i^i- — 'i^ I THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,! i'lfe Princeton, N. J. f J From the Rev. W. B. SPRAGUE, D.D. Sept, 1839. I Case, Division | _ ^ SJielf, Section...... I Book,^ ,,,_ !'■' e'^^.s«,^^^^se:=-^ ^ :^^ '-^" REMARKS Upon a late DISCOURSE O F F R E e-Thin king: IN A . Letter to N. N. PhILELEUTHERUS LiPSIENSlS. ^ £y? ginu4 hominum, qui ejfe primosfe of}nnunl>erum 'volunt^ Necfunt. r— ' ' ' ' An auJes Per/onam for mare nonjam ? Ser'vetur ad imum ^alis ab incepto frocefferit , ^ fibi conftet, 'The Seventh Edition with large Additions, LONDON: Printed for W. THURLBOURNat Cambridge, and fold by Meflieurs Knaptom, Innys and Manby^ Rivington^ Birty and Clay | Bookfellers in Londgn-, M,DCC^xxxvII. Price 2/.^^, '^^m^X/n: To my very Learned and Honour'' d Friend N.N. D. D. ^^ L O N D O N, GREAT'BRITAIN. SIR, O^OI) R many and great. Civilities to -*- me Jince otir fir ft acquaintance in the Low-Countries, and the kind office you then did me in conveying my Annotations on Menander to the Trcfs, hut above all your Taciturnity and Secrejy^ that have kept the true Author of that Book tmdifcGver'd hitherto^ if not ungnefs'd ; have encouragd me to fend you theje pre Cent Remarks, to be comfnttnicated to the Public, if you think they defcrve it : in which I doubt not but yottl ex- hibit a nezv proof of your wonted Friend- fhip and Fidelity, B What 2 LETTER. What occafioiid you this trouble, was the frejh arrival of a Comitry-man of ours from Tour Happy Iflaud ; who brought along with him a fr/iall Booky jujt publljVd before he left London ; which (as he fays) made very mtich T^if courfe there. He knowing rne to be a great admirer of the Books of your Na- tion, and to have competently learn' d both to write and fpeak your Language during ?ny long ft ay at Oxford, made me a then agreeable Trefent of that new Difcourfe of Free-thinking. /, who (as you well know) have been trained up and exercised in Free Thoughc from ?ny Touth^ and whofe borrowed Name Phileleutherus fufficiently de- notes me a Lover of Freedom, was pleas' d not a little at fo promifuig a Title : and (to confefs to you my own Vafiity) could not help fome afpiring Thoughts from prefflng and intruding on me. That this Rifing and Growing Society might one T)ay perhaps admit into their Roll a humble Foreigner Brother, a Free- thinker of Leipfic. But LETTER, 3 But when once the Curtain was drawn ^ and by a perujal of the Book the private Cabbala and myjiermts Scheme withm became vtfible and oj^cn^ that Ex-pe^u-^ tion and the T>ejire itfelf hn?nediately vaniflfd, For^ under the fpecious jhew of Free-thinkinf>, a Set and Syftem of Opi- nions are all along inculcated and dog- matically taught ; Opinions the moji fla- vifh, the mofl abjeB andbafe^ that Hu- man Nature is capable of And upon thofe terms ^neither you^ I fancy ^ nor I, jh all ever make our Court for admittance into their Club. This irkfome difappointinent that my fine Trefent fjould dwindle fo far^ as to be below the value of waft e ^aper^ raised a hafty Refblution in me to write fome Remarks on it. And I find I foall have much the fame Employment, as I had before on Menander. For I am here too to deal in Fragments; the main of the Book being a Rhapfody of Tajfages out of Old and New JVriters^ ralHd and fcrap'^d together^ by the joint labour of many hands ^ to abufe all Religion. O infelices laborum ! Had I been at their Con full ation^ I could have fur nifto'd them B 2 ""^ith 4 LETTER. "UDith many 7nore : and I will now in- form them, that if they will read all Galen, and the Greek Commentators on Ariitotle, they may find two or three 'Pajfages much fitter for their pirpo/e, than any they have brought. As for the Gatherings out of your Englifh Authors J moji of which are mo- dern, and many fill alive ; I know you will not expeB from me that I jhoitld examine thofe Citations. The Books are not to be found in Leipfic, having not yet faffed the Seas to Us : the IVr iters are but private men^ and even Tour Church is not anfsjsjerable for what they fay or ■Print : not to add that /, by Birth and Education a Lutheran, am not concern"^ d in any particular T)o6irines of your Church, which ajfeH; not Chrifiianity in common. However, if our Free-thinker has Jhewn no more Ability nor Sincerity., where he alleges the Englilh Writers, than whereLatin or Greek ; he will/don have a juft Anfwer by fome of your own ^Divines, Ijhould now enter upon my Remarks, but that I amfirfi to excufe myfelf why I give LETTER. 5 I give you not the Stile of Honour, cu- jiomary in England, / mean^ the ^itle ^/'Reverend. 'The Author indeed has made me fick of it^ by his flat infipd drollery in tacking it to every Name he mentions, fix times together ;^erhaps within as few lines. Ca^i this now pafs for IV it among you ? Is this reckoned Good Breeding or Urbanity 1 IV hat's become of the old Englifli T^afte and Fi^ nejfe ? IVho may not be witty at this cheap rate^ if he dares but be impudently dull ? Give a loofe to fiich vulgar fordid Raillery^ and the very befl of ^tality, even Royalty itfelf even ipfa fua facra Caefarea Majeftas may be abused by its own Title with an ajfeded and fleering rehear fal of it* Tet this may be borne with however^ and is therefore pardon- able, becaufe its contemptible : but when Buffoonery grows up to Impiety^ and dully profanes the moft adorable Names, Holy Apoftles, Bleflcd Saviour, Ever blefTed Trinity, by afulfom Repetition or a blaf phemous Irony \ 1 muft own to you [want Englifli Words to exprefs my juft Senti- ment. May the Man grow wittier and wifer, by finding this Stuff will not take norpkafe zjindfince, by a little fmatter- B i ing 6 LETTER. ing in Learning and great conceitednefs of htm fe If, he has lojt his Religion ; may he find it again by harder Jhtdy^ and a humbler ?nind. For the mifery of it is. He that goes a Fool into Atheifm^ (as all are that now go) mnft come out of it like a Fool too (if ever he comes) iinlefs he acquires Ten times the Knoixjledge thafs nccefayy for a common Chrifian. R E- REMARKS. I. QUOT) dedit frincifitnn adveni- ens ? was faid of Tbrafo in the Comedy. And our Author, to give us as good a tafte of his Sufficiency, kz^ out with this Sentence in his very Dedi- cation. * As none^ fays he, but artifi' cial defign'mg Me7i, or crackbrahi'd En- thujiafis, frefiime to be Guides to others in matters of Speculation ; fo none^ "who think they ought to be guided in thoje matters, make choice of any but ftich for their Guides. Now, befides the falfenefs of the Propofitions, here is a fmall figure in Rhetoric, cali'd Nonfenfe, in the very turn of this Sentence. For if None but defigning and crackbrain'd Men preRime to be Guides to others ; thofe others^ that make ufe of Guides, mud needs have Them and no other. Where then is the Choke ? Or what power is there of chnfing, when there's B 4 no 8 REMARKS, TiO room for comparifon, or preference ? Ksnone, lays he, but Prieils prefume to be Guides, {o none make choice of any other Guides but Priefts. As no mem- ber of the body prefumes to fee but the Eye, {o no Man makes choice of any other Member to fee with, but the Eye. Is not here now an admirable Period, with cxadl propriety of word and thought ? But to pardon the falfe connexion of his As and his So ; pray, what are we to underftand here by Matters of Spe- cnlation ? Why, all Speculation without exception, every branch of Mathema- tics, and all Science whatever : for there is not one word preceding, that reftrains the icnie to Speculations in Theology. So that by this Man's reafoning we are to fay thus : No Mao m,all take Euclid or Archimedes^ Our Leibnitz^ or Your Ncivton, or a^y one elfe dead or living, for his Guide in Speculation, They were defigiiing Men or elfe crackhrairl^d En- thujiajis, when they prefum'd to write Mathematics, and become Guides to others. As for our Author, though he owns * «^//Arts and Sciences mull be ^ Fcig. C, IO3 3 knowEl REMARK S. g known, to know any Oi.ie thoroughly ; that not one of them can be omitted, if you pretend to be a Judge in one fingle Book, the Bible^ 'tis (o very mifceUa- neons \ yet, if you will believe him, he renounces all Guides, and is his own Mafter, felf-taughr. He's a great Aftro- nomer without l!ycho or Ktfkr ; and an Architect without Vitrttvius. He walk'd alone hi his Infancy, and was never Jed in hanging'ficeves. And yet this mighty Pretender has not broach'd one Dcdlrine in all his Book, which he has not bor- rowed from Others, and which has not been didated by blind Guides many Ages ago. But we'l indulge the Man a little more, and fuppofe he did not mean Specula- tions at large, but only in matters of Religion. And then the Sentence will run thus ; That none elfe pre fume to be Guides to others in fpeculative Toints of Religion^ but either artificial defign- ing Men, or craekbraiii^d Enthufiajis. Now the Man is in his true colours ; and, though he blundered in the Exprefc fion, this was the Thought he endea- vour'd at. And by this we muft infer, That Erafmus, Grotius^ Bochart, and ^other lo REMARK S, other great Men, that have wrote Com- mentaries on the Bible, 2iVidfrefu?fid to he Guides to others^ were either crack- brahid Fools^ or defigning Knaves. Nay this Author's beloved, Monjieur le Clerc, mult come in too for the hard choice of one of thefe Epithets. And yet, what is ftrange, theft very Men, with more of your own Nation, the Chillhig'ujorths^ the SpencerSj the Cud- worths, the Tillotfons^ are honoured in other parts of his Book, and recom- mended as Free-thinkers, What Incon- fiflenceis this? What Contradidtion ? No matter for that: That's a necefiary in- gredient in his Scheme and his Writings : Huk al'iter non jit, Avite, liber. What he here prefcribes to others, we muft take for his own Method : He defies all Guides and Interpreters ; he difclaims ail afliftance ; he'll decide upon all points freely and fupinely by himfelf ; without furniture, without proper Materials. And, to fpeak freely, one would guefs by his crude Performance, that ht's as good as his word. IL REMARKS. II IL In the clofe of his Dedication he fays thus : * It is therefore without the leajt hopes of doing any good, but purely to comply with your requejl^ that 1 feud you this Apology for Free-thinking. If 1 am not miftaken, as I may be about a foreign Language, That expreilion of "Doing any g^ood is capable of two fenfes ; either of which I fliall eafiJy concede to the Author. If he means, he had not the leaf hopes of doing any goody that is, of doing any good Service, real Be- nefit, true Advantage to any one by his Book ; 1 am afraid, that fenfe was true in his Intention, Or, if he defpair'd of doing any good^ that '\s>, of having any EfFed: and Succefs in making Converts by his Book ; I qucftion not, but That too will be true in the Event. But though here in the Epiftle he quite defpairs, without the leaf hopes of doing good ; yet in the Epilogne he's a little more fanguine. For there he fpeaks of an Endeavour to do good, which rery Endeavour has no place without ibmc ■* Pag. 4. degree 12 R E M A R K S. degree of Hope. He advifes there his Patron, to conceal the Name of his E f quire (hip ^ if he commits the Book to the Preis. * For^ fays he, / think it Virtue enough to Endeavour to do good, only within the bounds of doing yottr felf no harm. Now this is a true Atheiftical Moral : do good no further, than you are fare not to lofe by it ; keep your dear Perfon and Intereft out of harm's way. But the Chriflian In- ftitution fupply'd him once with nobler Sentiments : in the pradice of which the Holy Apofiles and Martyrs volun- tary laid down their Lives ; a very odd fort of Trieftcraft. Nay the Heathen Philofophy would have taught him more elevated Thoughts ; if he had not chofen for his Guide (however he rails at all Guides^ the worfl Sed: of all. III. t By Free-thinkings fays he, / mean^ The ufe of the Underjianding^ in en- deavoiirinq^ to find out the meaning of any ^Profofition what fever, in confider* ing the nature of the Evidence for or * Fag, 178. t P^6^. 5. againjl REMARKS. i^ aginjl Hy and in judging of it according to the feemijig force or 'wcaknefs of the Evidence. Now we'l allow him, what he defires, that his Definieion is exten- Jive enough ; for it comprehends the whole herd of Human Race, even Fools, Madmen, and Children ; for they ufe what Underftanding they have ; and judge as things feem ; he has extended it lo artfully and with Logical Juftnels, that in a Definition of Free Thinking there is not a Syllable about Freedom. 'Tis really no more, than Think and Judge as you find ; which every Inha- bitant of Bedlam pradifes every day, as much as any of our illuftrious Sed;. But, perhaps, I am miftaken ; and the Notion of Freedom fuperadded to Thinking may be implied in thofe two Pronouns, Any whatfjever. And then indeed the foberer part of Mankind, who judge for themfejves no further than their Education has fitted them, are wholy excluded ; and the Crackbrain'd and Bedlamites are taken in. Oliver'^s Porter, as I have been told, would de- termin daily de omni fcibili ; and, if he had now been alive, might have had the firft Chair in this Club, For a modern Free- 14 R E M A R K S. Free-thinker is an Univerfalift in Specu- lation ; any Propofition whatfiever he's ready to decide ; every day * de quoltbet ente, as our Athor here ^rofeffes ; Self AlTurance fapplies all want of Abilities; he'l interpret (as you'l fee prefently) the T rochets and Solomon without Hebrew ^ Tint arch and Zofimiis without Greeks and Cicero and Lncan without Latin.. The Charaderiftic of this Sed; does cot lie at all in the Definition of Think- ing, but in ftating the true meaning of their adjedive Free. Which m fad: will be found to carry much the fame Notion, as Bold, Rajh^ Arrogant, Tre* fitmptions, together with a ftrong Pro- penfion to the Paradox and the Ter- verfe. For Free with them has no re- lation at all to outward Impediment or Inhibition (which they neither do nor can complain of, not with you in Eng- land I am (isre) but means an inward Promptnefs and Forwardnefs to decide about Matters beyond the reach of their Studies, in ofpofition to the reft of Mankind. There is nothing plainer through his whole Book, than that He himfelf makes Singularity, Whim, and * Pag, 5. Con- REMARKS. 15 Contradidlion to be the Jpecific Differ- ence, and an eflential part in theCompo- fition of a Free-thinker, \iOrigen, Eraf- mils, Grotitis, &c. chance to have any Noftrum againft the Current of common Dodlrine, they are prefently of his Party, and he dubbs them Free-Thinkers ; in all the reft of their Writings, where they fall in with the common Opinions, they are difcharg'd by him with Ignominy; even profcrib'd as 'Vnthinkers-^ Half- thinkers^ and Enemies to Free-thinking, Why this unequal Ufage, unlefs he thinks Freedom of Thought to be then only ex- ercis'd, when it diiTents and oppofes? Has not the World for fo many Ages thought and judg'd/r^^/y on Euclid^ and yet has afTented to all his Propofitious ? Is it not poffible, to have us'd the like freedom, and yet clofe in with the Apo- ftle's Creed, Our Confeffion, or Your Ar- ticles? Surely I think as /r^^/y, w^hen I conclude my Soul is Immaterial ; as the Author does, when he affirms His to be made of the fame Materials, with that of a Swine. Another Idea couchMin their adjediive Free, is Jealoufy, Miftruft, and Surmife. 'Tis a firm perfuafion ^jGong them, That there 16 REMARKS. there are but two forts in Mankind, De-^ ceivers and DeceH'ed, Cheats and Fools. Hence it is, that dreaming and waking they have one perpetual Theme, Tf iejt- craft. This is juft like the opinion of Nero, * who bel'ievd for certain^ that every Alan was guilty of the fame Im- furities that He was ; 07ily fome were craftier than others to dijjemble and con^ cealit. And the Surmife in both Cafes mud proceed from the fame Caufe; either a very corrupt Heart, or a crazy and crackbrain'd Head ; or, as it often hap- pens, Both. IV. f This "rDefiuition cannot^ he con- ceives, be exeepted againft by the Ene- mies of Free-Thinking, as not including the Crime with which they charge Free- Thinkers in order to render them odious to Unthinking Teo^le. His Definition, * Suet. Ner. c. 29. Ex nonnuUis comperi, per- fuafilTimum habuilTe eum, neminem hominum pu- dicum, aut uUa corporis parte purum q.^q ; verum plerofque diffimulare vitium, et calllditate obte^ere. t Pag, 5. as REMARKS. 17 as we have feen, includes nothing at all in it, befides Thinking and J^^dging ; there's nothing in it to defcribe Free^ which he left us to fupply : and, as we find in the whole tenour of his book, That word does really incktde not one Cri?ne only, but many. Take the general defi- nition, exclufive cf the Crime^ and com- pare it with the title of his book, and the latter will be found either flat nonfenfe in itfelf, or a contradidion to the whole. This difcourfe^ fays the title, was occajioncd by the Rife and Growth of a SeEi calPd Free-Thinkers. Why then it had the ftaleft occafion that ever poor difcourfe had : For the Rife of of that Se5f (if the general definition con- ftitutes it) is as early as the creation of Adam ; or (in his Scheme, who hints his willingnefs to believe * Men before Adam) even much earlier than that. Nay, if we may guefs at his Creed from his Poet Ma-* 7tilins f, the Sed: muft have rifen without any rife, and have its growth from all Eternity, For, when ever the Species of Man exifted, 'tis molt certain there muft have been Free thinkers^ as far as this de* * Pag, 160. f Fag. 151. C f nition i8 R E U A R k S. finitton goes. They began at once with the Free-Breathers^ the Free- Hearers ^ and t\iQ Free- Sffte Hers \ and are every whit as numerous and populous as thofe are. Again, pray confider the words ^ Sec x of Free-thinkers : that is, a Rope of Sand; a Sum of Cyphers; a Common ' wealth of Savages, where no body governs, nor no body obeys, Sect, Se^-a or T)ifiip/ma, is a Company of Pcrfons agreeing in the lame Syftera of Opinions and Dodrines; the words have their derivation afeUtando & dtfcen- do^ from following and learning ; as the Tiatonic Sed followed the Dodrine of ^latG ; the Teri-patetic oi Arijlotle. Now a modern Free-thinker, that profefTes he will neither follow nor learn ; that re- nounces all Guides and Teachers, as either Crack-brain d or Cheats ; how can this un(ociab!e Animal be ever of a Se6i ? 'tis a contradidion in terms, and a thorow piece of nonfenfe. But furely the Author had fome mean- ing when he gave that Title to his Book. No doubt of it : and the Book itfelf explains it. For under all this pretence to Free^ thinkings REMARKS. ip thinking. He and his Friends have a Sec of PriDciples and 'Dogmata, to which He that will not AJfent and Confent (I cannot fay Oath and Stibfcripion are requir'd) Ihall be excluded the Sed. That the Soul is Material and Mortal, Chriftianity an Impofture, the Scripture a Forgery, the Worftip of God Superftition, Hell a Fable, and Heaven a Dream, our Lift without Providence, and our Death with- out Hope like that of Affes and Dogs, are parts of the glorious Gofpel of thefe truly * Idiot Evangelijis. If all your Free^ thinking does not centre in thefe Opinions, you fhall be none of their Family. Claim your right as long as you will upon the terms of the T)ejimtion ; plead that you have thought freely^ impartially, and carefully upon all thofe Propofitions ; and that in all of them the force of Evidence has drawn you to the contrary fide ; pro- teft againft this fou! play, that while they clamour about Wee thinking, they them- felves impofe Creeds and Terms of Com- munion ; that the Author, while he rails at all Guides^ obtrudes himfelf as a Guide to others ; all this fliall avail you nothiog : Pag. 90. C 2 you 20 RE MA R K S. ^ you iliall never be incorporated into die 7'ijing and gy^o^jjing SeB, till you own thai That's the only Free-thinking, to think juft as They do. He now proceeds by Five Arguments to prove every Man's Right to Free- thinkings according to that 'Definition : a very neediefs and ufelefs labour : for no Religion, nor Sedt, not the very Papifts, deny ir. 'Tis as necefTary to the Rational Mind, as Relpiration is to the Vital Body. Without this all Religions that were, are, or may be, are equally commendable. Chriftianiry itfelf depended on it at its firft propagation : the Reformation was grounded upon it, and is maintained and iiipported upon the fame bottom. We ihall leave therefore his Five Arguments to prove what none deny ; only make fome Remarks upon his Ignorance and Unfairnefs in fevcral Incidents, that he has Aid into by the By. * He runs a parallel between Free- thinking and Free-painting ; which latter he laments is not more cultivated in Greats Fag. 7. Britain \ R E M A R K S. 2 1 Britain ; and caa never be brought to 'Ferfetiion there, unlcfs fidtable Encoti- ragements be given to Free-faint ers^ fb as numbers of Men and many Hands may be employ'd and encoura^ Na- C ; tioiial 22 R E M A R K S, rional Church. So that all that the public would fave by the bargain is, to change the Perlons not the Expence ; and, inflead of the prefent PofTefTors of the Pul- pit, to have an equal number of Revereu^y and Right Revereiid, and Moji Reverend Preachers of Atheifm. VL He affirms, That * Time^ Labour and Numbers of Hands are necefTary to bring Thinking in any Science whatever to tole- rable perfedion : The firft notions will be rude and imperfect; Time and Matu- jity are requirM towards any degree of Juftnefs. Now, fmce the Sed: of Free- thinkers by his own account is but now rifing and growings and the ^ra of it is plac'd no earlier than Your late Revolti^ tion ; You may take his own argument and word for it, That the Thoughts in this Difcourie of bis lor want of due Ma- turation are all crude and undigefted. And really wichout his indication, e^-^ro dsiiei, the Thing itfelf will fpeak io before Pve done with his Book. But however in the next Generation, when more Progrefs is P,g -- ^ made R E M ji R K S. 23 made in Thinkings and more Numbers are come in ; he leems to promife they will write better. * All Sciences and Arts, fays he, have a mutual Relation^ Harmony^ ^Uependency and Connexion ; and the jtift Knowledge of a7iy One cannot be acquired without the Knowledge of all the Reft. Weigh now this Man's AbiUties in his own Scale. He declares he judges every day T>e quolibet ente ; and yet to every fingle ^lodlihet he acknowledges as necefTary the whole Circle of Sciences. A very Hitdtbras in perfection; no Nut is too hard for his Teeth : Nil intra eft olea^ nihil extra eft in rni:e eluri. And yet this Great Tromifer with all the afliftance of his Club perpetually betrays a profound ignorance in all Science, in all Antiquity, and in the very Languages it is convey'd in. VII. Homers Iliad he admires, \ as the Epitome of all Arts and Sciences. And by This now one would guefs he had read it in the Original. Be it To ; and * Pag. 8, 9. i ?ag, 9. C 4 when 24 REMARKS. when he hears there's an Odyjfeis of Ho- mer^ he will read and admire that too. Well, where are the footfteps of this vaft Knowledge \n Homer ? Why, for injiance, fays he, he could never have defcrWd, in the manner he has done, a Chariot or a Chariot-wheel '■juithout the particular knoti'ledge of a Coach-maker ; fitch kno'ivledge being abfolutely neceffary to that defcription. Here's your juftnefs of Thought. What, nothing lefs than a Qo^^\-Makey^s knowledge ? Would not a Coach- A/^7/s have ferv'd the turn ? At this rate our Friend Homer (as poor and blind as forae have thought him) was the ablcft Jack of all Trades that ever was m Nature. Hippias the Elean, who preach'd and blazonM his Arts at the Olympic Games, That all his Habit from head to foot, and every Ucenfil for his houfe, was made with his own hands, was an Idiot EvangeliJ} to h'lm. For, by the fame rule, when Homer deicribes a Ship under fail, he had the particular knowledge both of a Ship'Carpenter and a Tilot : when he dt{cx'\bts>ih(i we 11- booted Greeks .-^nd feveral forts of Shields and Sandals, he had the particular knowledge of Ty- chins ^ (7'AVTCTQ[XKv 0%' h^^og, /he very ^Prince 9f REMARKS. 25 of all Shoemakers. And yet I am ape to fancy, if our Author had no better an Artift than the old Poet for his (hoes, he would be as forry a Free-walker^ as he is now a Free-thinker. To prove Ho7ner\ univerfal knowledge a ■priori^ our Author iays, * He dejlgnd his Teem for Eternity, to pleafe and in- jlrtici Mankind. Admirable again : Eter- nity and Mankind: nothing lefs than all Ages and all Nations were in the Poet's forefight. Though our Author vouches that he thinks every day T)e quolibet ente^ give me leave to except Homer \ for he Dcver Teems to have thought of Him or his Hiftory. Take my word for it, poor Ho7ner in thofe circuraftances and early times had never fuch afpiring thoughts. He wrote a fequel of Songs and Rhapfo- dies, tobefungby himfelf for fmall earn- ings and good cheer, at Feftivals and other days of Merriment; the Ilias he made for the Men, and the Odyjfeis for the other Sex. Thefe loofe Songs were not colleded together in the form of an Epic Poem till '^Fi/ijiratus''s time, above 500 years after. Nor is there one word in Homer that prefagcs or promifes Im- * />a^. 9. mortality ^6 K E M A R K S. mortality to his work ; as we find there is in the later Poets, Vtrgil^Horace, Ovidy Lttcan and Statins. He no more thought at that time that his Toems would be hnmortal, than our Free-thinkers now believe their Souls will ; and the proof of each will be only a parte pofi ; in the Event, but not in the Expedation. viir. "^The Bible, fays he, is the mo(l mis- cellaneous Book in the IVorld^ and treats of the great eft variety of things ; Creation ^ i>eluge. Chronology y Civil Laws, Eccle- fiaftical Inftitutions, Nature^ Miracles^ Buildings^ Husbandry^ Sailings Thyftcs, Pharmacy, Mathematics^ Metafhyfics and Morals. Agreed ; and what is his Inference from this? Why, Free-thinking is therefore necelTary : for to ttnderftand the matter of this Book, and to be Mafter of the whole y a 7nan ??mft be able to think jtiftly in every Science and Art. Very true ! and all he has herefaid of his Sciences is requifite, were Your EnglifbWoXt fup- pos'd to be the very Original. Add there- tore to all the Requifites here enumerated * Tag. I Oj II. afuffi- REMARKS. 27 a fufficient Skill in the Hebrew and Greek Languages. Now pafsyour verdid: on the Man from his own evidence and confef- fion. To underjiand the Bibky fays he, requires all Sciences ; and two Languages befides, fay I. But it's plain from his Book that he has already condemned the whole Bible for a Forgery and Impofture. Did he do it without under Jlanding the matter of n? That's too (candalous for him to own. We muft take it then, that he profefles himfelf accomplifh'd in all Sciences and Arts^ according to his owa rule. ^Id iulit hie tanto dignu?7i projnijffor hlatu ? Where has He or any of his Sed: fliewn any tolerable Skill in Science ? What dark palTages of Scripture have they cleared, or of any Book whatever ? Nay, to remit to him his Sciences and Arts^ what have they done in the Languages, the ihell and furface of Scripture ? A great Majler of the whole Bible indeed, that can fcarce ftep three lines in rhe eafieft Claflick Au- thor produced by Himfelf, without a no- torious blunder. IX. 28 R E M A R K S. : IX. * Among the Abfurdities that follow from not Thinking Freely, he mentions that of the T^agans^ who, he fays, fup- fos'd God to be like mi Ox or a Cat or a Tlant. Our Author means the Aegyp-' tians ; and its plain here from the next claufe, that he puts God under the pre- fent Idea and known Attributes of that Name, as Chriftians now conceive it. A rare Judge in Antiquity, and fit to decide aboup Scripture. The Matter is no more than this. The Aegyptians, who chiefly liv'd upon Husbandry, declar'd by Law^ that all thofe Animals which were ufeful to Agriculture, or deftroyers of Vermin, fhould be holy^ facred and inviolable ; fo that it was death to kill any of them, either defignedly or by chance. Thefe they confiderM as inftruments of Divine Providence towards the fupport of human Life : X and without that view they con- fecrated none. So that it was only a Ci- vil and Political worlhip in the Legifla- -j- Herodotits in Euterpe. % Cicero de Kat. Deor. I. Aegyptl Nullam beruam, nTi ob aliquam utilitatem quam ex ea caperent, conltcraverunt. tors 5 R E MARK S. 2^ tors ; and had very little of Sacred even among the Vulgar. This is plain from what * T>iodo7'tis fays, That they f aid the fame honours to them when dead^ as when alive. But our Author's concep- tion here is really fo abfitrd and fo mon- ftrous, that the fillieft Pagan in all Egyp would have been afham'd of him. For, according to his notion and the prefent meaning of the word God, they declared it death by Law to kill an immortal and omnipotent Cat : and decreed divine Ho- nours to it after its Immortality and Deity was dead. When Thinking is by longer time cometofome perfedion in the Se<9t, they will learn perhaps, that the Objedls of worlhip in "Paganijm and To- lytheifm had not all the Attributes, nay generally not one of them, that we now by advances in Science and Thought juftly alcribe to God : and they may have the pleafure of iniulting feveral of the Clergy, that have wrong Itated the notion of Heathen Idolatry. In the mean time I'll recommend to him one Thought, when he's difpos'd lo think T>e quoltbet ente\ What divine Attributes the jEgypians ■'- * Z)/W, lib. T. 'S,iCovT(ti2ViA r ^ Xei^^ivoi. D 3 *0u 38 REMARKS. * Ou yap oTrov tJao-', i '^ivS(r* uf^oipu o7vo)r, T8V£H dvceiixovig eifft, nut d^avuroi nuhioVTul. Vv'hence therefore had our learned Au- thor this bold afTertion of univerfal Be* licf ? Even from Bel mid the dragon ; and what his Mother once taught him there, he alcribes to Paganifm in com- mon. The real matter is no more than this : when a Heathen Prieft flew a vidiim, he had no more of it for his fliare than Law and Cuftom allow'd; fcarce worth the labour of butchering : the entrals and molt ufelefs parts were burnt on the Altar ; and the beft of the vidim was carried home to the Sa- cfificer's houfe, to be feafted on by his family and friends : and, if the Prieft was invited too as a gueft, it was a work of fupererogation. Nor did the moft credulous believe, that Gods came down and devoured Flejh\ nor was any fuch Repafi fet apart for Them. If any viduals was fo fcr, either in Temples cr the open Streets; it was well known, that the Sweepers of the fanes got the firft, and the Poor of the tow^ ' the latteto AH they believ'd in rela- tion REMARKS. 39 tion to the Gods, befides the piety and the prayers, was only, that the fteam of the burnt Sacrifice afcended up to Heaven and dehghted, or, if you will, fed the Gods. This Homer would have told him too, That Libation and Steam was the only (hare the Gods had in any offering : • AoiCni T€ KVtva'^i Ti, TO ^ \et^fjSf) yi^i yiiaCh* Whence Ariftophanes in his Play call'd The Birds, makes a City to be built in the Air, on purpofe to flop all intercourfe between Heaven and Earth, That 7to Smoke from Sacrifices Jlootild afi:end to the Gods : and prelently Prometheus is introduced bringing the news. That the Gods m^g shnoji ftarv'd, having not had one f article of Steam, fince Nephelococcygia was built, 'Tis true indeed, there was another Notion, f that the Gods often came down from Heaven in human fhape, to enquire into the a(9:ions of Men : and lb like ftran2;ers and pilgrims were unawares entertain'd, and ^feemingly) eat and drank with their * Iliad, ^ V. 49. t OdyfT. f V. 485. D 4 Hofls 40 R E M A RKS. Hods. But this is ncrthing to the iFrieJis^ nor to the aflertion of the Author: who no doubt will anon be^ found a moft fubtle Interpreter of So/o^ mon and the Trophets% after he has been (o miferably imposed on by that filly and fjpurious Book, Bel and the dragon, XIV. After a few threadbare narratives about the Armenian, Greeks and Topjh Priefts ; the miraculous Flame at Jeru* falem, and the melting Blood at Naples ; he has his fling at Us Lutherans. * I'he Lutheran ^riejtsy fays he, coji^ trary to the tejiimony of mens fenfes, make their Followers believe^ That the Body and Blood of Chrift are fuper- added to the Bread and Wine : which he parallels with an old ftory as lewd as it's vulgar. Now though I am more conccrnM in This Remark than many Others, for the particular honour of Our Church, I defign not to launch cut in a vindication of our Dodtrine, which REMARKS. 41 which this Scribler underftands no more than he did that of the Aegyptians. You know fomething of the Univerfity of Leipjic ; we are reputed the greateft La- tit udinarians and Free-thinkers of our SecS: ; not near fo ftifFand rigid as thofe of Wittenberg or 'Jene : and yet I'll tell this Author, if he had publilh'd his wretched Libel with us, without any in- ftigation from the Priefts, the Magiftrate would (bon have taken care of him, either in a prifon or a dark room. What his reception will be in England, I pre- tend not to gueft. You have a glorious liberty there, the Parent of many noble books, which under a lets freedom of thought would never have been wrote. And it's that novelty of notions that makes the produdt of xki^EngUJh Prefs {o enquired after here. But I fear the outra- gious licence of this Author and others of his {lamp will in time have an unex- pedtcd effed: ; and oblige your govern- ment to abridge All of that good freedom which Thefe have fo much abus'd. And then we foreigners of curiofity, when we ihall fee nothing come from Britain but llanch and ftaple Poftils, muft curie the 42 RE MAR K S. the impious memory of this Writer and his whole Tribe. XV. ^antamne rem tarn negltgenter ? The queftion he propofes to confider is no lels than this, * IVhether the Cbrijttan Religion is founded on divine Revelation ? This he relblves to examine and deter- mine by bimfelf. And we may eafily forefee what the fentence will be under fo ignorant and corrupt a Judge. Nay his book fufficiently fliews he has given his verdid: already; and refolv'd that Darknefs is brighter and more defirable than Light. Let us beftow a few re- flexions on his condud:; for, for all his noife about (peculation /;/ general this queflion is the whole affair and bufinefs, the whole compals and fphere of modern Free-thinktng* What in common life would denote a man Rafh, Fool-hardy, Hair-brain'd, Opiniatre, Craz'd, is recommended in this fchcme as the true method in {pe- culation. Are you dangeroufly fick? * Fag, 26, you REMARKS. 43 you will call an able Phy fician. Is your Eftate threaten'd and attack'd? you'll confult the beft Lawyer. But have you an affair upon your hands wherein your very Soul and Being and all Eter- nity lye at flake? ( — Neque enim ludi- crapetuntur Tramia) Why there you are to feek no help, but confide in your own abilities. That is, if you have a very deep and broad river to pafs, fcorn to ask for cork or bladders ; flounce in and hazard all, though you have never learnt to fwim. This rational Author (p. 107.J puts the fame objedion to himfelf : and he notably anfwers it thus ; A Man^ fays he, of no VrofeJJlon may have as much Law, Thyjick, and "Divinity, as any Serjeant or DoEior of thern all: and then with a Quaker's ftory out of his Friend Mr. Le Clerc, he declares That to be a happy Country, a very 'Faradife^ where none of thofe three Trofeffions is admitted. And who doubts bur in this Reply there's as much fenfe as good manners? But for all this Author's great skill in Thyfic and LaijD^ he'll hardly make him- felf fick on purpofe : or bring on a trial againfl: 44 R E M A R K S. againfl his own Eftate, to (hew his great abilities. Why then will he needlefly and voluntarily run a rifque for his Soul and Salvation ? and fool-hardily put his head under a weight that may cruih him to death ? The ftrange difference in this condudt, when examined to the bottom, will open the whole Myflery oi Free- thinking and Atheifm. 'Tis plain, a Man that is born in a Chriftian country, if he is a juft and good Man, has no Intereft to wiih That Reli- gion falfe. The moral precepts fall in with his own opinion and choice ; no reftraints are laid upon him but what our of paternal affecftion he would for- bid his own Son. No foreign Religion, much left the Atheiftic Scheme, threaten him with any danger fliould he be here in an error. He's as fafe as thofe that differ from him, were he really in the wrong. But then if it be true, what glorious promifes and rewards! not fu- perior only to other fchemes, but be- yond all human wilhes. The fpeculative Dodtrines in it, which afi^d; the main chance, are very few and eafy. If his Education has enabled him for't, he will examine them and the v/hole grounds of Faith ; REMARKS. 45 Faith ; and find them true to his fatisfa- d:ion and comfort. If he's engag'd ia adive and bufy life, he will acquiefce ia the judgments of thofe, who have better means and leifiare to know them. Thus it is, will be, and mud be, while Men lead fuch virtuous Lives as en- title them to the Tromifes of Religion. And were there not equal threats in it on the other hand ; were it all Heaven without any Hell, there would not be one Atheift, unlefs crack-brahPd^ in Chriftendom. I pofitively affirm, that no Man in his fenfes, educated in our holy Religion, ever did or could fall from it to Atheifm ; till by confidering his own adions and defigns, he de- {pair'd of the promifes of Chriftianrty, and look'd upon it with fear and ter- ror. In that cafe indeed, and in that alone, outof uneafinefs of mind they wifti all Religion was falfe; and that's the Original oimoAttn Free-thinking, Then they ran- fack all impious books for objedions againft it : they are byafs'd in their fa- vour ; a fingle Ounce in that fcale buoys up a hundred in the other. Tagans, Ma* hornet ans^ 'T^a'uuawers, and T^alaj^oins arc 45 REMARKS. are all good vouchers againft Chriftia- nity. All that's faid by Chrijiians (and who elfe muft fpeak for them) is fulpedl- ed for craft and defign. And the very ignorance of thefe Free-thinkers does them more fervice than knowledge. For who can deal with an Ignoramus^ that is warpt by his inclination, fixt there by his conceitednefs, jealous of all contrary inftrudlion, and uncap able of feeing the force of it ? That This is the very cafe of our Au- thor and thofe of his Club, is pretty no- torious. Inquire clofely into their lives, and there you will find the true reafon why they clamor againft Religion. For, when they have fettled themfelves in Atheifm, they are then elevated with "Joy and Mirth ; as if they had obtained a great conqueft. Now this is wholly unnatural ; unlefs Religion is view'd by them as the greateft of terrors. What? rejoice that we have loft Immortality < and muft dye like the beafts? Utterly impoffible! all the fprings of human paf flions refift and refute it. Mifery at that rate may excite laughter, and Profperity tears : Indignation may raife love, and Complacency revenge. But if once Heaven REMARKS. 47 Heaven is defponded of, and Hell opens its horrible mouth ; then indeed Moun* tains are dejir^d to cover us ; and the thoughts of deftrudiou or annihilation may really produce Joy. This, I fay again, is the true Origin of Free-thinkings and not the force of any objedions againft the truth of Chriftia- nity ; and, as a proof, I appeal to This very Book. For no doubt the Writer has couch'd in it the ftrongeft objedions he was matter of And yet Thofe are fo old and (tale, that if They could have any operation, Chriftianity would have been extind; above a thoufand years ago. Well! but they had influence upon Him, and would have foupon others, if fear and force were removed, and men left at free liberty. So far from that ; fo far is our Author from feeing deeper into thofe objedions than others before him ; that, as ril prefently prove, he undcrftands not the mere grammatical (enle, much lefs the application and import of any old pafTage he cites. XVL 48 REMARKS. XVI. * It's the great benefit, fays he, of Free-thinking^ that the fuppos'd power of the Devil in Tojfeffions and Witch- craft has vifibly dedin'd in England fince a liberty to think freely has been given and taken there. A quaint con- ceit indeed, and very far fetched. So that You in Great Britain owe it to this rifing SeEty that you have not fo many profccutions of IVitches as formerly. This is Thrafo again exacStly : Lahore dieno magno part am gloriam Verbis in fefe tranfmovet^ qui hahet falejn, I do not think any Englijh Prieft will or need affirm in general, That there are now no real inftances of Sorcery or Witch- craft ; efpecially while you have a public Law, which They neither enaded nor procur'd, declaring thofe pradtices to be Felony. But I muft needs fay, that while I fbjourn'd among you I obferv'd fewer of the Clergy give in to particular ♦ Pag, '29. ftorics REMARKS. 4p ftories of that kind, than of the Com- monalty or Gentry. In the dark times before the Reformation (not becaufe they were popifli, but becaufe un- learned) any extraordinary difeafe at- tended with odd fymptoms , flrange ravings or convulfions^ abfurd eating or egeftion, was out of ignorance otNa- ttiral powers afcrib'd to 'DiabolkaL This (iiperftition was univerfal, from the Cot- tages to the very Courts: nor was it in- grafted by prieftcraft, but is implanted in human nature : no nation is exempted from it; not our author's Taradife of New Jer/ey.whcrQnoT^rieJish^YQyct footing: if the next ages become unlearn'd, That fuperftition will, I will not fay return, but Ipring up anew. What then has lei* fen*d in England your ftories of forcc- ries? Not the growing Se^^ but the growth of philofophy and medicine. No thanks to Atheilts, but to the Royal Society and College of Phyficians; to the Bqyles and Newtons, the Sydenhams and Ratclijfs. When the people favv the difeafes they had imputed to witch- craft quite cured by a courfe of phyfic, they too were cured of their former er- ror ; they learnM truth by the events E not 50 REMARKS. not by a falfe poficion a priori, Tha.; there was neither Wifch, Devil, nor God, And then as to the frauds and impoftures in this way, they have mod of them been detefred by the Clergy ; whom our Writer here wickedly libels as complices and parties in them. The two (trongeft books I have read on this fubjecS were both written by Trie/is: the one by Dr. Beckir in Holland \ and the other by a Dodor of your own, whofe name I have forgot, that was afterwards Archbifliop of Tork, XVII. We are now come to his 11. Sedion, where he brings fevcral arguments to prove the duty and neceffity of Free-' thinking upon religious qtteftions. Now i2kQ Free-thinking'm that open ienfe that Himlelf takes it in when he afcribes it to Cbilling'ujorth^ Taylor and Tillotfon^ and you may grant all his arguments, and yet quite difappoint him But if you take it in that interior meaning that the members of his club do, as a modiili and decent word for Atheifm^ then all his arguments are mere trumpery ; and his con- REMARK S. jt confequences from them are as fhort as his occafioaal learning in them is Ih allow. One of his capital arguments is from the evil of* Superstition ; which ter- rihle evil and great vice can never be avoided but by turning Free-thinker ^ that is (in plainer Englijh) abandoning all religion. Strange! that Superfiition and Religion, ^\\\z\\ have been diftin- guillied and divided this two thoufand years, fliould yet ftick fo fad together that our Author cannot feparate them i fo that to eafehimlelf of the one, he mud abdicate both. His difmal defcription of it is in the words of Cicero \ which chiefly relate to little bigotries in civillife, not to fabulous conceptions about the Supreme Being. And his inference from thence isexadly as if I fliould now fay to you, Sir, you mufl: renounce your baptifm and faith or elfe you can never be rid of thofe terrible fnperftitions about the TDeath-watch, Thirteen at one Table^Splitng of fait ^ and Childermafs- day. ^Page 33. E % xvnn 52 RE MA R K S. XVIIL But youlknovv the Man better, as alfb his great reading and penetration, when you lee how he manages and tranflates that padage of C/V^r^ ; Til give you it here both in the original and our Author's verfion. * Inftat enim (Superftitio) & urget, & quo te cumque verteris, perfequitur : five tu vatem, five tu omen audieris; fiveim- molaris, five avem afpexeris ; fi Chal- daeum, fi Harufpicem videris; fi fulferit, fi tonuerit ; fi tadum aHquid erit de caelo ; fi oftenti fimilenatumfadumvequippiam: quorum necefie eft plerumque aHquid eveniat ; ut numquam iiceat quietamente confiftere. Pertugium videcur omnium laborum & foUicitudinum cffe fomnus : at ex eo ipfo plurimae curae metufque nafcuntur. Cic. de ^Div. 11. 72. If ji on give way to fuperfiitiony it will ever haunt and flaqtie you. If you go to a Prophet y or regard Omens ; if you facrifce, or obferve the flight of birds \ if you confult an Afrologer or Harufpex \ if REMARKS, 53 if it thunders or lightens , or any pla^e is confunfd with lightening^ or Juch like "prodigy happens (as it is neceffary fame fuch often Jhott Id) all the tranquillity of the mind is defroy'd. And fleep itfclf ivini were Mad- fellows bawling, in the ftreets and roads ; and their predictions might be contemn'd^ but mud ncceflanly be heard, if you caaic that way. Sive immolaris, five avem afp exerts : A man w^as obliged often to facrifice^ even by his office : and birds mult needs }o^ feen, if one ftcpt but out of Rome. Thefe occurrences therefore were una- voidable \ and fo Cicero meant them. Si Chaldaeum^ ft Hanfpicem videris ; If you SEE them ; and That could not be prevented, all public places being haunted with them. But w^hat does our Tranfla- tor make of thefe? Ifyoufacrifice^ fays he, or omz'e.'^E the flight of birds \ if you COM- REMARKS. 55 CONSULT an AJirologer or Hirufpex, Pure noiifenfe again ; and pome biank againft Cicero's meaning : one niakes that done by defigriy which the other makes by accident. If by accident^ then it's true that fuperftition tujiat & rirgel, haiints and plagues one ; and there's no efcaping it : but, \i by defign, 'tis labouring \\\ a Fahy circle ; 'tis begging and luppofing the thing in debate. To pais in filence his falfe verfion of 2)^ caeLo taEriim, confinrPd 'uaitb lighten- ing, inHezd o( i?lajied', the next inilance of his duinefs furpaflcs all belief. Si o//en- ti fimile natum fa&umve quippiam ; that '\^^ If any monjler is born, or foynetbing^ like a prodigy happens ; as raining of blood or wheat or the like. You fee Cicero fays ojlenti Jimile, likf. a pro- digy ; for his part in that dif ccurfe was to deny there were true prodigies. A mon- fter with two heads was no prodi y, but was occafioned by natural caufes: the blood or wheat was either a miftake, or was carried up by a whirlwind. But be- hold now how our Tranflator has ma- naged it : if any sucn-hiKE prodigy hap- pens. This verfion, I am fure, is a greater prodigy than any of them alj. E 4 What, 5(5 R E M A R KS. What, Oftentijimile, a fiich-like frodij^y ? Tis maiiiieft: by his coDftrucftions he joined [hem in the fame cafe, as Adjed:ive and Subftantivc. Stupidity incredible ! rJl leave every man to his own aftonifli- ment, and fay no more of the matter. rU only ask him, not where his Gram- mar, but where his Brains were; when, by owning and zom^^\x\^ pch- like pro- dtgies^ he frufirated both Cicero'^ and his own argument? To go on once more ; quorum vece[fe eft fkrumque aliquid eveniat ; that is, Of which things (all that were enume- rated before) forne or other must fre- quently happen, Obferve that must, ne- cejje ejt, mull: happen of necejjity. And FiOW yen fee, what I faid before, that our Tranflator has made the firft parts of the pafTage contradidl the laft. If he had had the lead grain offagacity ; this laft comma might have guided him to the true meaning of the former; that the inftancesmuit all h^ acctdejital, and not voluntary and with dcfign, Take the feveral inilances rekon'd up, and it's hardly poffible to pafs one day in com- mon lifs but feme objecSs of fuperftition wiiJ necejfarily piefent themfelves : but is REMARKS. 57 is it necejfary logo to Prophets, to regard Omens, to obferVe Birds, to confult Aftro- logers ? Surely thefe four verbs have the fignification of choice, not of necej/lty. And now, Gentlemen of the Englzfh Clergy, what think you of your Free- thinker ? Did I not promife for him that he would manage his old pafTages with great ability and dexterity ? Bixi/? ego in hoc ejje vohh Attkam eleganfmm ? XIX. He's fo pleas'd with this fubjed ot fu- ferjiiuon that he holds us in it ftill with two moft common citations : for what can there be that is not fo in Horace 2x\AVirgil1 Horace, it feems, delpifes 1)reamSy Witches, Sj^eBres, and ^Pro- digies i and Virgil goes fomething fur- ther. And what then ? Both thefe were bred young in the Epicurean fchool, and fo fpeak here the language of their fedt. They prove nothing, they only affirm. And fo the argument is no more than this ; miracles, religion, the pains of Hell are falfe, becaufe Epcurus'^s dodirinc wa 58 REMARK S, was againfl: them. A notable proof in- deed were the pafTages never fo well handled , but, as ill luck and vvorfe igno- rance would have it, he has maim'd and murder'd them both. Take that of Ho- race with the Author's verfion : S omnia, t err ores Magieos, iJiir acuta, fi^g^^t No5furnos Le7}iures, portentaque Theffala rides ? Are you fo much above Stiperflition^ as to laugh at all dreams^ panic fears ^ mira* cles, witches^ ghojis, and prodigies ? Magicos terrores^ panic fears in the tranflation ; fo very unhappily, that both the words are wrong. For terrores are not fears here, the internal pafTion of the mind ; but external terrors^ the tricks and artifices oi Wizards to fright, fcare, and terrify. And then by fubfti- tuting ^anic for Magic>^ he has juft ferv'd Horace as he did Ctcero ; and made him talk compkat nonfenle. A general fright falling upon an army or city as if the enemy was at the camp or the gates, when the alarm was found to be falfe and groundlefs, the Greeks cail'd a Tanic ; as if the God Tan was the author of it. Now it's plain that thefe frights REMARKS. 59 frights (when there's probability in the alarm, and the enemy lies within due diftance) can never be known to h^ panic and vain till the bufmefs is over. In the mean time wife and foolifli are both under the panic : <^^yyoMTi -accI irxidsg ^em^ fays 'Tindar ; in fuch cafes the very he- roes and fons of the Gods rtm away. What fenle therefore can he make of this englijh he has beftow'd on Horace ? Are you fo inuch above fuperflition as to laugh at panic fears ? What, laugh in the beginning or height of them ? Here's a fudden alarm comes at midnight that all Rome is on Fire ; is not Horace to ftir out of his bed, but to fail a laughing and lye ilill? A fagacious interpreter! not to reflecSthac/^z;//V/^^r is no objed: of fuperftition ; and ccnfequencly could not come in with the reft of that lift in Horace. Unlefs his Worfliip will fay that the precept here is, to laugh at panic fears after they are known to be fo, A merry precept indeed! which Thofe that weremoft feared, will be the readieft to follow ; when once their fears are vanifti'd, and the alarm is over. XX. 6o REMARKS. XX. And now for the paflage oiVirgil^ and his accurate tranflation : Felix y quipotiiit rerum ccgnofccre caufas^ Atqiie metus omnes^ & inexorahile fatujn Subjecit pedibus, ftrepitumq^ue Acberontis avari. * Happy is the man who has difcover^d the catijes of things ., and is thereby cured of all kind of fears, even of death itfelf and all the noife and din of Hell, Happy, fays the Poet, in the firft place is the "Philofopher '^ in the fecond the Countryman. Now under the notion of a Philofopher he defcribes an Epicu- rean \ having been bred under his mafter Sciron^ a teacher in that Sedt : and in three hues he has admirably couch'd the principal opinions they were known by or valued themfelves upon. That there is no "Divine Providence, no defliny nor divination^ and no immortality of the SouL Rerum REMARKS. 