Will make our metre flat and bare As Hebrew verse of bishop Hare: Add, that regard to rhyme is gone, And verse and prose will be all one; Or, what is worse, create a pother By species neither one nor t'other: which there is room to fear From dupes of Aristippus here— The fancied sage, in feign'd retreat, Laughs at the follies of the great With wit, invention, fancy, humour, Enough to gain the thing a rumour; But if he writes resolv'd to shine In unconfin'd and motley line, Let him Pindaric it away, And quit the lazy labour'd lay; Leave to La Farre and to La France, The warbling, soothing nonchalance. When will our bards unlearn at last The puny style, and the bombast? Nor let the pitiful extremes Disgrace the verse of English themes; Matter, no more, in manner paint Foppish, affected, queer, and quaint; Nor bounce above Parnassian ground, To drop the sense, and catch the sound: Except-in writing for the stage, Where sound is best for buskin'd rage; Except-in operas, where sense Is but superfluous expense: Be then the bards of sounding pitch Consign'd to Garrick and to Rich; To Tweedledums and Tweedledees, The singy songing Euterpees.
TO HURLOTHRUMBO, OR THE SUPERNATURAL'.
LADIES and gentlemen, my lord of Flame Has sent me here to thank you in his name; Proud of your smiles, he's mounted many a story Above the tip-top pinnacle of glory: Thence he defies the sons of clay, the critics; Fellows," says he, "that are mere paralytics, With judgments lame, and intellects that halt, Because a man outruns them-they find fault." He is indeed, to speak my poor opinion, Out of the reach of critical dominion.
Adso! here's one of 'em.→
This play was written by Mr. Samuel Johnson, a dancing master, of Cheshire, and performed in the year 1722, at the Little Theatre, in the Haymarket, where it had a run of above thirty nights. We must refer the reader to the piece itself, to give him a just idea of the humour and propriety of the following epilogue; which was written by our author, with a friendly intention to point out to Mr. Johnson the extravagance and absurdity of his play. Mr. Johnson, however, so far from perceiving the ridicule, received it as a compliment, and had it both spoken and printed.
Au. Wants what? why now, for all your cantWhat one ingredient of a play is wanting? [ing, Music, love, war, death, madness without sham, Done to the life by persons of the dram: Scenes and machines, descending and arising; Thunder and lightning; ev'ry thing surprising! Cr. Play, farce, or opera, is't?
Au. No matter whether 'Tis a rehearsal of 'em all together. But come, sir, come, troop off, ald Blundermonger, And interrupt the Epilogue no longer.
Hurlo, proceed.[Author drives the Critic off the stage.
Hurlo. Troth! he says true enough, The stage has given rise to wretched stuff: Critic or player; a Dennis or a Cibber, Vie only which shall make it go down glibber; A thousand murd'rous ways they cast about To stifle it but murder like-'twill out. Our author fairly, without so much fuss, Shows it-in puris naturalibus; Pursues the point beyond its highest height, Then bids his men of fire, and ladies bright, Mark how it looks! when it is out of sight. So true a stage, so fair a play for laughter, There never was before, nor ever will come
Never, no never; not while vital breath Defends ye from that long-liv'd mortal, Death. Death!-something hangs on my prophetic tongue,
I'll give it utterance-be it right or wrong: Handel himself shall yield to Hurlothrumbo, And Bononcini too shall cry-"Succumbo." That's if the ladies condescend to smile; Their looks make sense or nonsense in our isle.
DR. MIDDLETON'S EXAMINATION OF THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON'S DISCOURSES CONCERNING THE USE AND INTENT OF PROPHECY,
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." THIS passage, sir, which has engag'd of late So many writers in such high debate About the nature of prophetic light Has not, I think, been understood aright: Nor does the critic Middleton's new tract Relate the meaning fairly, or the fact.
But let this suit the priesthood, if you will, Pray what foundation for his critic skill? For Peter's doubting what he saw and heard- For scruples-first imagin'd, then infer'd?
