Ver. 17. Introduces eos, & plantabis in monte hereditatis tua, firmiffimo babitacula tuo quod operatus ess Domine: Sanctuarium tuum, Domine, quod firmave

runt manus tuæ.

Ver. 18. Dominus regnabit in æternum, & ultra

Ver. 19. Ingreffus eft enim eques Pharao cum curribus & equitibus ejus in mare; & reduxit fuper eos Dominus aquas maris: filii autem Ifrael ambulaverunt per ficcum in medio ejus.

Ver. 17. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, Lord, which thou haft made for thee to dwell in: in the fanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have -established.

Ver. 18. The Lord fhall reign for ever and ever.

Ver. 19. For the horfe of Pharaoh went in with his chariots, and with his horsemen into the fea; and the Lord brought again the waters of the fea upon them: but the children of Ifrael went on dry-land in the midst of the fea.

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Explained according to the rules of Rhetoric... 1

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DI CORREN vico Jiuow did HIS excellent Song may juftly be confidered as one of the moft eloquent pieces of antiquityt The turn of it is great, the thoughts noble, the file fublime and magnificent, the expreffions ftrong, and the figures bold; every part of it abounds with imas ges that ftrike the mind, and poffefs the imagination. This piece, which fome believe was compofed by Mofes in Hebrew verfe, furpaffes the most beautiful defcriptions, which the Heathens have given us in this way. Virgil and Horace, though the most perfect mod dels of poetical cloquence, have not writ any thing comparable to it. No man can fet a higher value. than I do on thofe two great poets, and I ftudied them close, with the utmoft pleafare, for feveral years. Nevertheless, when I read what Virgil wrote in praise of Auguftus, in the beginning of the third Book of the Georgics, and at the end of the eighth neidq and what he makes the prieft Evander fing in the fame Book, in honour of Hercules; though theft pafla! ges are vaftly fine, they feem groveling to me in comu parifon with the fong in queftion, Virgil methinks: is all ice, Mofes all fire. The fame may be affirmed of the fourteenth and fifteenth Odes of the fourth Book, and in the laft of the Epodes. the fourteenth and fifteenth C

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b

A circumftance which feems to that we wo

s to favour these two poets, and other profane writers, is, that we find in them a cadence, a harmony and of which is not to be met with and

Scriptures tile, y

But

then we commonly read them in a tranflation; and it is well known, that the beft French tranflators of Ci

■ Ver. 16, 39.

*Z 9[ÇUT 1295_90101 Ver. 7283ma musondè per. 287.

cero,

cero, Virgil and Horace, and Horace, disfigure their authors very much. Now, the original language of the Scripture must be vastly eloquent, fince there remains more inthe copies of it, than in

must be all the Latin works of ancient

Rome, and the Greek ones of Athens. The Scriptures are clofe, concife, and void of foreign ornaments, which would only weaken their impetuofity and fire; hate long perambulations, and reach the mark the fhortest way. They love to include a great many thoughts in few words, to introduce them as fo many fhafts; and to make thofe objects fenfible, which are the most remote from the fenfes, by lively and natural images of them. In a word, the fcriptures have a greatnefs, ftrength, energy, and majeftic fimplicity, which raife them above every thing in the heathen eloquence. If the reader will but give himself the trou-" ble to compare the places above cited from Virgil and Horace, with the reflections I fhall now make, he will foon be convinced of the truth of what I fay.

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The great miracle which God wrought, when the children of Ifrael paffed through the Red-Sea, the Prophet's view in it is, to indulge himself in his tranfports of joy, admiration and gratitude, for this great miracle: to fing the praifes of God the deliverer, to offer up to him publick and folemn thanks, and to infpire the people with the fame fentiments.

EXPLICATION of the SONG.

Ver. 1.CANTEMUS (Heb. cantabo) Domino: Angloriofe enim magnificatus eft. Equum & afcenforem dejecit in mare. I will fing unto the Lord; " for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider "hath be thrown into the fea*

20190

Mofes

Mofes full of admiration, gratitude and joy, could he poffibly have better declared the emotions of his heart, than by this impetuous exordium, in which the lively gratitude of the people delivered, and the dreadful greatnefs of God the deliverer, are described?

This exordium is the bare or fimple propofition of the whole piece. It is, as it were, the extract and point of fight, to which the several parts of the picture refer. This we must carry in our minds, as we read the fong, to comprehend the artifice with which the prophet draws fo many beauties, fo much magnificence, from a propofition, which at firft fight feems fo fimple and barren.

I will fing, is much more energetic, more affecting, more tender than it would be in the plural, we will fing. This victory of the Hebrews over the Egyptians, is not like those common victories which one nation gains over another, and whofe fruits are general, vague, common, and almost imperceptible to every individual. Here every thing is peculiar to every Ifraelite, every thing is perfonal. At this firft inftant, every one reflects on his own chains which are broken; every one imagines he fees his cruel mafter drowned; every one is fenfible of the value of his liberty which is fecured to him for ever. For it is natural to the heart of man, in extreme dangers, to refer every thing to himself, and to confider himself as every thing.

The horfe and his rider bath he thrown into the fea. This fingular, the horfe, his rider, which includes the totality of horfes and riders, is much more energetic than the plural would have been. Befides, the fingular denotes much better the ease and suddenness of the drowning. The Egyptian cavalry was numerous, formidable, and covered whole plains. It would have required feveral days to have defeated and cut them to pieces: but God defeated them in an inftant, with a fingle effort, at a blow. He overthrew, drowned, overwhelmed them all, as though they had been but one

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horse,