But, fhunning long difputes, I fain would fee
That wondrous wight Infallibility.

Is he from heaven, this mighty champion, come:
Or lodg'd below in fubterranean Rome?
Firft, feat him fomewhere, and derive his race,
Or elfe conclude that nothing has no place.

Suppofe, though I difown it, faid the Hind,
The certain manfion were not yet aflign'd:
The doubtful refidence no proof can bring
Against the plain exiftence of the thing.
Becaufe philofophers may difagree,
If fight emiflion or reception be,
Shall it be thence inferr'd, I do not fee?
But you require an answer pofitive,

Which yet, when I demand, you dare not give ;
For fallacies in univerfals live.

I then affirm that this unfailing guide
In pope and general councils muft refide;
But lawful, both combin'd: what one decrees
By numerous votes, the other ratifies :

On this undoubted sense the church relies.
"Tis true, fome doctors in a scantier space.
I mean, in each apart, contract the place.
Some, who to greater length extend the line.
The church's after acceptation join.
This laft circumference appears too wide;
The church diffus'd is by the council ty'd;
As members, by their reprefentatives
Oblig'd to laws, which prince and fenate gives.
Thus, fome contract, and fome enlarge the
Space:

In pope and council who denies the place,
Aflifted from above with God's s unfailing grace?,
Those canons all the needful points contain ;
Their fenfe so obvious, and their words so plain,
That no difputes about the doubtful text
Have hitherto the labouring world perplex'd.
If any fhould in after times appear,

New councils must be call'd, to make the meaning clear:

Because in them the power fupreme refides;
And all the promises are to the guides.
This may be taught with found and fafe defence:
But mark how fandy is your own pretence,
Who, fetting councils, pope, and church afide,
Are every man his own prefuming guide.
The facred books, you fay, are full and plain,
And every needful point of truth contain:
All who can read interpreters may be:
Thus, though your feveral churches difagree,
Yet every faint has to himself alone
The fecret of this philofophic ftone.
These principles your jarring fects unite,
When differing doctors and difciples fight.
Though Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, holy chiefs,
Have made a battle-royal of beliefs;

Or like wild horfes feveral ways have whirl'd
The tortur'd text about the Christian world;
Each Jehu lathing on with furious force,
That Turk or Jew could not have us'd it worse;
No matter what diffenfion leaders make,
Where every private man may fave a stake:
Rui'd by the fcripture and his own advice,
Each has a blind bye-path in Paradife;

Where, driving in a circle flow or fak,
Oppofing fects are fure to meet at last.
A wondrous charity you have in store
For all reform'd to pass the narrow door:
So much, that Mahomet had scarcely more.
For he, kind prophet, was for damning none;
But Chrift and Mofes were to fave their own:
Himfelf was to fecure his chofen race,
Though reafon good for Turks to take the place
And he allow'd to be the better man,

In virtue of his holier Alcoran.

True, faid the Panther, I fhall ne'er deny
My brethren may be fav'd as well as I:
Though Huguenots condemn our ordination,
Succeffion, minifterial vocation;

And Luther, more mistaking what he read,
Misjoins the facred body with the bread:
Yet, lady, ftill remember I maintain,
The word in needful points is only plain.

Needlefs, or needful, I not now contend,
For ftill you have a loop-hole for a friend;
(Rejoin'd the matron); but the rule you lay
Has led whole flocks, and leads them ftill aftray,
In weighty points, and full damnation's way.
For did not Arius firft, Socinus now,
The Son's eternal Godhead difavow?
And did not these by gospel texts alone
Condemn our doctrine, and maintain their own
Have not all heretics the fame pretence

To plead the fcriptures in their own defence?
How did the Nicene council then decide
That ftrong debate? was it by fcripture try'd?
No, fure; to that the rebel would not yield;
Squadrons of texts he marshall'd in the field:
That was but civil war, an equal fet,
Where piles with piles, and eagles eagles met,
With texts point-blank and plain he fac'd the fo
And did not Satan tempt our Saviour fo?
The good old bishops took a fimpler way;
Each afk'd but what he heard his father fay,
Or how he was inftructed in his youth,
And by tradition's force upheld the truth.

The Panther fmil'd at this; and when, faid fh
Were those first councils difallow'd by me?
Or where did I at fure tradition strike,
Provided still it were apoftolic?

Friend, faid the Hind, you quit your form ground,

Where all your faith you did on fcripture found
Now 'tis tradition join'd with holy writ;
But thus your memory betrays your wit.

No, faid the Panther; for in that I view, When your tradition's forg'd, and when 'tis tru I fet them by the rule, and, as they square, Or deviate from undoubted doctrine there, This oral fiction, that old faith declare. (Hind.) The council steer'd, it seems, a diffe ent course;

They try'd the fcripture by tradition's force:
But you tradition by the fcripture try;
Purfued by fects, from this to that you fly,
Nor dare on one foundation to rely,
The world is then depos'd, and in this view,
You rule the fcripture, not the fcripture you.