6i Renim cognofcere cau/as^ dtfcover the cau/es of things. Of what things^ and with what de/ign ? Of all the meteors ia the heavens, thunder, hghtning, ^c. and of things on earth that are feemingly portentous and miraculous ; in order to rid men's minds of all religion and its fears. For in the Epicurean fcheme. The ignorance of caufes was the fole caufe of religious fears ; as Lucretius avers, with whofe comfortable lines our Author may here entertain himftlf ; Cetera^ quae fieri interrh caeloqiie iuentiir Mortales^ pavidis cum pendent mentihu* faepe^ Efficiunt animos humiles formidine Divum^ DepreJ/ofque pre?nunl ad terrain *, pro^terea quod Ignorantia caus^akxsu confer re Deorum Coglt ad imperium res^ ^ concedere regnufn : ^ermn o^erum caufas nulla ratlonc vider> Fojfunty ac fieri divino numine rentur. 'Tis plain therefore what Virgil means by caufes : and then At que metus ornnes fubjectt pedibus^ who has lain all fears under the feet., is as if he had faid, Has trampled and triumphed overall Religion : for That the Poet underftands here by fears. 6i REMARKS, fears. Metus, reltgio, fays Nonius Marcellus\ for which he cites thefe veries of the Aeue'is^ Laurus erat tcofi medio in penetrdlihus allis. Sacra co7nam^ miiUofque\:^tXx\ferva,taper anms. Where Servius too agrees with him; METU, fays he, religione^ quae nafcittir J>er timorem. And fo Lucretius very dreadfully paints Religion : ^iae cap lit a caeli regionihus oftendehat^ Horribili fuper afpe5fu mortalihus inflans. Whence by the way you may obferve^ that the old Matters in Atheifm, as well as the Difciples of the new Club, took ihelter in their Syftem out of pure dread zndfear. The next comma of the pafTage is In- exorabile fatttm. Inexorable Fate ; by which the Poet means, That the Epcu- reaii doctrine had trampled down the whole notion oilDeJliny and T>ivinationt Thar the followers of that Sed denied E//x«p^ivviv y.a) Muvri'>iv]\f . Fate and 'Predi* Bio7is, is too vulgarly known to be here prov'd or infifted on. And fo we are come REMARKS. 63 come to the laft claufe, Strepitamqiie Acherontis avari ; where every one lees the Epicurean afTertion, That the Soul dies with the Body. To return now to our learned Writer. How dextroufly has he managed his game to bring a paflage, that bears full againft all religion whatever, as levell'd againft fome imall bigotries and y?//6'ry?/* t tons fears ? And what a proper infer- ence has he added ?^ IFell has Virgil /poke thus ; For by Free-thinking alone "we know that G^^made ^zW governs the world. What from this paflage o{ Virgil that's direcSly againft Creation and T^ro^ 'vidence? Never fure was poor for. put fo hard to't before, or imploy'd in fuch bungling work. He underftood not one line of the place, as will appear by his verfion. And is thereby cured, fays he, of all kind of fears., even of death itfelf What does the man talk of cured "^ Is cured the fame v^iihfubjecit pedibus ? Is the cure of one man's private /^/^rj* (any more than of his corns) the fame with trampling under foot the fears of all mankind, and the whole notion of Reli- gion? For That, as I have faid, is the thought 64 REMARKS. thought of the Poet, and is borrow'd from thefe lines oi Lucretius. ^{cire^ELlGlO PEDIBUS SUBJECTA Vwjjim Ohtentiir^ nos exaequat vi^oria caelo. And then, Fatum in exorabile, our wife Interpreter tranflatesit®^^//;; which the very epithet would have hinder'd ; had he the lead tafte of good writing: though he'd known nothing of Fatis avol/a voluntas^ the liberty of will, and con- tingency of all events, which Epicurus maintain'd againft the Stoics, And yet. The DIVINE Virgil, fays our judicious Author. He is very eafily fatisfied, i( what little He comprehends of him, ap- pears to have divinity in it. For let the Poet be never fo divine in the origi- nal, it's plain he's lower than human in this Writer's verfion and under- ftanding. XXI. Between the two paflages of Ho- race and Virgil, our author fcatters a fliort reflection, that fliews his mighty learn- REMARKS. 65 learning. * ^e evily fays he, offtiper- Jilt ion is now much increased ; and men are under greater terrors and uneafinejs of mind than Tagans of old pofflbly could be, when they thought they hazard- ed lefs. This manifeftly fliews that he thinks eternal torments were never ima- ging in the 'Pagan fcheme, but were firft introduc'd by Chriftianity. Juft contrary. The vulgar in Paganifm univerfally bc- liev'd them, as his friend Lucretius would have told him in exprefs terms: hL amfi certamfinem ejfe v'lderent Aernmnarum homines, alxqita ratione valerent ReUigionihus atqiie minis obftftere Vatum: 'Nunc ratio nulla eft reftandi, 7tulla facullas > Aeternas quonia?n poenas in morte timen- [dum. Nay, this is thevery thing that our Writer quoted out of Firgil, Strepitus Acheron- tisavari^ the terrible noife and rumor of Acheron : to have trampled upon which would have been a foolifh boaft of the Epicureans M the generality of mankind had not believ'd it. And what, pray, * Pag. 36, F was 66 REMARKS. was the pretended privilege of the fa- mous Elujlnian rices zt Athens^ in which Augtiftus himfelf was initiated ? Was it not, that the partakers of them were convey'd into fome happy ftation after death ; while all the reft of men were for ever to be rowl'd^ ^^ /iop€opcj), in dirt and mire and other fcenes of mifery. And yet how low even that Ha^py jiate was commonly thought, appears from the fentiment of Achilles's Ghoft in Homer : who, when he is complement- ed by Uijfes as the happieft of men both alive and dead , makes anfwer, That he had rather ahve be a poor Day- labourer to the meaneft Peafant than be Emperor of all the "Dead. 'Tis fo falfe then what our Author lays down here, That the Pagan rehgion gave lefs uneafmels in life becaufe they thought they hazarded lefs after death than We Chriftians think we do, that it's cerrain they thought bad men hazarded ns mnch^ and good men obtained infinite- ly/f/J. * 04# A. V. 490. XXII REMARKS. 67 XXIL He comes now to a IVth argument for the abfolute neccfTity of Free-thijik' ing on rel'tgmts quejiions, and that is *from the 'infinite number of pretenders to Revelation \ which he afterwards dully repeats under another head in the \ Bra* mins, Terfees^ Bonzes, Talapoins, and T)ervizes^ to which he might have add- ed feveral more. Now here is his perpe- tual juggle about his term of art. Free- thinking, Take it in the common fenfe, and we agree with him. Think /r^^/y on all the various pretenfes to revelation : compare the counterfeit Scriptures with the true ; and fee the divine luftre of the one, to which all the others ferve as a foil. It was upon this very account that Chriftians took the pains to tranflate and publifh them ; not to confound Religion, but to confirm it. And yet the occult meaning of our Author is, from the va- riety of Scriptures to infinuate none is true. An argument as weak as it is ftale ; and baffl'd over and over. Could * ?ag. 40. + Fag, 52. F 3 this 68 REMARKS. this reafoning have any effed:, Chriftia- nity had never begun. For befides the true living Oracles of the Jews, was not the whole world then full of faife ones, written and divulg'd? and Oracular Temples (or Churches if he v^ill) then in being to deliver out more ? twtn /iiJ?pofe Chriilianity to be true; yet thofe im» poftures muft neceflanly be, while hu- man nature is what ii is : and our Scri- ptures have foretold \t. Is That then a good argument back'-juards againft the truth of any thing, which a priori is plain muft happen fo ; tho' that thing be allowed to be true ? But a very extraordinary line has flip'd from our Author here \ If a man, fays he, be under any obligation to liften to any revelation at all. This thought it feems was a little too free ^ and fo a T>ele correcis it in the lift of Errata. 'Tis very eafy to fift and tofs this fine thought, which would afford good diverfion : for befides its own fiHinefs, it contradids all the reft, and fpoils the whole grimace of the book. But we'll fpare it, fince the Author himfelf has chaftis'd it; at the hint (I fuppofe) of a graver member of the club, who was nou for difcovering the REMARKS. 69 the whole farce at once, and fhewing the Adors to be mere Tappets. XXIII. We have heard here of the much ap- plauded foundation of your Society for propagating tbeGofpel in foreign farts \ which thisde(picable Scribler, though he owns it is fupported and encourag'd by * Her moji Excellent Majefy and the Chief Peribns of the Kingdom, dares openly ridicule. This is much fuch a fawcy and flovenly Freedom as the reft of the Greeks laugh'd at in the Iflanders of Corfu ; Corey a certe libera eft •, ubi vis, caca. For our cleanly Author here aflumes the like or vvorie licence, to lay his filth and ordure even upon the throne and the altar. We envy not your due Liberty^ the mofr valuable bleffing of good govern- ment : but if iiich infults even upon Ma- * Pag. 41. F 3 jefly 70 REMARKS. jefty itfelf and all that's accounted facred are allowed among you with impunity, it gives no great prefage of your lading proiperity ; nimia illaec licentia Profeufo evcdet in aliojiod inagrMin malum. But to leave unpleafing thoughts ; and for once to anpui^er a fool according to his folly. Are the Talafoins of Siam then to be put here upon a level with the ysiholQ Clergy of England % theHghtand glory (if they are not chang'd all on a iudden) of prefent chriftianity ? and this done by a forry Retailer of atheiftical fcraps, which he underftands not three lines of; but at the firfl: offer of a tranflation betrays his (tupidity ? Is He to draw out your divine s^ whofe names we know not here becaufe he has mangPd them ; but conclude them to be men of worth and diftindtion, from the very credit of his abufing them? If he is once for draw- ing oitt^ and reviving the old trade of ^ K^^a.'KohQ'Aamvi'KU felling and exporting of men ; it may perhaps be found more fer- viceable to your government, to oblige your Eafl India Company to take on board REMARKS. 71 board the whole Growing Secty and lodge them at Madagafcar among their confefs'd and claim'd kindred (fince they make Themfelves but a higher ipecies of Brutes) the Monkeys and the Lr'tlls : or to order your new Sontb Sea Com- pany to dehver them to the Spaniards as part of the AJJieitto, to be Free-diggers in the mines there ; and after a decent time in that Turgatory to convey them to their Happy Country, their '^Taradife of New Jerfey ; where neither ^Prieji^ nor Thy/ician, nor Lawyer can moleft them. XXIV. Well, but Vlthly f the Gofpel ttfelf and our Saviour and bis Apojiles by their own example, recommend Free-think- iTig. Grant the Scribler this argument; if Free-thinking is taken in its legitimate fenfe, as Chillingworth, Hooker, and Wilkins made ufe of that freedom. But if hejufgles as ufually in the term of Art ; what greater nonfenfe, Than that Chrift and his Difcipies Ihould recom- * Pag. 108. t Pc^g' 44- F 4 mend 72 REMARKS. mend Athcifin ? But our Author's learn- ing is here again admirably difplay'd. St. Vaul, lays he, when he izent into the Synagogues of the Jews^ and rea^ fo7t*d with them, took a very extraor- dinary Jiep^ as now it would be look'd on ; and fo he compares it to P e n n the Quaker's going into St. T^auPs^ or Mr.W H I s T o n's into the Houfe of Con- vocation, to reafon there againft the EJiabitfly'd Church. Tennis name has been long known among us in Germany ; and the latter we have lately heard of in the journals and Biblioiheques. But how ignorant and flupid is this Writer with his foolilh comparifon ? The fad he fpeaks of and quotes, ^^j* xvii, 2, q. was done at Thejfalonica, a Pagan city in Macedonia : and was the JewiJI? Syna- gogue the EftablijWd Church there ? or rather allow'd upon Toleration ? But to pardon him this, and fuppofe the thing done in Judea itfelf, where our Saviour ot- ten did the fame : was it any thing like to interrupting "Divine Service, or difturb- ing the proceedings of a Synod ? Our Author knows not one tittle of the man- ner and cuftom of a Synagogue. After reading a few iedions cut of the Law and REMARKS, 73 and the Prophets, the ableft men of the AfTembly us'd to (land up and expound the paflages read : and if any ftranger or perfon of note chanc'd to be there, he was ask'd by them, if he had any dif- courfe to impart to the Congregation. This is exprefly afErm'd by "Fhilo the Jew and others ; and appears clearly from jiRs XI 1 1. 15. where at Antioch in ^ifidia the Rulers of the Synagogue feeing ^atd and Barnabas ftrangers there, fent unto them, faying, Te Alen and Brethren^ if y^ have any word of exhortation for the feofle. Jay on. So that if even Venn and IVhijion Ihould do no more, but fpeak when defir'd by authority, it would be no extraordinary fef at all. The only ftep here that ap- pears very extraor dietary is our Au- thor's bold leaping into the dark; and blundering about matters, where he's quire blind and ignorant. XXV. But he proceeds in his argument from our Saviour's Golpel and Example ; and declares it impoffible, * That Chrift Jhould * Pag, 46. 74 REMARKS. Jhotild give fo partial a command^ as to contain a referve in behalf of any fet of Triejis, in prejudice of the general rules of Free-thmking, Our Author is very often orthodox, when he op- pofes what no body affirms ; or affirms what no body oppofes. And yet that very Orthodoxy is all artifice and craft, to infinuate as if the Clergy did really maintain the one, or deny the other. Pray, who is it that challenges fuch a referve ? He has named a Reverend TOocior here of his fide : name another, if he can, that's againft him. The thing he leems to contend for is true and al- lowed him : but he has given (uch an awkward reafon for it, as w^ould fpoil his own inference ; if better hands than His did not fupport it. \ All the Triejis tipon earth, fays he, being (in our Sa- viour's life-time) enemies to Him and his Gofpel\ and He giving the privilege of infallibility to no body befides his Afofles ; He could not be fecure that any Triefls could ever be otherwife. is the ftupidity of this greater, or the im- piety ? Was not He fecure of That, t 'Pag, 46. who REMARKS. 7s who declared, He would he with his Church to the end of the JVorld\ aud that the gates of Hell Jhould never f re- vail agamjl it ? But to let this pafs (for if I miftake not our Author's principles, he had rather be prov'd an impious or knavifti Writer ten times, than a filly one once) I affirm further, that this aflertioa of his is abiolute nonfenfe ; though Je- fus Chrijl were fufpos^d to be an Im^ poftor. For his argument lies thus : Becaufe thcyewijh and Tagan Priefts were once enemies to Chriji and his Gofpel, He could not be fectire that any of his Own Priefts would ever be otherwife. A moft powerful Syllogifm! At this rate no Sec3: of Philofophy, no Herefy, nor falfe Religion would ever have been fee up or thought of. Becaufe all other Sedls oppos'd Zeno when he firft founded Stoicifm, he could not be fecure, that the Stoics his own followers would ever do otherwife. Becaufe Socinus found all people at firft againft Him and his notions, he could not be fectire but that the very Socinians would always be as much againft them. Becaufe all Priefts abhor'd Mahomef^ Alcoran when firft it was broach'd. He could not be fccure. that 76 REMARKS. that his own Mtifties and "Dervi^^es would not always abhor it. This, you'll fay, is very ftrange : but I'll concede our Author one thing, which looks a lit- tle parallel to it ; That tho' He's the Chief of the rijing and growing Secf^ and has publiilf d their New Go/pel ; he cannot be fecttre^ that his own Fraternity and members of the Club may not foon be aiham'd both of Him and It. XXVI. And now we come to a new argu- ment / om the condiiEl of the Triejts ; which by a tedious indudion is branched out into ten inftances, and takes up half a hundred pages. And what will be the grand refult ? Mae ijle hercle magna jam conatu magnas nugas dixerit. The (urn of it is no more than this, The Triejis cannot agree among themfclves a- bout fever al points of doctrine ; the attri- butes of God, the ca7ion of Scripture, 8cc. and therefore I* II be of no religion at ail. This threadbare obfolete ftufF, the mod: obvious furmife that any wavering Fool catches REMARKS. 77 catches at when he firft warps towards Acheifm, is drefs'd up here as if it was fome new and formidable bufineft. What great feats can our Author now promife himfelf from this ; which, after it has been tried age after age, never had influence on mankind either in religious concerns or common li^Q : Till all agree, P II ft and neuter. Very well; and till all the world fpeaks one lan- guage, pray be you mute and fay no- thing. It were much the wiler way ; than to talk as you have done. By this rule, the Roman Gentry were to learn no Philofophy at all, till the Greeks could unite into one Sed ; nor make ufe of any Phyfician, till the Empirics and Methodifts concur'd in their way of practice. How came Chriftianity to begin ; fince the objedion now brought to pull it down was as vifible and potent then as now ? or how has it fubfifted io long, fince all the prefent difcord in opinions does not near amount to the lum of what Epphanitis alone collected above a thoufand years ago ? Nay how came our Author's new Sedt to be rifing and growing ; fince the Atheifts are as much at variance among themfelves, and can 78 REMARKS. can fettle and centre in nothing ? Or, \i they ihould refolve to confpire in one certain Syftem ; they would be Atheifts indeed ftilJ, but they would lofe the title of Fr ce thinker s. This is the total of his long indudiion ; but let us fee his condud: in the parts of it. Some Fathers thought God to be material ; this he has faid and I have ani'wer'd before in Remark the Xth. * Several antient Chrijiian Trie/is of Egypt were fo grofs, as to conceive God to be in the Jhafe of a man. If they did fo, they were no more grofs than his Matter Epicurus, who was of the very fame opinion. But it's fatal to our Author ever to blunder when he talks of Egypt, Thefe Triefts of F gypt were all illiterate Laymen: the Monks or Hermits of thofe days, that retir'd into the defert, the fitted place for their ftupidity. f But feveral of your Eng- lifh FJivines tax each other with Atheifm, either pofitively^ or confe- quently. Wonderful ! and fo becaufe three or four Divines in your Ifland are too fierce in their difputes, all We on the REMARKS. 79 the great Continent muft abandon Reli- gion. Yes, but the * Bramim, the Mahometans, &c. J>retend to Scriptures as vjelL as We. This too has come once already, and is confidered in Remark the XXII : but being fo great a piece of news, deferv'd to be told twice. And who, without his telling, would have known, that the \ Romip Church received the Apocrypha as canonical ? Be that as it will ; I am fiire it is unheard of new^s, that Your Church receives them as || Half 'Canonical, I find no fuch word in your Articles; nor ever faw a fucb'like prodigy before. Half Camnican what idea, what fenfe has it ? 'tis exadly the fame, as Half Di- vine, Half Infinite, HalfOmnipotejtt. But away with his Apocrypha ; He'll like it the worft while he lives, for the fake of Bel and the 'Dragon. XXVIL But now to make room for his learn- ing again : For | the Rabbi's, fays he, among the Samaritans^ who no'w live at * ^^^. 52. t Pag, 53. II Pag, 53. X Sichem 8o REMARKS. Sichem in Talefline^ receive the Jive Books of Mofesfor their Scripture ; the copy whereof is very different from Ours. What fliall I admire mod. his ignorance, or his impudence ? Why the Rabbi's at Skhem, exclufive and by way of diftindtion ? Does not the whole Samaritan Nation receive the Penta- teuch, as well as their Rabbi's ? 'Tis juft as if he had faid ; Among the Eng- lifh, the Reverend TDivtnes receive the Bible. But is not their Copy of the Five Books of Mofes Very Different from Ours ? No queftion, he has often afBrm'd This with great fufficiency at his Club ; though he does not know one letter of the language. The Samaritan Pentateuch has now been printed above half a Century ; and the various read- ings, wherein it differs from the Jewijh^ have been twice colleded and publifh'd. even to the minuteft letter ; firft by Morinus at "Raris, and afterwards anew by Your Walton at London ; both ot them Triefls. I have perus'd thofe va- rious Ied:ions ; and do affirm here on my own knowledge, that thole t woCopies differ no more from each other, than the fame book, Terence^ Tally, Ovtd, or REMARKS. 8i or the like, differs from irfelf in the leveral Manufcripts that I myielf have examia'd. So that it's a plain demon- ftration that the copies were originally the fame : nor can better evidence be defir'd that the Jesji/h Bibles have not been corrupted or interpolated, than this very Book of the Sarnarttans ; which, after above 2000 years difcord between the two nations, varies as little from the other, as any ClaJJic Author in lefs trad of time has difagreed from irfelf, by the unavoidable flips and miftakes of (o many Tranfcribers And now does not our Author come off^vidoriouOy with his Rabbles of Sic hem ? Well, but the * Samaritajis 'have a Chronicon, or Hijtoiy of tbemfehes from Mofes's time, which is lodged in the ptbhck Library at Ley den ^ and has 7iever been prrnted ; and this is quite different from that contain'^d in thj Hijiorical Books of the Old Tefament. Here's now a fly infinuation of fome great difcoveries to be made out of this Book : and yet the mighty matter is no more than this ; Jofe^h Scaliger G above B% RE MA R K S. above a hundred years ago procured this Book from Skhem, and left It among others by his Will to the Library at Leyden. There it's name has long ap- pear'd in the printed catalogue ; it has been tranfcribM more than once; and one Copy, formerly Profeflbr Golms% has fallen into the hands of my learned friend Mr. Reland at Utrecht : whereof take his^own account. 'Tis called The Book of Jojhua, but its Author is not named : ^tis written in Arabic ; fmce Mahomefs time mod certainly, but how much fince is not known : it pretends to be a tranflation from the Hebrew^ but it's only its own Voucher ; there being no fame now remaining of any fuch original. It confifts of about L chapters; xxxix of which make the fole ftory of Jojhua ; fix chapters more reach as low as Nebuchadnezzar ; the very next comes to Alexander the Great, and his travels thorow the Air ; the next makes a long Ihide to the Emperor Hadrian ; and two more to the time of Alexafider Severns. This is the noble Chronicle that our judicious Free- thinker would place above the Bible ; when the very Sichemites do not place it REMARKS. 83 it fo high as his own jargon half« CanonicaL 'Tis pity a Man of fo fine a tafte, and the Maecenas of the new Club, (fince he hints with fuch concern, that it is notyetpublijh'd) iliould not be obhg'd at his own charge to get it trau- flated and printed. xxviir. The very view of the following pages fills me with difdain, to fee iiich com- mon (lufT brought in with an air of im- portance. * Hebrew and Seftuagint ; Go/pels according to the Hebrews and Egyptians ; The Traditions of Mat- thiasy and the Secrets of Teeter : Apo- Jlolic Co7tfii tut ions, and Gofpel of fames ; and the differeitt notions of briefs concerning Infpiration. And what of all thefe, or half a hundred more, that my learned and Lutheran Friend Dr. Fabricius has amafs'd together ? Has our Author a mind to read and think of them ? Think freely and welcome : For I fuppofe that was the defign my Friend had in the pubUcation. Or is he rather G 2 at 84 REMARKS. at his old play, that he'll regard no Scripture at all, till all Chriftians among themlelves, and Talapohis with them, can agree ? Jubeas flidtum ejje lib enter : let him have licenle to play the Fool ; fince he anfwers his own argument iii the very words where he puts it. * For All^ lays he, who build their Religioii on Books, mtifl from the nature of things vary about the Books themfelvts, their Copies^ and their Infpration. Here's now both the poifon and the antidote in one. For if it's neceflary /r^;;^ the 7iattire of things that Men Ihall To dif- fer in their opinions •, that difference is no argument backwards to prove the falfenefs of all thoie Books. Unlefs the Man will prove a priori, that Revela- tion ought not, cannot be communi- cated and convey'd to us in Books. Which when he performs ; or finds out a better Method ; it iljall be allow'd to be the firft Inftance of Science or Art, that the Growing Se5i has invented. * Pag. 56. XXIX. REMARK S. 85 XXIX. But notvvithftanding he has fore- anfwered from the nature of things all that he can fay about different inter^ pretations, yet he proceeds in xx te- dious pages to enumerate thofe differ- ences, which he ranges under xii heads ; and before them puts a long preamble out of your learned Bilhop Tay- lor, That Prelate, it feems, has with great acutenefs and eloquence difplay'd the difficulties in acquiring a full and perfect knowledge of all the abftrufe places of Scripture ; affirming at the fame time, That all the necelTaries to Salvation and moral Duties are deliver'd there moft clearly and openly. Well, and what does our wife Author gain from the Biihop's confeffion ? Has not He himfelf gone a great deal further, and made * all the Sciences and Arts, every imaginable part of knowledge, to be re- quifite towards having a jnjl notion of that mifcellaneotis Book, the Bible ? If it be fo ; what wonder is it (nay * Pag. II. G 2 what 26 REMARKS. what miracle were it otherwife) that, in an allowed freedom of 'Thinking and ^rintirig^ your Englijh Divines Ihould have different opinions ? nay that the felf fame man by advances in age, and by progrefs in ftudy fliould differ from Himfelf ? I have run over the citations here out of Taylor ; and find fcarce one of thofe difBcukies fo pecuHar to Scrip- ture, as not to be common to other Au- thors to know which : with exadnels, as becomes every Writer (efpecially a declar'd Adverfary to a whole Order pro- feffing learning) is no eafy and per- fundlory matter ; as our Author to his fliame and fbrrow may hereafter find and feel. His XII heads of difference he has difpos'd in this order : The nature and ejfence of the "Divine Trinity^ The im- portance of that article of Faiths The Jpecific body at the Reftirre5fion^ jPr^- defxination^ Eternal Torments^ Sabbath or Lord'S'T>ay, Epfcofacy, Original Sin, Our Saviour's Human Soul, Lay- Baptifm^ "Vfury^ and the fower of the Civil Mdgijirate in matters EcclefiaJlicaL About all thefe points and ieveral others He could name, ibme of Your Englijh Divines, REMARKS, 87 Divines, it feems, for want o^ good con* dtt^ have had contefts and difputes : A mofl furprizing piece of news ! to You, as if none had heard of thofe books till this difcovery ; and to Us, as if We were inrirely free from the Hke diiputations. Now what would our Autiior have here ? Is he angry that All cannot agree ? Or will he make himfelf the Arbitrator ? If he'll be Umpire in all thefe queftions, he has full liberty of thinking ; the path is beaten before him ; he may chule what fide he inclines to, or coin new notions of his own. As Your Church has not yet anathematized nor cenliar'd any of thefe Divines, lo He needs not turn Atheift on thefe accounts ; to pur- chafe the right of Free-thinking, But if he^'s angry that All agree nor, and thinks it a dilgrace to Religion ; or rcfblves to meddle with none of them till All are unanimous ; he muft be put in mind of what he lately mentioned. The nature of things. For \i he forbids thinking on abftrnfe queftions, he con- tradids his whole Book ; vvhich aflerrs Men's right and title to think de (juolibet ente : but if he ^llo'-ji's them to think on them, diverfity of opinions will neeei- G 4 farily 88 REMARK S. farily follow from the nature of the things. For how can men keep the fame tracS:, where all walk in the dark? Or how can they agree m one (lory, where all tell their own dreams ? If men needs will be prying into the hidden myfteries of Heaven i they'll certainly court a cloud inftead of a Goddefs : yet fiich diicoverers and projedors there ever will be ; and in divinity, as well as Geome-^ try^ we have fquarers of the circle. XXX. A fecond inftancc of Your Englifh Clergy's bad conduct, is their owning "* the doctrines of the Church to be con- tradiclory to one another and to Reafon ; a Hid their owning -^ abnfes^ defe&s^ and filfe docfrines m the Church ; a IVth their profeffing || That they will not tell the Truth ; a Vth their :): charg- ing the mcft judicious men of their own order with Atheifm, ^Dcifm^ or Soci- nianifn. Now as thefe accufations reach no further than fome particulars among You ; Our Church here is not in the ^Pag. 76. \Pag. 79. li Fag. 82. %Pag, 85. lead:. REMARKS. 89 leaft, and Yours (I think) is not much concern'd in them. If the Author really has not wrong'd them (as his ufual un- fairnefs gives caufe for fufpicion) it will be prudence in them to learn even from an enemy ; and to Ipeak hereafter with more caution and dilcretion. All that a Stranger can do here, is to leave the per- Ibns to their own proper defence ; and the ftippos'd abttfes and falfe doctrines in your Church, to your own either re- futing the charge, or remedying the de- fed:. For what would our Lutherans here fay of Me, if I fhould pretend to maintain, that Your Church has no blemifh at all ? Though we juftly efteem and honour it next to our Own. XXXI. But a Vlth inftance of their ill condudJ, is their * rendring the canon of the Scripture uncertain. This is a heavy charge indeed ; and if they do not clear and vindicate themfelves ; We, as well as this author, muft call them to account. But what's the ground of the Indiit- * Pag, 86. ment ? 90 REMARKS. ment ? JVhy^ T>r. Grabe, T)r. Mill, with fome others affirm^ that no Canon was made till above LX years after the death of Chrift. If this be all, he has verify'd the fentence in the comedy ; Homine imperilo nu?nquam qukquam wjujliu^ft. For pray, what's the notion of the word Canon ? An entire colledion of the Sa- cred Writings, to be a rule, Jiandard^ and fyftem to Chriftianity. Now accord- ing to thole Dodors, and the plain mat- ter of fad, ail the books of the New Teftament were not written till the year of Chrift xcvii ; and that is above lx years after the death of Chrift. What fenfe is there in this complaint then ? that the books were not collected before they were made ? All the books we now receive for canonical were written occa- fionally between the Years m and XCVII. And during that interval of xlv years; every book, in the places whi- ther it was fent, or where it was known, was immediately as iacred and canonical, as ever it was after. Nor did the church loiter and delay in making a canon or collection of them ; lor within two years after REMARKS. gt after the writing of St. John's Gofpel the evangelical Canon was fix'd. And with- in X after that, an Epiftolkal Canon was made : quick enough, if it be con- fider'd, that they were to be gathered (whither they had been direded) from io many and fo diftant parts of the world. So that it's plain to me this CoIkd:or of fcraps did not know v. hat a Canon or collection meant. Til bonovv his argument for one minute^ and try it upon iome claffic authors. It's very plain that Martial publifli'd every fingle book of Epigrams by itfelf: one generally every year ; only fometimes he delay'd two or three. Andfo Horace (as Your Bentletus has lately Ihewn) fet out his feveral books occafionally, from the XXVI to the LI year of his life. Now in the reaioning of our acute writer, I'll prove feveral books of thofe two authors to be ttncertain and of dubious autho- rity. For what do you tell me of the firft book of the one's Epigrams^ and of the other's Satirs ? How do I know that thofe are genuine ; when the canon of Martial and Horace was not fix'd and fettled, till above xx years after Thofe are pretended to be wiitcen ? Is not ^2 REM A R K S, cot this argument mod ftrong, cogent, and irrefragable ? So very valuable and precious; that, bear vvitnefs, I now re- turn it fafe and found to its pofTelTor and author. XXXII. Yes! but poor Dr. Mill has ftill more to anfwer for : and meets with a forry recompenfe for his long labour of xxx years. For if we are to believe not only this wife Author, but a wifer Dodor of your own^ he was * labottring all that while, to prove the Text of the Scri- ture ^precarious \ havinp; fcrap'd together iiich an iinmenfe coIled:ion of various readings, as amount in the whole, by a late Author's computation, to above thirty thoufand. Now this is a matter of fomeconfequence, and will well de- ferve a few refledions. I am forc'd to confefs with grief, That feveral well-meaning Priefts, of greater zeal than knowledge, have often by their own falfe alarms and Tanic both frighted others of their own fide, and Par oivcn REMARKS. 93 given advantage to their enemies. What an uproar once w^s there, as if All were ruin'd and undone, when Capellus wrote one book againft the antiquity of the Hebrew 'Tomts, and another tor Vari- Otis Letiions in the Hebrew Text itfelf? And yet time and experience has cur'd them of thofe iniaginary fears : and the great Author in his grave has now that honour univerfally, which the few only of his own age paid him, when alive. The caie is and will be the fame with your learned Country-man Dr. Mill; whofe Friendlhip (while I ftaid at Ox- ford) and memory will be ever dear to me. For what is it, that your Whitbyus fo inveighs and exclaims at ? The Do- d:or's labours, fays he, make the whole Text precarious ; and expofe both the Reformation to iht Tapijts, and Reli- gion itfelf to the Atheijis. God forbid ! we'll ftill hope better things. For fure- ly thofe Various Readings exifted before in the feveral exemplars; Dr. MiU did not make and coin them, he only exhi- bited them to our view. If Religion therefore was true before, though fuch Various Readings were in being ; it will be as true and confequently as fafe ftill, though 94 REMARKS. though every body fees them. Depend on't ; no truth, no matter of fad fairly laid open, can ever fubvert True Re- ligion. The 30000 Various Lediions are aU low'd then and confefs'd : and, if more copies yet are collated, the Sum will ftill mount higher. And what's the infe- rence from this? why, one Gregory ^ here quoted, infers * That no profane Author whatever has fujfefd fo much by the hand of time ^ as the New Tefia- went has done. Now if this (hall be found utterly falfe ; and if the Scriptural Text has no more variations than what muft necelTarily have happen'd from the nature of things^ and what are common and in equal proportion in all Claffics whatever; I hope this T^anic will be re- mov'd, and the Text be thought as firm as before. If there had been but one manufcript of the Greek Teftament at the reftoration of learning about two centuries ago; then we had had no Various Readings at all. And would the Text be in a better condition then, than now we have » ?a^. 88. 30000? REMARKS. pj 30000? So far from That, that in the belt fingle Copy extant we fhould have had hundreds of faults, and feme omif- fions irreparable. Befides that the fufpi- cions of f>aud and foul play would have been encreas'd immenfly. It is good therefore, you'll allow, to have more anchors than one ; and an- other MS. to join with the firft would give more authority, as well as fecurity Now chufe that Second where you will there Ihall be a thoufand variations from theFirtt; and yet half or more of the faults fliall ftill remain in them Both. A Third therefore, and fb a Fourth, and ftill on, are defirable; that by a joint and mutual help All the faults may be mended : lome Copy preferving the True Reading in one place, and fome in another. And yet the more Copies you call to alliftance, the more do the Va- rious Readings multiply upon you : every Copy having its peculiar flips, though in a principal palTage or two it do finaular fervice. And this is fad, not only ia the NewTeftament, but in all antient books whatever. 'Tis a good providence and a great bleffing, that fo many Manufcripts of the 96 REMARKS. phe New Teftament are ftill amongft us ; fome procured from Egyft, others from j4fi^i others found in the IVefleru Churches. For the very diftances of places as well as numbers of books de- monftrate, that there could be no collu- fion, no altering nor interpolating One Copy by another, nor All by any of them. In profane Authors (as they are call'd) whereof One Manufcript only had the luck to be preferv'd, as Velleius Pater^ cuius among the Latins, and Hefycbius among the Greeks ; the faults of the Scribes are found (o numerous, and the de- fects lb beyond all redreis ; that notwith- ftanding the pains of the learned'ft and acuteft Critics for Two whole Centuries, thole books ftill are and are like to con- tinue a mere heap of errors. On the contrary, where the Copies of any Au- thor are numerous, though the Various Readings always increafe in proportion ; there the Text, by an accurate collation of them made by skilful and judicious hands, is ever the more correct, and comes nearer to the true words of the Author. Were R E M A k k S. 97 Were the very Originals of antient books ftill in being, thole alone would fuperfede the ufe ot all other Copies : but fince That was impofllble from the na-* tttre of things^ fince time and cafualties mud confume and devour all ; the fub- fidiary help is from the various tranfcripts convey'd down to us, when examined and compared together. Terence is now in one of the bed con- ditions of any of the ClafTick Writers; the oldeft and beft Copy of him is now in the Vatican Library, which comes neareft to the Poet's own hand: but even That has hundreds of errors, moft of which may be mended out of other Exemplars, that are orherwife more re- cent and of inferior value. I myfelf have collated feveral ; and do affirm that I have feen 20600 various lcd:ions in that little Author, not near fo big as the whole New Teflament : and am morally fure, that if half the number of Manu- fcripts were collated for Terence with that nicenefs and minutenefs which ha^ been ufed in twice as many for x^itNew Teflament y the number of the variations would amount to above joood. H Itt 98 REMARKS. In the manufcripts of the New Tejia- ment the variations have been noted with a religious, not to fay fuperftitious exadinefs. Every difference, in fpelling, in the fmalleft particle or article of ipeech, in the very order or collocation of words without real change, has been ftudioufly regiftrcd. Nor has the Text only been ranfack'd, but all the Antient Verfions, the Latin Vulgate, Italic^ SjriaCy Aetbio^ic, Arabic, Coptic, Ar- menian, Gothic^ and Saxon ; nor thefe only, but all the difpers'd citations of the Greek and Latin Fathers in a courfe of 500 years. What wonder then, if with all this fcrupulous fearch in every hole and corner, the varieties rife to 30000? when in all Antient Books of the fame bulk, whereof the MSS are numerous, the variations are as many or more ; and yet no verfions to fwoil the reckoning. The Editors of profane Authors do not ufe to trouble their Readers, or risk their own reputation, byanufelefs liftof every fmall flip committed by a lazy or igno- rant Scribe. What is thought commend- able in an edition of Scripture, and has the name of fairnefs and fidelity, would in REMARKS. 99 in them be deeiiVd impertinence and trifling. Hence the reader not versM in antient MSS is deceived into an opinion, that there were no more vaiiations in the copies, than what the editor has communicated. Whereas, if the hke fcrupuloufnefs was obferv'd in regidring the fmalleft changes in profane authors, as is allowed, nay requir'd in facred ; the now formidable number of 30000 would appear a very trifle. 'Tis manifeft that books in verfe are not near lb obnoxious to variations asthofeia profe : the tranfcriber, if he is not wholly ignorant and ftupid, being guided by the meafures, and hindered from fuch altera- tions, as do not fall in with the laws of numbers. And yet even in Poets the va- riations are fo very many as can hardly be conceiv'd without ufe and experience. In the late edition of "Tibullus by the learned Mr. Brouklmife you have a re- gifter of various legions in the clofe of that book ; where you may fee at the firft view that they are as many as the lines. The fame is vifible in "Flau- tus fet out by Tareus. I myfelf du- ring my travels have had the opportu- nity to examin feveral MSS of the poet H 2 Manillus\ loo REMARKS. Manilius ; and can affure you that the variations I have met with are twice as many as all the lines of the book. Our Difcourfer here has quoted nine veries out of it, p. 151: in which, though one of the ea/iefl: places, I can fliew him xiv various ledtions. Add Hkewife that the MSS here ufed were few in comparifon : and then do You imagin, what the le- diions would amount to, if ten times as many (the cafe of Dr. Mill) were accu- rately examin d. And yet in thefe and all other books, the text is not made more precarmts on that account, but more certain and authentic. So that if I may advife you, when you hear more of this fcarecrow of 30000, be neither aftonifli'd at the Sum, nor in any pain for the text. 'Tis plain to me that your learned TVhitbyns, in his invedlive againft my dead friend, was fuddenly furpriz'd with a 'Panic ; and under his deep concern for the Text^ did not refled: at all w^hat that w^ord really means. The prefent text was firft fettled almoft 200 yeais ago out of feveralMSS by Robert Ste- fhens a printer and bookleller at TParis : whofe beautiful and (generally fpeaking) accurate REMARKS. loi accurate edition has been ever fincc counted the ftandard, and foUovv'd by all the reft. Now this fpecific Text in your Dodor's notion feems taken for the facred original in every word and fylla- ble; and if the conceit is but fpread and propagated, within a few years that "Printer's infallibility will be as zealoufly maintained as an Evan^elift's or Apo- Jile's, Dr. Mill, were he alive, would con- fefs to your Dodor, that this Text fix'd by a Printer is fbmetimes by the various readings render'd tmcertain, nay is prov'd certainly wrong. But then he would fubjoin, that the real text of the facred writers does not now (fince the originals have been fo long loft) lie in any fingle MS or edition, but is difpers'd in them all. 'Tis competently exad indeed, even in the worft MS now extant : nor is one article of faith or moral precept either perverted or loft in them ; chufe as awkwardly as you can, chufe the worft by defign, out of the whole lump of readings. But the lefler matters of dtdion, and among feveral fynonymous expreflions the very words of the writer, muft be found out by the fame induftry H 3 and 102 REMARKS. andfagacity that is ufed in other Books; muft not be risk'd upon the credit of any- particular MS or edition, but be fought, acknowledged, and challenged, where- ever they are met with. Stephens followed what he found in the King of France's copies, Adts xxvii, /14. and he is follow'd by your tranflators, there arofe a^j^dinji it a tempejiuotis wind, called EVROCL TT> O iV. This reading perhaps your learned Do- (Sor would not have now be made/r^^^- rious : but if that Printer had had the ufe of your Alexandrian MS, which ex- hibits here ETPAKTAQN •, its very hkely he would have given it the preference in his text : and then the Dodor upon his own principle muft have ftickled lor this. The wind Euroclydon was never heard of but here : it's compounded oiexjpo; and kauJwv, rhe wind and the waves ; and it leems plain a priori from the difparity of thole two ideas, that they could not be join'd in one compound: nor is there any other example of the like compofition. Bur EupaxuAwv, or as the vulgar Latin here has it, Euroaqiiilo (approv'd by Grotius and others) is fo appofite to the context. REMARKS, 103 context, and to all the circumftauces ol the place ; that it may fairly challenge admittance, as the word of St. Luke. 'Tis true, according to Vitruvius, Se- neca, and Tliny, who make Eurus to blow from the winter folfticc, and Aquilo between the fummer folftice and the north point ; there can be no fuch wind nor word as Euroaquilo : becaufe the Solanus or Apheltotes from the cardinal point of eaft comes between them. But Eunis is here to be taken, as Gellhis II, 22. and the Latin poets ufe it, for the middle aequinodial eaft, the fame as Solanus : and then in the table of the xii winds according to the Antients^bet ween the two cardinal winds Septentrio and Eurus, there are two at ftated diftances Aquilo and K^^h/aj^. The Latins had no known name for Kuivixg -. quern ab oriente folfiitiali excitatum Graci Kui'aiuv vocant; apud nos fine nomine eft, fays Seneca^ Nat. ^aeft. V, i5. kfljm/«c therefore blowing between Aquilo and Eurusj the Roman feamen (for want of a fpeci- fic word) might exprefs the fame wind by the compound name Euroaquilo ; in the fame analogy as the Greeks call EvpdvoTo; the middle wind between Eurus H 4 and 104 REMARKS, and Notus ; and as you fay now South Eaft and North Eajt, Since therefore we have now found, that Etiroaqtillo was the Roman mariners word for the Greek K«;K/af • there wili foon appear a jult rea- fon why St. Luke calls it «y€|xo? tu$wv/hc^, a tempejltions "onhid, vorticofus, a whir- ling wind ; for that's the pecuHar chara- &tx of Y^cimci^ ill thoie chmates ; as ap- pears from ieveral authors and from that known proverbial veric, So that with fubmifllon I think our Lu- ther'^s and the T>anip verfion have done more right than your Evglijh to the facred text, by tranflating ic Nord-ost, North Eaji : though according to the prefent compafs divided into xxxii, Eti* roaqttilo anlwers neareft to Ost Nord OsT, Eaft North Eaft\ which is the very wind that would dircdly drive the fliip from Crete to the Jfrtcan Sjrtis^ according to the piIot''s fears, in the ijth verlb. The Alexandrian copy then, though it has vaftly increas'd the number of leadings, as you fee in your Tolyglott and REMARKS, loj and Dr. Mill's edition, has been of ex- cellent ufe here ; and fo in many other places : retrieving to us the true original, where other copies faiPd. And what damage if all the other copies of near the lame antiquity, which Mr. Mont^ faulcon has difcover'd and Dr. Alill ne- ver faw, were fometime collated as ex- adly, and all the varieties publifliM ; let the thoulands grow never lb many ? When the Dod:or is fo alarm'd at the vaft(um of 30000, he feems to take it for granted, that within that number the very original is every where found ; and the only complaint is, that true are fo blended with falfe, that they can hardly be difcover'd. If that were the only difficulty, fome abler heads than ours would foon find a remedy : in the mean time I can aflure him, that if that be the cafe, the New TeJiamenth2iS fuffer'd lefs injury by the hand of time than any pro- fane author ; there being not one antient book befides it in the world, that with all the help of various ledions (be they 50000 if you will) does not (land in further want of emendation by true cri- tic; nor is there one good edition of any that has not inferred into the text (though io6 REMARKS. (though every reader knows it not) what no manufcripc vouches. 'Tis plaia indeed that if emendations are true they muft have once been in fome manufcripts; at lead in the author's original : but it does not follow, that be- caufe no manufcript now exhibits them, none more ancient ever did. Slips and errors (while the art of printing was unknown) grew prefently and apace; even while the author was alive. Mar- tial tells us himfelf, how one of his ad- mirers was fo curious, that he fent a copy of his poems which he had bought, to be * emended by his own hand. And we certainly know from f Gellius, that even (b early as HadriarPs time and be- fore, the common copies of Virgil had feveral miftakes. Not frighted therefore with the pre- fent 300005 I for my part, and (as I be- lieve) many others would not lament, if out of the old manufcripts yet untouched 1 0000 more were faithfully colleded : fome of which without queftion would render the text more beautiful, juft and exadt ; though of no confequence to the * Martial Yii. 10. f GeUius I, 21. ix, 14. main REMARKS, 107 main of religion, nay perhaps wholly iynonymous in the view of common readers, and quite infenfible in any mo- dern verfion. If all thofe remaining manufcripts were diligently perus'd, perhaps one might find in fome or one of them a new vari- ous ledion in i Tm. vi, 3. Efr/f Irspodt- ddjauhsT/Au) iJ.>] nPOSEPXETAI vyiumci UyoiQ. ToT; T~u Mup/8 viiiuv IV13-8 Xp/^-y. For though thefenfeof npo(rip%£T;^/ {$ fo fix'd by the adjacent words that no verfion has mi-i ftaken it, confents not to^ acquiefces not in, the wholfome words of our Saviour \ yet the propriety does not appear in the original, no example of that phrafe have- ing yet been given. If fome manufcript then Ihould have it npec-g%eTa/ or iJpoaf'xc- Tdiy c /eaves and adheres to the whole fome words \ who has reafon to be angry at that variation? But I Ihould fooner ex- ped to find nPoSEXEI ; becaufe Tpc^e^eiv y^oyoii;^ to give heed^ attend, obferve, lift en, obey, is a known phrafe as well in (acred as profane authors. So llTeter i, 19. ^ Xoy^ K«Xwf Trpotrexovreg. Vroverh. i, 24. 'Eb'THvov A078? M«' ii:^OGei%iTB.Jerem.\ly 19. Torg\6yoi;\ii^i Tpe(r6V%ov. So in Other places of theLXXj Tlpogiz^iv piio-^/, p?if^«5-/, voM. fV io8 REMARKS. ToXeiTg So to the fame effedl, A^h viii> 6- ic^0(7e%zi\f ToTg heyoiLhoiQ. x^'i, 14. toTq huhH- ii.6VQig hifb, i, T. to'l; u'asg^sTg-i. 'Tit, ]^ i^. fj^v^oig. And laftly it is join'd with the fame word XeTv^ fjLVjJi TIPOSEXEIN (xv^oig Ma) yeveaUyiaig. If a fearch therefore was made in the manufcripts abroad, and this ledtion fliould chance to be found there, what detri- ment would it bring either to the autho- rity or beauty of the Text ? in the epiftle oijude, v. 18. the ge- neral fenfe is clear and palpable ; mockers in the loft time, ^"-"^^ ^h iccvTuv e^xi^v^iug iropsvoLiivoi T^M aait^i^'iy who walk after their own ungodly luJIs. But if one of thofe manufcripts inftead ofmeteiwj fliould exhibit ASEAEEIQN, lafcivious^ wanton^ filthy hijis: as thole two words are join'd I ^et, iv> 3. Xc7rop£Vftiv85 iv u(jehyeiiiig, i^ri- BviLis/jg who walked in lajciviottfnefs and lujis ; and II Vet. ii, 1 8. iv i%i^vij.isiig aap- wg, ucsiyeiuig. The luJIs of the flejh and wantonnefs : though the fenfe of both may perhaps be equivalent, yet it's not nothing, to add a juftnefs and propriety of expreflion. Once more ; in a paffage of St. 