Tho' not inspir'd, like Peter, and th' eleven;
Or struck, like walking Paul, by voice from Heav'n,
They meet, what others foolishly evade,
The real mission of celestial aid:

Of which, howe'er the tokens are perceiv'd,
No faithful soul can ever be bereav'd.

What does the share of it that Peter had
To all the doctor's forc'd refinements add?
Might not the bishop, justly, give him back
Some compliments bestow'd in his attack?
Such as "the nothing but an empty strain
Of rhet'ric, insignificant, and vain-
The choosing not to see, of any theme,
More than may suit his preadopted scheme
The passing over what he should confute,
With matters foreign to the main dispute 3"—
And such-like flow'rs, upon his pages thrown,
That, full as well, become the doctor's own.
For, has the bishop, in his book, deny'd
That prophecy was properly apply'd?
No-but that Peter did a thing so odd,
As to prefer it to the voice of God.

430

440

This was the point requir'd to be explain'd,
In contradiction to what he maintain'd;
That which the doctor undertook to clear,
And make the pref'rence of the saint appear:
But while we look'd what reasons he would bring
For so incomprehensible a thing,

As common sense must reckon an appeal
From what th' Almighty should himself reveal,
Shifting the circumstances, time, and place,
In short, the question, to another case,
He tells us not of prophecy preferr❜d

450

Its author shows great spirit, and great art,
And well performs the contradicting part;"
But, in his subsequent remarks, we find
How lamely confutation limps behind.

450

Fully resolv'd, and singly, to maintain
A paradox, so quite against the grain,
The learned antithaumatist must choose
"Not to instruct his reader, but amuse ";"
Whene'er he touches a prophetic clause,
"Not to illustrate, but perplex the cause,"
To speak some truth, that shows the favour'd side,
And that which gives the whole connection, hide.
Why, else, a total silence on the bead
Of miracles, in what St. Peter said?
How could recited prophecies, alone,
Prove to the Jews that Jesus was foreshown?
Had not there been that other previous proof,
To every thoughtful Jew, in his behoof?
Had not such wond'rous facts struck up the light,
That show'd their application to be right?

Trace the quotations, sir, that Peter made,
"And see their force impartially display'd;
See what solution stated fact supplies,
Without contriv'd evasion, or disguise 7."

The first occasion, which th' apostle took
To cite a passage from a prophet's book,
Was at that public, wonderful event,
Upon the blessed Spirit's first descent:
The faithful flock, that met, with one accord,
To wait the gifts of their ascended Lord,
Soon as the tokens of his presence came,
The sound celestial, and the sacred flame,
Began to speak, with holy ardour fir'd,
In various hymns, by Heav'n itself inspir'd;
This joyful voice, of a diviner laud,
Was spread thro' all Jerusalem abroad;
And pious Jews, from ev'ry distant clime
460 | Residing there, that providential time,
Devout epitome of all mankind,

To voice from Heav'n, which he had just averr'd,
But how the saint apply'd, in his discourse,
Prophetic words, to give the Gospel force;
How Peter argued from them, he relates,
And proves full well-what nobody debates.
How gravely, sir, from fallacy so crude,
He prompts th' amused reader to conclude
"That any man, especially a Jew,

(As Peter was) might think the pref'rence due!
And what himself had heard th' Almighty speak,
Might be esteem'd, comparatively, weak!"

Under this millstone, oft, the struggling page Bestirs itself, but cannot disengage. "At all events resolving to confute 5, (To use his logic) or at least dispute,

470

3 P. 60. "Yet all this pomp of words, this solemn appeal to the whole college of the apostles and evangelists, is nothing else but an empty strain of rhetoric, without any argument or significancy in it whatsoever."-P. 34. "One would be apt to suspect, that his lordship never chooses to see more of any subject, than what may serve that particular hypothesis which he comes prepared to support." P. 39. "It is this alone, which the nature of the subject required him to confute, and what he had undertaken to confute; but instead, he changes the question upon us, and when we were expecting reasons, &c."

