In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,

But all Mankind's concern is Charity:

NOTES.

timates that they could only draw God's fhadow, not his image:

Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new,

If not God's Image, yet his fhadow drew:

as reverencing that truth, which telleth us, this difcovery was referved for the glorious Gospel of Chrift, who is the image of God, 2 Cor. iv. 4,

VER. 305. For Modes of Faith let graceless zealots fight ;] Thefe latter Ages have feen fo many fcandalous contentions for Modes of Faith, to the violation of Christian Charity, and dishonour of facred Scripture, that it is not at all ftrange they should become the object of fo benevolent and wife an Author's refentment.

But that which he here feemed to have more particularly in his eye, was the long and mischievous squabble between W-D and JACKSON, on a point confeffedly above Reafon, and amongst thofe adorable myfteries, which it is the honour of our Religion to find unfathomable. In this by the weight of anfwers and replies, redoubled upon one another without mercy, they made fo profound a progress, that the One proved, nothing hindered in Nature, but that the Son might have been the Father; and the Other, that nothing hindered in Grace, but that the Son may be a meer Creature. But if, inftead of throwing fo many Greek Fathers at one another's heads, they had but chanced to reflect on the sense of one Greek word, AMEIPIA, that it fignifies both INFINITY and IGNORANCE, this fingle equiLocation might have faved them ten thousand, which they expended in carrying on the controverfy. However thofe Mifs that magnified the Scene, enlarged the Character of the

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All must be false that thwart this One great End; And all of God, that bless Mankind or mend, 310

NOTES.

Combatants and no body expecting common fenfe on a fubject where we have no ideas, the defects of dulnefs disappeared, and its advantages (for, advantages it has) were all provided for.

The worst is, fuch kind of Writers feldom know when to have done. For writing themselves up into the fame delufion with their Readers, they are apt to venture out into the more open paths of Literature, where their reputation, made out of that ftuff, which Lucian calls Exóriλóxo, prefently falls from them, and their nakedness appears. And thus it fared with our two Worthies. The World, which must have always fomething to amuse it, was now in good time grown weary of its play-things, and catched at a new object that promifed them more agreeable entertainment. Tindal, a kind of Baftard-Socrates, had brought our fpeculations from Heaven to Earth: and, under the pretence of advancing the Antiquity of Christianity, laboured to undermine its original. This was a controversy that required another management. Clear fense, severe reafoning, a thorough knowledge of prophane and facred Antiquity, and an intimate acquaintance with human Nature, were the qualities proper for fuch as engaged in this Subject. A very unpromifing adventure for thefe metaphyfical nurflings, bred up under the fhade of chimeras. Yet they would needs venture out. What they got by it was only to be once well laughed at, and then forgotten. But one odd circumftance deferves to be remembered; tho' they wrote not, we my be fure, in concert, yet each attacked his Adverfary at the fame time, faftened upon him in the fame place, and mumbled him with just the fame toothlefs rage. But the ill fuccess of

Man, like the gen'rous vine, fupported lives;

The strength he gains is from th'embrace he gives.
On their own Axis as the Planets run,

Yet make at once their circle round the Sun;
So two confiftent motions act the Soul;
And one regards itself, and one the Whole.
NOTES.

315

this efcape foon brought them to themselves. The one made a fruitless effort to revive the old game, in a difcourfe on The importance of the doctrine of the Trinity; and the Other has been ever fince, till very lately, rambling in SPACE.

This short history, as infignificant as the fubjects of it are, may not be altogether unuseful to pofterity. Divines may learn, by thefe examples, to avoid the mischiefs done to Religion and Literature, through the affectation of being wife above what is written, and knowing beyond what can be understood.

VER. 307. In faith and hope, &c.] And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of thefe is charity. 1 Cor. xiii. 13.

VER. 311. Man, like the gen'rous vine, &c.] Having thus largely confidered Man in his focial capacity, the poet, in order to fix a momentous truth in the mind of his reader, concludes the epiftle in recapitulating the two Principles, which concur to the fupport of this part of his character, namely, SELF LOVE and SOCIAL; and fhewing, that they are only two different motions of the appetite to Good; by which the Author of Nature hath enabled Man to find his own happiness in the happiness of the Whole. This he illuftrates with a thought as fublime as that general harmony he describes: For he hath the art of converting poetical ornaments into philofophic reafoning; and of improving a fimile into an analogical argument:

Thus God and Nature link'd the genʼral frame, And bade Self-love and Social be the fame.

NOTES.

On their own Axis as the Planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the Sun ;
So two confiftent motions act the Soul;
And one regards Itself, and one the Whole.

Thus God and Nature link'd the gen'ral frame,
And bade Self-love and Social be the fame.

[86]

EPISTLE IV.

H HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim!
Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content! whate'er thy

name:

That something ftill which prompts th' eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 1. Oh Happiness, &c.] In the MS. thus:
Oh Happiness! to which we all aspire,

Wing'd with strong hope, and borne by full defire ;
That ease, for which in want, in wealth we figh;
That cafe, for which we labour and we die.

NOTES.

EP. IV. The two foregoing epiftles having confidered Man with regard to the Means (that is, in all his relations, whether as an Individual, or a Member of fociety) this laft comes to confider him with regard to the End, that is, Happiness.

It opens with an Invocation to Happiness, in the manner of the ancient poets, who, when deftitute of a patrongod, applied to the Mufe, and, if she was engaged, took up with any fimple Virtue next at hand, to inspire and profper their undertakings. This was the ancient Invocation, which few modern poets have had the art to imitate with any degree either of spirit or decorum; but our author hath contrived to make it fubfervient to the method and reasoning of his philofophic compofition. will endeavour to explain fo uncommon a beauty.

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I