'James v% (5. where after he had denounced wrath and REMARKS. JC9 and judgment againfl: the 7'ich and/r ledge and memory. B,m Me f alia was Confnt \xi the Weft A 2). i)vi : and tliis httle Qhronkon of a dozen pages, which might be written in a5 Iboi't a time as my Letter here, ends A.'D, DLXVT. So that this might be nothing, but a hear-iay about a bufinels foppos'd to be done threefcore years before. Ab Idiotis Evangeliftis, By Idiot Evangelijis^ fays our Author ; who, xi he's fincere in this vcrfioii, proves him- felf a very Idiot m i\iC greek and lathi acceptation of that wcrd.'i^^^T;^?, Idiota, illiteratus, hidocius^ rtidls. See "Dti Fr.efne in his gloffaries ; wiho takes no- tice, that Idiot a for an Idiot ox natttrai Fool is peculiar to your EngliJJo Law ; for which he cites "liaJiaL Did Vi^or- therC" REMARKS. 119 therefore mean Idiot Evangelifts in your Englijh fenfe ? No : but illiterate, uh- learned. What then muft we think of our Author for his fcandalous tranflacion here? whether imputation will he cliule to he under ; that he knew the meaning oiViBor, or that he knew it not ? As for the fad; itfelf, * a general al- teration of the iv Gojpels in the vi Cen^* tury ; though I have no high opinion of our Author's penetration, I dare venture to fay He himfelf does not beheve it. Dr. Mill has taught him better ; whole words he has honeftly fupprefs'd here. He that makes it one article againft your Clergy, their f fttfling of pajfages^ ana mangling of books. (| ^Tis as certain^ fays the Dodor, as certain can be ; that no fiich altered Gojpels were ever made ptblick. What tumults^ what tragedies would they have rais d ? They would have coji that hated Emperor his crown and his life. The fact would have been Jpoken of and detefted by all the Hijlo^ rians.^ and not be found only (as it is : for Ifidore profefles to take it from * Pag, 90. t Fag, 95, 96. II M'lUii FroUg p. 98. I 4 Vi6ior) 120 R E U A R K S. Victor) in one blind parage of a puny Chronicle, Add to thcfe reafons of my dead friend ; that we have plain demonftra- tion no fuch altered Gofpels obtained in the world: as this Writer would infi- iiuatc. For we have the Fathers of iv whole Centuries before that time, both in the Greek and Latin Church ; among All whom there's fcarce a verle in the New^ Teftament uncited : the agreement of which with the AISS yet extant does fully evince, that the copies continu'd the fame zkzt Anajiafius's time as before. Add the intire commentaries of Aujiin^ yerom, Chryfofiom^ Cjrill^ Theodoret and more, all dead before the vi Century commenced : and yet Their Text is the fame as now ; and their explications fo confirm and fix it, that That could not be alter'd in Their books (as is fuppos'd in the naked Scripture) without making the commentaries anew. Add again the Latin Italic and Jeromes verfions •, add others in the eaft, all before the date of this pretended ^^7/(?r^/ alteration-^ and he mud be a mere Idiot indeed that can fceheve chat ftory ; when he fees all thofe ante- REMARKS. lit antecedent Books fo exadly agree with the lubfequent. That this general alteration is a mere dream and chimera, may be known even a priori by any man of common lenfe. For if the thing was really ef- fecSted, and the very Bibles of Vi^or and IJidore (with all the reft) were fo alterM and corrupted beyond retrieve ; what could thole men mean to tranfmit that fa<5t to poflerity ? Or what copyer would not have Jiifled tbofe fajfages in them both ? Suppofe, in our Free-thinker'^ fcheme, that all the world at that time were knaves and fools enough to com- ply with it : yet furely they would not have told it Us ; they would not have branded Themfelves to all Ages ; not fo have abused the Evangelifts^ whom they lookt upon as infpir'd ; not rooted up and dejirofd ihzt Religion, which this very pretended fad: defign'd to recommend. Our modefl: Writer, who affirms of himfelf * That he must l;e one of the moft underjtanding a7id virtuous men alive ^ has given no good inftance of ei- thcr in his management of this paflage : * Fag^ 1 20. t^^ REM A R K S. for he has left out a principal word, both in his Latin and Englijh^ and which Mi L L as well as Vi^or lay'd before his eyes, that will clear up this whole affair. CONSTANTINOPOLI, at CONSTAN- TINOPLE, fays Victor^ the Gojpels were amended. Was this a general al» teratton ? Did this involve the whole Chriftian World ? Would "Theodoric then reigning in the weft, have fubmitted to this order of Anaftajius ; a weak and unpopular Prince, that was fcarce obey'd by his own guards ? But the ftory itfelf pretends to no more, than the city of the Emperor's refidence : and if our Au- thor did not fee this, where was his tin- derjlanding ? if he did, and Jiifled the word by defign, where was his virtue ? You fee the matter dwindles to no- thing ; even allowing the whole facft in Vicioy^s meaning to be true. But I can never believe fo wicked and fenfelefs a thought, of that Emperor or any Chri- ftian whatever. He was hated indeed tiniverfally, for adhering to heretics, and for his ill condiid: in Civil Government : an J fo any ftory was entertain'd with joy, that would make him ftill more odious, and blacken his charadcr. But I fancy 3 I can REMARKS, 123 I can give you a clear account of the oc- cafion and rife of this fcandal out of Liberatus the Deacon, of the lame age and country with ViBor, in the xix chapter of his Breviarium. Hoc tempore Macedonius Conftanti- nopoHtanus Epifcopus ab Imperatore Anaftafio dicitur expuhus, tamquam Evangeha falfaflet, & maxime illud Apo- ftoli didlum, §ui apfaruit in carney jufiificatus eft in Spiritu- Hunc enim immutafTe, ubi habet OS, id eft Qui, monofyllabum Graecum ; litera mutata 0 in 0 vertiffe, & feciffe es, id eft ut efTer, D e u s apparuit per carnem. Tam- quam Neftorianus ergoculpatusexpellitur per Severum Monachum. The editions of Liberatus^ inftead of ^ and ©S, have Q and^S : but it appears from Baronius, that the manufcript had no greek letters here at all ; and that they were fupply'd by the firft Editor. 1 have not fcrupl'd therefore to correct the place, as the latin clearly requires ; for D E U S anfwers to ©EOS, and the greek monofyllable OS is in oppofition to that dijyllable. And fo Hincmarus in his Optifctilum chap, xvm, where he recites the fame ftory (without doubt out 124 REMARKS. out of Liberatus^ has it plainly, as I have put v^ O /;/ e vert it i^ fee iC ®S. The account is this : Macedonius "Patriarch ofConJianthw^le was chared by the Emjperor Anaftafius as a fal- fary, that had altered and interpO' lated feveral pajfages of the New Te ft a- ment in the Copies us'd in that city ; and particularly that in the I Tim. HI, i5. he had order d Q^ to be written inftead of 02 : and for that crime of faljifica'' tion he was deprivd and banijh'd. Macedonius might really do this ; and where any copies had it OS, he might order to correci it ©2 by a fmall ftroke of the pen. That the copies did vary here of old is moft certain : and there's one in the Colbertin Library that has it OS at this day. But 'tis as certain that Macedonius was not the firft intro- ducer of that reading : many antient Fathers citing and explaining it oS, be-? fore He was born. Now any Reader, I prefume, evca our Author himfelf will grant me; That \i Macedonius was bani/h'd for falfifying thofe copies, Anaftajius would give orders, to have the true readings (in his opinion) reftor'd ; and that all the copies in REMARKS. 125 in Conjiantino^k lliould be (iught for and amended. And here, if I miftake not, is the whole ground and rife of the ftory m Victor. For the true fadt being no more than this, That Anajlafius order'd the coftes to be amended, Tamquam ab idiotis Librariis confer ipta, as written by ignorant Scribes ; the ftory grew ia the telHng, when it was got as far as Afric\ on purpofe to blacken him, That he order'd the Originals to be amended, Tamquam ab idiotis Evangeliftis com- pofita, as made by ignorant Evan-> gelijis. It does not leflen the probability of this, That Victor fpeaks only of Evan- gelia, the Go/pels : for that's the word both in Liber atus and Hincmare^ EvANGELiA falfajfet, even where they fpecify the Epiftle to Timothy, So that Gojpels, in the common acceptation of thofe times, were meant of the whole New Tejlament. But I think the probability is much increased by this obvious reflection ; that no one Author tells both thefc ftories : Vi^or, who has tranfmitted down tiS RE MA KKS. down the greater reproach, fays not a word of the lefs : and Liberatus, who has pubhfh'd the fairer ftory, is filent about the blafphemous one. So that in their firft original, they were but one and the fame. T J N T U M. REMARKS. 127 Honoured Sir, YO U will fee all along in my letter, without my telling it now, that 1 defign'd to have difpatch'd at once all my obfervations upon this famous treatife. But finding myfelf here in his xc page, the very middle of the book; and my remarks having fo grown under my hands, that they ^' are already full heavy enough for the *' poft; I chufe to make up this pre- ** fent packet, and leave the reft to *' another occafion. I mylelf am of ^^ opinion, that this half is as much •' as the whole: the Author's vir- tues and abilities, his honefty and his learning, are made already as ap- parent, as even a fecond letter can make them : for his whole difcourfe ^' is but one unform feries of infince- *Vrity and ignorance, of juggle and " blunder. However, if I underftand *' that this letter has come fafe to ** your hands, and that another would ** be ferviceable to religion, or accep. " tabic (.(. CC 128 REMARKS. ** table to the Engl'tfl) Clergy^ for *' whole honour, though a foreigner, I " have the greateft regard ; you may •• eafily command Tour mojl obedient. Lcipfic Jan, 26. New Stile. humble Servant^ PhILELEUTHERUS LlPSlENSlS, RE. REMARKS Upon a late DISCOURSE O F Free-Thinking: I N A Letter to N. N. D. D. B Y PhILELEUTHERUS LiPSIENSlS. PART THE SECOND. THE SEVENTH EDITION. L O Nl) O N: Printed for W.Thurlbourn over-againft the Senate-Honfe in Cambridge, M,DCC.XXXVU. 131 To my very Learned and Honour' d F R I E N D N. A^. D. D. At LONT>ON, GREAT^BRITAIN. SIR, rHE account you '-jvas pleased to fend me of your pttblijhing my former Re- marks, and of the kind reception they found among your countrymen^ ejpecially your Clergy, to whofe honour and fer- vice they were peculiarly dedicated^ was very agreeable. I am fenfible that^ be- fore my papers could come to your hands ^ there muft have been fever al better an- fivers, ofyourownproduflathome. If mine therefore was read with fuch di- ftinEiion as you fpeak of I mujt impute that good fortune to nothing elfe^ than your known national humour of admiring foreign commodities ; though you have better of your native growth, 'Tis a favourable error however^ and we fr angers often fare the better for it. But K 2 I am 132 LETTER. I am concern'' d that, when every thing elje pleas' d yoUy my declaration at the clofe^ that the halt of my remarks was as much as the whole, could not merit your approbation. Why do you thus frefs and teaze me^ both againji my in- clination and intereft, to continue thofe papers ? T^ou acknowledge enough is al^ ready faid to Jilence both the book and the author, both himfelf and the whole Sed. Tou inform me^ that he has fled the pit^ that all his char aEfer for fenfe and learning is forfeited and dead : and iffo^ why impofe upon me that ufe» lefs cruelty ofmolejiing him in his gravel I may add too a prudential view : I fhould flake what I have already won^ againfi nothing at all. If another part Jucceeds as well as the firfi, I acquire no new reputation : if it does not^ I lofe even the old. Be fides, the Jubje£i itfelf is alter d : the former part of his book contain d matters of confequence^ and gave fome play to an anfwerer ; but the latter is a dull heap of citations ^ not worked nor cemented together^ mere fand without lime t and who would meddle with fitch dry mouldring ftujf^ that with the beji handling can never take a polijh ? To LETTER. 133 To produce a good reply^ the firft writer muji contribute fomething: if he is quite low and flat, his antagonifl cannot rife '^^i?^ J ^f be is barren and jejmie^ the other cannot flour ijh ; // he is obfcure and dark, the other can never Jhine, And then you know my long law-fuit herCy which is now removed to Drefden : and who would regard the Free-thinker, or willingly jade his own parts, under fuch clogs anA impediments ? I find^ when I Jet pen to paper, that I fink under my own level : Quaerit fe inge- nium, nee invenit. But if yotid had patience till my trial was over (for trial in my caufe is the fame as viEiory) then perhaps your growing fecS might have felt to their coft-\ Et nos tela, pater, ferrumque baud debile dextra - Spargimus, & noftfo fequltur de vulnere fanguis. And yet, after fo many good reafons why I ought now to lie fiill, fee the power you have over me \ when you both urge apromife, and back it with the defire of the Clergy of England. "During the va^ cation at our Leipfic mart, 1 took up your Author, and begun where I left of K 5 before 134 LETTER. before. I bad thought indeed to dif- fatch his whole book within the bulk of one packet ; but I have run out beyond my length, and mnji again flop in the middle : though I hope yoiHl have more confcience in the exercife of your autho- rity^ than to require any remainder from Your mod obedient fervant^ Leipfic, Sept. 1 8. 1/13' Stilo itovo. PhILELEUTHERUS LlPSlEN^S. R E 135 REMARK XXXIV. I Left my Author in his goth page, proving the duty and neceniry of Free'Thtnking, from the condud: of your En^ltjh clergy in ten inftances. The NWth was concluded with a pafTage out oiVi^or Tmmnenfis ; which I hope is fb fully cleared and anfwerM. that none of the fraternity will hereafter vaunt of it, as they ufed to do, in' bookfcliers fhops. His N\\\th inftance of their ill con- dud: is * their daily publifliing of trea- rifes in dialogue, where they introduce Athetjls^ T)eijls, Sceptics^ and Socu nians, fpeaking for their own opinions with the fame (trength, fubtilty , and art, that thofe men fliew either in their books or converfation. Nay one of them, which makes the f YLth inftance, has tranflated Ltccretms (the only compleac ^ Pag, 91. f Pag. 91. K 4 ancient 136 REMARK S. ancient fyftera of Atheifm now extant) for the benefit of the Englijh reader. When I confider myfelf as a Lutheran^ born and dwelling on the great continent, I cannot but treat with Icorn the weak efforts of this writer ; who, while he attacks chriftianity in common, brings arguments that reach no farther than home, within the narrow compafs of your own ifland. But what. 1 pray, is the pretended crime ? or where does the wrong condudl lie? I had thought that to propofe objedions with their full force had been a certain fign both of fairnefs in the writer, and afiurance of a good caufe. If they make Atheifts talk with gxcn fl?'e7igth and fiibtilty^ do they not refute them with greater flrength, and overcome lubtilty with truth ? This our Author denies not here: and iffo, where is his oi^u conduEi'i Before, he had charg'd the priefts, * That they. "Will not tell the truths when it makes to their diiadvantagc : but here, it ftems, they tell too mpxh ; and give the utmoft flrength to their adverfaries objedions, Anon, he will tell us | of their jOnother- ^ P^-.S2, tP^.r. 94,95. ing REMARKS. i^y ing and fiifling of ^ajfages in their tranJlations\ but here the crime is quite contrary, that they tranflate ^wcvijyjiems of atbeifm too openly and entirely. What caviUing? what inconfiftency ? This is exadily, ^lid dem^ quid non dem ? Kolo, volo : volo^nolo rurfum : cafe, cedo. Since nothing coming from your Englijb Clergy can pleale this nice Author, nei- ther whole tranflations nor in part ^ Fjl try \i 2l foreigner c^n make him amends, when I rub in his nofe, as I have done feveral already, fome more of his c-jvu tranflations, XXXV. But, for a YJ^h inftance, your priefls are guilty oi^ pous frauds in tranflating and ptblijhing books ; even the Holy Bible itfelf. For, fays he, Eji, euKcir^- ing^ corrupting, and fraudulently add-- ing. XXXIX. I pais over his trifling inftances of mangling father ?^^/^/'s letters, * Baum- garten's travels, and Anthony IVood'*^ hiftory : which omifTions he has here kindly fupplied, out of dear love to trea- fon, fuperftition^ and fcandal. And yet you perhaps in England can even in thefe trifles fhew his fraud and pre- varication. He then commences his third Se^ion with pretended objedions and anfwers about Free-thinking, taken in a good * ^H' 945 955 96. and 154 REMARKS. and legitimate fcnfe. Is he always at hfs juggling, and fhifting the true queflion ? Does he hope to flur his unwary reader with fuch a palpable impofture? Free- thinking here for many * pages together is put for common ufe of realbn and judgment, a lawful liberty of examining, and in a word, good Trot eft ant if in. Then whip about, and it (lands for fcep- ticifm, for infidelity, for bare atheifm. But his mask is too thin and too pellucid to cover his true face. He is ftill known for a mere athdft ; though he talks of Free-thinking in words that may be- come a chriftian. What Ariftippus once faid, when he was pleas'd with fome fweet unguent, Curfe on thofe effeminate ^wretches that have made fo pretty a thing fi an dalons ; may be applied to him and his tribe, for bringing a fcandal on To good a word as Free^thinking, that does not belong to them. They free by way of diftindion? that have the mod Jlaviih of fyftcms, mere matter, eternal icquel of cauies; chain'd fatalifts, fetterM SPtnofijis. They thinkers by way of eminence? vvho have proper * P^^^ 99.- no. title REMARKS. ijj title to no thought, but that oiih^fool^ wiben he faid in his heart, there ^jvas no God. For this is the firft and laft of all their glorious (batches. But I could have fav'd him one ob- jecStion, that * Free-thinking may pro- duce a great number of atheists. Pray, be not in pain for chat ; unlefs he means (as he often does) Free-thinking and Atheifin for lynonymous words. \ It is pojjible, fays his objedor, that if Free 'thin king be alloisifd^ fome men may think t hem fe Ives into Atbeifm. Cou- rage ! and difmifs thofe difmal appre- henfions. For however it might be of old times, or now among fome Hotten- tots or Iroquois^ w here the materials of thinking are fcanty, and the methods uncultivated; there's no danger of this in England, in that light of fcience and learning. A perfon there may eafily rob, plunder, perjure, debauch, or drink himfelf into atheifm : but it's irapo/Iible he can think himielf into it. Let him think thoj-oughly ; come duly prepared, and proceed patiently and impartially ; * Fag, 105. t Fag, 104. and 155 REMARKS. and I dare be anfwerable for him, With- out an office of infurance. XL. While I was looking on his paflage of Zofumts * (whom out of his profound skill in greek, he twice writes Zozimus) I had like to have dropt a memorable paragraph, which fhevvs his great affec- tion to your Clergy. He complains of the f great charge of maintaining fitch numbers of ecclefiajiics^ as a great evil to fociety^ and a burden never felt on any ether cccafion. Mow how ihall I accoft him? as a grand hiftorian, or a Ihrevvd politician ? for I know he's above the low confiderations of divine wor- Ihip, truth, piety, falvation, and im- mortality. But what news does he tell lis ? that the fupporting of priefts is a burden unknown before chriftianity ? Had he read over even thoft Authors alone, with whofe twice-borrow'd fcraps he has fiird his margin ; he would have learnt, that both in Greece and Italy, before our Saviour's birth^ the heathen ^^^ Fag, 117, 118. ^Fag, 114. priefts REMARKS. 157 priefts were more in number, higher in dignity, and better provided with endow- ments, falaries, and immunities, than now youare 'm England. The hke was before in Egypt, and in every other country, where humanity and letters had any footing. Many of his Authors (whom he cites as Free-thinkers) were priefts themfelves; Jofephus, Tlutarcb^ CatOj * Cicero, &c. and the laft named was made fo after his confulate, the higheft port of honour and power then in the univerfe : nay (to make our Author quite lay him afide for evel*) he had the indeleble cbaraEicr too ; for being once made a pried:, a prieft he was to be for life. But what an adverfary am I write- iug againft, wholly ignorant of com- mon hiftory ? And his politics are as low too, that would extirpate the whole or- der of your Clergy ; and fo bring your country to the ignorroce of the Savages^ to a worfe condition than your old an- ceftors .were in, while they had their bards and their druids. For it ever was and ever will be true, in all nations, un- Plut. ift Cic. der 158 R EM A RK S. der all manners and cuftoms. No priefl- hQod\ no lette7^s^ no tmmaiiity\ and re- ciprocally again, fociety, Laws^ govern- ment, learnings a priefthood. What then would our thoiightlefs Thinker be at? fink the order of the prefeiit Clergy to fave charges to the public, and pay the fame or double to maintain as ma- ny for * Epicurus, or Jtipitcr^ or Baal : for fome order ofpriefts there will be. Though even take h m in his free-think^ ing capacity, he can never conceive nor wifli a priefthood, either quieter for him, or cheaper than that oftheprefent church of England, Of your quietnefs, him- felf is a convincing proof, who has writ this outragious book, and has met with no puniihment nor profecucion. And for the cheapnefs, that appeared lately in one of your parliaments ; when the accounts exhibited fliew'd, that 6000 of your Clergy, the greater part of your whole number, had at a middle rate one with another not 50 pounds a year. A poor emolument for ib long, fo labori- ous, fo expenfivc an education, as mud qualify them for holy orders. While I * See Remark the Vth, refided REMARKS. 159 refided at Oxford, and faw fuch a con- flux of youth to their annual admiffions; I have often ftudied and admifd, why their parents would under fuch mean en- couragements defign their fons for the church; and thole the moft towardly and capable and feled: genius's amon^ their children ; who mufl: needs have emerg'd in a fecular life. I congratulated indeed the felicity of your eftabliflimenr, which artradled the choice youth of your nation for fuch very low pay: but my wonder was at the parents, who generally have interefl:, mainte- nance, and wealth, the firft thing in their view: till at laft one of your ftate lotteries ceas'd my aftoniflimenr. For as in that, a few glittering prizes, looo, 5000, 1 0000 pounds among an infinity of blanks, drew troops of adventurers; who, if the whole fund had been equally ticketed, would never have come in : fo a few fhining dignities in your church, prebends, deaneries, bifhopricks, are the ■pious fraud that induces and decoys the parents to risk their child's fortune in it. Every one hopes his Own will get fome great prize in the church, and ne- ver reflecfts on the thoufands of blanks in poor i^o REMARKS. poor country-livings. And if a foreigner may tell you his mind, from what he fees at home, 'tis this part ofyourefta- bhfliment that makes your clergy excel ours. Do but once level all your pre- ferments, and you'l foon be as level in your learning. For inftead of the flower of the Engltfh youth, youM have only the refufe fent to your academies; and thofe too cramp'd and crippled in their fludies for want of aim and emulation. So that if your Free-thinkers had any politics, inftead of fuppreffing your whole order, they fhould make you all alike : or, if that cannot be done, make your preferments a very lottery in the whole fimiHtude. Let your church dignities be pure chance prizes, without regard to abilities, or morals, or letters : as a journeyman (I think) in that ftate lottery was the favourite child of for- tune. XLI. But again, before I come to the in- viting paflage of Zojimiis^ I fhall ga- ther fome of his fcatter'd flowers, and com- REMARKS. i6i comprife them under one remark. * If any good chrtjiian, fays he, happens to reafon better than ordinary^ the priefts prejently charge hhn with aiheijnu He means only your Englijh prieds, as I fee by his inftances : and naughty men they, if any of them do fo. But lil give him a word of comfort, and offer myfelf as fponfor for them, that none of them will call him atheifl:, for reafojiing better than ordinary. Good man, to avoid that odious name, he has fprinkled all his pages with mere nonfenfe out of pure confideration and forccafr. To iliew his good tafte and his vir- tuous turn of mind, he prailes two abufes upon James I, \ That he was a do5ior, more than a king ; and was priefl-ridden by his archbijhop \ as the moft VALUABLE paflages in father TatiP^ letters : and yet, as I have been told, thofe paflages are fpurious and forgU Well, but were they genuine and true, arc thofe the things he moft values^ O the vaft love and honour he bears to the crown and the mitre ! But his palate is truly conftant and uniform to itfelf : he * Pag, 85. \Fag. 94, 95. M drudges i62 REMARKS. drudges in all his other authors, an- cient and modern, not to find their beauties, but their fpots ; not to gather the rofes, but the thorns; not to fuck good nutriment, but poifon. A thou- land bright pages in Tint arch and Tnlly pais heavy with him and without relifli; but if he chances to meet with a (ufpicious or fore place ; then he's feafled and re- galed, like a fly upon an ulcer, or a beetle in dung : and with thofe delicious fcraps put together, he has drefs'd out this book of Free thinking. But have a care of provoking him too much ; for he has ftifl in referve more * inftances of your condtiB : jour decla- mations againft reafon ; fuch falfe rea- fbn, I fuppofe, as he and his tribe would put off for good Sterling : your arts and method of difiouraging examina- tion into the truths of religion ; fiich truths fbrfboth of religion as this. That religion itfelf isall falfe: and again, ^^//r encouraging examination^ "when either authority is againft you (the authority he means of your late K.James^ when one of his free-thinking dodlors thought him- ^Pag. 97. fcl REMARK S. 13^ felf into popery) or ijijhen you think that truth is certainly Oil yotirjide : he will nor fay, that truth is certaioly on your fide, but only xhdit you think fo : how- ever he allows here you are fometimes fincere ; a favour he w^ould not grant you in fome of his former inftances. But the laft and mod cucting inflance is, * Tour injiilling principles into youth : no doubt he means thofe pernicious principles of fearing God; honouring the King ; loving your neighbour as your ftlves ; living foberly, rightcouOy, anci godly in this pitfent world. O the glo- rious nation you would be ! if your ftiff parfons were once diiplac'd, and Free- thinkers appointed tutors to your young nobility and gentry, How would arts, learning, manners, and all humanity flourifli in an academy under inch pre- ceptors? Who inftead of your Bible fliould read Hobbes's Leviathan ; fliould injiill early the found dodrines of the mortality of the foul, and the fole good of a voluptuous life. No doubt fach an eftablifhment would make you a hap- py people, and even a rich ; for our * P^g' 97- M 2 youth i54 REMARKS. youth would all defert us in Germany, and prefently pafs the Tea for fuch noble education. The beginning of his Hid fedion, where (as I remarked before) Free-^ thinking (lands for no more than Think- ing, may pais in general for truth, though wholly an impertinence. For who in England forbids thinking ? or who ever made. fuch objedions, as he firfl raifes and tlien refutes ? He dare not fure in- flnuate, as if none of your clergy thought, nor examined any points of dodtrine ; but took a fyftem of opinions by force and conftrainc ; under the ter- ror of an Inquifition, or the dread of fire and fagot. So that we have xx pages of mere amufement, under the ambiguity of a word. Let your clergy once profefs, that they are the true Free- thinkers^ and you'l foon fee the unbe- lieving tribe renounce their new nam€. However in thefe faplefs pages he has Icatter'd a mark of his great learning. He fays, * The infinite variety of opinions y religions, and worjhips among the ancient heathens, never produc'^d any diforder or REMARKS. 165 or confujion. What ? was it no diforder, when Socrates fuffer'd death for his opi» nions; when Artjlotle was impeach'd and fled ; when Stilp was banilh'd ; and when T)iogoras was prolcrib'd ? Were not the Eficttreaiis driven out from feveral cities, for the debaucheries and tumults they caus'd there? Did not * Antiochus banifli all ^hilofophers out of his whole kingdom ; and for any one to learn of them, made it death to the youth himfelf, and lofs of goods to his parents ? Did not T)omitian expel all the philofophers out of Ro7ne and whole Italy ? Did the Gallic the vagabond priefts of Cybele, make no difturbances in town and country ? Did not the Ro- mans frequently forbid Jirange religions and external rites that had crept into the city; and banifli the authors of them? Did the Bacchanals create no diforders in Rome^ when they endanger'd the whole (late ; and thoufands were put to death for having been initiated in them ? In a word, was that no difturbance in Egyft^ which Juvenal tells of his own knowledge, (and which frequently ufed * Athenaeus, Uh. xii. />. 547. M J K) 166 REMARKS. to happen) when in two neighbouring cities their religious feuds ran fb high, that at the annual fcdival of one, the other outofzeal went to difturb the 16- lemnity -, anJ after thoufands were fight- ing on both fides, and many eyes and noles loft, the fcene ended in flaughter ; and the body fiain was cut into bits, and eaten up raw by the enemies? And ail this barbarity committed, becauie the one fide worfhip'd Crocodiles, and the other kill'd and eat them. fammus utrinque hide furor vulgo^ quod numina vicinorum Odit uteyque locus -, cum folos credat hahendos EJfe deos^ quos ipfe edit. Let him go now and talk facetioufly at his club, that among the Pagans there was no Polemic divinity. XLII. We are now come to a grand fecret of your prieftcraft, * The toleration of vice, bj which all the rogues and fools * T'^^. 117, 118. ^ are REMARKS, i.6j are engaged in your party. This, he fays, was put in pradice with fuccefs, as early as G?/^//^;//i;/^ the Great, who {as Zozimus tells its') after be had commit^ ted ftich horrible villames, which the ^^gzn priefts told him were notexpiable in their religion ; being affur'^d by an Egyptian bifliop, that there was no vil- lany fo great ^ but was to be expiated by the facraments of the chriflian religion^ he quitted the religion of his ancejiors^ and embraced the new impiety : fo Zo- zimus impioufly calls the chriftian reli- gion. Now the bufiiiefs itfelf, laid to Conjiantine'^s charge here by a bigotred pagan, is too dale and trivial to deferve a new anfwer ; having been fully refuted both by the ecclefiaftic hiftorians of old, and feveral of the moderns. But what I here animadvert on, is the prodigious aukwardnefs of our writer, both m his verfion and application of this paflage. Zofimus, a poor fuperftitious creature (and confequently, as one would guels, an improper wirnefs for our Free-thinker) who has filPd his little hiftory not more with malice againft the chriftians, than with bigot try for the pagans^ who treats his reader with oracles of the Talmyrenes M 4 and 1^8 P. EM ARKS, and Sib)'lls\ with annual miracles done by VevJis, where gold and filver iwum upon water ; with prcfagcs and dreams of old women; with thunders and earth- quakes, as if they were prodigies ; witli a dead body vanilhing in the middle of an army; with omens, and with predidions from emrals of beads; W'ith an appari- tion of 'Talks and her Gorgon, and with the fpedlre of Acbtlles ; with wooden idols that fire could not burn-, with a cecklacc of the Goddefs RheUy that exe- cuted divine vengeance; who imputes the taking of Rome by Alarich to the omifiion of pagan lacrifices; and the decay of the Roman empire to Confian- tines neglecting the Litdi Saeculares : this w i(e and judicious Author is brought in for a good evidence ; and our avow'd enemy to luperftition connives at all this trumpery, for the lake of one ftab at the reputation oi Conjtantine^ and the ho- nour of chriftianity. But how has he manag'd and reprc- fented it ? The ftory, as * Zofinms him- fclf tells \i, is thus. * ConftaJitineh^iug * troubled in confcience for fome crimes * Pag. 104. ' he REMARKS. 169 he had committed, applied to the hea- then priefts for expiation. They an- fvvering, that they had no way of ex- piation for crimes of (o deep a die; a certain ^^j)^/^/^;^ told him, that if he would turn chriftian, all his fms would be immediately forgiven him. Con^ * Jiantine liking this well, and after a ' renunciation of paganifm partaking of ^ the chriftian rites, rvje cL^e^eidQ rvjv i^x^'^ * for his FIRST INSTANCE OF IRRELIGION, * he began to fiifpeEi and cry down the * art of foretelling things from the en- ' trals ofbeafls\ for having had many * events truly predided to him by that * art, he was afraid others w^ould make ' ufe of it againll: himfelf.' This is a faithful verfion ; for that m«vt/mi^ here means Harnfficma, the art of divina- tion by entrals^ appears from p. 1 5 7, and other places of that Author. How amazing now is the ignorance of our Free-thinker ? unlefs perhaps he will plead impudence : for with fuch men, ex- cnfatius eji volnntatepeccare qnam cafii^ its counted a f nailer fault to prevaricate on furfofe, than err by mijiake. He flops his citation and verfion in the very middle ijo REMARK S. middle of the fentence, and interprets ^viQCLGetsicc; ti^v ip^v^v, T H E NEW IMPIETY; and then iubjoins with a fneer, So Zqzz- mils impioujly calls the chr'ifiian religion, \i Zofimtis Ipeak not impioujly, fome body elfe does. For with him io-i^g/tfj, irreligion, negle^i ofworjhip, has only reference. to the pagan rites ; and particu- larly to lacrifices and hartiffices. Thefe Conjiantine had abandon'd, and for that xeaion deierv'd as well as * Cato the Cenfor, to be put into our writer's lift of Free-thinkers, But fee the partiality \ Conftantiiie has loft his favour, becaufe he firft made the government chriftian : and an author muft be mangled, fenfe and grammar diftorted, all rules offyn- rax perverted, to bring out a little blaf. phemy. A^%vjv tvjj a i84 REMARKS. herd; and confequently Free-thinking now confifts in contradiding them. Dare he deny this is his notion? and that his characSleriftic of Free-thinking is to op- pofe a great majority ? No matter whe- ther riaht or wrono; ; whether the herd is in truth or in error. Free-thinking muft be Angularity. * Unthinking, Jhal-* low fellow I for at this rate, ifthe^r^i^.'- ingfeB fliould fo fpread, as to attain the name of the herd ; the only title then to free-thinking would be to oppofe the Freethinkers, Well, h\M Socrates \ declared his dif- like^ when he heard men attribute re- pentance, anger, and other fajjions to the Gods\ and talk of ^^^x^ and battles in heaven ; and of the Gods getting wo- men with child, and ftich like fabulous and hlafphemous ftories. This is quoted by him out of Tlato in Euthy])hrone^ as if they were that Author's own words. And what a fine fcene am I entring upon ? He to complain of mangling, forging^ and corrupting pafTages? And himfelf here to forge fo openly, on purpofe to hook in fome bold and fancy blafphemy ? iief^entance and anger attributed to the * Fag, 104. t ^<^' 123. Re^cfh REMARKS. 185 Gods : this glances afide at thole fre- quent expreffions of our Bible, The wrath of the Lord^ and, The Lord repented. As if the whole herd of chriflians did not know, that thefe are not to be taken literally, but are fpoken M^mojMq^ in a human manner^ accommodated to our capacities and affedions : the nature of God being infinitely above all ruffles ot paflion. And then wars and battles in heaven : this is pointed againft Revela- tions xii, 7. And there was war in hea- ven ; Michael and his angels fought againfl the dragon^ and the dragon fought and his angels. Now where has this Writer liv'd, or what idiot evangelifi was he bred under ; not to know that this is all vifion and allegory, and not proposM as literal truth. But his mother perhaps, that gave him his firft notions about Bel and the dragon^ might frighten too the naughty boy with Michael and the dragon. His laft expreflion, of the Cods getting women with child ^ without doubt was defign'd by him as a flout upon our Saviour's incarnation. But when we come to confiilt T^lato himfelf in the paflage alledg'd here, how do all this Writer's infinuations vanilli ; and j26 remarks, and how does his own impudence and prevarication appear ? The whole paf- iage is no more than this ; Socrates dil* courfing with Euthyfhron an Hani" fj[?ex, who was bringing an inr^idlment for murder againft his own father, askM him if he thought it juft and pious to do fo : ' Yes, fays the other, it is right and * pious to bring an offender to juftice, ' though he be my father ; for fo Jove ' bound his father Saturn in chains, for * devouring his children; and Saturn ' before had caftrated his father for fome * other crime, I confefs, replies Socra^ * tes, when I hear fuch things faid of * the Gods, * / ajfait with fome diffi-^ * culty : but do you think thefe things * true ? and that there are really wars, ^ and enmities and battles among the ' Gods ; and many other fuch matters, * as poets and painters reprefent ? Thefe ^ are all true, fays the other, and ftranger * things than thefe, which I could tell * you.' This is all that is there faid on this head : and then Socrates proceeds in his dilputation, upon the very con- ccflioa REMARKS. 187 Ceflion that thefe accounts of the Gods are true. And hence firft we may obferve, that Socrates was not fo free a thinker as our Writer reprefents him. For accor- ding to Varro^s divifion of rehgions into foetical^ civile and phtlofophical ; it is the firft here that Socrates with fome diiBculty aflents to, or very tenderly denies : whereas the Stoics that came after him, treated openly that whole poetick fyftem as impious and fuperjii" tioiis ; * and thefe very ftories of Sa- turn and Jtipiter^ and of the wars with Titans and Giants^ and of Gods againft Gods, as wicked Fables^ anile fuperfii- tions, f GO lift? and pernicious errors. But as to the civil religion, Socrates never oppos'd it, but always countenanc'd it both by difcourfe and example. His precept to his fcholars about matters of worftiip, was to govern themfelves vo>£j> ^oAfiwc. ^ i^^^ cujiom of the country. He himfelf facrificed regularly and openly both at home and at the public altars ; he fent his friends to confult the oracle at ^Delphi upon all affairs of importance. ^ Cicero de Nat. Dcor. 1 1, 24, 28. How i88 REMARKS. How therefore will our Writer make out, That he disbelieved the Gods of his country ? That indeed was the indid- ment againft him; * A^/x^r Swxparvj?, 8? ^ !roA;g V0|Xi?£f 6£«;^ 8 vo|x/?wv : but he did DOt plead guilty to it. And though our Writer ihould now convidt him, yet I am fure his celebrated T)aemo7iium, by whofe admonition and impulfe he guided all his affairs, fufficiently fecures him from being lifted and confociated with our modern Free-thinkers, Another thing we may obferve from this pafTage of Tlato is, the unfairnefs and malignity of our Writer ; who with- out the leaft hint from his Author has foifted in two feoffs and contumelies up- on the fcripture. There's nothing faid there of God's repentance and anger \ not a word of Gods getting women with child: why then does he fuborn T^lato to fpeak what he never faid ? Why {o great a name to cover his own impiety ? Mala mens^ mains animus: and from this inftance take the meafure of our Writer's veracity. * Xcnophgn Memgrab. lib. v. But REMARKS. 189 But he will (till prefs Socrates iutothe fervice, and force him into his regiment of Free-thinkers ; * becaufe he did not make notions^ or Jpeculations^ or tnyjle^ ries, any farts of his religion. Not ray- fteries ? a wager with our Writer, that he was initiated in the myfteries oi Ceres Eleujina-^ and confequently, had he liv'd in the prefent age, would never have flouted chriftianity for being my^ [lerious. But where is our Author's proof for this character oi Socrates ? Why, he demonjirated allmen to be fools, who troubled themfelves "uuith inquiries into heavenly things ; and askd fuch inqtii^ rers, whether they had attained a perfeEt knowledge of human things, Jin ce they fearch'd into heavenly ? This the ihrewd Author gives as a tranflation from t Xenophon ; and he propofes here heavenly things, in the chriftian fenfe ufed by our Saviour and his apoftles. What Ihall I fay, or what fliall Inot fay? But I have fpent already all my wonder and words too upon this Writer's ftupidi- ty. Can any thing be plainer, than that the Tot. i^(ivix^ the heavenly things in that * Fag, 125, t Memor. lib. r. paflage ipo REMARKS. pafTage of Xenophon mean celejlial bo- dies and appearances ; their caufes, mag- nitudes, and motions ? Thefc phyfiolo- gical inquiries, which had employ'd the former philofophers, Socrates let alone j and firft turn'd his {peculations to mora- lity and human life. This is it, that Xe^ nophon fays there exprefs ; and it is ec- cho'd over and over in all ancient * Au- thors. Let us take now our Writer's argument, and fee how it concludes; becdufe Socrates did not cultivate aftro- fiomy^ but ethics ; therefore he had no myjieries in his religion, Becaufe our Writer has cultivated no fcience at all ; therefore he makes fuch fiily fyllogifms, and blunders abominable. XLVL To bring Plato in among his Free- thinkers, our Writer is put hard to his Ihifts, and forc'^d to make feveral doubles. He vvasnotfo/r^^, f he owns, as 5^- crates ; but alarm'd at his fate, kept him- felf more upon his guard, and never * Sec Cicer. Acad. I, 4. Tufc. Ill, 4. & V, 4. Diogenes Laert. in Soc. and many more, f Pag. 1 26. tallid REMARKS. igt tallidpiblickly agahijl the religion of his country. This is arguing backwards, and gives him one remove out of the lift. But he brings him back with a fetch. For he thought him f elf into notions^ fo contrary to thofe known in Greece, and fo refembling chrijiianity •, that as fome chrijtians fttfpe^ied he had read the Old Tejtament^ fo Celfus charges our Saviour with reading and borrowing from him. Allow this, and admire the confiftency of our Writer's language and fentiments. The Free-thinking of Flato^ by his pre- fent account of it, confifted folely ia approaching to chriftianity : but our mo- dern Free thinking lies wholly in reced* ing from ii^ in a courfe retrograde to x}a2X.oiTlato, This Free-thinking is a mere Empiifa ; it changes Ihapes as faft as Vertumntis : Sluo teneam viiltus fnutantejn Protea nodo ? But he goes on, and remarks, ^ That Origen indeed very well defends ottr Blejfed Lord from CelfusV charge. When you fee the words very well, and the * Pag, 127. com- ¥p2 REMARKS. complement of Blejfed Lord, you ara to expedl from our Writer fome Imarc piece of burlefque. And here you have it; For Origen, fays he, well replies^ That Cellus deferves to be Imiglod at^ when he affirms Jesus had read Plato : "iDho was bred and born among the Jews ; and was fo far fr 0771 having been taught greek letters, that he was not taught hebrevv letters, as the Scriptures tefii^ fy. You fee, Origcn's anfwer here is commended as very gGod\ to infinuate With a fneer, that our Saviour was ////- terate. Contemptible buffoon ! Origen did not mean, he had no letters, but that he did not acquire them in the vulgar way, by inftitution and induftry. He W^as ^eoliU'/,TO;, uvtoViIwatoq^ taught ofGody taught of himfelf Which made the Jews exclame, who knew his parentage and education,* IIoOsv rin^ ^ . 403. t In Platone, 1 1 1, 6r. O 3 clear 198 REMARK S. clear the Chriftians of the pretended forgery. For furely Laertius could come at Copies of 'Plato 200 years old , ilnce we now have them of 70O or more: and if the preient Xlllth was there, it mufl: be writ before Chrift w^as born. But to 00 farther fiill : this recenfion of "^F iat uswo-iks, he gives not from himlelf, but from Thrajyllns ; who fiourifbing in the time of Augtijius muft needs be older than Chrift. Nay he cites, with- out the \z:!^?i. hint of diverfity in the number, another recenfion by Arijlo' ^hanes Grammatkns ; who was a Writer 200 years before the Chriftian Aera, And now, if we look into the internal charader of the Letter it lelf, it will have all the marks of genuinenefs. 'Tis not (bme flaple Common Place, as moO: of thofe forgMby the Scphifts are ; but a Letter of bufineis, circumftanriated with great variety of things and per- ibns, ail apt and proper to the Writer, and to the date. It was forg'd there- fore by no body ; much leis by any ChriHimz : who certainly would never have put Idolatry into a Letter, made (as our Writer lays) for the converJiGu of the lie at he us. 1 have got you ^ fays Tkto REMARKS. ipp Tlato there, a Statue of Apollo ; and Leptines conveys it to you : it's made by a young and good workman^ isjbofe name is Leochares : this was that Leochares^ afterwards a mod famous Statuary, cele- brated by TUny and 'Patifanias : and the time hits exa(9:ly, for then he was young. Which is as great a mark, that the Letter is genuine ; as it is a demon- ftration, that no Chrijiian forg'd it. And laftly, the ground of this fulpicion, a Paflage yet extant in it and quoted by * Eufebius and Theodorit, is a weak and poor pretence. As for the Symbol, fays he, or private mark you dejire^ to know my ferious Letters and which contain my real fentiments from thofe that do not fo ; know and remember^ that Tvjc ^h (TTsdciiag i^iqehvig Qet^g ^'p%f/, Gsci ^s Tvigyirrov, GoD begins aferious Letter^ and Gods one tbafs other- wife. This the Fathers (and not un- juflly) made ufe of as fome indication, that Tlato really believM but One God. Which notion your learned DocSor not approving, as contrary (in his opinion) to the Tlatonic fyftem, he de- * Eufeb. Praep./». 530. Tlieod. AfFecl. p. 27. O 4 cries aoo REMARKS. cries the Letter as fpurious. But this is no coDiequence at all, vvhatfoever be- comes of Flato^ true thoughts. The Symbol he here (peaks of, made no part of the Letters, nor began the firfl: Pa- ragraph of them : for here's neither 0f5; nor 0£o< in that manner in any one of tlie thirteen. 'Tvvas extrinfic (if I mirtake not) to the Letter, and was a mark at the top of it in thefe words, f Ov 0fi^, if it was a i'erious one ; other- Avife, SOv 06or?. Thefe two were the common forms in the beginning of writ- ings or any difcourle of importance : and in their ufage were equivalent and indifferent ; Philofbphers, as Xenofhon and others, having it ibmetimes 20v (dzoiq ; and Poets, as Enrlpdes and Arijlo- fhanes, SOv ©s^. So that ^lato could not have chofen a Symbol fitter for his turn : being in neither way liable to any fulpicion ; nor any inference to be drawo from it to dilcover his real opi- nion. And yet I am lb much a friend to Enfebnts's remark, that I would not wilh 'Plato had made the other choice, to put sOv QEo7(; in his folemn Letters, anJ Ivv es'p in his flight oaes« Had REMARKS. 201 Had our Writer carried his point ia this inftance of forgery, could he have done any great feats with it ? yes a mighty one indeed ! he could have added one ^iotts fraud more, to a hundred others that are deteded ready to his hand. But, pray, who are the difcover- ers of them ? the Chriftian Priefts them- felves : fo far are they from concealing or propagating them, or thinking their caufe needs them. And I challenge him apd the whole fraternity to ihew one fmgle one that they difcover'd, and owe not to the Clergy ? Even this miftaken one is pick'd from your Cudworth. Mod able Mafters of ftratagem ! ever to hope to vanquilh Religion by arras borrow'd from the Priefts ? they may be fure, there's no danger of the ftrong Town's being taken, while the Garriion within can afford to lend the Befiegers pow- der. So far are modern Chriftians from protedling old forgeries, that they aie ready to cry fpitr'tous without ground or occafion. As not only this Xlllth by Dr. Cudworth, and before him by Al- dobrandmus, but another Letter of T^dto'% is caird in qucftionby Menagms. There 202 REMARKS. * There are thirteen Letters extant^ fays he ; among which^ one to Eraftus and Qoix^Qws, quoted by Clemens and Origen, is now wanting : but it feems to have been fpurious, and forg*d by the Chrijiians. Now all this is mere dream and dclufion. That very Letter is exprefly nam'd by Laertius, TLpk EpiJ^eiuv ^cd Ep«Vov v.cc) Koptc-xov /xi«, one, fays he, to Hermias and Eraftus and Corif. cus; and it's the Vlth of the prefent iet of thirteen ; and the paflages thence cited by Origen^ Clemens, and Theo- dorit too, are extant there exadly ; and there's nothing in it for the Chriftian caufe, but what may be proved as ftrong« ly from feveral other places of Tlato's undoubted works. But what mifchief have I been doing? I have prevented our Free-thinker : who, after he had dabbled by chance in Menagius^ might have flouriih'd with a new forgery, and magifterially preach'd it to his credulous crew. * Aldobrand. h Menag. ad Laertium III. 6i, XLVIL REMARKS. 205 XLVIL Aristotle, the next in the Free- thinking row, makes a very fliort ap- pearance there, and goes quickly off the Stage. His title hangs by two flendcr threads, firft, * That he fur- ftijl}*d articles of faith to the To^iJJ? Church, as Plato did to the primitive. Now 1 had thought, that Creed-making and Free^thinking (even allowing the charge to be true) had been words of a dilparate fenfe, that look'd askew at each other : and how both of them come to fit fo amicably upon Arijiotle^ furpalTes my comprehenfion. But the matter is no more than this : As the primitive Chriftians in their difputes with the Pagans made great ufe of the Tlato- iiic philofophy; not to coin articles, but to explain them, and refell the ad- verfaries objedions : fo the fchool-men, in the popifli times, had recourfe to the Teripatcticy the fole fyfteme then m vogue. And yet thefe did not make articles from it : our Author's weak, if * Fage 128. he 204 REMARKS. he thinks fo : neither did Talavkino fo mean it. The peculiar dodtrines of that church came from politics, not meta. phyfics ; not from the chairs of pro- feffors, but from the offices of the Roman court. And the fchool-men were their drudges, in racking Arijiotle and their own brains to guild and pal- liate fuch gainful fidtions ; and to recon- cile them, if poffible, to common fenfe, which ever hated and fpurn'd them. The fecond title Arijiotle holds by, is a charge of * Impiety ; which I muft own promifes well, if it could be made good ; for that word and Free-thinking are very clofely combined, both by affinity and old acquaintance. He was forced, fays he, to jleal privately out of Athens to Chalcis ; becattfe Eurymedon accused him of impiety, for introducing fome philofophtcal ajfertions contrary to the religion of the Athenians. The Voucher he brings for this is "Diogenes Laertins : but under his old fatality of blundering, he fummons a wrong wit- nefs. Origen indeed fays fomething to Fap, 128, his REMARKS. 