Thus faid the dame, and, fmiling, thus purfu'd:

1 fee, tradition then is disallow'd,

When not evinc'd by fcripture to be true,
And fcripture, as interpreted by you.

But here you tread upon unfaithful ground;
Unless you could infallibly expound:
Which you reject as odious popery,

And throw that doctrine back with scorn on me.
Suppose we on things traditive divide,
And both appeal to scripture to decide;
By various texts we both uphold our claim,
Nay, often, ground our titles on the fame:
After long labour loft, and time's expence,
Both grant the words, and quarrel for the sense.
Thus all difputes for ever must depend;
For no dumb rule can controverfies end.
Thus, when you faid. Tradition must be try'd
By facred writ, whose sense yourselves decide,
You faid no more, but that yourselves must be
The judges of the fcripture fenfe, not me.
Against our church-tradition you declare,
And yet your clerks would fit in Mofes' chair:
At leaft 'tis prov'd against your argument,
The rule is far from plain, where all diffent.

If not by fcriptures, how can we be sure
Reply'd the Panther, what tradition's pure ?
For you may palm upon us new for old:
All, as they fay, that glitters is not gold.

How but by following her, reply'd the dame,
To whom deriv'd from fire to fon they came ;
Where every age does on another move,
And trufts no farther than the next above,
Where all the rounds like Jacob's ladder rife,
The lowest hid in earth, the topmoft in the fkies.
Sternly the favage did her answer mark,
Her glowing eye-balls glittering in the dark,
And faid but this: Since lucre was your trade,
Succeeding times fuch dreadful gaps have made,
'Tis dangerous climbing: To your fons and you
I leave the ladder, and its omen too.
(Hiad.) The Panther's breath was ever fam'd
for fweet;

But from the Wolf fuch wishes oft I meet:
You learn'd this language from the blatant beast,
Or rather did not fpeak, but were poffefs'd.
As for your answer, 'tis but barely urg'd:
You must evince tradition to be forg'd;
Produce plain proofs; unblemish'd authors use
As ancient as those ages they accuse;
Till when 'tis not fufficient to defame :
An old poffeffion ftands, till elder quits the claim.
Then for our interest, which is nam'd alone
To load with envy, we retort your own.
For when traditions in your faces fly,
Refolving not to yield, you must decry.
As when the cause goes hard, the guilty man
Excepts, and thins his jury all he can;
So when you ftand of other aid bereft,
You to the twelve apoftles would be left,

Your friend the Wolf did with more craft provide

To fet thofe toys traditions quite afide;
And fathers too, unless when, reason spent,
He cites them but fometimes for ornament.

But, madam Panther, you, though more fincere,
Are not so wife as your adulterer :
The private spirit is a better blind,
Than all the dodging tricks your authors find.
For they, who left the fcripture to the crowd.
Each for his own peculiar judge allow'd;
The way to please them was to make them (
proud.

Thus with full fails they ran upon the shelf;
Who could fufpect a cozenage from himself?
On his own reafon fafer 'tis to stand,
Than be deceiv'd and damn'd at fecond hand,
But you, who fathers and traditions take,
And garble fome, and fome you quite forfake,
Pretending church-authority to fix,

And yet some grains of private spirit mix,
Are like a mule made up of differing feed,
And that's the reason why you never breed;
At least not propogate your kind abroad,
For home diffenters are by statutes aw'd.
And yet they grow upon you every day,
While you, to speak the best, are at a stay,
For fects, that are extremes, abhor a middle (

way.

Like tricks of state, to stop a raging flood,
Or mollify a mad brain'd fenate's mood:
Of all expedients never one was good.
Well may they argue, nor can you deny,
If we must fix on church authority,
Beft on the beft, the fountain, not the flood;
That must be better ftill, if this be good.
Shall the command who has herself rebell'd?
Is antichrift by antichrift expell'd?
Did we a lawful tyranny displace,
To fet aloft a baftard of the race?
Why all these wars to win the book, if we
Muft not interpret for ourselves, but she?
Either be wholly flaves or wholly free.
For purging fires traditions must not fight;
But they must prove epifcopacy's right.
Thus thofe led horfes are from fervice freed;
You never mount them but in time of need.
Like mercenaries, hir'd for home defence,
They will not serve against their native prince.
Against domeftic foes of hierarchy.

These are drawn forth, to make fanatics fly;
But, when they see their countrymen at hand,
Marching against them under church com-
mand,

Straight they forfake their colours, and difband.

