Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A63058
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A pastoral dialogue a poem.
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Tate, Nahum, 1652-1715.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing T202A; ESTC R28192
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12,358
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34
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and Peace by cutting Throats That Faith to plant does Charity disband And break for doubtful Truths a clear Command Since first this Pest the Christian World annoy'd Since Persecuting Pow'r the Church enjoy'd Zeal marr'd Religion Creeds the Faith destroy'd PALÆMON. Where Rome bears sway bid Laws Divine farewell And Human Rights t'assert is to Rebel Speak suffering Witness I appeal to Thee Thou First Apostle of our Liberty Condemn'd to Stripes Thy Crime Thou didst presum To write 'gainst Arbitrary Pow'r and Rome Didst Inferences of strange Treason draw And say 'T was Legal to defend the Law Thy envious Foes no other Crimes could urge And to confute thy Pen produc'd the Scourge PHILANDER You mention'd Constantine in whose mild Reign The harass'd Church did first her Freedom gain When Priests secure to Bishopricks aspir'd Without First-Fruits of Martyrdom requir'd Tell me How then could Cruelty intrude How came the Persecuting Plague renew'd PALÆMON. Lust Riot Avarice Ambition Strife Are Bastard-off-springs of too peaceful Life With nice Disputes the wanton Priests began To Envy next and wild Confusion ran Wou'd Mysteries too curiously enquire That first rais'd Smoke then set the Church on fire From brangling Arrius the first Fire-brand came PHILANDER But Constantine took care to quench the Flame PALÆMON. The Nicene Fathers summon'd to decide The Strife instead of Lenitives apply'd Too late convinc'd th'indulgent Emperour How fatal 't was to trust a Priest with Pow'r PHILANDER The pious Prince to do th' Assembly Grace Refus'd I 've heard Himself to take his place 'Till they were sat 'T was favour ill apply'd If such Behaviour taught the Doctors Pride PALÆMON. Then having as a Christian Monarch ought First burnt th'Invectives which the Fathers brought Against each Other and for Union press'd Thus to the Council he himself address'd God made you Priests and God alone can be Your Judge Rest therefore from my Censure free No Man shou'd judge of Gods and You are Gods to Me. PHILANDER When Princes yield the Prelate must prevail PALÆMON. When e'r did Priest to take Advantage fail Forthwith Church-Censures flew as thick as Hail The Arrian Systeme to just flames assign'd And Nicene Creed with Penalties enjoyn'd They fix'd not Here but for each trifling Cause The Mettal try'd of their new Penal Laws Think how each Victor went triumphant home With Titles swell'd too bulky for his Dome From Council Orthodox and Catholick Each Hare that cross'd him was an Heretick And if his Horse but stumbl'd in his way Th'erroneous Beast incurr'd th' Anathema PHILANDER Yet since they squar'd by Rules of Sacred Writ Their Symbol you to their Decrees submit PALÆMON. I own what e're the Sacred Books contain Can Mysteries believe though not explain Have none in Footsteps of first Martyrs trod And dy'd for Truth who ne'r conceiv'd the Mode Brand such as won't to Truths reveal'd agree But Penalties on such as cannot see What others can is Breach of Charity Had Charity in Synods interpos'd The Seamless Garments Breach had soon been clos'd Which to repair the wrangling Doctors try'd While Metaphysicks sacred Truths decide And by ill-botching made the Rent more wide But they had now learnt Sciences and must To their own Fame as well as Truth be Just. Would Mysteries not like Mechanicks know But both the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 show Were subtle School-men grown and to agree Had Scandal been to their Philosophy PHILANDER But tell me did these Clouds the Faith invade When first whole Nations were its Converts made PALÆMON. The Faith shone clear till School-Terms rais'd like Mists Favour'd the Juggles of Imposing Priests And Councils having Scripture Bounds o're-past Advanc'd to forging of New Creeds at last Which by the Hocus of Infallible Went down so glib the Difference few could tell The Priest's Turn better serv'd and pleas'd the Crowd as well They heard how their Redeemer at his Death Did Sacred Legacies to all bequeath Which if they 'd now inspect and had the Skill The Church into her Hands had got the Will For now the Laity were left i' th' Lurch Th' Encroaching Clergy were become the Church Nor stood the Magistrate on higher Ground In vain to Scripture their Appeals