But how grand and magnificent a scene is depicted by the Hebrew poets from the same materials, in which their deceased heroes and kings are seen to advance from the earth! Figure to yourselves a vast, dreary, dark, sepulchral cavern,` where the kings of the nations lie, each upon his bed of dust,+ the arms of each beside him, his sword under his head, and the graves of their numerous hosts round about them:§ Behold! the king of Babylon is introduced; they all rise and go forth to meet him, and receive him as he approaches! Art thou also come down unto us? Art thou become like unto us? Art thou cut down and withered in thy strength, O thou destroyer of the nations!"-But I reluctantly refrain. It is not for me, nor indeed for human ability, to explain these subjects with a becoming dignity. You will see this transcendent imagery, yourselves, better and more completely displayed in that triumphal song which was composed by Isaiah || (the first of all poets for sublimity and elegance) previous to the death of the king of Babylon. Ezekiel¶ also has nobly illustrated the same scene, with similar machinery, in the last prophecy concerning the fall of Pharaoh; that remarkable example of the terrific, which is indeed deservedly accounted the peculiar excellence of this prophet.

Isa. xiv. 9. 18. Ezek. xxxii. 19. 21, &c.

wn, Isa. lvii. 2. Ezek. xxxii. 25. Inn, the cell which receives the sarcophagus.

Ezek. xxxii. 27. See 1 Macc. xiii. 29.
Isa. xiv. 4-27.

§ Ezek. xxxii. 22, 23, 24.

Ezek. xxxii. 18-32.

LECTURE VIII.

OF POETIC IMAGERY FROM SACRED TOPICS.

Imagery which is borrowed from the rites and ceremonies of religion, peculiarly liable to obscurity and mistake-Instances of expressions which appear uncommonly harsh; and of others, the principal elegance of which would be lost, unless we adverted to the nature of the sacred rites— The exordium of the hundred and fourth Psalm explained.

THE present disquisition concerning the poetical imagery of the Hebrews was undertaken, Gentlemen, principally with a view of guarding you against an error which is apt to mislead those who peruse without sufficient attention and information writings of so old a date; namely, that of accounting vulgar, mean, or obscure, passages which were probably regarded among the most perspicuous and sublime by the people to whom they were addressed. Now, if with respect even to that imagery which is borrowed from objects of nature and of common life (of which we have just been treating) such a caution was proper, it will surely be still more necessary with respect to that which is borrowed from the sacred mysteries of religion. For, though much of that imagery which was taken by the Hebrew writers from the general face of nature, or from the customs of common life, was peculiar to their own country, yet much, it must be confessed, was equally familiar to the rest of the world; but that which was suggested by the rites and ceremonies of religion was altogether peculiar to themselves, and was but little known beyond the limits of Judea. Since, therefore, this topic in particular seems to involve many such difficulties and inconveniencies, it appears to me deserving of a serious investigation; and such investigation, I flatter myself, will tend to restore in some degree the real majesty of the Hebrew poetry, which seems to have shone forth in former times with no ordinary splendour.

The religion of the Hebrews embraced a very extensive circle of divine and human economy. It not only included all that regarded the worship of God; it extended even to the regulation of the commonwealth, the ratification of the

F

laws, the forms and administration of justice, and nearly all the relations of civil and domestic life. With them, almost every point of conduct was connected, either directly or indirectly, with their religion. Things which were held least in esteem by other nations, bore among them the sanction of divine authority, and had a very close alliance with both the more serious concerns of life and the sacred ceremonies. On these accounts it happens, in the first place, that abundance of metaphors occur in the Hebrew poetry deduced from sacred subjects; and further, that there is a necessity for the most diligent observation, lest that very connexion with the affairs of religion should escape us. For, should we be mistaken in so material a point; should we erroneously account as common or profane what is in its nature divine; or should we rank among the mean and the vulgar, sentiments and images which are sacred and sublime; it is incredible how much the strength of the language, and the force and majesty of the ideas, will be destroyed. Nothing in nature, indeed, can be so conducive to the sublime, as those conceptions which are suggested by the contemplation of the greatest of all beings; and when the august form of religion presents itself to the mental eye,

A fervent pleasure, and an awe divine,

Seizes the soul, and lifts it to its God.