The reason here assign'd is "Fear and dread, So great that Peter knew not what he said; 50 Fell on their faces at its awful view; He, and his partners in the vision too, Came to, and rais'd them, when 't was overpast," Nor durst look up, till Jesus, at the last,
O vain suggestion? could they see and hear Without an adoration? without fear? If they were struck with more than mortal awe, Their very fear was proof of what they saw; For strength to see, and weakness to sustain, Made, both alike, the heavenly vision plain: 60 Nor bas he once attempted to devise [prise. What else should strike them with so great sur- If, overcome with reverential dread, Th' amaz' apostle wist not what he said, 10 Unbias'd reason would itself confess A greater light diminishing its less. Thus in the sacred books, if we recall The first recorded presence since the fall, Themselves from God when our first parents hid, It might be said, they wist not what they did: 70 Yet were they taught their comfortable creed, The promise of the woman's conq'ring seed; As here, th' apostles were empower'd to see That Jesus, God's beloved Son, was he.
Peter, you know, sir, by his own account, Was with our Saviour in the holy Mount; Where he, and two apostles more, beheld The shechinah, or glory that excell'd; Saw that divine appearance of our lord, Which three of the evangelists record; His face a sun, and light his whole array, Prophetic glimpse of that eternal day, Wherein, the glance of Sun and Moon supprest, God shall himself enlighten all the blest; Shall from his temple, from the sacred shrine, Shine forth of human majesty divine, To this grand vision, which the chosen three Were call'd before they tasted death to see, Was added proof to the astonish'd ear, That made presential Deity appear; And by a voice from God the Father's throne, His well beloved Son was then made known.
Now search of mysteries the whole abyss, What more entire conviction, sir, than this? Of human reason search the wide pretence, What more miraculous, and plain to sense? But reason oft interprets past event Just as the human heart, and will is bent: The doctor, whom his own productions call No hearty friend to miracles at all, Disguises this to bring his point about, As if both sight and hearing left a doubt; Left some perplexity on Peter's mind, Quite against all that he himself defin'd. "This wond'rous apparition, sir, might leave Something too hard precisely to conceive; And circumstances raise within his soul Suspense about the nature of the whole1"
What kind of sauntering spirit could suggest Such groundless cavil to a Christian breast? What Christian priest, at least, would choose to His Saviour's glory in a light so faint? [paint
1 "This wonderful apparition and heavenly voice might be accompanied with such circumstances as would naturally leave some doubt and perplexity on the mind concerning the precise manner and nature of the whole transaction. For Peter, as we read, was in such a fright and amazement at what he saw and heard, that he knew not what he said: and both he and the two other apostles then with him, James and John, were so greatly terrified, that they fell upon their faces to the ground, and durst not so much as look up, till Jesus, when the vision was over, came to raise and encourage them."-Dr. Middleton's Treatise, p. 55.
If, when God spake, each fell upon his face- How oft in ancient times was this the case? What prophet, sir, to whom he spake of yore, His voice, or vision, unsupported bore? Moses himself, when unawares he trod On holy ground and heard the voice of God, Tho' turn'd aside on purpose to inquire What kept the bush unburnt amidst the fire, Stop'd in his search by the divine rebuke, Straight hid his face, and was afraid to look. Abram, the covenanted sire of all, Who, in his faith, upon the Lord should call, When he receiv'd the scal of it, the sign Of circumcision, from the voice divine, Fell on his face-and must we then conceit His proofs, that God talk'd with him, incomplete
Read how Isaiah thought himself undone When he had seen God's glory in his Son; Until the seraph, with a living coal From off the altar, purg'd the prophet's soul. Read how Ezekiel too, with like surprise, When Heav'n was open'd to his wond'ring eyes, Fell on his face, at the same glorious sight; Till, by God's spirit, made to stand upright, Thus Daniel prostrate, thus the great divine Who saw the apocaliptic scenes-in fine, Thus human strength alone could never stand, When God appear'd, unaided by his hand. To urge a reason then from fear, to doubt The glorious fact, that could not be without, Only befits a feeble, faithless mind, To heav'nly voice and vision deaf and blind.