P. 56. "I might now leave it to the reader to judge whether in contradiction to what the bishop maintains, a man in his wits, and especially a Jew, might not think prophecy a stronger argument in general, than a voice from Heaven, which he himself had heard."

5 P. 29. "This was the ground of his lordship's resolution to confute, or at all events to contradict

490

500

Were drawn to witness that which God design'd:
His wond'rous works as Galileans sung,
All understood the spirit-utter'd tongue;
Of language, then, was no confusion known;
Each heard this one, and heard it as his own:
God gave the word himself; and all the good
Shar'd in the promis'd gift, and understood:
Tho', then, astonish'd at the wond'rous theme,
Prepar'd to spread it to the world's extreme.
Others, insensible of grace divine,
Mock'd at its influence, and talk'd of wine; 520
Themselves intoxicated with that pride,
By which the deaf in spirit still deride.
'Twas then that Peter, standing up to show
Th' absurd reproach, gave all of them to know
That, what these mockers call'd a drunken fit,
Was God's performance of what Joel writ

them, (the free-thinker's words); which last part
he has performed with great spirit, but how far
he has succeeded in the first, will be seen in the
following remarks."

"P. 4. "Proper rather (speaking of the bishop's works) to perplex than to illustrate the notion of prophecy; and to amuse rather than instruct an inquisitive reader.”

P. 153. “Instead of contriving any evasive expedients, or fanciful systems to elude the force of such objections, I thought it my duty to examine seriously and impartially, what solution of them the subject itself, when fairly stated, would supply.”

8 P. 8. "But to say the truth, I have never observed a stranger instance of the public patience 580 and blind deference to the authority of a great

That spreads a ray through places that are dark;
'Till ye, with us, enjoy the perfect light,
And want no prophecies to set you right.

An English reader may be led, indeed,
To think, that, as th' apostle's words proceed
With "we have also"-it was something more,
Some surer proof than what had gone before: 660
But "also," tho' without italics read,
Is an addition to what Peter said:

It only shows how our translation fail'd,
And made the blunder, that has since prevail'd;
Which, tho' sufficiently provok'd to mend,
The learned still choose rather to defend.

A writer, whose freethinking schemes incite
The bishop, and the doctor both to write;
Who had, it seems, in prophecies, a rule
First to extol, and then to ridicule,
Took, sir, his stand on this corrupted place,
From whence he both might heighten, and dis-
grace:

670

680

One point the vulgar errour gain'd, alone;
While, for the other, he employ'd his own.
Ingenious authors answer'd him apace,
But got no triumph in this knotty place:
Good sense oblig'd them wholly to reject
St. Peter's pref'rence, in his own respect;
Collins himself th' absurdity forbore;
That height was left for Middleton to soar.
But still some other they suppos'd there was,
Something that prophecy must needs surpass:
What it was not, they easily could see;
But what it was, scarce two of them agree:
Intent some kind of pref'rence to provide,
Which "also" plainly, and "more sure" imply'd:
*All, by an errour, which the simple thought
Of constr'ing right had rectifi'd, were caught.
In this mistake the bishop too has shar'd,
"Asserting prophecy indeed compar'd,
And, by St. Peter, to the voice preferr'd,
Which he himself, upon the Mount, had heard:
Yet not, says he, as that freethinker meant;
The words relate but to that one event,
That stands upon prophetical record,
To wit, the glorious coming of our Lord.
But, one or all, to make a surer word
Than heav'nly demonstration is absurd;

690

And glaring, in the instance that he chose, -
Because that coming, as the context shows, 708
Was of such majesty, as Peter knew
That Christ was really cloth'd with, in his view;
And, therefore, could not possibly say, We
Have also something surer than to see:
We were eye-witnessess of what we preach,
Yet think more certain what the prophets teach.

He contradicts, in splitting on the shelf
Of our translation, Peter and himself;
The saint-by such restriction of his own,
As was, by him, unthought of, and unknown;
Himself who says that Peter, in this place,
Admitting gospel truth to be the case,
Far from preferring the prophetic test,
Has manifestly said 't was not the best.

