How Jewish, Popifh, interefts have prevail'd,
And where infallibility has fail'd.

For fome, who have his fecret meaning guefs'd,
Have found our author not too much a priest:
For fashion-fake he feems to have recourse
To pope, and councils, and traditions force:
But he that old traditions could fubdue,
Could not but find the weakness of the new :
If fcripture, though deriv'd from heavenly birth,
Has been but carelessly preferv'd on earth;
If God's own people, who of God before
Knew what we know, and had been promis'd more,
In fuller terms, of heaven's assisting care,
And who did neither time nor study spare
To keep this book untainted, unperplext,
Let in grofs errors to corrupt the text,
Omitted paragraphs, embroil'd the sense,
With vain traditions ftopt the gaping fence,
Which every common hand pull'd up with ease:
What fafety from fuch brushwood-helps as these?
If written words from time are not fecur'd,
How can we think have oral founds endur'd?
Which thus tranfmitted, if one mouth has fail'd,
Immortal lyes on ages are intail'd :

And that some fuch have been, is prov'd too plain;
If we confider intereft, church, and gain.

O but, fays one, tradition fet afide,
Where can we hope for an unerring guide?
For fince th' original scripture has been lost,
All copies difagreeing, maim'd the most,

Or

Or chriftian faith can have no certain ground,
Or truth in church-tradition must be found.

Such an omnifcient church we wish indeed;
'Twere worth both Teftaments; caft in the creed:
But if this mother be a guide fo fure,

As can all doubts refolve, all truth fecure,
Then her infallibility, as well

Where copies are corrupt or lame, can tell;
Reftore loft canon with as little pains,
As truly explicate what still remains:
Which yet no council dare pretend to do;
Unless like Efdras they could write it new:
Strange confidence ftill to interpret true,
Yet not be fure that all they have explain'd
Is in the bleft original contain'd.

More fafe, and much more modeft 'tis, to say
God would not leave mankind without a way:
And that the fcriptures, though not every where
Free from corruption, or intire, or clear,
Are uncorrupt, fufficient, clear, intire,
In all things which our needful faith require.
If others in the fame glass better fee,
'Tis for themselves they look, but not for me:
For my falvation muft its doom receive,
Not from what others but what I believe.
Muft all tradition then be fet afide?

This to affirm, were ignorance or pride.
Are there not many points, fome needful fure
To faving faith, that fcripture leaves obfcure?
Which every fect will wreft a feveral way,
For what one fect interprets, all fects may :

We

We hold, and fay we prove from fcripture plain,
That Christ is God; the bold Socinian
From the same scripture urges he's but man.
Now what appeal can end th' important fuit?
Both parts talk loudly, but the rule is mute.
Shall I speak plain. and in a nation free
Assume an honest layman's liberty?
I think, according to my little skill,
To my own mother-church fubmitting ftill,
That many have been fav'd, and many may,
Who never heard this queftion brought in play.
Th' unletter'd Chriftian, who believes in grofs,
Plods on to heaven; and ne'er is at a lofs:
For the ftreight-gate would be made freighter yet,
Were none admitted there but men of wit.
The few by nature form'd, with learning fraught,
Born to inftruct, as others to be taught,

Muft study well the sacred page; and fee
Which doctrine, this or that, does best agree
With the whole tenor of the work divine:
And plainlieft points to heaven's reveal'd defign:
Which expofition flows from genuine fense:
And which is forc'd by wit and eloquence.
Not that tradition's parts are useless here :
When general, old, difinterefted, and clear:
That ancient Fathers thus expound the
Gives truth the reverend majesty of age:
Confirms its force by bideing every test;

page,

For beft authorities next rules, are beft..

}

And

And ftill the nearer to the spring we go

More limpid, more unfoil'd, the waters flow.
Thus first traditions were a proof alone

Could we be certain fuch they were, fo known:
But fince fome flaws in long descent may be,
They make not truth, but probability.
Ev'n Arius and Pelagius durft provoke
To what the centuries preceding spoke.
Such difference is there in an oft-told tale:
But truth by its own finews will prevail.
Tradition written therefore more commends
Authority, than what from voice defcends :
And this, as perfect as its kind can be,
Rolls down to us the facred hiftory:
Which, from the univerfal church receiv'd,
Is try'd, and after, for itself believ'd.

The partial Papists would infer from hence
Their church, in laft resort, fhould judge the sense.
But first they would affume with wonderous art,
Themselves to be the whole, who are but part
Of that vaft frame the church; yet grant they were
The handers-down, can they from thence infer
A right t'interpret? or would they alone,

Who brought the present, claim it for their own?
The book's a common largefs to mankind;
Not more for them than every man defign'd:
The welcome news is in the letter found;
The carrier's not commiffion'd to expound.
It speaks itself, and what it does contain,
In all things needful to be known is plain.

In times o'ergrown with ruft and ignorance, A gainful trade their clergy did advance : When want of learning kept the laymen low,

And none but priests were authoriz'd to know:

When what fmall knowledge was, in them did dwell;
And he a God who could but read and spell;
Then mother church did mightily prevail :
She parcel'd out the Bible by retail:
But ftill expounded what she fold or gave;
To keep it in her power to damn and save :
Scripture was fcarce, and, as the market went,
Poor laymen took falvation on content;

As needy men take money good or bad :
God's word they had not, but the priest's they had.
Yet whate er falfe conveyances they made,

The lawyer ftill was certain to be paid.

In those dark times they learn'd their knack fo well,
That by long ufe they grew infallible:

At last a knowing age began t' enquire

If they the book, or that did them infpire:

And making narrower fearch they found, though late,
That what they thought the priest's, was their estate:
Taught by the will produc'd, the written word,
How long they had been cheated on record.
Then every man who faw the title fair,
Claim'd a child's part, and put in for a fhare:
Confulted foberly his private good;

And fav'd himfelf as cheap as e'er he could.

'Tis true, my friend, and far be flattery hence, This good had full as bad a confequence :

VOL. I.

S

The