forms of religion; and I could wish you to attend more to the true spirit and power of it. The religion of JESUS is a living principle in the foul; it takes hold on the heart; it fubdues every high and vain thought, and brings it into subjection to the law of God, and the law of faith; it is the kingdom of God within us; nay, it is CHRIST himself in us the hope of glory"

Indeed, Sir, I don't know what to say to this hidden religion you talk of. It may do well enough, perhaps, for rich folks, and scolards and ministers; but I don't think that we poor folks know much about it."

"I am sorry for that, indeed," said Eugenius, "for I cannot but think this part of religion much adapted to the circumstances of the poor. It is that part in which they may, and do often, excel. They have it not in their power, as you justly observe, to recommend their religion by so constant an attendance on the outward forms of it; and still less to exemplify it in works of charity and benevolence. But in the devotion of their hearts to God, and in the exercises of repentance and faith, they may be as eminent as any of their rich neighbours. This, Dame Jenkins, is the religion of the heart, and without this, whatever you may think of it, you cannot be a real Chriftian."

"Repentance! furely, Sir, you can't suppose that we, who never committed fin, are to exemplify or recommend our religion by repentance? No, no, CHRIST came, you know, not to call the juft and the righteous, such as we who have no need of it, but sinners to repentance!"

"And do you really think," said Eugenius, " that you never committed any fin! Pray think a little before you give me a positive answer."

"Dear Sir, my neighbours will all answer for me. I was never accounted a finner, I believe, by any of them; and why should you, think me fo?"

We

" I have all the reason in the world," said Eugenius, " to think you a finner; for there is no man that liveth, and finneth not. are indeed all of us sinners; and except we repent we must all perish."

Yes, if I had committed any great fin, it would be my duty to repent; but, as that is not the cafe, I don't see the neceffity of repentance."

"You seem to allow then," said Eugenius, " that you may have committed some little fins."

"Yes," says the old lady, " possibly I may, however I cannot recollect any just now; and I think I am as free from fin as any one I know."

"That may be," said Eugenius, " and yet were you to die in your present state, I am much afraid, all your religion, and all your goodness would leave you far short of the kingdom of heaven!”

"Pray, Sir," said the old lady, with some degree of afperity, "What reason have you to think so hard of me i"

"My dear Dame Jenkins," said Eugenius, " it appears to me that you never yet experienced a real change of heart, -that you were never yet convinced of fin,-never yet truly forry for it; that you never yet faw your need of CHRIST, -never yet closed in with that way of salvation which God hath graciously revealed in the gospel; and therefore I tell you, for I see I must be plain with you, that, notwithstanding all your strictness in attending to the forms of religion, you have indeed lived without Gob in the world; and I must add, should you die in such a state, you cannot escape the just judgment of hell!"

" Dear Sir," said the old lady, "Your words make me tremble! -If it be so, what can I do!"

If the Author had intended to place the whole doctrine of beart-experience, so much insisted upon by writers of this stamp, in the light of ridicule, he could not have done it more effectually than in the following conversation between Susanna and Margaret :

"Well," says Susanna, " pray what is the matter?-I have always thought you to be a very good fort of a woman, and that you had got above all these scruples long before now!"

"No, indeed, I have not," replied Margaret, "I am as much,

if not more discouraged than ever."

Rev. Aug. 1779

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