Were all those wonders wrought by power di

vine,

120

125

As means or ends of fome more deep defign? 115
Moft fure as means, whofe end was this alone,
To prove the Godhead of the eternal Son.
God thus afferted, man is to believe
Beyond what fenfe and reafon can conceive,
And for myfterious things of faith rely
On the proponent, Heaven's authority.
If then our faith we for our guide admit,
Vain is the farther fearch of human wit,
As when the building gains a furer stay,
We take the unufeful fcaffolding away.
Reafon by fenfe no more can understand;
The game is play'd into another hand.
Why chufe we then like bilanders to creep
Along the coaft, and land in view to keep,
When fafely we may launch into the deep? 130
In the fame veffel, which our Saviour bore,
Himself the pilot, let us leave the shore,
And with a better guide a better world explore,
Could he his Godhead veil with flesh and blood,
And not veil thefe again to be our food?
His grace in both is equal in extent,

135

The firft affords us life, the fecond nourishment,
And if he can, why all this frantic pain
To conftrue what his cleareft words contain,
And make a riddle what he made fo plain? 140,

To take up half on truft, and half to try, Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry. Both knave and fool the merchant we may call, To pay great fums, and to compound the fmall: For who would break with heaven, and would not break for all?

ould

145

Reft then, my foul, from endless anguish freed: Nor fciences thy guide, nor fenfe thy creed. Faith is the best enfurer of thy bliss;

The bank above muft fail, before the venture

mifs.

But heaven and heaven-born faith are far from

thee,

Thou first apoftate to divinity.

Unkennell'd range in thy Polonian plains;

A fiercer foe the infatiate Wolf remains.

Ver. 158,

150

the infatiate Wolf &c.] Butler, in the

first canto of Hudibras, fays, that the Prefbyterians

66

prove their doctrine orthodox,

"By apoftolic blows and knocks."

The general defcription given of them here is very fevere: they hold the doctrine of predeftination, or a decree of God from all eternity, to fave a certain number of perfons, from thence called the Elect.

"A fect (of whom Hudibras fays a little lower) whose chief devotion lies

"In odd perverfe antipathies."

Such as reputing the eating of Chriftmas-pies and plumb porridge finful; nay, they prohibited all forts of merriment at that holy feftival, and not only abolished it by order of council, dated Dec. 22, 1657, but changed it into a faft. They wore, during the confufions about Oliver's time, black caps, that left their ears bare, their hair being cropped round quite close; wherefore the wolf, the emblem of Prefbytery, is here faid to

"Prick up his predeftinating ears."

DERRICK.

Too boastful Britain, please thyself no more. That beafts of prey are banish'd from thy fhore: The Bear, the Boar, and every favage name, 156 Wild in effect, though in appearance tame, Lay wafte thy woods, destroy thy blissful bower, And, muzzled though they feem, the mutes de

vour.

More haughty than the reft, the wolfish race
Appear with belly gaunt, and famifh'd face:
Never was fo deform'd a beast of grace,
His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,
Close clap'd for fhame; but his rough creft
he rears,

And pricks up his predeftinating ears.

165

159

}

His wild diforder'd walk, his haggard eyes,
Did all the bestial citizens surprise.
Though fear'd and hated, yet he rul'd awhile,
As captain or companion of the spoil.
Full many a year his hateful head had been 170
For tribute paid, nor fince in Cambria feen;
The last of all the litter fcap'd by chance,
And from Geneva firft infefted France,

Ver. 172. The last of all the litter] Calvin, the perfon here. pointed at, was, it must be allowed, a man of very extensive genius, much learning, industry, penetration, and piety, and the moft perfuafive eloquence, He was born at Noyon, in Picardy, in July, 1509. To efcape the threats of Francis the First, he retired to Bafil, where he published his Christian Inftitutions, and prefixed to them his famous dedication to Francis I. Calvin was afthmatical, and delivered his fermons flowly: a man at Geneva got his livelihood by writing them down as he pro

175

Some authors thus his pedigree will trace,
But others write him of an upstart race;
Because of Wickliff's brood no mark he brings,
But his innate antipathy to Kings.

nounced them. "Sapit Calvinus (fays Scaliger) quod in apocalypfim non fcripfit." We might have expected that Dryden would have here cenfured the strong Calviniftical turn of fome of the articles of the Church of England. Burnet has defended the article concerning predeftination. The greatest part of the firft English reformers were, fays Mofheim, abfolute Sublapfarians. James I. cenfured a preacher, Ed. Symfon, for advancing fome Arminian tenets, 1616, and he was forced to make a Dr. J. WARTON. public recantation before the king.

