Notes on Part III. 240
Britannia Rediviva, a Poem on the Birth of the
Prince, 283
Notes, 302
Prologues and Epilogues, 309
Mack-Flecknoe, a Satire against Thomas Shadwell, 425
Notes, 441
RELIGIO LAICI:
OR,
A LAYMAN'S FAITH.
AN EPISTLE.
_Ornari res ipsa negat; contenta doceri._
ARGUMENT.
TAKEN FROM THE AUTHOR'S MARGINAL NOTES.
Opinions of the several Sects of Philosophers concerning the
_Summum bonum_.--System of Deism.--Of Revealed Religion.--Objection
of the Deist.--Objection answered.--Digression to the Translator
of Father Simon's Critical Edition of the Old Testament.--Of the
Infallibility of Tradition in general.--Objection in behalf of
Tradition, urged by Father Simon.--The Second Objection.--Answered.
RELIGIO LAICI.
The _Religio Laici_, according to Johnson, is almost the only work of
Dryden which can be considered as a voluntary effusion. I do not see
much ground for this assertion. Dryden was indeed obliged to write by
the necessity of his circumstances; but the choice of the mode in which
he was to labour was his own, as well in his Fables and other poems,
as in that which follows. Nay, upon examination, the _Religio Laici_
appears, in a great measure, a controversial, and almost a political
poem; and, being such, cannot be termed, with propriety, a voluntary
effusion, any more than "The Medal," or "Absalom and Achitophel."
It is evident, Dryden had his own times in consideration, and the
effect which the poem was likely to produce upon them. Religious
controversy had mingled deeply with the party politics of the reign
of Charles II. Divided, as the nation was, into the three great sects
of Churchmen, Papists, and Dissenters, their several creeds were
examined by their antagonists with scrupulous malignity, and every
hint extracted from them which could be turned to the disadvantage of
those who professed them. To the Catholics, the dissenters objected
their cruel intolerance and jesuitical practices; to the church of
England, their servile dependence on the crown, and slavish doctrine
of non-resistance. The Catholics, on the other hand, charged the
reformed church of England with desertion from the original doctrines
of Christianity, with denying the infallibility of general councils,
and destroying the unity of the church; and against the fanatics,
they objected their anti-monarchical tenets, the wild visions of
their independent preachers, and their seditious cabals against the
church and state. While the church of England was thus assailed by
two foes, who did not at the same time spare each other, it probably
occurred to Dryden, that he, who could explain her tenets by a plain
and philosophical commentary, had a chance, not only of contributing
to fix and regulate the faith of her professors, but of reconciling to
her, as the middle course, the Catholics and the fanatics. The Duke
of York and the Papists, on the one hand, were urging the king to the
most desperate measures; on the other, the popular faction were just
not in arms. The king, with the assistance and advice of Halifax, was
trimming his course betwixt these outrageous and furious torrents.
Whatever, therefore, at this important crisis, might act as a sedative
on the inflamed spirits of all parties, and encourage them to abide
with patience the events of futurity, was a main point in favour of
the crown. A rational and philosophical view of the tenets of the
national church, liberally expressed, and decorated with the ornaments
of poetry, seemed calculated to produce this effect; and as I have
no doubt, as well from the preface, as from passages in the poem,
that Dryden had such a purpose in view, I have ventured to place the
_Religio Laici_ among his historical and political poems.[1]
I would not, from what is above stated, be understood to mean, that
Dryden wrote this poem merely with a view to politics, and that he
was himself sceptical in the matters of which it treats.--On the
contrary, I have no doubt, that it expresses, without disguise or
reservation, what was then the author's serious and firm, though, as
it unfortunately proved, not his unalterable religious opinion. The
remarkable line in the "Hind and Panther," seems to refer to the state
of his mind at this period; and this system of divinity was among the
"new sparkles which his pride had struck forth," after he had abandoned
the fanatical doctrines in which he was doubtless educated.[2] It is
therefore probable, that, having formed for himself, on grounds which
seemed to warrant it, a rational exposition of the national creed,
he was willing to communicate it to the public at a period, when
moderation of religious zeal was so essentially necessary to the repose
of the nation.
Considered in this point of view, the _Religio Laici_ is one of the
most admirable poems in the language. The argumentative part is
conducted with singular skill, upon those topics which occasioned the
principal animosity between the religious sects; and the deductions
are drawn in favour of the church of England with so much apparent
impartiality, that those who could not assent, had at least no title
to be angry. The opinions of the various classes of free-thinkers
are combated by an appeal to those feelings of the human mind, which
always acknowledge an offended Deity, and to the various modes in
which all ages and nations have shewn their sense of the necessity
of an atonement by sacrifice and penance. Dryden, however, differs
from most philosophers, who suppose this consciousness of guilt to be
originally implanted in our bosoms: he, somewhat fantastically, argues,
as if it were some remnants of the original faith revealed to Noah,
and preserved by the posterity of Shem. The inadequacy of sacrifices
and oblations, when compared with the crimes of those by whom they are
made, and with the grandeur of the omnipotent Being, to whom they are
offered, paves the way for the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ,
the fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion. The fitness of
this vicarious sacrifice to accomplish the redemption of man, and
vindicate the justice and mercy of God; the obvious impossibility that
the writings, or authors, by which it has been conveyed to us, should
be less than inspired; the progress of the Christian faith itself,
though militating against the corrupt dispositions of humanity, and
graced with none of those attractions by which Mahomet, and other
false prophets, bribed their followers, are then successively urged
as evidences of the Christian religion. The poet then recurs to an
objection, at which he had hinted in his preface. If the Christian
religion is necessary to salvation, why is it not extended to all
nations of the earth? And suppose we grant that the circumstance of
the revealed religion having been formerly preached and embraced in
great part of the world where it is now unknown, shall be sufficient
to subject those regions to be judged by its laws, what is to become
of the generations who have lived before the coming of the Messiah?
what of the inhabitants of those countries on which the beams of the
gospel have never shone? To these doubts, I hope most Christians will
think our author returns a liberal, and not a presumptuous answer,
in supposing that the heathen will be judged according to the light
which it has pleased God to afford them; and that, infinitely less
fortunate than us in the extent of their spiritual knowledge, they will
only be called upon to answer for their conformity with the dictates
of their own conscience. The authority of St Athanasius our author
here sets aside, either because in the ardour of his dispute with
Arius he carried his doctrine too far, or because his creed only has
reference to the decision of a doctrinal question in the Christian
church; and the anathema annexed applies not to the heathen world,
but to those, who, having heard the orthodox faith preached, have
wilfully chosen the heresy. Dryden next takes under review the work
of Father Simon; and, after an eulogy on the author and translator,
pronounces, that the former was not a bigotted Catholic, since he
did not hesitate to challenge some of the traditions of the church
of Rome. To these traditions, these "brushwood helps," with which
the Catholics endeavoured to fence the doctrines of their church,
our author proceeds, and throws them aside as liable to error and
corruption. The pretensions of the church of Rome, by her pope and
general councils, infallibly to determine the authenticity of church
tradition, is the next proposition. To this the poet answers, that
if they possess infallibility at all, it ought to go the length of
restoring the canon, or correcting the corrupt copies of scripture; a
reply which seems to concede to the Romans; as, without denying the
grounds of their claim, it only asserts, that it is not sufficiently
extended. Upon, the ground, however, that the plea of infallibility, by
which the poet is obviously somewhat embarrassed, must be dismissed,
as proving too much, the holy scriptures are referred to as the sole
rule of faith; admitting such explanations as the church of England
has given to the contested doctrines of Christianity. The unlettered
Christian, we are told, does well to pursue, in simplicity, his path to
heaven; the learned divine is to study well the sacred scriptures, with
such assistance as the most early traditions of the church, especially
those which are written, may, in doubtful points, afford him. It is in
this argument chiefly, that there may be traced a sort of vacillation
and uncertainty in our author's opinion, boding what afterwards took
place--his acquiescence in the church authority of Rome. Nevertheless,
having vaguely pronounced, that some traditions are to be received,
and others rejected, he gives his opinion against the Roman see, which
dictated to the laity the explications of doctrine as adopted by the
church, and prohibited them to form their own opinion upon the text,
or even to peruse the sacred volume which contains it. This Dryden
contrasts with the opposite evil, of vulgar enthusiasts debasing
scripture by their own absurd commentaries, and dividing into as many
sects, as there are wayward opinions formed upon speculative doctrine.
