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Pro Rege fæpe, pro Republica femper.
Dubius, fed non improbus vixi:
Incertus morior, non perturbatus.
Humanum eft nefcire & errare.
Dea confido, Chriftum adveneror.
Ens entium miferere mei.

We chufe to be fomething particular when speaking of those who moft convers'd with Mr. Pope, thinking that by the Company any Man keeps a tolerable good Judgment may be form'd of the Man, we catch fomething from all with whom we are familiar, and Mr. Pope was fo very happy in a great Memory, that all his Friends had ftudied and travell'd for, by Converfation he made his own.

Another great Friend to Mr. Pope's Tranflation of the Iliad was the Bishop of Rochester, a felect Friend, and one the beft belov'd by the English Homer: Of whom we fhall oblige the Reader with the following Narrative.

HIS Prelate, was the Son of the Reverend

Dr. Atterbury, late Rector of Milton, near Newport-Pagnel, in Buckinghamshire. He was bred at Westminster-School, and from thence elected (with the faireft Promifes of the Great Man he has fince made) to Chrift-Church College in Oxford, where he accomplish'd himfelf in the moft polite Literature, and gain'd the greatest Reputation as an Orator and Divine. He was very much courted and admir'd by the politeft Perfons of the University on Account of his uncommon Abilities. His firft Preferments were those of Lecturer of St. Brides, and Preacher of Bridewell, London. Afterwards he was Chaplain to the Rolls; then Canon Refidentiary of

Exeter,

Exeter, and Archdeacon of Totness: After this he was Dean of Carlisle, and preferr'd to the Deanery of Chrift-Church, in Oxford; and in the Year 1713 he was made Dean of Weftminster, and Bishop of Rochester, who tho' an Enemy to the Government, after the Death of Q. Ann, and a profess'd Friend to those who were fuch, kept firm to the Proteftant Religion, and took all Occasions to fhew his Faith and Learning upon that Point. He had not been long acquainted with Mr. Pope before he took an Opportunity to discourse with him on this Head, but the firft time being in Company where there were Mrs. Blount, Mr. Cromwell, his own Mother, and a certain Lord, whofe Principles were known to Mr. Pope, at whose Defire, and with whom he had read my Lord Shaftfbury's Characteristicks, the Religion of Nature Delineated, and fome other Books very much in Favour of free Inquiry, Mr. Pope wav'd it, and taking the Bifhop afide, told him, tho' he was but a bad Advocate for his Religion, its Orthodoxy and Strength would give him fufficient Power to venture anArgument with Heretic with a Mitre or without; fo free did they converse that these Words gave no Offence: That Evening was fet afide for the Converfation, and they were to imagine Dean Swift prefent at the Difpute.

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The Bishop began to read out of Dr. Tillotson's Sermons, fome of which he generally carried about him, faying, that his own Sentiments were there better exprefs'd than he extempore, or perhaps with his greateft Study could exprefs them, and without any other Arguments were fufficient to convince any Man who had a Mind fo large and fo blefs'd with Light as Mr. Pope's, of the great Weakness and Abfurdity of the Faith of Papifts.

Mr. Pope fat with great Patience, and in his Reply faid, that the Difcourfes (for fo he call'd them)

of

of the Archbishop were only Reasoning, and confequently could be no Rule for Faith; that his Quotations were not proper for the Subject, as he had treated it, and could be us'd by Catholicks in Favour of their Arguments, and that without cafting away Faith, of which the Bishop own'd that he himfelf had fufficient Share, no Arguments could confute those excellent Tenets believ'd and commanded to be believ'd by the Church, and he farther infifted, that it was as eafy to a faithful Mind to believe Transubstantiation as to believe the Trinity, the Incarnation, Miraculous Conception, or any other inconceivable Mystery, and begg'd of the Bishop to take the whole of the Christian Religion into his Heart, and not content himself with believing Part in Difobedience to the Church, to the Scripture, and the Hazard of his Eternal Welfare ; he went on and faid, If it were poffible for any Man to raise the Dead in Proof of any other Religion than that acknowledg'd by the Roman Church, it would not shake his Creed, and I would to God, faid he, that you and I might be ftripp'd and turn'd out naked in this cold Night, divested of all our Subftance and Means of Feeding, upon Condition you thought fo too. This fhew'd him confirm'd, and the Bishop of Rochester, who told this Converfation to a Friend of his a dignified Clergyman, tho' not a Bishop; faid he never did intend to speak to him any more on the Subject of Religion, yet he did, and oftentimes wrote too, but found him quite immoveable.