It follows therefore of course, that the dignity of the Hebrew poetry must in some measure be diminished in our eyes, since not only the connexion of the imagery with sacred things must frequently escape our observation, but, even when it is most apparent, it can scarcely strike us with that force and vivacity with which it must have penetrated the minds of the Hebrews. The whole system of the Hebrew rites is one great and complicated allegory, to the study and observance of which all possible diligence and attention were incessantly dedicated by those who were employed in the sacred offices. On this occupation and study, therefore, all good and considerate men were intent: it constituted all their business, all their amusement; it was their treasure and their hope; on this every care and every thought was employed; and the utmost sanctity and reverence distinguished every part of their conduct which had any relation to it. Much dignity and sublimity must also have resulted from the recollection, which these allusions produced, of the

splendour and magnificence of the sacred rites themselves; the force of which, upon the minds of those who had frequent opportunities of observing them, must have been incredible. Such a solemn grandeur attended these rites, especially after the building of Solomon's temple, that, although we are possessed of very accurate descriptions, our imaginations are still utterly unable to embody them. Many allusions, therefore, of this kind, which the Hebrew poets found particularly energetic, and highly popular among their countrymen, may possibly appear to us mean and contemptible; since many things which were held by them in the highest veneration are by us but little regarded, or perhaps but little understood.

I shall subjoin a few examples of what I have just been remarking; or rather I shall point out a few topics, which will of themselves suggest a variety of examples.

Much of the Jewish law is employed in discriminating between things clean and unclean; in removing and making atonement for things polluted or prescribed; and under these ceremonies, as under a veil or covering, a meaning the most important and sacred is concealed, as would be apparent from the nature of them, even if we had not, besides, other clear and explicit authority for this opinion. Among the rest are certain diseases and infirmities of the body, and some customs evidently in themselves indifferent: these, on a cursory view, seem light and trivial; but when the reasons of them are properly explored, they are found to be of considerable importance. We are not to wonder, therefore, if the sacred poets sometimes have recourse to these topics for imagery, even on the most momentous occasions, when they display the general depravity inherent in the human mind, or exprobrate the corrupt manners of their own people,+ or when they deplore the abject state of the virgin, the daughter of Sion, polluted and exposed. If we consider these metaphors without any reference to the religion of their authors, they will doubtless appear in some degree disgusting and inelegant; if we refer them to their genuine source, to the peculiar rites of the Hebrews, they will be found wanting neither in force nor in dignity. Of the same nature, or at least analogous to them, are those ardent expressions of grief and misery which are poured forth by the royal prophet, (who, Isa. i. 5, 6. 16.; Ezek. xxxvi. 17.

Isa. lxiv. 6.

Lam. i. 8, 9. 17. and ii. 2.

indeed, in many of those divine compositions, personates a character far more exalted than his own); especially when he complains, that he is wasted and consumed with the loathsomeness of disease, and bowed down and depressed with a burden of sin too heavy for human nature to sustain.* On reading these passages, some, who were but little acquainted with the genius of the Hebrew poetry, have pretended to inquire into the nature of the disease with which the poet was affected; not less absurdly, in my opinion, than if they had perplexed themselves to discover in what river he was plunged, when he complains that "the deep waters had 66 gone over his soul."

But as there are many passages in the Hebrew poets which may seem to require a similar defence, so there are in all probability many, which, although they now appear to abound in beauties and elegancies, would yet be thought much more sublime were they illustrated from those sacred rites to which they allude; and as excellent pictures, viewed in their proper light. To this purpose many instances might be produced from one topic, namely, from the precious and magnificent ornaments of the priest's attire. Such was the gracefulness, such the magnificence of the sacerdotal vestments, especially those of the high-priest; so adapted were they, as Moses says, ‡ to the expression of glory and of beauty, that to those who were impressed with an equal opinion of the sanctity of the wearer, nothing could possibly appear more venerable and sublime. To these, therefore, we find frequent allusions in the Hebrew poets, when they have occasion to describe extraordinary beauty or comeliness, or to delineate the perfect form of supreme Majesty. The elegant Isaiah§ has a most beautiful idea of this kind, when he describes, in his own peculiar manner, (that is, most magnificently), the exultation and glory of the church, after its triumphal restoration. Pursuing the allusion, he decorates her with the vestments of salvation, and clothes her in the robe of righteousness. He afterwards compares the church to a bridegroom dressed for the marriage, to which comparison incredible dignity is added by the word Ikohen-a metaphor plainly taken from the apparel of the priests, the force of which, therefore, no modern language can express. No imagery, indeed, which the Hebrew writers could'employ, was equally adapted with this to the display (as far ⚫ See Psalm xxxviii. Exod. xxviii. 2. See Ecclus. 1. 5—13. § Isa. Ixi. 10.