He concludes, that both extremes are to be avoided; that saving faith
does not depend on nice disquisitions; yet, if inquisitive minds are
hurried into such, the scripture, and the commentary of the fathers,
are their only safe guides:
And after hearing what our church can say,
If still our reason runs another way,
That private reason 'tis more just to curb,
Than by disputes the public peace disturb;
For points obscure are of small use to learn,
But common quiet is mankind's concern.
In considering Dryden's creed thus analyzed, I think it will appear,
that the author, though still holding the doctrines of the church
of England, had been biassed, in the course of his enquiry, by those
of Rome. His wish for the possibility of an infallible guide,[3]
expressed with almost indecent ardour, the difficulty, nay, it would
seem, in his estimation, almost the impossibility, of discriminating
between corrupted and authentic traditions, while the necessity of the
latter to the interpretation of scripture is plainly admitted, appear,
upon the whole, to have left the poet's mind in an unpleasing state
of doubt, from which he rather escapes than is relieved. He who only
acquiesces in the doctrines of his church, because the exercise of his
private judgement may disturb the tranquillity of the state, can hardly
be said to be in a state to give a reason for the faith that is in him.
The doctrine of the _Religio Laici_ is admirably adapted to
the subject: though treating of the most abstruse doctrines of
Christianity, it is as clear and perspicuous as the most humble prose,
while it has all the elegance and effect which argument is capable
of receiving from poetry. Johnson, usually sufficiently niggard of
praise, has allowed, that this "is a composition of great excellence
in its kind, in which the familiar is very properly diversified with
the solemn, and the grave with the humorous; in which metre has
neither weakened the force, nor clouded the perspicuity of argument;
nor will it be easy to find another example, equally happy, of this
middle kind of writing, which, though prosaic in some parts, rises to
high poetry in others, and neither towers to the skies, nor creeps
along the ground."[4] I cannot help remarking, that the style of the
_Religio Laici_ has been imitated successfully by the late Mr Cowper
in some of his pieces. Yet he has not been always able to maintain
the resemblance, but often crawls where Dryden would have walked. The
natural dignity of our author may be discovered in the lamest lines of
the poem, whereas his imitator is often harsh and embarrassed. Both are
occasionally prosaic; but in such passages Dryden's verse resembles
good prose, and Cowper's that which is feeble and involved.
The name which Dryden has thought proper to affix to this declaration
of his faith, seems to have been rather fashionable about that time.
There is a treatise _de Religione Laici_, attached to the work of
Lord Herbert of Cherburg, _De Veritate_, first published in 1633. But
the most famous work, with a similar title, was the _Religio Medici_
of Thomas Browne, which was translated into Latin by Meryweather,
and afterwards into French, Italian, Dutch, German, and most of the
languages of Europe. In 1683, Charles Blount, of Staffordshire, son
to Sir Henry Blount, published a short treatise, entitled, _Religio
Laici_, which he inscribed to his "much honoured friend, John Dryden,
Esq.;" whom he informed, in the epistle-dedicatory, "I have endeavoured
that my discourse should only be a continuance of yours; and that, as
you taught men how to believe, so I might instruct them how to live."[5]
It has been suggested, that the purpose of the _Religio Laici_ of
Dryden was to bring the contending factions to sober and philosophical
reflection on their differences in points of faith, and to abate, if
possible, the acrimony with which they contended upon the most obscure
subjects of polemical divinity. But to attempt, by an abstracted
disquisition on the original cause of quarrel, to stop a controversy,
in which all the angry passions had been roused, and which indeed was
fast verging towards blows, is as vain an attempt, as it would be to
turn the course of a river, swoln with a thousand tributary streams,
by draining the original spring-head. From the cold reception of
this poem, compared to those political and personal satires which
preceded it, Dryden might learn the difference of interest, excited by
productions which tended to fan party rage, and one which was designed
to mitigate its ferocity. The _Religio Laici_, which first appeared
in November 1682, neither attracted admiration nor censure; it was
neither hailed by the acclamations of the one party, nor attacked
by the indignant answers of the other. The public were, however,
sufficiently interested in it to call for a renewal of the impression
in the following year. This second edition, which had escaped even the
researches of Mr Malone, is in the collection of my friend Mr Heber.
It might probably have been again reprinted with advantage, but our
author's change of faith must necessarily have rendered him unwilling
to give a third edition. The same circumstance called the attention of
his enemies towards this neglected poem, who, in many libels, upbraided
him with the versatility of his religious opinions. The author of a
pamphlet, called "The Revolter," was at the pains to print the tenets
of the _Religio Laici_ concerning the Catholic controversy, in contrast
with those which our author had adopted and expressed in the "Hind and
Panther."[6] Another turned our author's own title against him, and
published "_Religio Laici_, or a Layman's Faith touching the Supream
and Infallible Guide of the Church, by J. R. a Convert of Mr Bayes.
In Two Letters to a Friend in the Country. Licenced June the 1st,
1688." In both these pamphlets our author is treated with the grossest
insolence and brutality.[7] Excepting these malignant criticisms, the
_Religio Laici_ slept in obscurity after the second edition, and was
not again published till after the author's death. Neither has it been
since popular, although its pure spirit of Christianity should be
acceptable to the religious, its moderation to the philosopher, and the
excellence of the composition to all admirers of argumentative poetry.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: It was intimated by Dryden's enemies, that he chose this
religious and grave subject with a view to smooth the way to his taking
orders, and obtaining church preferment--See a quotation from the
_Religio Laici_, by J. R. subjoined to these introductory remarks. But
our author, in the preface to the "Fables," declares, that going into
the church was never in his thoughts.]
[Footnote 2: The reader will find this opinion more fully expressed in
the observations on Dryden's conversion to the Roman Catholic faith,
given in the Life.]
[Footnote 3:
Such an omniscient church we wish indeed;
'Twere worth both Testaments, cast in the creed.
]
[Footnote 4: Johnson's Life of Dryden.]
[Footnote 5: Malone, Vol. III. p. 310.]
[Footnote 6: "The Revolter, a Tragi-Comedy, acted between the Hind and
Panther and _Religio Laici_. London. 1687."]
[Footnote 7: As will appear from the following extracts:--"While he
sat thus in his poetical throne, or rather acting upon the stage of
fable and pagan mythology, and transfiguring into beasts almost all
mankind, but Turks and infidels, that were out of his road, he never
considered what a monster he was himself; a second Gorgon with three
heads, for each of which he had a particular employment; with the one,
to fawn upon the most infamous usurpers; with the other, at one time
to lick the beneficent hands of his Protestant mother, and, bye and
bye, to court the charity of his Catholic mamma; while, with the third,
he barked and snarled, not only at his first deserted female parent,
but also at all other differing sentiments and opinions, which his
sovereign had so graciously and generously indulged."
But 'twas his wrath, because his native church
Left his high expectations in the lurch.
* * * * *
He saw the play-wright laureate debauched
By the times, vices which he himself reproached;
And, by his grand reform stage-pit fools;,
Judged his ability to manage souls.