}

Thus fhe, nor could the Panther well enlarge With weak defence against so strong a charge; But faid: For what did Chrift his word provide,

If ftill his church must want a living guide?
And if all-faving doctrines are not there,
Or facred penmen could not make them clear,
From after ages who should hope in vain
For truths, which men inspir'd could not ex-

plain.

Before the word was written, said the Hind, Our Saviour preach'd his faith to human kind: From his apostles the first age receiv'd Eternal truth, and what they taught believ'd.

Thus by tradition faith was planted first ;
Succeeding flocks fucceeding paftors nurs'd.
This was the way our wife Redeemer chofe,
(Who fure could all things for the beft dif-
pofe)

To fence his fold from their encroaching foes.
He could have writ himself, but well forefaw
'Th' event would be like that of Mofes' law;
Some difference would arife, fome doubts remain
Like those which yet the jarring Jews maintain.
No written laws can be fo plain, fo pure,
But wit may glofs, and malice may obfcure;
Not thofe indited by his first com.nand,

A prophet grav'd the text, an angel held his hand.
Thus faith was, e'er the written word appear'd,
And men believ'd not what they read but heard.
But fince th' apoftles could not be confin'd
To thefe, or those, but severally defign'd
Their large commiffion round the world to blow;
To fpread their faith, they fpread their labours

too.

Yet ftill their abfent flock their pains did share;
They hearken'd ftill; for love produces care.
And as mistakes arofe or difcords fell,
Or bold feducers taught them to rebel,
As charity grew cold, or faction hot,
Or long neglect their leffons had forgot,
For all their wants they wifely did provide,
And preaching by epiftles was fupply'd:
So great phyficians cannot all attend,

But fome they vifit, and to fome they fend.
Yet all thofe letters were not writ to all;
Nor first intended but occafional,

Their abfent fermons; nor if they contain
All needful doctrines, are those doctrines plain.
Clearnefs by frequent preaching must be wrought;
They writ but seldom, but they daily taught.
And what one faint has faid of holy Paul,
"He darkly writ, is true apply'd to all.
For this obfcurity could heaven provide
More prudently than by a living guide,
As doubts arofe, the difference to decide?
A guide was therefore needful, therefore made;
And, if appointed, fure to be obey'd

Thus, with due reverence to th' apostles' writ,
By which my fons are taught, to which fubmit;
I think, those truths, their facred works contain,
The church alone can certainly explain;
That following ages, leaning on the past,
May reft upon the primitive at last.
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 itfelf the fubject of difpute.
But what th' apoftles their fucceffors taught,
They to the text, from them to us is brought,
Th' undoubted fenfe which is in fcripture
fought,

From hence the church is arm'd, when errors rife,
To ftop their entrance, and prevent surprise;
And, fafe entrench'd within, her foes without
defies.

By thefe all feftering fores her councils heal,
Which time or has difclos'd, or fhall reveal;
For difcord cannot end without a last appeal.

Nor can a council national decide,
But with fubordination to her guide:
(I wish the caule were on that iffue try'd.)
Much lefs the fcripture; for suppose debate
Betwixt pretenders to a fair eftate,
Bequeath'd by fome legator's last intent;
(Such is our dying Saviour's teftament ;)
The will is prov'd, is open'd, and is read;
The doubtful heirs ther differing titles plead:
All vouch the words their intereft to maintain,
And each pretends by thofe his cause 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.
Therefore 'tis plain, its meaning must be try'd
Before fome judge appointed to decide.

Suppofe, the fair apoftate faid, I grant,
The faithful flock fome living guide should want,
Your arguments an endless chase pursue;
Produce this vaunted leader to our view,
This mighty Mofes of the chofen crew.

The dame, who faw her fainting foe retir'd, With force renew'd, to victory aspir'd; And, looking upward to her kindred sky, As once our Saviour own'd his Deity, Pronounc'd his words-" fhe whom you seek

am I."

Nor lefs amaz'd this voice the Panther heard,
Than were those 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 conscience to fubmit :
Each profelyte would vote his doctor beft,
With abfolute exclufion to the reft:
Thus would your Polish diet disagree,
And end, as it began, in anarchy:
Yourself the fairest for election stand,
Becaufe
you feem
crown-general of the land:
But foon against your fuperftitious lawn
Some prefbyterian fabre would be drawn:
In your establish'd laws of fovereignty
The reft fome fundamental flaw would fee
And call rebellion gofpel-liberty.
The church-decrees your articles require
Submiflion mollify'd, if not entire.
Homage deny'd, to cenfures you proceed;
But when Curtana will not do the deed,
You lay that pointless clergy weapon by,
And to the laws, your sword of justice, fly.
Now this your fects the more unkindly take,
Those prying varlets hit the blots you make,
Because fome ancient friends of yours declare,
Your only rule of faith the fcriptures are,
Interpreted by men of judgment found,
Which every feet will for themfelves expound;
Nor think lefs reverence to their doctors due
For found interpretation, than to you.
If then, by able heads, are understood
Your brother prophets, who reform'd abroad;
Thofe able heads expound a wifer way,
That their own fheep their fhepherd fhould obey.

