1

I think, thofe truths, their facred works contain,

The church alone can certainly explain:

That following ages, leaning on the past,
May reft upon the primitive at laft.

Nor would I thence the word no rule infer,
But none without the church-interpreter.
Because, as I have urg'd before, 'tis mute,
And is itself the fubject of difpute.

But what th' apoftles their fucceffors taught,
They to the next, from them to us is brought,
Th' undoubted sense which is in fcripture fought.
From hence the church is arm'd, when errors rife,
To flop their entrance, and prevent surprise;
And, fafe entrench'd within, her outward foes
defies.

By thefe all festering fores her councils heal,
Which time or has difclos'd, or fhall reveal ;
For d.fcord cannot end without a last appeal.
Nor can a council national decide,
But with fubordination to her guide:

(I with the cause were on that iffue try'd)

Much lefs the fcripture; for fuppofe debate

Betwixt pretenders to a fair eftate,
Bequeath'd by fome legator's laft intent ;
(Such is our dying Saviour's teftament:)
The will is prov'd, is open'd, and is read;
The doubtful heirs their differing titles plead :
All vouch the words their intereft to maintain,
And each pretends by thofe his caufe is plain.
Shall then the Teftament award the right?
No, that's the Hungary for which they fight;
The field of battle, fubject of debate;
The thing contended for, the fair estate.
The fenfe is intricate, 'tis only clear
What vowels and what confonants are there.
VOL. III.

}

Nor lefs amaz'd this voice the Panther heard,
Than were thofe Jews to hear a God declar'd.
Then thus the matron modeftly renew'd:
Let all your prophets and their fects be view'd,
And fee to which of them yourselves think fit
The conduct of your confcience to submit ;
Each profelyte would vote his doctor beft,
With abfolute exclufion to the rest:
Thus would your Polish diet difagree,
And end, as it began, in anarchy:
Yourself the faireft for election stand,
Eecause you seem crown-general of the land:
But foon against your fuperftitious lawn
Some prefbyterian fabre would be drawn:
In your establish'd laws of sovereignty
The reft fome fundamental flaw would fee,
And call rebellion gospel-liberty.
To church-decrees your articles require
Submiffion mollify'd, if not entire.
Homage deny'd, to cenfures you proceed:
Put when Curtana will rot do the deed,
You lay that pointlefs clergy-weapon by,
And to the laws, your fword of justice, Aly.
Now this your feats the more unkindly take,
Thofe prying varlets hit the blots you make,
Becaufe fome ancient friends of yours declare,
Your only rule of faith the fcriptures are.
Interpreted by men of judgment found,
Which every fect will for themselves expound;
Nor think lefs reverence to their doctors due
For fourd interpretation, than to you.
If then, by able Heads, are understood
Your brother prophets, who reform'd abroad;
Thofe able heads expound a wiier way,
That their own sheep their fhepherd thould obey.
But if you mean yourselves are only found,
That doctrine turns the reformation round,

And all the reft are falfe reformers found; て

Because in fundry points you stand alone,

Not in communion join'd with any one;

And therefore must be all the church, or none.
Then, till you have agreed whofe judge is best,
Against this forc'd fubmiffion they protest:
While found and found a different fenfe explains,
Both play at hardhead till they break their brains;
And from their chairs each other's force defy,
While unregarded thunders vainly fly.

I pass the reft, because your church alone
Of all ufurpers beft could fill the throne.
But neither you, nor any feet beside,
For this high office can be qualify'd,
With neceffary gifts requir'd in such a guide.
For that, which muft direct the whole, must be y

Bound in one bond of faith and unity:
But all your feveral churches difagrees

}

The confubftantiating church and priest
Refuse communion to the Calvinist:
The French reform'd from preaching you restrain,
Because you judge their ordination vain ;

And fo they judge of yours, but donors must ordain.