The comedy, to see him preach for aught,
She knew might tragic prove to those he taught;
By ill instructions to their loss beguiled,
Or scorning precepts from a tongue defiled
With stage obscenity----
For who could have refrained from sportive mirth,
To hear the nation's poet, Bayes, hold forth?
Or who would ever practice by the rule
Of one they could not chuse but ridicule?
The scandal was the greater, the more rare,
An ordained play-wright in the house of prayer.
While people only flock to hear him chime
A rampant sermon forth in brilly rhime;
Or else his gaping auditors he feasts
With bold Isaiah's raptures, and Ezekiel's beasts.
All this the church foresaw, nor could endure
Polluted lips should handle things most pure.
_The Revolter_, p. 2.
But, to give the devil his due, I must needs own Mr Bayes has a
most powerful and luxurious hand at satire, and may challenge all
Christendom to match him; for indeed I never, in my slender province,
met any that was worthy to compare to him, unless that unknown, but
supposed worthy author, that writ to him upon his at last turning Roman
Catholic; for Bayes, like the Vicar of Bray, in Henry VIII. Edward
VI. Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth's times, was resolved to keep his
place; (and the quoting an author to the purpose, is the same thing,
the learned say, as if it was his own), and that will, I hope, excuse
my putting them down here:--
"Thou mercenary renegade, thou slave,
Thou ever changing still to be a knave;
What sect, what error, wilt thou next disgrace?
Thou art so _lude_, so scandalously base,
That antichristian popery may be
Ashamed of such a proselyte as thee;
Not all thy rancour, or felonious spite,
Which animates thy lumpish soul to write,
Could ha' contrived a satire more severe,
Or more _disgrace_ the cause thou wouldst prefer.
Yet in thy favour, this must be confest,
It suits with thy poetic genius best;
There thou----
To truths disused, mayst entertain
Thyself with stories, more fanciful and vain
Than _e'er_ thy poetry could _ever_ fain;
Or sing the lives of thy own fellow saints,
'Tis a large field, and thy assistance wants;
Thence copy out new operas for the stage,
And with their miracles direct the age.
Such is thy faith, if faith thou hast indeed,
For well we may suspect the poet's creed,
Rebel to God, blasphemer o' the king,
Oh tell whence could this strange compliance spring?
So mayest thou prove to thy new gods as true,
As thy old friend, the devil, has been to you.
Yet conscience and religion's your pretence,
But bread and drink the _methologick_ sense.
Ah! how persuasive is the want of bread,
Not reasons from strong box more strongly plead.
A convert, thou! 'tis past all believing;
'Tis a damned scandal, of thy foes contriving;
A jest of that malicious monstrous fame--
The honest layman's faith is still the same."
_Religio Laici, by J. R. a Convert of Mr Bayes._
In such coarse invective were Dryden's theological poems censured by
persons, who, far from writing decent poetry, or even common sense,
could neither spell, nor write tolerable grammar.]
THE
PREFACE.
A Poem, with so bold a title, and a name prefixed from which the
handling of so serious a subject would not be expected, may reasonably
oblige the author to say somewhat in defence, both of himself and of
his undertaking. In the first place, if it be objected to me, that,
being a layman, I ought not to have concerned myself with speculations,
which belong to the profession of divinity; I could answer, that
perhaps laymen, with equal advantages of parts and knowledge, are not
the most incompetent judges of sacred things; but, in the due sense
of my own weakness, and want of learning, I plead not this; I pretend
not to make myself a judge of faith in others, but only to make a
confession of my own. I lay no unhallowed hand upon the ark, but wait
on it, with the reverence that becomes me, at a distance. In the next
place, I will ingenuously confess, that the helps I have used in
this small treatise, were many of them taken from the works of our
own reverend divines of the church of England; so that the weapons
with which I combat irreligion, are already consecrated; though I
suppose they may be taken down as lawfully as the sword of Goliah was
by David, when they are to be employed for the common cause against
the enemies of piety. I intend not by this to entitle them to any of
my errors, which yet I hope are only those of charity to mankind;
and such as my own charity has caused me to commit, that of others
may more easily excuse. Being naturally inclined to scepticism in
philosophy, I have no reason to impose my opinions in a subject which
is above it; but whatever they are, I submit them with all reverence
to my mother church, accounting them no further mine, than as they are
authorised, or at least uncondemned, by her. And, indeed, to secure
myself on this side, I have used the necessary precaution of shewing
this paper before it was published to a judicious and learned friend;
a man indefatigably zealous in the service of the church and state,
and whose writings have highly deserved of both. He was pleased to
approve the body of the discourse, and I hope he is more my friend
than to do it out of complaisance: It is true, he had too good a
taste to like it all; and, amongst some other faults, recommended
to my second view, what I have written, perhaps too boldly, on St
Athanasius, which he advised me wholly to omit. I am sensible enough,
that I had done more prudently to have followed his opinion; but then
I could not have satisfied myself, that I had done honestly not to
have written what was my own. It has always been my thought, that
heathens, who never did, nor without miracle could, hear of the name
of Christ, were yet in a possibility of salvation. Neither will it
enter easily into my belief, that before the coming of our Saviour,
the whole world, excepting only the Jewish nation, should lie under
the inevitable necessity of everlasting punishment, for want of that
revelation, which was confined to so small a spot of ground as that
of Palestine. Among the sons of Noah, we read of one only who was
accursed; and, if a blessing, in the ripeness of time, was reserved
for Japhet, of whose progeny we are, it seems unaccountable to me, why
so many generations of the same offspring, as preceded our Saviour in
the flesh, should be all involved in one common condemnation, and yet
that their posterity should be entitled to the hopes of salvation; as
if a bill of exclusion had passed only on the fathers, which debarred
not the sons from their succession: or, that so many ages had been
delivered over to hell, and so many reserved for heaven, and that the
devil had the first choice, and God the next. Truly I am apt to think,
that the revealed religion, which was taught by Noah to all his sons,
might continue for some ages in the whole posterity. That afterwards it
was included wholly in the family of Shem, is manifest; but when the
progenies of Cham and Japhet swarmed into colonies, and those colonies
were subdivided into many others, in process of time their descendants
lost, by little and little, the primitive and purer rites of divine
worship, retaining only the notion of one deity; to which succeeding
generations added others; for men took their degrees in those ages
from conquerors to gods. Revelation being thus eclipsed to almost all
mankind, the light of nature, as the next in dignity, was substituted;
and that is it which St Paul concludes to be the rule of the heathens,
and by which they are hereafter to be judged. If my supposition be
true, then the consequence, which I have assumed in my poem, may be
also true; namely, that Deism, or the principles of natural worship,
are only faint remnants, or dying flames, of revealed religion, in the
posterity of Noah; and that our modern philosophers, nay, and some of
our philosophising divines, have too much exalted the faculties of our
souls, when they have maintained, that, by their force, mankind has
been able to find out, that there is one supreme agent, or intellectual
being, which we call God; that praise and prayer are his due worship;
and the rest of those deducements, which I am confident are the remote
effects of revelation, and unattainable by our discourse, I mean as
simply considered, and without the benefit of divine illumination. So
that we have not lifted up ourselves to God, by the weak pinions of our
reason, but he has been pleased to descend to us; and what Socrates
said of him, what Plato writ, and the rest of the heathen philosophers
of several nations, is all no more than the twilight of revelation,
after the sun of it was set in the race of Noah. That there is
something above us, some principle of motion, our reason can apprehend,
though it cannot discover what it is by its own virtue: and, indeed,
it is very improbable that we, who, by the strength of our faculties,
cannot enter into the knowledge of any being, not so much as of our
own, should be able to find out, by them, that supreme nature, which we
cannot otherwise define, than by saying it is infinite; as if infinite
were definable, or infinity a subject for our narrow understanding.