they found While 't was the Churches Priv'ledge to expound Thus through Indulgence Fond of such as Reign'd And through the People's Sloth th' Ascendent gain'd Romes Prelate topp'd upon her Temp'ral Pow'r And from her Priest became her Emperor With artful Baits the Fisher long had sought And Empire was the Fish at last he caught But Time and Breath and Patience too wou'd fail To count the Steps of this prodigious Scale Suffice it that at first th' Impostor gain'd By Frauds his height and by worse Frauds maintain'd Sloth Ignorance blind Zeal and blinder Fear Combin'd to level Thrones and mount the Chair PHILANDER 'T was then th' aspiring Clergy Crown'd their Hope And form'd their Church-Leviathan a Pope In whom they still possess the Pow'r they give Earth's Tyrant but their Representative PALÆMON. 'T is Done the Ambitious Priest has got the Day The Prelate Rules and Princes must Obey The Spiritual Lord exalted to the Skies Looks down and all the Subject World defies Does safe his Empyraean Height possess His only Care to manage his Success How to dispense his Beams to whom be kind And who shall his Malignant Aspects find To whom large Territories he shall give To whom sell Crowns and whom of Crowns deprive To Judge who best to Merit does pretend And Merit is to be the Church's Friend PHILANDER For Crimes so black that Humane Nature shockt Unpeopled Earth and Hell's Plantations stockt Th' Indulgence-Shop was ope'd with Pardons stor'd And to a Friend good pen'orths cou'd afford At th' old fixt Rates the rest their Ware must take PALÆMON. But if y' are impious for the Churches sake Ev'n with their Office-Fees they can dispense They con you Thanks and Consecrate th' Offence A Cut-Throat Priest of Murder cou'd make sport From Laws protected by the Spiritual Court Kings let him Kill and blackest Treasons Act His Judges still were Parties in the Fact PHILANDER What if a Lay-Man did the Priest Offend PALÆMON. An injur'd Priest or who could Wrong pretend Cry'd Burn the Heretick the ready Stake Forthwith did Pious Reparation make PHILANDER To hurt his Person made the Sentence Just What the Priest said 't was Death but to mistrust PALÆMON. Fear more than Wit this Tyranny enjoin'd Lest the dull Crowd at last the Cheat should find And to requite their gross pernicious Pranks Pull down their Stage and stone the Mountebanks Dull Souls with Ease are of their Rights bereav'd But none Revenge like Fools when undeceiv'd And strongest Stomachs with large Draughts opprest The last Disgusts and throws up all the rest Heap Crime on Crime to keep the Frauds from Air The last of Course must lie expos'd and bare And too much weight o're-throw the Guilty Chair Now Monster Triple-Crown'd expect thy
A Pastoral Dialogue A POEM Liberius si Dixero quid si forte Jocosius Hoc mihi juris Cum Veniâ dabis Hor. Vincit Amor Patriae Virg. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane MDCXC PREFACE I Could heartily have wish'd there had been no Occasion offer'd or Subject-matter for an Essay of this kind After so happy and wonderful a Revolution as we have seen when our Hopes were grown desperate and our Liberty reduc'd to its very last gasp to have the only Remedy in Nature so effectually apply'd so miraculous a Recovery perform'd after all this to find English-men and such as pretend to no other Interest or Religion but That of their Country to findThem expressing Dissatisfaction every-where busie in sowing Dissention obstructing as far as in them lies the Progress of Affairs and unhinging the present Settlement upon which alone depends the Safety of these Nations and common Quiet of Europe This is so just a Cause of Indignation as must make every Lover of his Countrey to turn Satyrist or at least excuse the honest Zeal of such as upon this Occasion express their Resentments To be unconcern'd for a Man's Country is theworstwant of natural Affection A Crime reputed so heinous amongst the more generous Heathens that it divested the indulgent Brutus of all Compassion on his Sons whom he submitted to the extremity of Punishment for making Commotions in the new Settlement of the Roman Liberty Gnatosque Pater nova Bella moventes In Paenam dulci pro Libertate vocabit In tracing the Occasions of the late Disturbances and Discontents of the State I was unwillingly brought within the Verge of the Church There is no Man that has a greater Veneration for the Sacred Function and Order or the Discipline and Worship by Law establish'd neither does the Passive Principle it self that has so nearly endanger'd the Shipwreck both of State and Church derive its source from the pure Fountain of our Reformation 'T was a new-sprouted Tail of the Dragon that swept