Munere

Fungar inani

Virg.

R. Tillotson, in his difcourfe concerning the danger of all known fing both from the light of nature and revelation, after having given us the description of the last day out of Holy Writ, has this remarkable paffage.

I appeal to any man, whether this be not a reprefentation of things very proper and fuitable to that great day, wherein he who made the world fhall come to judge it? And whether the wit of man ever devised any thing fo awful, and fo agreeable to the Majefty of God, and the folemn judgment of the whole world? The defcription which Virgil makes of the Elyfian Fields, and "the Infernal Regions, how infinitely do they fall fhort of the majefty of the Holy Scripture, and the defcription there made of heaven and hell, and of the great and terrible day of the Lord! So that in comparison they are childish and trifling, and yet perhaps he had the moft regular and moft govern'd ima

L 2

imagination of any man that ever lived, and obferved the greatcft decorum in his characters and defcriptions. But who can declare the great things of God, but he to whom God shall reveal • them?

This obfervation was worthy a moft polite man, and ought to be of authority with all who are fuch, fo far as to examine whether he spoke that as a man of a juft tafte and judgment, or advanced it merely for the fervice of his doctrine as a clergyman.

I am very confident whoever reads the Gofpels, with an heart as much prepared in favour of them as when he fits down to Virgil or Homer, will find no paffage there which is not told with more natural force than any episode in either of thofe wits, who were the chief of mere mankind.

The last thing I read was the 24th chapter of St. Luke, which gives an account of the manner in which our bleffed Saviour, after his refurrection, joined with two difciples on the way to Emmaus as an ordinary traveller, and took the privilege as fuch to enquire of them wwwhat occafioned a fadnefs he obferved in

}

their countenances; or whether it was from any publick caufe? Their wonder that any man fo near Jerufalem should be a stranger to what had paffed there ; their acknowledgment to one they met accidentally that they had believed in this Prophet; and that now, the third day after his death, they were in doubt as to their pleafing hope which occafioned the heavinefs he took notice of, are all represented in a ftyle which men of letters call the great and noble fimplicity. The attention of the Difciples, when he expounded the Scriptures concerning. himself, his offering to take his leave of them, their fondness of his ftay, and the manifeftation of the great guest whom they had entertained while he was yet at meat with them, are all incidents which wonderfully please the imagination of a Christian reader; and give to him fomething of that touch of mind which the. brethren felt, when they faid one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and. while he opened to us the Scriptures?

I am very far from pretending to treat these matters as they deferve; but I hope those Gentlemen who are qualified for it, and

L 3

and called to it, will forgive me, and confider that I fpeak as a meer fecular man, impartially confidering the effect which the Sacred Writings will have upon the foul of an intelligent reader; and it is fome argument, that a thing is the immediate work of God when it fo infinitely tranfcends all the labours of man. When I look upon Raphael's picture of our Saviour appearing to his Difciples after his refurrection, I cannot but think the juft difpofition of that piece has in it the force of many volumes. on the fubject: The Evangelifts are caftby diftinguished from the reft by a pa fionate zeal and love which the painter has thrown in their faces; the huddle group of thofe who ftand most diftant are admirable reprefentations of men abafhed wtih their late unbelief and hard nefs of heart. And fuch endeavours as this of Raphael, and of all men not called to the altar, are collateral helps not to be despised by the Minifters of the Gofpel.

'Tis with this view that I prefume upon fubjects of this kind, and men may take up this paper, and be catched by an admonition under the difguife of a diverfion.

All

All the arts and fciences ought to be employed in one confederacy against the prevailing torrent of vice and impiety; and it will be no fmall ftep in the progrefs of religion, if it is as evident as it ought to be, that he wants the best tafte and best sense a man can have, who is cold to the beauty of holiness.

As for my part, when I have happened to attend the corps of a friend to his interment, and have feen a graceful man at the entrance of a church-yard, who became the dignity of his function, and affumed an authority which is natural to truth, pronounce I am the refurection and the life, be that believeth in me, though he were dead yet fhall be live; and whofoever livetb and believeth in me fhall never die: I fay, upon fuch an occafion, the retrofpect upon paft actions between the deceafed whom I followed and my felf, together with the many little circum Atances that ftrike upon the foul, and alternately give grief and confolation, have vanifhed like a dream; and I have been relieved as by a voice from heaven, when the folemnity has proceeded, and after a long paufe I have heard the fervant of God utter, I know that my ReL. 4. deemer