The learned prelate, against whose Discourse This gentleman has aim'd his present force, Thought it absurd in any one to make St. Peter, for his own conviction's sake, Say, that old prophecies should be prefer'd To God's immediate voice, which he had heard: Such a comparison, he thought, became No sober man-much less the saint-to frame;
REMARKS ON MIDDLETON'S EXAMINATION.
Concluding it impossible from hence
That this could ever be St, Peter's sense. Tho' "tis not only possible, it seems, But weak, moreover 2" as the doctor deems, Frac To doubt it-a comparison so just
And hence th' apostle (is the inf'rence drawn, "That claims the special notice of the lawn;" That comes to clear this famous prelate's sight) With reason good prefer'd prophetic light. So, introduce an Hebrew, foreign term; -" 120 Take all for true that quoted lines affirm; And then assume that the apostle too Just thought and argued, as these critics do; And we may prove from Peter's own design, That God the Father's voice was not divine.
Peter not only might have made, but must. And then he cites rabbinical remarks, To prove the paradox from learned clerks: Not that he minds what any of them writes, But most despises whom he chiefly cites. Lightfoot's authority, to instance one, Is first, and last, and most insisted on; "The soundness of whose faith he interjects, And erudition nobody suspects3:" Or if the reader wants a full display
Of these endowments,-" Lightfoot shows the 131 How, by assuming liberty to take
For granted, straight, what premises we make; Whatever notions or opinions tend
To favour that which we would recommend, We may demonstrate, by such arts as these, A doctrine true, divine, or what we please." This, sir, is his description of sound faith.- Let us now see what argument it bath: This trusty evidence, amongst the rest,
But should the prelate think it mere grimace To talk of fable in St. Peter's case, Whose words exclude it, and expressly speak Of heav'nly truth; how frivolous and weak, In his more sober and sedate esteem, Must all this patch-work erudition seem! How will a Christian bishop too conceive Of what the doctor's margins interweave, Touching that scripture, where our Saviour And Heav'n the glorifying answer made! [pray'd, While from his note, sir, nothing can be learn'd But casual thunder, or bath-kol concern'd 5. Will he not ask-Is it this author's aim, Under his bath-kol figments to disclaim All faith in voices of a heavenly kind?
Is call'd to prove a voice from Heav'n a jest; 140 Is that the purpose of his doubting mind?
The Jews bath-kol, a cunning acted part,
A fable, phantasy, or magic art;
Voice of the devil, or of devilish elves, To cheat the people and promote themselves:
1 P. 47. "Let us now return to the bishop's Dis- Courses, in which he goes on to demonstrate the inconsistency of the author's (Collins) exposition, by telling us, that it makes Peter to say, in his own person, that the dark prophecies of the Old Testament were a surer and more certain evi- dence to himself, than the immediate voice of God, which he had heard with his own ears. And is it possible,' adds he, that St. Peter, or any man in his wits, could make such a com- parison?' To which question, so smartly and confidently put, I readily answer, that it is not only possible, that St. Peter might make such a comparison, but even weak to imagine that he could make any other."
You see th' apostle is extremely clear, That such a voice himself did really hear: He also had such wond'rous proofs beside, That voice concurrent cannot be deny'd. And, when our Lord had been baptis'd, there A voice from Heav'n, in words the very same. Here, in his answer'd prayer, tho', by mistake, [mine." Some said it thunder'd, some, an angel spake, We have his own authority divine; "This voice," said he, " came for your sakes, not Would not the bishop rightly thus oppose 181 Plain scripture facts to learning's empty shows? What signifies it then, upon the whole, How poor blind Jews have talk'd about bath-kol? What jarring critics of a later day, Or Lightfoot, here thrice ridicul'd, may say? Or Middleton himself-whose pious care For giftless churches prompts him to compare Voices from Heav'n, in his assuming page, To miracles beyond th' apostles age": Taking for granted, without more ado, His wild hypothesis about them too.