The last Time he wrote, mixing Matters of Religion with other Subjects, was on the Death of Mr. Pope's Father, a Letter of Comfort and Advice to him to refign all to the Will of the Divine Being, without immoderate Sorrow. And speaking of his

Father's

Father's moral Character, he fays: "That the "Goodness of his Life outweigh'd all his Faith and

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Prayers." He advises him, and fays, " He can"not help it, that something pushes him on as it "were still to ftrive with him." And concludes with faying, 'Tis indeed a very great Pity the "Proteftant Church fhould be without fuch an Or❝nament; that tho' he had loft a Parent, God "would be his Father; and that 'tis certain, not

withstanding his Mind might be quiet now through "Abfolution and Faith, he would, on espousing the "Reform'd Religion, feel a Soul more fatisfied, "and a certain Earneft and Answer of Peace; which " he thinks incompatible with fo much Reliance on "Men, Traditions, Pardons, and Indulgencies." To this Letter Mr. Pope made Anfwer, November 20, 1717.

I

My Lord,

Am truly obliged by your kind Condoleance on my Father's Death, and the Defire you exprefs that I fhould improve this Incident to my Advantage. I know your Lordship's Friendship to me is fo extenfive, that you include in that Wish both my fpiritual and temporal Advantage; and it is what I owe to that Friendship to open my Mind unreservedly to you on this Head. It is true, I have loft a Parent for whom no Gains I could make would be any Equivalent. But that was not my only Tye: I thank God another ftill remains (and long may it remain) of the fame tender Nature: Genitrix eft mihi--and excufe me if I fay with Euryalus,

nequeam lachrymas preferre parentis.

A rigid Divine may call it a carnal Tye, but fure it is a virtuous one; at least I am more certain, that it

is a Duty of Nature to preferve a good Parent's Life and Happiness, than I am of any fpeculative Point whatever.

-Ignaram hujus quodcunque pericli
Hanc ego, nunc, linquam ?

For fhe, my Lord, would think this Separation more grievous than any other; and I, for my Part, know as little as poor Euryalus did of the Success of fuch an Adventure, (for an Adventure it is, and no fmall one, in fpite of the most pofitive Divinity.) Whether the Change would be to my spiritual Advantage, God only knows: This I know, that I mean as well in the Religion I now profefs, as I can poffibly ever do in another. Can a Man who thinks fo juftify a Change, even if he thought both equally good? To fuch an one, the Part of joining with any Body of 'Chriftians might perhaps be easy, but I think it would not be fo to renounce the other.

Your Lordfhip has formerly advised me to read the beft Controverfies between the Churches. Shall I tell you a Secret? I did fo at fourteen Years old, (for I love Reading, and my Father had no other Books) there was a Collection of all that had been written on both Sides in the Reign of King James the Second: I warm'd my Head with them, and the Confequence was, that I found myself a Papist and a Proteftant by Turns, according to the laft Book I read. I am afraid moft Seekers are in the fame Cafe, and when they stop, they are not so properly converted as out-witted. You fee how little Glory you would gain by my Converfion. And after all, I verily believe your Lordship and I are both of the fame Religion if we were thoroughly understood by one another, and that all honeft and reafonable Chriftians. would be fo, if they did but talk enough together

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