20J his purpofe, that he was impeach'd fome doBrlnes of his philofofhy. But Laertius and Atbenaeus lay the indidl- ment quite otherwife ; for impiety^ in writing and daily Jinging a Paean (a fort of hymn pecuhar and facred to the Gods) to the memory of his patron Hermias, tyrant of Atarna, an eunuch, and at firft a flave. This fliort Poem, in the dithyrambic ftile, is yet extant in both thofe Authors : So the words are to be read and pointed. Neither is there any doubt but this^Jwas the fole charge which that fycophanc brought againft him : for if he had im« pcach'd his doctrines, there had been no need of this (tale bufinefs ; which was then of XX years {landing, the death of Hermias happening in Arijiotle's xLth year, and this accufation in his Lxth. So that another of our Writer's lift is like to give him the flip : for the impeachment, we fee, was not againft the 2o5 REMARKS. the Philofopher, but the Poet ; not for free'th'inking^ but the reverie of it fit- ferflition ; for deifying a mortal man, not for ungoding the deities. XLVIIL But he's now come to Epicurus, * a niait dijiingtiijh?d in all ages as a great Free-thinker -, and I do not de- ilgn to rob our growing feci of the ho- nour of fo great a founder. He's al- lowed to (land firm in the Hft, in the right modern acceptation of the word. But when our Writer commends his vir^ tnes towards his farentSy brethren^ fervants ; humanity to all, love to his country, chajiity, temperance, and fru- gality ; he ought to refled: that he takes the characSer from Laertius, a domeftic witnefs, and one of the feT(iOg, avTog e}Meci /3pvwi/. For this very noble tcjlimony, which he urges here as Cicero^s own, comes from the mouth of t Torquatus an Epicurean : and is afterwards refuted by Cicero in his own name and peribn. Nay fb pur- blind and ftupid was our Writer, as not * Pag, 138. 1 DeFin, I, 20. to REMARK S. ^09 to attend to the beginning of his own pafiage, which he ufliers in thus dock'd and curtail'd: Epicurus it a die it, 8cc, Epicurus declares it to be his opinion^ that friendjhip is the nob left ^ fnojl ex- ten five, and fnq/i de lie ions pleafure. Whereas in Torquatus it lies thus : "* The remaining head to be fpoke to is friend- ship ; which ^ if ^pleafiire be declared the chief good. You ajfrm will be all gone and extin^ : de qua Epicurus quidem ita dicit, concerning which Epicurus de- clares his opinion^ &c. Where it's ma- nifefl:, that affirmatis^ you affirm^ \^ fpoken of and to Cicero, So that here's an Epicurean teftimony of fmall credit m their own cafe (though our Writer has thought fit to fan^iify it) flurr'd upon us for Cicero's ; and where the very Epi^ cureaii declares, that Cicero w^as of a contrary opinion. That an Epicurean who profefles to cultivate friendfliip for no other end than his own profit and pleafure, could not upon that principle be a true and real FRIEND, was the general affirmation of * De amicitia, quam, fi voluptas ilimmuiti lit bonum, affirmatis nuUam omnino fgr?, P a!! ^lo R E MA R K S. all the feds befides. Cicero^ an Acade^ m'tc, is conftant in this charge ; as in the * II book de Finibits, where he anfwerS this pafTage oiTorquatus ; in Offices!, 2. cited here above, and in III, 33. ^/^;/ only, but oi natural affection. Nay he fumms up their common character in a few comprehenfive words, Ac()iA/Aj,«7rpfij- i'ci, a^cOTVig vilvKci^eicc^GKiyu^lci, :(: Unfriend" linefiy tmanivenefsy ungodlinefs, vohip- * De Fin. li, 24, 25, 26, t Plutarch contra Coloten, /, 2037, 2041, 2058. J Idem, - />. 2018. tuonfnefs. REMARKS. i^ htoitfnefs^ Miic one erne due fs, Thefe €)ua- lutes, fays he, all mankind, b7fides themfehes, think inherent in that feet And what's Jike to become now of his' htio'^ noble quality ? Which of the Free-thinkers muft we beheve? Our Writer has mufter'd them together, as if they were all of one fide : but when they are turned Joofe into the pit; they play exadly the fame game as the famous Irifh-man's cocks did. But fee the fneer, for the fake of which this Epicurean frie7id/hij> was introduce by him : * JVechrifiiaiis, fays he. ought flill to have a higher veneration for Epi- curus ; becaufe even our holy relisioa itfelf does not any where particularly" rd*- efuire of us fueh a high degree of virtue. So that we are to fupply and perfed: the' gofpel moral out of an atheiflical fy. ftem ; and Chrifl is to go to Epicurus^ as to the fuperior Rabbi. Impudent,' and dully profane ! In the Old Tefta- menr friendjhip is celebrated both by excellent precepts and eminent examples j but there was no occafion to do it m the new. That quality is fo exalted and ex* * Pag. izg, ' i P ^ panded 2-12 REMARK S. paoded there, that it lofes its very namC;. and for ^ihia frieiidfhi^ becomes 4>/^aJ£^. $;« and hyoiizvi. brotherly love and cha* rity. Friendfhip in the pagan notion was * inter duos atit inter paticos^ circtim-- fcribed u)ithin t'livo perfons or a few : whence Jrifiotle'^s faying was applauded, "^Qi (^'i\oi 8 $f Ao?, He that has friends^ has 710 friend: but chriftian friendfhip or charity, in the fame degree of afFedlion, js extended to the whole houjhold of faith '^ and. in true good-will and bene- ficence, to all the race of mankind. Not that particular friendfliips arifing from familiarity and fimihtude of humours, ftudies, and interefts, are forbid or dif- couraged in thegofpel : but there needed no precept to appoint 2inAreqttire, what nature itfelf, and human life, and mu- tual utility fufficiently prompt us to. A bridle was more neceflary than a fpur for thefe partial friendihips ; where the liraight rule of moral is often bent and warpM awry, to comply with intercft and injuftice under a fpecious name : as many of the moll: magnified inftances fufficiently fliew. But Tm infenfibly * Cicero de Amic. cap. v, here REMARKS. 2J3 Ii^re become a preacher, and invade ^ province, which you clergy. men, and the EiigUJh of all others, can much better adorn. XLIX. Before I proceed to the next in his row, I fliall make a general rePxiark on our Writer's judgment and condud. He has brought the authors of three {q&s^ Tlato, Arijiotle, and, with the greateft mark of approbation, Epicurus. Pray, how came he to drop the others ? Ari- fiifpts the Cyrenaic cried up plea/hre, as much as that Gargettian did ; had (trumpets for his raiftrefies and llie-difci- pies, as well as he ; and well deferv'd the honour of being in the lift. Eveq "Diogenes the Cynic would have made a laudable Free-thinker, for that fingle afTertion, That marriage was nothing hut an empty imme ; and * he that could ferfuade^ might lie with any W07nau that could be per fdaded. Nay even Zcno himfelf, the father of 6'/^ifiy^/A as gruff as he look'd, might have enlarged our P 5 Writer's 214 REMARKS. Writer's catalogue, for feme v(tty free thoughts about the indifferency of things; * That all 'UJomen ought to be common ; that no isjords are to be reckou'^d obfcene ; that the fecret parts 7ieed no covering \ that incejl and Jbdoniy have no real crime nor turpitude. Where was our Author's reading, when he omitted fuch ilJuftrious examples, that might have graced and Signified his Hft, lull as much as Ep- cur us} The remainder of his roll arc not founders, but followers of the feveral fc£ts. But be they one or the other, niafters or fcholars ; what fliallownefs, %vhat want of thought in our Writer, to. impofe and prefs thefe upon us for our imitation in Free-thinking 1 Many of his blunders are fpecial, and reach no further than a paragraph : but here his ftupidity is total ; and in the whole com-- pais and tendency of his pafTages he's as blind as a mole. The great outcry ijgainft the church, which is always in his rnouthj is it's impofing a fyftem of opi-- nions to be fwallow'd in the groftj without liberty of examining or diflent- * Sextus Empir.- ing REMARKS. 215 iflg : Allow it : though even this is falle, the impos'd opinions being few and true and plain ; and a large field Jefc open for freedom and latitude of thought : as his own book attefts, which is mollly fpent in collecaing the various notions of your clergy. But how would our Wri- ter mend this ? by recommending the freedom of the leaders and followers of the feds of philofophy ? Ridiculous di- redion! Bid us copy free government from France, and free toleration from Sfaiji. Thofe very kCts, all without exception, prefer ib'd more imperioufly than chriftianity itfelf does : and not m a few generals, feme eafy articles of a Ihort creed ; but in the whole extent of reafoning, both natural, and moral, and even in logical inquiries. Any fcholar of a particular fed, though commo'nly en- ter'd in it young ; and by his parent's choice, not his own; was to be led iliackled and hoodwink'd all the reft of his life. He afTent^d and confented to his philofophical creed in the lump, and before he knew the particulars. It was made the higheft point of honour, never to defert nor flinch : fcelus erat dogma frodcre^ it was flagitious to betray a P 4 maxim : 2i6 REMARK S, maxim : they were all- to be defended^ Jlciit moenta, Jicut caput & fama, like his cajile^ as dear as his life and his re- futation. And there were fewer in- ftances then of leaving one fed: for an- other, than now we have of defedion to popery, or of apoftacy to mahome- tiim. And 111 give our Writer one ob- fervation upon Ctcero, better worth than all he has told us ; that in all the difputes he introduces between the various feds ; after the fpeeches arc ended, every man fticks where he was before : not one convert is made (as is common in mo- dern dialogue) nor brought over in the fmallefl: article. For he avoided that violation of decorum ; he had obferv'd in common life, that all perievered in their feds, and maintain-d every nojlrum without feierve. But of all feds what- ever, the moft fuperftitioufly addided and bigoted to their mafler were our Writer's beloved Epicureans. In others, feme free-thinking or ambitious fuccefTor might make a Imall innovation, and thence forwards there was fome fcanty room for domellic difputation: but the Epicureans, thofe patterns of friend- REMARKS. 217 J}/ip^ never * difagreed in the leaft point : all their mafters dreams and reveries were held as (acred as the laws o^ Solon or the twelve tables. 'Twas adty^^^u, 'Ka^avoy.v^it.u, unlawful, irreligious, to ftart one free or new notion ; and fo the ftupid fucceflion perfifted to the lad, in main- taining that the fun, moon, and ftars, were no bigger than they appear to the eye ; and other fuch idiotic (luff; againft mathematical demonftration. O fine liberty I O diligence and application of mind I This is our Writer's admired fedl : thefe his faints and his heroes. Could it be revived again at Athens, he deferves for his luperior dulnefs to be chofea Kv]%oTviiCimg^ j- the prince of the garden, L. We are advanc'd now to Plutarch, whom, though a heathen prieji, he will dub a Free-thinker, This is very oblige- ing: but in the clofe of his catalogue he'll extend the fame favour even to the Jewi/h prophets, and the Qhrifimn priefts. I perceive his politics, totum * Laertius, Numenius, ^r. f Laert. in Epicure. orbem 2i3 R E M A R K S. orhem civitate donare, to make all re- ligions in the world free of his growing /e^, Ic will grow the better for it; eipecially if he aggregates to it his Tala- foins and his Bonzes, But wherein has Plutarch fb obliged the fraternity ? in his treatife oi (tiperjiitton\ a long paf^ lage out of which fills * two of our Wri- ter's pages : and yet the whole is pure impertinence, and contributes nothing to any free-thinking purpofe whatever. The defi^n of Flutarch is to fliew tiie deplorable mifery of fuperftition, U'hen it is in extremity ; when a man imagines the gods, under the fame idea u^e now do the devils ; when he fancies them -j- e^'K'KvCAT&q . djiqag, eviJ^Bra^oKag, Ti^^ia- P^Tiniig^ w/xsV, /^/xpoAVTTBg, mad^ faith lefsy fickle^ revengeful, cruel, and difgujted at the frnalleft things ; when he figures Diana, Apollo, Juno, Venus, as a6iing under the mofl frantic and raving diflra^iions ; when he approaches trem^ bling to the temples^ as if they were the dens of bears^ dragons, or fea monflers. When fuperftition, fays h^, is arrived to this pitch, it's more intole- * Pa?, 132, 133, t Plut. p, 295, 296. rable REMARKS. li^ rable than Atheifm it felf ; nay it fro- (itices Atheifm^ both in others that fee them, and in themfelves^ if they cajt emerge to it. For when fools fly from fiiperflition^ they rim into Atheifm^ the other extreme, * v'K^'Kv^v^aa.'^rii h {Lk(s-^ 3eus alius ex cap it e^ alius ex femore fit y alius ex guttis fanguinis natus : in boCy ut ^ii furati fint, ut adulteraverint, nt 'ferviverint homini. T>enique in hoc omnia T)iis attribuuntur ; quae non mo- do in hominem, fed etiamquae incontemp* tijfimum hominem cadere poffunt. In the FiasT, fays he, are contained many fables, contrary to the dignity and na- ture of immortal Beings ; that one God r/hould be born out of a head (Minerva), another out of a thigh (Bacchus), ano-- Ither from drops of blood (Venus, Fu* fries); that Gods were thieves (Mercu- -ry), were adulterers (Juppiter), were \jlaves to a Man (Apollo); any thing tin Jhorty that may be faid not only of -a man, but of the mo ft defpicable of i>men. This paflage our learned Writer 5 cites, and ulhers it in thus : Varro, the moft learned of all the Romans, fpeak* *Auguft. deCiv. Dei. VI, 5. 230 R EM ARK S. iiig of THEIR 'Hheology^ fays : How of ^heir's^ that is, the civil -^ when he exprefly fays it of the mythic or jpoeti- can Was this downright dulnefs in our Writer, or has it a mixture of trick and knavery ? It is very plain, both in that chapter of St. AnjitUy and in many other places of that excellent work, that Varr^o with great freedom cenfufd the poetical Theology ; as ail feds whatever did, particularly i\\Q.* Stoics : but the civil or the Roman he was fo far from condemning, that he encouragM and multiplied it. He counted that per- formance, f a great benefit to his cotiU' trymen^ both in Jloewing them the Gods they were to v:)orjhip^ and "u^hat fower -and office every God had ; and :j: in many places religioufly exhorted them to the "-jvorjhip of th'ofe Gods : many uncouth names of which he ralfcd out of obli- vion; affignM to the moft fordid offices of low and fcrvile life. And I verily believe, neither Cicero, nor any one Gentleman of that time, knew half of thofc Gods ; till Varro brought them * S.CC Remark XLV. page H. f Augaft. IV, 22. .:[://vV. 3'!. Varro ad Deos colcn- eus alius ex cap'ite, &c. he renders thus : As Gods begotten and procedtng from other Gods heads ^ legs, thighs^ and blood. Why, in the name of Tr'tf clan^ is alius ex capite, out of other Gods heads'^ It is manifefl the ilhte- rate Scribler for alius read it alius in the genitive. And why forlooth muft he add legs^ and pin his own ignorance on his Author ? Does any fable in the poetic fyftem make a God born out of a leg ? And why muft plain natus in the latin be tranfmuted into begotten, and frocedijig ? for the pleafure of a filly fling at the Nicene and Athanajian creeds ? Surely fuch a feries of profane- nefs, ignorance, and nonfenle could never frocede from any head but fuch a one as his is. But hs has another paflage from Varro (recorded too by St. Aujiin) where * de *Auguft. IV, 3 Q. 4 reli^ -32 REMARKS. reltgiontbm loqttens^ [peaking of religi- ous injiittit'tons, he lays, mtilta ejfe VERA, quae non modo vulgo fcire non Jit ntik ; fed etiam tametfi falfd fint^ alt" ter exifimare popihim exfediat : & idea Graecos Teletas ^ myjieria tact- turnitate par'tetibtifqiie elaufiffe : That many thmgs are true, which are not only not fit for the vulgar to know ; bnt^ even If they fhottld be falje, it Is fit the vulgar jhould think otherwlfe : and that therefore the Greeks kept their Initiations and myflerles in fecrefy and within private walls. This pal- I'age our Writer propofes, as a dlfcovery ofVzxxo'sFree'thlnklng, Now I fliould have thought it the very reverfc. For firft he fays. The things are true : that is contrary, no doubt, to our Writer s Free-thinking: and then. That though they floould be false (not that he fays, they are faUe) the people ought not to know It : that's flat and plain Trlefl- craft, our Writer's hate and averfion. How comes it then, that fo ftgacious a pcrfon is cnamourM of this pafTage ? Why truly, as he has m^nag'd it, \x. will ferve and bend to his purpofe. For the period Multa eJfe veray That many things are TRUE REMARKS. 233 TRUE, he has tranflated, many things FALSE in religion. What ? vera^ falfe ? nonj an affirmative? 'Tis time for your Governors de les f elites maifons to take care of liich a Scribler. Bur, befides his tricks in the verfion, he fliews his flight of hand upon the ori- ginal. For, inftead oi fed etiam tamet/l falfa fint^ he exhibits it, et quaedam tametfi falfa fmt ; and fo makes Varro fay pofitively, That fome tlmigs are falfe. Now, what * foundation for this in any fnantifcri^t or printed copy "what- foever ? Is this his honefty in citations ? Is this he, that upbraids others with cor- rufting and mifapplying of pafl"ages ? Yes ; but St, Auftin, after he had re- cited this pafl^ge, fubjoins his own re- mark ; Hie certe totum confilium prodi* dit velut fapientium^ per qnos civitates iS popdi regerentur: Here Varro, fays he, has difcover'd (unawares, or by an obfcure hint) the whole defign, as of wife ftatefmen^ by whom focieties were to be govern d. This place our f Au- thor has borrdw'd ; but he might have produced more from the fame Father; where 234 REMARKS. where he prefTes hard upon Varro, for glozing and Ibothing the civil rehgion contrary to his own fentiments and confcience : fince he owns, that if he had * founded a new community ^ he iz'ould have fettled the public vjorjfoif^ more ex Naturae formula, according to the model of nature ; but now he was to explain it, as he found it eflablifo^d. But of what ufe is this to our Author ? If there's any rehfh of Free-thinking in it, it belongs to St. Atiflin^ and not to Varro. The Chriftian Father fpeaks home, and condemns the civil Theo* logy equal with the poetical: but the learned Pagan, being himfeJf a Minifter of State, and fearful of giving offence (at that time efpecially, when the greek philofophy had not yet been made po- pular in the latin tongue) ufed great re- lerve and diflimulaticn : and though in many parts he correcSted the public fu- perftition, in the main he fix'd and pro- rnoted it. Not that he w^as himfelt fii- perftitious; for in that very W'ork he hints his own fentiments, though oc- cultly and by the bye: he declares, * Augiifl, IV5 3. V, 4. * that REMARKS. 235 * that for above 170 years, the old Ro- mans worfliipped the Gods without any images : which manner^ fays he, if it had [till continued, the Gods would be adored with more ptrity and holinefs : and for this he cites the Jewijh nation, as a witnefs and example; and con- cludes with a declaration, That they who firfl: inftituted ftatues of the Gods, fS metum fopulis demfijfe & errorem addidijfe, both took away the fear of the Gods from the people^ and gave them erroneous 7iOtions of them : where note again by the way, that mettis is religion^ and not fuperjiition. And in other of his writings he on all occafi- ons detected the artifices of knavilh im- poftors : as in that at \FaUfct near Rome^ where a few families call'd //ir/if, pre- tended to have the gift of walking bare- foot upon burning cinders without being finged, at an annual facrifice to Apollo ; which Virgil magnificently exprefTes, Aen. XI, 786. * Auguft. IV, 31. Quod fi adhuc manfifref, caf- tius Dii obfervarentur. f Pli^^ Hifh VII, 1. Oil 236 REMARKS. Cui pineus ardor acermo Pafcitiir^ ^ mediutn freli pietate per ignem Cultores multa premimus vefiigia pruna. On which place Servius the ancient Icholiaft remarks, "That Virgil indeed fays it was a miracle \ but Varro, who is every where an overthrower of re- ligiony fays their feet were medicated and fecured by an ointment. How would our Writer have flourifh'd, if in his defultory gleanings he had met with this pafTage, Varro ubique expugnator religtojiis ? He would have flighted St. Attflin^ and adhered folely to the Gram- 7narian^ for proving Varro a Free- thinker. And yet upon the very fame foot he muft take Si.AuJtin too into his Jifl:, and every particular Chrifiian^ that liv'd in the times of Paganifin. For as Servius here by religio means the vulgar, popular^ civil religion ; the Chrijiians were in a compleat fenft, both in notion and fadl, expugnatores^ the overthrowers of fuch religion. And how little then is all this to our filly Writer's purpofe? The more Varros and great men he quotes for disbeliev- ing REMARKS. 237 iag pagan idolatry ; the more juftice he does to Gofpel truth, and the more reafon to the Chrijlian eftabliihment. LII. The next that enters the fcene, though he fpeaks but one fenteace, is * the grave and wife Cato the Cenfor, iz;ho will for ever live in that noble Free-thinking y%v/;/5, recorded by Cicero; which Jhews that he mderjiood the whole my fiery of the Roman religion as by law eftablilhM : / wonder^ laid he, how one of our griefs can forbear laughing, when he fees another. Very fliort, you fee, but very pithy : and our Writer thought he made a mod capital jeft and fpiteful infinuation, when he laid The Roman religion as by law efiab^ lifly'd. 'Tis eafy to know what he al- ludes to: but by that time I have done this remark and the reft, his own igno- ranee and ftupidity will be fo drag'd into the light, that I myfelf fhall hereafter wonder y If any of your friefiscanfor- bear asS REMARKS. bear laughing^ when he fees ^ Free- thinker. Cato the elder, homo anticjua vlrtute ^ fide^ a true old Romany as his coun- try men were before the grecian literature got (ettlemeut among them, liv'd and dy'd a pr'teft himfelf, e collegio Angn- rum\ was as knowing and tenacious of the legal fuperftitions, as any of his time; fo as * he comflam'd that many Atifpkes^ many Angtirtes were quite loft and forgotten by the negligence of the foctety of Augurs. He was an enemy to all foreign rites, and jealous of the leaft innovation in the ancient religion and laws. He procured in the ftnatCi that Carneades the Academic, and 2)/^- genes the Stpic , EmbafTadors from Athens, Ihopld immediately be difmifs'd, that they might not corrupt the yoqth. He had an averfion to all philofophy ; in one of his books he faid, Socrates (the firft in our Author's lift) was a f prating and turbulent fellow^ for in- troducing opinions contrary to his coun- * Multa Aufpicia, multa Auguria, quod Cato illc Hipiens queritur, negligcntia Collegii amifTa plane & deferta funt. Cic. Divin. I, 15. f ActW j^ ^iccioy. Plut. in Catone. p. 640. try's 3 REMARKS. 239 try 'slaws and cuftoms. Now one would hardly have guefs'd, that a man of this character ihould ever make a good Free^ thinker, I am rather of opinion that, if Cato in his Cenforjhtp had found one of that fpecies, he would have taken quicker and better care of him, than your patient government is like to do of yours. But fo it is : our Writer has met with a Bon Mot of this Cato\ ; which, ac- cording to his fliallow underftanding and filly interpretation, he prefages -i^;/// ^^'^r live as a noble free-thinking faying. I'll give it in Ttillfs, words, from whom he here cites it ; * Vetus mitem illud Ca- tonis admodum fcitum eft^ qui mirari fe aiebat, quod non rideret harnjpex, harttfficem cum vidijfet : and he might have added another place, which, fmce Cato is not mention'd there, flicws it became proverbial ; f Mirabile videtuvy quod non rideat harujpex, cum haruf pcem viderit. This our Author has thus rendered; I wonder^ {dXA Cato, how one d?/ouR PRIESTS can forbear laugh-- ing, "uuhen he fees another. Whatl *Divin. II, 24, t Nat, Deor. I, 26. haruf i4o REMARKS. harufpex a prieji in general ? And one of OUR, that is, the i?ivin. I, 2. Hartiffices ne ex Etruria arcejjentur, II, 4= Nojlrorum augur um & Etrufcorum & harufpicum (dele @) Nat. Deor. II, 4. and fo Lucan I, 584. Haec proper^ -piacuit Tufcos de more vetuflo Acciri vates. and Martial III, 24 ; ^-?;;2Tufcus maclare dso cum vellet harufpex. This being oWerv'd and prov'd, the whole reafon and drift of Cato's faying will im- mediately appear. For it often happened, that this pack of Hetrufian foothfayers gave their anfwers quite crofs to what the Roman augurs had given : fb that the two ditciplines clalh'd ; the one forbidding as unlucky and unfuccesful, what the other had allow'd as aufpicious and profperous. An example of which is recorded by Cicero Nat. "Deor. II, 4. V/lvle Tiberius R Gracchus 24i ^ ^ MA R K S. Gracchus was creating new conful^ , one of the nominators fuddenly fell down dead : however Gracchus pro- ceded and finifli'd the creation. But foon after the people had fcruples about it, and the harri/pices being confulted faid, the creation was vitious : How, fays Gracchus^ in a great rage ; / not create them right^ 'xho am both conful, and augur, and a^ied anjpicioujly ? "Do j}cn^ * Tufcans and Barbarians, frete^id to correct and controul the aujpicies of the Romans ? And fo he bid them be gone. This was done A. U. C. 591. \v hen Terence'^ Heautontimortimenos was aded, and while Cato was alive. 'Tis true, Gracchus in this inftance, having recolled:ed himfelf, found he had omitted one circumftance directed by the books of auguries ; and fo fubmit- ted to the Tufcans, and added much to their reputation. But however it's plain from hence, that there was no great kindnefs between the Roman augurs and them. For their difciplines pro- ceded upon quite different principles; if the one was (uppos'd true, the other * An vos Tufci ag barbari, l^c muft REMARKS. 243 iiiufl: generally be falfe. Cato therefore, without the lead grain of free-thmkiug, nay out of the true fpirit of fuperftition, flood tightly for Numas auguries ; be- liev'd every tittle of them ; and con- fequently took the Ttifian tribe for a fet of cheats and impoftors. Add to this, his hatred to all rites that were foreign and exotic ; add his own intereft as an augur ^ againft thofe rivals in credit and authority : and then wonder, if you can, why Cato fhould wonder^ ho^<2j one harufpex could forbear laugb^ ing when he Jaw another. And now take a view of our Writer's learning and fagacity : harufpex ren- dered zfrieji ; which would include in the affront both Cato himfelf and all his colleagues: and our priejis for- footh ; when the (atir is folely pointed -at Tufcans and foreigners ? And what's now become of his ever living faying ? Where are now the footfteps of that no^ ble free-thinking in it ? of under jlanding the whole myflery of the Roman religion as- by law ejtablijh'd ? Cato took the Tufcans for cheats, confcious of their own juggles: therefore he knew the whole myjlery, and took himfelf too R 2 i for 244 REMARKS, for a chear. What, Cato the grave and the wife ? A confequence only fie for our Scribbler. It \v diS no free-thinking m Cato, but pure polemic divinity. He adhered fuperllitioufly to Numas and his country's rites : and took the Tnf can difcipline for nonfenft, without being one jot wifer himfelf. And if this makes him a free-thinker ; at this rate iht growing fefi will multiply pro- digioufly : all the ^agans^ that ate filh or pidgeons, are to be admitted free thinkers ; becaufe they contra- dided the Syrians,^ who luperftitioufly abflain'd from both : the Tenty rites of Egypt were certainly free-thinkers -^ becaufe they deftroy'd and fed on croco- diles, which the Ombites their neigh- bours worfliip'd as gods : nay the very Tnfcan harufpices were paflable free- thinkers \ for no doubt they reparteed upon Cato ; and thought as meanly of the Roman divinations, as he did of theirs. To fliew our learned Writer, what a free-thinker Cato was ; TU give him fome choice inftances out of his book DE RE rustica; which is certainly Cdto\ own, and' fo quoted by all the antients; REMARKS. 245 antients : ^ his annual offering to Mars Silvanus for the health of his black- cattle : ^ anothet to Jnpptter \Dapdlis ; "" another to Ceres^ Janus, Jove and Juno : ^ an attonenient for the lopping of a wood: ^ a facrifice for the luftra- tion of his grounds, to prcierve the grafs, corn, fruits, cattel, and ihep- herds from difafters ; and all thefe with their feveral ceremonies, as aukward and abfurd as thofe of the Ta^awcrs. But the prime of all is his charm for a luxation or fra^ure ; which I'll re- commend to our Writer with 2ifrobatiim eft^ when he has any thing broken or out of joint, ^ Take, fays he, a greeu reed^ and jTit it along the middle : throw the knife up> wards-, and join the fjuo farts of the reed again, and tie it fo to the place broken or disjointed ; and fay this charm, T>aries, dardaries, ^ aftataries, dijfunapiter : or this, Hu^t hanat huat, if a pijia fifla, domiabo damnauftra : this will make the part found again. Is not this an excellent Ipecimen of Cato's free-thinking ? R 3 Does 245 REMARKS. Does not this gibberifli demODftrate his penetration into ntyfteries ? Is it not worthy of that refin'd age, when con* fids and dictators were chofen from the plough ? nor can our Author (ay, that this is a fpurious receipt : for * Tliny mentions this very charm under Cato's name and authority ; though he excufes himfeif from repeating it, becaufe of it's fiilinefs. But as poorly as our V/riter comes ofF with Cato the elder ; I fancy he'll anon have ftill worle fuccefs with Cato the younger. LIII. But before he comes to him, he in- troduces Cicero, as a diftinguiflfd and cmmtiM free-thinker '^ in which fed:ion he ftems to have taken pecuhar pains 5 and to flrtt with an air of arrogance, quite above his ordinary mien. He fum- mons all your divines to receive his laws for reading and quoting; and to govern themfelves by his inftrudtions, both in the pulpit . and the prefs. But f Nat. HijL xvir, in fine. Carmen contra luxata membra, jungeuda ariindinum fiiTurac, ciijus verba inferere noii equidem fcrio aufim, quamquam a Capnc prodita. how REMARKS. 247 how does this fcenical commander, this hero in buskins perform ? fo wretchedly and forrily ; fo exadlly to the fame tune and his wonted pitch ; /that he has not ftruck one right ftroke, either in Cicero's general charad:er, or in any pafTage of his, that he quotes incidentally. The firft word he opens with is this, * That though Cicero was chief prieft and conftil^ &c. And what does he mean by chief p'ieft ? no doubt he m^zns j?o;itifex maximus : for no other word in all the facerdotal colleges of the Romans can admit of that verfion. Now a lift and fucceflion of the pontifices maximi (Metellus "Dalmaticus, Mucins Scaevola, Metellus ^ius, Julius Caefar, Aemilius Lepdus) which includes all Cicero*^ time, was ready drawn to our Writer's hand both in T^anvinius'^s Fafti^ and in Bofius de fontificatu maximo. He was fo far from being chief pontif that he was never of that order; not one of the whole XV : as appears from his oration Tro domo ad pontificeSy Ipoken in his Lth year. He was a prieft indeed, as I have faid before ; * Pr/^. 135- R 4] being 248 R E M A R K S. being made augur in his LlVth year, and fucceding Craffus the younger ; whOj with his father, was fl^ifi in 'Per/ia, What fcandalous and puerite ignorance is this, in a teacher forfooth of the clergy, who are teachers appointed? Cicero the chief p'left^ ot rather ouf Writer \\\q chief bhinderer'. J'Vlt Vi^v^r. meddles with the. word '/r/'^y?, but non- lenfe is his expiation lor it : 'it {ticks to' hiai hkc Hcrcuks^s fliirt; and will laft him, hke that, to his fimcfal. ^..Another obferVation he thus drefles, ■f'JXv'?/^ Cicero gives us his owji^x&uxc^ and that of the great eft part of the j)hilofophers ^ "-ji'hcn he' produces this as 4)1 inftance of ^probable opinion, That they who iludy philofophy, don't be- lieve there are any gods : that is. That there exifted no fuch gods as "UJere be* lie's d by the feo'ple. Now grant our' Author this, and yet he obtains no more by xi, than thix. Cicero^ with moft of the philoibphers, disbehcv'd the poetical and civil theology of the ^Pagans, And if this^/c7//r^ fo much pleafes him, ^r has fuch ftfoiig Hues ahd features of 14 ^^ frce^ REMARKS. 249 free'thmking in it ; the very herd of chriftians have a better title to it, thaa any of the philofophers. We are all free-thinkers on that topic ; unlefs our Writer dilTents from us, and would re- cur to the old vvorlhip of Bacchus and Venus. But the mifery of it is, this paflage.of Cicero is quite mifreprefented ; nay it proves the very reverfe to what he in- fers from it. "^ Every argiimejttat'ton, fays Tally ^ ought either to be f rotable, or de^ 7nonjirattve. Athing^^robable is either *what is generally true^ or what is fo in opinion and common conceit. Of the fir Jf fort this is one^ If fhe's a mother.^ jhe loves her fin : of the fecond which confifs in opinion, hnjufmodi flint pro- babilia, thefe are examfles : Imfiis afud inferos poenas ejfe faratas : Eos^ qui philofophiae dent operam, non arbi* trari deos eJfe : that torments in hell are prepared for the impious : that philo- fophers don^t think there are gods. Where it's evident to a fagacious reader, that Tully gives two inftances of pro- bables, which really he thought falfe. * De Inventione I, 20, For 250 REMARKS. Yotprobab'tle in latin takes in the feveral ideas of your engl'tjh probable^ platifi- He, likely, Jpecions^ feeming ; whether it really be tme or falfe, five id falfum efi five verum^ as Tully here fays ex- prefs. The firft of thefe about torments of hell was then a current, paflable, probable afTertion : but TV///y him- lelf * disbeliev'd it, and gives it here as a notion vulgar but falfe. And the fe- cond likewile, that philofophers are athetfis^ was a ftaple mob opinion : elpecially at that time, when Lucretius^ Amafimiis, and other Epicureans were the fole retailers in latin ; that fed: having in that language got the ftart of the rell. But the Orator here exhibits it, not as a true, but a falfe probable ; and contrary to his own -f- fentiment and example. And what's become now of the fihure ? 'Tis like the old ftory of the horle painted tumbling ; which podure being not lik'd by the purchafer, upon inverting the piece the horfe was a running. Our Writer here imagind, that Cicero was piBurdzn infidel : and to his great difappointment he's painted * Tufcul I, 5, 6. k alibi, f TufcuL De legibus, ^V, a believer. REMARK S, 251 ^believer. But fee by the way the great fincericy of our Writer: lu his marginal citation he has dropt the firft inftance about hell-torments \ and given the latter only about helieving no gods ; and to dilguiie it the more ; for bujuf- modi flint probabilia^ he puts it ejl pro^ habile : where any perfon, who looks no further, mud certainly be imposed on. But if our Writer had given both, the vigilant reader, without flirting from the margin, haddcteded the nonienfe. For the two iuftances of probable being both of a kind, either both true or both falfe ; if the firfi: is fuppos'd falfe, the latter mud be fo too, and fo our Writer \^ fru- Itrated. But if the latter is fuppos'd true (as our Writer propounds it) then the firft muft be allowed fo too about the torments of bell : which our Writer abhorring as the moft gaftly figure in nature, remov'd it out of his book : and fo the reader feeing but one, could not difcover the f)ainter's true meaning. O dulnefs, if this was done by chance ! O knavery, if it was done by defign ! His next remark upon Cicero is ftill more mnmpfig and beggarly ; that w^ere it nor for his pride and iniblence, I Ihould 153 i? £ MAR K S. fliould- really commiferate him. He'll prove out of the Tufculan quejiions^ that Cicero was againft the immortality of the foul : which is exaitly, as if he fhould prove from thefe remarks of mine, tliac I am a member of his club. But of that anon ; in the mean time, as a caft of his occafional learning, he makes the dialogijiioht T.Tom^onius At TIC us, a great friend of Cicero* s^ who writ a whole volume of letters to him. The interlocutor in the Tnfculans is mark'd by the letter A, as Cicero is by M : and though fome old copiers and authors too believ'd A fignified At" tictis ; yet, what was pardonable in them, is at this time of day, and in a book of defiance too, a moll fliameful blunder "tn our Writer. The perfbn A was Adc- lejcens^ a youths as appears from II, ii 5 At tu, ddolefcens^ cttm dixijfes^ &e. how therefore can this bd Atticus, ^who was then an old man^ as your * learned "Davijius remarks on the place ? Cicero, when he writ the 77//?///^;/j, was in hi^ ■ * Atticus tunc tcmpori? fenex erat. Davif. ad TyfcuL I, 5. . " \ great REMARKS. 253 great climad:eric ; and Atticiis was two years older than he . For Nepos fays, in his life, T^hat the Caefar/a// ciwii war broke out, when Attkus was about lx, cum haberet annos circiter fexagmta: but Cicero was then lviii. Again he lays, Attictis died lxxvii years old con> pleat, ^Domitio ^ Sojio cofs : and by that reckoning too he was born two years before Cicero. So that our Writer has made a hopeful youth of him, when he was going of lxv : and makes Cicero call a m2iX\ youth, who was older than himfelf. Befides this, who, but our mirrour of learning, could be ignorant, that Atticus livM and died an Epicu- rean ? but this dialogift is intirely againftthat fed, * as appears through the whole. And laftly, what I have noted above in my XLIXth remark, if Atticus here was the difcourfer with Cicero^ he would adhere to his old prin- ciples, and be brought over in nothing : but this jy^/^^/?, this inquirer, is a convert throughout ; and convinc'd by good ar- guments recedes from every thing that he advances at firft. So that there's a vaft * 5.V Tufcul. I, 23,, 32, 34. . difierencc S54 REMARKS. difference in the manner of difpnte that's exhibited in the Tufculans^ from what appears In Academic is ^ T)e Fini- bus, T)e Natura T^eorum, and TDe "Divinatiojie, In the latter no man concedes ; in the Tufculans no man refills. Thefe laft were fcholae, as Cicero from the Greeks calls them, di(- courfes without an antagonift; rather audience Sy than conferences. Which manner, * he fays, "uoas us'd among all the philofophers, even in the academy it felf : ^ti qnaefivit aliqnid, facet : he that has proposal aqiieftton, holds his tongue. For as foon as he has faid. It SEEMS to me th^it pleafure is the chief good ; the philofopher difputes again ft 2t in a continued difcotirfe : fo as tt may eafily be under ft ood, how they that fay a thing seems to them^ are not really of that opinion^ but want to hear it refuted. This very manner, which Cicero here defcribes in his lxii year, he executed the year after in \\\^Tufcti- lans : where when A the auditor lays. It s E E M s r6> me^ that death is an evil ; that pain is the great eft of all evils ; * De Finibus II. i. that REMARKS. 2^5 that grief or uneafmefs may happen to the wifeman ; that the wifeman is not free from all perturbation of mind ; that virtue alone is not fuffcient to a happy life (which make the fubjedt of the V books) it's plain by Cicero'^ own comment, that A is of contrary fenti- ments, and defires to have all thofe po- rtions confuted : which Cicero performs to his fatisfadion and applaufe. This being obferv'd and premised ; let us now fee, what our fagacious Writer can fetch from the Tufculans. Why, Tully, * fays he, after having mentioned the various notions of philo- fop hers about the nature of thefouly con- eludes from them^ that there can be nothing after death. Now if a foreigner^ may judge of your language, t h e VARIOUS notions can mean no lefs than Jingulas opiniones^ the fever al^ and even all the notions of the philofophers : which being fuppos'd, our Writer will ftand convided either of ftich dulnefs, or of fuch impudence, as nothing can match but his own book. After Cicero had enumerated the feveral opinions * Fage 136. 25^ REMARKS. about the foul, That it was the brain^ or the heart, or the bloody or firey or breath, or harmony, or nothing at all^ or an effential number^ or a rational fnbjiance, or a j^y^/3 e (fence ; '■juhich foever of thefe, fays he, /> ^^ //^ ; /V 'zc'i// follow that death is either a good, or at leaf not an evil. For if it be brain, blood, or heart, it will perilli with the whole body ; if fire, it will be extinguilh'd ; if breath, it will be diflipated ; if harmony, it will be broke ; not to fpeak of thofe that affirm it is nothing. * His fententiis omnibus .^ nihil pofi mortem pertinere ad qtiemqnam poteji, according to all the fe 7iotions (the feven laft repeated) there can be no C07tcern nor fenfation after death : death therefore is no eviL Reliqiiorum antem fententiae^ Sec. But the other opinions (the three remaining) give hope^ that the fonl, after it has left the body, mounts up to heaven as ifs proper habitation : death therefore may be a good. Now can any thing be plainer, than the tour of this paragraph ? ten opijnions there are in all ; the firft * Tufcul. I, 1 1., \ fevcn REMARK S. 257 feven make death no mifery ; the iaft three make it a happinefs. What thea was our Writer*s loul ? was it Lrains^ or guts, or rather nothing at aU\ when he thus mainVd and murder'd the fenfe of his author ? From the various 710 1 ions be concludes / as if the /even were all he had mentioned ? as if the three laft were not rhofe he efpous'd ? as if the authors of they2^'^;; were not in his efteem, flebeii & ininuti philofc-^ fhi^ fkbeian and f liny philofophers, not worthy of that name? but our Writer has fo long defbonded of mounting up to heaveUy that he cannot bear it even in the ftile of a pagan : it raifes an envious defpair, and (preads it over his (bul. A moft jufl: and proper puniflimenc for fuch reprobates to immortality ! Virtutem vide ant ^ intabefcantquereliyfa^ But our Writer goes Humbling on, and adds, * That as to PlatoV arguments for the immor tain's of the foul ^ Cicero fays to his dialogift, Let us not produce them, and let us lay afide all our hopes * P^g' 137' S of i58 REMARKS. of immortality. By which the other un^ derjiood him to deny the immortality of the foul ; as is evidatt from his a7ifwer iz'hich follows : What ? do you difap- ffoint ?rie^ after you had raifed in me fiich an exp elation ? Truly 1 had rather be miflaken with Plato, whom I know how much you efteem^ and whom I ad- mire on your authority^ than be in the right with others. Even my pen would refufe to be em- ploy'd in fuch trafli, were it not to chaftife our Writer's confidence; who, unqualified to underftand one fingle page o( Cicero, prefumes to kt up for his commender and patron, nay (which all the rnufes avert) for his revifor and editor. Your gentry, it feems, were hence forward to tafte Cicero through the fetid and poifonous notes of the atheiflical fed. * //'Cice- roni works, fays he, come once to he ge- nerally read, as of all hmnav. writings ^ they befi deferve ! goodly and gracious ! ■" Pa^, 14.0, What RE MA R K S. ijp What an honour is this to Cicero's afhcs? This is what the old Tragic Jik'd, landari a laudato viro. But pray, when was it, that he was not generally read ? or ra« ther, when did the ftupid fed: begin to read hirti ? By the patterns they have given us, they have jufl: as much title to recommend Cicero^ upon their own tafte and skill, as before they had to recommend the * Samaritan chronicle. In the paflage now before us ; after the Orator had prov'd the immortality O^f the foul from authority and tradition, f the agreement of all antiquity, the confent of all nations^ thedoElrineofthe Tytbngorean fchool : Thofe Antients, fays he, feldom gave reafons for their opinions; theirfcholarsacquiefcingin the bare precept and maxim : but Tlato did not only tranfmit the dodrine, but pro- duced reafons and arguments to eftablifli it : Sed rationes etiam attulijje ; quas, nifi quid dicis.Praetermittarnus^ © banc tot am Jpem itnmortalitatis relinqna- mus\ If which argtmientSj unlefs you fay * Remark XX.VH. f Omnem antiqui- quimem, Gonfenfus" nationum omnium, H Tuf- eul I, 17. S 2 / Other' 26o REMARKS. other wife, kt us pafs over, and lay a fide this- whole hope of immortality. The meaning of whieh is mod plain ; if we reflect, that the queftion here to be debated was only this, It seems to me that death is an evil: which Cicero had already refuted, even upon the fcheme of the foul's extinction: without need of engaging deeper in the proofs of immortality. So that here in the Socra- r/V way of dialogue, with elpoyeia^ diffl- miilation and urbanity , he feems willing to drop the caufe, or purpofe to raife the interlocutor's appetite. Who w^cU know- ing this was but a feint, and that Cicero wanted a little courting to procede, What, fays he, do you now leave me^ after you have drawn me into the higheji expefiation ? pray, procede with Tlato's arguments : quocum errare mehercule mala, quam cum isns vera fentire^ with whom (in this affair) / had rather chtffe to be miftaken, than be in the right with THOSE mean fouls, that *are con- rent with extindion. Upon which, fays the Orator to him, Ma5ie virtute, God hlefs you with that brave fpir it : I my- felf too Jhould willingly mi flake with him ; and fo he enters upon and exhaufts the REMARKS. 261 the whole Platonic reaionine for the foul's immortality. Now what odnefs, what perverfenefs of mind in our fcribler, to infer from this paragraph, That the interlocutor thought Cicero derited the immortality of the Joull Is it not jufl: the reverfe ? But what need I wonder : when none but fuch a crook'd and crofs- grain'd block could ever be fliap'd into an atheift? And now we are come to his general chara(3:er oi Cicero, and the new key to his works, which our bungler has made for the ufe of your clergy. H?profefs'd, he fays, the academic or fceptic philo- fophy ; and the only true method of dif- covering his fentiments is to fee^ what he fays himfelf or under the ferfon of an academic. To quote any thing elfe from him as his own^ is an i?npof[tion on the world, begun by fome men of learn- ing, and continued by others of little or none. This is the fum of our author's ob- fervations; in which there n part vulgar and impertinent, and part falfeand his own. The academic or Iceptic philofophy ! He might as well iay, the popilh or Lu- theran religion : the difference between thofe being as wide as between theie, S3 A com- 262 R E M A R K S. A common im^ofition on the world I where^ or by whom? Has not Cicero in his difpucations reprelented the fy- ftems of the feveral fedtSv with more clear- xiefs and beaucy than they themlel ves could do ? Such pafTages have been and will be quoted out of Cicero indeed, for the elegancy of them ; not as his own doc- trines, but as thofe of the refpedive feds, that there fpeak them. And what harm is this? The reafoning is the fame, from what quarter loever it comes ; and the authority not the lefs, though transfer'd from Cicero to a Stoic. But the men of learning have blunder'd, aud not nicely diftinguilh'd Cicero from xkit Stoic. When he pleaies to name thofe, Til produce him a man of none^ * who has ftupidly con- founded Cicero with the Epicurean. And then his fagacious \\ml,Tbat CiccroV trite fentiments are to be feen in the perfon of the academic ! This he thought he was fafe in ; and yet it is as true, as it will appear flrange, that his rcntiments are lead or not at all to be ieen there: of which as briefly as 1 can. The Tlatonic academy dogm^tiz'd or delivcr'd their doctrines for fix'd and l^ma-k XLVIIL certain. REMARKS. 2^5 certain, as the Peripatetics and Stoics did. But in the trad of fucceffion, one Carnendes^ a man of great wit and elo- quence, on purpofe to Ihew both, made an innovation in the academy. By the notion of ^x'd and certain (fixa.certa^ rata, decreta) he was pinn'd down to one iyllem ; and his great parts wanted more roora to expatiate and llourilh in : he contrived therefore a way to get it : he denied the certainty of 'things, and ad- mitted of no higher a knowledge, than probability and 'veriflnnlitude. Not that he did not as much beheve, and go- vern himfelf in common life upon what he caird highly probabl:s^ as the others did upon their certains: but by this pretty fetch he obtained his cnd^ and be- came difputant univerfal, fro omnibus fectis & contra ornncs dicebat. Did the ^Stoics alTert a thing for certain? He would demolifli that certainty from Epi- cnrean topics. Again, did the'e lafl: pretend to any certainty: he would un- lay what he fpoke for them before ; and attack them with Stoical arguments, which juft now he had endeavoured to baffle. This method gave name to the ne-ju academy \ but it hadfc:.v profetHors S 4 wnil: 264 R E M A R K S. while it lafted, and lafled but a little time : requiring fuch wit and eloquence, fuch laborious fiudy in all feds what- ever, and carrying in it's very face fuch an air of pride and oftentation, that very few either could or cared to efpoufe it. However, this very fed, then deferr- ed and ahnoH: forgot, did bed agree with the valt genius and ambitious Ipiric of young Cicero, He was poiTefTed of oratory in it's perfcilion : and he had added philofophy under the beft mafters of all kiis,T)hdotus, Antiochits, Thilo^ Tofidonhis, and others : he would nor confine himielf to one fyflera, but range through them all; io ihtne-jv academy was chofeo, as the largcft field to fliew his learning and eloquence. Which turn when he had once taken, he was always to maintain i he was to rile no higher than prcbability, the charaderiftic of the fed. For this v%^as their badge of fer- vitude, though they boafted of more freedom than the others. Did a Stoic aflcrt \,\\z certainty of divine providence? You are tied down, fays an Academic : it"s ou\y a probable. You are tied as much, replies the Stoic ; for though you believe REMARKS. 26s believe it as firmly as I, you dare not fay it's certain^ lor fear of clafliing with your fedt. \i we take Cicero under this view, we fliall then truly be qualified to interpret ail his writings. And firfl: we fliall find, what I faid before, and which at once breaks to pieces our Writer's new key, that the academic objedions, which in his philofophical conferences are ever brought againft the other liecSs, is the moft unlikely place where to find his real fentimcnts ; for that being the privilege of the fedl, to fpeak/r^ or con as they pleas'd, * contra omnia diet oportere (3 fro omnibus^ \ contra omnes philofypbos ^ & pro omnibus dicer e-^ they very fre- quently oppos'd, II non ex animo fed fi- miilate^ not heartily but f eigne dly ; not what they really believ'd, but what ferv'd the prefent turn. In de natnrti T>cornm, when Balbus the Stoic had. fpoken admirably for the exiftence of the gods and providence, Cotta the Aca- demic (though he was a prieft, one of the fcntifices) undertakes the oppofite * Acad. II, 18. t Nat. Deor. I, 5. jj Nar.. Deor. ll^fine. fide. i66 REMARK S. fide, ^ nou tarn refellere ejus orationem^ quam ea quae minus intellexit requirere ; 7tot: fo much to refute his difcour/e^ as to difcufs fome points he did not fully nnderfiand: and after he had finilh'd his attack with great copioufnefs and lubtilty, yet in the clofe he owns to Balbus, * T'hat what he had faid, was for diffute^sfake^ not his own judgment ; that he both defir'd that Balbus would confute him ; and knew certainly that he could do it. And Cicero himfelf, who was then an auditor at the difpute, though of the fame led with Cotta, declares his own opinion. That the Stoic'j difconrfe for providence feem^d to him more pro- bable than Cottars againfi it ; which he repeats again in T)e T)ivinatione, I, 5. And what now becomes of our Writer's true method and rule ? Whatfoever is Ipoken under the perfon of an Academic, is that to be taken for Cicero s fentiment ? Why, Cicero declares here, that he fided with the Stoic againft the Academic : and whom are we to believe, himfelf or our filly Writer. ■' N-dt Deor. IIL i. t Nat Deor. Ill, fine. When REMARKS, 357 When Cicero fays above, that the Stoical dodlrine of providence fccmM to him more probable ; if we take it aright, it carries the fame importance as when a Stoic lays it's certain and demonstra- ble. For, as I remarked before, the law, the badge, the charaderiftic of his fe^ allow'd him to affirm no (Ironger than that : he durfl: not have fpokea more peremptorily about a propofitiou of Eiui'id^ or what he favv with his own eyes. His probable had the fame in- fluence on his belief, the fame force on his life and condudl, as the others certain had on theirs. Nay within his own bread he thought it as much certain as they ; but he was to keep to the Academic ftile ; which folely confifled ia that point, That nothing was allowed certum, comprehenfum^ percept u?