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 present gale.
The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid
To church and councils, whom the first betray'd;
No help from fathers or tradition's train :
Thofe ancient guides she taught us to disdain,
And by that feripture, which the once abus'd
To reformation, ftands herfelf 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, the flips herself aside,
And leaves the private conscience 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 fcripture may be conftrued to defend ?
Ev'n thofe, whom for rebellion fhe tranfmits
To civil power, her doctrine first acquits;
Becaufe no difobedience can enfue,
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 magiftrate revenge her caufe,
'Tis only for tranfgreffing human laws.
How answering to its end a church is made,
Whofe power is but to counsel and perfuade!
O folid rock, on which fecure the 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 power fhe 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
The rays fhe borrow'd from a better ftar;
Big with the beams which from her mother flow,
And reigning o'er the rising tides below :
Now, mixing with a favage crowd, fhe goes,
And meanly flatters her inveterate foes,
Rul'd while fhe rules, and lofing every hour
Her wretched remnants of precarious power.
One evening, while the cooler fhade she fought,
Revolving many a melancholy thought,
Alone the walk'd, and look'd around in vain,
With rueful vifage, for her vanish'd train :
None of her fylvan fubje&ts made their court;
Levées and couchées pafs'd without resort.
So hardly can ufurpers manage well
Those whom they firft inftructed to rebel.
More liberty begets defire of more;
The hunger ftill increases with the store.
Without respect they brush'd along the wood
Each in his clan, and, fill'd with loathfome food,
Afk'd no permiffion to the neighbouring flood.
The Panther, full of inward discontent,
Since they would go, before them wifely went ;
Supplying want of power by drinking firft,
As if the gave them leave to quench their thirst.
Among the reft, the Hind, with fearful face,
Beheld from far the common watering-place,
Nor durft approach; till with an awful roar
The fovereign lion bad her fear no more.
Encourag'd thus fhe brought her younglings nigh,
Watching the motions of her patron's eye,
And drank a fober draught; the reft amaz'd
Stood mutely fill, and on the stranger gaz'd;
Survey'd her part by part, and fought to find
The ten-horn'd monster in the harmless Hind,
Such as the Wolf and Panther had defign'd.
They thought at first they dream'd; for 'twas offence
With them, to question certitude of fenfe,
Their guide in faith: but nearer when they drew,
And had the faultless object full in view,
Lord, how they all admir'd her heavenly hue!
Some, who before her fellowship disdain'd,
Scarce, and but fcarce, from in-born rage reftrain'd,
Now frisk'd about her, and old kindred feign'd.
Whether for love or intereft, every sect
Of all the favage nation fhew'd respect.
The viceroy Panther could not awe the herd;
The more the company, the less they fear'd.
The furly Wolf with secret envy burst,
Yet could not howl; the Hind had feen him firft:
But what he durft not speak, the Panther durft.
For when the herd, fuffic'd, did late repair
To ferney heaths, and to their forest lare,
She made a mannerly excuse to stay,
Proffering the Hind to wait her half the way:
That, fince the sky was clear, an hour of talk
Might help her to beguile the tedious walk.
With much good-will the motion was embrac'd,
To chat a while on their adventures pafs'd:
Nor had the grateful Hind so soon forgot
Her friend and fellow-sufferer in the plot.
Yet wondering how of late fhe grew estrang'd,
Her forehead cloudy, and her countenance chang'd,
She thought this hour th' occasion would prefent
To learn her fecret caufe of difcontent,
Which, well the hop'd, might be with ease redress'd,
Confidering her a well-bred civil beast,
And more a gentlewoman than the reft.
After fome common talk what rumors ran,
The lady of the spotted-muff began.
The SECOND PART.
DAME, faid the Panther, times are mended well,
Since late among the Philistines you fell. The toils were pitch'd, a spacious tract of ground With expert huntfmen was encompafs'd round;
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 she 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 leaft.
In doubtful points betwixt her differing friends,
Where one for fubftance, one for fign contends,
Their contradicting terms the ftrives to join ;
Sign fhall be fubftance, 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 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 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 nonfenfe never can be understood.
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