But fince the mighty ravage, which he made
In German foreft, had his guilt betray'd,

With broken tusks, and with a borrow'd name,
He fhun'd the vengeance, and conceal'd the fhame;
So lurk'd in fects unfeen. With greater guile
Falfe Reynard fed on confecrated spoil:

The graceless beaft by Athanafius first

Was chas'd from Nice, then by Socinus nurs'd:
His impious race their blasphemy renew'd,

And nature's king through nature's opticks view'd.
Revers'd they view'd him leffen'd to their eye,
Nor in an infant could a God defcry.
New swarming fects to this obliquely tend,
Hence they began, and here they all will end.
What weight of antient witness can prevail,
If private reason hold the public scale?
But, gracious God, how well doft thou provide
For erring judgments an unerring guide!
Thy throne is darkness in th' abyss of light,
A blaze of glory that forbids the fight.
O teach me to believe thee thus conceal'd,
And fearch no farther than thyself reveal'd;
But her alone for my director take,

Whom thou haft promis'd never to forfake!
My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain defires,
My manhood, long misled by wandering fires,
Follow'd falfe lights; and, when their glimpfe was gone,
My pride ftruck out new sparkles of her own.
Such was I, fuch by nature ftill I am;

Be thine the glory, and be mine the shame.

Good

Good life be now my

talk: my

doubts are done:

What more could fright my faith, than three in one? Can I believe eternal God could lie

Disguis'd in mortal mold and infancy?

That the great Maker of the world could die?
And after that truft my imperfect fenfe,
Which calls in question his omnipotence?
Can I my reafon to my faith compel?

And shall my fight, and touch, and taste, rebel?
Superior faculties are set afide;

Shall their fubfervient organs be my guide?
Then let the moon ufurp the rule of day,
And winking tapers fhew the fun his way;
For what my fenfes can themselves perceive,
I need no revelation to believe.

Can they who say the host should be descry'd
By fenfe, define a body glorify'd?

Impaffable, and penetrating parts?

Let them declare by what mysterious arts
He shot that body through th' oppofing might
Of bolts and bars impervious to the light,
And stood before his train confefs'd in open fight.
For fince thus wondroufly he pafs'd, 'tis plain,
One fingle place two bodies did contain.
And fure the fame omnipotence as well
Can make one body in more places dwell..
Let reafon then at her own quarry fly,

But how can finite grasp infinity?

'Tis urg'd again, that faith did first commence By miracles, which are appeals to fense,

}

And

And thence concluded, that our fense must be
The motive ftill of credibility.

For latter ages muft on former wait,
And what began belief must propagate.

But winnow well this thought, and you fhall find
'Tis light as chaff that flies before the wind.
Were all thofe wonders wrought by power divine,
As means or ends of fome more deep defign?
Moft fure as means, whose end was this alone,
Το prove the Godhead of th' eternal Son.
God thus afferted, man is to believe
Beyond what fenfe and reafon can conceive,
And for mysterious things of faith rely
On the proponent, heaven's authority.
If then our faith we for our guide admit,
Vain is the farther fearch of human wit,
As when the building gains a furer ftay,
We take th' unufeful fcaffolding away.
Reason by fenfe no more can understand;
The game is play'd into another hand.
Why chufe we then like bilanders to creep
Along the coaft, and land in view to keep,
When fafely we may launch into the deep?
In the fame veffel which our Saviour bore,
Himself the pilot, let us leave the shore,
And with a better guide a better world explore.
Could he his Godhead veil with flesh and blood,
And not veil these again to be our food?

His grace in both is equal in extent,

The first affords us life, the fecond nourishment.

And

And if he can, why all this frantic pain
To conftrue what his cleareft words contain,
And make a riddle what he made fo plain?
To take up half on truft, and half to try,
Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry.
Both knave and fool the merchant we may call,
To pay great fums, and to compound the fmall:
For who would break with heaven, and would not
break for all?

Reft then, my foul, from endlefs anguifh freed:

Nor fciences thy guide, nor sense thy creed.

Faith is the best enfurer of thy blifs;

The bank above must fail before the venture mifs.
But heaven and heaven-born faith are far from thee,
Thou first apoftate to divinity.

Unkennel'd range in thy Polonian plains:

}

A fiercer foe the infatiate wolf remains.
Too boastful Britain, please thyself no more,
That beafts of prey are banish'd from thy fhore:
The bear, the boar, and every favage name,
Wild in effect, though in appearance tame,
Lay waste thy woods, deftroy thy blissful bower,
And, muzzled though they feem, the mutes devour.
More haughty than the reft, the wolfish race
Appear with belly gaunt, and famifh'd face:
Never was fo deform'd a beast of grace.
His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,

Clofe clap'd for fhame; but his rough creft he rears,
And pricks up his predeftinating ears.

His

His wild diforder'd walk, his haggard eyes,
Did all the bestial citizens furprize.
Though fear'd and hated, yet he rul❜d a while,
As captain or companion of the fpoil.
Full many a year his hateful head had been
For tribute paid, nor fince in Cambria feen:
The laft of all the litter fcap'd by chance,
And from Geneva first infefted France.
Some authors thus his pedigree will trace,
But others write him of an upftart race;
Because of Wickliff's brood no mark he brings,
But his innate antipathy to kings.

Thefe laft deduce him from th' Helvetian kind,
"Who near the Leman-lake his confort lin'd:
"That fiery Zuinglius firft th' affection bred,
And meagre Calvin bleft the nuptial bed.
In Ifrael fome believe him whelp'd long fince,
When the proud fanhedrim opprefs'd the prince,
Or, fince he will be Jew, derive him higher,
When Corah with his brethren did confpire
From Mofes' hand the fovereign fway to wrest,
And Aaron of his ephod to diveft:
Till opening earth made way for all to pass,
And could not bear the burden of a clafs.
The fox and he came fhuffled in the dark,
If ever they were ftow'd in Noah's ark:
Perhaps not made; for all their barking train
The dog (a common fpecies) will contain.

And