complishment of fome extraordinary undertaking, which requires the ftrength and vigour of the body, the duty of a foldier, the capacity and prudence of a general; and, in fhort, as much, or more, of the active virtue, than the suffering. But to this, the anfwer is very obvious. God has placed us in our several stations; the virtues of a private Christian are patience, obedience, fubmiffion, and the like; but, those of a magiftrate, or general, or a king, are prudence, counsel, active fortitude, coërcive power, awful commands, and the exercife of magnanimity, as well as juftice. So that this objection hinders not, but that an Epic Poem, or the Heroic action of fome great commander, enterprized for the common good and honour of the Chriftian caufe, and executed happily, may be as well written now, as it was, of old by the heathens; provided the Poet be endued with the fame talents; and the language, though not of equal dignity, yet, as near approaching to it as our modern barbarifm will allow, which is all that can be expected from our own or any other now extant, though more refined; and therefore we are to reft contented with that only inferiority, which is not poffibly to be remedied.

I wish I could as easily remove that other difficulty which yet remains. It is objected by a great French critic, as well as an admirable poet, yet living, and whom I have mentioned with that honour which his merit exacts from me, I'mean Boileau, That the machines of our Chriftian religion, in heroic poetry, are much more feeble to fupport the weight than thofe of Heathenifm.

Heathenifm. Their doctrine, grounded as it was on ridiculous fables, was yet the belief of the two victorious monarchies, the Grecian and Roman. Their Gods did not only intereft themselves in the event of wars (which is the effect of a fuperior Providence); but alfo efpoused the several parties, in a vifible corporeal. defcent, managed their intrigues, and fought their battles fometimes in. oppofition to each other: though Virgil (more difcreet than Homer in that last particular) has contented himself with the partiality of his deities, their favours, their counfels, or commands, to those whose cause they had espoused, without bringing them to the outrageousness of blows. Now our religion (fays he) is deprived of the greatest part of those ma, chines; at least the most shining in epick poetry. Though St. Michael, in Ariofto, feeks out Difcord, to fend her among the pagans, and finds her in a convent of friars, where peace fhould reign, which indeed is fine fatire; and Satan, in Taffo, excites Solyman to an attempt by night on the Chriftian camp, and brings an hoft of devils to his affiftance; yet the archangel, in the former example, when Difcord was reftive, and would not be drawn from her beloved monaftery with fair words, has the whip-hand of her, arags her out with many ftripes, fets her, on God's name, about her bufinefs; and makes her know the difference of ftrength betwixt a nuncio of heaven, and a minifter of hell: the fame angel, in the latter inftance from Taffo (as if God had never another, meffenger belonging to the court, but was confined like Jupiter to Mercury, and

Juno

Juno to Iris) when he fees his time, that is, when half of the Chriftians are already killed, and all the reft are in a fair way of being routed, ftickles betwixt the remainders of God's hoft, and the race of fiends; pulls the devils backwards by the tails, and drives them from their quarry; or otherwise the whole bufinefs had miscarried, and Jerufalem remained untaken. This, fays Boileau, is a very unequal match for the poor devils, who are fure to come by the worst of it in the combat; for nothing is more eafy, than for an Almighty Power to bring his old rebels to reafon, when he pleafes. Confequently, what pleasure, what entertainment, can be raised from so pitiful a machine, where we fee the fuccefs of the battle, from the very beginning of it; unless that, as we are Chriftians, we are glad that we have gotten God on our fide, to maul our enemies, when we cannot do the work ourfelves? For if the poet had given the faithful more courage, which had coft him nothing, or at leaft had made them exceed the Turks in number, then he might have gained the victory for us Chriftians, without interefting heaven in the quarrel; and that with as much eafe, and as little credit to the conqueror, as when a party of one hundred foldiers defeats another, which confifts only of fifty.

This, my Lord, I confefs, is fuch an argument against our modern poetry, as cannot be answered by thofe mediums which have been used. We cannot hitherto boast, that our religion has furnished us with

any

any fuch machines, as have made the ftrength and beauty of the ancient buildings.

But what if I venture to advance an invention of my own, to fupply the manifeft defects of our new writers ? I am fufficiently fenfible of my weaknefs; and it is not very probable that I should fucceed in fuch a project, whereof I have not had the least hint from any of my predeceffors, the poets, or any of their feconds, and coadjutors, the criticks. Yet we see the art of war is improved in fieges, and new inftruments of death are invented daily fomething new in philofophy and the mechanics is difcovered almost every year: and the fcience of former ages is improved by the fucceeding. I will not detain you with a long preamble to that, which better judges will, perhaps, conclude to be little worth.

It is this, in fhort, That Christian poets have not hitherto been acquainted with their own ftrength. If they had fearched the Old Testament as they ought, they might there have found the machines which are proper for their work; and thofe more certain in their effect, than it may be the New Teftament is, in the rules fufficient for falvation. The perufing of one chapter in the Prophecy of Daniel, and accommodating what there they find, with the principles of Platonic Philofophy, as it is now chriftianized, would have the miniftry of angels as ftrong an engine, for the working up heroic poetry, in our religion, as that of the ancients has been to raife theirs by all the fables of their

gods,

gods, which were only received for truths by the moft› ignorant and weakest of the people.

It is a doctrine almost universally received by Chriftians, as well protestants as catholicks, That there are. guardian angels appointed by God Almighty as his vicegerents, for the protection and government of cities, provinces, kingdoms, and monarchies; and. thofe as well of heathens, as of true believers. All this is fo plainly proved from thofe texts of Daniel, that it admits of no farther controverfy. The prince of the Perfians, and that other of the Grecians, are granted to be the guardians and protecting ministers of those empires. It cannot be denied, that they were opposite, and refifted one another. St. Michael is mentioned by his name, as the patron of the Jews, and is now taken by the Chriftians, as the protector-general of our religion. These tutelar genii, who prefided over the several people and regions committed to their charge, were watchful over them for good, as far as their commiss fions could poffibly extend. The general purpose, and defign of all, was certainly the fervice of their Great Creator. But it is an undoubted truth, that, for ends best known to the Almighty Majesty of heaven, his providential designs for the benefit of his creatures, for the debafing and punishing of fome nations, and the exaltation and temporal reward of others, were not wholly known to thefe his minifters; elfe why thofe factious quarrels, controverfies, and battles, amongst themselves, when they were all united in the fame der fign, the fervice and honour of their common master?

But