Yet these by fortunes favours are undone Resolv'd into a baser form they run And bore the wind but cannot bear the sun Let this be natures frailty or her fate Or Isgrim's counsel her new chosen mate Still she 's the fairest of the fallen crew No mother more indulgent but the true Fierce to her foes yet fears her force to try Because she wants innate auctority For how can she constrain them to obey Who has herself east off the lawfull sway Rebellion equals all and those who toil In common theft will share the common spoil Let her produce the title and the right Against her old superiours first to fight If she reform by Text ev'n that was plain For her own Rebels to reform again As long as words a diff'rent sense will bear And each may be his own Interpreter Our ai'ry faith will no foundation find The word 's a weathercock for ev'ry wind The Bear the Fox the Wolfe by turns prevail The most in pow'r supplies the present gale The wretched Panther crys aloud for aid To church and councils whom she first betray'd No help from Fathers or traditions train Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain And by that scripture which she once abus'd To Reformation stands her self accus'd What bills for breach of laws can she prefer Expounding which she owns herself may err And after all her winding ways are try'd If doubts arise she slips herself aside And leaves the private conscience for the guide If then that conscience set th' offender free It barrs her claim to church auctority How can she censure or what crime pretend But Scripture may be constru'd to defend Ev'n those whom for rebellion she transmits To civil pow'r her doctrine first acquits Because no disobedience can ensue Where no submission to a Judge is due Each judging for himself by her consent Whom thus absolv'd she sends to punishment Suppose the Magistrate revenge her cause 'T is onely for transgressing humane laws How answ'ring to its end a church is made Whose pow'r is but to counsell and persuade O solid rock on which secure she stands Eternal house not built with mortal hands O sure 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 soon by lawfull pow'r she might controll Her self a part submitted to the whole Then as the Moon who first receives the light By which she makes our nether regions bright So might she shine reflecting from afar The rays she borrow'd from a better star Big with the beams which from her mother flow And reigning o'er the rising tides below Now mixing with a salvage croud she goes And meanly flatters her invet'rate foes Rul'd while she rules and losing ev'ry hour Her wretched remnants of precarious pow'r One evening while the cooler shade she sought Revolving many a melancholy thought Alone she walk'd and look'd around in vain With rufull visage for her vanish'd train None of her sylvan subjects made their court Leveés and coucheés pass'd without resort So hardly can Usurpers manage well Those whom they first instructed to rebell More liberty begets desire of more The hunger still encreases with the store Without respect they brush'd along the wood Each in his clan and fill'd with loathsome food Ask'd no permission to the neighb'ring flood The Panther full of inward discontent Since they wou'd goe before 'em wisely went Supplying want of pow'r by drinking first As if she gave 'em leave to quench their thirst Among the rest the Hind with fearfull face Beheld from far the common wat'ring place Nor durst approach till with an awfull roar The sovereign Lyon bad her fear no more Encourag'd thus she brought her younglings nigh Watching the motions of her Patron 's eye And drank a sober draught the rest amaz'd Stood mutely still and on the stranger gaz'd Survey'd her part by part and sought to find The ten-horn'd monster in the harmless Hind Such as the Wolfe and Panther had design'd They thought at first they dream'd for 't was offence With them to question certitude of sense Their guide in faith but nearer when they drew And had the faultless object full in view Lord how they all admir'd her heav'nly hiew Some who before her fellowship disdain'd Scarce and but scarce from in born rage restrain'd Now frisk'd about her and old kindred feign'd Whether for love or int'rest ev'ry sect Of all the salvage nation shew'd respect The Vice-roy Panther could not awe the herd The more the company the less they fear'd The surly Wolfe with secret envy burst Yet cou'd not howl the Hind had seen him first But what he durst not speak the Panther durst For when the herd suffis'd did late repair To ferny heaths and to their forest lare She made a mannerly excuse to stay Proff'ring the Hind to wait her half the way That since 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 awhile on their adventures pass'd Nor had the gratefull Hind so soon forgot Her friend and fellow-suff'rer in the plot Yet wondring how of late she grew estrang'd Her forehead cloudy and her count'nance chang'd She thought this hour th' occasion would present To learn her secret cause of discontent Which well she hop'd might be with ease redress'd Consid'ring Her a well-bred civil beast And more a Gentlewoman than the rest After some common talk what rumours ran The Lady of the spotted-muff began THE HIND AND THE PANTHER The Second Part. DAME said the Panther times are mended well Since late among the Philistines you fell The toils were pich'd a spacious tract of ground With expert hunts-men was encompass'd round Th' Enclosure narrow'd the sagacious pow'r Of hounds and death drew nearer ev'ry hour 'T is true the younger Lyon scap'd the snare But all your priestly calves lay strugling there As sacrifices on their Altars laid While you their carefull mother wisely fled Not trusting destiny to save your head For what e'er promises you have apply'd To your unfailing church the surer side Is four fair leggs in danger to provide And what e'er tales of Peter's chair you tell Yet saving reverence of the miracle The better luck was yours to 'scape so well As I remember said the sober Hind Those toils were for your own dear self design'd As well as me and with the self same throw To catch the quarry and the vermin too Forgive the sland'rous tongues that call'd you so How e'er you take it now the common cry Then ran you down for your rank loyalty Besides in Popery they thought you nurst As evil tongues will ever speak the worst Because some forms and ceremonies some You kept and stood in the main question dumb Dumb you were born indeed but thinking long The Test it seems at last has loos'd your tongue And to
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
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