They, who would prove religion by reason, do but weaken the cause
which they endeavour to support: it is to take away the pillars from
our faith, and to prop it only with a twig; it is to design a tower,
like that of Babel, which, if it were possible, as it is not, to reach
heaven, would come to nothing by the confusion of the workmen. For
every man is building a several way; impotently conceited of his own
model and his own materials, reason is always striving, and always at a
loss; and of necessity it must so come to pass, while it is exercised
about that which is not its proper object. Let us be content, at last,
to know God by his own methods; at least, so much of him as he is
pleased to reveal to us in the sacred Scriptures. To apprehend them to
be the word of God is all our reason has to do; for all beyond it is
the work of faith, which is the seal of heaven impressed upon our human
understanding.
And now for what concerns the holy Bishop Athanasius, the preface
of whose creed seems inconsistent with my opinion, which is, that
heathens may possibly be saved. In the first place, I desire it may
be considered, that it is the preface only, not the creed itself,
which, till I am better informed, is of too hard a digestion for my
charity.[8] It is not that I am ignorant, how many several texts of
Scripture seemingly support that cause; but neither am I ignorant,
how all those texts may receive a kinder, and more mollified
interpretation. Every man, who is read in church history, knows that
belief was drawn up after a long contestation with Arius, concerning
the divinity of our blessed Saviour, and his being one substance
with the Father; and that thus compiled, it was sent abroad among
the Christian churches, as a kind of test, which, whosoever took,
was looked on as an orthodox believer.[9] It is manifest from hence,
that the heathen part of the empire was not concerned in it; for its
business was not to distinguish betwixt Pagans and Christians, but
betwixt heretics and true believers. This, well considered, takes off
the heavy weight of censure, which I would willingly avoid from so
venerable a man; for if this proportion, "whosoever will be saved,"
be restrained only to those to whom it was intended, and for whom it
was composed, I mean the Christians; then the anathema reaches not the
heathens, who had never heard of Christ, and were nothing interested
in that dispute. After all, I am far from blaming even that prefatory
addition to the creed, and as far from cavilling at the continuation
of it in the liturgy of the church, where, on the days appointed, it
is publicly read: for I suppose there is the same reason for it now,
in opposition to the Socinians, as there was then against the Arians;
the one being a heresy, which seems to have been refined out of the
other; and with how much more plausibility of reason it combats our
religion, with so much more caution it ought to be avoided: therefore,
the prudence of our church is to be commended, which has interposed
her authority for the recommendation of this creed. Yet to such as are
grounded in the true belief, those explanatory creeds, the Nicene and
this of Athanasius, might perhaps be spared; for what is supernatural
will always be a mystery in spite of exposition; and, for my own part,
the plain Apostles creed is most suitable to my weak understanding, as
the simplest diet is the most easy of digestion.
I have dwelt longer on this subject than I intended, and longer than
perhaps I ought; for, having laid down, as my foundation, that the
Scripture is a rule; that in all things needful to salvation it is
clear, sufficient, and ordained by God Almighty for that purpose; I
have left myself no right to interpret obscure places, such as concern
the possibility of eternal happiness to heathens; because whatsoever is
obscure is concluded not necessary to be known.
But, by asserting the Scripture to be the canon of our faith,
I have unavoidably created to myself two sorts of enemies; the
papists, indeed, more directly, because they have kept the Scripture
from us what they could, and have reserved to themselves a right
of interpreting what they have delivered under the pretence of
infallibility; and the fanatics, more collaterally, because they
have assumed what amounts to an infallibility in the private spirit,
and have distorted those texts of Scripture which are not necessary
to salvation, to the damnable uses of sedition, disturbance, and
destruction of the civil government. To begin with the papists, and to
speak freely, I think them the less dangerous (at least in appearance)
to our present state; for not only the penal laws are in force against
them, and their number is contemptible, but also their peerage and
commons are excluded from parliaments, and consequently those laws in
no probability of being repealed. A general and uninterrupted plot of
their clergy, ever since the Reformation, I suppose all protestants
believe; for it is not reasonable to think, but that so many of their
orders, as were outed from their fat possessions, would endeavour a
re-entrance against those whom they account heretics.[10] As for the
late design, Mr Coleman's letters, for aught I know, are the best
evidence; and what they discover, without wire-drawing their sense, or
malicious glosses, all men of reason conclude credible.[11] If there be
any thing more than this required of me, I must believe it as well as
I am able, in spite of the witnesses, and out of a decent conformity to
the votes of parliament; for I suppose the fanatics will not allow the
private spirit in this case. Here the infallibility is at least in one
part of the government; and our understandings, as well as our wills,
are represented. But, to return to the Roman Catholics, how can we be
secure from the practice of jesuited papists in that religion? For not
two or three of that order, as some of them would impose upon us, but
almost the whole body of them, are of opinion, that their infallible
master has a right over kings, not only in spirituals, but temporals.
Not to name Mariana, Bellarmine, Emanuel Sa, Molina, Santarel,
Simancha,[12] and at least twenty others of foreign countries, we
can produce of our own nation, Campian, and Doleman or Parsons,[13]
(besides many [who] are named whom I have not read,) who all of them
attest this doctrine, that the pope can depose and give away the right
of any sovereign prince, _si vel paulum deflexerit_, if he shall never
so little warp; but if he once comes to be excommunicated, then the
bond of obedience is taken off from subjects; and they may and ought
to drive him, like another Nebuchadnezzar, _ex hominum Christianorum
dominatu_, from exercising dominion over Christians; and to this
they are bound by virtue of divine precept, and by all the ties of
conscience, under no less penalty than damnation. If they answer me,
(as a learned priest has lately written,) that this doctrine of the
Jesuits is not _de fide_, and that consequently they are not obliged
by it, they must pardon me, if I think they have said nothing to the
purpose; for it is a maxim in their church, where points of faith are
not decided, and that doctors are of contrary opinions, they may follow
which part they please, but more safely the most received and most
authorized. And their champion, Bellarmine, has told the world, in his
Apology, that the king of England is a vassal to the pope, _ratione,
directi dominii_,[14] and that he holds in villanage of his Roman
landlord; which is no new claim put in for England: our chronicles are
his authentic witnesses, that King John was deposed by the same plea,
and Philip Augustus admitted tenant; and, which makes the more for
Bellarmine, the French king was again ejected when our king submitted
to the church, and the crown received under the sordid condition of a
vassalage.
It is not sufficient for the more moderate and well-meaning papists,
of which I doubt not there are many, to produce the evidences of their
loyalty to the late king, and to declare their innocency in this plot.
I will grant their behaviour in the first to have been as loyal and as
brave as they desire; and will be willing to hold them excused as to
the second, (I mean when it comes to my turn, and after my betters;
for it is a madness to be sober alone, while the nation continues
drunk:) but that saying of their father Cres.[15] is still running in
my head,--that they may be dispensed with in their obedience to an
heretic prince, while the necessity of the times shall oblige them
to it; (for that, as another of them tells us, is only the effect of
Christian prudence;) but when once they shall get power to shake him
off, an heretic is no lawful king, and consequently to rise against him
is no rebellion. I should be glad, therefore, that they would follow
the advice which was charitably given them by a reverend prelate of our
church, namely, that they would join in a public act of disowning and
detesting those jesuitic principles, and subscribe to all doctrines
which deny the pope's authority of deposing kings, and releasing
subjects from their oath of allegiance; to which, I should think,
they might easily be induced, if it be true, that this present pope
has condemned the doctrine of king-killing; a thesis of the Jesuits,
maintained, amongst others, _ex cathedra_, as they call it, or in open
consistory.
