THE

HIND and the PANTHER.

A

Milk-white Hind, immortal and unchang'd,
Fed on the lawns, and in the foreft rang'd;

Without unfpotted, innocent within,
She fear'd no danger, for she knew no fin.
Yethad she oft been chas'd with horns and hounds,
And Scythian shafts; and many winged wounds
Aim'd at her heart; was often forced to fly,
And doom'd to death the fated not to die.

Not so her young; for their unequal line Was hero's make, half human, half divine. Their earthly mold obnoxious was to fate, The immortal part assum'd immortal state. Of these a flaughter'd army lay in blood, Extended o'er the Caledonian wood, Their native walk; whose vocal blood arose, And cry'd for pardon on their perjur'd foes. Their fate was fruitful, and the sanguine feed, Endu'd with fouls, increas'd the sacred breed. So captive Ifrael multiply'd in chains, A numerous exile, and enjoy'd her pains. With grief and gladness mix'd, the mother view'd Her martyr'd offspring, and their race renew'd; Their corps to perish, but their kind to last, So much the deathless plant the dying fruit

furpass'd.

Panting and pensive now she rang'd alone, And wander'd in the kingdoms, once her own. The common hunt, tho from their rage restrain'd By fovereign power her company disdain'd; Grin'd as they pass'd, and with a glaring eye Gave gloomy figns of fecret enmity. 'Tis true, the bounded by, and trip'd so light, They had not time to take a steady fight.

For truth has such a face and fuch a mien,
As to be lov'd needs only to be seen.

The bloody bear, an independent beaft, Unlick'd to form, in groans her hate exprest. Among the timorous kind the quaking hare Profess'd neutrality, but would not swear. Next her the buffoon ape as atheifts use, Mimick'd all sects, and had his own to chuse: Still when the lion look'd his knees he bent, And paid at church a courtier's compliment. The briftled baptift boar, impure as he, But whiten'd with the foam of sanctity, With fat pollutions fill'd the sacred place, And mountains levell'd in his furious race : So first rebellion founded was in grace. But fince the mighty ravage, which he made In German forefts, had his guilt betray'd, With broken tusks, and with a borrow'd name, He shun'd the vengeance, and conceal'd the

shame;

So lurk'd in sects unseen. With greater guile
False reynard fed on confecrated spoil:

The graceless beast by Athanafius first
Was chas'd from Nice, then by Socinus

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1

His impious race their blafphemy renew'd,
And nature's king thro nature's optics view'd.
Revers'd they view'd him lessen'd to their eye,
Nor in an infant could a God descry,
New swarming sects 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 dost thou provide
For erring judgments an unerring guide?
Thy throne is darkness in the 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 hast promis'd never to forsake !
My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain defires,
My manhood, long misled by wandering fires,
Follow'd false lights; and, when their glimpse

was gone,

My pride ftruck out new sparkles of her own.
Such was I, such by nature still I am ;

Be thine the glory, and be mine the shame.

Good life be now my task: my doubts are done :

What more could fright my faith, than three in one?

t

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 trust my imperfect sense,
Which calls in question his omnipotence
Can I my reason to my faith compel?
And shall my fight, and touch, and tafte
Superior faculties are set aside ;

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

Can they who fay the host should be descry'd
By sense, define a body glorify'd?
Impafsable, and penetrating parts ?
Let them declare by what mysterious arts
He shot that body thro the oppofing might
Of bolts and bars impervious to the light,
And stood before his train confefs'd in open

fight.

For fince thus wonderously he pass'd, 'tis plain,
One fingle place two bodies did contain.

And fure the same omnipotence as well
Can make one body in more places dwell.