In short, in doctrine, or in difcipline,
Not one reform'd can with another join:
But all from each, as from damnation, fly;
No union they pretend, but in Non-Popery :
Nor, fhould their members in a fynod meet,
Could any church prefume to mount the feat,
Above the reft, their difcords to decide;
None would obey, but each would be the guide:
And face to face diffenfions would increase ;
For only distance now preferves the peace.
All in their turns accusers, and accus'd:
Babel was never half fo much confus'd:

What one can plead the reft can plead as well;
For amongst equals lies no last appeal,
And all confefs themselves are fallible.

Now fince you grant some neceffary guide,
All who can err are justly laid afide:
Because a truft so sacred to confer
Shews want of fuch a fure interpreter ;
And how can he be needful who can err?
Then granting that unerring guide we want,
That fuch there is you stand oblig'd to grant :
Our Saviour elfe were wanting, to fupply
Our needs, and obviate that neceffity.
It then remains, that church can only be
The guide, which owns unfailing certainty;
Or elfe you flip your hold, and change your fide,
Relapsing from a neceffary guide.

}

}

Behold what heavenly rays adorn her brows,
What from his wardrobe her Belov'd allows
To deck the wedding-day of his unspotted spouse.
ehold what marks of majesty the brings;
Richer than ancient heirs of eastern kings:

To fhew whom the commands, and who obeys ▸
With thefe to hind, or fet the finner free,
With that to affert fpiritual royalty.

One in herself, not rent by fchifin, but found,
Entire, one folid fhining diamond;
Not fparkles thatter'd into fects like you:
One is the church, and must be to be true;
One central principle of unity,

As undivided, fo from errors free,
As one in faith, so one in fanctity.

Thus fhe, and none but the, th' infulting rage
Of heretics oppos'd from age to age:

Still when the giant-brood invades her throne, She floops from heaven, and meets them half way

down,

And with paternal thunder vindicates her crown.
Put like Egyptian forcerers you stand,
And vainly lift aloft your magic wand,

To fweep away the fwarms of vermin from the

land:

You could like them, with like infernal force, Produce the plague, but rot arreft the course. But when the boils and blotches, with difgrace And public fcandal, fat upon the face, Themfelves attack'd, the Magi ftrove no more, They faw God's finger, and their fate deplore; Themfelves they could not cure of the difhoneft fore.

}

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Thus one, thus pure, behold her largely fpread,
Like the fair ocean from her mother-bed;
From east to west triumphantly the rides,
All fhores are water'd by her wealthy tides.
The gospel-found, diffus'd from pole to pole,
Where winds can carry, and where waves can roll
The felf-fame doctrine of the facred page
Convey'd to every clime in every age.

Here let my forrow give my fatire place,
To raife new blushes on my British race;
Our failing fhips like common-fewers we use,
And through our diftant colonies diffufe
The draught of dungeons, and the stench of
news.

Whom, when their home-bred honesty is loft,
We difembogue on fome far Indian coaft :
Thieves, pandards, pallards, fins of every fort;
Thofe are the manufactures we export;
And thefe the missioners our zeal has made :
For, with my country's pardon be it said,
Religion is the least of all our trade.

Yet fome improve their traffic more than we ;
For they on gain, their only god, rely,
And fet a public price on piety.
Induftrious of the needle and the chart,
They run full fail to their Japonian mart;
Prevention fear, and, prodigal of fame,
Sell all of Chriftian to the very name;
Nor leave enough of that to hide their naked
shame.

}

Thus, of three marks, which in the creed wa view,

Not one of all can be applied to you:

Much lefs the fourth; in vain, alas! you feek
Th' ambitious title of apoftolic:

God-like defcent! 'tis well your blood can be
Prov'd noble in the third or fourth degree:
For ail of ancient that you had before,

(I mean what is not horrow'd from our store)
Was error fulminated o'er and o'er ;
Old herefies condemn'd in ages past,
By care and time recover'd from the blast.

'Tis faid with eafe, but never can be prov'd, The church her old foundations has remov'd, And built new doctrines on unstable sands:

}

Judge that ye winds and rains: you prov'd her, yet the ftands.

Thole ancient doctrines charg'd on her for new,
Shew, when, and how, and from what hands they

grew.