And of all gospel truths, that you can name,
This glorious coming is the one great aim;
The sum, and substance, with respect to man,
Of heav'nly purpose, since the world began:
Divine intention could no more have been
For Christ to suffer, than for man to sin;
Tho', since that fatal accident befell,
Incarnate love would save him from a hell.
Whereas his glorious reign amongst mankind
Might, from their first existence, be design'd:
And since his suff'ring, saving advent past,
What sense of justice can deny the last?
His reigning glory, were the prophets dumb,
All things, in nature, cry aloud will come.

Besides, what better does the text afford,
To any tolerable sense restor❜d,
Compare, prefer, or construe how you will,
Than that divine appearance on the bill?
That ascertaining, in a heav'nly light,
Our Saviour's glory, by a present sight;
That record, which the Father, thereupon,
Gave of his Son to Peter, James, and John:
So full of proofs that, let what will be chief
Doubt is too near akin to disbelief.

The doctor says, "t is surely no offence
To true religion, or to common sense,
To think that, tracing circumstances out,
Perplext apostles might be left in doubt1."
Yet may a serious reader think it is,
From one plain circumstance, and that is this;
When they descended from the sacred place,
After partaking of this heav'nly grace,

[tell,

Our Saviour charg'd them that they should not
To any man, the vision that befell;
'Till he himself was risen from the dead:
The vision then-if he knew what he said- 750
Was true, and real; while, if you complete
The doctor's hints of possible deceit,
To give his rash reflections any force,
Our Lord himself must be deceiv'd, or worse:
Such things would follow-but the horrid train
Is too offensive, even to explain.
[make

In fine-these comments, which the learned
On Peter's words, are owing to mistake:

700

P. 29. "His lordship's exposition of the text is this: that the word of prophecy is compared, indeed and preferred here by St. Peter to the evidence of that heavenly voice, which he himself had heard in the Mount,' yet not, as that free-Those, which the doctor has been pleas'd to frame, thinking author imagines, on the account of its being a surer proof, or better argument for the 'general truth of the gospel, but only for the particular article of Christ's coming again in glory, to which case alone the comparison relates; for with regard to the truth of the gospel, Peter is so far from speaking of prophecy in this place, as the best evidence, that he manifestly speaks of it as not the best,"

Upon his whole behaviour, are the same.
Nor is more learning needful in the case,
Than to consult the untranslated place:
The phrase, you'll see, asserts what I assert,
And leaves no critic-room to controvert.

'P. 54. "It is no offence surely, either to reason or religion, to imagine that this wonderful ap parition," &c. before quoted, line 37.

The preacher speaks to, in the following text: Where, in his exhortation to repent," Jesus, he tells them, shall again be sent; Heav'ns must receive mankind's appointed head, 'Till time hath done whatever God hath said By all his prophets, since the world began— 780 For so the sense, without curtailing, ran; Of which the doctor, quoting but a part, Has yet dissolv'd the charm of all his art: Since all the prophets-let the world begin With Moses, if he will-are taken in; And join'd together, must, whate'er he thinks, Produce a chain, however few the links.

'Tis true, he afterwards begins to quote, And, first, the prophet of whom Moses wrote: Adding-" that all, who in succession came, 790 Had likewise spoken of the very same:"

Had Enoch's, Jude's, and Peter's words fulfill'd!
To clear a tortur'd passage from abuse,
This good effect may, possibly, produce,
That when a writer, of the modern mode,
Shall cast reflections on the sacred code,
Men will not, merely upon sudden trust
In bold assertions, take them to be just;
Since it may be that he has only made
Of great mistakes a critical parade;
Has only spoken evil of those things,
Of which he does not really know the springs;
Has met with matters high above his reach,
And, scorning to be taught, presum'd to teach:
Raising, about them, an affected cry,
That ends in nothing but a-who but I?

"Bare prophecy" the doctor has profest,
"Admits completion only for its test:
Th' event, foretold by it, must also be
What human prudence never could foresee;
Nor human power produce; or else no sign
Could, thence, appear of agency divine"."

