PREFACE, 225 metaphor ere too bold to please the weaker christian, therefore I have allotted them a place here. Amongst the songs that are dedicated to divine love, I think,I may be bold to assert, that I never composed une line of them with any other design thou what . they are applied to here; and 1 bave endeavoured to secure them all from being pm verted and debased to wanton passions, by several lines in them that can never be applied to a meaner los e. Are not the noblest instances of the grace of Christ represented under the figure of a conjugal state, and described in one of the sweetest odes, and the softestpastoral that ever was written ? I appeal to Solomon *, in his song, and his father David, in Ps. xlv- íf David was the author : And I am well assured, that I have never indulged an equal licence:. It was dangerous to imitate the sacred writers too nearly, in so nice an affair. The Poems sacred to virtue, &c. were formed when the frame and humour of my soul was just suited to the subject of my verse : The image. of my heart is painted in them ; and if they meet with a reader whose soul is a -kin to mine, per- haps they may agreeably entertain him. The dulness of the fancy, and coarseness of expression, will disappear; the sameness of the humour will create a pleasure, and insensibly, overcome and conceal the defects of the muse. Young gentlemen and ladies, whose genios and education have given them a relish for oratory and verse, may be tempted to seek satisfaction among the dangerous dilersions of the stage, and impure sonnets, if there be no provision of a safer kind made to please them. While I have attempted to gratify innocent fancy in this respect, I have not forgotten to allure the heart to virtue, and to raise it to a disdain of brutal plea- sures. The frequent interposition of a devout thought may awaken the mind to a serions sense of God, religion, and eternity. The same duty that might be despi- sed in a sermon, when proposed to their reason, may here, perhaps, seize the lower faculties with surprise, delight, and devotion at once ; and thus, bydegrees, draw the superior powers of the mind to piety. Amongst the infinite numbers of mankind, there is not more difference in their outward shape and features, than in their temper and inward inclination. Some are more easily susceptive of religion in a grave discourse and sedate reasoning. Some are best £righted from sin and ruin by terror, threatening and amazement; their fear is the properestpassion to which we can address ourselves, and begin the divine work Others can feel no motive no powerful as that which applies itself to their ingenuity, and their polish- ed imagination. Now .1 thought it lawful to take hold of any handle of the soul, to lead it away betimes from vicious pleasures; and if I could but make up a com- position of virtue and delight, suited to the taste of well -bred youth, and a refined education, I had some hope to allure and raise them thereby above the vile temp- tations of degenerate nature, and custom, that is yet more degenerate. When I have felt a slight inclination to satire or burlesque, I thought it proper to suppress it. The grinning and the growling muse are not hard to be obtained; but I would disdain their assistance, where a manly invitation to virtue, and a friendly smile maybe successfully efnployed. Could 1 persuade any man by a kinder method, I should never think it proper to scold or laugh at him. Perhaps there are some morose readers, that stand ready to condemn every line that is written upon the theme of love ; but have we not the cares and the feli- cities of that sort of social life represented to us in the sacred writings ? Some expressions are there used with a design'to give a mortifying influence to our softest affections ; others again brighten the character of that state, and allure vir- tuous souls to pursue the divineadvantage of it, the mutual assistance in the way to salvation. Are not the cxxviìth and cxxviiith psalms indited on this very sub- ject? Shall it be lawful for the press and the pulpit to treat of it with a becoming solemnity in prose, and must the mention of the same thing in poesy be pronounced for ever unlawful? Is it utterly unworthy of a serious character to write on this argument, because it has been unhappily polluted by some scur- rilous pens? Why may I not be permitted to obviate a common and a growing mischief while a thousand vile poems of the amorous kind swarm abroad, and give * Solomon's song was much more in use amongst preachers and writers of divinity, when these poems were written than it is now. itou. VOL. lx. Y
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