Prodigious effort! see obstructed quite The Gospel promise, and the Christian right;
3 P. 52. "Doctor Lightfoot also, the soundness of whose faith and erudition is allowed by all, speaks more precisely to my present purpose, and says, that If we observe two things, first, that the Jewish nation, under the second temple, was given to magical arts beyond measures; we may safely suspect that those voices, which they thought to be from Heaven, and noted with the name of bath-kol, were either formed by the devil in the air, to deceive the people; or, by magicians with devilish art, to promote their own affairs.' From which he draws this inference, which I would recommend to the special consideration of this eminent prelate: 'Hence,' adds he, the apostle Peter saith with good reason, that the word of prophecy was surer than a voice from Heaven.'"pany believed it to be nothing more than an acci
4 P. 141. "Now by the same method of reasoning, and the liberty which his lordship every where assumes, of supposing whatever premises be wants, and taking every thing for granted, which tends to confirm his hypothesis, we may prove any doctrine to be true, or divine, or whatever we please to make of it, Dr. Lightfoot has shown us the way."
5 P. 48. "N. B. Thus when Jesus, a little before his death, was addressing himself to the Father, in the midst of his disciples and people of Jerusalem, and saying: Father, save me from this hour; Father, glorify thy name.' There came a voice from Heaven, saying: 'I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. Upon which the people, that stood by and heard it, said that it thundered; others said, that an angel spake to him. (John xii. 28.) That is, part of the com
dental clap of thunder; while others took it to be the bath-kol, or the voice of God, or of an angel, which was accompanied always with thunder."
6 P. 142, 145, 171. P. 50. "The reality of this oracular voice (bath-kol) is attested, as I have said, by all the Jewish writers, after the cessation of prophecy, in the same positive manner as the miraculous gifts of the Christian church by the primitive fathers, after the days of the apostles."
Cut off at once miraculous supply; All healing ceases when apostles die: No tongue inspir'd, no demon dispossest; With them the working spirit went to rest: Forgot the prophecies that Christ had made, And left believers without signal aid: Although no limit, in what scripture saith, Be put to miracles, but want of faith; Although, without one, foolish to pretend To know their nature, or to fix their end; Yet if a daring genius advertise
That all but scripture miracles are lies,
Not, in his haste, aware that what he said Knock'd all the bath-kol pedantry o' th' head; That what, he thought, his borrow'd pages won, His own gave up, as soon as he had done. 200 For if " St. Peter's words do not imply, What he himself was most persuaded by; But only show what arguments were fit For their attention, sir, to whom he writ:" The bishop's reas'ning, which he strives to cloud, Is not unanswer'd only, but allow'd: 260 The very thing pretended to be shown Is, by his own confession, overthrown.
What crowds embrace the new belief, and hope! It suits their taste - and saves them from the pope. Others contend that wond'rous gifts survive The first three centuries-or four or five. Then, sir, they close their jealous, partial view, And grudge diviner influence its due: Take diff'rent stations in the doctor's track, Blaming, and backing his more close attack; All miracles, beyond his earlier fence, Are want of honesty, or want of sense: All faith in bishops, confessors, and saints, Who witness facts, a Christian priest recants: They must-he says they must-be fables all, That pass the bounds of his gigantic wall.
