hoc est fideliter Dei mandata servare.

Salvian de Gu

bernat. Dei. Lib. iii. p. 44. Edit. Baluz.

NOTE 52.

IF the sentence contained in the first stanza of Mr. Pope's Universal Prayer be well-founded; faith, as an act of religion, must lose its discriminative nature of a reliance on one Being, manifested to us by a miraculous discovery of himself in preference of another; and almost its whole character as an attachment to the truth. As upon the notion there expressed there can be no false religion, so there can be none true : for religion is a devotion of ourselves to a God who has not left us to our own vain speculations, but has made himself known to us, whether by revelation or otherwise, and given us reason to suppose our service will be acceptable to him, if directed to him; but not if addressed to a fancied being, the creature of our own crude conceptions, with every attribute so unlike him as not to give us the least glimpse of his real nature. The great object of the Mosaic dispensation, to prevent the Israelites from worshipping any being but Jehovah, and even him under any bodily shape (which might change the notions of his nature to quite contrary ones) seems to have no reason in it, being merely to establish a distinction without a difference. The extirpation of the Canaanites will appear to have been ordered for the mistake of a name in their worship. But God did not consider himself the same being with Baal, when he says the Israelites shall not offer to him. what the Canaanites did to their gods. Neither did Antiochus Epiphanes, when he sent his officers to dedicate the temples of Samaria and Jerusalem to Jupiter Olym

12

12 See Prid. Connect. Part. II. B. 3. Anno, 168, &c.

pius, consider it as a mere change of ritual; nor did the Maccabees, who so gloriously resisted the impiety; nor the Samaritans, who meanly solicited it, to avoid persecution; believe that the object of worship was not changed, as well as the name. The venerable Sir Matthew Hale accepted the office of judge under the Protector upon a plea, with which he seems afterwards not to have been quite satisfied 13. "That it being absolutely necessary to have justice and property kept up at all times, it was no sin to take a commission from usurpers, if he made no declaration of their authority." But he never fell into the absurdity of supposing himself to be serving the king, at the time when he was acting under the supreme power vested in Cromwell; for he afterwards resigned his office, and said he would act no longer under such authority. Upon Mr. Pope's hypothesis he ought to have kept his place.

[ADDITIONAL NOTE.]

"WE must remember Pope wrote his Universal Prayer, when he was only, I believe, twelve years old and perhaps some might say, with Dr. Middleton, that the Catholic Religion is nearly the same as that of ancient Rome. The foot of Jupiter is still kissed for that of St. Peter. See a curious discussion in Cudworth's Intellectual System. Book i. chap, iv. §. xxxii. on the Polyonymous God. Unius Dei effectus varios pro variis censendos esse numinibus. Macrobius." B.

NOTE 53.

HESYCH. ἀπιστεῖ, ἀπειθεῖ. Marc. xvi. 16. ὁ ἀπιστήσας propter oppositum IoTsvoas partim is dicitur, qui contumaciter repudiat doctrinam Christianam, partim vero, qui

13 Character of Sir Matthew Hale, by Burnett, 8vo. 1682.

religioni Christianæ cognitæ non convenienter agit. Haud raro autem dzirε apud Græcos significat immorigerum et inobedientem esse. Schleusner.

NOTE 54.

WERE it not, that in the present day every insinuation or unqualified assertion, against what is esteemed most venerable among us, is hastily adopted, as a certain proof that it is not venerable-a noble poet, lately deceased, would have had reason to fear for his character as a man of sense, in insinuating the charge of cruelty against the most kind person who ever appeared on earth.

As he has not positively declared against what particular point his insinuation is levelled, we may guess from the drift of his remarks, one or all of the following to be within his meaning. First, that Christ enjoins a restraint of the passions of the mind as well as the appetites of the body-a command over ourselves in all points-and an abstinence from pleasure, inconvenient to our mortal nature. Secondly, that he requires the sacrifice of all which the world holds dear, even our life if necessary. Thirdly, that he occasioned much mischief by the propagation of his Gospel. Fourthly, that he arms conscience with double terror, by declaring a judgment to come. To the first it may be replied, that the self-command taught by Christ really makes life more comfortable, as is apparent from the different consequences of a meek and malignant, and of a virtuous and vicious course. Secondly, that these sacrifices of temporal things are requited by the promise of endless happiness. Thirdly, all the cruelty was on the side of those, who endeavoured to stifle the Gospel, the publication of which, was in the highest degree

necessary for the good of the world. Lastly, that, if the knowledge of a future judgment restrain or recover men from crimes, the declaration of it beforehand is mercy, though the apprehension of it may occasion conscience some pangs.

NOTE 55.

"THE redemption of mankind is a work, which in the event seems to concern men only; but considered as a vindication of the justice and goodness of God towards his creatures, it is a work exposed to the consideration of every intelligent being in the universe. Whether they may be supposed to inquire into God's dealings with the children of men, we may judge by ourselves. It is little we know of the fall of angels; yet how much has that employed human curiosity! For every man considers himself as having an interest in the justice and equity of the Supreme Being, under whose government he lives, and by whose judgment he must finally stand or fall. If we doubt whether the superior orders of beings have the like inclination, St. Peter will tell us.

That the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, are things the angels desire to look into.' 1 Peter i. 11, 12. And indeed the method of God's dealing with any rational creature is a common concern to all; and it is for the honour of God's government to be vindicated in the sight of every intelligent being, that he may be justified in his saying, and overcome when he is judged."-Sherlock, Vol. I. Disc. ii.

NOTE 56.

"WHAT has been often alleged in justification of this (vicarious punishment) even from the apparent natural tendency of this method of our redemption, its tendency

to vindicate the authority of God's laws, and deter his creatures from sin, has never yet been answered, and is I think plainly unanswerable: though I am far from thinking it an account of the whole of the case.”Butler's Analogy, Part II. cap. v.

NOTE 57.

"THE relation of Christ to mankind as Creator and Governor considered, the work of redemption could not properly have been undertaken by any other hand: for, if Christ was the immediate Creator and Governor of the world, what reason can you imagine why God 'should resume this authority out of the hands of his Son, or set up another to have dominion and authority over any part of the creation, which by natural right belonged to him, who made all things? Were we to consider one person as our Creator and another as our Redeemer, it would be extremely to the diminution of the honour and regard due to the Creator, inasmuch as the blessing of Redemption would greatly outweigh the benefit of creation; and it would be natural to us to prefer the love, that delivered us from the evils and miseries of the world, to that which placed us in them. In the daily service of our Church we praise God for creating and preserving us; but above all for his inestimable love in the redemption; which is very consistent with respect to one benefactor, who both made us and redeemed us. But had any other hand redeemed us, such expression of gratitude to him would have reflected dishonour upon the Creator." Sherlock, Vol. I. Dis. ii.

NOTE 58.

MICHAELIS'S Comment. on Laws of Moses, Art. 148, throws a new light on Matt. v. 40. "Whoever will