We claim no power, when herefies grow bold,
To coin new faith, but still declare the old.
How else could that obfcene difeafe be purg'd,
When controverted texts are vainly urg'd?
To prove tradition new, there's fomewhat more
Requir'd, than faying, 'twas not us'd before.
Thofe monumental arms are never stirr'd,
Till fchifm or herefy call down Goliah's fword.
Thus, what you call corruptions, are, in truth,
The firft plantations of the gofpel's youth;
Old standard faith: but caft your eyes again,
And view thofe errors which new fects maintain,
Or which of old disturb'd the church's peaceful
reign;

And we can point each period of the time,
When they began, and who begot the crime;
Can calculate how long th' eclipfe endur'd,
Who interpos'd, what digits were obfcur'd:
Of all which are already pafs'd away,
We know the rife, the progrefs, and decay.
Despair at our foundations then to strike,
Till you can prove your faith apoftolic;

A limpid ftream drawn from the native fource;
Succeffion lawful in a lineal courfe.
Prove any church, oppos'd to this our head,
So one, fo pure, fo uncontin'dly fpread,
Under one chief of the fpiritual state,

The members all combin'd, and all fubordinate.
Shew fuch a seamless coat, from fchifm fo free,
In no communion join'd with herefý.
If fuch a one you find, let truth prevail:
1ll when your weights will in the balance fail:
church unprincipled kicks up the scale.
But if you cannot think (nor fure you can
Suppofe in God what were unjuft in man)
That he, the fountain of eternal grace,
Should fuffer falfehood, for fo long a space,
To banish truth, and to ufurp her place:
That feven fucceffive ages fhould be loft,
And preach damnation at their proper coft;
That all your erring ancestors fhould die,
Drown'd in th' abyss of deep idolatry :
If piety forbid fuch thoughts to rife,
Awake, and open your unwilling eyes:
God hath left nothing for each age undone,
From this to that wherein he fent his Son:
Then think but well of him, and half your work is
done. -

}

Thus, while with heavenly charity she spoke, A ftreaming blaze the filent fhadows broke; Shot from the skies; a chearful azure light: The birds obfcene to forefts wing'd their flight, And gaping graves receiv'd the wandering guilty fpright.

}

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Such were the pleafing triumphs of the sky,
For James's late nocturnal victory;
The pledge of his Almighty patron's love,
The fireworks which his angels made above.
I faw myfelf the lambent eafy light
Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night:
The meffenger with speed the tidings bore:
News, which three labouring nations did restore;
But heaven's own Nuntius was arriv'd before.
By this, the Hind had reach'd her lonely cell,
And vapors rofe, and dews unwholfome fell.
When the, by frequent obfervation wife,
As one who long on heaven had fix'd her eyes,
Discern'd a change of weather in the skies.
The western borders were with crimson spread,
The moon defcending look'd all-flaming red?
She thought good-manners bound her to invite
The ftranger dame to be her guest that night.
'Tis true, coarfe diet, and a short repast,
(She faid) were weak inducements to the tafte
Of one fo nicely bred, and fo unus'd to faft:
But what plain fare her cottage could afford,
A hearty welcome at a homely board,
Was freely hers; and, to supply the rest,
An honeft meaning, and an open breast :
Laft, with content of mind, the poor man's wealth,
A grace-cup to their common patron's health.
This fhe defir'd her to accept, and stay,

For fear the might be wilder'd in her way,
Because the wanted an unerring guide,

And then the dew-drops on her filken hide
Her tender conftitution did declare,

Too lady-like a long fatigue to bear,
And rough inclemencies of raw nocturnal air.
But most the fear'd that, travelling fo late
Some evil-minded beafts might lie in wait,
And without witness wreak their hidden hate.
The Panther, though the lent a listening ear,
Had more of lion in her than to fear:
Yet, wifely weighing, fince fhe had to deal
With many foes, their numbers might prevail,
Return'd her all the thanks fhe could afford;
And took her friendly hoftefs at her word:
Who entering firft her lowly roof, a shed

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With hoary mofs, and winding ivy fpread, head,}