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GENERAL REMAR K.

Hymn to APOLLO.] "The task you injoined me (obferves an ingenious friend) of taking a closer and more accurate view of this hymn, has brought its own reward with it. I take it to be one of the most valuable remnants of antiquity; because it informs us, in fome meafure, how general and deep an impreffion the tradition of a Redeemer had made on the minds of men. And I think, we need not at all fcruple to fay, that in this poem we may fee fome of the great outlines of HIS character, though corrupted with foreign mixtures and attributed to a wrong object. But even these very mistakes, will not appear furprizing upon the then received principles of mankind, and may fo eafily be accounted for from Divine Revelation, as to ferve in fome degree to confirm the truth of it. When the heathens had once fallen into that grand apoftacy of fetting up the heavens for their God, and worshipping it as a felf-existent independent being, it is no wonder they attributed to their arch-idol, what was only due, and what was originally acknowledged to belong to the True God. Nay, I cannot think it at all wonderful, even upon a fuperficial view (and the more clearly we examine this matter, the more thoroughly, I am perfuaded, we shall be convinced) that they affigned diftinct offices to their trinity (fire, light and spirit) in the fame manner nearly as the true believers did to theirs (Father, Son and Holy Ghost, of whom these material agents are the emblems or reprefentatives.) Of this numberless inftances might be given. But as the following hymn will fhew us, how they atttributed the fame offices to the material Sun, which were only due, and which throughout the Old Teftament are claimed for, or foretold of, the Sun of righteoufnefs, that true light, which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world, I fhall at prefent confine myself to that; but here I must beg leave to remind you of an obfervation, which in this fort of enquiries ought never to £ip out of our memories; namely, that before the revelation of literal writing, men had no other way of preferving the knowledge they had, and of conveying it to pofterity, fo certain and infallible, as taking fome animal or tree, that did, in fome refpect, refemble the material or fpiritual object they would defcribe; and making it the reprefentative or fymbol of that object; or, as it has fince been called, making fuch fymbol (whether tree or animal) facred to that object. And it requires no great fkill in antiquity to prove, that this method of communicating knowledge, efpecially in religious matters, was continued long after the use of letters was firft difcovered to mankind." The reader is defired to bear thefe remarks in mind, during the courfe of the notes en the following hymn.

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Ver. 1. Laurels branches.] It was ufual not only to adorn every part of the temple of Apollo with laurel branches, the pofts of the doors, the innermoft parts of the temple, the altar, tripods, &c. but the priefteffes themfelves alfo delivered their oracles, holding laurel branches in their hands: whence our poet speaks not of a tree (as Mr. Prior tranflates it) but of the branches (dapuivos ogrng) thus adorning the temple: It hath efcaped the obfervation of no critic, how exactly Virgil hath herein imitated our author

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Far, ye profane, far off! with beauteous feet

Bright PHOEBUS comes, and thunders at the gate;

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There are many other paffages in the claffics greatly fimilar hereto, particularly in the 5th book of Lucan's Pharfalia. All the Gods had fome tree facred to them.

Populus Alcide gratiffima, vitis Iaccho, Formofe veneri myrtus, fua laurea Phobo, fays Virgil. But why the laurel fhould be affigned and dedicated to Apollo, rather than any other tree, I must confefs, never to have met with a fatisfactory reason. As to what they tell As to what they tell us (wherein all the commentators reft) that it was an emblem of prophecy, and from its crackling or not, when thrown into the fire, predicted good or ill fortune, we are yet as much in the dark, and as much to feek, how it came to be so used, as at first. The reader doubtless has herein been as unfortunate as myself, and therefore I fhall venture to give him my own thoughts on this fubject. It is well known that Apollo in the Grecian mythology is the fame as the Sun, and that he was generally reprefented amongft his worshippers by a young wan with a glory of conical rays about his head, not very unlike the crowns we may obferve in the pictures of our old kings. If we examine the leaf of the Roman laurel, as we have it in the bufts or pictures of the heroes or poets of former ages, or as it is ftill to be feen in many gardens in our own country, we fhall find no leaf fo nearly refembles the conical rays abovementioned as this, and therefore no tree was so proper to be confecrated to Apollo or the Sun; or in other words, fo aptly reprefented that light, which he is continually fending forth, enlightening and enlivening our lower world." We may add alfo, that the laurel, as an ever-green reprefented the perpetual youth of Apollo, for he is defcribed as always young, and unbearded. See this hymn ver. 36. orig. Ever-greens in Scripture are made the fymbols of the Divinity of Christ, whofe leaf

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never withers, and at the time of his birth, to teftify our belief of his immortality we adorn all our churches with ever-greens. The material Sun therefore had that affigned to him by his worfhippers, which is reclaimed for, and belongs truly to the Sun of righteousness.

