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"stat effe Entem Incorporeum, Viventem, Intel"ligentem, Omnipræfentem, qui in spatio infinito, cc tanquam fenforio fuo, Res ipfas intime cernat, "penitufque perspiciat, totafque intra fe præfens præfentes complectatur

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But now admitting, for Argument's fake, that there was an Ambiguity in these Expreffions, fo great, as that a Spinozist might employ them to express his own particular Principles; and fuch a thing might well be, without any Reflection on the Poet's Religion, or Exactness as a Writer, because it is none on the Apostle's; who actually did that which Mr. Pope is not only falsely, but, as we fee from this Instance, foolishly accused of doing: And because the Spinozists, in order to hide the Impiety of their Principle, are used to express the Omniprefence of God in Terms that any religious Theift might employ. In this Cafe, I say, how are we to judge of the Poet's Meaning? Surely by the whole Tenor of his Argument. Now take the Words in the Sense of the Spinozists, and he is made, in the Conclufion of his Epistle, to overthrow all he has been advancing throughout the Body of it: For Spinozism is the Destruction of an Universe, where every thing tends, by a forefeen Contrivance in all its Parts, to the Perfection of the Whole. But allow him to employ the Paffage in the Sense of St. Paul, that we and all Creatures live, and move, and have our Being in God,

a Optice Quæft. 20,

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and then it will be seen to be the most logical Support of all that had preceded. For the Poet having, as we say, labour'd through his Epiftle, to prove that every Thing in the Universe tends, by a foreseen Contrivance, and a present Direction of all its Parts, to the Perfection of the Whole; it might be objected that such a Difpofition of Things implying in God a painful, operofe and inconceivable Extent of Providence, it could not be fuppofed that fuch Care extended to all, but was confined to the more noble Parts of the Creation. This grofs Conception of the First Caufe, the Poet exposes, by fhewing that God is equally and intimately present to every Particle of Matter, to every Sort of Substance, and in every Inftant of Being.

And how truly, may be seen by the Inquiry into the Nature of the human Soul, wrote exprefly against Spinozism, where the excellent Author has fhewn the Neceffity of the immediate Influence of God, in every Moment of Time, to keep Matter from falling back into its primitive Nothing.

The Examiner goes on: "Mr.Pope hath Reafon to "call this Whole, a ftupendous Whole; nothing being "more paradoxical and incredible, if we take his "Description literally b." I will add, nor nothing more so than St. Paul's, in him we live, and move, and have our Being, if taken literally. I have met with one who took it so, and from thence con

b Examen de l'Efai.

cluded

cluded with great Reach of Wit, that SPACE was God.

But Mr. Pope having said of God, that he,

Breathes in our Soul, informs our mortal Part,
As full, as perfect, in a Hair as Heart :"

the Commentator remarks, that દ one should "make a criminal Abuse of these pompous "Expreffions, if once launched out, with SPICC NOZA, to confound the Subftance of God "with our own; and to imagine that the Sub"ftance of what we call Creature, is the fame with "that Being's, to which we give the Name of « Creator" Spinoza is ftill the Burthen of the Song. To cut this Matter fhort, we fhall therefore give Mr. Pope's own plain Words and Sentiments, in a Line of this very Effay, that overturn all Spinozism from its very Foundations: Where, speaking of what Common Senfe taught Mankind, before falfe Science had depraved the Understanding, he says,

THE WORKER FROM THE WORK DISTINCT

WAS KNOWN,

And fimple Reason never fought but one.

Ep. iii. 1. 230.

But the Commentator is, at every Turn, crying out, A Follower of Spinoza would express himself just fo. I believe he might; and fure Mr. Croufaz could not be ignorant of the Reason. It being

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fo well known that that unhappy Man, the better to disguise his Atheism, covered it with fuch Expreffions as kept it long concealed even from those Friends and Acquaintance with whom he most intimately corresponded. Hence it must necessarily happen, that every the best intentioned, most religious Writer will employ many Phrafes, that a Spinozist would use, in the Explanation of his Impiety.

To perfift, therefore, from henceforth, in this Accufation, will deferve a Name, which it is not my Business to bestow.

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Mr. Pope concludes thus:

Cease then, nor Order Imperfection name:
Our proper Blifs depends on what we blame.
Know thy own Point: this kind, this due Degree
Of Blindness, Weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other Sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou canst bear:
Safe in the Hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal Hour.

L 273, & feq.

"The Heart gives itself up (says Mr. De Crou"fax) to the Magnificence of thefe Words."But I afk Mr. Pope, with regard to fuch con"folatory Ideas, whether he was not beholden, in "fome Measure, to Religion for them?" is in the true Spirit of modern Controversy.—Our Logician had taken it into his Head, that the

This

d Commentaire, p. 124, 125.

Poet

'Poet had no Religion; tho' he does not pretend his Proofs rife higher than to a legitimate Sufpicion; and finding here a Paffage that spoke plainly to the contrary, instead of retracting that rafh uncharitable Opinion, he would turn this very Evidence of his own Mistake into a new Proof for the Support of it; and so infinuate, you see, that Mr. Pope had here contradicted himself. He then preaches, for two Pages together, on the Paffage, and ends in thefe Words: "From all this I con❝clude, that the Verses in Question are altogether <c edifying in the Mouth of an honest Man, but "that they give Scandal and appear profane in the "Mouth of an ill one." How exactly can Rome and Geneva jump on Occafion! So the Conclave adjudged, that those Propofitions, which in the Mouth of St. Austin were altogether edifying, became fcandalous and profane in the Mouth of Fanfenius.

But the Examiner pursues the Poet to the very End, and cavils even at those Lines, which might have fet him right in his Mistakes about the Senfe of all the reft.

All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;

All Chance, Direction which thou canst not see;
All Discord, Harmony not understood;

All partial Evil, univerfal Good;

And spite of Pride, in erring Reason's Spite,
One Truth is clear, Whatever is, is RIGHT.

Commentaire, p. 127.

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