Who, far from fteeples and their facred found,
In fields their fullen conventicles found.
These grofs, half-animated, lumps I leave ;
Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive.
But, if they think at all, 'tis fure no higher
Than matter, put in motion, may aspire

Souls that can fcarce ferment their mass of clay
So droffy, fo divisible are they,

As would but serve pure bodies for allay :
Such fouls as fhards produce, fuch beetle things
As only buz to heaven with evening wings;
Strike in the dark, offending but by chance,
Such are the blindfold blows of ignorance.
They know not beings, and but hate a name;
To them the Hind and Panther are the fame.

The Panther fure the nobleft, next the Hind,
And fairest creature of the spotted kind;
Oh, could her in-born stains be wash'd away,
She were too good to be a beaft of prey!
How can I praise, or blame, and not offend,
Or how divide the frailty from the friend?
Her faults and virtues lie fo mix'd, that the
Nor wholly ftands condemn'd, nor wholly free,
Then, like her injur'd lion, let me speak;
He cannot bend her, and he would not break.
Unkind already, and eftrang'd in part,
The wolf begins to fhare her wandering heart.
Though unpolluted yet with actual ill,

She half commits who fins but in her will.

C 2

}

If,

If, as our dreaming platonifts 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 feems a foft difmiffion from the sky.
Her houfe 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 she,
A well-match'd pair, got graceless herefy.
God's and kings rebels have the fame good cause,
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 starv'd, and senses gratify'd!
Where marriage pleasures midnight prayer supply,
And mattin bells, a melancholy cry,

Are tun'd to merrier notes, Increase and multiply.

5

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 fense allur'd his eastern 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 praife, who came to stock
Th' etherial pastures with fo fair a flock,
Burnish'd, and battening on their food, to fhow
Their diligence of careful herds below.

}

Our Panther, though like these fhe chang'd her head, Yet as the mistress of a monarch's bed,

Her front erect with majefty fhe bore,
The crofier weilded, 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.

But what difgrac'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 the 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 refuse of the bad :

Nice in her choice of ill, though not of best,
And leaft deform'd, because deform'd the least.
In doubtful points betwixt her differing friends,
Where one for fubstance, one for fign contends,
Their contradicting terms fhe ftrives to join ;
Sign shall be substance, fubstance 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 visible 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 save 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 substance too.
The literal fenfe is hard to flesh and blood,
But nonenfe never can be understood.

Her

Her wild belief on every wave is tost;
But fure no church can better morals boast.
True to her king her principles are found;
Oh that her practice were but half so sound!
Stedfast in various turns of state she stood,
And feal'd her vow'd affection with ber blood:
Nor will I meanly tax her conftancy,
That intereft or obligement made the tye.
Bound to the fate of murder'd monarchy,
Before the founding ax so 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 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 counsel, her new-chofen mate;
Still fhe'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 constrain them to obey,
Who has herself caft off the lawful fway?

Rebellion equals all; and those, 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;