Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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ID |
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A36627
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The hind and the panther a poem, in three parts.
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Dryden, John, 1631-1700.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing D2281; ESTC R179
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43,423
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154
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explain what your forefathers meant By real presence in the sacrament After long fencing push'd against a wall Your salvo comes that he 's not there at all There chang'd your faith and what may change may fall Who can believe what varies every day Nor ever was nor will be at a stay Tortures may force the tongue untruths to tell And I ne'er own'd my self infallible Reply'd the Panther grant such Presence were Yet in your sense I never own'd it there A real vertue we by faith receive And that we in the sacrament believe Then said the Hind as you the matter state Not onely Iesuits can equivocate For real as you now the word expound From solid substance dwindles to a sound Methinks an Aesop's fable you repeat You know who took the shadow for the meat Your churches substance thus you change at will And yet retain your former figure still I freely grant you spoke to save your life For then you lay beneath the butchers ' knife Long time you fought redoubl'd batt'ry bore But after all against your self you swore Your former self for ev'ry hour your form Is chop'd and chang'd like winds before a storm Thus fear and int'rest will prevail with some For all have not the gift of martyrdome The Panther grin'd at this and thus reply'd That men may err was never yet deny'd But if that common principle be true The Cannon Dame is level'd full at you But shunning long disputes I fain wou'd see That wond'rous wight infallibility Is he from heav'n this mighty champion come Or lodg'd below in subterranean Rome First seat him somewhere and derive his race Or else conclude that nothing has no place Suppose though I disown it said the Hind The certain mansion were not yet assign'd The doubtfull residence no proof can bring Against the plain existence of the thing Because Philosophers may disagree If sight b'emission or reception be Shall it be thence inferr'd I do not see But you require an answer positive Which yet when I demand you dare not give For fallacies in Universals live I then affirm that this unfailing guide In Pope and gen'ral councils must reside Both lawfull both combin'd what one decrees By numerous votes the other ratifies On this undoubted sense the church relies 'T is true some Doctours in a scantier space I mean in each apart contract the place Some who to greater length extend the line The churches after acceptation join This last circumference appears too wide The church diffus'd is by the council ty'd As members by their representatives Oblig'd to laws which Prince and Senate gives Thus some contract and some enlarge the space In Pope and council who denies the place Assisted from above with God's unfailing grace Those Canons all the needfull points contain Their sense so obvious and their words so plain That no disputes about the doubtfull Text Have hitherto the lab'ring world perplex'd If any shou'd in after times appear New Councils must be call'd to make the meaning clear Because in them the pow'r supreme resides And all the promises are to the guides This may be taught with sound and safe defence But mark how sandy is your own pretence Who setting Councils Pope and Church aside Are ev'ry man his own presuming guide The sacred books you say are full and plain And ev'ry needfull point of truth contain All who can read Interpreters may be Thus though your sev'ral churches disagree Yet ev'ry Saint has to himself alone The secret of this Philosophick stone These principles your jarring sects unite When diff'ring Doctours and disciples fight Though Luther Zuinglius Calvin holy chiefs Have made a battel Royal of beliefs Or like wild horses sev'ral ways have whirl'd The tortur'd Text about the christian World Each Iehu lashing on with furious force That Turk or Iew cou'd not have us'd it worse No matter what dissention leaders make Where ev'ry private man may save a stake Rul'd by the Scripture and his own advice Each has a blind by-path to Paradise Where driving in a circle flow or fast Opposing sects are sure to meet at last A wondrous charity you have in store For all reform'd to pass the narrow door So much that Mahomet had scarcely more For he kind Prophet was for damning none But Christ and Moyses were to save their own Himself was to secure his chosen race Though reason good for Turks to take the place And he allow'd to be the better man In virtue of his holier Alcoran True said the Panther I shall ne'er deny My breth'ren may be sav'd as well as I Though Huguenots contemn our ordination Succession ministerial vocation And Luther more mistaking what he read Misjoins the sacred Body with the Bread Yet Lady still remember I maintain The Word in needfull points is onely plain Needless or needfull I not now contend For still you have a loop-hole for a friend Rejoyn'd the Matron but the rule you lay Has led whole flocks and leads them still astray In weighty points and full damnation's way For did not Arius first Socinus now The Son 's eternal god-head disavow And did not these by Gospel Texts alone Condemn our doctrine and maintain their own Have not all hereticks the same pretence To plead the Scriptures in their own defence How did the Nicene council then decide That strong debate was it by Scripture try'd No sure to those the Rebel would not yield Squadrons of Texts he marshal'd in the field That was but civil war an equal set Where Piles with piles and eagles Eagles met With Texts point-blank and plain he fac'd the Foe And did not Sathan tempt our Saviour so The good old Bishops took a simpler way Each ask'd but what he heard his Father say Or how he was instructed in his youth And by traditions force upheld the truth The Panther smil'd at this and when said she Were those first Councils disallow'd by me Or where did I at sure tradition strike Provided still it were Apostolick Friend said the Hind you quit your former ground Where all your Faith you did on Scripture found Now 't is tradition join'd with holy writ But thus your memory betrays your wit. No said the Panther for in that I view When your tradition's forg'd and when 't is true I set 'em by the rule and as they square Or deviate from undoubted doctrine there This Oral fiction that old Faith declare Hind The Council steer'd it seems a diff'rent course They try'd the Scripture by tradition's force But you tradition by the Scripture try Pursu'd by Sects from this to that you fly Nor dare on one foundation to rely The word is then depos'd and in this view You rule the Scripture not the Scripture you Thus said the Dame and smiling thus pursu'd I see tradition then is disallow'd When not evinc'd by Scripture to be true And Scripture as interpreted by you But here you tread upon unfaithfull ground Unless you cou'd infallibly expound Which