Leaving them, therefore, in so fair a way, (if they please themselves,)
of satisfying all reasonable men of their sincerity and good meaning
to the government, I shall make bold to consider that other extreme
of our religion, I mean the fanatics, or schismatics, of the English
church. Since the Bible has been translated into our tongue, they have
used it so, as if their business was not to be saved, but to be damned
by its contents. If we consider only them, better had it been for the
English nation, that it had still remained in the original Greek and
Hebrew, or at least in the honest Latin of St Jerome, than that several
texts in it should have been prevaricated to the destruction of that
government, which put it into so ungrateful hands.
How many heresies the first translation of Tyndal[16] produced in few
years, let my Lord Herbert's History of Henry the Eighth inform you;
insomuch that, for the gross errors in it, and the great mischiefs
it occasioned, a sentence passed on the first edition of the Bible,
too shameful almost to be repeated.[17] After the short reign of
Edward the Sixth, (who had continued to carry on the Reformation on
other principles than it was begun,) every one knows, that not only
the chief promoters of that work, but many others, whose consciences
would not dispense with popery, were forced, for fear of persecution,
to change climates; from whence returning at the beginning of Queen
Elizabeth's reign, many of them, who had been in France, and at Geneva,
brought back the rigid opinions and imperious discipline of Calvin,
to graft upon our Reformation;[18] which, though they cunningly
concealed at first, (as well knowing how nauseously that drug would
go down in a lawful monarchy, which was prescribed for a rebellious
commonwealth,) yet they always kept it in reserve; and were never
wanting to themselves, either in court or parliament, when either they
had any prospect of a numerous party of fanatic members in the one,
or the encouragement of any favourite in the other, whose covetousness
was gaping at the patrimony of the church. They who will consult
the works of our venerable Hooker,[19] or the account of his life,
or more particularly the letter written to him on this subject, by
George Cranmer,[20] may see by what gradations they proceeded; from
the dislike of cap and surplice, the very next step was admonitions
to the parliament against the whole government ecclesiastical; then
came out volumes in English and Latin in defence of their tenets; and
immediately practices were set on foot to erect their discipline
without authority. Those not succeeding, satire and railing was the
next; and Martin Mar-prelate,[21] (the Marvel of those times,) was the
first presbyterian scribbler, who sanctified libels and scurrility
to the use of the good old cause: which was done, (says my author,)
upon this account, that their serious treatises having been fully
answered and refuted, they might compass by railing what they had lost
by reasoning; and, when their cause was sunk in court and parliament,
they might at least hedge in a stake amongst the rabble, for to their
ignorance all things are wit which are abusive; but if church and
state were made the theme, then the doctoral degree of wit was to be
taken at Billingsgate; even the most saintlike of the party, though
they durst not excuse this contempt and vilifying of the government,
yet were pleased, and grinned at it with a pious smile, and called it
a judgment of God against the hierarchy. Thus sectaries, we may see,
were born with teeth, foul-mouthed, and scurrilous from their infancy;
and if spiritual pride, venom, violence, contempt of superiors, and
slander, had been the marks of orthodox belief, the presbytery, and the
rest of our schismatics, which are their spawn, were always the most
visible church in the Christian world.[22]
It is true, the government was too strong at that time for a rebellion;
but, to shew what proficiency they had made in Calvin's school, even
then their mouths watered at it; for two of their gifted brotherhood,
Hacket and Coppinger, as the story tells us, got up in a pease-cart
and harangued the people, to dispose them to an insurrection, and to
establish their discipline by force;[23] so that, however it comes
about, that now they celebrate Queen Elizabeth's birth-night, as that
of their saint and patroness; yet then they were for doing the work of
the Lord by arms against her;[24] and in all probability they wanted
but a fanatic lord-mayor, and two sheriffs of their party, to have
compassed it.[25]
Our venerable Hooker, after many admonitions which he had given them,
towards the end of his preface, breaks out into this prophetic speech:
"There is in every one of these considerations most just cause to fear,
lest our hastiness to embrace a thing of so perilous consequence,
(meaning the presbyterian discipline,) should cause posterity to feel
those evils, which as yet are more easy for us to prevent, than they
would be for them to remedy."
How fatally this Cassandra has foretold, we know too well by sad
experience. The seeds were sown in the time of Queen Elizabeth; the
bloody harvest ripened in the reign of King Charles the Martyr; and,
because all the sheaves could not be carried off without shedding some
of the loose grains, another crop is too like to follow; nay, I fear
it is unavoidable, if the conventiclers be permitted still to scatter.
A man may be suffered to quote an adversary to our religion, when
he speaks truth; and it is the observation of Maimbourg,[26] in his
"History of Calvinism," that wherever that discipline was planted
and embraced, rebellion, civil war, and misery, attended it. And how
indeed should it happen otherwise? Reformation of church and state
has always been the ground of our divisions in England. While we
were papists, our Holy Father rid us, by pretending authority out of
the Scriptures to depose princes; when we shook off his authority,
the sectaries furnished themselves with the same weapons, and out of
the same magazine, the Bible; so that the Scriptures, which are in
themselves the greatest security of governors, as commanding express
obedience to them, are now turned to their destruction; and never
since the Reformation has there wanted a text of their interpreting to
authorize a rebel. And it is to be noted by the way, that the doctrines
of king-killing and deposing, which have been taken up only by the
worst party of the Papists, the most frontless flatterers of the pope's
authority, have been espoused, defended, and are still maintained, by
the whole body of nonconformists and republicans. It is but dubbing
themselves the people of God, which it is the interest of their
preachers to tell them they are, and their own interest to believe,
and after that, they cannot dip into the Bible, but one text or another
will turn up for their purpose: if they are under persecution, as they
call it, then that is a mark of their election; if they flourish, then
God works miracles for their deliverance, and the saints are to possess
the earth.
They may think themselves to be too roughly handled in this paper;
but I, who know best how far I could have gone on this subject, must
be bold to tell them, they are spared; though, at the same time, I am
not ignorant, that they interpret the mildness of a writer to them, as
they do the mercy of the government; in the one they think it fear, and
conclude it weakness in the other. The best way for them to confute
me is, as I before advised the Papists, to disclaim their principles,
and renounce their practices. We shall all be glad to think them true
Englishmen, when they obey the king; and true Protestants, when they
conform to the church-discipline.
It remains that I acquaint the reader, that the verses were written
for an ingenious young gentleman, my friend, upon his translation
of "The Critical History of the Old Testament," composed by the
learned father Simon:[27] the verses, therefore, are addressed to the
translator of that work, and the style of them is, what it ought to be,
epistolary.[28]
If any one be so lamentable a critic as to require the smoothness,
the numbers, and the turn of heroic poetry in this poem, I must tell
him, that if he has not read Horace, I have studied him, and hope
the style of his epistles is not ill imitated here. The expressions
of a poem, designed purely for instruction, ought to be plain and
natural, and yet majestic; for here the poet is presumed to be a kind
of lawgiver, and those three qualities, which I have named, are proper
to the legislative style. The florid, elevated, and figurative way, is
for the passions; for love and hatred, fear and anger, are begotten
in the soul, by shewing their objects out of their true proportion,
either greater than the life, or less; but instruction is to be given
by shewing them what they naturally are. A man is to be cheated into
passion, but to be reasoned into truth.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 8: "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is
necessary that he hold the Catholic faith.
"Which faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without
doubt he shall perish everlastingly.]
[Footnote 9: The controversy between Athanasius and Arius long divided
the Christian church. The former was patriarch of Alexandria, and
the latter bishop of Nicomedia, in Asia. The dispute regarded the
godhead of the Trinity. The doctrine of Arius, that God the Son was
not co-existent, consequently, not equal in dignity with God the
Father, was condemned by the grand general council of Nice, and he
was banished. But he was afterwards recalled by the emperor; and his
heresy spread so widely, that almost all the Christian world were at
one time Arians. As a test of the true orthodox doctrine, Athanasius
composed the creed which goes by his name. Being written expressly for
this purpose, and for the exclusive use of the Christian world, Dryden
argues, with great apparent justice, that the anathema with which it
is fenced, has no relation to the heathens, and that we cannot, with
charity, or even logically, argue from thence concerning their state in
the next world.]
