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3." And who fhall declare to my Lord?

4.

"The Lord, He himself shall hear me.

"He fent his Angel out,

"He took me from my Father's fheep,

"And anointed me with the oil of his anointment.

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My Brethren were many and great,

• "But the Lord did not think well of them,

6. "I went out to encounter the Stranger, "He curs'd me by his Idols and Gods.

7." Three ftones caft I, which pierced his Forehead "In the strength of the Lord, he lay proftrate.

8. " Drawing out his Sword, I cut off his head,

"And took away the Reproach from my Country!'

This Compofition may be supposed too puerile to be admitted, as the Pfalms of David abound with Images highly poetical and elegant, his thoughts inexpreffibly grand, lofty, elevated, and fublime.

ESSAY

ESSAY XXII,

ON THE

WORKS OF SOLOMON,

BOOK OF PROVERBS.

ECCLESIASTES SONGS,

PROVERBS.

SOL

OLOMON was the firft Author properly called a Moralift. His Book contains a rich store of Wisdom, and Divine Knowledge, highly inftructive, of infinite ufe to the right conduct of the prefent Life, and to more important interefts of a future,

the ftill

It is a

VOL. II.

E e

Book

Book often referred to by the Evangelical Writers, and was the refult of confideration and experience in maturer life, when the Royal Preacher had multiplied his ftores from a long obfervation on Men and the World. His wife Reflections and moral Sayings are concisely expreffed, fimple and plain, but folid and good. The Proverbs generally confift of two Sentences, the fecond is fometimes a reduplification, fometimes an explanation, and fometimes a contraft and oppofition to the first.

A detached piece of Hiftory may be neither understood nor retained, but a few of thefe, well chofen and digefted, will be very pertinently ufeful on many occafions. Some one or other of them may fuit the moment, ftrike the fancy and imagination, and be almoft mechanically remembered, fhort-concife-independent Wife-Sayings, fubjects of our Contemplation and regulators of our Conduct.

The Ancients were used to divide all Books into verses, and the learning of the East confifted much in interpreting Riddles-Parables-Pithy Sentences; and Solomon, in a reign of forty years, uninterrupted Peace, excelled much in all thefe lively sports and fancies. He spoke more than three thoufand, and it was a frequent, entertaining

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tertaining, and inftructive amufement of those times, to be refolving and explaining them,

Some were confecrated in Temples and attributed to the Gods, too wife for Mortals. They were engraven on Columns, Statues, Pillars, Altars, Bufts and Coins. The celebrated Speakers and Writers were popularly revered, and noticed with honorary titles, as in Arts and Sciences, an elegant Painter, Architect or Statuary; or in Literature, a Linguift, a Poet or Hiftorian.

The Ancients afcribed wonderful power and efficacy to them, they were influential as charms, to allay impetuofity and paffion, to reclaim the vicious, as well as excitements to emulation, glory and virtue. They very much preferred them to a ferious ftudied reproof, to a long elaborate difcourfe. It was the fafhion of the times to write thus loosely and without coherence, it led you to think, compare, apply, to habits of reflection and improvement.

Princes fent their Sayings and Riddles to one another, it was a great honour to unveil their Mystery, the entertainment of a Drawing-room or a Court, and a reward was very usually held out to the Perfon who unriddled them the firft.

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Ás no one fubject is long purfued, very little order is obferved throughout the Book. It is divided into five parts. The first extends to the tenth Chapter, and is a highly pleafing Preface or Introduction, moft picturefque and beautiful. Exhortations from an experienced Tutor to his Pupil, wherein he employs Wit, Ridicule, the blushes of ingenuous Modefty, and all the arts of Perfuafion, in fweet and ever-varying Language, to' engage and interest you in the cause and défence of Innocence and Piety.

The second part ends at the feventeenth verfe of the twenty-second Chapter, and contains plain and fimple Rules and Maxims adapted to the inftruction of Youth, and they might be intended by Solomon for his Son. To use his own Simile," they are Apples of Gold, in Pictures of "Silver."

The third part carries you on to the twentyfifth Chapter; for a more lively effect, the Tutor is here fuppofed to addrefs his Pupil as present, his Exhortations and Inftructions are therefore more connected.

The fourth part ends at the thirtieth Chapter, and is fuppofed to have been added to the Book after Solomon's death

The

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