/i, ra- turn, firrmim^ fixum ; but our highefi: attainment was probabile © verifimik. He that reads his works with penetra- tion, judgment, and diligence, will find this to be true, That probable in his fed is equivalent to certain. For what he fays oi Socrates^ exaftly fits himfelf ^ where reporting his laft words. Whether it's better to live or die^ the Gods alone kno 268 REMARKS. know ; of men I believe no-one knows : As to what Socrates fpeaks, fays he, that none but the Gods know, whether is better ; he himfelf knows it ; for he had fa'id it before : * fed fuum illud^ nihil nt affirmet, tenet ad extremum : but he keeps his manner to the lajt^ to /iffirm nothing for crrtain. If we feek therefore for Cicero's true fentiments, it mull: not be in his difputes againft others, where he had licence to fay any thing for oppofition fake : but in the books where he dogmatizes him- felf; where allowing for the word pro- bable, you have all the fpirit and mar- row of the Tlatonic, Peripatetic, and Stoic fyftems ; I mean his books, de Offi- ciis, Tnfculanae, de Amicitia^ de Se- ne6ittte^ deLegibus; in which, and in the remains of others now loft, he de- clares for the being and providence of God, for the immortality of the foul, for every point that approaches to chri- ftianity. Thole three feds he efteems, as the fole ornaments of philofophy; the others he contemns : and the Epi- cureans he lalhes throughout ; not only * Tufcul. I, 42. for REMARKS, 269 for their bafe and abject principles, but for their negled: of all letters, eloquence, andfcience. And I muft do him this juftice, that as his fe5i allovv'd him to chufe what he lik'd bed, and what he valued as mod probable^ out of all the various fyftems ; he always chufes like a knowing and honeft man. If in any point of moral, one author had fpoken nobler and loftier than another ; he is fure to adopt the worthieft notion for his own, and to cloath it in a finer drefs with new beauties of ftile. T A N T V M. R E^ 270 REMARK LIV. Ou R Author, very difcreetly filent about the living members of his fecSl, has labour'd ftrcnuoufly to incorporate in- to it iome great names from the dead^ So- crates, 'Plato^ Artjlotle^lutarch, Varro, C^^^ the elder, zx\diCtcero: with what fuccels, my former remarks have i'uffi- ciently fhewn : where the reader as he is varioufly affeded, now with our Writers ignorance, now with his preva- rication, is tofs'd between the alternate paffions of pity, and contempt. We now again overtake him, endea- vouring to draw over to his honourable party, the very piEitire of virtue^ Cato the younger: not from C^/^'s own de- claration^ but from a famous paflageof the poet Lticau, who, he (ays, * has raised a noble monument y not only to CatoV w'lf dom and virtue^ but to his Free-think- ing : and he expeFis our thanks for * Pag. 141. giving R IE M A R K S. 271 giving us that paflage, not in the origi- nal only, but in the tranflation of an ingenious author. And here I find my- felf under fome difficulty anduneafinels : our Writer flinks away, and leaves me to engage with a namelefs author, vvhofe charader and ftation at home, a foreigner, and at fuch a diftance from Britain, can- not be fuppos'd to know ; i-KSiv^ ixdhu irohha, i^srcciv So that I mufl: throw out cenfiires at randonij not knowing on whom they fall. Perhaps he may be a perfon of worth ; as little allied to this Free-think- er's fociety, as many others of the englijh nation, whom he has the impu- dence to lift in it, Hooker, Chilling- worth, Wilkins^ Cudworth, Tillotfon. If fo, I muft plead in my behalf both the innocence of my intention, and the ne- ceffity of the work ; becaufe juftice cannot be done to the prefent lubjed: without fome leverity upon that verjlon. But it's poffible, that the ingenious Tranjlator may be our Writer himfelf, who would try his faculty in poetry un- der 272 REMARKS. derrhis mask and difguife: and in that view I defire that all the infamy of that faulty tranflation may fall on him and no other: fince, be he the author or not, he is certainly to anfwer for it; having fb applauded the performance, and fo warp'd it to a vile and impious abufe. Bur, before we come to Luc an ^ we have a fmall Ipecimen of our Writer's ufual penetration and ability in the claffics. 'Pater cuius in a fine character of our CatOy among other exprefTions fays, He ^-jvas, per omnia ingenio diis quam hominibus propor^ In his whole teynper (tranquility, conftancy, juflice, iSc ) 7iearer to the gods than to men. Who does not know, that ingenium is temper^ difpofition, turn of mind? But our Writer has rendered it, that * ut every thing by his knowledg he ap- froach'd more to the gods than to 7nen. AMurdly tranflated! not only againft common language, but common fenfe. For wherein was Cato io diftingui/h'd for knovjledg ? and nniverfal too, per omnia ? as a Stoic.^ he was inferior in * Fagc 141. that REMARKS, 273 that knowledge to the greek profefTors of the fedt, who were his preceptors : and for general knowledge, what vaft extent could he attain to? whofe Hfe wasfliorc of fifty years, in a continued courfe of em- ployments, and hurry ofpublicbufmefs: he was fo far in that regard from ap- proaching the gods^ that he was below many mortals his contemporaries, CicerOy Nigidius- Figulns, Varro^ and others. But let Cato be divine both in temper and knowledge too: our Writer himfclf is certainly in knowledge no more than human ; and, /;/ temper, it's well if fo much. Surely fo aukward, fo perverfe a turn was never given to poet, as this writer and tranflator fif they are two) have given to Lucan ; who, on occafion of Cato"^ march through the deferts of Afric^ near the temple of Arnmon^ in- troduces an officer of his army, requeu- ing him in a fet fpeech, to confult that celebrated oracle; and C^r^ rcfufiog it in as fet a reply. This refufal our Writer takes as a proof of Carols free- thinking ; that he took oracles for im- pollures, for the knavery oi juggling priejisy and the credulity oi fliperjtttious T ^ crowds. 274 REMARKS. " crowds. But, to his great fliame and ' diiappointment, the fcene in the original ''has quite contrary acStors : there were really ibme free-thinkers^ Epicureans ^ in Cat6*% retinue, that had a mind to try to piizzle, to baffle the oracle : but Cato^ by his very fedt a friend to all oracles, in an artful as well as magnanimous fpeech eludes their inquiry ; denies to confult, and fo skreens and proteds the reputation of the temple. So that Cato here is really the patron of (uperftition ; and the luppos'd monument of his free^ thinking is a true and lading monument of our Writer's ftupidity. But this can- not fully appear without the reader's pa- tience in going along with me through the whole pafTage in the original, and through the double length of the tedious tranflatiou. [ I ] * Comitefque Catonem Oiant, cxplofet Lyblcum meinorata per orbem Numina, tie hima tarn longi judicet aevi. - t His hoji {^as crowds are fuperjlitious Jiill) Curious of fate y of future good and illy And fond to prove prophetic Ammon^x skill, Intreat their leader to the gods would go. And from this cmcle TLoinc's fortune know. * Lwcan HI/, ix, v.'?f 546. f Pag, 141. Two ^ ^ B M A'R K S, i^5 *- Two verfes you fee, and a half in the ^ latin are exadly doubled and become 'five in the englijh \ which we might take for juft payment and exchahge, in the "v known allowance oio7ie for Jenfe and 'One for rhime ; were it not that no tittle ? of the original y?;;y^ appears in the ver- ^•fion. The Poet himlelf tells us, T^hat ^^^Cato'j" companions intreat him to ex- ^"PLORE, (try, fift) the deity fo famous through the Lybidn worlds and to judge of a reputation poffefs"* d through fo many ages. Here indeed are plain footfteps oi free-thinkings a doubting about the oracle's veracity ; a trjal demanded and a judgment ; not of an upftart puny oracle, but (in the heathen account) much older than Solomon's temple, and ador'd by the third paft of mankind. Now, why are thefe jufl: and proper fen- timcnts dropt in the verfion? not a word there of exploring ; nothing of the wide authority s the v^ antiquity of the ora- cle: but empty trafli with falfe ideas foilted in their place. Thefe inquirers do not defire r^ kno-w RomcV fortune ^ but to criticife the oracle iricif, as Croe" fus did that at ^Delphi, and Lucian that m Taphla^onia. Nay allowin?, that they T 2 ^ Iccrerly 276 R E hi A R K S. fecretly wifti'd to know their fortunes : yet it was injudicious in the tranflator to anticipate here, what he knew was to come anon in Labienus's fpeech. But Idefire not to be too ievere: Til admit the propriety of that di(Stion, Curious of future good and ill : nor ihall it be tau- tology, to onerate three poor hnes with p'Ophetic jimmon, then the gods ^ and then this oracle ; when in truth it's but one god and but once. But I am aflonifli'd, that any perfbn could pre- fume to tranflate Lucan^ who was ca- pable of miftaking comites for an hoji, or a whole army. Comites or cohors amicorum were perfons of quality, com- monly youths, recommended by their parents or friends to the familiarity of the general, to diet and lodge with him through the courfe of his expedition, to learn from his converfation the skill and difcipline of war. You can fcarce dip in any Roman hiftorian, or even poet, but this you are taught there. I'll but quote one place of * Florus^ becaufe it relates to our Cato'^ who, f in his apartment * L. Florus IV. 2. t Plutarch in Catone : 'SvviS'iiTny Wi'Tej oi I.T AlPOl (Comites.) after REMARKS. -i-jj after ftipper, poftquam filium comites- quc ab amplexu dimifir, ^-jDhen be had embraced and difmifsd hh fon and com* panions, read PlatoV treat ife of the fouPs immortality^ and then fell afleep. Thefe comites, companions at 'Vtica in Cato'^s lad hours, are the very fame that here (peak to him about the oracle of Ammon, If the whole army is meant in one place, it mufl; be meant too in the other. But can our Writer imagine, that Qato entertained the whole army in one room? and embrac'd them ^:^// at part- ing? How unfortunate then is his very firftiine? His hoft, as crowds are fuperftitious Jl'ill. fad omen for our tranflator ! and noy^- ferftitioit to think lb. This mighty hoft and theft crowds are only a few young noblemen : and fo far from Ju" perftition (as he here calumniates 'em) that he may henceforth value them as hopeful free-thinkers. And why that fpiteful charadter given to all cro-juds 'i meer filHngs of his own, without war- rant from his original. It carries in it an air of libertinifm ; and it's juft and im- mediate punilhment was blunder. T 3 Maximus !78 REMARKS. [2 ] Maximus hortator fcrutandi voce deoruin Eventus Labienus erat : fors obtulit, inqult, jLt fortuna viae tain magni numinis ora Conciliumque dei : tanto duce poflumus uti Per Sy rtes, bellique datos cognofcere cafus. But Labienus chief the thought approved y And thus the conunon fuit to Cato mov'd. Chayzcc and the fortune of the way ^ he faid^ Have brought Jove'jr facred counfeh to our aid, This greate/i of the gods^ this mighty chief In each dijircjs jhall be afure relief: Shall poijit the dijiant dangers from afar^ And teach the future fortunes of the %var. The Jatin poet has obfervM a decent oecononiy in the condud: of thispaflage : the young fccftics in the former para- graph are dilpatched in two hnes : their rcquelt is not put in form ; and Cato's refulal is not exprefs'd, but underftood ; as if given without words by a look. But now here comes a perfon of another chara6ter, Titus Labienus, Lieutenant- Gcncral under Caefar through all the (iallic wars, then a deiertor to Tompey, in j4fric here with Cato, with Tomfoy the Ion in Sf>ain, where he periflfd at the battle of Mttnda. He (as his fpeech demonftrates ) precedes upon a different princi.: REMARKS. 279 principle ; not of waggery and fcepci- cifm, but full afTurance in the oracle. He was pauUo infirmwr^ prone to big- gotry and fuperfticion, and for that rea- fon (if it is not true in fad;) was judi- cioufly chofen by the poet to be the aurhor of this fpeech. This charader, which I have given of him, though in Lucan'*s time well known, is now only to be learn'd from a pafTagc of * 'Plu- tarch \ where hutiv.v^, fays he, (xuvreiaig Tmv i(TxviiiKo(j.h8, Labienus relying on Jome PROPHESIES, and affirmhig that Pompey muji be conqueror ; Ay, fays Cicero, and while we trufi to that Jiratagem^ we have lo^ our very camp. This iliort occafional hint difcovers Lahieniis'^s weak fide ; he had liv'd to fee thole pro- phecies fail, and now wanted new ones from an oracle of the highefl: fame ; x'i they prov'd favourable to the caufe, that he might perfevere with more courage; if otherwife, provide for his own \\{q,x.j. And how dexteroufly this is evadeJ by Cato, we (hall fee in the fequel. One would think theie five verfes were fo plain and eafy that no tranfla- * Plut. In Cicer p. 1612. ivherefbr ^a.^a.yivi^cn Tlcij.-' 'Tffihv read tnkjtyivk^Ai • T 4 ror 28o R E M A R K S, tor could mifs the fenfe of them, as ours had done. For what may pals plaufibly as an engl'ifio original, grows fcandalous when fathered upon Lman-^ fcarce a line here but either clalhes with the poet's defign, or with the notions of that age, 'Tis falfe, that Labieims ?nov'd the com- mon fitit : the former liiit was but mov'd by a few, and his was different and his own. But the whole hojf^ fays the tranf- laror, i\\^'mtrecitedCato\ and then L^- bienus ftep'd in as their common fpokei- man. Where's the decorum of this? Where's the rule of military difcipline ? the very maniples forfboth are to break ranks without orders, and furround their general, to demand a public prophefy : which if crofs or but dubioufly threat- \i\x^% would make them all defertors. No, no; both the co?nltes\>zioxt^ and La- bientis now, make the motion privately ; and neither queftion nor anfwer, if the rcquefl had lucceded^ was to be heard by the common foldier. Ltican is content to fay oi Jupfiter Armnon^ Tnm magntim immen^ fo great adeit y ; that is, compar'd with other oracles, the chief whereof were thofc of REMARKS. 281 of Apollo. Buc the tranflator foars above him, This greateji of the gods^ this jnighty chief. which by the way is a moll fplendid va- riation. Now a Roman would never have faid that Jufpter Ammon was as great as Jufpiter Captolinus ; though the tranflator took it for granted, that all Juppiters muft needs be the fame. But a known place in * Suetonius may corred; his notion of the heathen theolo- gy. Auguftus had built a temple to Jup- picer Tonans within the area of the Ca- pitol \ whereupon he had a dream ^ that Capitolinusjuppiter complained his wor^ Jhippers were drawn away: Auguftus in his dream anjwered, that he had dedicatedTonzns there only as the other's porter \ and accordingly when he wak^d^ he hung (as a porter\s badg) that temple round with bells. Now if CapitoUnus would not bear the very thunderer by him, but in quality of his porter ; much lefs would he have fuffer'd j poor beg- * Suet. Aug, c. 91. t Pauper adhue deus eft. Lucan. garly 282 REMARKS. garly Ammon (for all he was his name-' lake) to be ftiled the mighty chief. All that Labienus expedted here from the oracle, was concilium dei, the god's advice how to pals the Libyan deferr, and to foreknow the deftiny of the pre- leuc war; an event thought near at hand : for Caejar, they well knew, was no loiterer in adiou. But how does the tranflator manage this ? This greateji of the godsy fays he. In each dijlrefs jhall be a fure reliefs Shallpintthe dijiant dangers from afar. Are not time, circumftance and popular notion rarely obferv'd hef e ? The dan- gers, apprehended as juft at their heeJs, are htcom^ difiant and afar off: and the oracle is not only to predid, but to pre- vent the decrees of fate, a fure relief in iilldiflrejfes. Contradidion in the very terms : for if fate could be prevented, k could not htfredi^ed. There's a Imall error here, both in the printed copies, and in all the manfcripts that I have leen, SORS obtulit, inqtiit, Etfortnua viae tarn magni numinis ora^ ■-' ' The REMARKS, 283 The Poec wrote it, FOas obtultt. So Horace ; Nulla etenim tibi me fors ob- tulit • and again, Sen ratio dederit^ feu fors objecerit: lo * Tacitus^ Et^ quae fors obtulerat, navalibus telis conficitur ; and again, TaJJim trucidatis, ut quern- que fors obtulerat : in all which places the MSS. of inferior note have turn'd fors into fors : whofe fignifications are very different. Fors is pure chance : but fors has in it an idea of dejiiny, oiap- potntment^ and allotment. Fors ^ for-' tuna viacy chance and the opportunity of the march. Now, as we do not exped: any exacSnefs from our writer, we do not reproach him, that he has put fors in his latin text : though in his ver- fion (if it be his) he has varied from his original. Chance and the fortune of the way y he faid. He has jump'd you fee, upon the true interpretation ; and though he writes fors, exprefTes the meaning oi fors. I fuppofe they were both alike to him ; and it was true chance that he hit the Tac. Annal.'xtV, 5.. Hiil, iv^ i, there* 284 REMARKS. right : he favv the (euft was there or thereabouts ; which is accurate enough for a modern tranflator. . .[3] Nam cui crediderim fuperos arcana daturos, Dicfturofque maglsquam fan fto vera Catoiii ? Certe vita tibi femper directa fupremas Ad leges, fequerifque deum.- ■ ITo thee^ O Cato, piouSy wife^ and jujl^ Their dark decrees the cautious gods Jhall trii/f : To thee, their fore-determined will Jhall tell : Their will has been thy laiUy and thou haji kept it well. Labrenus already deceived by fallacious predidions, confides in Cato'^s known fandity, that he at leaft would obtain true ones : for furely the gods would re- veal fecrets, ^ndfpeak truth to Cato^vaho had always liv'd in conformity to them and their iovereign laws. This, one would think, is eafy enough : but no ground can be fo plain, which our tranflator cannot ftumble on. Sanftusy the fole epithet in the latin, denotes nothing hut purity andholinefs of life : this by the tranflator is fplit into three, pious, wi/e, and jujl. Let him take his wife back again, and not introduce epithets improper to the occafion. It was not Catd^ wifdom, nor (as blundered be- fore) REMARKS. 285 fore) his knowledge^ but his innocence and purity, that might merit rhe god's favour. And why inftead of plain y?/- feros, have we cautious gods "i an idea including/^'^r, and inconfiftent with the nature of the Deity. He feems to chufe epithets, not for their lenfe, but for their fyJlables ; wife Cato, cautious godsy both of his own manufadure, both in- congruous to their places, boch repug- nant to each other : for if the gods were fo very cautious^ they would be the more ihy, not the more communicative, in apprehenfion of Cato's wifdom. But he has made amends in the two lafl: lines: To thee their fore-determined willjhall tell: Their will has been thy laWy and thou haji kept it well. Where, though either of them might pafs fingle and apart, yet iad confe- qence enfiies, when they are thus in conjunction. For the fore 'determined will here xs^ fate ; not any thing of mo- ral diredion or precept, but of phyfical event ; as the ilTue of this war, ©r. And then their will in the following line muft bear the fame fenfe. So that this will of the gods^ the courfe of natural events. i%6 REMARKS. events, was the /aw that Cato had kept fo well. Nonienfc compleat ! but if this bears upon him too hard; indulge him a hctle, and take their will and fore deter mtn^d Willy both in a moral meaning : for of one meaning both mufl: be. And then the refult is this : that as Cato is now to learn the divine will by levelation ; fo formerly he made that will his law^f not by rules of virtue and natural light, but by the like revelation. So that Cato, through the whole courfe of his life, is reprefented like Nicias the Athenian, or Julian the apoftate, to be a feeker to oracles ; and yet this whole paffage is brought to prove his fcorn and contempt of them* [4] • datur ecce loquendi Cum Jove libertas : inquire in fata ncfandi Caefaris & patriae ventures excute mores. Fate bids thee flow the noble thought improve^ Fate brings thee here to meet and talk zvith ""Jove. Inquire betimes what various chance Jh all come To impious Caefar, and thy native Rome : Xry to avert at leaji thy countrfs doom, I cannot read this tranflation, but I think I lee poor Lucau travcfted, not apparel'd in R E MARKS. 1%^ in his roman toga, but under the cruel Iheers of an englijh tailor. The poet fays, libertas datur^ there* s leave, Itber^ ry, opportunity of /peaking with Jove : but the translator will needs have it, that FATE bids him improve^ and fate brings him to talk with Jove. Now I fhould think, \^ fate had intermeddled here, that Labienus might have fpared his fpeech : for Cato muft needs have confulted the oracle without his intreaty : and yet, which is very ftrange, in fpite of fate and intreaties too, he pafles on and neglet£vat T£ Tw Kay ViO(. TO y.Qi'^o^i £Cp>) : y'^'PC^'^ Z^^" r^ T» ^r.y.\i. Dionyf. Hal. 5. 6y. tdit. Oxon. My the Roman Senate, My Lord, ^P^il i> ^Izs- IW I S H, that it were in my power to give your Lordfhip any fatisfadi- on, on this or any other occasion, where you can poffibly want it ; which as I en- deavoured in my laft letter, upon a que- ftion of a different kind, fo I fhall at- tempt again in this, on the fubjed of the Roman Senate, where I fancy myfelf perhaps more capable, as well as the ar- gument more worthy of your Lordfhip's inquiry.— I am afhamed to confefs, that when I received the honour of your Lordflhip's, I had not read M. Ver- tots anfwer to Earl Stanhope: but I have fince procured it, in order to fee diftiticftly, what it was, that could re- main ftill obfcure to you, in a queftion, which had been treated by fo able a mafter, and which of itfelf had ap- peared always to m.e to be fufficiently clear. I ihall not trouble your Lordfhip with my particular exceptions to the B 3 account 6 A T?^eatife on account of that learned Antiquary, but give you only in fLort, my own fenti- ments on the fame fubjed, drawn, as I imagine, from evident and authen- tic teftimonies of the ancient writers. From the time, that the Plebeians had opened themfelves a way to the firft honors of the ftate, the conftant and regular fupply of the Senate was from the annual magiftrates ; who by virtue of their feveral offices acquired an immediate right to fit and vote in that affembly. The ufual gradation of thefe offices, was that of ^cejiory Tribune of the people ^ j^dile^ l^rcetor^ and Co77ful\ which every candidatCj in the ordinary forms of the conftitu- tion, was obliged to take in their or- der, with this exception only, that he might forego either the Tribunate or the iEdileiliip at his own choice, without a neceffity of paffing through them both. The Qua^ftorfliip was called the lirft ftep of honor : and the Qu^Rors, who were generally employ^ ed //&^ R O M A N S R N A T E. 7 ed in the provinces abroad j afligned to them federally by lot, no fooner re- turned from their provincial admini- ftration, than they took their places in the Senate, and from that time for- ward, from the rank of Equeftrians, or w^hat we commonly call Knights, became Senators for life. All thefe magiftrates were eleded by the people in their public affem- blies, promifcuoufly and indifferently from the whole body of the citizens ; which explanes what Cicero frequent- ly declares in different parts of his works, " That the fenatorian dignity " v/as conferred by the fuffrage and " judgment of the whole Roman peo- " pie ; and that an accefs to the fu- ^^ preme council of the republic was " laid open to the virtue and induftry " of every private citizen [^]. B 4 But [a] Qui cum regom poteftatem nc*n tuli/Ient, ita magiftratus annuos creaverunt, ut concilium Se- natus reip. proponerent fempiternum ; deligerentar .autem in id confiilum abuniverfo populo, aditufqu^ in 8 A Treatife on But though thefe offices gave both an immediate right and actual en- trance into the Senate, yet the fena- torian character was not efteemed com- plete, till the new Senators had been enrolled by the Cenfors, at the next Ltiftrum^ or general review of all the orders of the city, which was generally held every five years. Yet this enroll- ment was but a matter of form, w^iich could not be denied to any of them, except for fome legal incapacity, or the notoriety of fome crime, or in- famy upon their charaflers ; for which, the fame Cenfors could expel or de- prive any other Senator, of what rank or {landing foever. It was one part likevvii'e ot the cenforian jurifdidion, in Ilium fLimmum ordlnem omnium civlum indu- ftiicT ac virtuti pateret. Cic. pr. Sext. 6^. Si populum Romanum, cujus honoribiis in am- pliHimo confiJio collocati fumus. Port. red. in Scn.i. In CO loco, in quo me honores populi Romani collocaverunt. Pr. Dom. -U. Cujus bencficio in hunc ordincm vcninuis. In Verr. 4. ii. to the Pv O M A N S E N A T E. 9 to fill up the vacancies of the Senate, upon any remarkable deficiency in their number, with new members from the equeftrian order, who had not yet born any magiftracy : but this was not done arbitrarily, or with- out the confent and approbation of the people. For by obferving the manner of proceding on fome extra- ordinary occafions, we may collect the legal and regular method in ordinary cafes. For example, after the battle of Cannce^ the Senate being greatly exhaufted, and no Cenfors in office, a Dictator was created for the fingle purpofe of filling up the vacancies : who prefently afcended the Roftra, and in the prefence of the people, af- fembled in the Forum, ordered all thofe, who remained alive of the laft cenforian Hft, to be firft called, and enrolled anew ; then thofe, who fince that time had born a curule magi- ftracy, but liad not been enrolled, each according to the order of his creation ; then to A Treat if e on then thofe, who had been j^diles^ Tribunes of the people^ or ^ucefors ; and laftly, thofe of the equeftrian rank, who had born no magiftracy at all, but had fignaHzed themfelves in the war, and taken fpoils from the enemy : and having thus added one hundred and feventy feven new fenators to the laft roll, with the univerfal approba- tion of the people, he laid down his office \J?\. Upon another occaiion likewife, when Sylla^ the didator, af- ter the deftrudion made by his civil wars and profcriptions, found it ne- ceflary to fill up the exhaufted fenate with three hundred Knights, he gave the choice of them to the people in an affembiy of their tribes \c'\. The power of the Cenfors, being naturally odious and unpopular, was generally exercifed with temper and caution, unlefs when an extraordina- ry licence and corruption of the times {]?] Llv. 1. 23. 23. \c^ App. deBdl. civ. 1, i. p. 413, feemed the Roman Senate. ii feemed to demand a particular feve- rity and enforcement of difcipline. The cenfures however of thefe magi- ftrates were not perpetual or irrever- fible, nor confidered as bars to any fu- ture advancement : for what was in- Aided by one Cenfor, v^as fometimes reverfed by the other ; and what was done by them both, by an appeal to the people ; or by the fucceding Cen- fors ; who commonly reftored the dif- graced party to his former dignity ; or elfe by obtaining, a fecond time, any of the magiftracies abovemention- ed, the perfon fo difgraced entered again into the Senate, and was enroll- ed of courfe by the next Cenfors. Thus we find fome, who had fuffered the cenforian note of infamy, chofen Cenfors afterwards themfelves [<^] ; and [/| Ponam llkid iinum ; C. Getam, cum a L. MeteJIo & Cn. Domitio cenforibus e fenatu eje(^us elTet, cenforem ipfum poiiea efTe flicSlum Quos autem L. Gellius & Cn. Lentulus, duo cenfores, furti & captarum pecuniarum notaverunt, ii non modo 12 A Treatife on and C. Ant07nus^ who was Cicero^ collegue in the confulfhip, had been expelled the fenate for his vices, about fix years before ; and Lentulus alfo, who was expelled even after he had been conful, was reftored to the Se- nate by obtaining the praetorfhip a fecond time after that difgrace ; in which office, he was put to death by Cicero^ for confpiring with Catiline againft the public liberty \_e]. Thusj as it is evident from un- modo in fenatum redlerunt, fed etiam Illarum ipfa- rum rerum judicils abfoluti funt. Cic. pro Cluent. Cenfores denique ipfi faspenumero fuperiorum cenforum judicils — non fteterunt. atque etiam ipli inter fe cenfores fua judicia tanti efle arbitrantur, ut alter alterius judicium non modo reprehendat, fed etiam refcindat. ut alter de fenatu movere ve- lit, alter retineat.— -Ibid. 43. Vide etiam Val.Max. J. 2. 9. 9. [f] Hunc Antonium fexennio, quo haec dice- rentur, Gellius & Lentulus cenfores fenatu move- runt *, caufamque fubfcripferunt, quod judicium recu- farit, quod propter sris alieni magnitudinem pras- dia manciparit, bonaque fua in poteftate non habe- rtt. Afc. Paed. in Orat. in Tog. Cand. Vid. it. Dio. 1. ^y, p. 43. D. Veil. Pat. 2. 34. queftionable //^^ Roman Senate. 13 queftionable authorities, the legal and ordinary fource, by which the vacan- cies of the Senate were fupplied, was from the annual magiftrates, chofen by the people : a method of fupply, of all others the beft adapted to fup- port the dignity, as well as to fill up the number of that auguft body ; which could never be remarkably defi- cient, but by the uncommon accidents of war, or peftilence, or profcriptions of the nobility: on which occafions, thofe deficiencies were fupplied, ei- ther by the extraordinary power of a Didator, created for that purpofe, or the ordinary pov/er of the Cenfors, confirmed by the approbation of the people. M. Vertot feems to per- plex the queftion ; firft, by confider- ing the authority of the people, and that of the Cenfors, as oppofite and inconfiftent with each other in the creation of Senators, whereas they were both of them jointly necefiary, to make the ad: complete : fecondly, by affertinp; 14 A Treat if e on afierting the cenforian power to be the original and principal in that affair, whereas it was but fecondary or minifterial, to the fovereign prero- gative of the people. ABOUT a month after the date of this letter, his Lordfhip fent me his own opinion on the fame fubjedt, drawn out at length, in the form of a differtation ; which he fupported afterwards, and farther explaned by a fecond ; and finally defended by a third. As foon as I had received the firft of them, I immediately fat down to confider the argument again more precifely : and agreeably to the me- thod obferved by his Lorddiip, endea- voured to Iketch out the legal and ge- nuine ftate of the Roman Senate, through all the feveral periods, in which it had fuffered any remark- able alteration, under the Kings, the 2. Confuls th^ Roman Senate. 15 Confuls, and the Cenfors : in pur- fuance of which defign, as faft as I filled up my papers to the pro- per fize of a letter, I tranfmitted them to his Lordfhip at different times and in different packets : all which I have now thought proper, for the fake of brevity and perfpi- cuity, to conned into one continued letter, in the very words of the ori- ginals, as far as they could be reco- vered from the imperfed notes, which I had taken of them, or at leaft, in an exaA conformity to that fenfe, in which they were firft written. My 1 6 A Treat if e on My Lord, WHEN your LordfLip required my thoughts on the manner of filling tip the Roman Senate^ I gave them in the {impHcity of my heart, the beft, that occurred to me, on a fubjed, for which I was not then par- ticularly prepared. I fancied, that I could didate to your Lordfhip, as M. Vertot to Earl Sta?ihope^ and recoUeft- ing, that I was writing to a court, thought it a part of good breeding, to keep clear of Greek and Latin. But your Lordfhip has fairly caught me, and, in your elaborate differtation, gi- ven me a pattern, how I ought to have written on a queftion of learning, or at leaft, how to my Lord Hervey. In my former letter, I chofe to be- gin my account of the Senate, from that time, when its power and glory were at their height, and it's hiftory the moft worthy of our notice ; when it //^^ Roman Sen ATE. 17 It was free in it's deliberations, and open in it's accefs, to the virtue of every citizen. But fince your Lord- fhip has thought fit to recur to it's very origin, and to trace out it's pro- grefs through every period of it's duration, I think myfelf obliged to purfue the fame method, and ex- plane my thoughts on it's original con- ftitution and legal manner of fupply, from the very foundation of Rome^ to the oppreffion of it's liberty. But in order to place the fubjeft of our de- bate in it's true light, it will be ne- cefTary, to ftate precifely the different opinions, which we feverally entertain about it. Your Lordihip's notion then is, ^^ that '^ under the Kings oi Rome, the choice " and nomination of all the Senators ^^ depended wholly on the will of the " Prince, without any right in the peo- " pie, either dired or indired : that *^ the Confuls, who fucceded to the " kingly power, enjoyed the fame pre- '^ rogative 1 8 A Treat if e on " rogative, till the creation of the Cen- " fors ; who ever after poffeffed the " fole and abfolute right of making " and unmaking Senators." My opinion on the contrary is^ " that ^' the Kings, the Confuls, and the Cen- " fors a£led in this affair, but minifte- ^^ rially and fubordinately to the fu- " preme will of the people ; in whom " the proper and abfolute power of " creating Senators always refided." I fhall precede therefore, in the me- thod above propofed, to examine, what evidence of fads, or grounds of proba- bility can be found in favor of my hypothefis, through all the feveral pe- riods of the Roman hiftory. I mufi: confefs in the firft place, that, as far as our argument is con- cerned with the regal government of Rome^ your Lordfhip has the Latin writers on your fide, who conftantly fpeak of the creation of Senators, as a branch of the royal prerogative. But in computing the proper force of this evidence, the Roman Senate. ''19 evidence, we muft remember, that none of thofe writers treat the queftion pro- feffedly, but touch it only incidental- . ly ; and that it is natural to all, upon the flight and occafional mention of an event, to afcribe it to the principal agent, concerned in it's production ; fo as to impute the ads of popular af- femblies to the Prince or ruling Magi- giftrate, who convened and prefided in them, and had the chief influence per- haps in determining the tranfadions themfelves. Thus when Livy tells us, that the PrcefeB of the city created the Jirji Cortfuls ; and that Brutus^ one of thefe Con f Ills ^ created P. ValeriuSy his Collegue in that office ; or that the Interrex on other occafeons created the Co7tfiils^ or that the Pontifex Maxi- mus was ordered by the Se?iate to create^ the frji Ij^ibuf^s [f\ he means no- C 2 thing [/] Duo Confales inde, comitlls centuriatis, a Prasfedo Urbis, ex commenUriis Servil Tullii, crea- tl funt. Liv. 1. I, 60. Brutus 20 A "Treat if e o?t thing more, than that thofe Magiftrates called the people together, in order to make fuch creations, in which they af- fifted and prefided [^]. And as this is the ufual ftile of all writers, fo it is pecuharly of thofe, who write the hi- ftory of their own country, and for the information of their own people ; who have not the patience, to treat minutely of things, which they fup- pofe to be known to their readers, as well as to themfelves : and hence it fometimes happens, that the origin of cuftoms and conftitutions of the great- eft importance are left dark and ob- fcure, not onely to ftrangers, but even to the natives of later ages. The cafe however is different, with Dionyjius of Halkamaffus ; who pro- Brutus Collegam fibi comitiis centuriatis creavit P. Valerium. Ibid. 2. 2. Is Confules creavit Q^ Publilium Philonem & L. Papirium Curforem. Ibid. 9. 7. Fadum S. C. ut Q^ Furius, Pont. Max. Tribu- nes plebis crearet. Ibid 3. 54. [^] Ibi extemplo, Pontifice Maximo comitia ha- bente, Tribunos plebis creaverunt. Ibid. feffes />5^RomanSenate. 2r fefles to write for the inftrudion of ftrangers ; and to explane the civil government of Rome^ and the origin of it's laws with the diligence of an Antiquary, as well as the fidelity of an Hiftorian. This celebrated author then informs us, that when Romulus had formed the projed of his Senate, confiding of an hundred members, he referved to himfelf the nomination only of the firft, or prefident of the afiembly, and gave the choice of all the reft to the people, to be made by a vote of their Tribes and their Curiae. Muft we then prefer one Greek to all the Latin writers ? yes, as we prefer one credible and pofitive evidence, to many of a negative kind ; or one, who fearches things to the bottom, to any number, who, without the pains of fearching, take up with the popu- lar and vulgar accounts of things. But of all the Roman writers, whom your Lordfliip has cited, as Livy is the chief, fo he will be found perhaps to C 3 be 2 2 A Treatife on be the onely one, who in the prefent cafe deferves any regard from us ; the reft of them for the moft part, being but tranfcribers or epitomizers of him, rather than hiftorians : fo that in ef- fect, it is the fingle credit of Livy^ which, in the Cjueftion before us, ftands oppofed to Dionyfius^ and where thefe two happen to differ, it cannot be dif- ficult to decide, which of them ought to ha\^e the preference ; nay, it is al- xeady decided by the judgment of all the beft critics ; who, upon the com- parifon, have univerfally preferred the diligence and accuracy o{ Dionyjius^ to the haft and negligence of Livy \h\ Let \}o\ Multa enim DIonyfius de Romanorum cere- moniis religionibufque in Decs \ non pauca.de variis ritibns atque inftitutis, deque eorum legibus ac tota pc^lltia accurate diligentcrque fcripfit, quje Livius csetcrique Hlftorici partim omnino praetermiferunt, parti m hv^irr>r tantum ftridimque attigerunt. H. Stfci'h. in Dionyf. c. 6. Ciij'js major fides In hiftorla, quam IJviiy Tran- qtiilii^ Tacitly Arriani, Ant. PoiTevin. Multis //5^ R O M A N S E N A T E. 23 Let us precede then with our hifto- ry. Upon the peace and league of u- nion made between Romulus and Tatius^ King of the Sabins^ the number of the Senate, as Dionyjius writes, was doubled by the addition of an hundred new members from the Sabin families ; all chofen by the people in the fame man- ner as before : in which account, he fays, all the old writers concur, ex- cepting a few, who declare the addi- tional number of Sabins to have been only fifty [f\ : which may ferve as a fpecimen of the diligence of this au- thor's inquiries : whereas Livy is not onely filent about this augmentation of. the Senate, but, as your Lord/hip owns, expreflly contradicts it. Yet all the la- ter writers, and your Lordfhip with the reft, chufe to follow Dionyjius in C 4 oppo- Multis argu mentis mihi perfuafi, antiquiflima hasc populi Romani gefta longe dijigentius a Dionvfio, Onuph. Panvin Comm. in Faft. p. 62. See the teftimonies of authors prefixed to Flud- foil's edit, of Dionyfius. [t] Lib. 2. 47. Edit. Hudfbn. 24 ^ Treat if e on oppolition to him : and if in this cafe of the augmentation, why not in the other, of the nomination of the Sena- tors ? for as far as the cafe can be de- termined by authority, the character of Dionyjius v/ill bear us out in adhering to him, preferably to ail others ; efpe- cially in points of antiquity, or things remote from their own knowledge. Let us examine therefore in the next place, what facts may be collected with^ in this period, to confirm the teftimo- ny of Dionyjtus. All hiftorians agree, that great pow- ers and privileges were originally grant- ed to the people by Romulus : who had no fooner fecured his new city by a wall, than he began to provide laws for the citizens, becaufe nothing elfe could unite a multitude into one com- mon body [/^]. This was his firft: care, according to Livy^ and one of [^] Vocata ad concilium multitudine, quas coa- lefcere in populi unius corpus nulla alia re, prseter- quam legibus ppterat, jura dedlt. Liv. i. 8. his ^Z^^ Roman Senate. 25 his firft laws, according to Dionyjiusy was, to divide the people into three tribes^ and each tribe into ten Curi^y for the more convenient method of voting and tranfadting the public bufi- nefs in their affemblies [/]. He had reigned eleven or twelve years before his union with the Sabins : which makes it probable, that he had made this divilion of the people before that ^ra ; and fettled what was the firft thing necelTary, the form of his poli- tical government. Each of the thirty Curiae of Old Rome had a temple or chapel, affigned to them, for the common performance of their facrifices and other offices of religion: fo that they were not un- like to our parifhes. Some remains of which little temples feem to have fub- fifted many ages after on the Palatine hill [j^], where Romulus firft built the city, and always refided : whence /] Dionyf. 1. 2. 7. m\ Tacit. Annal. 12. 24. Manutius 26 A Treat if e on Manutius infers, that the inftitution of the Curice was previous to the union with the Sabins^ fince thefe were feated feparately from the Romans on the Ca- pitoline and ^irinal hills [n] : which conjGirms Hkewife the account of Dio- nyjius^ and takes off, what your Lord- lliip alledges as an objedion to it, that the Curi(B were not yet eftabUfhed, when he fuppofes the Senate to have been eleded by them. Again, it is agreed Hkewife by all, that Romulus inflituted the Comitia Curiata ; or the public affemblies of the people, called to vote in their feveral Curiae -^ and that the matters fubjeded to their decilion, were, the choice of all the magiftrates, and the right of making of laws, war and peace. An ample jurifdidion, and in the moft important articles of govern- ment ; yet not wholly abfolute, as \jt\ Dionyf. 1. 2. 50. Dio?tyJius , the Roman Senate. 27 Dionyjius fays, unlefs the Senate con- curred with them [^]. But this method of tranfafting all the greater affairs by the people, af~ fembled in their CuricB^ after it had fubfifted through five fucceffive reigns, was found to be inconvenient. For in affemblies fo conftituted, where cvecy individual had an equal vote, the iiTue of all deliberations muft depend of courfe on the poorer fort, who are al- ways the moft numerous, though not always the moft reafonable or incor- rupt ; fo that Servms Tullius^ the fixth King, in order to corred this incon- venience, inftituted a nev/ divifion of the people into^^ clajfes^ according to a cenfus^ or valuation of their eftates : then he fubdivided thefe clafTes into one hundred and nt7iety three centuries ^ and contrived to throw a majority of thefe centuries, that is, ninety eight of them^ into the firft clafs of the richeft {o] Id. c. 14. citizens : 2 8 A Treat if e on citizens : by which regulation, though every man voted now in his Century^ as before in his Curia^ yet, as all mat- ters were decided by a majority of the Centuries^ fo the balance of power was wholly transferred into the hands of the rich ; and the poorer fort deprived of their former weight and influence in the affairs of ftate \_p] : which wife inflitution was ever after obferved through all fucceding ages, in the e- led:ions of the principal magiftrates, and the determination of all the prin- cipal tranfadions of the Republic. Thefe fads, confirmed by all writers, fliew the power of the people to have been extremely great, even under the regal government. It extended to the choice, not onely of tlieir Kings, but of all the other Magiftrates, and I find no reafon to imagine, that the Senators \^p] Non enim viritim fufrragium eadem vi eo- demque jure promlfcue omnibus datum eft : fed gra- dus ta6li, ut neque exclufus quifquam mffragio vi- deretur, & vis omnis pane primores civitatis eiTet. Liv. I. 43. it. Dionyf. 1. 4, 20, 21. were /y&^ Roman Senate, 29 were excepted, or none at leaft, fuffi- cient to balance the contrary teftimony of fo grave an author as Dionyjius. On the demolition oi Alba by Tullus Hojliltus^ fome of the chief families of that city were enrolled likewife into the Senate. Livy reckons fix, Dio- nyfius feven [^] : and Ma7tutius^ to make their accounts confift with what is delivered concerning the limited number of the Senate, imagines, that thefe Albarts were not created Senators, hut Pair kiam onely, and by that means rendered capable of being chofen into the Senate on the occaiion of a vacan- cy. But it may be fuppofed perhaps with more probability, that the num- ber of Albans^ taken into the Senate at that time, was no more than what fupplied the vacancies then fubfifting, fo as to fill it up to it's fettled com- plement of two hundred. This aiFair however, as Dionyjius intimates, was [^J Liv.i. 30. DIonyf, 3. 29. not 30 A Treatife on not tranfaded without the confent both of the Senate and the people. The laft augmentation of the Se- nate, under the Kings, was made by Tarqui7iius Prifcus^ who added an hun- dred new members to it, from the Pie- beian famiUes, and fo enlarged the whole number from two to three hun- dred. He did this, as Livy informs us, to ftrengthen his particular inte- reft, and to raife a fure fadion to him- felf in the new Senators of his own creation [;-] : v/hence M. Vertot draws a conclufion, that the people had no jhare in this eleSiion [s\. But it is in- credible, that an innovation of fuch importance, which muft needs difguft the Nobles, fhould be attempted and eftablifhed by an eledive King, if he had not been fupported by the power and fuftrages of the commons: and efpecially by a Prince, fo cautious of [r] Fa(5lIo haud dubia Regis, cujus beneficio in curiam venerant. Li v. i. 35. [j] See M. Vertot''^ anfwer to E. Stanhope. 2 giving 2f/6^ Roman Senate. 31 giving jealoufy to his fubjefts, that he would not accept the robes and enfigns of foverein power, which were pre- fented to him by the Tufcans^ whom he had fubdued in war, till he had firft confulted the Senate and the people, and obtained their approba- tion [/]. But your Lordfhip here remarks, that Dionyfius himfelf afcribes this ad: to the Prince, without any mention of the people \y\ : To which I anfwer, that after he had precifely and fre- quently explaned the whole procefs of filling up the Senate, might he not think it needlefs to repeat the ceremo- nial on every occafion ? might he not imagine, that what he had before fo particularly defcribed, would be ap- plied to every fubfequent cafe of the fame kind ? and when he had once fettled this point, was it not natural for him, like all other writers, and for [t] Dionyf. 3. 62. the 32 A Treat if e on the fake of brevity, to impute the ad: done in confequence of it, to the prin- cipal mover and diredor of it ? Since Dionyjius then, the moft accurate of the Roman hiftorians, and who treats the particular queftion under debate more largely and clearly than any of them, is expreflly on my fide ; and fince all the reft, who feem to differ from him, touch it but flightly and incidentally, nor yet abfolutely contra- dict him ; I cannot help thinking, that, as far as authority reaches, my hypothefis muft appear to be better grounded than your Lordfliip's. I Ihall confider therefore in the laft place, how far it is confirmed by ar- guments, drawn from the nature and fundamental principles of the Roman government, as it was adminiftered under the Kings. The firft citizens of Rome were all voluntary adventurers, whom their young leader Romulus had no power either to force, or means to attach to his Service, but the promife of //^^RomanSenate. 33 of large immunities and rights, and a fhare with him in the adminiftration of their - common affairs. This in- dulgence was neceffary to his circum- fiances ; and we find accordingly, that he granted them all the privileges even of a Democracy ; the right of making laivs^ war and peace^ with the choice of all their magijl rates ; and moft pro- bably therefore, oi the Senators, Now when thefe rights had been once grant- ed and poffeffed by the people, it is not credible, that they would ever fuffer themfelves to be deprived of them ; or that Kings eledive, and of fo limited a jurifdid:ion, fhould be difpofed, or able to wreft them whol- ly out of their hands. Their firft King Ro7nulus no fooner began to violate the conftitutions, that he himfelf had made, than, as it is commonly believ- ed, he was privately taken off \x'\ : 'GToAtlcov Xifii(nv a'JTov (XTro^xviTv. DlOIiyf. 2. ^6. it, Appian. de Bell. Civ. 2. D and 34 ^ Treat if e on and their laft King "Tarquijuus^ by a more open and violent infringement of their Uberties^ not only loft his crown, but gave occallon to the utter extindion of the kingly government [jj;]. The intermediate Kings do not feem to have made any attempt upon the Uberties of the people : for in the cafe above mentioned, v^hen Servius lullms contrived to reduce the autho- rity of the poorer fort, it v^as to ad- vance that of the rich ; and to change onely the hands, not the power of his mafters : to whom, ^% Cicero intimates, and as Seneca^ upon his authority, de- clares, there lay an appeal from the magiftrates, and even from the Kings themfelves [z]. The [jy] Hie enim regum primus traditum a primo- ribus morem de omnibus Senatum confulendi folvit, domefticis conciliis remp. adminillravit. helium, pa- cem, foedera, focietates per fe ipfe, cum quibus vo- luit, injufTu populi ac Senatus, fecit diremitque. Liv, 1.48. [z] Partim regiis inftitutis, partim etiam leglbus aulplcia, cserlmonias, provocationes, &c. Cic. Tufc. Quefl. 4, I. ^que />$^RomanSenate. 35 The Kings indeed, by virtue of their office, muft needs have had a great influence over the deHberations of the people. It was their prerogative, to call the people together ; to prefide in their aflemblies ; to propofe the affairs to be debated ; or the perfons to be e- led:ed ; and to deUver their own opi- nion the fir ft [^]. So that we need not wonder, that the writers, who are not treating the matter critically, fhould impute to them the refult of all the public councils. They conftantly do it in the affair of war and peace ; which yet was the unqueftionable prerogative of the people ; and when they do it therefore in the cafe before us, it can- not be alledged, as an argument of any weight, againft the people's right of chufing the Senators. iEque notat, Romulum periifle foils defedtione. Provocationem ad populum etiam a regibus fuifle. Id ita in pontificallbus libris aliqui putant, & Fene- ftella. Senec. Epift. io8. di7ri$(/iy.i (ScccjAe? ra yi^ac. Dionyf. L 2, 14, D 2 Oa 36 A Treat if e on On the whole; fince the origin of Rome itfclf is involved in fable and obfcurity, it is not lirange, that the firft tranfaftions of it's citizens fliould alfo be obfcure and uncertain : but up- on the ftrideft fearch into the ftate of the prefent queftion, as it flood under the kingly government, I cannot but conclude, from the exprefs teftimony of the beft hiftorian, the concurrence of fimilar fads, and the probability of the thing itfelf, that the right of chu- fi7ig Senato?