Leton then at her own quarry fly,
Lut how can finite grasp infinity?
'Tis urg'd again, that faith did first commence Imiracles, which are appeals to sense, Adence concluded, that our sense must be
The motive still of credibility.
For latter ages must on former wait,
And what began belief must propagate.
Bu winnow well this thought, and you shall find at as chaff that flies before the wind.
Il those wonders wrought by power divine,
As means or ends of some more deep design? Most sure as means, whose end was this alone, To prove the Godhead of the eternal fon.
God thus afferted, man is to believe
Beyond what sense and reason can conceive,
And for mysterious things of faith rely
On the proponent, heaven's authority.
If then our faith we for our guide admit,
Vain is the farther fearch of human wit,
As when the building gains a furer stay,
We take the unuseful scaffolding away.
Reason by sense no more can understand;
The game is play'd into another hand.
Why chuse we then like bilanders to creep
Along the coast, and land in view to keep,
When fafely we may launch into the deep ?
In the fame vessel, which our Saviour bore,
Himself the pilot, let us leave the shore,
And with a better guide a better world explore.
Could he his Godhead veil with flesh and blood,
And not veil these again to be our food?
His grace in both is equal in extent,
The first affords us life, the second nourishment.
And if he can, why all this frantic pain
To construe what his clearest words contain,
And make a riddle what he made so plain?
To take up half on trust, and half to try,
Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry.
Both knave and fool the merchant we may call,
To pay great fums and to compound the small:
For who would break with heaven, and would
Rest then, my foul, from endless anguish freed: Nor sciences thy guide, nor sense thy creed.
Faith is the best ensuer of thy bliss;
The bank above must fail before the venture
But heaven and heaven-born faith are far from
Thou first apoftate to divinity.
Unkennell'd range in thy Polonian plains;
A fiercer foe th'insatiate wolf remains.
Too boastful Britain, please thyself no more.
That beafts of prey are banish'd from thy shore :
The bear, the boar, and every favage name,
Wild in effect, tho in appearance tame,
Lay waste thy woods, destroy thy blissful bower,
And, muzzled though they feem, the mutes
More haughty than the rest, the wolfish race
Appear with belly gaunt, and famish'd face :
Never was so deform'd a beast of grace.
His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,
Close clap'd for shame; but his rough creft he
And pricks up his predeftinating ears.
His wild disorder'd walk, his haggard eyes,
Did all the beftial citizens surprize.
Though fear'd and hated, yet he rul'd a-while,
As captain or companion of the spoil.
Full many a year his hateful head had been
For tribute paid, nor fince in Cambria seen :
The last of all the litter scap'd by chance,
And from Geneva first infested France.
Some authors thus his pedigree will trace,
But others write him of an upstart race;
Because of Wickliff's brood no mark he brings,
But his innate antipathy to kings.
These last deduce him from th' Helvetian kind,
Who near the Leman-lake his confort lin'd:
That fiery Zuinglius first th'affection bred,
And meagre Calvin blest the nuptial bed.
In Ifrael fome believe him whelp'd long fince,
When the proud sanhedrim opprefs'd the prince,
Or, fince he will be Jew, derive him higher,
When Corah with his brethren did conspire
From Mofes' hand the fovereign sway to wrest,
And Aaron of his ephod to divest :
'Till opening earth made way for all to pass,
And could not bear the burden of a class.
The fox and he came shuffled in the dark,
If ever they were stow'd in Noah's ark:
Perhaps not made; for all their barking train
The dog (a common species) will contain.
And fome wild curs, who from their masters ran,
Abhorring the fupremacy of man,
In woods and caves the rebel-race began.
O happy pair, how well have you increas'd! What ills in church and state have you redress'd?
With teeth untry'd, and rudiments of claws,
Your first essay was on your native laws :
Those having torn with ease, and trampled down, Your fangs you fasten'd on the mitred erown, And freed from God and monarchy your town.
What tho your native kennel still be small,
Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall;
Yet your victorious colonies are sent
Where the north ocean girds the continent.
Quicken'd with fire below, your monsters breed
In fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed :
And like the first the last affects to be
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
As, where in fields the fairy rounds are seen,
A rank four herbage rises on the green;
So, springing where those midnight elves advance,
Rebellion prints the footsteps of the dance.
Such are their doctrines, such contempt they show
To heaven above, and to their prince below,
As none but traitors and blafphemers know.
God, like the tyrant of the skies, is plac'd,
And kings, like flaves, beneath the crowd debas'd,
So fulsom is their food, that flocks refuse
To bite, and only dogs for phyfic ufe.
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