No written laws can be so plain, so pure, But wit may gloss and malice may obscure; Not those indited by his first command, 320 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, bu heard,

But since the Apostles cou'd not be confin'd To these, or those, but severally design'd Their large commission round the world to blow,

To spread their faith they spread their labours too.

Yet still their absent flock their pains did share;

They hearken'd still, for love produces care.
And as mistakes arose, or discords fell, 330
Or bold seducers taught 'em to rebel,
As charity grew cold or faction hot,
Or long neglect their lessons had forgot,
For all their wants they wisely did provide,
And preaching by Epistles was supply'd:
So, great Physicians cannot all attend,
But some they visit and to some they send.
Yet all those letters were not writ to all,
Nor first intended, but occasional
Their absent sermons; nor if they contain
All needfull doctrines, are those doctrines
plain.

341

Clearness by frequent preaching must be wrought;

They writ but seldom, but they daily taught.
And what one Saint has said of holy Paul,
He darkly writ, is true apply'd to all.
For this obscurity cou'd heav'n provide
More prudently than by a living guide,
As doubts arose, the difference to decide?
A guide was therefore needfull, therefore
made;

}

And, if appointed, sure to be obey'd. 350 Thus, with due reverence to th' Apostles writ,

By which my sons are taught, to which, submit,

I think, those truths their sacred works contain

The church alone can certainly explain;
That following ages, leaning on the past,
May rest upon the Primitive at last.
Nor would I thence the word no rule infer,
But none without the church interpreter ;

360

Because, as I have urg'd before, 'tis mute,
And is it self the subject of dispute.
But what th' Apostles their successors
taught,

They to the next, from them to us is brought,

Th' undoubted sense which is in Scripture sought.

From hence the Church is arm'd, when errours rise,

To stop their entrance, and prevent surprise;

And safe entrench'd within, her foes without defies.

By these all festring sores her counsels heal,

Which time or has discloas'd or shall reveal,

For discord cannot end without a last appeal.

370

Nor can a council national decide, But with subordination to her Guide, (I wish the cause were on that issue try'd.) Much less the scripture; for suppose debate Betwixt pretenders to a fair estate, Bequeath'd by some Legator's last intent; (Such is our dying Saviour's Testament :) The will is prov'd, is open'd, and is read; The doubtfull heirs their diff'ring titles plead: All vouch the words their int'rest to maintain,

And each pretends by those his cause is plain.

380 Shall then the testament award the right ? No, that's the Hungary for which they fight ; The field of battel, subject of debate; The thing contended for, the fair estate. The sense is intricate, 'tis onely clear What vowels and what consonants are there. Therefore 'tis plain, its meaning must be try'd Before some judge appointed to decide.

Suppose, (the fair Apostate said,) I grant, The faithfull flock some living guide should want,

390

Your arguments an endless chase persue : Produce this vaunted Leader to our view, This mighty Moyses of the chosen crew.

The Dame, who saw her fainting foe retir'd, With force renew'd, to victory aspired; (And looking upward to her kindred sky, As once our Saviour own'd his Deity, Pronounc'd his words-she whom ye seek am 1.)

Nor less amazed this voice the Panther heard
Than were those Jews to hear a god declar'd.
Then thus the matron modestly renew'd;
Let all your prophets and their sects be
view'd,
402
And see to which of 'em your selves think fit
The conduct of your conscience to submit:
Each Proselyte would vote his Doctor best,
With absolute exclusion to the rest :
Thus wou'd your Polish Diet disagree,
And end, as it began, in Anarchy;
Your self the fairest for election stand,
Because you seem crown-gen'ral of the land;
But soon against your superstitious lawn 411
Some Presbyterian Sabre wou'd be drawn:
In your establish'd laws of sov'raignty
The rest some fundamental flaw wou'd see,
And call Rebellion gospel-liberty.
To church-decrees your articles require
Submission modify'd, if not entire ;
Homage deny'd, to censures you proceed;
But when Curtana will not doe the deed,
You lay that pointless clergy-weapon by, 420
And to the laws, your sword of justice fly.
Now this your sects the more unkindly take,
(Those prying varlets hit the blots you make)
Because some ancient friends of yours declare,
Your onely rule of faith the Scriptures are,
Interpreted, by men of judgment sound,
Which ev'ry sect will for themselves expound:
Nor think less rev'rence to their doctours due
For sound interpretation, than to you.

If then, by able heads, are understood 430
Your brother prophets, who reform'd abroad;
Those able heads expound a wiser way,
That their own sheep their shepherd shou'd
obey.

But if you mean your selves are onely sound,

That doctrine turns the reformation round,

And all the rest are false reformers found. Because in sundry 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 whose judge is best, 440 Against this forc'd submission they protest: While sound and sound a different sense explains,

Both play at hard-head 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 Usurpers best cou'd fill the Throne.
But neither you, nor any sect beside
For this high office can be qualify'd
With necessary Gifts requir'd in such a
Guide.
450
For that which must direct the whole
must be

Bound in one Bond of Faith and Unity:
But all your sev'ral Churches disagree.
The Consubstantiating Church and Priest
Refuse Communion to the Calvinist ;
The French reform'd, from Preaching you
restrain,

Because you judge their Ordination vain ; And so they judge of yours, but Donors must ordain.