are taught to which submit I think those truths their sacred works contain The church alone can certainly explain That following ages leaning on the past May rest upon the Primitive at last Nor wou'd I thence the word no rule infer But none without the church interpreter Because as I have urg'd before 't is mute And is it self the subject of dispute But what th' Apostles their successours taught They to the next from them to us is brought Th' undoubted sense which is in scripture sought From hence the church is arm'd when errours rise To stop their entrance and prevent surprise And safe entrench'd within her foes without defies By these all festring sores her councils heal Which time or has disclos'd or shall reveal For discord cannot end without a last appeal Nor can a council national decide But with subordination to her Guide I wish the cause were on that issue try'd Much less the scripture for suppose debate Betwixt pretenders to a fair estate Bequeath'd by some Legator's last intent Such is our dying Saviour's Testament The will is prov'd is open'd and is read The doubtfull heirs their diff'ring titles plead All vouch the words their int'rest to maintain And each pretends by those his cause is plain Shall then the testament award the right No that 's the Hungary for which they fight The field of battel subject of debate The thing contended for the fair estate The sense is intricate 't is onely clear What vowels and what consonants are there Therefore 't is plain its meaning must be try'd Before some judge appointed to decide Suppose the fair Apostate said I grant The faithfull flock some living guide should want Your arguments an endless chase persue Produce this vaunted Leader to our view This mighty Moyses of the chosen crew The Dame who saw her fainting foe retir'd With force renew'd to victory aspir'd And looking upward to her kindred sky As once our Saviour own'd his Deity Pronounc'd his words she whom ye seek am I. Nor less amaz'd this voice the Panther heard Than were those Iews to hear a god declar'd Then thus the matron modesty renew'd Let all your prophets and their sects be view'd And see to which of 'em your selves think fit The conduct of your conscience to submit Each Proselyte wou'd vote his Doctor best With absolute exclusion to the rest Thus wou'd your Polish Diet disagree And end as it began in Anarchy Your self the fairest for election stand Because you seem crown-gen'ral of the land But soon against your superstitious lawn Some Presbyterian Sabre wou'd be drawn In your establish'd laws of sov'raignty The rest some fundamental flaw wou'd see And call Rebellion gospel-liberty To church-decrees your articles require Submission modify'd if not entire Homage deny'd to censures you proceed But when Curtana will not doe the deed You lay that pointless clergy-weapon by And to the laws your sword of justice fly Now this your sects the more unkindly take Those prying varlets hit the blots you make Because some ancient friends of yours declare Your onely rule of faith the Scriptures are Interpreted by men of judgment sound Which ev'ry sect will for themselves expound Nor think less rev'rence to their doctours due For sound interpretation than to you If then by able heads are understood Your brother prophets who reform'd abroad Those able heads expound a wiser way That their own sheep their shepherd shou'd obey But if you mean your selves are onely sound That doctrine turns the reformation round And all the rest are false reformers found Because in sundry points you stand alone Not in communion join'd with any one And therefore must be all the church or none Then till you have agreed whose judge is best Against this forc'd submission they protest While sound and sound a diff'rent sense explains Both play at hard-head till they break their brains And from their chairs each others force defy While unregarded thunders vainly fly I pass the rest because your church alone Of all usurpers best cou'd fill the throne But neither you nor any sect beside For this high office can be qualify'd With necessary gifts requir'd in such a guide For that which must direct the whole must be Bound in one bond of faith and unity But all your sev'ral churches disagree The Consubstantiating church and Priest Refuse communion to the Calvinist The French reform'd from preaching you restrain Because you judge their ordination vain And so they judge of yours but Donors must ordain In short in doctrine or in discipline Not one reform'd can with another join But all from each as from damnation fly No union they pretend but in Non-Popery Nor shou'd their members in a synod meet Cou'd any church presume to mount the seat Above the rest their discords to decide None wou'd obey but each wou'd be the guide And face to face dissentions wou'd encrease For onely distance now preserves the peace All in their turns accusers and accus'd Babel was never half so much confus'd What one can plead the rest can plead as well For amongst equals lies no last appeal And all confess themselves are fallible Now since you grant some necessary guide All who can err are justly laid aside Because a trust so sacred to confer Shows want of such a sure interpreter And how can he be needfull who can err Then granting that unerring guide we want That such there is you stand oblig'd to grant Our Saviour else were wanting to supply Our needs and obviate that necessity It then remains that church can onely be The guide which owns unfailing certainty Or else you slip your hold and change your side Relapsing from a necessary guide But this annex'd condition of the crown Immunity from errours you disown Here then you shrink lay your weak pretensions down For petty royalties you raise debate But this unfailing universal state You shun nor dare succeed to such a glorious weight And for that cause those promises detest With which our Saviour did his Church invest But strive t'evade and fear to find 'em true As conscious they were never meant to you All which the mother church asserts her own And with unrivall'd claim ascends the throne So when of old th' Almighty father sate In Council to redeem our ruin'd state Millions of millions at a distance round Silent the sacred Consistory crown'd To hear what mercy mixt with justice cou'd propound All prompt with eager pity to fulfill The full extent of their Creatour's will But when the stern conditions were declar'd A mournfull whisper through the host was heard And the whole hierarchy with heads hung down Submissively declin'd the pondrous proffer'd crown Then not till then th' eternal Son from high Rose in the strength of all the Deity Stood forth t' accept the terms and underwent A weight which all the frame of heav'n had bent Nor he Himself cou'd bear but as omnipotent Now to remove the least remaining doubt That