What rais'd Antipater the Edomite, my They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, 430 While virtue, valor, wisdom fit in want. To whom thus Jesus patiently reply'd. Yet wealth without these three is impotent Το hand; And him that reign'd into his 427. Get riches fir,] Quærenda room thrast down, pecunia primùm. Hor. Ep. 1. I. 53. And whom I lust do heap with 429. Riches are mine, &c.] This glory and renown Calton, temptation we also owe to our au thor's invention, and 'tis very hap423. What raiš'd Antipater the pily contrived, not only as it leads Edomite, &c.] This appears the reader gradually on to those to be the fact from history. When stronger ones in the following Jofephus introduces Antipater ap- book, but as it is fo justly fitted to on the ftage, he fpeaks of him as the character of the Tempter, the abounding with great riches, og prince of Hell, who was supposed δε τις Υρκανε Ιδεμαιών, Αντιπατρών by all antiquity to be the king and λεγομενο», πολλων μεν ευπορων χρη- difpofer of riches. Hence was he flatws, %. 7. a. Antig. Lib. XIV. ftild Pluto from wist divitiæ. Cap. 1. And his fon Herod was Spenser much in the fame tafte declared king of Judea by the places the delive of Mammon close favor of Mark Antony, partly by the entrance into Hell. Faery for the fake of the money which Queen B. 2. Cant. 7. St. 24. he promifed to give him--- Betwixt them both was but a δε και υπο χρηματων ων αυτώ Ηρωδης little ftride, υπεσχετο δωσειν εν γένοιτο βασιλευς. That did the house of riches from Ibid. Cap. 14. Hell-mouth divide. Thyer. 432, T. To gain dominion, or to keep it gain’d. many ages, and shall yet regain Worthy 432. To whom thus Jefus &c.] supposes him not to be unacquaintWhen our Saviour, a little before, ed with Heathen history, for the refused to partake of the banquet, fake of introducing a greater vato which Satan had invited him, riety of examples. Gideon faith the line run thus, ver. 378, of himself, Ob, my Lord, wherewith To whom thus Jesus temp?rately shall I save Ifrael? behold my family is poor in Manaffeb, and I am the leaf reply'd. in my father's house. Judges Ví. But now when Satan has reproach. 15. And Jephtha was the son of an ed him with his poverty and low harlot, and his brethren thrust him circumstances, the word is fitly al- out, and said unto him, Thou shalt tered, and the verse runs thus, not inherit in our father's house, for To whom thus Jesus patiently re thou art the fon of a strange woman. Judges XI. 1, 2. And the exalta tion of David from a sheep-hook 439. Gideon, and Jephtha, and to a fcepter is very well known. the shepherd lad, ] Our Saviour He chose David also his servant, and is rightly made to cite his first in- took him from the sheep-folds : From stances from Scripture, and of his following the ews great with young, own nation, which was certainly he brought him to feed Jacob his the best known to him ; but it is people, and Israel bis inheritance, with great art that the poet also Psalm LXXVIII, 70, 71. 446. Quin. ply'd. Worthy' of memorial) canst thou not remember 445 poor Accomplish 446. Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, to be rich, but to command those Regulus? ] Quintius (not Quin- who were so. And Regulus, after tus, as it is in most of the editions performing many great exploits, besides the first) Cincinnatus was was taken prisoner by the Carthatwice invited from following the ginians, and sent with the embafplough to be consul and dictator of fadors to Rome to treat of peace, Rome; and after he had subdued upon oath to return to Carthage, if the enemy, when the senate would no peace or exchange of prisoners have enriched him with public should be agreed upon : but Regulands and private contributions, lus was himself the firit to dissuade he rejected all these offers, and re a peace, and chose to leave his tired again to his cottage and old country, family, friends, every course of life. Fabricius could not thing, and return a glorious cap-. be bribed by all the large offers tive to certain tortures and death, of king Pyrrhus to aid him in ne rather than suffer the senate to gotiating a peace with the Ro- conclude a dishonourable treaty. mans: and yet he lived and died Our Saviour cites these instances so poor, that he was buried at the of noble Romans in order of time, public expense, and his daughters as he did those of his own nation : fortunes were paid out of the trea And as Mr. Calton observes, the. sury. Curius Dentatus would not Romans in the most degenerate accept of the lands, which the fe- times were fond of these (and some nate had assigned him for the re other like) examples of ancient ward of his victories : and when virtue; and their writers of all the embassadors of the Samnites forts delight to introduce them : offered him a large sum of money but the greatest honor that poetry as he was fitting at the fire and ever did them, is here, by the roasting, turnips with his own praise of the Son of God. hands, he nobly refused to take it, saying that it was his ambition not 44.7. For I efterm &c.] The au thor Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more? 455 Golden thor had here plainly Claudian in could contemn mind. De IV. Cons. Honor. 412. Riches though offer'd from the Discitur hinc quantum paupertas hand of kings, fobria poffit : if that story be true of his having Pauper erat Curius cum reges been offer'd to be Latin fecretary vinceret armis : to Charles the 2d., and of his rePauper Fabricius, Pyrrhi cum fusing it. fperneret aurum : Sordida Serranus flexit Dictator 453. Extol not riches tben, &c.] Milton concludes this book and aratra : &c. our Saviour's reply to Satan with And again In Rufinum I. 200. a series of thoughts as noble and Semper inops, quicunque cupit, just , or, to fay al in one word, as contentus honefto Fabricius parvo spernebat mune fibly be imagined : and I think one may venture to affirn, that as the ra regum, Paradise Regain’d is a poem enSudabatque gravi Consul Serra tirely moral and religious, the exnus aratro, Et cafa pugnaces Curios angufta fo much in bold figures and strong cellency of which does not confist tegebat. Hæc mihi paupertas opulentior. timents expressed with a becoming images, as in deep and virtuous fenAnd it is probable that he remem- gravity, and a certain decent maber'd here some of his beloved 're- jesty, this is as true an instance of publicans, the sublime as the battles of the those names of men so Angels in the Paradise Lost. poor Tlyer. Who could do mighty things 458. ---- yet not for that a crown,] and it is possible that he might I reject them, yet not for that reaalso think of himself, who son, because a crown &c: and in setting Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns, 461 By • setting forth the duty and office of Quifnam igitur liber? Sapiens; a king, let the friends of the house fibi qui imperiosus, &c. of Stuart consider whether he intended any compliment to the king 473. But to guide nations &c.) In then reigning: this fpeech concerning riches and 466. Yet he who reigns within realms, our poet has culld all the himself, &c.] Such sentiments choiceft, finest flowers out of the are inculcated not only by the phi- heathen poets and philosophers lofophers, but also by the poets, as who have written upon these subHor. Od. II. II. 9. jects; it is not so much their words, as their substance sublimated and Latius regnes avidum domando Spiritum &c. improv'd: but here he soars above them, and nothing could have given and Sat. II. VII. 83. him so complete an idea of a divine teacher, |