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If e'er

ye

wish in happy youth to lead

The lovely female to the nuptial bed:

Or grace with filver
with filver locks the hoary head:

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On old foundations, profperous, firm, and sure.

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My

able account: "The king himself, and all the people and Levites went before rendring the ground moist with facrifices and drink-offerings, and the blood of a great number of oblations; and burning an immenfe quantity of incenfe; and this till the very air itself every where round about was so full of thefe odours, that it met in a most agreeable manner perfons at a great diftance, and was an indication of God's prefence, and, as men's opinions were, of his habitation with them in this newly built and confecrated place: For they did not grow weary either of finging hymns or of dancing till they came to the temple." The reader, by referring to note 3. will obferve, that the coming of Chrift to his temple, of the messenger of the covenant, was foretold by the prophet, and under the image of the rifing of the natural fun, with healing in his wings; fo that this prefence of the divine perfon, this glory of the Lord in the temple of Solomon, 1 Kings viii. 11. was typical of his coming in the flesh, pitching his tabernacle amongst us, and inhabiting the temple of a human body. See St. John ii. 19. The attentive reader will eafily enlarge on thefe hints, which he will find leading to a copious field of inftruction and comfort.

Ver. 24. If e'er, &c.] The original is,
Ετήξειν δε το τειχος επ' αρχαιοισι θεμεθλοις.

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In the true fenfe and meaning of which critics and commentators are greatly divided: Dr. Bentley's has appeared to me the best interpretation, and therefore I have followed it in the tranfla

tion. « T. rexes, fays the Doctor, is the nominative case; & TO THxos [μeλds] esnžewv. For I cannot agree with them who interpret skew statuere: Without any example or authority of the antients. And in truth if new is ftatuere, it had been idle in Callimachus to fay antient foundations rather than new; for it would be rather to be wifhed that the city fhould receive encrease, and be furrounded with a new and more extenfive wall. But to foretel any one, that he fhould raise a wall upon antient foundations, is the fame as to forebode, that the old fhould be firft deftroyed by the enemy; which is a dreadful declaration. So that En fhould be interpreted in the fame manner as sna in Homer, not ftatuere, but fare. "If you defire your walls to ftand upon their old foundations: If the wall is to stand hereafter," fo far the doctor. There is, I conceive, no need to make Tx the nominative, nor to understand μ, as μɛñλvos in the former verfe completes the fenfe-siμλλs To Txos (or rather & Tuxes, according to Faber.) The author offers, as an incentive to their piety, three temporal bleffings to the young men, whom he exhorts, neither to have a filent harp, οι αψοφον ιχνος or afopor iros-an unfounding flep, a filent foot, if they defire, ft. to obtain happy nuptials. 2dly. Long life, and 3dly. Peace and profperity to their ftate and country. "If they defire their wall to ftand upon its old foundations." Mr. Prior, and Mr. Pitt who treads clofe in his fteps, have given another fenfe to the paffage, which appears very wide of the author's meaning.

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My foul with rapture and delight furveys, The youthful choir unwearied in their praise, Ceafelefs their lutes refounding; let the throng With awful filence mark the folemn fong: Even roaring feas a glad attention bring, Hufh'd, while their own APOLLO poets fing: Nor Thetis felf, unhappy mother, more Her lov'd and loft Achilles dare deplore,

Ver. 26. My foul, &c.] To enter fully here into the beauty of the author, we must imagine a folemn pause to enfue, after he has proposed rewards to the youth for celebrating the God: When the mufic and divine fongs break through the awful filence, then the author enraptured, on a fudden breaks out into this line, expreffive of his wonder and approbation:

Ηγασαμην τις παιδας, επει χελυς εκετ' αεργος. and thus the verfe has great propriety and elegance: Mr. Prior and Mr. Pitt have totally difregarded it: Madam Dacier, according to her ufual accuracy, obferves, that "as this feftival of Apollo was celebrated at the beginning of the fpring; for that reason the fea is faid to be ftill and filent, as then, according to Propertius.

