Very Solemnly and Religiously express'd! _Lucian_ and _Celsus_ could not have ridiculed the Resurrection better! Certainly the Poet never expects to be there. Such a light Turn would have agreed much better to a Man who was in the Dark, and was feeling for his Stockings. But let those who talk of _Fumbling_ for their Limbs, take care they don't find them too fast. In the Fourth _Act_ _Mustapha_ dates his _Exaltation to Tumult_, _from the second Night of the Month_ Abib.[127] Thus you have the Holy Text abused by Captain _Tom_; And the Bible torn by the Rabble! The Design of this Liberty I can't understand, unless it be to make _Mustapha_ as considerable as _Moses_; and the prevalence of a Tumult, as much a Miracle as the Deliverance out of _Ægypt_. We have heard this Author hitherto in his _Characters_, let us hear him now in his own Person. In his _Dedication of Aurenge Zebe_ he is so hardy as to affirm that _he who is too lightly reconciled after high Provocation, may Recommend himself to the World for a Christian, but I should hardly trust him for a Friend_. And why is a Christian not fit to make a Friend of? Are the Principles of Christianity defective, and the Laws of it Ill contriv'd? Are the Interests and Capacities of Mankind overlook'd? Did our Great Master bind us to Disadvantage, and make our Duty our Misfortune? And did he grudge us all the Pleasures and Securities of Friendship? Are not all these horrid Suppositions? Are they not a flat Contradiction to the _Bible_, and a Satyr on the Attributes of the Deity? Our Saviour tells us we must _forgive until Seventy times Seven_; That is, we must never be tired out of Clemency and Good Nature. He has taught us to pray for the Forgiveness of our own Sins, only upon the Condition of forgiving others. Here is no exception upon the Repetition of the Fault, or the Quality of the Provocation. Mr. _Dryden_ to do him right, do's not dispute the Precept. He confesses this is the way to be a Christian: But for all that he _should hardly trust him for a Friend_. And why so? Because the Italian Proverb says, _He that forgives the second time is a Fool._[128] This Lewd Proverb comes in for Authority, and is a piece of very pertinent Blasphemy! Thus in some Peoples _Logick_ one proof from Atheism, is worth Ten from the _New Testament_. But here the _Poet_ argues no better than he Believes. For most certainly, a Christian of all others is best qualified for Friendship. For He that loves his Neighbour as himself, and carries Benevolence and Good Nature beyond the Heights of Philosophy: He that is not govern'd by Vanity, or Design; He that prefers his Conscience to his Life, and has Courage to Maintain his Reason; He that is thus qualified must be a good Friend; And he that falls short, is no good Christian. And since the _Poet_ is pleas'd to find fault with Christianity, let us examine his own Scheme. _Our Minds (says he) are perpetually wrought on by the Temperament of our Bodies, which makes me