ADMIRATION, JOY.

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sense of the Divine favour, and the prosperous issue of events; the passion of resentment and indignation against the contemners of God; of grief, from the consciousness of sin; and terror, from the apprehension of the divine judgment? Of all these, and if there be any emotions of the mind beyond these, exquisite examples may be found in the Book of Job, in the Psalms, in the Canticles, and in every part of the prophetic writings. On this account my principal difficulty will not be the selection of excellent and proper instances, but the explaining of those which spontaneously occur without a considerable diminution of their intrinsic sublimity.

Admiration, as it is ever the concomitant, so it is frequently the efficient cause of sublimity. It produces great and magnificent conceptions and sentiments, and expresses them in language bold and elevated, in sentences, concise, abrupt, and energetic.

"Jehovah reigneth; let the people tremble:

He sitteth upon the Cherubim; let the earth be moved."*

"The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters:

The God of glory thunders:

Jehovah is upon the many waters.

The voice of Jehovah is full of power;

The voice of Jehovah is full of majesty."†

"Who is like unto thee among the gods, O Jehovah?

Who is like unto thee, adorable in holiness!

Fearful in praises, who workest wonders!

Thou extendest thy right hand; the earth swalloweth them."

Joy is more elevated, and exults in a bolder strain: it produces great sentiments and conceptions, seizes upon the most splendid imagery, and adorns it with the most animated language; nor does it hesitate to risk the most daring and unusual figures. In the Song of Moses, in the thanksgiving of Deborah and Baruch, what sublimity do we find, in sentiPs. xxix. 3, 4. Ex. xv. 11, 12.

* Ps. xcix. 1.

ment, in language, in the general turn of the expression! But nothing can excel in this respect that noble exultation of universal nature, in the psalm which has been so often commended, where the whole animated and inanimate creation unite in the praises of their Maker. Poetry here seems to assume the highest tone of triumph and exultation, and to revel, if I may so express myself, in all the extravagance of joy :

Tell in high harmonious strains,
Tell the world Jehovah reigns!

He, who framed this beauteous whole,

He, who fix'd each planet's place;

Who bade unnumber'd orbs to roll,

In destined course, through endless space.

Let the glorious Heavens rejoice,

The hills exult with grateful voice;

Let ocean tell the echoing shore,

And the hoarse waves with humble voice adore!

Let the verdant plains be glad ;

The trees in blooming fragrance clad!

Smile with joy, ye desert lands,

And, rushing torrents, clap your hands!

Let the whole earth with triumph ring;

Let all that live with loud applause

Jehovah's matchless praises sing!—

He comes! He comes! Heaven's righteous King,
To judge the world by Truth's eternal laws.*

:

Nothing, however, can be greater or more magnificent than the representation of anger and indignation, particularly when the Divine wrath is displayed. Of this the whole of the prophetic Song of Moses affords an incomparable specimen. I have formerly produced from it some instances of a different kind; nor ought the following to be denied a place in these lectures:

"For I will lift my hand unto the heavens,

And I will say, I live for ever:

*Ps. xcvi. 10-13, and xcviii. 7-9.

INDIGNATION.

If I whet the brightness of my sword,
And my hand lay hold on judgment;

I will return vengeance to my enemies,
And I will recompense those that hate me:
I will drench my arrows in blood,

And my sword shall devour flesh;

With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the bushy head of the enemy.'

Nor is Isaiah less daring on a similar subject

"For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
And the year of my redeemed was come.

And I looked, and there was no one to help;
And I was astonished that there was no one to uphold;
Therefore mine own arm wrought salvation for me,
And mine indignation itself sustained me.
And I trod down the peoples in mine anger;

And I crushed them in mine indignation;

And I spilled their life-blood on the ground." †

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The display of the fury and the threats of the enemy, by which Moses finely exaggerates the horror of their unexpected ruin, is also wonderfully sublime

"The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake;

I will divide the spoil, my soul shall be satiated;

I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them:

Thou didst blow with thy breath; they were covered with the sea.” ‡

* Deut. xxxii. 40-42.

Isa. lxiii. 4-6.

Exod. xv. 9, 10.

CHURCH HISTORIANS.

UNTIL Merle D'Aubigné shewed how possible it is to fill it with a living interest, the dreariest department of literature was Church History. The annals of Baronius, the Madgeburg Centuriators, the long and laborious compilations of Tillemont, Fleury, and Du Pin, of Venema and Spanheim, as well as the compendiums of Jablonski and Mosheim, must often be consulted by the student in quest of information; but to a reader in search of fine thoughts or picturesque characters, of great principles ably developed, or affecting incidents suitably described, they will prove an absolute Sahara-a mere land of emptiness. Our own country is in this respect not worse off than its neighbours; for, if nothing can be more dull than the tedious pages of Strype and the one-sided pages of Collier, there is much amusement in Fuller, and to the unadorned martyrology of Foxe we are riveted by the painful fascination of its affecting narrative. And, in our own time, the labours of M'Crie, Marsden, and Vaughan, awaken the hope of histories which will be Christian rather than Ecclesiastical, and from the perusal of which we may come away without feeling as adust and arid as if we had spent a day in Doctors' Commons.

BISHOP BURNET.

It is by a sort of anachronism-inevitable in a book like this that we here introduce the honest and heartily Protestant Bishop of Salisbury; for the greater part of his "History of the Reformation" was published in the century preceding. But perhaps we shall entitle ourselves to the use of his name in this connexion, by quoting from his "Life and Times,"

which, of course, was published after his death, and which is certainly one of the most entertaining books of the period. Edinburgh, September 18, 1643. He

Burnet was born at

died, March 17, 1715.

lent biographies of Sir

Besides his histories, he wrote excel-
Matthew Hale, of Bishop Bedell, and

of the Earl of Rochester, and an exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles, which, in common with his "Pastoral Care," still retain an honourable rank in theological literature.

Character and Death of Archbishop Leighton.

I writ so earnestly to Leighton, that he came to London [1684.] Upon his coming to me [in London], I was amazed to see him, at above seventy, look still so fresh and well, that age seemed as if it were to stand still with him. His hair was still black, and all his motions were lively. He had the same quickness of thought, and strength of memory, but, above all, the same heat and life of devotion, that I had ever seen in him. When I took notice to him upon my first seeing him how well he looked, he told me he was very near his end for all that, and his work and journey both were now almost done. This at that time made no great impression on me. He was the next day taken with an oppression, and, as it seemed, with a cold and with stitches, which was indeed a pleurisy.

The next day Leighton sunk so, that both speech and sense went away of a sudden. And he continued panting about twelve hours, and then died without pangs or convulsions. I was by him all the while. Thus I lost him who had been for so many years the chief guide of my whole life. He had lived ten years in Sussex, in great privacy, dividing his time wholly between study and retirement, and the doing of good; for, in the parish where he lived, and in the parishes round about, he was always employed in preaching, and in reading prayers.