Ver. 176. Because of Wickliff's brood] Wickliff flourished about the year 1384. John Hufs, 1415. Jerom of Prague, 1415. This great triumvirate, we should remember, fowed the firft feeds of that reformation, of which Luther and Calvin have alone reaped the glory, and of which our countryman had the honour of being the firit. To whom juftice is done by the learned and candid Mofheim, in his excellent Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, much improved by the tranflation of the learned Mr. Maclain."

.

Among all the enemies of the Mendicant orders, none has been tranfmitted to pofterity with more exalted encomiums on the one hand, or blacker calumnies on the other, than John Wickliff, profeffor of divinity at Oxford, and afterwards rector of Lutterworth; who, according to the teftimony of the writers of thefe times, was a man of an enterprifing genius, and extraor dinary learning. In the year 1360, animated by the example of Richard, archbishop of Armagh, he firft of all defended the ftatutes and privileges of the university of Oxford against all the orders of the mendicants, and had the courage to throw out fome flight reproofs againft the popes, their principal patrons, which no true Briton ever imputed to him as a crime. this, in the year 1367, he was deprived of the wardenship of Canterbury-hall, in the univerfity of Oxford, by Simon Langham, archbishop of Canterbury, who fubftituted a monk in his place upon which he appealed to pope Urban V. who confirmed the fentence of the archbishop against him, on account of the freedom with which he had inveighed against the monaftic orders. Highly exafperated at this treatment, he threw off all reftraint, and not only attacked all the monks, and their fcandalous irregularities, but even the pontifical power itself, and other ecclefiaftical abufes, both in his fermons and writings. From

After

Thefe laft deduce him from the Helvetian kind, Who near the Leman lake his confort lin'd;

hence he proceeded to yet greater lengths, and, detefting the wretched fuperftition of the times, refuted, with great acuteness and fpirit, the abfurd notions that were generally received in religious matters, and not only exhorted the laity to study the feriptures, but also tranflated into English thefe divine books, in order to render the perufal of them more univerfal.

Though neither the doctrine of Wickliff was void of error, nor his life without reproach, yet it must be confeffed, that the changes he attempted to introduce, both in the faith and difcipline of the church, were, in many refpects, wife, useful, and falutary,

The monks, whom Wickliff had principally exafperated, commenced a violent profecution against him at the court of Gregory XI. who, in the year 1377, ordered Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, to take cognizance of the affair, in a council held at London. Imminent as this danger evidently was, Wickliff efcaped it by the intereft of the Duke of Lancaster, and fome other peers, who had a high regard for him. And foon after the death of Gregory XI. the fatal fchifm of the Romish church commenced, during which there was one pope at Rome, and another at Avignon; fo that, of course, this controverfy lay dormant a long time. But no fooner was this embroiled ftate of affairs tolerably fettled, than the process against him was revived by William de Courtenay, archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1385, and was carried on with great vehemence in two councils held at London and Qxford. The event was, that of the twenty-three opinions, for which Wickliff had been profecuted by the Monks, ten were condemned as herefies, and thirteen as errors. He himself, however, returned in fafety to Lutterworth, where he died peaceably in the year 1387. This latter attack was much more dangerous than the former; but by what means he got fafely through it, whether by intereft of the court, or by denying or abjuring his opinions, is to this day a fecret, He left many followers in England, and other countries, who were ftyled Wickliffites and Lollards, which lat was a term of popular reproach, tranflated from the Flemish tongue into English. Wherever they could be found, they were terribly perfecuted by the inquifitors, and other inftruments of papal vengeance; and, in the council of Conftance, in the year 1415, the memory and opinions of Wickliff were condemned by a folemn decree; and about thirteen years after, his bones were dug up, and publicly burnt.