1020

I pass the reft, because your Church alone
Of all ufurpers beft could fill the throne.
But neither you, nor any feet befide,
For this high office can be qualify'd,
With neceffary gifts requir'd in fuch a guide.
For that, which muft direct the whole, must be
Bound in one bond of faith and unity:
But all your feveral Churches disagree. 1025)
The confubftantiating Church and priest
Refuse communion to the Calvinist :

The French reform'd from preaching you reftrain,

Because you judge their ordination vain ; And fo they judge of yours, but donors must ordain.

1030

In fhort, in doctrine, or in difcipline,
Not one reform'd can with another join:
But all from each, as from damnation, fly;
No union they pretend, but in Non-Popery.
Nor, fhould their members in a fynod meet,
Could any Church presume to mount the feat,
Above the reft, their difcords to decide;
None would obey, but each would be the
guide:

And face to face diffentions would increafe;
For only distance now preferves the peace.
All in their turns accufers, and accus'd:
Babel was never half fo much confus'd:

1037

1041

1045

What one can plead, the reft can plead as well;
For amongst equals lies no laft appeal,
And all confefs themselves are fallible.
Now fince you grant fome neceffary guide,
All who can err are justly laid afide :
Becaufe 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, 1051
That fuch there is you ftand oblig'd to grant:
Our Saviour else were wanting to supply
Our needs, and obviate that neceffity.

}

It then remains, that Church can only be 1055
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;

1060

Here then you shrink, and lay your weak pretences down.

Ver. 1056. unfailing certainty ;] Our author's humanity would not fuffer him, in his general defence of popery, to juftify the abominable inftitution of the Inquifition. In the cathedral church of Saragoffa, there is a tomb of a famous inquifitor. Six very magnificent columns ftand on his tomb, and to each of these columns is a Moor chained, ready to be burned. A fit model for the maufoleum of any hangman that died rich. How much are the fine tragedies of Polieucte and Athaliah blemished by strokes of the moft intemperate zeal, and abfurd fuperftition, and abhorrence of heretics. "Does the daughter of David," fays Joab to Jofabet, "fpeak to this priest of Baal? Are you not afraid left the earth fhould inftantly open, and pour out flames to devour you both? Or that thefe holy walls thould fuddenly fall, and crush you together?" Dr. J. WARTON.

For petty royalties you raise debate ;

But this unfailing univerfal ftate

You fhun; nor dare fucceed to fuch a glorious weight;

And for that cause those promises deteft,

1065

With which our Saviour did his Church in

veft;

But ftrive to 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 unrivall'd claim afcends the throne.
So when of old the almighty Father fate
In council, to redeem our ruin'd state,

1071

Ver. 1071. So when of old] The following next fixteen lines are perhaps the moft fplendid and fublime our author ever wrote. But the idea of them is manifeftly taken from Milton, Book iii. where God is reprefented fitting on his throne, furrounded by all the fanctities of heaven, and speaking thus of the fate of Adam juft after his fall :-

Die he, or Justice muft, unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid fatisfaction, death for death.

Say, heavenly Powers; where fhall we find fuch love?
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem

Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save ?

Dwells in all Heaven charity fo dear?

He afk'd, but all the heav'nly quire ftood mute,
And filence was in Heaven: on Man's behalf
Patron or interceffor none appear'd,

Much less that durft upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ranfome fet.
And now without redemption all mankind

Muft have been loft, adjudg'd to Death and Hell
By doom fevere, had not the Son of God,
In whom the fuluefs dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renew'd:
Father, thy word is past, Man fhall find grace;

Millions of millions, at a distance round,
Silent the facred confiftory crown'd,

To hear what mercy, mixt with justice, could. propound:

All prompt, with eager pity, to fulfil

The full extent of their Creator's will.

1075

But when the ftern conditions were declar'd, A mournful whisper through the hoft was heard, And the whole hierarchy, with heads hung down,

1080

Submiffively declin'd the ponderous proffer'd

crown.

And shall grace not find means, that finds her way
The speedieft of thy winged meffengers,

To vifit all thy creatures, and to all

Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unfought?
Happy for man, fo coming; he her aid
Can never feek, once dead in fins and loft;
Atonement for himself or offering meet,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring:
Behold me then; me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall; ..
Account me Man ;-

Butler, in his Analogy, a book which every rational Chriftian fhould read and meditate upon day and night, has, with the deepest penetration and acutenefs, exhaufted all the arguments that can be urged for the doctrine of redemption, of mediatorship, and vicarious punishment. Dr. J. WARTON.

Ver. 1078. But when the ftern conditions were declar'd,
A mournful whisper through the hoft was heard,
And the whole hierarchy, with heads hung down,
Submiffively declin'd the ponderous proffer'd crown.
Then, not till then, &c. &c.]

This is an imitation, but a very feeble one, of Milton's impreffive defcription, Par. Loft, iii, 216.

Dwells in all heaven charity fo dear?

He afk'd, but all the heavenly quire ftood mute,
And filence was in Heaven: on Man's behalf
Patron or interceffor none appear'd, &c.

TODD.

Then, not till then, the eternal Son from high Rofe in the ftrength of all the Deity;

Stood forth to accept the terms, and under

Now, to remove the leaft remaining doubt,
That e'en 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 unspotted

spouse.

1091

Behold what marks of majefty fhe brings;
Richer than ancient heirs of eaftern kings:
Her right hand holds the sceptre and the keys,
To shew whom she commands, and who obeys:
With these to bind, or fet the finner free, 1096
With that to affert spiritual royalty.

*One in herself, not rent by fchifm, but found, Entire, one folid fhining diamond;

Not sparkles shatter'd into fects like you: 1100 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, so one in fanctity.

}

Marks of the Catholic Church from the Nicene Creed.

Original edition.