forgive us) with the taste of this refin'd age! To fuch a degree of degeneracy are we grown; and thefe are the difmal effects of loofe and impious authors! 'Tis hop'd, however, our condition is not defperate: The difeafe is deplorable, but may admit of a cure. Virtue has fill her champions and admirers, who are not afham'd of her defpis'd caufe, nor dread to ftem the threatning torrent. Truth and virtue are unconquerable; tho' long opprefs'd and fmother'd, they'll at length break forth afresh, and fhine in all their native luftre and beauty. Happy! Should our days afford fuch a profpect as this. Should it be told to pofterity, that these times faw vice confounded, and virtue fit enthron'd on the ruin of impiety. One great obftacle that lyes ftill in the way is, that fo many men of extraordinary fenfe and wit engage in the caufe of irreligion. Wou'd thefe but once defert the forry caufe they efpoufe, and come over to the fide of virtue, wou'd they fhew but half that zeal in advancing religi on, they have unhappily done in difcarding it, the defir'd work would go on gloriously; for certainly they who can fet off vice with advantage, and give fin itself an agreeable profpect, might far more eafily recommend virtue; might with far lefs pains reform the world, than they are at to ruin it. Virtue is in itself excellent and charming, and wants but a little art to render it victorious. Wou'd but our great geniuses then employ their pens in its fervice, what a happy change should we foon fee! How would they attract the attention of mankind? What force or act wou'd be able to withstand such skilful advocates when employed in fo good a caufe? How faft would vice lofe ground, and blush at her own deformity? How would the foft and moving ftrains of poetry tame the favage, infpire the ftupid, melt the cruel, quench the flames of luft, and blow up the pure flames of devotion! Thefe wou'd be the certain effects of divine and virtuous poetry. May the wits of the nation at length make the ex periment, and fo bless the world and themselves together. Thus now I have deliver'd my mind with fome warmth and freedom, but the importance of the thing, I prefume, will fufficiently excufe me; not that I expect to efcape uncenfured, this were to betray my ignorance of the Age we live in: But 'tis better I think to fuffer man's judgment than God's, better to be cenfur'd for defending religion, than for being a traitor to its caufe. This is what however pleafes me. My feverest cenfurers will, when death approaches them, alter their opinion, and wish, with me, they had been faithful to God, and to their confciences; they'll give a world then to live over thofe precious minutes again, which are now spent perhaps in the wildest extravagancies. Virtue will then appear to them in all its charms, and vice in all its deformity; and they'll be at length fadly convinc'd, that fuch are the only wife and happy men who fear God, and live as the heirs of glory and immortality. It remains now that a word or two be faid concerning the collection the world is here prefented with. The authors are men of unquestionable reputation in these matters; the poems were difpers'd thro' feveral volumes, and most of them mix'd with others of a quite different nature, fo that tho' printed already, they cou'd come into but very few hands, and will be altogether new to most people. May the whole be attended with God's bleffing, and help to revive languishing piety a mong us. By ANONYMOUS AUTHORS. A paraphrafe on the 7th chapter of the Proverbs, A pious wish, Directions to happiness, 256 255 256 Human frailty, Hymn, 250 I 18 Hymn, 20 Hymn, Нути, 21 By Mr. Bow DEN. Dialogue between a good spirit newly parted from the body, and the angels that came to conduct him to glory, Hymn, By the Earl of C--L--LE. The Earl of C--1--le's advice to his fon, By Mr. COWLEY. Chrift's paffion. Taken out of a Greek ode, By Mr. DENNIS. Te deum paraphrased, Page 45 By Mr. DRYDEN. Veni creator fpiritus. Tranflated into a paraphrafe, 102 And tho' after my skin worms, &c. Job. xix. 26. A paraphrafe on Cant. vii. 11. A paraphrafe on Rev. chap. i. from v. 13, to v. 18. A paraphrafe on John xxi. 17 A paraphrafe on John iii. 16. Paraphrafe on Micah vi. 6, 7. 92 264 29 32 83 263 The vanity of the world, Thoughts on death, 97 90 84 31 By By Mr. MARVELL. A dialogue between the foul and body, A dialogue between the refolved foul and created Page 180 pleafure, 185 Bermudas, 179 The confummation, A pindaric ode on the paffion of our Saviour, The 139th pfalm paraphras'd to the 14th verfe, By Mr. OLDHAM, Paraphrafe upon the hymn of St. Ambrose, 207 98 104 258 By the Chevalier RAMSAY. Apaftoral elegy upon the death of Lucinda, 65 A |