Th' inclosure narrow'd; the fagacious power
Of hounds and death drew nearer every hour.
'Tis true, the younger lion scap'd the snare,
But all your prieftly calves lay ftruggling there;
As facrifices on their altars laid;
While you their careful mother wifely fled,
Not trufting destiny to save your head.
For whate'er promises you have apply'd
To your unfailing church, the furer fide
Is four fair legs in danger to provide.
And whate'er tales of Peter's chair you tell,
Yet, faving reverence of the miracle,
The better luck was yours to scape so well.
As I remember, faid the fober Hind,
Those toils were for your own dear felf defign'd,
As well as me; and with the felf-fame throw,
To catch the quarry and the vermin too,
Forgive the flanderous tongues that call'd you
Howe'er you take it now, the common cry
Then ran you down for your rank loyalty.
Befides, in Popery they thought you nurft,
As evil tongues will ever speak the worst,
Because fome forms, and ceremonies fome
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 explain what your forefathers meant,
By real prefence in the facrament,
After long fencing pufh'd against a wall,
Your falvo comes, that he's not there at all:
There chang'd your faith, and what may change may
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 myself infallible,
Reply'd the Panther: grant fuch prefence were,
Yet in your
fenfe I never own'd it there.
A real virtue we by faith receive,
And that we in the facrament believe.
Then faid the Hind, as you the matter state,
Not only Jefuits can equivocate;
For real, as you now the word expound,
From folid fubftance dwindles to a found.
Methinks an Æfop's fable you repeat;
You know who took the fhadow for the meat:
Your church's fubftance thus you change at will,
And yet retain your former figure ftill.
I freely grant you spoke to fave your life;
For then you lay beneath the butcher's knife.
Long time you fought, redoubled battery bore,
But, after all, against yourself you fwore;
Your former felf: for every hour your form
Is chopp'd and chang'd, like winds before a storm.
Thus fear and interest will prevail with some;
For all have not the gift of martyrdom. ·
The Panther grinn'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, fhunning long difputes, I fain would fee
That wondrous wight Infallibility.
Is he from heaven, this mighty champion, come:
Or lodg'd below in fubterranean Rome?
First, feat him fomewhere, and derive his race,
Or elfe conclude that nothing has no place.
Suppofe, though I difown it, faid the Hind,
The certain mansion were not yet affign'd:
The doubtful refidence no proof can bring
Against the plain existence of the thing.
Because philofophers may difagree,
If fight emiffion or reception be,
Shall it be thence inferr'd, I do not fee?
But you require an answer pofitive,
Which yet, when I demand, you dare not give;
For fallacies in universals live.
I then affirm that this unfailing guide
In pope and general councils muft refide;
Both lawful, both combin'd: what one decrees
By numerous votes, the other ratifies :
On this undoubted fenfe the church relies.
'Tis true, some doctors in a scantier space,
I mean, in each apart, contract the place.
Some, who to greater length extend the line,
The church's after-acceptation join.
This laft circumference appears too wide;
The church diffus'd is by the council ty'd;
As members, by their reprefentatives
Oblig'd to laws, which prince and fenate gives.
Thus fome contract, and some enlarge the space:
In pope and council who denies the place,
Affifted from above with God's unfailing grace?
Thofe canons all the needful points contain;
Their sense so obvious, and their words so plain,
That no difputes about the doubtful text
Have hitherto the labouring world perplex'd.
If any should in after-times appear,
New councils must be call'd, to make the meaning clear: Because in them the power fupreme refides;
And all the promises are to the guides.
This may be taught with found and safe defence :
But mark how fandy is your own pretence,
Who, fetting councils, pope, and church afide,
Are every man his own prefuming guide.
The facred books, you say, are full and plain,
And every needful point of truth contain:
All who can read interpreters may be:
Thus, though your feveral churches difagree,
Yet every faint has to himself alone
The fecret of this philofophic ftone.
These principles your jarring fects unite,
When differing doctors and difciples fight.
Though Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, holy chiefs,
Have made a battle-royal of beliefs;
Or like wild horfes feveral ways have whirl'd
The tortur'd text about the christian world;
Each Jehu lahing on with furious force,
That Turk or Jew could not have us'd it worse;
No matter what diffenfion leaders make,
Where every private man may fave a stake :
Rul'd by the fcripture and his own advice,
Each has a blind bye-path to Paradise ;
Where, driving in a circle flow or fast,
Oppofing fects are fure 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 Chrift and Mofes were to fave their own:
Himfelf was to fecure his chosen race,
Though reafon good for Turks to take the place,
And he allow'd to be the better man,
In virtue of his holier Alcoran.
True, faid the Panther, I shall ne'er deny My brethren may be fav'd as well as I: Though Huguenots condemn our ordination, Succeffion, ministerial vocation
And Luther, more mistaking what he read,
Misjoins the facred body with the bread :
Yet, lady, ftill remember I maintain,
The word in needful points is only plain.
Needlefs, or needful, I not now contend,
For ftill you have a loop-hole for a friend;
(Rejoin'd the matron): but the rule you lay
Has led whole flocks, and leads them ftill aftray,
In weighty points, and full damnation's way.
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