Ponit et in ficco molliter unda minas.

This confirms the general tenour of the remarks, that this festival was in honour of the fun, returning in fpring, to this part of the world, where these rites were payed to him.

Ver. 32. Thetis-] Frischlinus thinks, that Thetis and Niobe may be understood of any perfons, diftrefs'd with grief and forrow, whofe anguish the powers of mufic difpel and affuage; agreeable to that beautiful paffage in Mr. Pope's ode on St. Cecilia's Day;

By mufic minds an equal temper know

Nor fwell too high, nor fink too low :

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While

If in the breast tumultuous joys arise,
Mufic her foft affuafive voice applies:

Or when the foul is preft with cares
Exalts her in enlivening airs:
Warriors the fires with animated founds,
Pours balm into the bleeding lovers wounds:
Melancholy lifts her head,
Morpheus rifes from his bed:

Sloth unfolds her arms and wakes,
Liftning Envy drops her fnakes:
Inteftine war no more our paffions wage,
Even giddy factions bear away their
their rage.

I cannot help obferving how happy an improve-
ment these lines of Mr. Pope are of a paffage in
Hefiod; where speaking of the power of the
Mufes, he says,

Ει γας τις και πενθος έχων νεοπηδει θυμω Αζηται κραδίην ακαχημενος, αυτας αοιδός Μεσάων θεράπων κλεια πξοτερων Ανθρωπων Ύμνηση μακαβας τε θεές οι Ολυμπον έχεσιν, Α. ψ' εγε δυσφρονεων επιληθεται, εδε τι κηδέων Μέμνηται· ταχέως δε παρέτραπε δωρα θεαων. Θεογονία, ver. 98. But, whatever Frischlinus may imagine, I cannot be entirely of his opinion, fince there appears particular beauty and emphafis in our author's chufing thefe two examples of Thetis and Niobe, whofe forrows both proceeded from Apollo, the power of whofe fongs and lo's must be amazing indeed, if they could caufe thefe two miferable mothers to cease their lamenting.

While Io, Io Paan rings around:

Nay even fad Niobe reveres the found:

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Her tears the while, expreffive of her woe,

No longer thro' the Phrygian marble flow: Which stands a lafting monument to prove, How vain each conteft with the powers above.

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Ver. 34. Io, lo Paan.] In Haña, "In Ilaño. orig. Dr. Robertfon, in his true and antient manner of reading Hebrew, &c. has the following curious remark on the Hebrew word which he would pronounce Ye-ú-e. "The word (fays he) thus pronounced in three fyllables, and the middle one accented is not greatly different from the fofter Latin found of Jehovah; I mean Ye-ho-wa; not the harfh found Dze-ho-vah, ufed in English. The Greeks aimed at expreffing the found of by different combinations of characters, fuited perhaps to the variations made in it by the Jews (after they had loft the knowledge both of the meaning, and the pronunciation of the language of their forefathers) in the several ages in which the Greeks were acquainted with them, namely, ¡evw, lao, ¡áw, iz, labe. So the facred name Ye or Je was written on the great door of the antient temple of Apollo (more antiently of Bacchus) at Delphos, at firft in the eaftern way of writing, from right to left al, and on repairing it in their own way, EI, only turning

