God's and kings rebels have the fame good caufe,
To trample down divine and human laws:
Both would be call'd reformers, and their hate
Alike destructive both to church and state:
The fruit proclaims the plant; a lawless prince
By luxury reform'd incontinence;
By ruins, charity; by riots, abstinence.
Confeffions, fafts, and penance fet afide;
Oh with what ease we follow such a guide,
Where fouls are ftarv'd, and fenfes gratify'd!
Where marriage pleasures midnight prayer fupply
And mattin bells, a melancholy cry,
Are tun'd to merrier notes, Increase and multiply.
Religion fhews a rofy-colour'd face;
Not batter'd out with drudging works of grace:
A down-hill reformation rolls apace.
What flesh and blood would crowd the narrow gate,
Or, 'till they waste their pamper'd paunches, wait?
All would be happy at the cheapest rate.
Tho' our lean faith these rigid laws has given,
The full-fed Muffulman goes fat to heaven;
For his Arabian prophet with delights
Of fenfe allur'd his eastern profelytes.
The jolly Luther, reading him, began
T' interpret fcriptures by his alcoran ;
To grub the thorns beneath our tender feet,
And make the paths of Paradife more sweet:
Bethought him of a wife ere half way gone,
For 'twas uneafy travelling alone;
And, in this masquerade of mirth and love,
Miftook the blifs of heaven for Bacchanals above.
Sure he prefum'd of praife, who came to ftock
Th' etherial paftures with so fair a flock,
Burnish'd, and bat'ning on their food, to fhow
Their diligence of careful herds below.
Our Panther, tho' like these fhe chang'd her head, Yet as the mistress of a monarch's bed,
Her front erect with majesty she bore,
The crofier wielded, and the mitre wore.
Her upper part of decent discipline
Shew'd Affectation of an ancient line;
And fathers, councils, church and churches head,
Were on her reverend phylacteries read.
But what difgrac'd and difavow'd the reft,
Was Calvin's brand, that ftigmatiz'd the beast.
Thus, like a creature of a double kind,
In her own labyrinth fhe lives confin'd.
To foreign lands no found of her is come,
Humbly content to be defpis'd at home.
Such is her faith, where good cannot be had,
At least she leaves the refufe of the bad:
Nice in her choice of ill, tho' not of beft,
And leaft deform'd, becaufe deform'd the least.
In doubtful points betwixt her differing friends,
Where one for fubftance, one for fign contends.
Their contradicting terms fhe ftrives to join ;
Sign fhall be fubftance, fubftance fhall be fign.
A real prefence all her fons allow,
And yet 'tis flat idolatry to bow,
Because the Godhead's there they know not how.
Her novices are taught, that bread and wine
Are but the visible and outward fign,
Receiv'd by those who in cummunion join.
But th' inward grace, or the thing fignify'd,
His blood and body, who to fave us dy'd;
The faithful this thing fignify'd receive :
What is't those faithful then partake or leave?
For what is fignify'd and understood,
Is, by her own confeffion, flesh and blood.
Then, by the fame acknowledgment, we know
They take the fign, and take the fubftance too.
The literal fenfe is hard to flesh and blood,
But nonfenfe never can be understood.
Her wild belief on every wave is toft;
But fure no church can better morals boaft:
True to her king her principles are found;
Oh that her practice were but half fo found!
Stedfaft in various turns of ftate fhe flood,
And feal'd her vow'd affection with her blood:
Nor will I meanly tax her conflancy,
That intereft or obligement made the tye.
Bound to the fate of murder'd monarchy,
Before the founding ax fo falls the vine,
Whose tender branches round the poplar twine,
She chofe her ruin, and refign'd her life,
In death undaunted as an Indian wife:
A rare example! but fome fouls we fee
Grow hard, and stiffen with adverfity:
Yet thefe by fortune's favours are undone;
Refolv'd into a baser form they run,
And bore the wind, but cannot bear the fun.
Let this be nature's frailty, or her fate,
Or 6 Ifgrim's counf.1, her new-chofen mate;
Still he's the faireft of the fallen crew,
No mother more indulgent but the true.
Fierce to her foes, yet fears her force to try,
Because she wants innate authority;
For how can the constrain them to obey,
Who has herself caft off the lawful fway?
Rebellion equals all, and thofe, who toil
In common theft, will fhare the common spoil.
Let her produce the title and the right
Againft her old fuperiors firft to fight
If the reform by text, e'en that's as plain
For her own rebels to reform again.
As long as words a diff'rent fenfe will bear,
And each may be his own interpreter,
Our airy faith will no foundation find:
The word's a weathercock for every wind:
The bear, the fox, the wolf, by turns prevail;
The most in power supplies the present gale.
The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid
To church and councils, whom she firft betray'd;
No help from fathers or tradition's train :
Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain,
And by that scripture, which the once abus'd
To reformation, ftands herself accus'd.
What bills for breach of laws can fhe prefer,
Expounding which the owns herself may err;
And, after all her winding ways are try'd,
If doubts arise, the flips herself aside,
And leaves the private confcience for the guide.
If then that conscience set th' offender free,
It bars her claim to church authority.
How can the cenfure, or what crime pretend,
But fcripture may be conftrued to defend ?
E'en thofe, whom for rebellion the tranfmits
To civil power, her doctrine first acquits;
Because no disobedience can enfue,
Where no fubmiffion to a judge is due ;
Each judging for himfelf by her confent,
Whom thus abfolv'd she fends to punishment.
Suppose the magistrate revenge her caufe,
'Tis only for tranfgreffing human laws.
How answering to its end a church is made,
Whose power is but to counfel and perfuade?
O folid rock, on which fecure the ftands!
Eternal houfe not built with mortal hands!
O fure defence against th' infernal gate,
A patent during pleasure of the state!
Thus is the Panther neither lov'd nor fear'd,
A mere mock queen of a divided herd;
Whom foon by lawful power fhe might controul,
Herself a part fubmitted to the whole.
Then, as the moon who first receives the light'
By which she makes our nether regions bright,
So might she shine, reflecting from afar
The rays the borrow'd from a better ftar;
Big with the beams, which from her mother flow,
And reigning o'er the rifing tides below:
Now, mixing with a favage crowd, fhe goes,
And meanly flatters her invet'rate foes,
Rul'd while the rules, and lofing every
Her wretched remnants of precarious power.
One evening, while the cooler fhade fhe fought,
Revolving many a melancholy thought,
Alone the walk'd, and look'd around in vain,
With rueful vifage, for her vanish'd train :
None of her sylvan fubjects made their court;
Levées and couchées pafs'd without refort.
So hardly can ufurpers manage well
Thofe, whom they first inftructed to rebel.
More liberty begets defire of more;
The hunger ftill increases with the ftore.
Without refpe&t they brush'd along the wood
Each in his clan, and fill'd with loathfome food,
Afk'd no permiffion to the neighb'ring flood.
The Panther, full of inward difcontent,
Since they would go, before them wifely went;
Supplying want of power by drinking first,
As if the gave them leave to quench their thirst,
Among the rest, the Hind, with fearful face,
Beheld from far the common watering place,
Nor durft approach; till with an awful roar
The 7 fovereign lion bad her fear no more
Charles II. who died a Papif, and James II, who openly prøfefied himself fuch.
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