firft apoftate to divinity. Arius, the heretic. -the infatiate wolf, &c. Butler, in the first canto of Hudibras, fays, that the Prefby terians prove their doctrine orthodox, "By apoftolic blows and knocks." The general defcription given of them here is very fevere: they hold the doctrine of predeftination, or a decree of God from all eternity, to fave a certain number of perfons, from thence called the Elect. "A fect, (of whom Hudibras fays a little lower') whose chief devotion lies "In odd perverse antipathies.” Such as reputing the eating of Christmas pies and plumb-porridge finful; nay, they prohibited all forts of merriment at that holy feftival, and not only abolished it by order of council, dated Dec. 22, 1657, but changed it into a faft. They wore, during the confufions about Oliver's time, black caps, that left their ears bare, their hair being cropped round quite clofe; wherefore the wolf, the emblem of Prefbytery, is here faid to "Prick up his predeftinating ears." his hateful head had been For tribute paid, &c. Several parts of England and Wales were once fo over-run with wolves, that a reward was given for every head of them brought into the government; and thus the country was, in time, quite cleared of them. The laft of all the litter, &c. Calvin was made profeffor of divinity, at Geneva, in 1536; but being obliged to retire from thence, as he had been before from his native country, France, he took refuge in Strafburgh, where he fet up a French church. Calvinism, or Presbyterianism, for they are much the same, made its way from France and Switzerland into Germany, Poland, Holland, England, &c. and has occafioned many great disturbances in all these different places. Becaufe of Wickliff's brood, &c. Dr. John Wickliff, a man of fharp wit, great learning, and. rong judgment, broached a new doctrine in the fourteenth cen tury," denying the pope's fupremacy, the infallibility of the church, transubstantiation, &c." and publicly maintained his te-, nets in the university of Oxford. That fiery Zuinglius, &c. Zuinglius was a Swifs divine of the fifteenth century, who also denied tranfubftantiation. In Ifrael fome believe him whelp'd long fince, "Some," fays our author in these and the fifteen following lines, "fuppofe the first rise of Presbytery in this kingdom to have "been when the parliament were at variance with the king ;" others (fays the poet) carry it higher, even to the time of Corah, among the Jews who ftrove From Mofes hand the fov'reign fway to wreft, And Aaron of his ephod to diveft. See the Paffage alluded to, in fcripture, Numbers ch. xvi. - your victorious colonies are fent, Where the north ocean, &c. The various fects of Prefbyterianifm found a kind, nurturing foil in Scotland, nor were they refufed fhelter in Holland. magic plants will but in Colchos thrive. This is a country of Afia, abounding with poisonous herbs, which gave occafion to the poetical fiction of the witchcraft of Medea, who is ftiled Colchis. Vide Horat. Epod. xvi. 58. From Celtic woods is chac'd the wolfish crew. This paffage alludes to the revocation of the edict of Nantz, by which two millions of the reformed church were profcribed, and two hundred thousand drove into foreign countries: a proceeding that must throw an eternal blemish on the reign of Louis XIV. The remainder of this paragraph does great honor to Dryden, as it manifefts, that whatever faults he had, a perfecu ting spirit was not one of them. kind as kings upon their coronation-day. Who always begin their reign with an act of grace. the mighty hunter of his race. Nimrod, who built Babylon, and was the first man we meet with in fcripture who made invasions on the territories of others. to number o'er the rest, Were weary work, &c. Our author is content with naming the chief fects; fince, to reckon the others, fuch as field-preachers, and other diffenters from the church, would be an endless task. Such fouls as Shards produce, &c. A Shard fignifies a plant, and alfo a kind of fish. A lion old, obfcene by a left-hand marriage weds the dame. Henry VIII. having fallen in love with Anne, the fuppofed daughter of Sir Thomas Bullen, but by many affirmed to be his own natural child, in vain follicited the pope to annul bis marriage with Catharine, who had been the widow of his brother Arthur. Piqued at the refusal he renounced the papal