[Footnote 10: "It is certain, that the restless and enterprising spirit
of the Catholic church, particularly of the Jesuits, merits attention,
and is, in some degree, dangerous to every other communion. Such
zeal of proselytism actuates that sect, that its missionaries have
penetrated into every nation of the globe, and, in one sense, there is
a Popish-plot perpetually carrying on against all states, Protestant,
Pagan, and Mahometan."--HUME, Vol. VII. p. 72.]
[Footnote 11: The unfortunate Edward Coleman was secretary to the
Duke of York, and in high favour with his master. With the intriguing
spirit of a courtier, and the zeal of a Catholic, he had long carried
on a correspondence with Father La Chaise, confessor to the king of
France, with the Pope's nuncio, and with other Catholics abroad, for
the purpose, as he himself states it, of "the conversion of three
kingdoms, and by that, perhaps, the utter subduing of a pestilent
heresy, which has a long time domineered over a great part of the
northern world." It would seem, from these letters, that it was
the purpose of the Catholics, to begin by obtaining, if possible,
a toleration, or exemption from the penal laws; and then, while
strengthening themselves by new converts, to await the succession of
James, or the open declaration of Charles in favour of their religion.
From various points it appears, that Coleman was a better Catholic
than an Englishman; and would not have hesitated to sacrifice the
interests of his country to France, if, by so doing, he could have
brought her faith nearer to Rome. There were also indications of both
the king's and duke's accessibility to foreign influence, which were
fraught with consequences highly dangerous to the country. But, while
the Catholics were availing themselves of these unworthy dispositions
in the royal brothers, it was quite absurd to suppose, that they should
have forfeited every prospect of success, by assassinating these very
persons, upon whose lives their whole plan depended, to place upon the
throne the Prince of Orange, the head of the Protestant League. Yet,
although not the least trace is to be found in Coleman's letters of
the murders, invasions, fires, and massacres, which Oates and Bedloe
bore witness to, the real and imaginary conspiracy were identified by
the general prepossession of the nation; and Coleman, who undoubtedly
deserved death for his unlawful and treasonable trafficking with
foreign interests against the religion and liberty of his country,
actually suffered for a plot which was totally chimerical.]
[Footnote 12: These are all Jesuits and controversial writers.
Mariana maintains, that it is well for princes to believe, that if
they become oppressive to their people, they may be killed, not
only lawfully, but most commendably.--_Institut._ pp. 61, 64. In
the 6th chapter of the same work, he calls the murder of Henry III.
of France by Jaques Clement, "_insignem animi confidentiam--facinus
memorabile--cæso rege, ingens sibi nomen fecit_."
Bellarmine declares roundly, that all heretics are to be cut off,
unless they are the stronger party, and then the Catholics must remain
quiet, and wait a fitter time.--_De Laicis_, Liber III. cap. 22.
Simancha affirms, "_propter Hæresin Regis, non solum Rex regno
privatur, et a communione fidelium diris proscriptionibus separatur;
sed et ejus filii a regni successione pelluntur_." Suarez expressly
says, "_Regem excommunicatum impune deponi vel occidi quibuscunque
posse_."--Suarez in Reg. Mag. Brit. Lib. 6. cap 6. § 24.
These are sufficient examples of the doctrine laid down in the text,
which, I believe, is now as much detested by Roman Catholics as by
those of other religions.]
[Footnote 13: Edmund Campian, and Robert Parsons, English Jesuits,
in the year 1580, obtained a bull from the Pope, declaring, that the
previous bull of Pius V., deposing and excommunicating Queen Elizabeth,
did forever bind the heretics, but not the Catholics, till a favourable
opportunity should occur of putting it into execution. Thus armed,
they came into England, their native country, for the express purpose
of proclaiming the pope's right to dethrone monarchs, and that Queen
Elizabeth's subjects were freed from their allegiance. Campian was
hanged for preaching this doctrine, A. D. 1581. Parsons, finding
England too hot for him, fled beyond seas, and settled at Rome. He
published many works, both in English and Latin, against the church
and state of England; one of which is, "A Conference about the next
Succession of the Crown of England." printed in 1593, under the name of
N. Doleman. The first part contains the doctrine concerning the right
of the church to chastise kings, and proceed against them. This book
the fanatics found so much to their purpose, that they reprinted it,
to justify the murder of Charles I.--_Athenæ Oxon._ Vol. I. p. 358.
Doleman, under whose name it was originally published, was a quiet
secular priest, who abhorred such doctrines. Parsons, the real author,
died at Rome in 1610.]
[Footnote 14: The _Dominium directum_ is the right of seignory
competent to a feudal superior, in opposition to the _Dominium utile_,
or actual possession of the lands which is held by the vassal.]
[Footnote 15: Hugh Paulin Cressy, better known by the name of Serenus
Cressy, which he adopted upon entering into a religious state, was
originally chaplain to the unfortunate Strafford, and afterwards to
the gallant Falkland; but, having gone abroad after the civil wars,
he became a convert to the Catholic faith, and a benedictine monk
in the English college of Douay. After the Restoration, he returned
to England, and was appointed chaplain to Queen Catherine. He was
remarkable for regularity of life, unaffected piety, modest and mild
behaviour. But in mystical doctrines, he was an enthusiast; and in
religion, a zealot. He was the principal conductor of controversy
on the part of the papists; and published many treatises against
Stillingfleet, Pierce, Bagshaw, and other champions of the protestant
faith. His chief work was the Church History of Brittany, from the
beginning of Christianity to the Norman Conquest.--See _Athenæ; Oxon._
II. p. 528.]
[Footnote 16: The passage in Lord Herbert's history, referred to by
Dryden, seems to be that which follows:
"For as the scriptures began then commonly to be read, so out of the
literal sense thereof, the manner of those times was, promiscuously
to draw arguments, for whatsoever in matter of state or otherwise was
to be done. Insomuch, that the text which came nearest the point in
question, was taken as a decision of the business; to the no little
detriment of their affairs: The scriptures not pretending yet to give
regular instructions in those points. But this is so much less strange,
that the year preceding, the Scriptures (heretofore not permitted
to the view of the people) were now translated in divers languages,
and into English, by Tindal, Joy, and others, though, as not being
warranted by the king's authority, they were publickly burnt, and a new
and better translation promised to be set forth, and allowed to the
people. It being not thought fit by our king, that under what pretence
or difficulty soever, his subjects should be defrauded of that, wherein
was to be found the word of God, and means of their salvation. Howbeit
not a few inconveniences were observed to follow. For as the people did
not sufficiently separate the more clear and necessary parts thereof,
from the obscure and accessory; and as again taking the several authors
to be equally inspired, they did equally apply themselves to all; they
fell into many dangerous opinions: Little caring how they lived, so
they understood well, bringing religion thus into much irresolution
and controversie, while few men agreeing on the same interpretation
of the harder places, vexed each others conscience, appropriating to
themselves the gift of the spirit. Whereof the Roman church, (much
perplext at first with these defections) did at last avail itself; as
assuming alone the power of that decision, which yet was used more
in favour of themselves, than such an analogy, as ought to be found
in so perfect a book. So that few were satisfied therewith, but such
as, renouncing their own judgment, and submitting to theirs, yielded
themselves wholly to an implicit faith; in which, though they found
an apparent ease, yet as, for justifying of themselves, the authority
of their belief was derived more immediately from the church, than
the scripture, not a few difficulties were introduced, concerning
both: While the more speculative sort could not imagine, how to hold
that as an infallible rule, which needed humane help to vindicate and
support it; nevertheless, as by frequent reading of the scripture at
this time, it generally appeared what the Roman church had added or
altered in religion, so many recovered a just liberty, endeavouring
together a reformation of the doctrine and manners of the clergy, which
yet, through the obstinacy of some, succeeded worse, than so pious
intentions deserved."]
