God's and kings rebels have the fame good caufe,
To trample down divine and human laws :
Both wou'd be call'd reformers, and their hate
Alike deftructive both to church and state:
The fruit proclaims the plant; a lawless prince
By luxury reform'd incontinence;
By ruins, charity; by riots, abftinence.
Confeffions, fafts, and penance fet afide;
Oh with what eafe we follow fuch a guide,
Where fouls are starv'd, and fenfes gratify'd!
Where marriage pleafures midnight pray'r supply,
And matine bells (a melancholy cry)
Are tun'd to merrier nctes, increase and multiply.
Religion shows a rofy-colour'd face;
Not hatter'd out with drudging works of grace:
A down-hill reformation rolls apace.
What flesh and blood wou'd crowd the narrow gate,
Or, till they wafte their pamper'd paunches, wait?
All would be happy at the cheapest rate.
Though our lean faith these rigid laws has given, The full fed Muffulman goes fat to heav'n; For his Arabian prophet with delights Of fenfe allur'd his caftern profelytes. The jolly Luther, reading him, began T' interpret Scriptures by his Alcoran; To grub the thorns beneath our tender feet, And make the paths of Paradife more fweet: Bethought him of a wife e'er half-way gone, (For 'twas uneafy travelling alone;) And, in this masquerade of mirth and love, Miftook the blifs of heav'n for Bacchanals above.
Sure he prefum'd of praife, who came to stock
Th' etherial paftures with fo fair a flock,
Eurnish'd, and bat'ning on their food, to show
The diligence of careful herds below.
Our Panther, tho' like thefe 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 difcipline
Shew'd affectation of an antient 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 beaft.
Thus, like a creature of a double kind,
In her own labyrinth the 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 refute of the bad :
Nice in her choice of ill, though not of best,
And leaft deform'd, becaufe reform'd the leaft..
In doubtful points betwixt her diff'ring 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 hat idolatry to bow,
Because the God-head's there they know not how.
Her novices are taught, that bread and wine
Are but the vifible and cutward fign,
Receiv'd by thofe who in communion 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 thofe 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 tofs'd;
But fure no church can better morals boaft.
True to her king her principles are found;
O that her practice were but half fo found!
Stedfaft in various turns of flate she stood,
And feal'd her vow'd affection with her blood:
Nor will I meanly tax her conftancy,
That int'rest or obligement made the tye.
Bound to the fate of murder'd monarchy,
(Before the founding ax fo falls the vine,
Whofe 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 adversity:
Yet thefe by fortune's favours are undone;
Refolv'd into a bafer form they run,
And bore the wind, but cannot bear the fun.
Let this be nature's frailty, or her fate,
Or Ifgrim's counfel, her new-chofen mate;
Still he's the fairest 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 fhe conftrain them to obey,
Who has herself caft off the lawful fway?
Rebellion equals all, and thofe, who toil
In common theft, will share the common spoil.
Let her produce the title and the right
Against 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 sense 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 pow'r fupplies the present gale.
The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid
To church and councils, whom fshe first betray'd;
No help from fathers or tradition's train :
Thofe ancient guides the taught us to disdain,
And by that Scripture, which fhe 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 arife, she 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 Scripture may be conftrued to defend?
E'en thofe, whom for rebellion fhe tranfmits
To civil pow'r, her doctrine first acquits;
Because no difobedience can ensue,
Where no fubmiffion to a judge is due;
Each judging for himself by her confent,
Whom thus abfolv'd fhe fends to punishment.
Suppofe the magistrate revenge her cause,
'Tis only for tranfgreffing human laws.
How anfw'ring to its end a church is made,
Whose pow'r is but to counsel and persuade?
O folid rock, on which fecure fhe ftands!
Eternal house 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 meer mock queen of a divided herd;
Whom foon by lawful pow'r she 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 the fhine, reflecting from afar
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, she goes,
And meanly flatters her invet'rate foes,
Rul'd while fhe rules, and lofing ev'ry hour
Her wretched remnants of precarious pow'r.
One evening, while the cooler fhade she fought,
Revolving many a melancholy thought,
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