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: A case, 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.

EPILOGUE

TO HURLOTHRUMBO, OR THE SUPERNATURAL'.

Enter Hurlothrumbo.

LADIES and gentlemen, my lord of Flame
Has sent me here to thank you in his name;
Proud of your smiles, be'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.

Enter Critic.

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 bad it both spoken and printed.

Cr. A strange odd play, sir; Enter Author, pushes Hurlothrumbo aside. Au. Let me come to him.-Pray, what's that you say, sir?

Cr. I say, sir, rules are not observ'd here.

Au. Rules, Like clocks and watches, were all made for fools. Rules make a play? that is

Cr. What, Mr. Singer? Au. As if a knife and fork should make a finger. Cr. Pray, sir, which is the hero of your play? Au. Hero? why they're all heroes in their way. Cr. But here's no plot! or none that's understood.

Au. There's a rebellion tho'; and that's as good. Cr. No spirit nor genius in't.

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, old 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

after:

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.

REMARKS

ON DR. MIDDLETON'S EXAMINATION OF THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON'S DISCOURSES CONCERNING THE USE AND INTENT OF PROPHECY.

2 PETER i. 19.

"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?

50

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 al!,
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 ra'se within his soul
Suspense about the nature of the whole!"

20

30

40

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 manper 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. Middieton's Treatise, p. 55.

If, when God spake, each fell upon his faceHow 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 be trod On holy ground and heard the voice of God, 80 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 ail, Who, in his faith, upon the Lord should call, When he receiv'd the seal 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 diviue 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.

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100

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,
"To doubt it-a comparison so just

Peter not only might have made, but must.-" 120
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

[way

Of these endowments," Lightfoot shows the How, by assuming liberty to take 131

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 hath:
This trusty evidence, amongst the rest,
Is call'd to prove a voice from Heav'n a jest; 140
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:

2 P. 47. "Let us now return to the bishop's Discourses, 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 evidence 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 comparison?' 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."

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 naine 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.'" 4 P. 141. "Now by the same method of reasoning, and the liberty which his lordship every where assumes, of supposing whatever premises he 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."

160

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 seripture, 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". 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 that the purpose of his doubting mind? 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, Some said it thunder'd, some, an angel spake, We have his own authority divine; "This voice," said he, " came for your sakes, not

170

[came

[mine."

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;

190

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 company believed it to be nothing more than an accidental 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

200

That all but scripture miracles are lies,
What crowds embrace the new belief, and hope!
It suits their taste- and saves thein from the pope.
Others contend that wond'rous gifts survive
The first three centuries-or four-or five.- 210
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 wail.

220

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,

229

240

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 be 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." 250

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:

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.
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.
Do but observe the point in question, sir,
On which the doctor makes this learned stir;
How he, who talks of " its perpetual changes
By others," takes the liberty to range:

270

When a comparison was judg'd absurd,
Peter cou'd 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, 280
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,

290

300

the occasion of his words oblige us to interpret them, as spoken, not with any particular reference to himself, but to the general body of the Jewish converts."

P. 62. +6 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 conviction 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, shali we discern,
When reason comes to be so deadly cool,
The sage deliberator from the fool?

Conceive St. Peter, if you can, entie'd
(Eye-witness of the majesty of Christ;
Of what the Father, in the Mount, had done
By showing forth the gory 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.
But thus the frigid argument is brought,
Why Peter might, in tuli persuaded thought,
Prefer predictions in the ancient law

310

320

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 intirin, he shamefully deny'd
His Master, seen so greatly glorify'd1.”

530

Yes; so he did-and gave an humbling 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

340

[bold:

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,

360

P. 56. "For after all the convictions which he himself had received from it, we know, that his 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
Wheuce ev'ry virtue branches into fruit,
Lays the foundation of the Christian life;
As reason goverus 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 self 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

370

380

To curse, and swear, and did not know the mana
"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?
'Tis 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.

390

400

410

'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 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:

P. 56. We know on the other hand, that after our Lord's ascension, when his faith was more fully confirmed, and his understanding enlight ened 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 forctoid and described by the mouths of all their pro phets.