[Footnote 17: William Tyndal, otherwise called Hitchens, was born
on the borders of Wales, and educated at Oxford. He was one of the
earliest Protestants, and so boldly maintained the doctrines of the
Reformation, that he was obliged to leave England. He employed himself,
while abroad, in executing a translation, first of the New Testament,
and afterwards of the Pentateuch, with prologues to the different
books. But as he was a zealous Lutheran, and as it had not pleased King
Henry VIII. that his subjects should become Protestants, though they
had ceased to be Papists, Tyndal's version of the New Testament was
publickly burned, and prohibited by royal proclamation, as tending to
disturb the brains of weak persons. This grossly indecorous expression
was not altogether without foundation. A rule of faith, containing the
most sublime doctrines both of faith and moral practice, and which had
long been acknowledged the only guide to heaven, could not be exposed
at once to the vulgar, who had been bred up in the grossest ignorance
of its nature and contents, without dazzling and confounding them, as
the beams of the sun suddenly let in upon the inmates of an obscure
dungeon. It was not till the sacred Scriptures, with the expositions
of judicious pastors, became a part of the regular education of the
people, that their minds were duly prepared to make the proper use of
that inestimable gift.
The fate of Tyndal was melancholy enough. By the influence of Henry, he
was seized at Brussels; and, under pretence of his being a pragmatical
incendiary, one of the first translators of the New Testament was
strangled and burned, at Filford castle, about twenty miles from
Antwerp, in 1536. His last words were, "Lord, open the king of
England's eyes."]
[Footnote 18: Heylin says, the reformation would have rested with the
first public liturgy, confirmed by act of parliament in the second and
third years of Edward VI., "if Calvin's pragmatical spirit had not
interposed. He first began to quarrel at some passages in this sacred
liturgy, and afterwards never left soliciting the lord protector,
and practising, by his agents, on the court, the country, and the
universities, till he had laid the first foundation of the Zuinglian
faction, who laboured nothing more than innovation both in doctrine and
discipline."--_Ecclesia Restaurata._ Address to the Reader.]
[Footnote 19: The learned and judicious Richard Hooker, one of the
most eminent divines of the church of England, wrote a treatise upon
Ecclesiastical Policy, in which he vindicates that communion, both
against the Puritans and Papists. It is in eight books; five were
published during Hooker's lifetime, and the other three after his
death. The last are supposed to be interpolated, as they bear some
passages tending to impugn the doctrine of non-resistance, which at
that time was a shibboleth of orthodoxy. Hooker died in 1600. His Life,
to which Dryden refers, was written by the worthy Isaac Walton, better
known as the author of the "Complete Angler;" a delightful work, where
the innocent simplicity, unclouded cheerfulness, and real worth of the
author, beam through every page. His Life of Hooker was published about
1662. See HAWKIN'S edition of the _Complete Angler_, Introduction, p.
19. _Athenæ Oxon._ Vol. I. p. 302.]
[Footnote 20: George Cranmer, whom Wood calls a gentleman of singular
hopes, was grandson to Edmund Cranmer, arch-deacon of Canterbury,
brother to Thomas the primate, who suffered martyrdom in the reign
of Queen Mary. He was bred to state affairs under Secretary Davison;
and after serving in various diplomatic capacities, became secretary
to Lord Mountjoy, Lieutenant of Ireland. On the 13th November, 1600,
Cranmer was slain in a skirmish at Carlingford between the English and
the forces of Tyrone. Camden thus records his death: "_Cecidit tamen
ex Anglis, præter alios, Cranmerus, Proregi ab epistolis, et ipsi eo
nomine longe charissimus_." He wrote to Hooker, under whom he had
studied, the letter mentioned in the text concerning the new church
discipline, which is dated February 1598. It is inserted by Walton in
his Life of Hooker. _Athenæ Oxon._ Vol. I. p. 306.]
[Footnote 21: John Penry, or Ap Henry, better known by the name
of Martin Mar-prelate, or Mar-priest, as having been a plague to
the bishops and clergy of his time. He was a native of Wales, and
originally a sub-sizer of Peter-house, in Cambridge. Afterwards he
obtained the degree of Master of Arts in Oxford, and, having taken
orders, was for some time a regular clergyman. But being a person "full
of Welch blood, of a hot and restless head," Anthony Wood tells us, he
became a furious Anabaptist, and the most bitter enemy to the church of
England that appeared in the long reign of Queen Elizabeth. He wrote
a great number of _pestilent_ pamphlets, with burlesque titles; such
as, "Oh, read over John Bridges, for it is a worthy work. Printed over
sea, in Europe, within two furlongs of a bouncing Priest, at the cost
of Martin Mar-prelate, gent." All his writings were filled with the
most virulent invectives against the Episcopal church. At length, being
apprehended, and tried for writing and publishing infamous books and
libels against the established religion, he was condemned and executed
at St Thomas a Watering, 29th May, 1593. Dryden compares him to Andrew
Marvel, the well known opposer of the court, during the reign of
Charles II.]
[Footnote 22: The court writers at this period were anxious to fix
upon the presbyterians and the non-conformists in general, the
anti-monarchical principles of the fanatics, who brought Charles I. to
the scaffold. Their arguments may be seen at length in a book entitled,
"Seditious Teachers, ungodly Preachers exemplified." These charges are
carried too far; yet as the Episcopalians made church and king their
watchword, the fanatics, on the contrary, in England, and the Huguenots
in France, had a certain tendency to oppose monarchical government. One
of their authors, as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, maintains,
that if kings and princes refused to reform religion, the inferior
magistrates or people, by direction of the ministry, might lawfully,
and ought, if need required, even by force of arms, to reform it
themselves.--_Whittingham's Preface to Goodman on Obedience to Superior
Powers._]
[Footnote 23: The freaks of these unhappy enthusiasts may be seen in
the histories of the time. Hacket, a man of some learning, had his
brain turned by enthusiasm, and seduced Coppinger and Arthington, two
fanatic preachers, by his example and exhortation, to sally forth into
the streets of London, where he proclaimed himself to be the Messiah,
and Coppinger and Arthington, his prophet of mercy, and his prophet of
judgment. As they continued to utter the most horrible blasphemies,
and to exhort the citizens to take arms, to further the reign of
Hacket, who, they said, was come with his fan in his hand to purify
the discipline of the church of England, they were seized and lodged
in prison. Hacket was executed, though fitter for Bedlam, persisting
to the last in the most insane blasphemy. The discipline of the prison
restored Arthington to his senses, and he published a recantation,
expressing great remorse for his errors. Coppinger starved himself to
death in jail. This explosion of madness took place in 1591. Hacket is
stated by Camden to have been a determined enemy to Queen Elizabeth,
and to have stabbed her picture with his dagger.]
[Footnote 24: The birth-night of Queen Elizabeth was that which the
Whigs chose to solemnize, by their grand pope-burnings and processions;
considering her as the patron of the Protestant religion. Yet Queen
Elizabeth was very severe against the Puritans, and passed several
statutes against them.]
[Footnote 25: See the notes on "Absalom and Achitophel," Vol. IX.
pages, 280, 404.]
