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
mighty hunter of his race Not so the blessed Pan his flock encreas'd Content to sold 'em from the farnish'd beast Mild were his laws the Sheep and harmless Hind Were never of the persecuting kind Such pity now the pious Pastor shows Such mercy from the British Lyon flows That both provide protection for their foes Oh happy Regions Italy and Spain Which never did those monsters entertain The Wolfe the Bear the Boar can there advance No native claim of just inheritance And self-preserving laws severe in show May guard their fences from th' invading foe Where birth has plac'd 'em let 'em safely share The common benefit of vital air Themselves unharmfull let them live unharm'd Their jaws disabl'd and their claws disarm'd Here onely in nocturnal howlings bold They dare not seize the Hind nor leap the fold More pow'rfull and as vigilant as they The Lyon awfully forbids the prey Their rage repress'd though pinch'd with famine sore They stand aloof and tremble at his roar Much is their hunger but their fear is more These are the chief to number o'er the rest And stand like Adam naming ev'ry beast Were weary work nor will the Muse describe A slimy-born and sun-begotten Tribe Who far from steeples and their sacred sound In fields their sullen conventicles found These gross half-animated lumps I leave Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive But if they think at all 't is sure no high'r Than matter put in motion may aspire Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay So drossy so divisible are They As wou'd but serve pure bodies for allay Such souls as Shards produce such beetle things As onely buz to heav'n with ev'ning wings Strike in the dark offending but by chance Such are the blind-fold blows of ignorance They know not beings and but hate a name To them the Hind and Panther are the same The Panther sure the noblest next the Hind And fairest creature of the spotted kind Oh could her in-born stains be wash'd away She were too good to be a beast of Prey How can I praise or blame and not offend Or how divide the frailty from the friend Her faults and vertues lye so mix'd that she Nor wholly stands condemn'd nor wholly free Then like her injur'd Lyon let me speak He can not bend her and he would not break Unkind already and estrang'd in part The Wolfe begins to share her wandring heart Though unpolluted yet with actual ill She half commits who sins but in Her will. If as our dreaming Platonists report There could be spirits of a middle sort Too black for heav'n and yet too white for hell Who just dropt half way down nor lower fell So pois'd so gently she descends from high It seems a soft dismission from the sky Her house not ancient whatsoe'er pretence Her clergy Heraulds make in her defence A second century not half-way run Since the new honours of her bloud begun A Lyon old obscene and furious made By lust compress'd her mother in a shade Then by a left-hand marr'age weds the Dame Cov'ring adult'ry with a specious name So schism begot and sacrilege and she A well-match'd pair got graceless heresie God's and kings rebels have the same good cause To trample down divine and humane laws Both wou'd be call'd Reformers and their hate Alike destructive both to church and state The fruit proclaims the plant a lawless Prince By luxury reform'd incontinence By ruins charity by riots abstinence Confessions fasts and penance set aside Oh with what ease we follow such a guide Where souls are starv'd and senses gratify'd Where marr'age pleasures midnight pray'r supply And mattin bells a melancholy cry Are tun'd to merrier notes encrease and multiply Religion shows a Rosie colour'd face Not hatter'd out with drudging works of grace A down-hill Reformation rolls apace What flesh and bloud wou'd croud the narrow gate` Or till they waste their pamper'd paunches wait All wou'd be happy at the cheapest rate Though our lean faith these rigid laws has giv'n The full fed Musulman goes fat to heav'n For his Arabian Prophet with delights Of sense allur'd his eastern Proselytes The jolly Luther reading him began T' interpret Scriptures by his Alcoran To grub the thorns beneath our tender feet And make the paths of Paradise more sweet Bethought him of a wife e'er half way gone For 't was uneasy travailing alone And in this masquerade of mirth and love Mistook the bliss of heav'n for Bacchanals above Sure he presum'd of praise who came to stock Th' etherial pastures with so fair a flock Burnish'd and bat'ning on their food to show The diligence of carefull herds below Our Panther though like these she chang'd her head Yet as the mistress of a monarch's bed Her front erect with majesty she bore The Crozier weilded and the Miter wore Her upper part of decent discipline Shew'd affectation of an ancient line And fathers councils church and churches head Were on her reverend Phylacteries read But what disgrac'd and disavow'd the rest Was Calvin's brand that stigmatiz'd the beast Thus like a creature of a double kind In her own labyrinth she lives confin'd To foreign lands no sound of Her is come Humbly content to be despis'd at home Such is her faith where good cannot be had At least she leaves the refuse of the bad Nice in her choice of ill though not of best And least deform'd because reform'd the least In doubtfull points betwixt her diff'ring friends Where one for substance one for sign contends Their contradicting terms she strives to join Sign shall be substance substance shall be sign A real presence all her sons allow And yet 't is flat Idolatry to bow Because the god-head's there they know not how Her Novices are taught that bread and wine Are but the visible and outward sign Receiv'd by those who in communion join But th' inward grace or the thing signify'd His bloud and body who to save us dy'd The faithfull this thing signify'd receive What is 't those faithfull then partake or leave For what is signify'd and understood Is by her own confession flesh and blood Then by the same acknowledgement we know They take the sign and take the substance too The lit'ral sense is hard to flesh and blood But nonsense never can be understood Her wild belief on ev'ry wave is tost But sure no church can better morals boast True to her king her principles are found Oh that her practice were but half so sound Stedfast in various turns of state she stood And seal'd her vow'd affection with her bloud Nor will I meanly tax her constancy That int'rest or obligement made the tye Bound to the fate of murdr'd Monarchy Before the â—ounding Ax so falls the Vine Whose tender branches round the Poplar twine She chose her ruin and resign'd her life In death undaunted as an Indian wife A rare example but some souls we see Grow hard and stiffen with adversity
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