^s v^as originally and confti- tutionally vefted in the people. We are nov^ arrived at the Confular ftate of Rome : and upon this memo- rable change of government, and the expulfion of their Kings, effedled with fuch fpirit and refolution by an injured people, for the recovery of their jufl: rights, we may expe£l to find them in the pofieffion of every privilege, which they could legally claim. For our rea- fon would fuggeft, what all authors teftify, that in the beginnings and un- i fettled //^^ Roman Sen ATE. 37 fettled ftate of this revolution, great complaifance and deference would ne- ceffarily be paid by the Senate to the body of the Commons [<^]. I fhall examine then, what fafts and teftimo- nies may be alledged in favor of my opinion, during this firft period of the Confular government, till the creation of the Cenfors, which includes the fpace of fixty feven years. The firft exercife of the people's power was, to eled two Confuls, to fupply the place of the ejected King : who were now chofen, as they were ever after, in the Comitia centuriata^ or by a vote of the people affembled in their centuries, according to the in- ftitution of Servius "Ttdlius : and the firft care of the new Confuls was, to fecure to the people all their rights, which their late King T^arqiim had violated ; particularly, the decifion of ]]?] Multa blandimenta plebi per id tempus a Senatu data. Li v. 1.9. D 3 all 38 A Treat if e on all the great affairs of ftate in their public aflemblies [c]. P. Valerius^ the Collegue of Bru-- tus in the Confulate, was fo warm ail alTertor of the authority of the people, that he acquired by it the naxne of Poplicola \d\ Yet happening to build his houfe upon an eminence, he gave umbrage to the citizens, as if he had defigned it for a citadel, and affeded a power dangerous to their liberty. Upon which, he demolilhed what he had built, and calling the people to- gether, in order to juftify himfelf, com- manded his officers, on their entrance into the affembly, to fubmit and let fall thefafces^ or enfigns of his magi- stracy, as an acknowledgment, that the maj^fiy of the Commons was fupe- rior to that of the Confuls \e\ If the [<:] Dionyf. 5. 2. \d'\ Qiii populi majeftatem venerando Topllcol<£ nomen aflecutus eft. Val. Max, 4. i. \e\ Gratiim id multitudini fpedlaculum fuit, Tub- miiTa fibi t^^ imperii infignia ; confefiionemque fac- tam, populi quam ConfuJis majeftatem, vimque ma- jorem effe. Liv. 2. 7, Vid. Dionyf. 5. 19. power the Roman Senate. 39 power therefore of the Confuls was the fame with that of the Kings, as all the ancient writers declare \^f\ it is cer- tain, that the power of the people was always fuperior to them both. This was the ftate of thino;s in the infancy of the Republic ; in which the people were much careffed by the no- bles, as long as there was any appre- fion of danger from their depofed King or his family [^] : and in thefe cir- cumftances, the Senate, which had been reduced, by Tarquins arbitrary reign, to half it's legal number, was filled up to it's former complement of three hundred^ by Brutus and Valerius ; or by the one or the other of them, as [/] Sed quoniam regale civitatis genus probatuni quondam, poftea non tarn regni quam regis vitlis repudiatnm eft, res manebat, cum tinus omnibus magiftratibus imperaret. Cic. de Legib. 3. Libertatis autem initium Inde magis, quia annuura imperlum Confulare fadum eft, quam quod diminu- tum quicquam fit ex regia poteftate, omnia jura^ omnia infignia primi Coniules tenuere. Liv. 2. i. \_g\ Plcbi, cui ad eum diem fumma ope infervi- iwni erat. Ibid. 2i» D 4 writers 40 A "Treattfe on writers differently relate it. All that Dionyjtus indeed and Livy fay upon it, is, that a number of the hejl citizens were chofen from the commo7is tofupply the vacancies \h\ But we cannot ima- gine, that an aift of fo great nioment could pafs v/ithout the fpecial com- mand and fuffrage of the people, at a time, when nothing elfe of any mo- ment paffed without it : the reafon of the thing, and the power of the peo- ple in all fimilar cafes, muft perfuade us of the contrary. The next fad:, that relates to our queftion, is, the admiflion of Appius Claudius into the Senate. He was one of the Chiefs of the Sahin nation, who deferted to Rome^ with a body of his friends, and dependents, to the num- ber of five thoufand ; to whom the freedom of the city, and lands were publicly afligned, and to -^^/^j* him- felf, a place in the Senate. Livy does \h'\ LIv. 2. I. pionyf. 5. 13. not the Roman Senate. 41 not fay, by what authority this was done ; but Dtonyjius, that it was by an order of the Senate and people \t\ : that is, by a previous decree of the Se- nate, approved and ratified by an affembly of the commons : which was the legal and regular way of tranfad:- ing all the public bufinefs, from the very beginning of the Republic, and continued generally to be fo, in all quiet and peaceable times, to the end of it \]i\. Thefe are the onely examples of fill- ing up the Senate, from the expulfion [/J 'Av9* biv y\ (^vXri >^ 0 ^)!^©J ilg rs rig 'sraJ^ix/yj avTov mf^oi^B, Dionyf. J. 5. 40. Lav, 2. 16. [k] Brutus ex S. Co. ad populum tulit. Li v. 2.2. Per interceflionem Collegarum, qui nullum ple» bifcitum nifi ex au6loritate Senatus, pafTuros fe per- ferri, oftendunt, difcuffum eft. Liv. 4. 49. Poteftas in populo audloritas in Senatu eft. Clc. de Leg. 3. Decreverunt Patres, ut cum populus regem juf- fiflet, id fie ratum efiet fi patres au(4ores fierent. ho- dieque in legibus Magiftratibufque rogandis, uflirpa- tur idem jus, vi adempca, priufquam populus fujfFra- gium ineat, in incertum comitiorum eventum patres ^UiStores iiunt. Liv. i. 17, of 42 A Ireatife on of the King^j to the creation of the Cenfors : and though we are not di- redly informed, by what authority they were efFeded, yet it is certain, that it was by the intervention and power of the people ; agreeably to the exprefs teftimony of Cicero^ and the fpeech of Canuleius the Tribun, re- ferred to by your Lordfhip, wherein it is declared, that from the extinction of the Regal government, the admif- iion of all members into the Senate was given by the command of the peo- fie [/]. From thefe augmentations jufl: men- tioned, to the inftitution of the Cenfor- fhip, there is an interval of fixty years or more, without the mention of any review or fupply of the Senate what- foever : and yet there muft have been [/] Deligerentur autcm in id confilium ab univer- fo populo, aditufque in ilium fummum ordinem om- nium civium indullris ac virtuti pateret. Cic. pr. Sext. § 137.^^ Aut ab regibus ledi, aut pofl reges exaftos, juflu ppuli. Liv. 4. 4. fome the Roman Senate. 43 fome conftant method of fupplying it during that time, or it would have been wholly extinft. The Confuls, whofe province it then was, to hold the Cenfiis^ and general lujiration of the citizens, as oft as they found it ne- cefTary, had, in confequence of that duty, the tafk alfo of fettUng the roll of the Senate at the fame time. Yet there is no inftance recorded, of the exercife of that power, or of any a<3: relating to it, either by the admiffion or ejedion of any Senators : fo that the ftate of the Senate in this period is left wholly dark to us by the ancients, nor has been explaned, as far as I know, by any of the moderns. The moft probable account of the matter is this ; that the Senate began now to be regularly fupplied by the annual Magiftrates, who were inflitu- ted about this time, and chofen by the people. Thefe were two ^ucejlors of Patrician families, and^^i;^ Tribims of the people, with two ^diles of PU- X beian 44 -^ Treatife on heta7i families ; to which jiv^ more Tribuns were afterwards added : and if we fuppofe all thefe to have had an admiffion into the Senate by virtue of their office, and confequently, a right to be enrolled by the Confuls at the next luftrum, this would yield a com- petent fupply to the ordinary vacan- cies of that affembly: which might receive fome acceffion alfo from the Decemviri^ who were not all Patri- cians, nor yet Senators perhaps, before their eledion to that magiftracy. If this was the cafe, as I take it to have been, it will help us to account for the filence of authors about it, as being a thing, that fucceded of courfe, fo as to have nothing in it remarkable, or what feemed to deferve a particular recital. The office of ^luczjlor^ which was inftituted the firft, is always mentioned by the ancients, as the firft ftep of ho- nor in the Republic, and what gave an entrance //5^ Roman Senate. 45 entrance into the Senate [m]. As to t&e l*ribuns^ it has been taken for granted, on the authority of Valeri- us Maximus^ that, on their firft crea- tion, they were not admitted into the Senate, but had feats placed for them before the door, in the veftibule [n\. But we may reafonably conclude, that a Magiftrate fo ambitious and power- ful, who could controul, by his fingle negative, whatever paffed within doors, would not long be content to fit with- out. A. Gellius fays, that they were not made Senators before the law of Atinius \o\ ; who is fuppofed to be C. Ati?iius LabeOy Tribun of the people, A. U. 623 [/)] : but that cannot pof- [w] Quseftura, primus gradus honoris. Cic. in Ver. Aa, 1.4. \7i\ Illud quoque memoria repetendum eft, quod Tribunis plebis intrare Curiam non licebat. ante val- vas autem pofitis fubfelliis, decreta patrum attentif- fima cura examinabant. Val. Max, 1. 2. c. 2. 7. [0] Nam & Tribunis plebis Senatus habendi jus erat, quanquam Senatores non efTent, ante Atinium Plebifcitum. A. Gell. 14. 8. [?] Vid. Pighli Annales. A. U, 623, flbiv 46 A Treatife on fibly be true, fince it is evident from the authority of Dionyftus^ that near four centuries before, the Tribuns, by the mere weight and great power of their office, had gained an aftual ad- miffion into the Senate within two years after their firft creation \_q] : in which we find them debating and enforcing with great warmth the demands of the Commons, for a liberty of intermar^ riages with the nobles^ and the choice of a Plebeian Conful \r\ : fo that the in- tent of this Atinian law could not be, as it is commonly underftood, that the Tribuns fliould be Senators in virtue of their office, for that they had been from the beginning, but that for the future, they fhould always be chofen A.'U. 263. Koc\ tZto iTTiiG-oiv r^i^oi; ol QjiA^aXoi to oc^^uqv Ixcai TS-OiPsX^sTv sU rviv paXriv. Ibid. 49. [^] ''EttsiIoc Qvvoc^^i'jlig ilg to paXfJl'/f^ioj/ ol Qjvi^soiy ZTocoovruv kJ tcov J'rjjujc^p^^wu. DlOnyf. I. X. li. [r] Liv. 4. 1 5 2, 3. Dionyf. xi. ^y, out the Roman Senate. \j out of the body of the Senate, or, which is the fame thing, out of thofe, who had already boro the office of Hucefior. About thirteen years before the creation of the Cenfors, the Tribuns began to affume a right of fummon- ing or convoking the Senate ; and of propounding to them whatever they thought proper \j\. A prerogative, which the Confuls alone had ever ex- ercifed before ; and which I take to be a clear proof of their being then mem- bers of the Senate : and I find alfo, that two Patricians, even of Confular dig- nity, were eleded Tribuns of the peo- ple about the fame time, in an ex- traordinary manner \t\ : which can hardly be accounted for, without fup- pofing this Magiftracy to have had an admiffion into the Senate. [j] Dionyf. x. 31. [/] Novi Tribuni plebis In cooptandls collegis, Patrum voluntatem foverunt : duos etiam Patricios Confularefque Sp. Tarpeium & A, Aterium coop- tavere. Li7. 3. %, Some 48 A Treatife on Some few years before this, upon the death of one of the Confuls and the ficknefs of the other, at a time of great confternation in Rome^ the fu- preme power and care of the public was committed to the j^diles \y\ t which great deference to their ojffice, makes it reafonable to conclude, that thefe magiftrates alfo were at this time in the Senate, as they unqueftionably were within a fhort time after. But the warm conteft hinted above, about the right of eleding a Plebeian Co?ifuly which continued on foot for a long time, feems to demonftrate the truth of my opinion ; it being wholly incre- dible, that the Commons fhould de- mand to have one of their body placed at the head of the Senate, before they had obtained fo much as an entrance into it, for any of the other plebeian magiftrates. [y] Circultio & cura iEdilium plebei erant. ad COS fumma rerum ac majeilas Confuiaris imperil ve- nerat. Liy. 3. 6^y, the RoA/fAN Senate. 49 I cannot omit the mention of one fad more, not foreign to our prefent purpofe, though it did not happen till about two hundred years later • which is this ; the Fla7ne7t Dialis^ or fove- reign prieft of Jupiter^ revived an an- cient pretenfion to a feat in the Se- nate, in right of his office ; which, by the indolence of his predecelTors, had not been clamed or enjoyed for many generations. The Praetor rejeft- ed his claim, nor would fuffer him to fit in that affembly : but upon his ap- peal to the Tribuns, that is, to the peo- ple, his right was confirmed, and he was allowed to take his place as a Se- nator [a;]. This cafe fhews, that the privilege of the Senate might be an- nexed to an office, without any notice taken of it by the hiftorians ; for we have not the leaft hint from any of them, of the origin of this Flamens right ; nor any mention of him as a [;<■] LIv. 27. 8. E Senator, 50 A Threat if e on Senator, but on this very occafion : though by the manner of his appeal, the claim feems to have been ground- ed on fome old grant from the peo- ple. But it may perhaps be objefted, that though the annual magiftrates might furnifh a tolerable fupply to the ordi- nary vacancies of the Senate, yet there muft have been fome other method of providing for the extraordinary defi- ciencies, made by the calamitous ac- cidents of wars abroad, or ficknefs at home, of which there are feveral in- ftances in the Roman hiftory. In an- fwer to which, it muft be owned, that the Senate, in fuch particular exigen- cies, would demand a larger fupply, than the public offices could furni£h : and the method of fupplying it feems to have been regulated by what the firft Confuls did, upon the firft en- rollment and completion of the Se- nate : for this was probably the ftand- ing precedent; agreeably to which, 3 ^11 the Roman Senate.^ 51 all the future Confuls, as we may rea- fonably prefume, ufed to pitch upon a number of the beft and moft repu- table citizens of the Equeftrian rank, to be propofed to the choice and ap- probation of the people in their gene- ral aflembly ; who, by approving and confirming the lift, gave them a com- plete and immediate right to the rank and title of Senators during life. This will appear ftill more proba- ble, by refleding on a fad or two de- livered by all the Hiftorians. Sp. Mcb- lim^ who was attempting to make him- felf King, v/as one of the moft weal- thy and popular Commoners of the E- queftrian order, yet from Ltvy\ ac- count, it is plain, that he was a Se- nator : for his firft ambition, it is faid, was onely to be chofen Conful, which feems to imply it : but the Diftator's fpeech concerning him diredly aflerts it : for he obferves with indignation, that hc^ who had not been fo much as a T?^il/uny and whom^ on the account ■ E 2 cf 52 A Treatife on of his birth^ the city could hardly digefi as a Senator^ Jhould hope to be endured as a King [j/]. About forty years after this, P. Lici- nius CahuSy another eminent commo- ner, was eleded one of the miUtary Tribuns with confular authority. He was the firft plebeian, who had been raifed to that dignity : but hiftory has not informed us, what particular me- rit it was, that advanced him to it: for as Livy obferves, he had pajfed through none of the public offices^ and was 07tly an old Senator of great age. \_z\ If we fhould afk then, how thefe two Plebeians came to be made Sena- tors, without having born any magi- ftracy, there is no anfwer fo probable, as that they were added to the roll of the Senate, with other eminent citizens, [)'] Ex equefhri ordlne, ut illis temporlbus, prae- dives — cui Tribunatus plebis magis optandus quam fperandus — ut quern Senatorem concoquere civitas vix poiTet, regem ferret. LIv. 4. 13, 15. I z] Vir nullls honoribus ufus, vetus tamen Se' pator & retate jam gravis. Liv. 5. 12. 2 by the Roman Senate. 53 by the command of the people, oa fome extraordinary creation. For if the nomination had wholly depended on the will of any Patrician magi- ftrate, it is fcarce to be imagined, that he would have beftowed that honor on Plebeian Families. I fhall procede in the next place, to confider the State of the Senate, after the eftablifhment of the Cenfors, and try to reconcile my hypothecs, with the great power and authority delega- ted to thefe magiftrates in the affair of creating Senators, in which the whole Difficulty of the prefent quagftion con- fifts. The people were now, as the an- cient writers tell us, the fole arbiters of rewards and puni(hments, on the diftribution of which depends the fuc- cefs of all governments ; and in fhort, had the fupreme power over all per- fons and all caufes whatfoever \a\. E 3 Thefe [^] Quum illi 3^ de Sempronio & de omnibus rummani 54 ^ Treat if e on Thefe accounts leave no room for any exception, and make it vain to fup- pofe, that the commons, in this height of power, would eftabUfh a pri- vate jurifdiclion, to ad independently and exclufively of their fupremacy. But befides the proofs already alledged of their univerfal prerogative, we have clear evidence likewife of their fpecial right in this very cafe of making Sena- tors. The teftimony of Cicero produced above, is decifive : and the frequent de- clarations, which he makes, both to the Senate and the people, that he owed all his honors, and particularly his feat in the Senate, to the favour of the people [/^], are unqu^ftionable proofs of fummam popiili Romani poteflatem effe dicerent. JLiv. 4. 42. Populus Romanus, cujus efl fumma poteflas om- nium rerum. Cic. de Hamfp. refponf. 6. Vide Po- lyb. 1. 6. 462, B. Tt/xTjj yoi^ l^i ^ Ti/xw^iac Iv rn TroXst- [b] Rex denique ecquls efl, qui Senatorem Po- puli Romani te^to ac domo non invitet ^ qui honos non homini folum habttur, fed primum Populo Ro - manOy the Roman Senate. 55 of it. For fuch fpeeches delivered in public, and in the face of the Cenfors themfelves, muft have been confidered as an infult on their authority, and provoked their animadverfion, if they had not been confeffedly and indifpu- tably true. The teflimony of Cicero is confirmed alfo by hivy [ c ], which gives occafion to M, Vertot to obferve, that the fole right of creating Senators is attributed to the people by two^ the mo ft celebrated writers of the republic. but after the acknowledgment of fo great an authority, he affirms, too in- confiderately, in the very ne^t words, E 4 that mano^ cujus beneficio in hunc ordinem venimus* In Ver. 1. 4. xi. Si populum Romanum^ cujus honoribus in amplif- flmo concilio & in altiflimo gradu dignitatis, atque in hac omnium terramm arce coliocati fumus. Poft re- dit. in Sen. i. Etpalam fortidime atque honeftifllme dicerent, fe potuifle judicio populi Romani in ampliffimum lo- cum pervenire, fi fua ftudia ad honores petendos conferre voluifTent. Pr. Cluen. ^6. [c] Aut ab regibus lecfti, [in Senatum] aut pod reges exaftos, jullii populi» Liv, 4. 4. 56 A Treatlfe on that all the faBs and examples of hi/- tory are clearly againft it \d\ For whatev^er thofe fads may feem to inti- mate, on a flight view, and at this di- fiance of time, yet it is certain, that they muft admit fuch an interpreta- tion, as is confiftent with a teftimony fo precife and authentic. £ut in truth, the people's right of chufing magiftrates, was the fame with that of chuflng Senators ; fince the magiftrates by virtue of their of- fice obtained a place of courfe in the Senate : that is, the ^ucejlors^ Tribuns of the people^ j^dileSy Prcetors^ Con- Juls ; for this was the regular gradation or fteps of honor, which every man, in the courfe of his ambition, was to af- cend in their Order. A method, contri- ved with great prudence and policy ; by which no man could be entrufted with the fupreme power, and the reins of government, till he had given a fpeci- men of his abilities, through all the [i] Reponfe an Memoire de Ld. Stanhope. inferior the Roman Senate. 57 inferior offices, and fubordinate bran- ches of it: and we find accordingly in the old Fafti or Annals, many ex- amples of perfons who had proceded regularly through them all [^] . The young Patricians indeed, proud of their high birth, and trufting to the authority of their families, would often pufh at the higher offi- ces, without the trouble of folliciting for the lower. But this was always refented and complained of by the Tribuns, as an infringement of the conftitution ; that the nobles in their way to the ConfulJhip^Jhould jump over the ifitermediate fieps^ and flight the inferior honors- of ^dile and Prcetor • as in the cafe of 7! ^inEiius Flami- ninus^ who from his firft preferment of ^lu^ftor^ was eleded conful by the authority of the Senate [y^]: and it was to \e] Q^ Caflius Longinus was chofcn Qusftor A, U. Pj^^. Tribun of the people 580. .^dile 583. Praetor 586. Conful 589. Vide Pigh. Annaks. [/] Comitia per Tribunes pi. impediebantur, (]uod T. Quindium Flamininuni Confulatum ex Qu?e- 58 A "Treat if e on to correal this licenfe and irregularityj that Sylla afterwards, by a fpecial law, injoined the obligation of pafling through the interior offices, as a ne- ceffary qualification for the confulate. But the pradice itfelf did not derive it's origin from this Cornelian law, as your Lordfhip feems to intimate, but was grounded on a conftitution or cuf- torn of ancient ftanding. Let us examine then after all, what part really belonged to the Cenfors, in this affair of creating Senators. This magiftracy was firft inftituted, A. U. 311. not to take any fhare of pow- er from the people, but of trouble only from the Confuls : who now be- gan to have more of it than they could poffibly difchargc : and the fpecial bu- iinefs of thefeCenfors, was to eafe them of the ta(k of holding the Cenfus ^ Qaa^dura petere non patiebantur. Jam JEdilita- tern Prasturamque faftldiri, nee per honorum gradus dociimentum fui dantes, nobiles homines tenderead Conf^alatum, fed tranfcendendo media imis conti- Ruare. LI v. 32. 7. Lujlrumy the Roman Senate. 59 Lufinim^ which the Confuls had not been able to do for feventeen years paft: that is, to take a general review of the whole people, as oft as there {hould be occafion ; to fettle the feve- ral diftrids and divifions of the tribes ; to affign to every citizen his proper rank and order, according to a valua- tion of his eftate ; and laftly, to call over the Senate, and make a frefh roll, by leaving out the names of the decea- fed, and adding thofe, who had acqui- red a right to fill their places ; that is the magiftrates, who had been eledted into their offices fince the laft calL But befides this tafk, which was purely minifterial, they had the parti- cular cognizance and infpedion of the manners of all the citizens, and in confequence of it, a power to cenfure or animadvert upon any vice or im- morality, in all orders of men what-- foever ; which they took an oath to difcharge without favour or afFedion. But this power reached no farther than to 6o A Treatife on *o inflid fome publick mark of igno- miny, on lewd and vicious perfons, in proportion to the fcandal, which they had given, by degrading or fufpending them from the privileges of that parti- cular rank, which they held in the ci- ty. This was their proper jurifdidion, and the foundation of their power over the Senate ; by virtue of which, they freouently purged it of fome of it's unworthy and profligate members ; by leaving out of the new roll, the names of thofe Senators, whom they found unworthy to fit in that auguft affembly, for the notoriety of their crimes ; which they ufed commonly to aflign,asthecaufe of their infliding this difgrace [^1. There are many exam- ples \g] Cenfor-penes quern majores noftrl judicium Senatus de digiiitate eiTe voluerunt. Cic. pro Dom. 5^ Hie annus Cenfura^ initium fait ; rei a par^a orr- gine ortae : qu£ deinde tanto incremento au6ta ePj, ut morum difciplinsequeRomanas penes earn regimen, Senatus, Equitumque centurice, decoris dedecorifquc difcrimen Tub ditione ejus magiftratus. Liv. 4. 8. Patrum memoria inditutum fertur, ut Cenfores Senatu motis adfcriberent notas. Id. 39. 42, the Roman Senate. 6i pies of Senators thus expelled by the Cenfors, generally for good reafons; yet fometimes through mere peevifh- nefs, envy or revenge [/6] : but in fuch cafes, there was, always the liberty of an appeal to the final judgment of the people. So that the Cenforian power^ properly fpeaking, was not that of mak- ing or unmaking Senators, but of en- rolling only thofe, whom the people had made; and of infpeding their manners, and animadverting upon their vices; over which they had a fpecial jurifdidion delegated by the people. Their rule of cenfuring feems to have been grounded on an old maxim of the Roman policy, injoining, that the [h'] See the account of the Cenforfhip of C. Clau- dius Nero, and M. Livius Salinator, in which they both peevifhiy affronted and difgraced each other, and were called to an account for their adminiftra- tlon by one of the Tribuns. Itaque ibi foedum cer- tanien inquinandi famam alterius cum fu33 famss damno fadum eft. Cn. Ba^blus Tribunus plebis ad populum diem utrique dixit. Liv. 39. o^j. Senate 62 A Treat if e en Senate Jhotdd be pure from all blemifj^ and an example of manners to all the other orders of the city : as we find it laid down by Cicero in his book of laws, which were drawn, as he tells us, from the plan of the Roman con- ftitution \j\. It is certain, that feveral laws were made at different times to regulate the condudl of the Cenfors, of which we have now no remains. Fejlus fpeaks of one, not mentioned by any other writer, the Ovinian law\ by which they were obliged, in making up the roll of the Senate, to take the beft men of every order ^ chofen in an ajfembly of the Cur ice [k\ This law was pro- bably made loon after the creation of the Cenfors, or as foon at leaft as they began to extend their power, and ufe [z] Cenfores probrum in Senatu ne rellnquunto. Is ordo vitio careto. Ceteris fpecimen efto. Cic. de Leg. 3. [}{] Donee Ovinia Tnbunitia inter venit, qua lane- turn eft, ut Cenfores ex onmi ordine optimum quemque curmtim Senatu legerent. in Voc. Prasteriti. It the Roman Senate. 63 t arbitrarily ; in order to reduce them :o the original conftitution. Cicero takes occafion to obferve in one of his fpeeches, " that their anceftors had provided many checks and reftraints on the power of the Cenfors : that their ads were often refcinded by a vote of the people : that the people by marking a man with infamy, or conviaing him of any bafe crime, deprived him at once of all future honors, and of all return to the Se- nate; but that the Cenforian ani- madverfion had no fuch eiFedt ; and that the perfons difgraced by it were commonly reftored to the Senate, and fometimes. made even Cenfors after it themfelves/' [/] and in ano- ther place he fays, " that the judg- ment of the Cenfors had no other force, than of putting a man to the blufli ; and that it was called igno- miny, becaufe it was merely nomi- nal [;;^].'' [/] Pro Cluent. 42, 43, 44. {ml Fragment, de Repubj. 4. 64 A Treatife on L. Metellus was animadverted up- on by the Cenfors, while he was ^cb- fior: yet, notwithfkanding that dif- grace, was chofen Tribun of the peo- ple, the year following, A. U. 540 : in which office, he called the Ccn- fors to an account before the peo- ple, for the affront, which they had put upon him; but was hindered by the other Tribuns, from bringing that affair to a trial \n\. We find like- wife C. Claudius and T*. Se?npronius called to an account before the people for their adminiftration ill the Cen- forfhip []. Now thefe fads demonftrate, that the power of the Cenfors, inftead of being mo quoque tempore judicium de fe populus faceret. Liv. 43. 16. [ff] Negabat ClaLTdius fuflragii Jationem injufTu populi Cenforcm cuiquam hcmini, nedum ordini u- niverfo adimere pofTe. Liv. 45. 15. [^] Atqui C. Atinius, patrum memoria, bona ^ Metelli^ qui eum ex Senatu Cenfor ejecerat — Gonfecravit -, foculo pofico in roftris, adhibitoque Tibicine. Cic. pr. Dom. 47. Q. Metelius — ab C. Atinio Labeone— revertens c campo, meridiano tempore, vacuo foro & Capi- tolio, ad Tarpeium raptus ut prjecipitaretur, &c, •Plin, Hift. Nat. 7 44- F abfolute, 66 A Treatife on abfolute, as your Lordftiip contends, in the cafe of making Senators, had in reality little or no fhare in it ; and was much limited alfo and reftrained, in, what is allowed to be their proper jurifdicftion, the affair even of unmak- ing or degrading them. Let us inquire therefore, on what reafons M. Vertot has fo peremptorily declared, that the fads and examples of hiftory are contrary to this notion of the people's power, in the cafe un- der debate. By thefe fads, he means the inftances of Senators created and expelled by the fole authority of the Cenfors, without any apparent confent or interpofition of the people : and fo far it muft be allowed, that they fel- dom made a new roll of the Senate, without ftriking feveral out of it, as either their own tempers, or the parti- cular condition of the times, difpofed them to more or lefs feverity : and their adminiftration was ufually rec- koned moderate, when three or four 2 onely the R o A'l A N Senate. 67 onely were fo difgraced by them [^]. But it muft always be remembered, that the eje6ted Senators had the right of an appeal and redrefs from the peo- ple, if they thought themfelves injured ; and if they did not take the benefit of it, v/e may impute it to a diftruft of their caufe, and a confcioufnefs of their guilt. Cato the elder^ when Cenfor, ftruck fevm out of the roll of the Senate : and among the reft, one of Confular dignity ; the brother of the great T. Fla?ni?mws. But the high quality of the perfon difgraced, obliged Cato to fet forth the greatnefs of his crime in a fevere fpeech ; on which Livy re- marks, " that, if he had made the " fame fpeech, by way of accufation, ^^ to the people, before his animadver- ^^ fion, which he made afterwards, [g] Cenfores T. Quintius Flaminlnus & M. Clau- dius Marcellus Senatum perlegeriint. quatuor foli prsEteriti funt, nemo curuli honore ufus, & in equi- tatu recenfendo mitis admodum cenfura fuit. Lir. F 2 « to 68 A Ireatrfe on " to juftify it, even T. Flamt?iinu$ ^^ himfelf, if he had then been Cenfor, " as he. was in the preceding Luftrum, *^ could not have kept his brother in " the Senate." In the end of this fpeech, Cato puts the eje£led Senator in mind, " that, if he denied the fadl, ^^ with which he was charged, he might " defend himfelf, by bringing the mat- ^' ter to a trial ; if not, no body would " think him too feverely treated [r]/' This cafe fhews, what was the legal and ordinary method of relief, as well as the reafon, why few perhaps were difpofed to make ufe of it. The Cenfors were generally men of the firft dignity in the city, and always of Confular rank ; fo that their acfts had naturally a great weight : and the feverity of their difcipline w^as confider- cd by the honeft of all orders, as a great guard and fecurity to the Republic : and when they aded even on fpitefuU W L'^^^- 39- 42, 43- . and the Roman Senate. 69 and peevifh motives, yet the parties in- jured would not always take the trou- ble of going through a trial, iince they could be relieved without it, either by the next Cenfors, as they commonly were \_s\ ; or by obtaining a new ma- giftracy, in the next annual eledions ; by which they were reftored of courfe to the Senate. But if any of thefe ani- madverfions continued to have a laft- ing effed, it was always owing to an univerfal approbation of them from all the orders of the city : for whenever they appeared to be violent or groffly unjuft, neither the Senate nor the peo- ple would endure them for a mo- ment. Thus when Appius Claudius the Cenlor, [A. U. 441.] upon fome ex- traordinary deficiency in the Senate, filled up the new roll with fome of thofe citizens, whofe grandfathej^s had been jlaves^ contrary to the eftablifhed [jj Eorum rx^am Suctefiores plerumque folve- bant. Afcon, in Divinat. 3. F 3 ^ rule 70 A Trcattje on rule and praftice of the city, there was not 'a fouU as Livy fays, who loohd upon that enrollment as valid \P\ : and the firft thing, that the next Confuls did, was, to annul it by an appeal to the people, and to reduce the Senate to the old lift, as it was left by the preceding Cenfors \y\ The office of Cenfor, at it's firft in- ftitution, was defigned to be quiftquen- nial^ or to continue in the fame hands for five years ; but this length of ma- giftracy, unknown before to Rome^ was reduced foon after to one year and an half, by a law of Mamercus JEmilius^ the Diftator: which regulation, the* popular, provoked the Cenfors fo high- ly, that in revenge for this abridge [/] Appii Claudii cenfura vires nadla, qui Sena= turn primus Ilbertinorum filiis inquinaverat. & po- fteaquam earn ledionem nemo ratam habuit. — Liv, 9. 4^. \y\ Itaque Confules— initio anni, quefti apud po- pulum deformatum ordinem prava ledione Senatus, — negaverunt earn ledionem le, qiias fine rcdli pra- vique difcrimine, ad gratiam libidinemque fada ef- fetj obiervaturos.— Ibid. 3a ment the Roman Senate. 71 ment of their authority, they put the laft difgrace upon the Dictator him- felf, by turning him even out of his tribe, and depriving him of his vote as a citizen. But a proceding fo extra- vagant u^as immediately over-ruled, nor fuffered to have the leaft effed: : and the people were fo enraged at it, that they would have torn the Cen- fors in pieces, had they not been re- ftrained by the authority of Mamer- cus himfelf \_x] : who, within eight years after, v/as made Didator again for the third time. So litth 7^egard was paidy as Livy obferves, to the Cen- forian mark of difgrace^ when it was inJliEied unworthily [jv] : and about a century after, we find one of the Tri- buns fpeaking of this fame faft, as a proof of the mifchief, which the vio- \x'\ Populi certe tanta indignatio coorta dicituri ut vis a Cenforlhus nullius audoritate prasterquam ipfius Mamerci, deterreri quiverit. Liv. 4. 25. [j] Adco — nihil cenforia animadverfio efFecit, quo minus regimen rerum ex notata indigne domo peteretur. Ibid. 30. F 4 knee 72 A Ireatife on lence of thefe magiftrates might do ia the Republic [^z\ I have hitherto been explaning the ordinary power and jurifdidion of the Cenfors, as far as it related to the creation of Senators. But as under the Confuls, fo under thefe Magi- ftrates, there muft have been, as I ob- ferved, fome extraordinary creations, made to fupply the extraordinary va- cancies, occafioned by w^ars and con- tagious diftempers : and in all fuch ca- fes, it was certainly a ftanding rule^ to draw out a lift of the beft men from all the orders of the city, to be propofed to the fuffrage and approba- tion of the people, in their general af- fembly. We meet with no account indeed of any fuch extraordinary creation, under the authority of the Cenfors ; mor even of any ordinary one, till one [z] Tenuit ^Emilia lex violentos illos Cenfores — qni, quid ifle magiftratus in Repub. mail facere pof- fent, indicarunt, &c. lb. 34. hundred iheKouAT^ Senate. 73 hundred and twenty years after their firft inftitution, in the Cenforihip of Appius Claudius : yet from the reafon of the thing we may fairly prefume, that there had been feveral inftances of both kinds. We read of a Didator chofen for that very purpofe, A. U. 537, at a time, when there were no Cenfors in office, and when the Se- nate was reduced by the war with Hannibal^ to lefs than half of its u- fual complement. This Dictator, M. Fabius ButeOy being a prudent and moderate man, refolved to take no ftep beyond the ordinary forms. " Wherefore he immediately afcended " the Roftra, and in an affembly of " the people, called thither for that '^ occafion, ordered the laft Cenforian " roll of the Senate to be tranfcribed '^ and read over, without ftriking one '^ name out of it : and gave this rea- " fon for itj that it was not fit for a " fingle man, to pafs a judgment up- *' on the reputation and manners of 2 ^^ Senators, 74 ^ Treatife on " Senators, which belonged by law to ** two. Then in the place of the dead, " he firft added thofe, who had born ^' any Curule Magijiracy fince the laft " call ; after them, the Iribuns^ ^~ " diles and ^cejiors ; and laftly thofe, " who had not born any of thefe of- " fices, but had ferved with honor in ^* the wars, and could Jhew fpoils taken C4 Jf^Q^^ tl)^ enemy ^ or a Civic crown : ^^ and having thus added an hundred " and feventy feven new members to " the old lift, with the univerfal ap- ^' probation of the affembly, he laid " down his office \a\. M. Vertot argues, that this nomi- nation of Senq^tors was the pure aft and deed of the DicTtator, or otherwife there could be no reafon to praife him for it : which he confirms, by fhewing alfo, on the other hand, that the blame of a bad choice was imputed likewife to the magiftrate : as in the cafe of Ap- \ji\ Liv. 23. 33. pus the Roman Senate. 75 plus Claudius^ when he attempted to introduce the grandfons of flaves into the Senate \b\ But this reafoning is not well grounded, for though praife or blame would naturally fall upon the magiftrate, in proportion, as what he recommended and attempted to enad:, happened to deferve the one or the other, yet thefe two cafes fhew, that the approbation or diflike of the peo- ple did not terminate in the mere praife or difpraife of the magiftrate ; but affefted the very effence and vali- dity of his ad : for in the firft cafe, where the people approved, the ad flood firm, and had it's effed ; but in the other, where they difapproved, it was prefently annulled and refcind- ed. There was another extraordinary creation of Senators made by Sylla^ the Didator, in order to fill up the Senate, exhaufted by his profcriptions {b'] See Reponfe au Memoire de Lord Stan- hope, and y6 A Treat if e on and civil wars, with three hundred new members fro?n the Kquejlrian rank : the choice of whom he gave intirely to the people, in an affembly of their tribes, which of all elections was the iiioft free. His delign without doubt was, to make them fome amends for his other violences, by paying this re- fpeft to their ancient rights and hber- ties \c\. There is a third augmentation alfo, prior to that of Sylla^ mentioned by the epitomizer of Livy^ and afcribed to C Gracchus \d\ By which fix hundred of the Equefrian rank are faid to have been added to the Senate at once. But this cannot be true, as being contrary to the teftimony of all the old writers, who fpeak of nothing more, than that the right of judica- ture, which had belonged to the Se- nate, from the time of the Kings, was tranferred by Gracchus to the Knights-^ [r]_ Applan de Bell. Civ. 1. i. p, 413. \d\ Lib. 60. in the Roman Senate. 77 171 co?nmon with the Senators ; fo that three hundred were to be taken from each order, out of whom the judges in all caufes fhould be chofen promif- cuoully by lot [e]. This was the aft of C*. Gracchus^ which continued in force to the time of Sylla ; and it was this, probably, which led that writer into his miftake : but if any augmen- tation of the Senate had been made at the fame time, it is certain, that it muft have been made by the power of the people ; which no man ever afferted fo ftrenuoufly, or carried fo high, as this very Gracchus. Thcfe extraordinary creations of Se- nators, made with the confent and approbation of the people, in their ge- neral aflemblies, may be piefumed to have paffed according to the forms of the conftitution, and confequently, TUTo (poQico) TLO oY^y^'jO x^ TOK iTTTTfucrjv mocv. 0 ^\ T£'ii2pC0Cria J X.^tfTEK X0Jl/5t?'TWV l^aJCOtf-i'iv'V t'TTo/ra-f. PiUtaF. Ill \ it. Co Gracch. point 78 A Treatife on point out to us the regular method of proceding in ordinary cafes. But the augmentation made by Sylla^ as it en- larged the number of the Senators be- yond what it had ever been, fo it gave an admiflion to many, who were un- worthy of that honor [y] : and the general corruption of manners, intro- duced by the confufion and licence of thofe turbulent times, made it necef- fary to revive the office and ancient difcipline of the Cenfors [^], which had lain dormant for feventeen years pafl: : in which the new Cenfors, L. GelliuSy and Cii. Cornelius Lentulusy exercifed their power with more feve- rity, than had ever been known be- fore : for they \^{t Jixty four out of the roll of the Senate ; of whom C. Anto- nius was one, who, within feven years [/] Judlcum culpa atque dedecore etiam Cenfo*- rlum nomen, quod afperius antea populo videri fo- lebat, id nunc pofcitur, id jam popuiare atque plau- libile facflum eft, Cic. in Cascil. Divinat. 3. >,«. Dionyf. 1. 5. 57, after, the Roman Senate. 79 after, was chofen Conful together with Cicero 'j and P. Z/^;^//^//^i' another, who, as I have faid above, was chofen Praetor again after that difgrace, and in that office, put to death for confpiring with Catiline. Cicero fpeaks of feveral more, who were degraded by the fame Cen-- fors, for a charge of bribery and ex- tortion in their judicial capacity ; yet w^ere all, not onely reftored to the Se- nate, but acquitted alfo afterwards of thofe very crimes in a legal trial \h\ The feverity of this Cenforfhip fur- nifiied a pretext not long after to P. Ckdius^ for procuring a law, to prohi- bit the Cenfors, from ftriking any one out of the roll of the Senate, or dif- gracing him in any manner, upon the report of common fame, or the noto- riety of any crime, //// he had been fo7y?ially accufed arid found guilty by [h] Quos autem ipfe L. Gelllus & Cn. I^entulus, duo Cenfores — furti & captarum pecuniarum nomi- ne notaverunt : ij non modo in Senatum redierunt, fed etiam illarum ipfarum rerum judiciis abfuluti funt, Cic. pr. Cluent, 4?.. the 8o A Ireatife on the common judgment of both the Cen- fors [/]. Cicero frequently inveighs againft this law, and reflefts feverely on Clodius^ for abridging or aboli£hing a falutary power, that had fubfifted four hundred years, and was neceflary to fupport the credit and dignity of the Senate \k\ But in this, perha|)s, he was influenced rather by his refent- ment againft his inveterate enemy, the author of it, than by any iniquity of the law itfelf, which feems to have been a reafonable one in a free ftate. Now from all thefe fads and tefti- monies we may colled, what was the proper part of the Cenfors in the affair of creating Senators. For in the or- dinary way of making them, they had nothing more to do, than to enroll the Ooricov^ (T(pl(n x^iOtl? aAot'rj. Dio. L 37. p. 66. E. [k] Ab eodem homine, in ftupris inauditis, ne- fariiique verfato, vetus ilia niagiftra pudoris & mo- deftias, feverltas cenforia fublata eft*. In Pifon. 4. pr. Scxt. 25, names the Roman Senate.^ 8i names of thofc, who had born the pub- lic offices, fmce the laft call or review of the Senate : and to degrade them, was to leave them onely out of the roll, when by the notoriety of their crimes, they had fliewn themfelves un- worthy of that high rank, to which the Roman people had advanced them. But that they had no right of creating them, is plain from the cafe of the Flamen Dialis ; who upon the oppo- fition made to his claim, did not feek redrefs from the Cenfors, but the Tri- buns ; that is, from the people, as the foverein judges of the affair. Laftly, the defcription given by Cicero^ of the Cenforian jurifdidtion in all it's branches, is exadly conformable to my hypothecs : for he affigns them no part in the creation of Senators, nor any other power over that body, than what flowed from their ricmt of infpe£ting the manners of all the citi- zens. Let thc?n govefyi^ fays he, the G morals 82 A Treat if ^ on morals of the city^ aJtd leave no fain or fcandal in the Senate [/]. But I muft not forget to acknow- ledge, that, though the public magi- ftrates had a right, by virtue of their office, to a place in the Senate, yet they could not, in a ftrid fenfe, be e- fteemed complete Senators, till they had been enrolled by the Cenfors at the next luftrum. This is the fole reafon, for which the writers com- monly afcribe an abfolute power to the Cenfors in the cafe of making Senators ; not confidering, that the enrollment was but a matter of form, which was never denied or could be denied to any, but for fome notorious immora- lity : and that a right of creating and degrading Senators by a plenitude of povv^er, is a quite different thing, from that of enrolling onely thofe, whom others had created, or rejeding them 0 [ / ] Mores populi regunto : probrum in Senatu ne relinquunto. Cic. de Leg, 3. 3. for the Roman Senate. 83 for a charge of crimes, which had ren- dered them unworthy of that honor, to which they had been raifed by a different authority. For the part of enrolUng; or ftrikino- out the names of Senators, was all that the Cenfors had to do in this affair, in which they were ftill fubjed to the final judge- ment of the people, and liable to be obftruded in the difcharge of it by any of the Tribuns [;;^]. Befides this talk of enrolling the Senators, and infpecting their man- ners, it was a part likewife of the Cen- forian jurifdidtion, to let out to farm all the lands y revenues^ and cujioms of the Republic ; and to co?2traSi with ar- tificers ^ for the charge of buildi7ig and repairing all the public works and cedi- fices^ both in Rome and the colonies of [m] Dio. 1. 37. p. 33. D. Cn. TremelllusTri- bunus, quia Jedus non erat in Senatum, intercelTit. Liv. 45. 15, G 2 Italy. 84 ^ Treattje on Italy \n\. Now in this branch of their office, it is certain, that they acted merely under the authority of the people, and were prohibited by law, to let out any of the revenues^ except in the Rojira^ under the immediate iit- fpeEiion^ and i7^ the very prefence of the people \o\ In confequence of which, when Fulvius Flaccus^ one of the Cenfors, was ordering fome great and expeniive works, more arbitrarily, than the law would regularly warrant, his CoUegue Poflumius refufed to join with him, and declared, that he would not engage himfelf in any contracts, to the war!: of the public treafure, with- out an exprefs order of the Senate and [/;] Cenfores interim Roma^— -Sarta tecla acriter & cum fumma fide exegerunt, viam e foro Boario ad Veneris, '61 circa foros publicos & asdem Matris magnjs in Palatio faciendam locaverunt. Vedligal edam novum ex Salaria annona {tatuerunt, &c. Liv. 29. 37. Polyb. 1. 6. 464. C. \o\ Cenibribus Vedigalia locare, nifi in confpedlu populi Romam non licet. Cic. de Leg. Agrar. i. 3. Vedligalia nufquam locare licet, nifi ex hoc loco, [ex Roilris] hac vedrum frequentia. lb. 2. 21. the the Roman Senate. ^^ the people^ whofe trectfure it was \ p\ If the Cenfors then, in thefe inferior articles of their adminiftration, were obliged to acl under the immediate controul and infpeftion of the people, and as minifters onely of the people's will, we may reafonably infer, that they could not ad in any other capa- city, in the more important affair, of making; and unmaking Senators. Again, in the general cenfus and re- view of the city, held by them every five years, though every fingle citizen was particularly fammoned and en- rolled by name in his proper tribe, as a freeman of Rome^ yet that folema enrollment, as Cicero tells us, did not conJin7i any mait s right to a citizen- jhip^ but f^gnified onely^ that he had pajfed for a citizen at that ti?ne [^]. [^] Alcer ex lis Fulvlus FJaccus, (nam Poftumi- us nihil nill Senatus RomanI populive juflli, fe loca- turum ipforum pecunia dicebat) Jovis ?edem Pifau- , ri & Fundis, &c. Liv. 41. 27. [^] Sed quoniam Cenfus non jus civitatis confir- mat, ac tantummodo indicat, eum, qui fit cenfus, ita fe jam turn gefllfie pro cive. Cic. pr. Arch. 5. G 3 Becaufe 86 A Treat if e on Becaufe the proper power of deter- mining that right reiided always in the people [r] : whence we may con- dude like wife by a parity of reafon, that the Cenforian roll of the Senate did not either confer or take away any one's right to that high order, unlefs it were confirmed, either by the prefomed confent, or exprefs command of the Roman people. But though the magiftrates of the city had a right to a place and vote in the Senate, as well during their office, as after it, and before they were put upon the roll by the Cenfors, yet they had not probably a right, to fpeak or debate there on any queftion, at leaft in the earlier times of the Republic, For this feems to have been the ori- ginal diftinclion between them and the ancient Senators, as it is plainly inti- mated in xhc for mule of the Confular [r] Mutines etiam Civis Rom. fatflus, rcgatione , ab Tribunis pi. ex audoritate Patruin, ad plebem lata. Liv. x. 52. 2 ediftj the Roman Senate. 87 edid, fent abroad to fummon the Se- nate, which v/as addreffed to all Se- nators y and to thofe^ who had a right to vote in the Senate \s\ From which diftindion, thefe laft, who had onely a right to vote, vvere called, by way of ridicule, Pedarians ; becaufe they fig- nified their votes by their feet, not their tongues ; and upon every divi- sion of the houfe, went over to the fide of thofe, whofe opinion they ap- proved [/]. It was in allufion to this old cuftom, which feems however to have been wholly dropt in the later ages of the Republic, that the mute part of the Senate continued ftill to be [j] Condiles edixerunt:, quoties in Senatum vo- caiTent, uti Senator es^ quibujque in Senatu dicer e fen- ieniiani liceret, ad portam Capenam convenirent, Liv. 23. 32. it. 36. :^. Feftus in voc. Senatores — ■ A. Geil. 1.3. iS. [/] Non pauci funt qui arbitrantur Pedarios Se- natores appellatos, qui lententiam in Senatu noa verbis dicerenr, fed in aJienam fententiam pedibus irent. &c. Vid. A. Gell. ibid. Ita appellatar, quia tacitus tranfeundo ad eum, cujus fententiam probat, quid fentiata indicat. Feft. in Pedarius— G 4 called 88 A T'reatife on called by the name of Pedarians^ as we learn from Cicero^ who, in giving an account to Atticus^ of a certain de- bate and decree of the Senate upon it, fays, that it was made with the eager and general concurrence of the Peda- rians^ though agai72ji the authority of all the Confulars \y\* From the diftindion, fignified above, in the formule of fummoning the Se- nate, it m^ay not perhaps be improba- ble, that on certain urgent occasions, in which an extraordinary difpatch or fecrecy was required in their counfils, the latter part of the edict might be omitted, and none but the old and proper Senators called to the meeting : and if this was the cafe, as fome writers have imiagined \jc\ it will clear up the diiticulty of a ftory in Valerius Maxi- musy which has greatly perplexed all ly] Eft en:m illud S. C. flimma Pedariorum vg^ luntate, nullius noflrum au^coritate fadtum. ad Att. I. 19. [.y] Vid. Pighii i\nnales. Tom. i. p. 72. thofe, the Roman Senate. 89 thofe, who have treated this quae- ftion, and is thus related; " ^Fa- bius Maximus^ on his return from the Senate, happening to meet with P. Crajfus^ told him, by way of news, what had been refolved fe- cretly about the Punic war^ re- membring, that Crajfus had been ^^cejlor three years before, and not knowing, that he had not yet been put upon the roll of the Cenfors, and fo had no right to be in the Senate : for which Fabius was fe- verely reprimanded by the Con- fuls [j^]." For Valerius muft not be underftood to affert, that the ^cb- Jlors had no right to an admillion into the Senate, till they were enrolled by the Cenfors : fince it appears from unqueftionable fads and teftimonies, drawn from the pradice, at leaft, of the later ages of the Republic, that they had not onely an entrance and [j)'] VaJ. Max. 2. 