Not sparkles, shatter'd into sects like you :
One is the church, and must be, to be true:
One central principle of unity;
As undivided, so from errors free;
As one in faith, so one in sanctity.
Thus she, and none but she, th' insulting rage
Of heretics oppos'd from age to age:
Still, when the giant-brood invades her throne, She stoops from heav'n, and meets them half way down,
And, with paternal thunder, vindicates her crown.
But, like Egyptian sorcerers you stand,
And vainly lift aloft your magic wand,
To sweep away the swarms of vermin, from the
540 You could like them, with like infernal force, Produce the plague, but not arrest the course. But when the boils and blotches (with disgrace And public scandal sat upon the face,)
Themselves attack'd, the magi strove no more; They saw Gcd's finger, and their fate deplore; Themselves they could not cure of the dishonest
This one, thus pure, behold her largely spread,
Like the fair ocean from her mother-bed:
From east to west triumphantly she rides;
All shores are water'd by her wealthy tides,
The Gospel-sound, diffus'd from pole to pole,
Where winds can carry, and where waves can roll;
The self-same doctrine of the sacred page,
Convey'd to ev'ry clime in ev'ry age.
Here let my sorrow give my satire place,
To raise new blushes on my British race;
Our sailing ships like common sewers we use,
And through our distant colonies diffuse 559
The draught of dungeons, and the stench of stews:
Whom, when their home-bred honesty is lost,
We disembogue on some far Indian coast.
Thieves, panders, paillards, sins of ev'ry sort,
Those are the manufactures we export;
And these the missioners our zeal has made :
For, with my country's pardon, be it said,
Religion is the least of all our trade.
Yet some improve their traffic more than we; For they on gain, their only god, rely, And set a public price on piety. Industrious of the needle and the chart, They run full sail to their Japonian mart: Prevention fear; and, prodigal of fame, Sell all of Christian to the very name; Norleave enough of that, tohide their naked shame. Thus, of three marks, which in the creed we view,
Not one of all can be apply'd to you;
Much less the fourth: in vain, alas! you seek
Th' ambitious title of Apostolic:
Godlike descent! '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 heresies, condemn'd in ages past,
By care and time recover'd from the blast.
'Tis said with ease, but never can be prov❜d, 590
The church her old foundations has remov'd,
And built new doctrines on unstable stands :
Judge that, ye Winds and Rains: you prov'd her,
yet she stands.
590
Those ancient doctrines charg'd on her for new,
Shew when, and how, and from what hands theygrew.
We claim no pow'r, when heresies grow bold,
To coin new faith, but still declare the old;
How else could that obscene disease be purg'd,
When controverted texts are vainly urg'd?
To prove tradition new, there's somewhat more
Requir'd than saying, 'twas not used before.
Those monumental arms are never stirr'd, 599
Till schism or heresy, call down Goliah's sword.
Thus, what you call corruptions, are, in truth,
The first plantations of the Gospel's youth;
Old standard faith: but cast your eyes again,
And view those errors which new sects maintain,
Or which of old disturb'd the church's peaceful
reign:
And we can point each period of the time
When they began, and who begot the crime;
Can calculate how long th' eclipse endur'd,
Who interpos'd, what digits were obscur'd:
Of all which are already pass'd away,
We know the rise, the progress, and decay.
Despair at our foundations then to strike, Till you can prove your faith apostolic ; A limpid stream drawn from the native source; Succession lawful in a lineal course. Prove any Church, oppos'd to this our head, So one, so pure, so unconfin'dly spread, Under one chief of the spiritual state,
The members all combin'd, and all subordinate:
Shew such a seamless coat, from schism so free,
In no communion join'd with heresy.
If such a one you find, let truth prevail;
Till when, your weights will in the balance fail;
A church unprincipled kicks up the scale.
But if you cannot think (nor sure you can Suppose in God what were unjust in man) That he, the fountain of eternal grace, Should suffer falsehood, for so long a space, To banish truth, and to usurp a place; That sev'n successive ages should be lost, And preach damnation at their proper cost; That all your erring ancestors should die, Drow'd in th' abyss of deep idolatry: If piety forbid such thoughts to rise,— Awake, and open your unwilling eyes: God hath left nothing for each age undone, From this, to that wherein he sent his Son: Then think but well of him, and half your work (
See how his church-adorn'd with ev'ry grace,
With open arms, a kind forgiving face-
Stands readyto prevent her long-lost son'sembrace.
No more did Joseph o'er his brethren weep,
Nor less himself could from discov'ry keep,
When in the crowd of suppliants they were seen,
And in their crew his best-beloved Benjamin.
That pious Joseph, in the church behold,
To feed your famine, and refuse your gold: 647
The Joseph you exil'd, the Joseph whom you sold. J
Thus, while with heav'nly charity she spoke,
A streaming blaze (the silent shadows broke,)
Shot from the skies, a cheerful azure light;
The birds obscene to forests wing'd their flight;
And gaping graves receiv'd the wand'ring guilty
spright.
Such were the pleasing triumphs of the sky
For James's late nocturnal victory;
The pledge of his almighty patron's love,
The fireworks which his angels made above.
I saw myself, the lambent easy light
Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night;
The
messenger with speed the tidings bore;
News which three lab'ring nations did restore;
But Heav'n's own nuncius was arriv'd before.
By this, the Hind had reach'd her lonely cell, And vapours rose, and dews unwholesome fell: When, she, by frequent observation wise,
As one who long on heav'n had fix'd her eyes, Discern'd a change of weather in the skies. 667
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