lu

Io

the letters to face the way then in ufe, but not putting the I before the E, as they would have done, if they had known the meaning of the word, as their forefathers did, who firft wrote it there. And so they expreffed the found of the Hebrew Halleluia, or (as I read) Eleye, by ἐλελεῦ is or ἐλελεῖ τή —for, fays Eufathius δαιμονιον λέον ηξίαν επιφωνώντες 1η, Ίη, when they begged God to be merciful to them, they cried out Ye, Ye (or Je, Je.) Now Ye, or (as we now write) Jah, is the name peculiarly_of the Son of God, the Mediator and Saviour. But there would be no end if I should launch out into this ocean, to fhew the deduction of the moft antient and now almoft obfolete Greek words from the Hebrew, for which fuch abfurd etymologies are affigned by the Greck grammarians from their own language, and to countenance those of the words relating to religion, fuch childish stories of their Gods, and their mammas when they were children." they were children." Thus far Dr. Robertson. Though I do not think myself obliged to defend ever thing here advanced by him, yet I think his account fufficient to fhew us feveral particulars relating to thefe extraordinary words In, Is, &c. for inftance: how they came to be used by the latter Greeks and Romans, when in grief and diftrefs (as Ie, I dur, &c.) as well as for expreffions of their joy and satisfaction as In, In wainer, Io, Io, triumphe. The antients, no doubt, prayed to God for deliverance from their diftrefs and calamities, as well as returned him thanks for their fuccefs and profperity. Befides, this fenfe alone of the words can give us any reafonable folution of their marvellous

effect,

Io again triumphant Io fing;

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Who strives with heav'n, must strive with Egypt's king:

Who dare illuftrous Ptolemy defy,

Must challenge PHOEBUS, and the avenging sky.

IMMORTAL honours wait the happy throng, Who grateful to the God resound the song:

-הללו־יה

effect, and the great trust and confidence the people had in them, It is very obfervable that Allelu Jab-properly fignifies, afcribe the irradiation to the effence, Jah; for fignifies to fine as light does, every way, to irradiate, which irradiation of light is the proper and fcripture emblem of God the Son and the word Hallelujah expreffes as much, as-Do thou oh fecond divine perfon in the fpiritual world, and work, fo fhine forth and manifeft thy glory, as the light, in the material world fhines forth, irradiates, fupports, and gives glory to all created things." Now the word In in the Greek, it is manifeft, comes from the Hebrew Je or Jah-and no from was to ftrike, dart, or emit, and is immediately applicable to the rays fent forth from the Sun, thofe darts of Apollo which fent forth from him, flew the Python (of which I fhall have occafion to speak hereafter) and during his conteft with the ferpent, Latona is faid to have made ufe of those words-Barre wasar — immitte feriendo, fays Macrobius, "qua voce ferunt Latonam ufam cum Apollinem hortaretur impetum Pythonis inceffere fagittis." This interpretation of Io Paan gives us the very idea of Hallelu Jah emit thy darts or rays Io; fhine forth, irradiate Oh Jah: It is worth obferving, that the EI mentioned above over the door of the temple of Apollo, in the Greek is nearly of the fame import with in the Hebrew, EI being thou art, and alfo the uncreated effence, the name of him who alone can be faid to BE.

παιαν

Ver. 41. Who ftrives, &c.] See hymn to Jupiter, ver. 124, & feq. I do not know of

45 And

any part of Callimachus fuperior in beauty to this: The poetry is moft harmoniously fweet, the diction elegantly concife beyond any I have ever met with, and the complement to his prince the most delicate and refined: I have by no means done him juftice in the tranflation, but Mr. Prior has abfolutely dropt his author. I shall give you a comment upon this paffage from the ingenious Mr. Blackwall on the facred claffics. "There are in the Greek and Roman claffics of the firft rank and merit, many elegant paffages of high devotion to their deities, noble panegyrics upon their princes and patrons, and the most endearing expreffions of refpect and tender. nefs to their friends and favourite acquaintance. The polite poet Callimachus has numerous places of this nature, one of which I will prefent to the reader, which, I think, in a few finooth and truly poetical lines, contains a noble and just acknowledgment of the divine inftitution of government, and authority of crowned heads, and the fineft expreffions of loyalty and duty to his own fovereign king Ptolemy. Befides, we find fome of the fublimeft morals and mysteries of religion beautifully expreft, and with the pureft propriety of language, fet forth in this comprehenfive and ftrong piece of eloquence :

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And honours well APOLLO can command

