Because a truft fo facred to confer
Shews want of fuch a fure interpreter ;
And how can he be needful who can err?
Then granting that unerring guide we want,
That fuch there is you ftand oblig'd to grant :
Our Saviour else were wanting, to fupply
Our needs, and obviate that neceffity.
It then remains, that church can only be
The guide, which owns unfailing certainty ;
Or else you flip your hold, and change your fide,
Relapfing from a neceffary guide.
But this annex'd condition of the crown,
Immunity from errors, you difown;
Here then you shrink, and lay your weak pretensions down.
For petty royalties you raise debate;
But this unfailing univerfal state
You fhun; nor dare fucceed to fuch a glorious weight;
And for that cause those promises deteft,
With which our Saviour did his church invest;
But strive t' evade, and fear to find them true,
As confcious they were never meant to you:
All which the mother church afferts her own,
And with unrival'd claim ascends the throne.
So when of old th' almighty Father fate
In council, to redeem our ruin'd state,
Millions of millions, at a distance round,
Silent the facred confiftory crown'd,
To hear what mercy, mixt with juftice, could pro
All prompt with eager pity, to fulfil
The full extent of their Creator's will.
But when the stern conditions were declar'd,
A mournful whisper through the host was heard,
And the whole hierarchy, with heads hung down,
Submiffively declin'd the ponderous proffer'd crown.
Then, not till then, th' eternal Son from high
Rofe in the strength of all the Deity;
Stood forth t' accept the terms, and underwent
A weight which all the frame of heaven had bent,
Nor he himself could bear, but as Omnipotent.
Now, to remove the least remaining doubt,
That ev'n the blear-ey'd fects may find her out,
Behold what heavenly rays adorn her brows,
What from his wardrobe her Belov'd allows
To deck the wedding-day of his unfpotted spouse.
Behold what marks of majesty she brings;
Richer than ancient heirs of eastern kings:
Her right hand holds the fceptre and the keys,
To fhew whom the commands, and who obeys:
With these to bind, or fet the finner free,
With that to affert spiritual royalty.
One in herself, not rent by schism, but sound,
Entire, one folid shining diamond;
Not sparkles shatter'd into fects like you:
One is the church, and must be to be true:
One central principle of unity,
As undivided, fo from errors free,
As one in faith, fo one in fanctity.
Thus fhe, and none but she, th' infulting råge
Of heretics oppos'd from age to age:
Still when the giant-brood invades her throne,
She ftoops from heaven, and meets them half way down,
And with paternal thunder vindicates her crown.
But like Egyptian forcerers you stand,
And vainly lift aloft your magic wand,
To sweep away the fwarms of vermin from the land :
You could like them, with like infernal force,
Produce the plague, but not arreft the course.
But when the boils and blotches, with disgrace
And public scandal, fat upon the face,
Themselves attack'd, the Magi ftrove no more,
They faw God's finger, and their fate deplore;
Themselves they could not cure of the difhoneft fore.
Thus one, thus pure, behold her largely spread,
Like the fair ocean from her mother-bed;
From east to weft triumphantly she rides,
All fhores are water'd by her wealthy tides.
The gospel-found, diffus'd from pole to pole,
Where winds can carry, and where waves can roll,
The felf-fame doctrine of the facred page
Convey'd to every clime, in every age.
Here let my forrow give my fatire place,
To raise new blushes on my British race;
Our failing ships like common-fewers we use,
And through our diftant colonies diffuse
The draught of dungeons, and the stench of stews.
Whom, when their home-bred honesty is loft,
We difembogue on fome far Indian coast:
Thieves, pandars, paillards, fins of every fort;
Thofe are the manufactures we export;
And these the miffioners our zeal has made :
For, with my country's pardon be it said,
Religion is the least of all our trade.
Yet fome improve their traffic more than we;
For they on gain, their only god, rely,
And fet a public price on piety.
Industrious of the needle and the chart,
They run full fail to their Japonian mart;
Prevention fear, and, prodigal of fame,
Sell all of Chriftian to the very name;
Nor leave enough of that, to hide their naked shame.
Thus, of three marks, which in the creed we view,
Not one of all can be apply'd to you :
Much lefs the fourth; in vain, alas! you feek
Th' ambitious title of apoftolic:
God-like defcent! 'tis well your blood can be
Prov'd noble in the third or fourth degree :
For all of ancient that you had before,
(I mean what is not borrow'd from our store)
Was error fulminated o'er and o'er;
Old herefies condemn'd in ages past,
By care and time recover'd from the blast.
'Tis faid with ease, but never can be prov'd,
The church her old foundations has remov'd,
And built new doctrines on unftable fands:
[ftands. Judge that, ye winds and rains: you prov'd her, yet she Those ancient doctrines charg'd on her for new,
Shew, when, and how, and from what hands they grew.
We claim no power, when herefies grow bold,
To coin new faith, but ftill declare the old.
How else could that obscene disease be purg'd,
When controverted texts are vainly urg'd?
Το prove tradition new, there's fomewhat more
Requir'd, than faying, 'twas not us'd before.
Those monumental arms are never stirr'd,
Till schism or herefy call down Goliah's sword.
Thus, what you call corruptions, are, in truth,
The first plantations of the gofpel's youth;
Old standard faith: but caft your eyes again,
And view thofe errors which new fects maintain,
Or which of old disturb'd the church's peaceful
And we can point each period of the time,
When they began, and who begot the crime;
Can calculate how long th' eclipfe endur'd,
Who interpos'd, what digits were obscur'd ;
Of all which are already pass'd away,
We know the rife, the progress, and decay.
Despair at our foundations then to strike,
Till you can prove your faith apoftolic;
A limpid ftream drawn from the native fource;
Succeffion lawful in a lineal course.
Prove any church, oppos'd to this our head,
So one, fo pure, fo unconfin'dly fpread,
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