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Ver. 3. With beauteous feet, &c.] It is obferveable, that we meet in the heathen poets with the mention of Apollo's prefence, in his temple much more frequently than with that of Jupiter, or any other of the Gods: might not this arife from the very general and antient tradition of the Lord, Jehovah, who was to come in the flesh, pitch his tabernacle (soxwoα) among us, and inhabit the temple of a human body? See St. John ii. 19. If you compare Malachi iii. 1, 2, 3. you will eafily obferve a remarkable refemblance between the prophet and the poet. The Lord fhall fuddenly come to his temple: even the meffenger of the covenant whom you delight in: θύρετρα ΚΑΛΩ ποδι φοιβος αράσσει who may abide the day of his coming, and who fhall ftand when he appeareth—? exas, enas, osis adil. The expreffion of Apollo's knocking at the gate xan wrod with a beautiful foot, is particularly remarkable. Our Saviour's coming to preach the gofpel of peace, and fo his minifters alfo (as appointed by him) is thus defcribed: How beautiful upon the mountains, are the feet of Him, that bringeth good tidings, that publifheth peace, &c. Ifaiah lii. 7. and fo in the prophet Nahum i. 15. Behold upon the mountains, the feet of Him, that bringeth good tidings, &c. The coming of the Sun of righteoufnefs thus to bring peace, is compared to the rifing of the material Sun: the Sun of righteoufnefs fhall arife, with healing in his wings, Mal. iv. 2. and his feet is faid to be beautiful upon the mountains, because the Sun firft arifeth, or at leaft, appears from, and upon them. See Cant. ii. ver. 17. And as Chrift's entry into the kingdom of grace is thus figured, fo Apollo's entry into his temple is expreffed in the fame manner, by the rifing of the Sun, unbarring the gates of light, and with his

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Shining

See the glad fign the Delian palm hath giv'n ;
Sudden it bends: and hovering in the heav'n,
Soft fings the swan with melody divine:
Burft ope, ye bars, ye gates, your heads decline;
Decline your heads, ye facred doors, expand :

He comes, the God

the God of light, the God's at band!

Jhining feet knocking at the golden portal of day,
according to the accustomed language of the
poets. In the xixth Pfalm the office of the
divine light is nobly fet forth to us under the
fame image.
"In them (namely, the heavens)
hath he fet a tabernacle for the fun (Shemosh,
the folar light) which is as a bridegroom coming
out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a frong
man to run a race. His going forth is from the
end of heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of
it, and there is nothing hid from the heat
thereof."-See also Isaiah vi. 1, 2, 3.

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king of Ifrael, that cometh in the name of the Lord, John xii. 12. And the faints as reprefented in their triumphal ftate, in the Revelations vii. 9. "hold thefe branches in their hands, and cry with a loud voice faying, falvation to our God, which fitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb." I may here likewife obferve, that at the feast of tabernacles, which were made of boughs, each of which was also a type of fome property in Chrift, the people were ordered to carry thefe branches, and by this means afcribe victory to their all-conquering king the Meffiah. Ver. 5. The Delian palm.] See the hymn to This figure then was an emblem of Chrift, as Delos orig. 1. 209. The palm-tree, it is Conqueror: the humanity (through the affistance univerfally known, was facred to the fecond of the lion, the divine perfon, who was united perfon of the true Trinity; fo that the corrup- to him) was to have stability, strength, and tion of tradition is fufficient to account for the power to fupport himself under the weight of all heathens dedicating it to the fecond perfon of he was to do and fuffer for and in the ftead their trinity. It is obfervable, that on the walls of man; and after he had acquired the victory of the Jewish temple were defcribed palm-trees for himself, he was alfo to communicate the and cherubims alternately; the cherubims were effects of it to his followers, i. e. He was to only coupled ones, confifting of two faces, a lion's give fupport, ability to thofe who fhould accept and a man's, expreffing the divinity (of which him as their Saviour, to stand here against all the lion of the tribe of Judah, Rev. v. 5. was the affaults of their enemies, and the preffure of a fymbol) joined to the humanity, reprefented temptations, and to place them hereafter in a by the human face. "The palm-tree was ufed ftable fate of glory, beyond a poffibility of fallas an emblem of strength, support, ability to ftanding or being removed from it."-See the fermons upright under any preffure; as it is faid the property of that tree is." (Aul. Gell. Noct. 1. 3. c. 7.) Hence it was used among the heathens as an emblem of victory; and by believers as a type of falvation wrought through Chrift. On this account, when our Saviour made his regal entrance into Jerufalem, "much people took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet him and cried, Hofanna [ fave us ] bleffed is the

