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"felf in fecret places, that I fhall not fee him, "faith the LORD? Do not I fill heaven and

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earth, faith the LORD?" And it is told us, Ats iv. 19. that " PETER and JOHN anfwered and " faid to them," to the Jewish council," whether " it be right in the sight of GOD to hearken unto "you more than unto God, judge ye." So 1 Cor. iv. 21. "What will ye? Shall I come unto you " with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meeknefs?" and Gal. iv. 21. "Tell me, ye that s desire to be under the law, do ye not hear "s the law?"

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§ 4. The use of this Figure feems to lie,

(1) In its familiarity. It has fomething of the air of conversation; and though discourses ought not to be turned into mere conversation, yet a proper and decent mixture of fuch a fort of freedom entertains our hearers, both on account of its variety, and its apparent condescension and good-nature.

(2) This Figure pays a compliment to our audience, in that there is an appeal made to their judgment, their equity, and good difposition, Deference and honour are fhewn to the perfons we addrefs, and our hearers are pleased with our modesty and submission,

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(3) In the Anacoenofis there appear a great regard to truth, and an assurance of the goodness of our cause. We are so fully satisfied that justice is on our side, that we venture the matter for a decision to the common principles and dictates of reafon and equity.

(4) This Figure, when addressed to an adverfary, carries powerful conviction into his confcience, and makes him as it were condemn himfelf. A finer inftance of which fort perhaps we cannot find, than in the expoftulation of GOD himself with an ungrateful and difobedient people, in Mal. i. 6. " A fon honours his father, and a fervant his mafter: if I then be a father, "where is my fear? and if I be a master, where

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is my honour?" Common language only glances like an arrow, and lightly rafes the fkin; but this Figure, like a dagger, plunges at once

into the heart,

I fhall conclude with the account VOSSIUS gives of this Figure, in which you will obferve a coincidence with the fentiments that have already been passed upon it. "This Figure, says he, is "well adapted to a vindication of ourselves, and "carries a great deal of probability with it: it

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is efpecially of fervice in fhewing our confi"dence in our cause, and in pushing our adver, fary; for if we confer with our adversary, we "take the ready method to prefs and extort a "confefsion; or if we difcourfe with our judges, "we influence their minds, while they see that "we rest our caufe upon their equity *.”

* Aptum eft hoc schema purgationi, multumque habet probabilitatis. Imprimis vero utile eft confidenti & refellenti. Nam fi cum adverfario communicemus, valebit ad urgendam atque extorquendam confeffionem. Sin autem judicibus prodeft ad eorum animos movendos, dum vident nos in ipforum æquitate fiduciam noftram collocare. Vossii Rhetoric. ib. iv. § 16.

CHAPTER VIII.

The ANASTROPHE Confidered.

§ 1. The definition of the Anaftrophe. §2. Examples of this Figure from MILTON, VIRGIL, and HORACE. § 3. An inftance from the Apostle PAUL, in Romans i. 1---7. § 4. The 114th Pfalm confidered as an Anastrophe, with Doctor WATTS's remarks and verfion. § 5. An obfer vation upon the Anaftrophe, and cautions concerning the use of it.

$ 1. A Nastrophe, or inversion, is a Figure

by which we fufpend our fenfe, and the hearer's expectation; or a Figure by which we place laft, and perhaps at a great remove from the beginning of the fentence, what, according to common order, fhould have been mentioned first.

§ 2. We have a charming inftance of this kind in the following lines, which are part of a fpeech of EvE to ADAM in the ftate of inno

cence:

Sweet

* From avas geÇu, I invert.

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Sweet is the breath, of morn, her rifing fweet,
But neither breath of morn, when the afcends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rifing fun
On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flow't,
Glift'ring with dew, nor fragrance after show'rs,
Nor grateful ey❜ning mild, nor filent night t
With this her folemn bird, nor walk by noon,
Or glitt'ring ftar-light, without thee is fweet *.

"The ancients," fays the Archbishop of CAMBRAY, "by frequent inversions made the sweetest "cadence, variety, and pafsionate exprefsions, easy to the Poet. Inversions were even turned "into noble Figures, and kept the mind fuspended in expectation of fomething great. We have an instance of this in VIRGIL's eighth Eclogue, which begins,

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Paftorum mufam, Damonis & Alphefibæi,
Immemor herbarum quos eft mirata juvenca,
Certantes, quorum ftupefactæ carmine Lynces,
Et mutata fuos requierunt flumina curfus:
Damonis mufam dicemus, & Alphefibæi,

"

T

"If you take away this inversion," fays the Archbishop, and place the words according to "the grammatical order and construction, you "destroy all their force, and grace, and har"mony "

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MILTON's Paradife Loft, book iv. line 641.
Letter to the French Academy.

HORACE,

HORACE, in an ode of his that celebrates the praifes of DRUSUS, the fon-in-law of the Emperor AUGUSTUS, bears us away in his fublime ardor, without fhewing us whither we are going, or giving us time to breathe; and we cannot find the great character he designs to applaud till the 18th line, though he is raising our expectations, and paying honours to his Hero throughout the long preface.

Such as the bird, that from above
Lanches th' avenging bolt of Java;
To whom the Lord of earth and heav'n
The empire o'er the fowls has giv'n,
Rewarding high his duteous deed
The rape of lovely GANYMEDE,
Whom youth and his paternal fire
To tempt him from his nest conspire,
Stranger to toils; whom, when no ftain,
Nor fkirts of vernal clouds remain,
The strong impetuous gales invite,
While his heart quivers at the flight
To his firft onfet. On the fold,
Upon his pinions swift and bold;
Now down he sweeps: his next delight,
Roaming for prey, and fond of fight,
T'attack the dragon's dreadful fires,
And in his talons grafp his fpires.
Or fuch as fome ill-fated fawn,
Browfing along the flow'ry lawn,
Beholds, all trembling with surprise,
A lion in his terrors rife,

Juft wean'd, and bent to rend, to flay.
With his young tooth his helpless prey;

Such,

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