For high in power he fits at Jove's right hand.

gust Christian writers: nanov nanapoon epic (ver. 39. in the tranflation) is a found dictate of good fenfe and natural reafon; agreeable to the meaning, but inferior to the compactnefs and ftrength of fcripture phrafe: un drops-unμη θεομαχώμενου TOTE xaι Dequaxos sugebate. Acts xxiii. 9, v. 39. The notion of the more refined writers and wife men

of the Pagan world, that Apollo, the favourite fon of their Jupiter, father of gods and men, fat at the right hand of his father (and by that was implied that he was invested with fovereign honour and power to reward his devout dependents and worshippers) is mighty agreeable to the Chriftian article of doctrine and belief, that Jefus, the eternal [and beloved] Son of the true God, fits at the right hand of his bleffed Father, enthroned in heavenly majefty, and invefted as God-man, the divine Mediator of the New Covenant, with full powers to diftribute his royal bounty, and moft precious favours to his difciples and fervants, whom he delights to honour. In what noble grandeur of eloquence and majestic plainnefs is this awful article expreffed by our Christian inspired writers! (See the author for proofs, he goes on-) This auguft mystery of the feffion of the Son of God's love and bofom, at his Father's right hand, as it is much more important, venerably and infinitely better fupported than any of the articles of Pagan belief, or myfterics of the Pagan religion; fo the doctrine itfelf with all its majeftic circumstances and happy confequences, is delivered in a language far exalted above all the flights of Pagan eloquence, and all reach and powers of human art. A dežios nsas, is beautiful and pure; but nothing at all to thefe grand Inftances of fcripture cloquence and fublimity. Who is at the right hand of God, being gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers (all the heavenly hierarchy, all ranks and orders of rational beings) being fubjected to him, by the decree and command of the Eternal: Let all the angels of God worship him now as mediator, to whom they owed a natural allegiance as the Son of God and heir of all things: who being

But

the effulgence of his father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon, and fupporting all things by the word of his might, after he had by himself. purged our fins, fate down at the right hand of the majefty in high places: or, in the words of the fame author, is fet on the right hand of the throne of the infinite majesty in the heavens. Chrift being raised from the dead is at the right hand of God; ever lives to make interceffion for us; and his interceffion can never fail, but he is willing and able to fave to the uttermost all that come to the Father in his name: and honour and please the Father, by honouring and pleafing his beloved Son. I conclude with that lofty paffage above criticism and praife in Ephef. i. 17, 18, 19, 20, ad fin. fome of which have been formerly quoted without the prefumption of attempting a tranflation. That part which relates to our prefent fubject, the auguft feffion of our Saviour at the right hand of Power, the majefty of his all-powerful Father, I fhall tranfcribe and prefent to the reader in all the beauties of the divine original.

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Εκαθισεν εν Δεξια αυτό εν τοις επερανίοις, υπεράνω πάσης αρχής και εξεσίας, και δυναμεως καὶ κυριότητος, κα παντος ονόματος ονομάζομενα & μόνον εν τω αιώνι τετω, αλλά και εν τω μελλοντι. See Sacred Clafics, vol. 2. p. 59. edit. 8vo. 1737.

Ver. 47. For bigh, &c.] Mr. Prior in his tranflation makes Apollo's fitting at the right hand of Jupiter, one of the topics for praife, and with this begins the roll of his glories. But the author neither means nor expreffes any fuch thing: He tells the company and affembly gathered together on this feftival, but particularly the chorus, that fuch as fincerely worship him, paying him the due praifes, thefe the God will honour; for he has power fo to do, and why? for this reafon, fays Callimachus, εño Ai diĝios nra, because he fetteth at the right hand of Jupiter." The reafon, rife and origin of this expreffion to imply all power, hath been largely difcourfed of by fome: The reader will find a long detail upon the fubject in the learned bishop Pearson's explication of that article of our creed.

I fhall

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