many of our Stars tho but few of the First Magnitude most whereof recover'd themselves as soon as they were sensible of the Consequence For my own part says one I am so little asham'd of altering my Opinion in this matter that I think I have nothing to blush for but that I no sooner discover'd my Error and the ungrateful and odious use that was design'd to be made of it The Number is but small of such as still adhere to the Prejudice of their Education under a Government whose bufiness it was to debauch our Principles and dispose us for the Slavery that was to be brought upon us What I have touch'd concerning Penal Impositions on Conscience and the Nicene Assembly amongst whom were many Persons that preserv'd the Primitive Character I must for the Consequence refer you to the Testimony of Church-Historians inftancing only one Passage in St. Hilary who gives us this Account Conscii sumus quod post Nicaenam Synodum nihil aliud quam Fidem scribimus dum in Verbis pugna est dum de novitatibus quaestio est dum de Ambiguis Occasio est dum de Authoribus querela est dum de studiis certamen est dum in Consensu difficultas est dum Alter Alteri Anathema esse caepit prope jam nemo Christi est c. Tandem eo processum est ut neque penes nos neque penes quenquam ante nos Sanctum exinde aliquid perseveret annuas atque menstruas de Deo fides decernimus decretis paenitemus paenitentes defendimus defensos Anathematizamus aut in nostris aliena aut aliena in nostris damnamus mordentes invicem jam absumpti sumus ab invicem I cannot bètter make my Apology than in the words of a late Writer upon this Occasion who says It is not their declaring their Opinion wherein they seem to me to have light upon the Truth if they had likewise upon the Measure that could have moved me to speak with this liberty but their imposing what was not contain'd in express words of Scripture under Spiritual and Civil Penalties contrary to the Privilege of Religion and making a Precedent follow'd and improv'd by all succeeding Ages for most Cruel Perfecutions There is no Person so obscure or inconfiderable but might have observed our most zealous Protestants both Church-men and Dissenters to have been all along Properties to the Common Enemy so visible have been the Triumphs and Insultings of Roman Emissaries upon the Animosities they have sown amongst us and of which they reckon'd shortly to reap the Harvest The Unreasonableness that is to say the Impossibility of Force in matters of meer Conscience and Opinion has demonstrated it self through all Ages Our Dissenters have had their Faults and they have suffer'd Neither is it the least Blessing amongst those Great and Many that seem to be reserv'd for His present Majesty's Reign That we do not yet despair of a Comprehension His Majesty has with more than Constantine's Piety signaliz'd His Royal Inclination the ablest of our Spiritual Guides are zealous Endeavourers for it and That amongst other weighty Reasons for the True Interest and Inviolable Security of the Church Establish'd Which as it influences the Publick Happiness it is the Duty of ev'n the meanest Lay-man to be sollicitous for it And this Privilege at least I may plead for what I have said For common quiet is Mankinds Concern Relig. Lai Now as to your Censure of this Essay as a Poem I have that Indifference which is necessary for an ill Writer If it have the least degree of Art or Beauty the Judicious will not miss of it Otherwise I have seldom known a Reader barangu'd into a favourable Opinion against his Conscience The Nature of the Dialogue oblig'd me for the most part to Expressions that were familiar and Sermoni propiora You will find it but praeliminary to a more agreeable Subject if any Pitch of Zeal can warrant so mean a Talent in the Faculty as Mine for the Undertaking A Pastoral Dialogue A POEM NEar Isis Spring the Muses poor Retreat Palaemon dwelt in his unenvied Seat Whose little but Hereditary Soil Answer'd his mod'rate Hopes if not his Toil For Nature's Wants did modestly provide Content and Innocence the Rest supply'd His Years declin'd his Thoughts their Manly Fire Preserv'd advancing as his Days retire None better knew or practis'd in his Cell The chast Delights that in Retirement dwell That scorn the Golden Mansions of the Proud And fly the Haunts of the unhallow'd Crowd Betimes he shunn'd the beaten Roads of Strife And found the secret Track to peaceful Life Too blest if while his private Cares did cease No Fears had seiz'd him for his Countrey 's Peace So strong the Guard of Vertues which he chose Fate had no other way to his Repose Religion He and Loyalty held dear Bigot in neither tho in both Sincere In ev'ry Course by Truth