Prophecy then, as his descriptions own,
Can be made sure by miracles alone:
It is, what he himself is pleas'd to call,
While unfulfill'd, no evidence at all.
How is it, then, in his repeated term,
Of standing evidence, more sure and firm?
How is this consonant to standing still
As none at all, till miracles futäll?
If it has none till they are overpast,
Is not the evidence from them at last?
From them prophetic word, before obscure,
Becomes an evidence confirm'd, and sure;
Its truth is first demonstrated, and then,
Reflects its light on miracles again.

A hungry question, therefore, to inquire,
Of two great proofs, that actually conspire,
Which is the best; when, with united light,
They both produce an evidence so bright.
But "the freethinker, with a crafty view,"
(If what his learn'd assistant says be true)
"Had rais'd prophetic credit to excess,
In order, more securely, to depress;
And, for this cause, his lordship undertook
To write, it seems, at all events, a book 8."

880

990

This being, then, the motive which he had,
A reader asks-what is there in it bad?
With what decorum does a priest accuse
A bishop, writing against crafty views?
Views of an enemy to gospel truth-
Is the defending of him less uncouth?
Does such defence, with such a rudeness writ,
The priest, the bishop, or the cause befit?
So interlarded with that loose reproach,
Which want of argument is wont to broach;
So deeply ting'd the Ciceronian style
With, what the critics commonly call, bile;
That they, who thought it worth their while to
seek

The author's motive, judg'd it to be pique.

Soon as you enter on the work, you see An instant sample what the whole will be: First, "being jealous of the bishop's views, His book, for years, he dar'd not to peruse; Afraid to trust so eminent a guide,

930

For fear his judgment should be warp'd aside:" Tho' quite secure" for he had ever found $90 Authority to be a treach'rous ground;

940

And even this"-this capital affair,
That was to lead his judginent to a snare,
"He found-and just as he expected too—
Who fear'd before a bias from his view"
When graciously inclin'd to see it since,
"Quite of a kind that never can convince 9."
Which, to be sure, afforded reason good
To write a book against it, lest it should.
Had any other author, less polite,
900 With vulgar phrase attempted thus to write;
And, thus, begun so fine a scheme to spin;
"The reas'ners of this world had broken in, 950
Rudely unravell'd all his fine-spun scheme 10,"
And sent him forth to seek another theme.
How suited this to any good design,
That should engage a Christian, a divine?
"But what are names-if not a single one
Be worth regard, for sixteen ages gone?
If to inquire what any of them say
Be, as he thinks, but wasting time away"?

910

9 P.2. "I knew his lordship also to be eminently qualified to dress up any subject into any form, which would best serve his own views, and was jealous of warping my judgment by some bias, which his authority might be apt to imprint: for so far as my experience had reached, I had ever found authority a treacherous guide to a searcher after truth." P. 4. "Upon this task I soon after entered, and found this capital work of his lordship's to be just such as I expected, exhibiting a species of reasoning peculiar to himself, ever subtle and refined, yet never convincing."

10 P. 106. But his lordship being apprehensive that the reasoners of this world might break in upon him, and rudely unravel his fine-spun scheme."

"P. 40. "Whereas a bare prophecy, delivered as the proof of a divine character in any person or doctrine, is incapable of any persuasive force, or of giving any sort of conviction, until it be accomplished; the completion of it being the sole test, by which its veracity can be determined. The event likewise, foretold by it, must be of a kind, which neither human prudence could foresee, nor human power produce; for otherwise it could not give any assurance of a divine interposition." 11 P. 3. "I thought it an idle curiosity and waste 8 P. 29."As far as these words go, there is certain-of time, to inquire what any modern divine had ly nothing in them but what a sincere advocate of preached or written about it (viz. the nature of the gospel might freely allow and join issue upon; prophecy), because the whole that can be known but they came from an enemy, who had a crafty authentically, concerning its relation to Christview in extolling the credit of prophecy, in order ianity, must be learnt from those who first to depress it afterwards the more effectually: and planted Christianity, and were instructed by the this was the ground of his lordship's resolution to author of it, on what foundation it rested, and confute, or, at all events, to contradict them, &c." how far the argument of prophecy was useful to quoted p. 18. its propagation and support."