you reject as odious Popery And throw that doctrine back with scorn on me Suppose we on things traditive divide And both appeal to Scripture to decide By various texts we both uphold our claim Nay often ground our titles on the same After long labour lost and times expence Both grant the words and quarrel for the sense Thus all disputes for ever must depend For no dumb rule can controversies end Thus when you said tradition must be try'd By Sacred Writ whose sense your selves decide You said no more but that your selves must be The judges of the Scripture sense not we Against our church tradition you declare And yet your Clerks wou'd sit in Moyse's chair At least 't is prov'd against your argument The rule is far from plain where all dissent If not by Scriptures how can we be sure Reply'd the Panther what tradition's pure For you may palm upon us new for old All as they say that glitters is not gold How but by following her reply'd the Dame To whom deriv'd from sire to son they came Where ev'ry age do's on another move And trusts no farther than the next above Where all the rounds like Iacob's ladder rise The lowest hid in earth the topmost in the skyes Sternly the salvage did her answer mark Her glowing eye ' balls glitt'ring in the dark And said but this since lucre was your trade Succeeding times such dreadfull gaps have made 'T is dangerous climbing to your sons and you I leave the ladder and its omen too Hind The Panther's breath was ever fam'd for sweet But from the Wolfe such wishes oft I meet You learn'd this language from the blatant beast Or rather did not speak but were possess'd As for your answer 't is but barely urg'd You must evince tradition to be forg'd Produce plain proofs unblemish'd authours use As ancient as those ages they accuse Till when 't is not sufficient to defame An old possession stands till Elder quitts the claim Then for our int'rest which is nam'd alone To load with envy we retort your own For when traditions in your faces fly Resolving not to yield you must decry As when the cause goes hard the guilty man Excepts and thins his jury all he can So when you stand of other aid bereft You to the twelve Apostles would be left Your friend the Wolfe did with more craft provide To set those toys traditions quite aside And Fathers too unless when reason spent He cites 'em but sometimes for ornament But Madam Panther you though more sincere Are not so wise as your Adulterer The private spirit is a better blind Than all the dodging tricks your authours find For they who left the Scripture to the crowd Each for his own peculiar judge allow'd The way to please 'em was to make 'em proud Thus with full sails they ran upon the shelf Who cou'd suspect a couzenage from himself On his own reason safer 't is to stand Than be deceiv'd and damn'd at second hand But you who Fathers and traditions take And garble some and some you quite forsake Pretending church auctority to fix And yet some grains of private spirit mix Are like a Mule made up of diff'ring seed And that 's the reason why you never breed At least not propagate your kind abroad For home-dissenters are by statutes aw'd And yet they grow upon you ev'ry day While you to speak the best are at a stay For sects that are extremes abhor a middle way Like tricks of state to stop a raging flood Or mollify a mad-brain'd Senate's mood Of all expedients never one was good Well may they argue nor can you deny If we must fix on church auctority Best on the best the fountain not the flood That must be better still if this be good Shall she command who has herself rebell'd Is Antichrist by Antichrist expell'd Did we a lawfull tyranny displace To set aloft a bastard of the race Why all these wars to win the Book if we Must not interpret for our selves but she Either be wholly slaves or wholly free For purging fires traditions must not fight But they must prove Episcopacy's right Thus those led horses are from service freed You never mount 'em but in time of need Like mercenary's hir'd for home defence They will not serve against their native Prince Against domestick foes of Hierarchy These are drawn forth to make fanaticks fly But when they see their countrey-men at hand Marching against 'em under church-command Straight they forsake their colours and disband Thus she nor cou'd the Panther well enlarge With weak defence against so strong a charge But said for what did Christ his Word provide If still his church must want a living guide And if all saving doctrines are not there Or sacred Pen-men cou'd not make 'em clear From after ages we should hope in vain For truths which men inspir'd cou'd not explain Before the Word was written said the Hind Our Saviour preach'd his Faith to humane kind From his Apostles the first age receiv'd Eternal truth and what they taught believ'd Thus by tradition faith was planted first Succeeding flocks succeeding Pastours nurs'd This was the way our wise Redeemer chose Who sure could all things for the best dispose To fence his sold from their encroaching foes He cou'd have writ himself but well foresaw Th' event wou'd be like that of Moyses law Some difference wou'd arise some doubts remain Like those which yet the jarring Iews maintain No written laws can be so plain so pure But wit may gloss and malice may obscure Not those indited by his first command A Prophet grav'd the text an Angel held his hand Thus faith was e'er the written word appear'd And men believ'd not what they read but heard But since th' Apostles cou'd not be confin'd To these or those but severally design'd Their large commission round the world to blow To spread their faith they spread their labours too Yet still their absent flock their pains did share They hearken'd still for love produces care And as mistakes arose or discords fell Or bold seducers taught 'em to rebell As charity grew cold or faction hot Or long neglect their lessons had forgot For all their wants they wisely did provide And preaching by Epistles was supply'd So great Physicians cannot all attend But some they visit and to some they send Yet all those letters were not writ to all Nor first intended but occasional Their absent sermons nor if they contain All needfull doctrines are those doctrines plain Clearness by frequent preaching must be wrought They writ but seldome but they daily taught And what one Saint has said of holy Paul He darkly writ is true apply'd to all For this obscurity could heav'n provide More prudently than by a living guide As doubts arose the difference to decide A guide was therefore needfull therefore made And if appointed sure to be obey'd Thus with due rev'rence to th' Apostles writ By which my sons