supremacy, repudiated the queen, and married with his beloved Anne; and this was the beginning of the reformation. a lawless prince By luxury reform'd incontinence. The reformation permitted the clergy to marry, from which they were before interdicted. By ruins, charity; &c. This alludes to the fuppreffion of monafteries, and sequestration of their revenues for the royal ufe. They are faid to have amounted to 32,000 l. a year, befides plate, goods, churchornaments, &c. amounting to more than 100,000 1. her reverend phylacteries. Phylacteries is a word of Greek extraction, fignifying originally to guard or preferve. The paffages here alludes to the Jews, who wore on their foreheads and wrists little rolls of parchment, wherein were written certain words of the law, fuppofed to be capable of charming and protecting the bearer from harm. one for substance, one for fign contends. Luther afferted the real presence under the different substances of bread and of wine; but this only in the act of receiving the facrament: whereas Zuinglius affirmed, that the bread and wine, or the elements, were only types, the figure and representation of the body and blood of Chrift. The faithful this thing fignify'd receive. See the twenty-eighth article of the church of England here alluded to. Nor will I meanly tax her confancy. No king! no bishop! was a common faying in King Charles the Ift's time, and fufficiently verified during the inter-regnum. This whole paffage is a real compliment to the church, as by law establifhed; and fhews that Dryden could fpeak impartially even of a cause that he had deferted; which cause he handsomely compares to "an Indian wife." Whofe conftancy is become a proverb: fince when their deceafed husbands are either to be buried or burned, to manifeft their affection, they throw themfelves either into the fame grave, or on the funeral pile. Ifgrim. The wolf. The fovereign lion bade her fear no more. Charles II. who died a Papift, and James II. who openly profeffed himself fuch, and fupported his religion with a firmness that loft him three crowns. Nor had the grateful Hind fo foon forgot Her friend, and fellow-fufferer in the plot. The Popish plot; the contrivers of which were Prefbyterians Latetudinarians, and Republicans, who had before fhewn themfelves enemies to the Proteftant, as well as the Popish church. This explanation is farther confirmed in our notes on Abfalom and Achitophel, and those on the Medal. PART II. times are mended well, Since late among the Philistines you fell. For by the Philiftines here are meant the Cromwellians, &c. King Charles II. the younger lion But all your pricftly calves lay ftruggling, &c. This alludes to the commons voting in 1640-1, that all deans, chapters, &c. fhould be utterly abolished. A bill paffed about the fame time to deprive bishops of their seats in parliament. The teft it feems at lat has loos'd your tongue. The teft-act paffed in 1672-3, enjoined the abjuration of the real presence in the facrament. men may err An allegory wherein the figure is not preferved thro the whole must be defective; a point that can, in many places, be proved on this poem, particularly here, wherein the Panther forgets his nature, and calls himfelf Man. For fallacies in univerfals live. "Dolus verfatur in generalibus," is a maxim in the schools. Tho Hugenots condemn our ordination, Succeffion, &c. The French reformed, whether Calvinists or Lutherans, are called Hugenots, and they all differ in some points from the English Proteftants. See our note on Luther. Or where did I at fure tradition firike, The writings of the apoftles and evangelifts, who had divine gifts, and fealed their teftimony, as it were, with their blood, are authority in the strict sense of the word. The church of England admits only two authorities, that of fcripture, and that of reafon; the fcripture muft furely be a rule of faith, and reafon where God gives not his fpirit can be the only rule for understanding fcripture. from fire to fon they came. An uninterrupted fucceffion of the high-priesthood, or of popes from St. Peter down to the present time, is claimed by the church of Rome, and the corner-ftone of her authority. You learn'd this language from the blatant beaft. Spencer, in his excellent poem, called The Fairy Queen, fhadows the moral virtues under the fictitious names of gallant he |