[Footnote 26: Lewis Maimbourg, a secularized Jesuit, wrote a History of
Calvinism, in which he charges upon the Huguenots the principal share
of the guilt of the civil wars of France. He charges them particularly
with the conspiracies of Amboise and Meaux against the crown; and
alleges, it was their intention, by the assistance of England, and the
Protestant states of Germany, with whom they corresponded, to establish
a republic in France. His arguments are controverted in an "Apology for
the Protestants of France, in six letters." London, 1683.]
[Footnote 27: Pere Richard Simon was an excellent Orientalist. He was
an oratorian priest, and published, besides the work here mentioned,
"A critical History of the New Testament," and a new Version of it,
which was censured by Cardinal de Noailles, Archbishop of Paris, and
opposed by Bossuet, the learned Bishop of Meaux. Pere Simon was an able
biblical critic, an excellent scholar, and one of the most learned
divines of his age.]
[Footnote 28: Derrick erroneously states this young gentleman to
have been Hampden, son of the famous parliamentary leader, who was
deeply engaged in the Rye-house Plot, and some years afterwards killed
himself. Dryden was not likely, in the very hottest of his political
controversy, to be on very intimate habits with a leader of the
Whigs, much less to inscribe to him a poem, the preface of which, at
least, is levelled against the most zealous of that party. Besides,
the translation of Pere Simon's Critical History, which was published
in 1682, bears to have been made by H. D. which initials can hardly
stand for John Hampden. Mr Malone conjectures he may have been of the
Digby family, or perhaps Mr Dodswell, who translated one of Plutarch's
Lives, But it appears, from a poem addressed to the Translator by
Duke, that his name was Henry Dickinson, probably a son of Edmund
Dickinson, a physician, and author of the _Delphi Phenecizantes_, and
other learned pieces. _Athenæ Oxon._ Vol. II. p. 946. There is another
copy of verses, addressed to the Translator of the "Critical History"
in Dryden's "Miscellanies." So that Dickinson's work seems to have
attracted much notice at the time of its publication.]
RECOMMENDATORY VERSES.
ON
MR DRYDEN'S
RELIGIO LAICI.
Begone, you slaves, you idle vermin, go,
Fly from the scourges, and your master know;
Let free, impartial men from Dryden learn
Mysterious secrets of high concern,
And weighty truths, solid convincing sense,
Explained by unaffected eloquence.
What can you, Reverend Levi, here take ill?
Men still had faults, and men will have them still;
He that hath none, and lives as angels do,
Must be an angel;--but what's that to you?
While mighty Lewis finds the Pope too great,
And dreads the yoke of his imposing seat,
Our sects a more tyrannic power assume,
And would for scorpions change the rods of Rome.
That church detained the legacy divine;
Fanatics cast the pearls of heaven to swine:
What, then, have honest thinking men to do,
But chuse a mean between the usurping two?
Nor can the Egyptian patriarch blame a muse,
Which for his firmness does his heat excuse;
Whatever counsels have approved his creed,
The preface, sure, was his own act and deed.
Our church will have the preface read, you'll say:}
'Tis true, but so she will the Apocrypha; }
And such as can believe them freely may. }
But did that God, so little understood,
Whose darling attribute is being good,
From the dark womb of the rude chaos bring
Such various creatures, and make man their king,
Yet leave his favourite, man, his chiefest care,
More wretched than the vilest insects are?
O! how much happier and more safe are they,
If helpless millions must be doom'd a prey
To yelling furies, and for ever burn
In that sad place, from whence is no return,
For unbelief in one they never knew,
Or for not doing what they could not do!
The very fiends know for what crime they fell,
And so do all their followers that rebell;
If then a blind, well-meaning Indian stray,
Shall the great gulph be shewed him for the way?
For better ends our kind Redeemer died,
Or the fallen angels' rooms will be but ill supplied.
That Christ, who at the great deciding day,
(For he declares what he resolves to say,)
Will damn the goats for their ill-natured faults,
And save the sheep for actions, not for thoughts,
Hath too much mercy to send them to hell,
For humble charity, and hoping well.
To what stupidity are zealots grown, }
Whose inhumanity, profusely shewn }
In damning crowds of souls, may damn their own!}
I'll err, at least, on the securer side,
A convert free from malice and from pride.
ROSCOMMON.
TO
MR DRYDEN,
ON HIS POEM CALLED
RELIGIO LAICI.
Great is the task, and worthy such a muse,
To do faith right, yet reason disabuse.
How cheerfully the soul does take its flight
On faith's strong wings, guided by reason's light?
But reason does in vain her beams display, }
Shewing to th' place, whence first she came, the way,}
If Peter's heirs must still hold fast the key. }
The house, which many mansions should contain,
Formed by the great wise Architect in vain,
Of disproportion justly we accuse,
If the strait gate still entrance must refuse,
The only free enriching port God made, }
What shameful monopoly did invade? }
One factious company engrossed the trade.}
Thou to the distant shore hast safely sailed,
Where the best pilots have so often failed.
Freely we now may buy the pearl of price; }
The happy land abounds with fragrant spice,}
And nothing is forbidden there but vice. }
Thou best Columbus to the unknown world!
Mountains of doubt, that in thy way were hurled,
Thy generous faith has bravely overcome,
And made heaven truly our familiar home.
Let crowds impossibilities receive;
Who cannot think, ought not to disbelieve.
Let them pay tithes, and hood-winked go to heaven;
But sure the quaker could not be forgiven,
Had not the clerk, who hates lay-policy, }
Found out, to countervail the injury, }
Swearing, a trade of which they are not free.}
Too long has captive reason been enslaved,
By visions scared, and airy phantasms braved,
List'ning to each proud enthusiastic fool,
Pretending conscience, but designing rule;
Whilst law, form, interest, ignorance, design,
Did in the holy cheat together join.
Like vain astrologers, gazing on the skies,
We fall, and did not dare to trust our eyes.
'Tis time at last to fix the trembling soul,
And by thy compass to point out the pole;
All men agree in what is to be done,
And each man's heart his table is of stone,
Where he the god-writ character may view;
Were it as needful, faith had been so too.
Oh, that our greatest fault were humble doubt,
And that we were more just, though less devout!
What reverence should we pay thy sacred rhymes,
Who, in those factious too-believing times,
Has taught us to obey, and to distrust;
Yet, to ourselves, our king, and God, prove just.
Thou want'st not praise from an insuring friend;
The poor to thee on double interest lend.
So strong thy reasons, and so clear thy sense,
They bring, like day, their own bright evidence;
Yet, whilst mysterious truths to light you bring,}
And heavenly things in heavenly numbers sing, }
The joyful younger choir may clap the wing. }
TO
MR DRYDEN,
ON
RELIGIO LAICI.
'Tis nobly done, a layman's creed profest,
When all our faith of late hung on a priest;
His doubtful words, like oracles received,
And, when we could not understand, believed.
Triumphant faith now takes a nobler course,
Tis gentle, but resists intruding force.
Weak reason may pretend an awful sway,
And consistories charge her to obey;
(Strange nonsense, to confine the sacred Dove,}
And narrow rules prescribe how he shall love, }
And how upon the barren waters move.) }
But she rejects and scorns their proud pretence,
And, whilst those grovling things depend on sense,
She mounts on certain wings, and flies on high,}
And looks upon a dazzling mystery, }
With fixed, and steady, and an eagle's eye. }
Great king of verse, that dost instruct and please,
As Orpheus softened the rude savages;
And gently freest us from a double care,
The bold Socinian, and the papal chair:
Thy judgment is correct, thy fancy young,
Thy numbers, as thy generous faith, are strong:
Whilst through dark prejudice they force their way,
Our souls shake off the night, and view the day.
We live secure from mad enthusiasts' rage,
And fond tradition, now grown blind with age.
Let factious and ambitious souls repine, }
Thy reason's strong, and generous thy design;}
And always to do well is only thine. }
THO. CREECH.
RELIGIO LAICI.