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Song of triumph over the mystical Babylon. Revelation xviii.

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SACRED LITERATURE.

SECTION I.

Ir is the design of the following pages, to prove, by examples, that the structure of clauses, sentences, and periods, in the New Testament, is frequently regulated after the model afforded in the poetical parts of the Old and it is hoped, that, in the course of investigation necessary for the accomplishment of this design, somewhat may be incidentally contributed, towards the rectification or establishment of the received text; some grammatical difficulties may be removed; some intricacies of construction may be disentangled; some light may be thrown on the interpretation of passages hitherto obscure; and several less obvious proprieties of expression, and beauties, both of conception and of style, may be rendered familiar to the attentive reader: while, if the thoughts, not hastily or indeliberately submitted to the public, shall approve themselves to competent minds, a new, and, if my own experience be not deceitful,

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an agreeable field of enquiry (1) will be opened to students of the Sacred Volume.

The acknowledged sphere of Hebrew poetry was, in former days, much narrower than at present: it was then the general, and almost universal opinion, that the books of the prophets were written in mere prose (2): the style, indeed, the thoughts, the imagery, and the expressions, were allowed to be often poetical; sometimes poetical in the highest degree: but, with few exceptions, the composition was not supposed by the critics to possess those distinctive features, whatever they might be, which had confirmed the traditional claim of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, and certain occasional hymns, to be accounted poetical in the strict sense of the term. At length, however, the schools of the prophets were to be restored to their ancient honours: it was not enough that their title to the gift of prophecy was undisputed; their title, also, to the gift of poetry, was to be asserted and maintained: for this, and for other distinguished purposes, Divine Providence was pleased to raise up and to cherish, in the university of Oxford, a man eminently qualified by nature and art, by a poetical mind, a sagacious intuition, a pure taste, and an acquaintance, no less intimate than extensive, with the best remains of antiquity, to attempt and achieve the restoration of a branch of knowledge, which, in the lapse of ages, and through the decay and downfal of the Hebrew language, had, to all human appearance, irrecoverably perished. Numerous efforts,

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