If, as our dreaming platonists report,

There could be fpirits of a middle fort,

Too black for heaven, and yet too white for hell,
Who just dropt half way down, nor lower fell;
So pois'd, fo gently she defcends from high,
It seems a foft difmiffion from the sky.
Her house not ancient, whatfoe'er pretence
Her clergy heralds make in her defence.
A fecond century not half-way run,
Since the new honours of her blood begun.
A lion old, obfcene, and furious made
By luft, comprefs'd her mother in a shade;
Then, by a left-hand marriage, weds the dame,
Covering adultery with a fpecious name:
So fchifm begot; and facrilege and fhe,
A well-match'd pair, got gracelefs herefy.
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 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 ease we follow fuch 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

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.

Though 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 eaftern 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 sweet:
Bethought him of a wife ere half way gone,
For 'twas uneafy traveling alone;

And, in this masquerade of mirth and love,
Miftook the blifs of heaven for Bacchanals above.
Sure he prefum'd of praise, who came to stock
Th' etherial paftures with so fair a flock
Burnish'd, and battening on their food, to show
Their diligence of careful herds below.

1

Our Panther, though like these she chang'd her head,
Yet as the miftrefs 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 ancient line;

And fathers, councils, church and church's head,
Were on her reverend phylacteries read.

C 3

But

But what disgrac'd and disavow'd the rest,
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 despis'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, though not of beft,
And leaft deform'd, becaufe deform'd the leaft.
In doubtful points betwixt her differing friends,
Where one for fubftance, one for fign contends,
Their contradicting terms she strives to join;
Sign shall be substance, substance shall be sign.
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 vifible and outward fign,

Receiv'd by those 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 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 acknowledgement, we know
They take the fign, and take the fubstance too.
The literal fenfe is hard to flesh and blood,
But nonfenfe never can be understood.

Her

1

Her wild belief on every wave is toft;
But fure no church can better morals boast.
True to her king her principles are found;
Oh that her practice were but half so found!
Stedfaft in various turns of state she stood,
And feal'd her vow'd affection with her blood:
Nor will I meanly tax her conftancy,
That interest 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 ftiffen with adverfity:
Yet these 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 Ifgrim's counsel, her new-chofen mate;
Still the '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 fhe constrain 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;

C 4

}

}

If

If the reform by text, ev'n that 's as plain
For her own rebels to reform again.
As long as words a different 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 power fupplies the prefent gale.
The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid
To church and councils, whom she first betray'd;
No help from fathers or tradition's train:
Thofe ancient guides fhe 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 fhe owns herself may err;
And, after all her winding ways are try'd,
If doubts arife, fhe flips herself afide,
And leaves the private confcience for the guide.
If then that confcience fet th' offender free,
It bars her claim to church authority..
How can fhe cenfure, or what crime pretend,
But fcripture may be conftrued to defend?
Ev'n thofe, whom for rebellion she tranfmits
To civil power, 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