2. vote go A "Treatife on vote in it, but a free liberty of fpeak- ing alfo, or debating on all quaeftions : fo that I fee no way of accounting for the offence committed by Fabius, in giving part of the deliberation to P. Crajfusy but that it was one of that fecret kind [z]^ to which the old Se- nators onely ufed to be fummoned in the early ages. \z] y. Capitolinus mentions a decree of the Senate o^ t\{\s fecret kind^ which he calls S. C. taciturn^ and fays, that the ufe of them among the ancients was derived from the neceflities of the public, when up- on fome imminent danger from enemies, the Senate was either driven to fome low and mean expedients, or to fuch meafures, as were proper to be executed before they were publifhed, or fuch as they had a mind to keep fecret even from friends ; on which occafions they commonly recurred to a tacit decree^ from which they excluded their clerks and fervants, performing that part themfelves, left any thing fhould get abroad. Capitolin. de Gordianis, c. 12. In the farly times of the Republic there are feveral in- fl:ances mentioned by hiftorians, of fuch private meetings of the Senate, fummoned by the Confuls to their own houfes, to which none but the old or proper Senators were admitted, and of which the Tribuns ufually complained. Vid. Dionyf. I. x. 40. But the Roman Senate. 91 But that the ^cejlors had a dire<3: admiflion into the Senate, and were ftiled and treated as Senators, and had a Uberty alfo of fpeaking in their turn, as well as the reft, is evident, as I have faid, from many clear fads and tefti- monies. For inftance ; C. Marius^ as the fame Valerius fays, not being able to procure any magiftracy in Arpi- num^ his native city, ventured to fue for the ^cejlorjhip at Rome^ which he obtained at laft after many repulfeSy and fo forced his way into the Senate^ rather than came into it \ji\. Cicero ^ after he had been ^uceflor^ being elc<5t- ed JEdile^ as foon as he was capable, declares in one of his fpeeches, how by that advancement, he had gained an higher rank and earlier turn of de- liveriitg his opinion in the Senate \ji\ : which implies, that he had a right of [/?] Patientia deinde repulfarum, Irrupit magis in Curiam quam venit. Id. 1. 6. 9. 14. {])] Antiquiorem in Senatu fententlas dicendas lo- cum. In Verr. 5. 14, fpeaking 92 A Treat if e on fpeaking there before, when ^cefio?^^ though later onely in point of time, and after the other magiftrates. In another fpeech, he ftiles P. Clodius^ a Senator,, while he v/as onely of ^ce- Jiorian rank [c\ : and in a congratu- latory letter to Curio at Rome^ upon his eledion to the Tribunate, taking occafion to renew a requeft, which he had made to him in former letters, when he had onely been ^cejior^ he fays, that he had ajked it of him be- fore^ as of a Senator of the nobleft birth^ and a youth of the greateji in- ter eft ^ but now of a 'Tribu7i of the peo- ple^ xvho had the power to grant what he afied \d'\, Laftly, M. Cato^ as Phc- tarch writes, when he was ^ceftor of the city, never failed to attend the Se- nate, for fear, that any thing fhould pafs in his abfence to the detriment of [t*] Adoptat annos vigiati natus Senatorem. pr. Dom. 1^5 14. \d~\ Itemque petivl fepius per litteras, fed turn quail a Senatore NobilifTimo— nunc a Tribuno ple- bis. Ep. Fam. 2. 7, the the Roman Senate, 93 the public treafure, of which he was then the guardian [^] : which feems to imply, that he was not onely a Se- nator in virtue of his office, but had the liberty of afting or fpeaking there, if he had found occaiion. Before I put an end to my argu- ment, I muil: add a word or two, on what your Lordfhip has incidentally touched, the nmnber of the Senate^ and the qualifications of a certain age and ejiate^ required in it's members by law. As to it's number, it is commonly fuppofed to have been limited to three hundred^ from the time of the Kings, to that of the Gracchi. But this muft not be taken too ftridlly : it generally had that nimiber, or thereabouts, and upon any remarkable deficiency, was filled [e'] Plutar. in Vit. Caton. Cuero like wife in reckoning up the number of Senators, who were in Fompef^ camp, diftingaifhes them by their (everal ranks, of Confular^ Fr<€tG- rian^ Mdllitiayi^ Tribunitian^ and Siu^ftorian Senators, Philip. 13. 14. 2 up 94 ^ Treatife on up again to that complement by an extraordinary creation * But as the number of the pubHc magift rates in- creafed with the increafe of their con- quefts and dominions, fo the number of the Senate, which was fuppKed of courfe by thofe magiftrates, muft be Kable alfo to fome variation. Sylla^ as we have feen above, when it was parti- cularly exhaufted, added three hundred to it at once from the Equettrian or- der : which might probably raife the whole number to about ^'i;^ hu7idred : and in this ftate it feems to have con- tinued, till the fubverfion of their li- berty by y. Ccefar. For Cicero^ in an account of a particular debate, in one of his letters to Atticus^ mentionsy^^r hundred a7id fifteen to have been pre- fent at it, which he calls a full houfe [/]• [/] Cum decerneretur frequent! Senatu — ut Confules populum cohortarentur ad rogationem ac- cipiendam, homines ad xv Curioni nullum S. C. fa- cienti aflenferunt -, ex altera parte facile cccc. fue- runt. ad Att. 1. i. 14. That the Roman Senate. 95 That there was a certain age alfo required for a Senator, is often inti- mated by the old writers, tho' none of them have expreffly fignified what it was. The legal age for entring in- to the military fervice, was fettled by Servius Tullius at feventeen years [^] : and they were obliged, as Polybius tells us, to ferve ten years in the wars, be- fore they could pretend to any civil magiftracy [^]. This fixes the proper age of fuing for the ^cejlorjhip^ or the firft ftep of honor, to the twenty eighth year : and as this office gave an admiffion into the Senate, fo the generality of the learned feem to have given the fame date to the Senatorian age. Some writers indeed, on the au- thority of Dio7i CaJJius^ have imagined it to be twenty jive years : not refleft- ing, that Dio mentions it there as a [^] A. Gel Tins x. 28. {h} Polyb. de Inftitut. rel milit. 1. 6. p. 466. regu- 96 A Treatife on regulation onely, propofed to AuguJluSy by his favorite Mcecenas [/]. But for my part, as far as I am a- ble to judge, from the pradtice of the Republic in it's later times. I take the ^^cejlorian age^ which was the fame with the Se?tatoriany to have been thir- ty years complete. For Cicero^ who declares in fome of his fpeeches, that he had acquired all the honors of the city, without a repulfe in any, and each in his proper year, or as foon as he could pretend to it by law, yet did not ob- tain the ^cejiorjhipj till he had paf- fed through his thirtieth year [^] : and when Pompey was created Conful, in an extraordinary manner, and by a fpe- cial difpenfation, in his thirty Jixth year, without having born any of the fubordinate dignities, Cicero obferves [z] VId. Dio. 1. 52. p. 477. Lipr. de maglftra- tlb. Rom. [^] Cicero was born A. U. 647. obtained the Q^isftorfhip A. U. 677. which he adminiftered the year following in Sicily. See Life oi Cicero. Vol. i. p. 57. Quarto. Pighii Annales. upon />5^ Roman Senate. 97 upon it, that he was chofen into the higheft magiftracy, before he was qua- lified by the laws to hold even the low- eft [/] : by which he means the yS- dilejhip ; which was the firft office, that was properly called a magiftracy, and what could not regularly be obtained, till after an interval oi Jive years froni the ^tejiorjhip. But my notion feems to be particu- larly confirmed by the tenor of certain laws, given at different times by the Roman governors, to foreign nations, relating to the regulation of their parti- cular Senates : for the Halejini^ a peo- ple of Sicily^ as the ftory is told by C/- tero^ " having great quarrels among " themfelves, about the choice of their *^ Senators, petitioned the Senate of *' Rome^ to give them fome laws con- ^^ cerning it. Upon which the Senate [/] Quid tarn fingulare, quam ut legibus foiutus ex S. confulto Conful ante fieret,quam ullum allum magiftratum per leges capere liciiiifet. CIc. pr. Lege Manil. 21. . . H *' decreed 98 A Treatife on " decreed, that their Prstor C. Clau- dius fhould provide laws for them accordingly ; in which laws many things, he fays, were enafted, con- cerning their age ; that none, under " thirty years ; none, who exercifed " any trade ; none, who had not an " eftate to a certain value, {hould be " capable of the Senate." Scipio like- wife, as he tells us, gave laws of the fame kind, and with the fame claufes in them, to the people of Agrigentum \m\ : and laftly, P/i;fy mentions a law of Pompey the Great ^ given on a like occafion to the Bithyntans^ importing, " that none fhould hold any magi- ftracy, or be admitted into their Se- nate, under the age of thirty ; and that all, who had born a magiftra- " cy, fhould be of courfe in the Se- \pi\ C. Claudius — leges Halefinis dedit : in qui- bus multa fanxlt de astate hominum, ne qui minor triginta annis natu, &c. Agrigentini de Senatu ccoptando, Scipionis leges ar.tiquas habent. in quibus &'- eadem ilia Sandta funt, &r, in. Verr, 2. 4.0. " nate." //5^ R O M A N S E N A T E. 99 ^' nate [^^]." All which claufes clear- ly indicate, from what fource they were derived, and (hew, what every one would readily imagine, that a Ro- man magiftrate would naturally give them Roman laws. Cicero fays, that the laws concern- ing the age of magiftrates were not very ancient ; and were niade^ to check the forward ambition of the nobles, and to put all the citizens upon a level in the purfuit of honors \o'\ : and Li- vy tells us, that h. Villius^ a Tribun of the people, was the firfl:,who intro- duced them, A. U. 573, and acquired by it the furname of Afinalis [^] : H 2 But [;/] Gautum eft^Domine, Pompeii lege, qusBithy- nis data eft, nequis capiat magiftraturh, neve fit inSe- natn, qui minor annis xxx fit. & ut qui ceperint aia- giftratum, fint in Senatu. Ad Trajan. Ep. 1. x. 83. Graviflimum autem eft, cum fuperior fa(5lus fit ordine, inferiorem ^^^ fortutvi. Fam. i^. .5. \6\ Itaque majores noftri, veteres illi admodum antiqui, leges annales non habebant. &c. PhiJ. 5. 17. [^] Eo anno rogatio prlmum lata eft ab L. ViU lio^ Tribune plebis, quot annos nati quemque ma- giftratum 100 A Treatife on But long before this, we find an inti- mation of fome laws or cuftoms of that kind, fubfifting in Rome: and in the very infancy of the Republic, when the Tribuns were firft created, the Confuls declared in the Senate, that they would fhortly corred the petu- lance of the young nobles, by a law^ which they had prepared^ to fettle the age of the Senators [^]. There was another qualification al- fo required, as neceffary to a Senator ; an eftate^ proper to fupport his rank ; the proportion of which was fettled by the law : but I do not any where find, when this was firft inftituted, nor even what it was, in any author \y^{ox^ Suetonius \ from whom we may coUeft, that it was fettled at eight hun- giftratum peterent, caperentque. inde cognomeli fa- milias inditum, iit Annales appellarentur. Lib. 40.44. [^J AAAa jcai It? to Xoitrov slviiP^ofMiV dvluv c^xoa-fjAocv vOjaw, roi^(xv\z<; oi^i^^ov Ituv ov ^£>i(rgt th? jSaAguovla? £^f»v. Dionyf. J. 6. 66. Senatorium gradum cenfus adfcejndere fecit. dred /;5^ Rom AN Sen ATE. lor dredfeftertia^ before the reign of Ali- gn ftus [r] : which are computed to a- mouat to betv/een^AT and f even thou- /and pounds of our money ; and muft not be taken, as it is by fome, for an annual income, but the whole eftate of a Senator, real and perfonal, as e- ftimated by the furvey. and valuation of the Cenfors. This proportion of wealth may feem perhaps too low, and unequal to the high rank and dignity of a Roman Se- nator ; but it muft be confidered one- ly as the loweft, to which they could be reduced : for v/henever they funk below it, they forfeited their feats in the Senate. But as low as it now ap- pears, it v/as certainly fufficient, at the time when it was iirfl: fettled, to main- tain a Senator fuitably to his charader, without the neceffity of recurring to [f] Senatorum cenfum ampliavit ; [Auguftus] ac pro odingentorum milliuni fumma, duodecies H S taxavitj fupplevitque noii habentibua. Sueton. in Aug. c. 41. H 3 any 102 A Treat if e on any trade or fordid arts of gain ^ which were hkcwife prohibited to him by the laws [j]. But the conftitution itfelf does not feem to have been very an- cient ; for we may eafily imagine, that in thofe earHer days, when the chief [j] Invlfus Patribus ob novam legem, quam Q, Claudius Trib. pi. adverfus Senatum, uno Patrum adjuvante, C. Flaminio, tulerat, ne quis Senator, quive Senatorls pater fui/Tet, maritimam navem, quas plus quam trecentarum amphorarum eflet, haberet. id fatis habitum ad frudlus ex agrls ve(5landos. quas- ftus omnis Patribus indeeorus vifus. LIv. i\. 63. Noli metuere, Hortenfi, ne qua^ram, qui licuerit navem afdificare Senatori. Cic. Verr. 5. 1 8. N. B. It Is certain, that the Senators generally poflefTed a much larger proportion of wealth, than what is computed above : for in the fifth year of the fecond Punic war, A. U. ^'2^(^. it was decreed by the Senate, that every citizen, who, at the preced-. ing Cenfus, or general taxatloh of the city, was found to be worth from 400 1. to 800 1. of our money, thould furniili one failor with iix months pay to- wards manning the fleet ; that thofe, who were ra- ted from 800 1. to 2400 1. fhould furnlfh three fai~ ilors, with a year's pay ; that thofe, who were rated from 24C0, to 80C0 1. fhould furnifh five failors ; that all, who were rated above that fum, fhould furnifh icw^n -, and that all Senators fhould furnifh eight, with 3 year's pay, Li v. 24. 11. magiftrate the Roman Senate. 103 magiftrate was fometimes taken from the plough [/], and Corn. Rujinus^ who had been DiEiator and twice Conftil^ was expelled the Senate by C. Fabri- cius the Cenfor, A. U. 477, becaufe he had ten pounds of filver plate in his houfe \y\ no particular preference could be given to wealth in the choice of a Senator : and we find Pliny accordingly lamenting the un- happy change, when their Senators^ their Judges^ a7^d their Magijlrates came to be chofen by the value of their eflates^ fncefrom that moment^ all re^ gard began to be lofl for every things that was truly eflimable and laudable in life \x\ This qualification of a [/] Si illls temporlbiis natus eflcs, cum ab aratro arcefTebantur, qui Confiiles fierent. Cic. pr. Rofc, Amer. 18. \y'\ Ab eo Cornellum Rufinum duobus ConfuJa- tibus & Did:atura fpeciofiffime fuinflum, quod de- cern pondo argentea vafa comparaflct, in ordine Se- natorio retentum non efie. — Val. Max. 1. 2. 9. A, Gall. 17. 21. \^ Poftquam Senator cenfu legi cosptus — pefTimi iere vitas pra:tia — Plin. Proeem. in lib. 14. Hili N. H 4 Sena- 104 A "Treatife on Senatorial! eftate is referred to by Ci- cero in one of h s letters, written in the time of J. Gcefaf% adminiftration, where he begs of one of his friends then in power, " not to fuffer certain " lands of Curtius^ to be taken from " him for the ufe of the foldiers, be- " caufe without that eftate, he could " not hold the rank of a Senator^ to ^' which Ccefar himfelf had advanced It appears, from what has been dropt in the courfe of this argument, that there was fome law c^lfo fubfifting from the earlieft times, concerning the ex- tradion and defcent of Senators ; in- joining, that it fhould always be inge- nuous ; and as their morals were to be clear from all vice, fo their birth like- wife, from any ftain of bafe blood : in confequence of which, when Appius Claudius^ in his Cenforidiip, attempted [y'] Hoc autem tempore eum Csfar in Sena^^m legit : qtiem ordlnem ille, ifta po/reflione amifla, vix tuen poieft. Ep. Fam. 13. 5. to the Roman Senate. 105 to introduce the grandfons of freed jlaves into the Senate, they were all, as we have feen above, immediately turned out again. For the Romans were fo particularly careful, to preferve even their common citizens from any mixture of fervile blood, that they pro- hibited all marriages between them and freed flaves, or their children : and it was decreed, as a fpecial privilege and reward to one Htfpala^ of libertine condition^ for her difcovery of the im- pieties of the Bacchanalian myjleriesy that a citizen might take her to wife^ without any dif grace and diminution of his rights \z\ Thefe diftindions in- deed began to be difregarded towards the end of the Republic, with refpedt to the ordinary citizens, but were kept up to the laft, with regard to the Se- nate. For Cn. Lentulus in his Cenfor- fliip abovementioned, turned Popilius [2] Utique ei ingenuo nubere Ilceret neu quid ei qui earn duxifTet, ob id fraudi ignominiasve efTet. Liv. 39. 19. out io6 A Treatife on out of the Senate, becaufe his grand- father was a Jlave made free : yet he allowed him his rank at the pubUc fhews, with all the outward ornaments of a Senator [^] : and the P apian law, made in the end o{ Augiijlus\ reign^ permits all the citizens, excepting Se- nators and their children^ to take wives of liberti7ie condition \b\ Thefe were fome of the laws, by which the Cenfors were obliged to ad, in the enrollment of the new, or the omiflion of old Senators : and when we read of any left out, without an in- timation of their crime, it might pro- bably be, for the want of one or other of thefe legal or cuftomary qualifica- tions. The Cenfors continued in their of- fice for eighteen months, and if we fuppofe them to have been created one- [<^] Nam Popillium, quod erat Libertini fillus, in Senatum non legit : locum quidem Senatorium ludis, & cetera ornamenta reliquit, & eum omni ig- npminia iiberat. Cic. pr. Cluen. 47. ' m VId. Pighli Annal A. U. 761. the Roman Senate. 107 ly every five years, the office muft lie dormant for three years and an half. This is agreeable to what the generality of v^riters have delivered to iis of the Cenfus ; that it was celebrated every fifth year : and as it was accompanied aways by a hcfiration ot the people, fo the v^oxdi^Lujli^unh has conftantly been taken, both by the ancients and mo- derns, for a term o{ five years^ Yet if we inquire into the real ftate of the cafe, we fliall find no good ground for fixing fo precife a fignification to it ; but on the contrary, that the Cejtftis and Lufirum were, for the moft part, held irregularly and uncertainly, at very different and various intervals of time, as the particular exigencies of the ftate required. This is evident, not onely from the teftimonics of the old writers, but from authentic records and monuments of the fact, the Old Fafii^ infcribed on marble, and ftill preferved in the Capitol of Ro?ne ; ex- hibiting a fucceilion of the Roman 3 niagi-^ io8 A Treatife on magiftrates, with a fummary of their ads, from the earlieft ages of the Re- pubhc. For example, Servius Tullius^ who firft inftituted the Cenfns and Lu- ftrum, and afterwards held four of them, began to reign A. U. 175, and reigned forty four years T'arqutnius Superbus^ v/ho fucceded him, held no Cenfus at all. The Confuls P. Valerius and 7! Lucretius revived the inftitution of Servius^ and held the jfifth Cenfus A. U. 245, and the Capitoline marbles, which are defective through the feven firfl: Luftrums, mark the eighth to have happened A. U. 279, fo that the three firft, which were held by the Confuls, carry us through an interval of thirty four years. The Cenfors were created A. U. 311, in which year they celebrated the eleventh Luftrum ; which gives alfo near the fame interval to the three the Roman Senate^ 109 three laft, which had been held by the Confuls. The twentieth Luflrum, according to the Capitoline marbles, falls A. U. 390: whence we fee, that under the Cenfors, who were created for the very purpofe, of adminiftring the Cenfus and Luftrations of the people, yet the nine firft of their Luftrums, one with ano- ther, take up each of them very near nine years. The laft Luftrum, during the liber- ty of the Republic, was held by the Cenfors Appius Claudius and L. Pifoy A. U. 703, and was the feventy firft : fo that if we compute from the ele- venth, or the firft held by the Cenfors, to the laft by Appius Claudiusy the intervening fixty will each of them contain about fix years and an half. This is the real ftate of the cafe, aa it is deduced from the moft authentic records : from which we fee, that tho' time and cuftom have fixed the notioii I of no A Treat if e on of a Quinquennium or term of five years, to the word, Luftrum, yet there is no fufficient ground for it in fad or the nature of the thing. I have now drawn out every thing, which I took to have any relation to my fubjed, or to be of any ufe towards illuftrating the genuin ftate of the Ro- man Senate, from it's firft inftitution, to the opprefTion of it's Hberty : and am perfuaded, if I do not flatter my felf too much^ that through every pe- riod of it's hiftory, under the Kings^ the Confuhy and the Cenfors^ I have traced out from the beft authorities, one uniform fcheme of the people's power and abfolute right over this af- fair, from one end to the other. But as I began my argument with the fame notion, with which I now end it, fo it is poiTible, that, like all others, who fet out with an hypothefis, I might perhaps have a kind of biafs upon me, without being fenfible of it my felf ; fo as to have given a greater force to fome the Roman Senate. hi fome fads, than they will eafily bear, in order to draw them to my particu- lar fenfe. If this be the cafe, as I am fure, that it will not efcape your Lordfliip's obfervation, fo I fliall have a pleafure to be correded by your lefs biafled judgment ; fince in this, as well as in all my other inquiries, truth is the onely fruit that I feek, or defirc to reap from my labor. A TREATISE O N T H E ROMAN SENATE, P A R T the S E C O N D. WHAT I have hitherto been difputing on the fubjedt of the Roman Senate, was de- figned onely, to explane the method of creating Senators, or filling up the vacancies of that body. But as that reaches no farther than to it's exterior form, fo the reader may probably vviflb, that, before I difmifs the argument, I would introduce him likewife into the infide of it, and give him a view of their manner of proceding within doors; which might inable him to I form 114 A Treatife on form a more adsfquate idea of an af- fembly of men, which was unque- ftionably the nobleft, and moft auguft, that the world has ever feen, or ever will fee ; till another empire arife, as widely extended, and as wifely conr.i- tuted, as that of Old Ro/ne, For this purpofe, I have drawn out into this fe- cond part, and diftributed under pros- per heads, whatever I had collefted on that fubjed from my own obftrva- tion ; which I have taken care to r n- port and inlarge every where, as there was occafion, from the more copious coUeftions of P. Ma7iutius and C, Si- gonitis^ who, of all the moderns, feem to iiave had the moft exact, as well as the moft extenftve knovvledge of the affairs of ancient Rame. I have net however been a mere compiler, or tranflator of the w^orks of thofe learned men, but while I make a free ufe of them, have taken a liberty, to which every one has a right, who draws from the fame original authorities-, of difter- 3 '' • i^^g the Roman Senate. 115 ng from them in feveraJ points, about the force and application of thofe au- thorities. But before I enter into a defcription of the forms and methods of proceding in the Roman Senate, I think it neceffary in the firft place, to give a fummary account of their power and jurifdidion, in order to fhevv, what a fhare they really had in the adminiftration of the government, and on what important affairs their deliberations were employed. S E C T. I. Of the power and jurifdiSiion of the Ro7na7i Se?7ate. I HAVE already fhewn, how by the original conftitution of the government, even under the Kings, the colledive body of the people was the real foverein of Ro??ie^ and the dernier refort in all cafes. But their power, though fupremic and final, was I 2 yet ii6 A Treat if e on yet qualified by this check, that they could not regularly enaft any thing, which had not been previotijly conjider- ed^ and approved by the Senate \a\ This was the foundation of the Sena- torian power, as we find it fet forth, in one of their firft decrees, concern- ing the choice of a King, where it is declared, that an eleEiion 77tade by the feople Jhould be valid \ provided^ that it was made with the authority of the Senate \b~\ : and not onely in this cafe, but in all others, the fame rule was obferved for many ages ; and when \(l\ Auva<70£ ^£ obi )^ auTo» t»to fAu^v^sTv^ oTj £^ a rr.vh tyiv TToXiv fxlicav uwwv 0* TTooyovoi T»TO TO yioa,q i^ajoc v |3»Xi? 5V1 Twy 3i^(r»Aiwv. Dlonyi^ Hal. 1. 7. 38. Edit. Oxon. [^] Fatres-decreverunt, ut cum populus regem juffifTet, id iic ratum effet, fi Fatres aadores iierent. ^c. Liv. I. 17. Numam Fompillum — popull jufiu, Fatribus auc- toribiis Romsc regnaffe. Id. 4. 3. Inde Tullum Hoiliiium — Regem populus juiTit, Fatres autftores fadli. Id. i. 22. Turn enim non gerebat is magiflratum, qui ceperat, ii Fatres au Cic. pr. Flancio 3. one the Roman Senate. 117 one of the Tribuns, in contempt of it, ventured to propound a law to the people, on which the Senate had not firft been confuked, all his CoUegues interpofed and declared, that they would notfuffer any thing to he offered to the fuffrage of the citizens ^ till the fathers hadpaffed a judgment upon it \c\ A nd this indeed continued to be the general way of proceding in all quiet and re- gular times, from the beginning of the Republic to the end of it : and the conftant ftile of the old writers, in their accounts of the public tranfafti- ons is, that the Senate voted or decreed^ and the people com?nanded fuch and fuch an adl [d\ Since nothing therefore, which re- lated to the government, could be [c] Per Interceilionem CoUegarum, qui nullum Plebifcitum, nifi ex aucftoritate Senatus, fe perferri pafluros oftenderunt, difculTum ell. Id. 4.. 49. [^] Senatus earn pacem fervandam cenfuit, & paucos poft dies, populus jafilt. Id. 37. c,^. Ex au6lori:ate Patrum, jufTu populi, bellum Fa- lifcis indidlum eft. Id. x. 45. I 3 brought ii8 A Treat if e on brought before the people, till it had been examined by the Senate, fo on many occafions, where haft perhaps or fecrecy was required, and where the determinations of the Senate were fo juft and equitable, that the confent of the people might be prefumed and taken for granted, the Senate would naturally omit the trouble, of calling them from their priv^ate afFairs, to an unneceffary attendance on the public ; till by repeated omiffions of this kind, begun at iirft in trivial matters, and proceding infenfibly to more ferious, they acquired a fpecial jurifdidion and cognizance in many points of great miportance, to the exclufion even of the people ; who yet, by the laws and conftitution of the government, had the abfolute dominion over all. For example ; I. They affumed to themfelves the guardianfhip and fuperintendence of the public religion ; fo that no nev/ God could be introduced; nor Altar ereded, the Roman Senate. 119 erected, nor the Sibylline books con- fulted, without their exprefs order [^]. 2. They held it as their preroga- tive, to fettle the number and condi- tion of the foreign provinces, that were annually affigned to the magiftrates, and to declare, Vv^hich of them fhoujd be Confular and v^hich Praetorian pro-- vinces [/]. 3. They had the diftribution of the public treafure, and all the expences of the government ; the appomtment of ftipends to their generals, with the [^] .p.x audlorltate Senatus latum ad populum eft, nequis Templum aramve injuflu Senatus aut Tri- bunorum pj. majoris partis dedicarec. Liv. 9.46. Vetus erat decretum, ne qui Deus ab Imperatore confecraretur, niii a Senatu probatus. ut M. jEmi- lius de fuo Alburno. Tertull. Apol. 5. Quamobrem Sibyilam quidem fepofitam habea- mus, ut InjufTu Senatus ne legantur quidem libri. Cic' de Div. 54. Quoties Senatus Decemviros ad llbros ire jufTit ? ib. I. 48. [/] Tu Provlncias Confulares — quas C. Grac- chus non modo non abftullt ab Senatu, fed etiam ut necelle eflet, quotannis conftltui per Senatum, lege fanxit. Cic, pr. Dom. 9. VId. in Vatln. 15. I 4 number I20 A Treattfe on number of their lieutenants and their troops, and of the proviiions and cloath- ing of their armies [^]. 4. They nominated all embafTadors fent from Rome^ out of their own bo- dy, and received and difmiffed alljwho came from foreign ftates, with fuch an- fwers as they thought proper \h'\. 5. They had the right of decreeing all fupplications or public thankfgi- vings, for victories obtained, and of conferring the honor of an ovation or triumph, with the title of Emperor on their viclorious generals [;]. 6. It \g\ Kai //-ii\ y\ i? (TU^^tX'fly PHAr,w,a](^5 are (r7ri^^ «t£ roTr'Jca;^ &c. id. 463. Senatus, in auguftiis asraiii, Casfaris eKercitum ftipendio affecit. Cic. pr. Balb. 27. [h] Ne hoc qiiidem Senatus rellnquebas, quod nemo unqu^m ademit, ut Legati ex ejus ordinis :iu vate the Roman Senate. 125 vate ambition, affefted the charadler of popularity ; and was pufhed fo far at laft, as to deprive the Senate in effedl of all it's power and influence in the ftate. For in the firft place, the Tribuns foon fnatched from them that original right, which they had enjoyed from the very foundation of the city, of be- ing the authors or firft movers of every thing, which was to be enadled by the people ; and excluded them from any fhare or influence in the affemblies of their tribes [^] : and tho' in the other affemblies of the Cur ice and the Centu- ries^ they feemed to have referved to them their ancient right, yet it was re- duced to a mere form, without any real force : for inftead of being, what they had always been, the authors of each particular adl, that was to be propofed [;>] VId. Dionyf. Hal. 1, 41, 49. Q^od Patres apud majores noftros non tenere potuerunt, ut reprehenfores eflent comitiorum. Cic. pr. Plane. 3. to 126 A Treatife 6n to the people's deliberation, they were obliged by a fpecial law, to authorife every affembly of the people, and what- ever fliould be determined in it, e\'^n before the people had proceded to a?ty vote [^] : and C. Gracchus afterwards, in his famous Tribunate, ufed to boaft, that he had demolijhed the Senate at once^ by transferring to the Equeftrian order, the right of judicature in all criminal caufes^ which the Senate had poffefied from the tim^e of the Kings But no man ever infulted their au- thority more openly, or reduced it fo low, as J. Ccefar : who inflead of ex- pefting from the Senate, as the practice had always been, the aflignment of a [q] Q^Publilii Philonis Didlatura popularis. qiioci tres leges fecundiflimas plebi, adverfas nobilitati tu- lit. unam, ut plebifcita omnes Quirites tenerent : alteram, ut legum, quas Comltiis Centuriatis ferren- tur, ante initum fuffragium Patres audlores fierent. Liv. 8. 12. [r] "Ort d^ooic; rr,v pvAnt- 'Axh:rr/Ai. Appian, de BeU.Giv. li. provincial the Roman Senate. 127 provincial government, at the expira- tion of his Confullhip, appHed himfelf directly to the people ; and by the help oftheTribun, Vatinius, procured from them a law, by which the provinces of Illyriciim and the Cifalpi?te Gaul were conferred upon him for the term of fvejear^^ with a large appointment of money and troops ; which fo fhocked the Senate, and was thought fo fatal to their authority, that left it fhould become a precedent by being repeated", they thought fit, of their own accord', to add to the two provinces already granted to him, the government alfo of the Tra7jfalptne Gaiil^ which he was underftood ftill to defire, that they might prevent him from making a fe- cond application to the people [5]. It was in thefe days of fadlion and vio- [j] Et initio quidem Galliam Cifalpinam, Illyrlco adjedlo, lege Vatinia accepit : mox per Senatum, Comatam quoque ; verltis Patribus, ne fi ipfi ne- gafient, populus & banc darat. Suet. J. C^ef. c. 22. Plutar. p. 714. lencc, 128 A Treat if e on lence, promoted chiefly by Ccefar^ in the firft Triumvirate, that a profligate Conful, Gabinius^ in a public fpeech to the people, had the infolence to de- clare, that 771671 were 7nijlake7t^ if they tTnagined^ that the Seriate had then any JJjare of power or infuence i7i the Re- public [f]. But in all thefe infults on the authority of the Senate, though the honeft of all ranks loudly inveigh- ed againfl: them, and detefled the au- thors of them, as men of dangerous views, who afpired to powers, that threatened the liberty of the city ; yet none ever pretended to fay, that the a6ts themfelves were illegal ; or that the people had not a clear right, by the very conftitution of the Republic, to command and enad: whatever they judged expedient. [/] Flabet talem oratlonerr. Conuil, qaalem niiri- quam Catlllna vldor habuiHet -, crrarc homines, i\ •tiara turn Senatum allquid ita Repub. poile arbitra- rcntur. Cic. pr. Ssxt. 12.. S E C 1\ the Roman Senate. i2g SECT. II. Of the right and manner of fiimmoning or calling the Senate together. '^ I ^- H E right of convoking the Se- f nate on all occafions, belonged of courfe to the Confuls, as the fu- preme magiftrates of the city \y\ : which in their abfence devolved regu- larly to the next magiftrates in digni- ty, the Praetors, and the Tribuns \x\. But thefe laft, as I have elfewhere ob- ferved, by virtue of their office, clam-- \y] What is here faid, of the proper right of the Confuls to fummoii the Senate, mud be underftood likewife of all thofe other magiftrates, who were created on extraordinary occafions with fu preme povv^er, in the place or abfence of the Confuls : as, the Di^iator^ Military Tnbuns^ Decemviri^ Literrex^ Prcefc5i of the city, Vid. A. Gell. 14, 7. [;^] Placuit nobis, ut ftatim ad Cornutum, Pr^- torem urb. litteras deferremus ; qui, quod Confjles aberant, Confulare munus fuftinebat, more majorum. Senatus eft condnuo convocatus.— Cic. Ep. Fam. X. 12. K ed 130 ^ A Treat if e on ed and exercifed a power of fummon- ing the Senate at any time, whenever the affairs of the people required it, though the Confuls themfelves were in the city [j/]. Yet, out of deference to the Confular authority, the Senate was but rarely called, when they were abroad, unlefs in cafes of fudden e- mergency, which required fome pre- fent refolution [2^]. In the early ages of the Republic, when the precinfts of the city were fmall, the Senators w^ere perfonally fummoned by an Apparitor [a] : and fometimes by a public Crier, when their affairs required an immediate dif- [j] Ol ^\ TOTS $r,[J.a^^Ol TT^WTO* (TVyHOCX'stV iTTSpOiXovlo rrt]/ (^aXw. Dionyf. X. 31. Cum Tribuni pi. edixifTent, Senatus adeflet. a. d. xiii. Kal. Jan. Cic. Ep. Fam. xi. 6. it. x. 28. [2;] Senatus fepius pro rua dignitate appellaretur, fi abfentibus Confulibus unquam, nifi ad rem novam cogeretur. Cic. ibid. 12. 28. Liv. 30. 23. [a] A Villa in Senatum arcefTebantur & Curius & ceteri Senes : ex quo, qui eos arcelTebant, viato- res nominati funt. Cic. de Sen. 16. 3 patch. //5^ R O M A N S E N A T E. I J I patch [^]. But the ufual way of call- ing them in later days, was by an e- didt, appointing the time and place, and pubUfhed feveral days before, that the notice might be more public [(:]. Thefe edicts were commonly under- ftood to reach no farther than to thofe, who were reiident in Rome^ or near it ; yet v/hen any extraordinary- affair was in agitation, they feem to have been publillied alfo in the other cities of Italy [J], if any Senator refufed or negleded to obey this fum- mons, the Conful could oblige him to give furety, for the payment of a cer- tain fine, it the reafons of his abfence [^] Poftquam audita vox In Foro praeconis, Pa- tres in Curiam ad Dccemviros vocantis, &c. Liv. Bell. Civ. I. [f] Cum tot edidla propofulflet Antonlus, (Con- ful) edixit, ut adcflet Senatus frequens a. d.viii. Kal. Dec. — in ante diem, iv, Kal. difrulit. Cic. Phil. 3. 8. [cr\ Senatum eiiam Kalendis velle fe frequentem adefTe, etiam Formiis ptofcribi yxuxz, Cic, de J. Ccefare.- ad Att. 9-17. K 2 fhould 132 A Treatife o?t ftiould not be allowed [_e\ But from fixty years of age, they were not lia- ble to that penalty, nor obliged to any attendance, but what was voluntary [/]. In ancient times, as Valerius writes, " the Senators were fo vigilant *' and attentive to the care of the " public, that, without waiting for an *^ edid, they ufed to meet conftantly ** of themfelves, in a certain porti- " CO, adjoining to the Senate houfe, " whence they could prefently be call- " ed into it, as foon as the Conful *' came ; efteeming it fcarce worthy *^ of praife, to perform their duty to \e\ Poftquam citati noii ccnvenlebant, dimiffi cir- ca domos Apparitores ad pignora capienda. Li v. 3. 38. Quis unquam tanto damno Senatorem coe- git ? aut quid eft ultra, prater pignus & muldam ? Cic. Phil. I. 5. [/"] Lex a fexagefimo anno Senatorem non ci- tat. Senec. de Brev. vit. 20, But Seneca the father tells us, that their abfence was excufed onely from xSxz fixty fifth year o{ ^€\x age, which feems moft probable. Controv. Ult. 1. i. Senator poil annum fexagefimum quintum in Curiam venire nee cogitur nee vetatur. " their the Roman Senate. 133 ^^ their country, by command oncly, " and not of their own accord [^]." SECT. Ill, Of the place in which the Senate ufed to meet. TH E Senate could not regularly be affembied in any private or profane place ; but always in one fet apart, TiXidi folemitly coitfecrated to that ufcy by the ?^ites of augury [/6]. There were feveral of thefe in different parts of the city, which are mentioned oc- cafionally by the old writers, as places, in which the Senate ufually met ; as they happened to be appointed by different Confuls, agreeably either to their ov/n particular convenience, or lg\ Val. Max. 1. 2. 2. 6. \h'\ Docuit confirmavitque (Varro) nifi in loco per Augures conftituto, quod Templum appeJlare- tur, Senatus confultum fadlum effct, juftum id noa fuilTe. A. Geli. 14, 7. K 3 ^ to 134 ^ Ireatife on to that of the Senate in general, or to the nature of tlie bufniefs, which was to be tranfaded. Thefe Senate houfes were called Curicc^ as the Curia Cala- bra^ faid to be built by Romulus ; the Curia Hojlilia^ by Tullus HojliUus \ and the Curia Pompeia^ by Pompey the Great [/]. But the meetings of the Senate were more commonly held in certain tem- ples, dedicated to particular Deities ; as in that of Jupiter^ Apollo^ Mars^ J^ulcan^ Cajlor^ Bellona ; of Co?tcord^ Faith^ Virtue^ the Earthy &c. For we find all thefe particularly celebrated by the ancients, as places, where the Senate was frequently affembled : all which had Altars and Images ereded in them, for the peculiar worfhip of thofe Deities, whofe names they bore : [?■] Juxta C'iriam Calabram, quae Cafas Romuli proxima eft. Macr. Sat. i. 15. Q^iod cum Senatus de his rebus in Curia Hoftilia haberetur. Liv. 5. c^c^. Pcflquam Senatus Idib. Mart, in Curiam Pom- peii edidus ed. Suet. J. Caef. 80, yet the Roman Senate, 135 yet thefe Temples, on account of the ufe, which the Senate made of them, were called likewife Curice ; as well as the proper Ctirice^ or Senate houfes, on account of their folemn dedication, are frequently called Temples \K\ : For the word Temple, in it's primary fenfe, Signified nothing more, than a place fet apart, and confecrated by the Au- gurs ; whether inclofed or open ; in the city, or in the fields. Agreeably to which notion, the Senate ufed to meet on fome occafions in the open air ; and efpecially whenever a report was made to them in form, that an ox hadfpoken ; which prodigy, as Pli- [Jz] Propterea & in Curia Hoftiiia & Pompeia — ■ quum profana ea loca fuilTent, templa efie per Au- gures conftituta, ut in iis Senatus confuka, more majorum, jufta fieri poHrnt. A. G:ll. 14. 7. Qui — Curiam incenderit ? — Templum fanditatis amplitudinis, mentis, confilii puhlici — [Cic. pr. Mil. 33.] Cum Senatus in Curiam, hoc eft, ^dem Con- cordias,Templumque inauguratum convenifTct. Larri- prid. AUx. Sev. c. 6. K 4 7ty 136 A Treat if e on ny tells us, was cojnmon in the earlier ages [/]. The view of the government, in ap- propriating thefe Temples to the ufe of the Senate, was, to imprint the more flrongly on the minds of it's mem- bers, the obligation of ading jiiftly and religion fly, from the fandity of the place^ and the prefence, as it were, of their Gods. Thus one of the Cen- fors removed the ftatue of Concord^ from a part of the city, in which it was firft creeled, into the Senate houfe, which he dedicated to that Goddefs ; imagining, as Cicero tells us, that he pould bajiifo all love of diffenfion^ from that feat and temple of the public coun- fd^ which he had devoted by that means [/] In hoc tumultu Flaccus infer ^Sfquilinam Coilinamque portam pofuit caftra. Confules Sena- tufque ir> cadra venemnt. Liv. 26. 10. Eil trequens in prodigiis prifcorum, bovem locu- tum : quo nuntiato, Senatum iiib divo haberi foli- tum. Plin. Hid. N. 8. 45. to /i^^ Roman Senate. 137 to the religion of Comord \fn\* The cafe was the fame with the Temples of the o- ther Goddeffes, in which the Senate of- ten met ; oiBellona^ Faith^ Virtue^ Ho- nor ; that the very place might admo- nifli them, of the reverence due to thofe particular virtues, which their anceftors had deiiSed for the fake of their excel- lence : and it was to ftrcngthen this principle and fenfe of religion in them, that Augujlus afterwards injoined, that every Senator ^ before he fat down in his place ^ fhould fupplicate that Godj in whofe Temple they were affembled^ with incenfe and wine \n\. The Senate, on two fpecial occafions, was always held without the gates of Rome^ either in the Temple of Bello?ia^ [rfi] Praefcrlbere enim fe arbitrabatur, ut fine flu- diis diiTenlionis fententlas dicerentar, fi ledem ipfam ac Templum piiblici confilil religione Concordias de- vinxilTet. Cic. pr. Dom. 51. [n] Quo autem \c6ti probatique $c religiofius & minore moleftia, Senatoria munera fungerentur, fanxit, ut prlus, quam confideret qulfque, thure ac mero fupplicaret apud aram ejus Dei, in cujus'Tem- plo coirctur. Suet. Aug. c. 35. or 138 A Treat if e on or oi Apollo. I ft, For the reception of foreign embaffadors ; and efpecially of thofe, who came from enemies, who were not permitted to enter the city. 2dly, To give audience and tranfad bulinefs with their own generals, who were never allowed to come within the walls, as long as their commiffion fub- lifted, and they had the adual com- mand of an army \o\ SECT. IV. Of the time when the Senate might legally he ajfembled. pAULLUS MANUriUS •^ is of opinion, that there were certain days, on which the Senate might regu- [o] Legati Nabidls Tyranni Romam venerunt duo. his extra Urbem, in JEde Apollinis Senatus datus eft. Liv. 34. 43. L.egati ab Rege Perfeo venerunt. eos in oppidum intromitti non placult, quum jam bellum Regi eo- rum — Senatus decreflet, & populus juflifTet — ^in M- dem //^^ R O M A N S E N AT E^ I 39 regularly be affembled, and others, on which it could not : and that thefe laft were called Comitial days, and marked under that name in the Kalendars, as days wholly deftined and fet apart by law, for the aflemblies of the people [^]. But Sigonius contends, that the Senate might meet on any of thofe days, unlefs when the people were ac- tually affembled, and tranfading bu- finefs on them : in proof of which, he brings feveral teftimonies from the old writers, wherein the Senate is faid to have been held, not onely on thofe days, which are marked in the Fajii^ as Comitial y but on thofe alfo, on which the people had been aftually demBellonae in Senatum mtrodu6ti. Id. 42. ^6, P. Corn. Sclpio Conful — poftero die quam venit Romam, Senatu in /Edem Bellonas vocato, quum de rebus a fe geftis differuilTet, poftiilavit, ut fibi triumphanti liceret in urbem invehi. Id. 36. 39. Qui ne triumphaturi quidem intrare Urbem in- jufTu Senatus deberetis : quibufque exercltam vido- rem reducentibus curia extra muros prsberetur. Se- nee. de Benef. 5. 15. [^] De Senatu Romano, c, 5. aflem- 140 A Treat if e 07i affembled, but after their affemblies were difmifTed. He obferves likewife, that the number of Comiltal days, as they are marked in the Kalendars, a- mount in all to two himdred : which makes it fcarce credible, that either the affairs of the people fnould necef- farily employ fo many days, or that the Senate fhould be precluded from the ufe of fo many in each year : from all which he infers, that the title of CGmitial denoted fuch days onely, on which the people might be legally af- fembled ; not fuch, on which they were of courfe to be affembled [^]. The truth of the matter feems to be this, that though the days called Comitial were regularly deftined to the affemblies of the people ; yet the Se- nate alfo might not onely be convened on the fame, after the popular affem- blies were diffolved, but had the pow- [q] Vid. Joh. Sarium Zamofc. de Senatu Rom. 1. 2. 7. qcem librum Car. Sigonius fub nomine dif- cipuli iui fcripfit. er the Roman Senate. 141 er likewife, whenever they found it expedient, to fuperfede and poftpone the aflembUes of the people to another day ; and by a particular decree, to authorife their own meetings upon them, for the difpatch of fome im- portant affair therein fpecified Tr], The Senate met always of courfe on the firft of January^ for the inau- guration of the new Confuls, who en- tered into their office on that day : and there are infences in the ancient writers, of it's being affembled on e- very other day, except one or two, till after the 1 5 th of the fame month ; the latter part of which was probably af- figned to the affemblies of the peo- \f\ Senatus deinde, concllio plebis dimiilb, habe- ri coeptus. Liv. 38. 53 : 39. 39. M. Marcellus Conful— de ea re ita cenfult, uti Confules de iis ad S?natum referrent — utique ejus rei caufli per dies Comitiales Senatum haberent, Se- natufque confultum facerent. Cic. Ep. Fam. ^,Z, Meminiftis fieri Senatus confultum, referente me, ne poftero die Comitia haberentur, ut de his rebus in Senatu agere poffemus. Cic. pr. Mur. 25. pie. 142 A Tr-eatife on pie [j]. The month of February^ ge- nerally fpeaking, was referved intire by old cuftom to the Senate, for the par- ticular purpofe of giving audience to foreign embaffadors [/]. But in all months univerfally, there were three days, which feem to have been more efpecially deftined to the Senate, the Kalends^ Nonesy and Ides^ from the frequent exampks found in hiftory, of it's being convened on thofe days. But Augujius afterwards enaded, that the Senate fhould not meet regularly or of courfe, except on two days onely in each month, the Kalends and Ides \y\ The Senate was feldom or never held on public feftivals, which were dedi- cated to fhews and fports. In the [j] Vid. Paull. Manut. ibid. [/] A Kalendis Feb. Legationes in Idus Feb. re- jiciebantur. Cic. ad Frat. 2. 3. Hie eft menfis, quo Senatus frequens poftulatis provlnclarum. & legation ibus audiendis datur. Af- con. in Verr. i. 35. Ep. ad Fra. 2. 12. \y\ Ne plus quam bis in menfe legitimus Sena- tus ageretur, Kalendis ^ Idibus. Suet. Aug. ^s- month //>^ Rom AN Sen ATE. 143 month of December y in which the Sa- tiirnalia were celebrated for feveral days fucceffively, Cicero giving an ac- count of the debates of the Senate, when two hundred members were pre- fent, calls it a fuller meeting than he thought it pojftble to have heen^ when the holy days were commeiKing \x\. On their days of meeting, they could not enter upon any bufinefs before the Sim was rifen ; nor finiih any, after it wasfet. Every thing tranfaded by them, either before or after that time, was null and void, and the author of it liable to cenfure [j/] : whence it became a ftanding rule, that nothing new fliould be moved, after four a clock in the af- \x] Senatus fuit frequentlor, quam putabamus eile pofle, menfe Decemhri fiib dies feflos— fane frequen- tes fuimus ; omnino ad ducentos. Cic. Ep. ad Fr. 2. I. [j^] Poft h^c deinceps dicit, (Varro) Senatus confultum, ante exortum aut poft occafum folem fa(5lum, ratum non faifTe. Opus etiam Cenforium, feciffe exiftimatos, per qiios eo tempore S. C. fadum effet. AGdLi4^7. ternoon. 144 ^ Treat if e on ternoon \z\ Cicero therefore refleds on certain decrees, procured by Anto- ny^ in his Confulfhip, as being made too late in the evenings to have any authority \d\. SECT. V. Of the different ra7th and orders of men in the Senate^ a7td of the me- thod obferved in their deliberations. TH E Senate, as I have fhewai a- bove, w^as compofed of all the principal magiftrates of the city, and [z] Majores noftri novam relationem pofl horam decimam in Senatu fieri vetabant. Senec. de Tran- quillitat. i68. A. [^] Prseclara tamen Senatus confulta illo ipfo die Vefpertina. Cic. Phil. 3. x. There is one inflance however of the Senate's being aflembled at midnight. A. U. 290. upon the arrival of an exprefs from one of the Confuls, to in> form the Senate, that he was befieged by the fupe- rior forces of the jEq^ui md Volfci^ and in danger of being deftroyed, vyith hie whole army, without an immediaie fuccour.; which was accordingly decreed and fent to him without iofs of time. Dionyf. 9. 6^. 1 of /^^ R O M A N S E N A T E. I45 of alJ, who had born the fame offices before them : and confifted therefore of feveral degrees and orders of men, who had each a different rank in it, according to the dignity of the cha- rader, which he fuftained in the Re- pubHc. At the head of it, fat the two Con- fiils in chairs of ftate [^] ; raifed, as we may imagine, by a few fteps, a- bove the level of the other benches : out of refpeft to whofc fupreme dig- nity, the whole affembly ufed to pay the compliment of rtfi7ig up from their feats, as foon as they entered in- to the Senate houfe [c]. Manutius thinks, that the other magiftrates fat next to the Confular chair, each ac- cording to his rank ; the Praetors j Cen- [b] Non \\XQ. fedes honoris, fella carulis, un- quam vacua mortis periculo fuit. Cic. in Cat. 4- ^• [f] Nam quifquam tibi, [Confuli] in Curiam ve- nienti aflurrexit. b Pif. 12. L fors. 14^ ^ Ireatife on fors^ JEdtles^ Tribuns^ ^lucejlors \d\ But that opinion is grounded onely on conjefture ; fince none of the ancients [^] Vid. Paul. Manut. de Senatu Rom. c. Ix. But fince the manner of their fitting can be ga- thered onely from conjedlure, I have been apt ra- ther to think, that the Confular Senators, who, in all ages of the Republic, were the leaders and firft fpeakers in the Senate, ufed to fit next in order to the Confuls : and after them the Fraiors^ and all who were oi Pr^torian dignity, or had been Pra- tors : then the jEdiles^ the Trihms^ and the ^^ ftorSy on diftinft benches ; and on the fame bench with each, all who had born the fame offices : but the Curule magiflrates, as the Prators and ^diles^ were perhaps diftinguifhed at the head of their fe- veral benches, by feats fomewhat raifed or feparated at leafl from the reft in the form of our Settees, or of that Longa Cathedra^ which Juvenal mentions, to denote their Curule dignity. Sat. 9» 52. Thefe Senatorian benches were long, fo as to hold a great number on each : whence Pompey ufed to call the determinations of the Senate, the judge- ment of the long bench^ [Cic. Ep. Fam. 3. 