And if he can, why all this frantic pain
To conftrue 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 not
break for all ?
Rest then, my foul, from endless anguish freed :
Nor fciences thy guide, nor fenfe thy creed.
Faith is the best enfurer of thy bliss;
The bank above muft fail before the venture miss.
But heaven and heaven-born faith are far from thee,
Thou first apoftate to divinity.
Unkennel'd range in thy Polonian plains:
A fiercer foe th' infatiate wolf remains.
Too boastful Britain, please thyself no more,
That beats of prey are banish'd from thy fhore:
The bear, the boar, and every savage name,
Wild in effect, though in appearance tame,
Lay wafte thy woods, destroy thy blissful bower,
And, muzzled though they feem, the mutes devour.
More haughty than the rest, the wolfish race
Appear with belly gaunt, and famish'd face:
Never was fo deform'd a beast of
His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,
Clofe clap'd for fhame; but his rough crest he rears,
And pricks up his predeftinating ears.
His wild diforder'd walk, his haggard eyes,
Did all the beftial citizens furprize.
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 firft infefted France.
Some authors thus his pedigree will trace,
But others write him of an upftart race;
Because of Wickliff's brood no mark he brings,
But his innate antipathy to kings.
Thefe laft 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 bleft the nuptial bed.
In Ifrael fome believe him whelp'd long fince,
When the proud fanhedrim opprefs'd the prince,
Or, fince he will be Jew, derive him higher,
When Corah with his brethren did conspire
From Mofes' hand the sovereign sway to wrest,
And Aaron of his ephod to diveft:
Till opening earth made way for all to pass,
And could not bear the burden of a clafs.
The fox and he came fhuffled in the dark,
If ever they were ftow'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 redrefs'd?
With teeth untry'd, and rudiments of claws,
Your firft effay was on your native laws :
Those having torn with ease, and trampled down,
Your fangs you fasten'd on the mitred crown,
And freed from God and monarchy your town.
What though your native kennel still be small,
Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall;
Yet your victorious colonies are fent
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 firft the laft affects to be
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
As, where in fields the fairy rounds are feen,
A rank four herbage rises on the green;
So, fpringing where those midnight elves advance,
Rebellion prints the footsteps of the dance.
Such are their doctrines, fuch 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 fulfome is their food, that flocks refuse
To bite, and only dogs for phyfic use.
As, where the lightning runs along the ground,
No husbandry can heal the blasting wound;
Nor bladed grafs, nor bearded corn fucceeds,
But fcales of fcurf and putrefaction breeds :
Such wars, fuch waste, such fiery tracks of dearth
Their zeal has left, and fuch a teemless earth.
But, as the poifons of the deadliest kind
Are to their own unhappy coasts confin'd;
As only Indian fhades of fight deprive,
And magic plants will but in Colchos thrive;
So prefbytery and peftilential zeal
Can only flourish in a commonweal.
From Celtic woods is chas'd the wolfifh crew;
But ah! fome pity ev'n to brutes is due:
Their native walks methinks they might enjoy,
Curb'd of their native malice to destroy.
Of all the tyrannies on human-kind,
The worst is that which perfecutes the mind.
Let us but weigh at what offence we strike,
'Tis but because we cannot think alike.
In punishing of this, we overthrow
The laws of nations and of nature too.
Beafts are the fubjects of tyrannic sway,
Where ftill the stronger on the weaker prey.
Man only of a fofter mold is made,
Not for his fellow's ruin, but their aid:
Created kind, beneficent, and free,
The noble image of the Deity.
One portion of informing fire was given
To brutes, th' inferior family of heaven :
The smith divine, as with a careless beat,
Struck out the mute creation at a heat:
But when arriv'd at laft to human race,
The Godhead took a deep confidering space;
And to distinguish man from all the rest,
Unlock'd the facred treasures of his breast;
And mercy mixt with reason did impart,
One to his head, the other to his heart:
Reason to rule, but mercy to forgive :
The firft is law, the laft prerogative.
And like his mind his outward form appear'd,
When, iffuing naked, to the wondering herd,
He charm'd their eyes; and, for they lov'd, they fear'd:
Not arm'd with horns of arbitrary might,
Or claws to seize their furry fpoils in fight,
Orwith increase of feet t' o'ertake them in their flight:
Of easy shape, and pliant every way;
Confeffing still the softness of his clay,
And kind as kings upon their coronation-day:
With open hands, and with extended space
Of arms, to fatisfy a large embrace.
Thus kneaded up with milk, the new-made man
His kingdom o'er his kindred world began :
Till knowledge mifapply'd, mifunderstood, `
And pride of empire four'd his balmy blood.
Then, first rebelling, his own ftamp he coins;
The murderer Cain was latent in his loins:
And blood began its first and loudest cry,
For differing worship of the Deity.
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