Such strange delusion if a man embrace, Without some voice, some miracle of grace, It is in vain, to reas'ners of his cast, To urge the evidence of ages past: With minds resolv'd to disbelieve, or doubt, Small is the force of history throughout. Freedom of thought exerted, and of will, To claim the privilege of judging ill, Prophets, apostles, martyrs cannot move, Nor holy church, throughout the world, disprove. But to return-how does his first assault On miracles defend a second fault! Or rabbies, or rabbinical divines,
Help Lightfoot's comment, or his own designs! Lightfoot, without detracting from his skill, Wrote, in this instance, with a careless quill: Such inf'rence else had never been annext; He must have seen that the apostles text Could not, with reason either good or great, Compare the prophets with a dev'lish cheat. This learned writer, sir, did not attend To Peter's meaning, or not apprehend; Or, if excuse may for his haste atone, He did not well, perhaps, express his own. Since, by his present citer here, you see How quite forgetful learned men may be: For after all the scraps he had amass'd, And this triumphant inference at last:
The text," he says, "had, in St. Peter's views, No ref'rence to himself-but to the Jews 7." 250
7 P. 53. "Yet St. Peter's words, after all, as they are expounded by the freethinking author above mentioned, do not necessarily imply him to mean, that prophecy was a surer argument to himself, than the voice from Heaven, but to the Jewish converts in general, who did not hear that voice, but received it only from the reports of others. It was not his view in this epistle to declare what sort of arguments was the most convincing to himself, but to propose such as were most worthy of the attention of those to whom he was writing."-P. 54. "When St. Peter therefore says, we have a more sure word of prophecy:
Do but observe the point in question, sir, On which the doctor makes this learned stir; How he, who talks of " its perpetual change By others," takes the liberty to range:
When a comparison was judg'd absurd, Peter could make no other, was the word; Then by a contradiction plain and flat, Peter's comparison could not be that; And then again,-supposing that it could, Thus he attempts to make the matter good. "Let Peter be himself assur'd," says he, "As fully as 'twas possible to be, Of ev'ry circumstance that past; he might Have still prefer d the old prophetic light: This was a standing evidence, and lay Open to cool delib'rate reason's sway; A firmer argument, that brought along Conviction, sir, more permanent and strong, 253 To men of sober senses, and sedate,
Than could the vision which his words relate." Set the perplex'd equivocation by "That's here involv'd," how easy the reply To reasons void, if we distinguish right Betwixt a real, and reported sight: For be the proof, that prophecies procure, More to the Jews comparatively sure, As oft the text is commented upon, (Thro' a mistake, as will appear anon) Yet his conviction vacates the pretence Of reason, argument, and sober sense; Because the prophets, here to be compar'd, As evidences of what God declar'd, Could but originally hear and see; And be as fully satisfy'd as he.
The use of reason has, I apprehend, When full assurance is attain'd, an end: When we are certain that we see, and hear, And ev'ry circumstance is plain, and clear,
the occasion of his words oblige us to interpret them, as spoken, not with any particular re ference to himself, but to the general body of the Jewish converts."
P. 62. "And thus the apostle's sense, as it is expounded by the author, (Collins) is clear and consistent, not liable to any exception but what flows from that perplexity, in which his lordship has involved it by his use of equivocal terms, and perpetual change of the point in question."
P. 52. "Let Peter be as perfectly assured, as we can suppose him to be of every circumstance, which passed in the Mount, he might still take prophecy, considered as a standing evidence, always lying open to the cool and deliberate examination of reason to be a firmer argument on the whole, and to carry a more permanent cosviction with it to the sober senses of men, than the vision with which he here compares it,”
What can examination teach, or learn? By what criterion, sir, shall we discern, When reason comes to be so deadly cool, The sage deliberator from the fool?
Couceive St. Peter, if you can, entic'd (Eye-witness of the majesty of Christ; Of what the Father, in the Mount, had done By showing forth the glory of the Son) To disbelieve his senses, and to pore Some ancient standing evidences o'er; To see if that, which, on the holy spot,
He saw and heard, was seen and heard, or not: Would such a cool deliberating plan Have made him pass for a more sober man? If so, then Middleton has hit the white; Sherlock, if not, is thus far in the right; And well may say that no man, in his wits, Could be attack'd by such cold reas'ning fits. Buthus the frigid argument is brought, Why Peter might, in full persuaded thought, Prefer predictions in the ancient law
To what himself most surely heard, and saw: "For, after all the full convincing scene, Which he had witness'd, how did he demean?- With faith infirm, he shamefully deny'd His Master, seen so greatly glorify'd'."