459

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, should their Members in a Synod meet, | Cou'd any Church presume to mount the Seat

Above the rest, their discords to decide; None wou'd obey, but each would be the Guide:

And face to face dissensions would encrease ;
For only distance now preserves the Peace.
All in their Turns accusers and accus'd,
Babel was never half so much confus'd. 470
What one can plead, the rest can plead as'
well;

For amongst equals lies no last appeal,
And all confess themselves are fallible.
Now, since you grant some necessary Guide,
All who can err are justly laid aside :
Because a trust so sacred to confer
Shows want of such a sure Interpreter,

Then granting that unerring guide we want, That such there is you stand obliged to grant: 480

Our Saviour else were wanting to supply
Our needs and obviate that Necessity.
It then remains that Church can only be
The guide which owns unfailing certainty;
Or else you slip your hold, and change your
side,

Relapsing from a necessary Guide.

But this annex'd Condition of the Crown,
Immunity from Errours, you disown,
Here then you shrink, and lay your weak
pretensions down.

For petty Royalties you raise debate; 490'
But this unfailing Universal State
You shun: nor dare succeed to such a
glorious weight.

And for that cause those Promises detest With which our Saviour did his Church invest:

But strive t' evade, and fear to find 'em true,
As conscious they were never meant to you:
All which the mother church asserts her own,
And with unrivall'd claim ascends the throne.
So when of old th' Almighty Father sate
In Council, to redeem our ruin'd state, 500
Millions of millions, at a distance round,
Silent the sacred Consistory crown'd,
To hear what mercy mixt with Justice
cou'd propound.

All prompt with eager pity, to fulfil
The full extent of their Creatour's will:
But when the stern conditions were declar'd,
A mournful whisper through the host was
heard,

And the whole hierarchy, with heads hung down,

Submissively declin'd the pondrous proffer'd

crown.

509

Then, not till then, th' eternal Son from high
Rose in the strength of all the Deity;
Stood forth t' accept the terms, and
underwent

A weight which all the frame of heav'n had bent,

Nor he Himself cou'd bear, but as omni

579

Not one of all can be apply'd to you:
Much less the fourth; in vain alas you seek
Th' ambitious title of Apostolick:
God-like descent! 'tis well your bloud can be
Prov'd noble in the third or fourth degree:
For all of ancient that you had before,
(I mean what is not borrow'd from our
store)

Was Errour fulminated o'er and o'er.
Old Ileresies condemned in ages past,
By care and time recover'd from the blast.
'Tis said with ease, 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 she stands.
590
Those ancient doctrines charg'd on her for

new,

Shew when, and how, and from what hands they grew.

We claim no pow'r, when Heresies grow bold, To coin new faith, but still declare the old. How else cou'd that obscene disease be purg'd

When controverted texts are vainly urg'd? To prove tradition new, there's somewhat

more

Requir'd, than saying, 'twas not us'd before.

Thus, what you call corruptions, are in truth,

The first plantations of the gospel's youth, Old standard faith: but cast your eyes again,

And view those errours which new sects maintain,

Or which of old disturb'd the churches peaceful reign;

And we can point each period of the time,
When they began, and who begot the crime;
Can calculate how long the eclipse endur'd,
Who interpos'd, what digits were obscur'd:
Of all which are already pass'd away,
We know the rise, the progress and decay.

610

Despair at our foundations then to strike, Till you can prove your faith Apostolick; A limpid stream drawn from the native

source;

Succession lawfull in a lineal course.
Prove any Church, oppos'd to this our head,
So one, so pure, so unconfin'dly spread,
Under one chief of the spiritual state,
The members all combin'd, and all sub-
ordinate.

Show such a seamless coat, from schism so free, 620

In no communion joined with heresie:
If such a one you find, let truth prevail :
Till when, your weights will in the balance
fail:

A church unprincipl'd kicks up the scale.

But if you cannot think (nor sure you can Suppose in God what were unjust in man,) That he, the fountain of eternal grace, Should suffer falsehood for so long a space To banish truth and to usurp her place; That seav'n successive ages should be lost And preach damnation at their proper 631

cost;

That all your erring ancestours should die Drown'd in the Abyss of deep Idolatry; If piety forbid such thoughts to rise, Awake, and open your unwilling eyes: God has left nothing for each age undone, From this to that wherein he sent his Son : Then think but well of him, and half your work is done.

630 seav'n] nine ed. 2.

Poeta

light Gild the brown horrour and dispell loquitur. the night;

The messenger with speed the tidings bore ;News which three lab'ring nations did restore; 661 But heav'ns own Nuntius was arrived before.

By this the Hind had reached her lonely
cell,

And vapours rose, and dews un wholesome fell,
When she, by frequent observation wise,
As one who long on heav'n had fix'd her
eyes.

Discern'd a change of weather in the skyes. The Western borders were with crimson spread,

The moon descending look'd all flaming red; She thought good manners bound her to invite 670 The stranger Dame to be her guest that night.

651 skyes ;) the edd. omit the semi-colon, giving a false construction.