}

But if you mean yourselves are only found,
That doctrine turns the reformation round,
And all the reft are false reformers found;
Becaufe in fundry points you ftand 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 proteft:
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 rest, because your church alone
Of all ufurpers beft could fill the throne.
But neither you, nor any sect befide,
For this high office can be qualify'd,
With neceffary gifts requir'd in fuch a guide.
For that, which muft direct the whole, must be
Bound in one bond of faith and unity:
But all your feveral churches difagree.
The consubstantiating church and priest
Refufe communion to the Calvinist :

The French reform'd from preaching you re-
ftrain,

Because you judge their ordination vain :
And fo they judge of yours, but donors must or-
dain.

In short, in doctrine, or in discipline,
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 seat,
Above the rest, 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 accurfers, and accus'd:
Babel was never half so ntuch confus'd.

}

What one can plead, the rest can plead as well;
For amongst equals lies no laft appeal,
And all confefs thenfelves are fallible.
Now fince you grant fome neceffary guide,
All who can err are justly laid afide:
Because a truft fo facred to confer
Shews want of fuch a fure, intrepreter;
And how can he be needful who can err?
Then granting that unerring guide we want,
That fuch there is you ftand oblig'd to grant :
Our Saviour elfe were wanting, to fupply
Our needs, and obviate that neceflity.
It then remains, that church can only be
To guide, which owns unfailing certainty;
Or elfe you flip your hold, and change your fide,
Relapfing from a neceffary guide.

But this annex'd condition of the crown,
Immunity from errors, you difown;
Here then you fhrink, and lay your weak pre

tentions down.

Then, not till then, th' eternal Son from high Rofe in the ftrength of all the Deity;

Stood forth t' accept the terms, and underwent A weight which all the frame of heaven had bent,

Nor he himself could bear, but as Omnipotent.,
Now, to remove the least remaining doubt.
That ev'n the blear-ey'd fects may find her out,
Behold what heavenly rays adorn her brows,
What from his wardrob'd her belov'd allows
To deck the wedding-day of his unfpotted (
spouse.

Behold what marks of majefty fhe brings;
Richer than ancient heirs of eastern kings:
Her right hand holds the fceptre and the keys,
To fhew whom fhe commands, and who obeys:
With these to bind, or fet the finner free,
With that to affert fpiritual loyalty.

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

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

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

Still when the giant-brood invades her throne,
She ftoops froni heaven, and meets them half

Mucu malice mingled with a little wit,
Perhaps, may cenfure this myfterious writ
Because the Mufe has peopled Caledon
With Panthers, Bears, and Wolves, and beast
unknown,

As if we were not fock'd with monfters of

Let

our own.

lop anfwer, who has fet to view
Suchinds as Greece and Phrygia never knew ;
And mother Hubbard, in her homely drefs,
Has fharply blam'd a British Lioness;

That queen, whofe feaft the factious rabble keep.
Expos'd obfcenely naked and afleep.
Led by thofe great examples, may not I
The wanted organs of their words fupply?
If men tranfact like brutes, 'tis equal then
For brutes to claim the privilege of men.
Others our Hind of folly will indite,
To entertain a dangerous gueft by night.
Let thofe remember, that the cannot die
Till rolling time is loft in round eternity;
Nur need the fear the Panther, though untam'd,
Because the Lion's peace was now proclaim'd:
The wary favage would not give offence,
To forfeit the protection of her prince;
But watch'd the time her vengeance to complete,
When all her furry fons in frequent fenate met.
Meanwhile the quench'd her fury at the flood,
And with a lenten fallad cool'd her blood.
Their commons, though but coarfe, were nothing|
fcant,

Nor did their minds an equal banquet want.

Nor fail'd fhe then a full review to make
Of what the Panther fuffer'd for her fake:
Her loft efteem, her truth, her loyal care,
Her faith unfhaken to an exil'd heir,
Her ftrength t' endure, her courage to defy;
Her choife of honourable infamy.
On thefe, prolixly thankful, the enlarg'd;
Then with acknowledgment herfelf the charg'd;
For friendship, of itself an holy tie,
Is made more facred by adversity.
Now fhould they part, malicious tongues would
They met like chance companions on the way,
Whom mutual fear of robbers had poffefs'd;
While danger lafted, kindnefs was profefs'd;
But, that once o'er, the fhort-liv'd union ends:
The road divides, and there divide the friends.
The Panther nodded when her speech was
done,

And thank'd her coldly in a hollow tone:
But faid, her gratitude had gone too far
For common offices of Chriftian care.

[Tay