Yes; so he did-and gave an bumbling stroke To human confidence in reason's cloak: Enough to lay all syllogizing trust In bare conclusions only in the dust; An ample proof that, in a trying hour, Ev'n demonstration loses all its pow'r; That, without grace, and God's assisting hand, In time of need, no evidence can stand.
Suppose a person of the clearest head, In logic arts well grounded, and well read; If, with a selfish love to truth, alone, He arm himself with weapons all his own, When a temptation comes-alas! how soon The valiant reas'ner turns a mere poltroon! Peter, tho' void of learning, and of art, Had a courageous, had an honest heart; Had natural abilities, beyond
All those of which the critics are so fond: Had hidden qualities, beyond their ken; They fish for words he was to fish for men. His faith, in outward evidence, was such That Peter trusted to himself too much: When his denial plainly was foretold, What should have humbled made him grow more "Tho all should be offended-yet not I- Not death itself shall tempt me to deny." We see in him, sir, what the utmost height Of boasted reason, evidence, and light, Of courage, honesty, and even love Could do, without assistance from above: It could to humbler thoughts resist the call; It proudly could prefer itself to all: It could, in short, upon conclusions true, Do all that numbers upon false ones do; Rest on itself, be confident and bounce; And, when the call to suff'ring came-renounce. As human resolution, courage, skill, Conviction, evidence, or what you will,
P. 56. "For after all the convictions which he himself had received from it, we know, that bis faith was still so infirm, as to betray him into a Shameful denial of his Master, whom he had seen so wonderfully glorified."
Can, in their nature, only reach so far As things are subject to an human bar; All these, tho' actuating Peter's zeal, To Christian doctrine could not set the seal. God-like humility-the sacred root Whence ev'ry virtue branches into fruit, Lays the foundation of the Christian life; As reason governs that of human strife. And, I appeal, sir, setting grace aside, How oft is human reason human pride? Human desire of victory, or fame? A Babel tow'ring to procure a name? A seif assurance? an untutor'd boast? That can but form intention, at the most; Which, tho' directed right, must humbly ask Divine assistance to perform its task.
This Peter fail'd in-and a servant maid Made him, with all his bold resolves, afraid; With all his sure convictions, he began
To curse, and swear, and did not know the man. 'Till, for a lesson, wond'rously addrest To sink full deep into his humbled breast, The cock pronounc'd, by an awakening crow, Peter the man, whom Peter did not know.
But how, sir, did his coward speech betray Doubt of his Maker's glorious display? By what account in hist'ry are we taught That e'er it came into his frighted thought? Or, since 't is certain that he did deny, What prophecy did he prefer thereby? 'T is then a cold absurdity to draw, From Peter's weakness, this pretended flaw; To hint delusion in the god-like sight, Because the man was put into a fright: If, from distrust of evidence, his fears, From whence his bitter penitential tears? Whence was it that the holy pris'ner shook The soul of Peter, with one gracious look? No glory then, to credit, or distrust; And yet th' apostle's penitence was just; And he himself but proof, upon the whole, That grace alone can fortify a soul.
'Tis urg'd that, " on the other hand, we find, With faith confirm'd, and with enlighten'd mind, After the mission of the Holy Ghost,
That argument which he appli'd'the most 410 Was what he calls" (for so the doctor too, Takes here a vulgar errour to be true) "This more sure word of prophecy, the chief Of all his motives to enforce belief; From whence he prov'd that Jesus was, of old, Describ'd by all the prophets, and foretold." Peter's condition, sir, is that of all Who, from the heart, obey the Christian call: They, by experience, have the triple sight Of weakness, penitence, and heav'nly light; 420 While others wrangle about outward show; Nature, and grace, and miracle they know:
2 P. 56. We know on the other hand, that after our Lord's ascension, when his faith was more fully confirmed, and his understanding enlightened by the mission of the Holy Ghost, the chief argument, which he applied in all his sermons, to evince the truth of the Gospel, was this more sure word of prophecy, as he calls it; from which he demonstrated to the Jews, how the character, doctrine, and mission of Jesus were foretold and described by the mouths of all their prophets,
« PreviousContinue » |