of the late learned Mr. Catcot, p 306.

Ver. 9. Decline, &c.) The reader cannot but obferve the remarkable refemblance of this paffage to the following verfes from the xxivth Pfalm-Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of Glory fhall come in. Who is this king of glory? the Lord ftrong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and

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BEGIN the fong, and tread the facred ground In myftic dance fymphonious to the found, Begin young men: APOLLO's eyes endure None but the good, the perfect and the

be ye lift up ye everlafting doors, and the king of glory fhall come in. Who is this king of glory? the Lord of hofts he is the king of glory. Selah. So too as Spanheim obferves, after that divinely emphatical defcription of the feraphims and their hymn in Ifaiah chap. vi. — “ -"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hofts, the whole earth is full of his glory." We find, "that the pofts of the door moved, at the voice of him that cried, and the houfe was filled with {moke."

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Ver. 11. Begin the song, &c.] The original is

Μολπηντε και ες χορον εντυνεσθε.

Ad cantandum & ad faltandum accingamini, fays Dr. Bentley. The Greeks were particularly careful to teach their children mufic, and for this reason, as we are told, "that they might at the festivals of their gods join in finging the hymns and fongs to their praife, while the chorus danced round the altar in concert with their music: This Mr. Prior has very happily expreft in his tranflation of our author,

And let the dance

In myftic numbers trod explain the mufic.

See Pfalm cxlix. 3. "The antient heathens had, I believe, a true knowledge of the folar fyftem, and of the agents by which the great motions of it are performed. If therefore the Sun or light derived from it, be, as they thought, the great fpring by which the earth, moon, and planets move, it feems highly probable that in thefe dances, performed to the honour of Apollo, they run round a ring or circle to reprefent the annual motion of the planets in their orbits, and at the fame time. turned round, as it were upon their own axes (which is usual in all dancing) to reprefent their diurnal motion. This may appear whimsical; but

pure:

Who

can a better account of their dances be given? Have not we fome veftiges of this old idolatry still remaining among us? When the Sun approaches our northern regions, do not the country-people in England keep up the fame fort of custom, dancing in the manner above described, round a may-fole, which, without doubt is. of very antient ftanding, and derived from our old idolatrous ancestors: But a paffage of Proclus in Chreftomathia (cited Voffii de orig. & prog. idolatr. lib. 2. p. 368-9.) will ferve to fhew that the rites performed by the antient heathens, were not without a meaning, and at the fame. time confirm the remark above made: "Nothing, fays Voffius, does fo clearly prove Apollo to be the Sun, as the apollinarian rites: But they were fo different in different places, that to infift upon them would exceed the bounds of my prefent defign. I fhall therefore only mention the rites of Apollo Ifmenius and Galaxius, which are thus defcribed by Proclus:-" They crown with laurels and various flowers a block of the olive-tree, on the top of which is placed a brazen sphere, from which they hang feveral fmaller fpheres, and about the middle of the block they faften purple crowns, fmaller than that on the top; and the bottom of the block. they cover with a faffron, or perhaps flame coloured garment; their upper fphere denotes the the Sun, by which they mean Apollo; the next under it the moon, the appendent fpheres, thestars and planets, and the crowns, which are 365 in number, their annual courfe."-This is a literal tranflation of the paffage, which appears to me a very curious one, and upon which I fhall leave the reader to make his own remarks.

Ver. 13. Apollo's eyes. &c.] There are many paflages in fcripture relating to the fecond perfon, which nearly refemble thefe in Callimachus: We are told, that he is of purer eyes than to

behold

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