9.] by way of diflindtion from the fhorter benches of the courts of judicature. Some of thefe benches however ap- pear to have been very fhort, or not unlike to our flools ; on which each of the ten Tribuns perhaps ufed to fit fingle : for the Emperor Claudius^ as Sue- tonius writes, when he had any great affair to profofe. to the Senate^ ufed to fit upon a 'Tribunitian bench ^ placed between the Curule chairs of the two Confuls. Suet. Claud. 23. have the Roman Senate.^ 147 have left us any account of their man- ner of fitting. This however is cer- tain, that all the private Senators, fat on different benches, and in a diife- rent order of precedency, according to the dignity of the magiftracies, which they had feverally born. Firft the Cofjftdars ; then the Prceforians^ ^- dilitians^ Tribtmitiansj and ^tccejiori-- a?2s : in which order, and by which titles, they are all enumerated by Ci- cero [^] : and as this was their order in fitting, fo it was the fame alfo, in delivering their opinions, when it came to their turn. But befides thefe feveral orders, of which the Senate was compofed, there was one member of it diflinguiflied always from the reft, by the title of Prince of the Senate : which diftinc- tion had been kept up from the very beginning of the Republic ; to pre- ferve the fhadow of that original forai, [^] Cic. Phil. 13. 13, 14. L z cfla- 148 A "Treat if e on eftabliflied by their founder, Ro7nulus ; by which he referved to himfelf the nomination of the firft or principal Senator, who in the abfence of the King, was to prefide in that affembly. This title was given of courfe to that perfon, whofe name was called over the firji in the roll of the Senate, whenever it was renewed by the Cenfors. He was always one of Confular and Cen- forian dignity ; and generally one of the moft eminent for probity and wif- dom : and the title itfelf was fo high- ly refpefted, that he who bore it, was conftantly called by it, preferably to that of any other dignity, with which he might happen to be inverted [/] : yet [/] P. Lentulum, Prlncipem Senatus. [C\c, Phil. 8. 4.y Cum armatas M. i^milius, Princeps Senatus in Comitio ftetiHer. pr. Rabir. 7. After the indiiution of the Cenfors, it became a cuftom to confer this title of Prince of the Senate^ on t}\Q oldeft Senator then living, of Cenforian digni- ty : but in the fecond Panic war, when one of the Cembrs infiiled, that t-his rule, delivcrc^i to them by the Roman Senate. 149 yet there were no peculiar rights an- nexed to this title, nor any other ad- vantage, except an acceflion of autho- rity, from the notion, which it would naturally imprint, of a fuperior merit in thofe, who bore it. The Senate being affembled, the Confuls, or the magiftrate, by whofe authority they were fummoned, hav- ing firft taken the aufpices, and per- formed the ufual office of religion, by facrifice and prayer, ufed to open to them the reafons of their being called together, and propofe the fubjed of that day's deliberation : in which all things divine, or relating to the wor- £hip of the Godsj were difpatched pre- by their anceftors, ought to be obferved, by which "•t. Manlius Torquatus was to be called over the firft of the Senate •, the other Cenfor declared, that fince the Gods had given to him the particular lot of call- ing over the Senate, he would follow his own will in it, and call ^ Fabius Maximus the firft ; who by the judgement of Hannibal himfelf, was allowed to be the Prince of the Roman people, Li v. 27. xi. L 3 ferably 150 A T*reattfe on ferably to any other bufinefs \^g\ When the Conful had moved any point, with intent to have it debated and carried into a decree, and had fpoken upon it himfelf, as long as he thought proper, he proceded to alk \ the opinions of the other Senators fe- verally by name, and in their proper or- der ; beginning always with the Con- fulars, and going on to the Praetori- ans, &c. It was the practice original- ly, to ajk the Prince of the Senate the Jirji : but that was foon laid alide, and the compliment transferred to any other ancient Confular, diftinguiflied by his integrity and fuperior abilities : till in the later ages of the Republic, it became an eftablifhed cuftom, to pay that refped: to relations, or parti- cular friends, or to thofe, who were likely to give an opinion the moft fa- [^] Dbcet deihde, (Varro) immokre hoftlam prin's, aufplcarique debere, qui Senatum habiturus effet : de rebus divinis prius quam humanis ad Se- natum referendum efTe. Ac Gell. 14. 7. vorable the Roman Senate. 151 vorable to their own views and fenti- ments on the quaeftion propofed [/&]. But whatever order the Confuls ob- ferved, in afking opinions, on the firft of January^ when they entered into their office, they generally purfued the fame through the reft of the year, y^ Cczfar indeed broke through this rule : for though he had aiked Craffus the iirft, from the beginning of his Con- fulflhip, yet upon the marriage of his slaughter with Pompey^ he gave that priority to his Son-in-law ; for which however he made an apology to the Senate [/]. L 4 This [h] SInguio sautem debere confuli gradatim, In- ciplque a Confularl gradu. ex quo gradu Temper qui- dem antea prlmum rogari folitum, qui Princeps in Senatum le:flus eflet : turn novum morem inftitu- turn refert, per ambitionem gratiamque, ut is pri- mus rogaretur, quern rogare vellet, qui haberet Se- natum, dum is tamen ex gradu confulari eflet. ibid. [z] Ac poft novam affinitatem, Pompehm pri- mum rogare fententiam cospit, (J. Casfar) quum Crajfum foieret : efletque confuetudo, ut quem or- dinem interrogandi fententias Conful Kal. Jan. in- ftituiffet, eum toto anno confervaret. Suet J.Casf. 2 1 . Ejus 152 A Treatije on This honor, of being aiked in an extraordinary manner, and preferably to all others of the fame rank, though of fuperior age or nobility, feems to have been feldom carried farther, than to four or five diftinguifhed perfons of Confular dignity \ji\ \ and the reft were afterv^ards aflced according to their feniority : and this method, as I have faid, was obferved generally through the year, till the eledion of the future Confuls, which was com- monly held about the month o{ Au- gufi : from which time, it was the conftant cuftom, to afk the opinions of the Confuls eleEl preferably to all , ■ Ejus rel rationern reddidlfle eurn Senatul, Tiro Tullius, M. Ciceronis libertus, refert. A. GelL \k'\ Scito Igitur, prirnuni nie nori efTe rogatnm lententiam : pra^pcfitumquc elTe nobis Pacificatorem Allobrogum : idque admurmurante Senatu, neque VAZ invito, eiTe faduni. — -^ ille fecundus in dicendo locus habet aucloritatem pcene principis. tertius eft Camliis : quaitus (fi etiam. hoc quisris) Hortenfius. Cic. ad Att i. 13. C. Caifar in Conlulatu — quatuor fclos extra ordi- uem fentsntiara rogafTc dicitur. A. Gell. 4. x. Others, the Roman Senate. 153 others, 'till they entered into their office, on the firft of Ja?2uary fol- lowing [/]. As the Senators then were perfonal- ly called upon to deliver their opi- nions, according to their rank, fo none were allov/ed to fpeak, till it came to their turn, excepting the magiftrates ; *who feem to have had a right of fpeak- ing on all occafions, whenever they thought fit ; and for that reafon per- haps were not particularly afked or [/] Turn D. Junius Silanus, primus fententlam roeatus, quod eo tempore Conful defignatus erat. [S.illuft. Bell. Cat. 50.] Ego tamen fic nihil expedto, quomodo Paullum, Confulem defignatum, primum fententiam dicentem. Cic. Ep, Earn. 8. 4. Vid. it. Phil. 5.13- i\3 the Confuls eled had this preference given m fpeaking before all the Confulars, {o the Praetors and Tribuns eled, feem to have had the fame, be- fore the reft of their particular orders : for in that famous debate upon the manner of punilhing Cati- linens accomplices, we find that J. Ca;fm\ then Pr^- tor ele^i^ was afked his opinion by the Conful, at the head of the Prxtorians \ and M. Cato^ then Tri- hun ekM^ was afked llkewife in his turn, at the head of the Tribunitians. Vid. Salluft. Bell. Cat. 51, 52. Cic, Ep. ad At:. 1. 12, 21, it Pigh. Anna). called 154 ^ "Treat if e on called upon by the Confuls. Cicero indeed on a certain occafion, fays, that he was ajked thefirji of all the pri- vate Senators [nz\ ; which implies, that fome of the magiftrates had been aflc- ed before him : but they were then afked by a Trihun of the people^ by whom that meeting of the Senate had been fummoned, and who would na- turally give that preference to the fu- perior magiftrates, who then happen- ed to be prefent : but I have never obferved, that a Conful afked any one the firft, but a Confular Senator, or the Confuls eleft. Tho' every Senator was obhged to declare his opinion, when he was afked by the Conful, yet he was not con- fined to the fingle point then under debate, but might launch out into any other fubjecl whatfoever, and harangue \m\ Racillus furrexlt, &de judiciis referre ccepit. Marcellinum quidem primum rogavit — poftea de privatis me primum fententiam rogavit — Cic. ad Fra. 2. I. upon the Roman Senate. 155 upon it as long as he pleafed \n\. And though he might deliver his opi- nion with all freedom, when it came to his turn, yet the Senate could not take any notice of it, nor enter into any debate upon it, unlefs it were e- fpoufed and propofed to them in form by fome of the magiftrates, who had the fole privilege of referring any quae- ftion to a vote, or of dividing the houfe upon it \o\ Whenever any one fpoke, he rofe up from his feat, and flood [;/] Licere Patribus, quoties jus fententias dlcen- dse accepIiTent, quas vellent expromere, reiationem- que In ea poftulare. Tacit. Ann. 13. 49. Erat jus Senator], ut fententiam rogatus, diceret ante quicquid vellet alias rei, & quoad veliet. A, Gell. 4. X. [o\ Huic afTentiuntur reliqui Confulares, praeter' Servilium — & Volcatlum, qui, Lupo referentc, Pompeio decernit. Cic. Ep. Fam. 1. i, 2. From thefe two epiftles it appears, that Volca- tiush opinion in favor of Pompey^ was not referred to the Senate by Volcatlus himfelf, who was then a private Senator, but by Lupus ^ then Tribun of the people, in order to divide the houfe upon it. For a private Senator, as Tacitus intimates above, could onely, relatiormn pftuhre^ that is, demand to have it referred to a vote by fome of the magiftrates. v^hile 156 A Treat if e on while he was fpeaking ; but when he affented onely to another's opinion, he continued litting [^ j. Several different motions might be made, and different quceftions be re- ferred to the Senate by different ma~ giftrates, in the fame meeting [^] : and if any bufinefs of importance was ex- peded or defired, which the Confuls had omitted to propofe, or were un- wilHng to bring into debate, it was ufual for the Senate, by a fort of ge- neral clamor, to call upon them to move it ; and upon their refufal, the other magiftrates had a right to pro- pound it, even againft their will [r]. If [p] Racilius furrexit, &c. [Clc. ad Fra. 2.1.] Potiquam Cato afiedit. [Salluft. Bell. Cat. s?,- Cic. ad Att. I. 14.] Quotiefcunque aliquid eft adum, iedens iis ailcnfi, qui mihi kniliiine fentire vifi iunt. Cic. Ep, Fam. 5. 2. \'l\ De Appia Via & de Moneta Conful -, de Lu- percis Tribunus pleb. refert. Cic. Phi!. 7 i. [r] ConclamatLiin deiiide ex omiii parte Curia.^ eft, uri referret P. iElius Praetor. [Liv. 30. 21.] Flagitare Senatus infiitit Cornutum, ut referret fta- Um de tuis littcris. ille, le coijiiderare velle. cum ex the Roman Senate. 157 If any opinion, propofed to them, was thought too general, and to include feveral diftinft articles, fome of which might be approved, and others rejeded, it was ufual to require, that it might be divided, and fometim.es by a gene- ral voice of the affembly, calling out, divide, divide [i*]. Or if in the de- bate, feveral different opinions had been offered, and each fupported by a num- ber of Senators, the Conful, in the clofe of it, ufed to recite them all, that the Senate might pafs a vote feparately ^pon each : but in this, he gave what preference he -^ihought fit, to that opi- nion which he moft favored, and fome- el mao;nLim convicium fieret a cun(5lo Sen atu, quin- que Tribuni pi. retulerunt. [Cic. Ep. Fam. x. i6.J De quo legando fpero Confules ad Senatum relatu- ros ; qin li dubitabunt, aut gravabuntur, ego me profiteer relaturiirn. Cic. pr. Leg. Man, 19. [j] Qaod. fieri in Senatu folet, faciendum ego in Philofophia etiam exiftimo ; cum ccnfeat aliquls quod ex :^arte mihi placeat, jubeo dividere fenten- tiam. [Scnec. Epift. 21.] Poftulatum eft, ut Bibuli fententia divideretur, Cic. Ep. Fam. 1.2. Vid. Af- con. in Orat. pr. Mil. 6. times 158 A Treat if e o?t times even fupprefied fuch of them, as he wholly difapproved [^]. In cafes towever, where there appeared to be no difficulty or oppofition, decrees were fometimes made, without any opinion being afked or delivered upon them When any quaeflion, was put to the vote, it was determined always by a divifion or feparation of the oppofite parties, to different parts of the Senate houfe ; the Conful or prefiding magi- ftrate having firft given order for it in this form ; let thofe^ who are of fuch an opinion^ pafs over to that fide ; thofe^ who think differently^ to this \x\ What the majority of thera approved, was [/] Lentulus Conful, fententlam Calidii pronun- tlaturum fe omnlno negavit. Ctef. Comm. Bell. Civ. 429. \y'\ Prseclara turn oratio. M. Antonii— de qua ne fententias quidem diximus. Scriptum S. C. quod fieri vellet, attullt. Cic. Phil. i. i. \x\ Qui hoc cenfetis, iliuc tranfite •, qil^ alia om- nia, in hanc partem. [Feft. in Voc. Qui.] de tribus Legatis, frequentes ierunt. in alia omnia. Cic. Ep. Fam. I. 2, drawn the Roman Senate. 159 drawn up into a decree, which was ge- nerally conceived in words prepared and diftated by the firft mover of the quseftion, or the principal fpeaker in favor of it ; who, after he had fpoken upon it, what he thought fufficient to recommend it to the Senate, ufed to conclude his fpeech, by fumming up his opinion in the form of fuch a de- cree, as he defired to obtain in con- fequence of it \j\ : which decree, when confirmed by the Senate, was always figned and attefted by a number of Senators, who chofe to attend through [yl Thus Cicero*s Philippic Orations, which were fpoken at difFerent times in the Senate, an points of the greateft importance, generally conclude with the form of fuch a decree, as he was recommending on each particular occafion •, Quse cum ita iint •, or Quas ob res, ita cenfeo. Vid. Philip. 3, ^-^Z^ 9, Xj 13, 14. Cccro fpeaking of the decree, by which the accomplices of Catiline were condemned to fuiter death, gives this reafon why it was drawn in the name and words of Cato^ tho' Sila?ius, the Conful eled, had delivered the {ame opinion before him -, becaufe Calo had {poken upon it more explicitely, fully, and ftrongly than Silanus, Ep. ad Att. 12.21. the i6o A Treatife on the whole proces of it, for the fake of adding their names to it, as a tefti- mony of their particular approbation of the thing, as well as of refped: to the perfon, by whofe authority, or in whofe favor it was drawn \z\ When the Senate appeared to be difpofed and ready to pafs a decree, it was in the power of any one of the ten Tribuns of the people, to intercede^ as it was called ; that is, to quafli it at once, by his bare negative, with- out afligning any reafon \_a\ The ge- neral law of thefe inter cejftons was, that any magiftrate might inhibit the ads of his equal, or inferior \U\ : but the Tribuns [z] Hasc enim Senatus confulta noti ignoro ab amiciflimis ejus, cujus de honore agltur, Icribi fo- Jere. [Cic. Ep. Fam. 15. 6. it. 8. 8. J thefe fubfcrip- tlons were called, S. O' aufloritates. ibid. [a] Veto, was the folemn word ufed by the Tri- buns, when they inhibited any decree of the Senate, or law propofed to the people* Faxo, ne juvet vox ifta, Veto, qua nunc concinentes Collegas noftros tarn la^ti auditis. Liv. 6. 37. [b] Poftea fcripfit (Varro) de interceflionibus, dixitque intercedendi, ne Senatus confultum heret, jus the Roman Senate. i6r Tribiins had the fole prerogativ^e, of controuling the ads of every other magiftrate, yet could not be controul- ed themfelves by any \c\ But in all cafes, where the determinations of the Senate were overruled by the negative of a Tribun, of which there are num- berlefs inftances, if the Senate was u- nanimous, or generally inclined to the decree fo inhibited, they ufuajly paff- ed a vote to the fame purpofe, and in the fame words, which, inftead of a decree, was called an authority of the Senate^ and was entered into their journals \d\ yet had no other force, jus fuifTe lis folis, qui eadem poteflate, qua ii, qui S. C. facere vellent, majoreve eflent. [A. Gell. 14, 7.] Aft ni poteftas par majorve prohlbelTet, Sena- tus confulta perfcripta fervanto. Cic. de Leg. 3. 3. (ji^xo^a r^ro Ift TO k^xt^. Dionyf. X. 31. [d] De his rebus Senatus auctoriras graviffima intercellit : cui cum d^to & Caninius interceiTiirent, tamen eft perfcripta. [Cic. Ep. Far:i. t. 2.] Ser villus Ahala — fi quis intercedat Senatus confulto, fe auc- toritate fere contentum, dixit. Liv. 4. c^y. Yid, I^iO' 55' 550^ M thaa 1 62 A Treat if e on than to teftify the judgement of the Senate on that particular quaeftion, and to throw the odium of obftrud- ing an ufefuU a£t, on the Tribun, who had hindered it. And in order to de- ter any magiftrate, from ading fo fadioufly and arbitrarily in affairs of importance, they often made it part of the decree, which they were going to enaft, that if any one attempted to obftrudl it, he Jhould be deemed to aEi againjv the inter eji of the Republic \f\. Yet this claufe had feldom any effeft on the hardy Tribuns, who ufed to apply their negative in defiance of it, as freely, as on any other more indif- ferent occafion. But the private Senators alfo, and efpecially the factious and leaders of parties, had feveral arts of obftruding [e'] Senatum exiftlmare, neminem eornm, qui poteftatem habent intercedendi — moram afFerre o- portere, quominus S. C. fieri pofTit. qui impedierit — eum Senatum exiftimare, contra Rempub. fecifTe. Si quis huic S. C'° intercefTerit, Senatui placere, auc- toritatem perfcribi, Cic. Ep. F. 8. 8. ad Ate, 4. 2, 2 or the Roman Senate. 163 dr poftponing a decree, by many pre- texts and impediments, which they could throw in it's way. Sometimes they alledged fcruples of religion ; that the Aufpices were not favorablcj or not rightly taken ; which, if con- firmed by the Augurs, put a flop to the bufinefs for that day [/]. At o- ther times, they urged fome pretended admonition from the Sibylline booksy which were then to be confulted and interpreted to a fenfe, that ferved their purpofe [_g]. But the moft common [/] Recitatis lltterls, oblata religlo Cornuto eft. Pullariorum admonitu, non fatis diligenter eum au- fpiciis ope ram dedifl*e ; idque a noflro Collegio efTe comprobatum. itaque res dllata eft in pofterum. Ep. Fam. x. 12. [^] Thus in a debate on the fubjed of replacing King Ptolemy on the throne of Mg'jp \ the Tribuh Cato^ who oppofed it, produced fome verfes from the Sibylline books, by which they were warned, never to reftore any King of M^ypt with an army \ upon which the Senate laid hold on that pretext, and voted it dangerous to the Republic, to fend the King home with an arrriy. [DIo. 39. p. 98. Cic. ad Fra. 2.2.] concerning which Cicero^ in his account of it to Leniulus^ fays, Senatus religionis calumniam ndn religione, fed malevolentia, & illius regise iar- gitioni? invidia comprobat. Cic. Ep, Fam. i. i. M 2 method 164 A "Treatife on method was, to wafi the day^ by fpeak- ing for two or three hours fucceffive- ly, fo as to leave no time to finidi the affair in that meeting ; of which we find many examples in the old wri- ters : yet when fome of the more tur- bulent magiftrates were groflly abuiing this right, againft the general inclina- tion of the affembly, the Senators were fometimes fo impatient, as to filence th^n, as it were, by force, and to di- fturb them in fuch a manner, by their clamor and hiffmg, as to oblige them to defift \h\ It feems probable, that a certain number of Senators was required by law, as neceffary to legitimate any ad, and give force to a decree. For it was \h'\ C. Casfar Conful M. Catonem fententlam ro- gavit. Cato rem, quam confulebatur, quoniam non e Repub. videbatar, perfici nolebat. ejus rei gratia ducendas, longa oratione utebatur, eximebatque di- cendo diem. A. Gell. 4. x. Cum ad Clodium ventum. eft, cupiit diem confu- mere : neque ei finis eft fa6lus : fed tamen cum ho- ras tres fere dixiftet, odio & ftrepitu Senatus, co- ad:us eft aliquando perorare. Cic. ad Att. 4. 2. objeded the Roman Senate. 165 objected fometimes to the Confuls, that they had procured decrees furrepti- tioiijly^ and by ftealth as it were^ from an houfe not fufficie?2tly full [/] : and we find bufinefs aifo poftponed by the Senate, for the want of a competent nmtiber \ji\ : fo that when any Sena- tor, in a thin houfe, had a mind to put a flop to their procedings, he ufed to call out to the Conful, to number the Senate [/]. Yet there is no cer- tain number fpecified by any of the old writers, except in one or two parti- cular cafes. For example ; when the Bacchanalian rites were prohibited in ; [/'] Neque his contentus Conful fuit. Sed poftea per infrequentiam furtim Senatus confulto adjecit &c. [Liv. 38. 44.] Qui per infrequentiam furtim Senatus confultum ad aerarium detulit. Liv. 39. 4. \k\ In Kalendas rejec^la re, ne frequentiam qui- dem efficere potuerunt. Cic. Ep. Fam. 8. 3. it. 8. 5. [/] Numera Senatum^ ait qui vis Senator Confuli, cum impedimento vult efle, quo minus faciat S. C. Feft. in Voc, Numera. Renuntiatum nobis erat, Hirrum diutius didu- rum, prendimus eum, non modo non fecit, fed cum de hoftibus ageretur, & pofTet rem impedire, fi, ut numeraretur^ poftularet, tacuit. Cic. Ep. Fam. 8. xi. M 3 Rome^ 1 66 A Treatife on Rome^ it was decreed, that no one fhould be permitted to ufe them, with- out a fpecial Hcence granted for that purpofe by the Senate, when an hu7%- dred members were prefent [;/^] : and this perhaps was the proper number required at that time in all cafes, when the Senate conlifled of three hundred. But about a century after, when it's number was increafed to Jive hundred^ C. Cornelius^ a Tribun of the people, procured a law, that the Senate fhould not have a power of abfolvtng any 07ie from the obligation of the laws^ un- lefs two hwtdred Senators were prefent [4 The decrees of the Senate were u- fually publiflied, and openly read to the people, foon after they v/ere paff- \ni\ Quum in Senatu centum non minus adeiTent. LIv. 39. 18. [fi] Diximus — Cornelium primo legem promul- gafle, nequis per Senatum lege folveretur : deinde tolIfTe, ut turn denique de ea re S, C. fieret, cum ^defTent in Senatu non minus C. C. Afcon. in Orat. pr. Cornel, i. //5^ Roman Sen ATE. 167 cd ; and an authentic copy of them was always depofited in the public treafury of the city, or otherwife they were not confidered as legal or valid [0]. When the bufmefs of the day was jfinifhed, the Conful, or other ma- giftrate, by whom the Senate had been called together, ufed to difmifs them with thefe words. Fathers^ I have no farther occajton to detain you ; or, no body detains you [/>]. SECT. VI. Of the force or effeB of the decrees of the Senate. A S to the force of thefe decrees, it is difficult to define precifely, [0] Senatus confulta nunquam fa6la ad asrarium (ab Antonio) referebantur. [Cic. Phil. 5. 4.] Igitur fadtum S. C. ne decreta Patrum ante diena decimum ad asrarium deferrentur. Tacit. Ann. 3. 51. [/>] Neque unquam receflit de Curia^ nifi Conful dixiflet, nihil vos moramur^ Patres confcripti,. [Ca- pitolin. de M. Aurel] Turn ille, fe Senatum nega^ vit tenere, Cic. ad Fra. 2. i. M 4, what 1 68 A Treatife on what it was. *It is certain, that they were not confidered as laws, but feem to have been defigned originally, as the ground work or preparatory ftep to a law, with a fort of provifional force, till a law of the fame tenor fhould be enaded in form by the people ; for in all ages of the Republic no law was ever made, but by the ge- neral fuffrage of the people. The de- crees of the Senate related chiefly to the executive part of the government ; to the affignment of provinces to their magiftrates ; and of ftipends to their generals, with the number of their fol- diers ; and to all occafional and inci- dental matters, that were not provided for by the laws, and required fome prefent regulation : fo that for the moft part, they were but of a tempo- rary nature, nor of force any longer, than the particular occafions fubfifted, to v/hich they had been applied. But though they were not, ftridly fpeaking, laws ; yet they were under- ftood /)&^ Roman Senate. 169 flood always to have a binding force ; and were generally obeyed and fub- mitted to by all orders, till they were annulled by fome other decree, or o- verruled by fome law. Yet this de- ference to them, as I have fignified above, was owing rather to cuftom, and a general reverence of the city for the authority of that fupreme council, than to any real obligation derived from the conftitution of the government. For in the early ages, upon a difpute concerning a particu- lar decree, we find the Confuls, who were charged with the execution of it, refufing to enforce it, becaufe it was made by their prcdecefTors, alledging, that the decrees of the Se7iate continued onely in force for one year \ or during the magiftracy of thofe, by whom they were made \q\. And Cicero likevvife, when it ferved the caufe of a clicntj Itrx^v. Dionyf. g^ S7' whom lyo A Treatife on whom he was defending, to treat a decree of the Senate with flight, de- clared it to be of no effed, becaufe it had never been offered to the people^ to he enaEied into a law [r]. In both which cafes, though the Confuls and Cicero faid nothing, but what was a- greeable to the nature of the thing, yet they faid it perhaps more ftrongly and peremptorily, than they would otherwife have done, for the fake of a private intereft ; the Confuls, to fave themfelves the trouble of executing a difagreeable aft ; and Cicero^ to do a prefent fervice to a client, who was in great danger and diftrefs. But on all occafions indeed, the principal magi- giftrates, both at home and abroad, feem to have paid more or lefs refpe6t to the decrees of the Senate, as it hap- pened to ferve their particular intereft, or inclination, or the party, which they I'A Cic. Dr. Cluentio. 40. efpoufed the Roman Senate. 171 efpoufed in the ftate [j]. But in the laft age of the RepubHc, when the ufurped powers of fome of it's chiefs had placed them above the controul of every cuftom or law, that obftruft- ed their ambitious views, we find the decrees of the Senate treated by them, and by all their creatures, with the ut- moft contempt \t\ ; whilft they had a bribed and corrupted populace at their command, ready to grant them every thing, that they defired, till they had utterly oppreffed the public liberty. [j] Cicero recommending the affairs of C^rellia to P. ServiliuSy when he was governor o^ Afia^ puts him in mind, that there was a decree of the Senate fubflfting, which was favorable to her intereft, and that he knew Servilius to be one of thofe, who paid great regard to the authority of the Senate. Ep. Fam. ig. 72. [/] Habet orationem talem Conful, (Gabinius) quale m nunquam Catib'na vi(ftor habuiflet. errare homines, fi etiam turn Senatum aliquid in Repub. poflcj arbitrarentur. Cic. pr. Sext. 1 2. SECT, 172 A Treat if e on SECT. VII. Of the peculiar dignity^ honors^ and ornaments of a Roman Senator. IT is natural to imagine, that the members of this fupreme council, which held the reins of fo mighty an empire, and regulated all it's tranf- adions with foreign ftates, and which in its florifoing condition^ as Cicero fays, prefided over the whole earth \y\y muft have been confidered every where as perfons of the firfl: eminence, which the world was then acquainted with. And we find accordingly, that many of them had even Kings^ cities^ and whole nations^ under their particular, patronage [a;]. Cicero reciting the ad- vantages of a Senator, above the other orders \y\ Ql3^ quondam florens Orbl terrarum prasfi- debat. Phil. 2. 7. \jx\ In tjus maglftratas tutela Reges atque exte- rae gentes Temper fuerunt. [pr. Sext. 30.] Duas maxima^ the Roman Senate. 173 orders of the city, fays, that he had authority andfplendor at home ; fdme and interejij in countries abroad \^y\ : and on another occafionj "what city- is there, fays he, not 6nely in our provinces, but in the remoteft parts of the earth, ever fo powerfull and free, or ever fo rude and barba- rous ; or what King is there, who is not glad to invite and entertain a Senator of the Roman people in his houfe \z\ ? " It was from this order alone, ' that all embafladors were chofen and fent to foreign ftates : and when they had maximas Clientelas tuse, [Catonis] Cyprus Infula, & Cappadoclae regnum, tecum de me loquentur : pu- to ctiam Regem Deiotarum, qui tibi uni eft maxime neceflarius. [Cic. Ep. Fam. 15. 4.] Adfunt Segefta- ni, Clientes tui. (P. Scipionis) [In Verr. 4. ^6^ Marcelli, Siculorum Patroni. ib. 41. [jy] Audoritas, domi fplendor ; apud exteras na- tiones, nomen & gratia, pr. Claen. ^6. [2;] Ecquje civitas eft, non in provinciis noftris, verum in ultimis nationibus, aut tarn potens, aut tarn libera, aut etiam tarn immanis ac barbara : Rex denique ecquis eft, qui Senatorem populi Roman! tedo ac domo non invitet } Cic, in Verr. 4. xi. occafion 174 ^ Ireatife on occafion to travel abroad, even on their private affairs, they ufually obtained from the Senate the privilege of ?ifree legation^ as it u^as called ; w^hich gave them a right to be treated every where with the honors of an embaflador, and to be furniflied on the road with a certain proportion of provifions and neceflaries for themfelves and their at- tendants \a\ : and as long as they re- fided in the Roman provinces, the go- vernors ufed to affign them a number of liSiors or mace-bearers, to march before them in (late, as before the ma- fiftrates in Rome [^b\ And if they ad any law fuit or caufe of proper- ty depending in thofe provinces, they [a] Placltum eft mlhl, ut poftularem legationem liberam mihi reliquifque noftris, ut aliqua caufa pro- ficifcendi honefta qucereretur. Cic. Ep. Fam. xi.i. it. vid. Att. 15. xi. C. Anicius — negotlorum fuorum caufa, legatus eft in Africam, Jegaticne libera. Cic, Ep. Fam. 12. 21. Suet, in Tiber. 31. [/^] Idque a te peto, quod ipfe in provincia face- re fum folitus, non rogatus, ut omnibus Senatoribus Lidores darem. quod idem acceperam & cognove- tarn a fummis viris faditatum. Cic. Ep. Fam. 12.21, feem the Roman Senate. 175 feem to have had a right to require it to be remitted to Rome [c\ At home Ukewife they were diftin- guidied by pecuUar honors and privi- leges : for at the pubhc fhews and plays, they had particular feats fet a- part and appropriated to them in the moft commodious part of the theater [d'] : and on all folemn feftivals, when [f] Illud pr^eterea — fecerls mlhi pergratum — fi eos, quum cum Seiiatore res eft, Romam rejeceris. ib. 13. 26. [^] Lentulus, Popillium, quod erat Ilbertinl fiHus in Senatum non legit. Jocum quidem Senatorium iiidis, 6r cetera ornamenta rellquit. Cic. pr. Clu. 47. vid. it. Plutar. in Flaminin. p. 380. A. But in the fhews and games of the Circus they ufed to (it promifcuouily with the other citizens, till the emperor Claudius afTigned them peculiar feats there alfo. Suet, in Claud. 21. The place v/here the Senators fat in the theaters was called the Grcbcjira, which was below all the fteps or common benches of the theaters, and on a level with that part of the ftage, on which the Pan- tomimes performed, vid. Suet. Aog. ^^, ^ in J. iEqiiales illic habitus, fimilefque videbls Ofcheilram 3: populum. — Juven. Sat. 3. 177, In Orchedra autem Senatorum funt fedibus loca de- ftinata. Vitruv. 1. 5. c. 6, facrificcs 176 A Treat if e on facrifices were ofFered to Jupiter by the magiftrates, they had the fole right o{ feafling publicly in the capital^ in habits of ceremony, or fuch, as were proper to the offices, which they had born in the city \_e\ They were diftinguiflied alfo from all the other citizens by the ornaments of their ordinary drefs and habit, efpe- cially by their vefi or tunic ^ and the fafhion of their fhoes ; of which the old writers make frequent mention. The peculiar ornament of their tunic was the latus clavus^ as it was called, being a broad firipe of purple^ fewed upon the forepart of it, and running down the middle of the breaft, which was the proper diftindion between them and the Knights, who wore a \e\ Quofdam (Senatores) ad excufandi fe vcre- cundiam compulit : fervavitque etiam excufantibus infigne veftis, & fpedandi in Orcheftra, epulandi- que publlce jus. [Suet. Aug. q^c^.'\ Ea fimultas quum diu manfiflet. & folemni die Jovi libaretur, atque ob id facrificium Senatus in Capitolio epularetur, A. Gell. 12. 8. Dio. p^s- 554^ C- x much //6^ Roman Senate. 177 much narrower ftripe of the fame color, and in the fame manner [ fj. The falliion alfo of their fhoes was pe- culiar, and different from that of the reft of the city. Cicero fpeaking of one Afanus^ who, in the general con- fufion, occaiioned by J. Ccefar\ death, had intruded himfelf into the Senate, fays, that feeing the Senate houfe ope7t after CsefarV death^ he changed his fjoesj and became a Senator at once [^]. This difference appeared in the N color, [/] Gain hraccas depofuerunt, latum clavum fumpferunt. [Saet. J. Caef. 80.] Anuli diftinxere ordinem Equeftrem a plebe — ficut tunica ah anulls Senatum— quamquam & hoc fero, vulgoque pur- pura latiore tunica ufos etiam invenimus Prsecones, Plln. Hill. 33. I. Qnld confert purpura major Optandum ? — Juv. Sat. i. 106. Namque ut quifque infanus nigris medium impe- diit cTus Pellibus & latum demifit petflore clavum. Hor. S. I. 6. 28. Paterculus de Mascenate, vlxit angufto clavo con- tentus. 1. 2. 88. [^] Eft etiam Afinius quidam Senator volunta- rius, iedus ipfe a fe. apertam Curiam vidit poft Cs- faris 178 A Treat if e on color, fhape, and ornament of the fhoes. The color of them was blacky while others wore them of any color perhaps, agreeably to their feveral fan- cies. The form of them was fome- what like to a fhort boot, reaching up to the middle of the leg^ as they are fometimes feen in ancient ftatues and bafs reliefs : and the proper ornament of them was, the figure of an halfmoo7Z fewed or faftened upon the forepart of them near the ancles [^]. Plutarch^ in his Roman quaeftions, propofes fe- veral reafons of this emblematical fi- gure [/] : yet other writers fay, that it had no relation to the moon, as it's iTiape feemed to indicate, but was de- figned to exprefs the letter C, as the faris necem. mutavit calceos : pater^confcriptus re- pente eft faflus. Cic. Phil. 13. 13. r^j Adpofitam nigras lunam fubtexit alut^e, Juv. 7. 192. nigris medium impediit orus Pelllbus Hor. fupr. [i\ Q\wQix, Roman. 75. numeral the Roman Senate. 15^9 numeral mark oi an hundred^ to de- note the original number of the Se- nate, when it was firft inftituted by Romulus \K\. As to the gown, or upper robe of the Senators ; I have not obferved it to be defcribed any where, as differing from that of the other citizens ; ex-^ cept of fuch of them onely, as were adual magiftrates of the city, as the Confuls^ Prcetors^ j^diles^ Tribuns^ &c. who, during the year of their magi- ftracy, always wore the Prcetexta^ or a gown bordered round with a ftripe of purple [/] : in which habit alfo, as I have iignified above, all the reft {!(] Zonar. 11, Kidor. 19. 34. [/] Cum vos veilem mutandam cenfalfTetis, cun(5i:ique mutaflent. ille (Conful Gabinius) unguen- tis oblitus, cum toga prat€:n. 5. Qaod Tribuni plebis prastextam quoque geftare folerent, a Cicerone indicatum eft^ qui Qaintii Tri- buni ^p\. pur pur am u/que ad tnlos demijjam irrid^t. [pr. Ciuen. 40.] quam quidem purpuram ^iwJiiianuSy de eodem ^intio loquens, Prat ex tarn appellat. J. 5. i^. p. 275. Ed, Oxon. N 2 of i8o A Treat if e on of the Senate, who had already bom thofe offices, ufed to affift at the pub- lic feftivals and folemnities \jri\. [m] Nefcls heri quartum in Circo diem Ludorum Romanorum fuifle ? te autem ipfum ad populum tulifle, ut quintus praeterea dies Casfari tribueretur ? €ur non fumus prastextati? Cic. Phil. 2. 43. Praetorio licet praetexta toga uti, Feftis aut So- lennibus diebus. Senec. Controv. 1. i. 8. APPENDIX, the Roman Senat?. i8i APPENDIX. TO this defcription of the Roman Senate, I have fubjoined here, by way of Appendix, an extrad: or two, from Cicero\ letters and orations, which give a diftind account of fome parti- cular debates, and the intire tranfadli- ons of feveral different days ; and will illuftrate and exemplify, what has been faid above, concerning the method of their procedings. N 3 M. Cicero 1 82 Jl Trealife on M. C I c E R o /^ ^is brother Qu i n t u s. Lib. ii. I. «« t I ^HE Senate was fuller, than *^ J^ I thought it poffible to have " been, in the month of December^ '' when the holydays were coming on ^^ \n\. There were prefent, of us *^ Confulars, befides the two Confuls " eleft, P. Servilmsy M. LucuHus^ " Lepidusy Volcatius^ Glabrio, All. " the Praetors. Wc were really full : ^^ two hundred at leaft in all. Lupus " had raifed an expedation. He fpoke *^^ indeed excedingly well on the af-^ fair oi the Campa?2ia?t lands [o'] : was \fi\ Thefe holyciays were the Saiiirnalia^ facred to Saturn, which lafted, as Tome fay, five, or as o- thers, iz-^^n days. Bat the two lall: were an addi- tion to the ancient feilivaj, and called Sigillaria. Et jam Saturn! quinque fuere dies. Mart. 4. 89. Saturnl ieptem venerat ante dies. Id. 14. 7. [d] P. Riitilhis Liipus was one of the new Tri- bunb of tlie people, juil entered into his office on the the Roman Senate. 183 *' was heard with great fllence. You ^^ know the nature of the fubjedl. He ^^ ran over all my ads, without omit- " ting one. There were fome ftings *^ on C Ccefar^ abufes on Gellius^ ex- " poftulations with Pompey^ in his " abfence. He did not conclude till " it was late : and then declared, that " he would not afk our opinions, left " he might expofe us to the incon- " venience of any man's refentment " [/>] : that from the reproaches, with " which that afFair had been treated " before, and from the filence, with the loth o^ December^ A. U. 696, by whofe autho- rity this meeting of the Senate appears to have been fummoned, in order to reconfider the afrair of the Campanian lands^ and to repeal the law, which J, Cafar had procured from the people about three years before, for a divifion of thofe lands to the poorer citizens •, to the great difguft of the Senate, and all the honefi part of the city. See Life of C/V. Vol. I. p. 294, 428. [p'] The repeal of this law would have been greatly refented by J. Cefar^ who was now com- manding in Gaul : and more immediately by Pom- fey^ who was now united with him. in the league of th^ Triumvirate, and engaged to fupport all his in- terefts in Rome, N 4 " which 184 A Treatife on ^^ which he was now heard, he un- ^^ derftoodj what v/as the fenfe of the " Senate : and fo was going to dif- " mifs us. Upon which Marcellinus " faid, You murl not judge from our^ ^^ filence, Lupus^ what it is, that we '' approve or difapprove on this oc- ^' cafion : for as to myfelf, (and the *^ reft, I beUeve, are of the fame mind) ^' I am {ilent upon it for this reafon, ^' becaufe I do not think it proper, ^^ that the cafe of the Campa7tian ^^ lands fhould be debated in Pompejrs ^^ abfence [^]. Then Lupus faid, that ^' he detained the Senate no longer. *^ But Racilius rofe up, and began to ^- move the bufinefs of the trials [r] : '' and [^] Pompey was now in Sardin'a^ providing ftores of corn for the uie of the city, where there was a great fcarcity : which commiiTion had been decreed to him by the Senate at Cicero's motion. See Life of Ck. Vol. I. p. 407. [r] T. Anraus Mtlo^ one of the late Tribuns, whofe office was jail expired, had impeached Clo- dius in form, for the violences committed by him in the city, but Clc'dms^ by fatfcion and the help of the the Roman Senate. 185 and afked Marcelli?tus the firft [^]. Who, after heavy complaints on the burnings, murthers, ftonings committed by ClodiuSy deHvered his opinion ; that he himfelf, with the ailiftance of the Prastor of the ci- ty, fhould make an allotment of judges, and when that allotment was made, that then the affemblies of the people fhould be held for the eledions. That if any one fhould obftrud the trials, he fhould be deemed to ad againft the intereft of the Republic. This opinion v/as greatly applauded : C. Cato fpoke the Conful Metellus^ found means to retard and evade any trial ; and to fkreen hlmfelf from that danger, was fuing for the ^dilefhip of the next year. Milo therefore, on his fide, contrived by his Tribunitian power, to obftru6t any eledlion, till Clcdiiis fhould be brought to a trial. This was the prefent fiate of the affair, and the point in debate was, whether the trials or the eledlions fhould be held the firft. [j] Cn. Cornelius Lcntuhis Marcellmts was now Conful eled, and Z. Marcins Pbilippus, mentioned below, was his Col legue, who were to enter into office on the firfi; of January, " againft 1 86 A Treatife on ^^ againft it : and Caffius alfo, but with " a great clamor of the Senate, when " he declared himfelf for the affem- " blies, preferably to the trials. Phi- ^' lippus affented to Lentulus\ opi- ^^ nion. Racilius afterwards afked me " the fir ft of the private Senators. I " fpoke long, on all the madnefs and " violences of P. Clodius^ and accufed " him, as if he had been a criminal " at the bar, with many and favora- ^' ble murmurings of the whole Se- " nate. Vetus Antifiius faid much in praife of my fpeech, nor indeed without feme eloquence \t\ He efpoufed the caufe of the trials, and ^^ declared, that he would have them " brought on the firft. The houfe " was going into that opinion : when ^^ Chdiiis being afked \y\ began to [/] Racilius^ C. Crdo^ Cajfius^ Antiftius^ the chief fpeakers in this debate, were all Tribuiis of the people, aivd Collegues of Ltipns. [t;] He was afked probably by one of the Tri- buns, Cdto or Caffius^ who were on the fame fide of the quceition with him. " waft the Roman Senate. 187 ^^ waft the day in fpeaking. He rav- " ed, at his being fo abufively and " roughly treated by Racilius^ when " on a fudden, his mercenaries with- " out doors raifed an extraordinary " clamor, from the Greek ftation and ^' the fteps, incited, I fuppofe, againft ^' ^ Sextilius and the friends of Mi- " lo. Upon this alarm, we broke up ^' inftantly in great difguft. You have ^' the adts of one day : the reft, I " guefs, will be put off to the month '^ of January. M. TULLIUS 1 88 A Treatife on M. TuLLius Cicero, to P. Lentulus^ ProconfuL ' Ep. Fam. i. 2. *^ X^ Senate, on the Ides of Ja- nuary : becaufe a great part of the day was fpent in an altercation, be- tween Lentulusy the Conful, and Caninius^ Tribun of the people. I fpoke much alfo myfelf on that day, and feemed to make a great im- preflion on the Senate, by remind- ing them of your affedion to their order. The day following there- fore it was refolved, that we fliould deliver our opinions in fhort [a;]. " For [;^'] This letter was written about a month after the former •, foon after Cn. hentulus M^J'ccUmus and Z. Mar cm Pbilippus had entered upon the Conful- fhip. The qug;flion under debate v/as, in Vv'hat man- ner they fnould reiliore King Ptolemy to the throne of yEjrjpi^ from v/hich he had been driven by his fubjeds. P. Lentulus Spintber^ to whom this letter is the Roman Senate. 189 ^ For the inclination of the Senate " appeared to be turned again in our ^^ favor : which I clearly faw, as well " by the effed of my fpeaking, as by " applying to them fingly, and afking " their opinions. Wherefore when " Bibulus\ opinion was declared the " firft ; that three embafladors fliould ^^ carry back the King : HortenJius\ ^^ the fecond; that you fhould carry " him without an army : Volcattus^ *^ the third ; that Fompey fhould car- " ry him back : it was demanded, that " Btbulus\ o^VLvxoxi fhould be divided. " As to what he faid, concerning the ^^ fcruple of religion [^'], to which no " oppo- is addrefled, who had been Conful the year before, and was now Proconful of Cillcia^ was very defirous to be charged with the commifTion of reftoring the King : Cicero was warmly in his intereft, and Fom- fey pretended to be fo too : yet all Fompefs friends were openly folliciting the commiffion for Fompey. [j] When this affair was firft moved in the Se-^ nate, they feemed to be generally inclined to grant the commiiTion to Lentulus ; and adlually pafTed a decree in his favor : yet many of them afterwards, either out of envy to Lcjimlus^ or a defire of paying their 1 90 A Treatife 07t ^^ oppolition could then be made, it " was agreed to by all : but as to the " three embafiadors, there was a great " majority againft it. HortenJius\ o- " pinion was next : when Lupus ^ Tri- " bun of the people, becaufe he had " made the motion in favor of Pom- " pey^ began to infift, that it was his " right to divide the houfe upon it, " before their court to Pompey^ or a diflike to the defigti it felf, of reftorlng the King at all, contrived leveral pretexts to obftru6l the effedl of it : and above alJ, by producing certain verfes from the Sibylline books, forewarning the Roman people, never to reftore any King of JEgypt with an army. Bibulus^s opinion re- lated to thefe verfes, and upon their authority, de- clared it dangerous to the Republic, to fend the King home with an army : and though this pretext was fo filly in itfelf, and known to be fo by all thofe, who made ufe of it, yet the fuperftition of the populace, and their reverence for the Sibyfs au- thority was fo great, that no oppofition could be made to it. The Senate embraced it therefore, as Cicero fays, not from any fcruple of religion, but malevolence to Lcntuliis^ and the envy and difguft, which the fcandalous bribery, pradbifed by the King, had raifed againft him. See Hp. i. fz] The the Roman Senate. 191 before the Confuls [z]. There was a great and general outcry againft his fpeech ; for it was both unrea- fonable and unprecedented. The Confuls neither allowed, nor great- ly oppofed it : they had a mind, that the day fhould be wafted : which was done accordingly. For they faw a great majority, ready to go into Hortenjius\ opinion, yet feemed outwardly to favor Volca- " //Ws. Many were afked, and a- gainft the will of the Confuls. For they were defirous, that Bibiilus\ opinion fhould take place. This [2] The opinion delivered in this debate in favor of Pompey, was firfl: propofed by Vokatius, a Con- fular Senator ; yet was efpoufed afterwards by Lu- pus^ Tribun of the people, and referred, or moved by him in form to the Senate, in order to be put to a vote, which was the peculiar right of the ma- giftrates. But as to his difpute with the Conful about a priority in dividing the houfe, it feems to have been ftarted by him with no other view, but to waft the day, as the Confuls alfo dcfired to do, in a fruit- lefs altercation, fo as to prevent Horlotfiufs opinion, which feemed likely to prevail, A'om being brought into d",bate. 2 ^^ difpute 192 A Treatife on " difpute being kept up till night, the " Senate was difmifled, &c. In one of Ccelius\ letters to Cicero^ we find the following decrees of the Senate tranfcribed in proper form, and fent with the other news of the. city to Cicero^ when Proconful of Cilicia. " The authority of the decree of ^' the Senate. On the 30th of Sep- '^ tember^ in the temple of Apollo^ " there were prefent at the engroff- " ing of it, Li. Domitius, the fon of " Cn. Ahejiobarbtis ; ^^ C(zciltus^ the " fon of ^Metellus Pius Scipio ; L. *^ Villius^ the fon of Lucius Anna-- ^' lis^ of the Pomptine tribe : C Sep- " timius^ the fon of T'itus ; of the " ^irine tribe : C. Lucceius^ the fon " of C. Hirrus ; of the Pupinian " tribe : C. Scribonius^ the fon of C. " Curio ; of the Popillian tribe : L, " Atteiusy the fon of L. Capita ; of " the Anienjian tribe: M Oppius^ -" the fon of Marcus^ of the Terentine 2 " tribe. //5^ Roman Senate. 193 " tribe. Whereas M. Marcellus^ the " Conful, propofed the ajffair of the " Confular provinces, his opinion up- ^^ on it was this ; that L. Paullus and " C. Marcellus^ Confuls eled, (hould " after their entrance into their ma- " giftracy, refer the cafe of the Con- ^^ fular provinces to the Senate, on the " firft oi March^ which was to be in " their magiftracy : and that no other " bufinefs fhould be moved by the " Confuls on that day before it, nor " any jointly with it : and that for ^^ the fake of this affair, they might " hold the Senate, and make a decree " on the Co77titial days : and when- " ever it fhould be brought before the " Senate, they might call away from '^ the bench any of the three hundred, '^ who were then judges : and if it ^^ was neceflary, that any thing fliould " be enaded about it by the people ^^ or the Commons, that Serv. Sulpi- ^^ cius and M Marcellns, the Confuls, O the 194 ^ Treat if e on " the Praetors, the Tribuns, or any of " them, who thought fit, fhould lay ^' it before the people or the Com- " mons : ^nd whatever they omitted " to refer to the people or the Com- " mons, that the fucceding magiftrates " fhould refer it. In Cicero^ firft Philippic alfo, in which he is reciting all their late tranf- adions in the Senate, from the time of CcBfar\ death, there is this paflage. *' On that day, in which we were fum- ^' moned to the temple of Tellusy I *' there laid a foundation of peace, as ^' far as it was in my power, and re- ^' newed the old example of the Athe- ^^ 7na77Sy and made ufe of the fame ^'^ Greek word^ which that city then ^' ufed, in calming their civil diflen- " tions [^] : and gave my opinion, ^' that all remembrance of our late dif- [d] T\ e Gretk word, af:^;rsix^ amnefty. ^^ cords the Roman Senate. 195 ^' cords fhould be buried in eternal *^ oblivion. Antonys fpeech on that '^ occafion was excellent ^ * *. He ^' abolifhed for ever out of the Re- " public, the office of a Didator^w^hich ^^ had ufurped all the force of regal " power. Upon which we did not fo " much as deliver our opinions. He ^' brought with him in writing the " decree, which he was defirous to ^^ have us make upon it : which was " no fooner read, than we followed " his authority with the utmoft zeal ; " and gave him thanks for it by a- " nother decree in the ampleft terms But on another occafion, in his third Philippic^ he reproaches Antony for de- creeing afupplication or public thankf- giving to M. Lepidus^ by a divifion onely^ or vote of the Senate^ without ajking any one s opinion upon it : which, in that cafe of a fupplication, had ne- ver [^] Phil. I.I. 2 196 A Treatife^ &c. ver been done before \c\. For it was thought a mark of greater refpe6t to the General, in whofe honor it was granted, to give his friends an op- portunity of difplaying his particular praifes and fervices, in their fpeeches on fuch occafions. [c] Fugers feftinans, Senatus confultum de fup- plicatlone per dlfcefTionem fecit : cum id fadum effet antea nunquam. Phil. 3. 9. That the opinions of the particular Senators ufed to be afked, in the cafe of decreeing fupplications, appears from CIc. Ep. Fam. 8. xi. F I N I s. w ^ ,Z y^w^-^^-^'^-^m^ ^•■^ t^- Wm