Religio Laici.]

Weave such agreeing truths? or how, or why, Should all conspire to cheat us with a lye;" Unask'd their pains, ungrateful their advice, Starving their gain, and martyrdom their price.

If on the book itself we cast our view,
Concurrent heathens prove the story true;
The doctrine, miracles; which must convince;
For heaven in them appeals to human sense;
And tho' they prove not, they confirm the
cause,

When what is taught agrees with nature's laws.
Then for the style, majestic and divine,
It speaks no less than God in ev'ry line ;
Commanding words; whose force is still the

same

As the first fiat that produc'd our frame.
All faiths beside or did by arms ascend,
Or since indulg'd has made mankind theirfriend,
This only doctrine does our lusts oppose,
Unfed by nature's soil, in which it grows;
Cross to our int'rests, curbing sense and sin :
Oppress'd without, and undermin'd within,
It thrives thro' pain; its own tormentors tires;
And with a stubborn patience still aspires.
To what can reason such effects assign
Transcending nature, but to laws divine;
Which in that sacred volume are contain'd;
Sufficient, clear, and for that use ordain'd?

But stay, the Deist here will urge anew, No supernat❜ral worship can be true; Because a gen'ral law is that alone Which must to all, and ev'ry where be known : A style so large as not this book can claim, Nor aught that bears reveal'd religion's name. 'Tis said, the sound of a Messiah's birth Is gone thro' all the habitable earth; But still that text must be confin'd alone To what was then inhabited and known: And what provisions could from thence accrue To Indian souls, and worlds discover'd new? In other parts it helps, that ages past, The Scriptures there were known, and were embrac'd

[DRYDEN. 191

Who knows what reasons may his mercy lead;
Or ignorance invincible may plead?
Not only charity bids hope the best,

•

But more the great apostle has express'd :
"That if the Gentiles, whom uo law inspir'd,
By nature did what was by la requir'd,
They, who the written rule had never known,
Were to themselves both rule and law alone:
To nature's plain indictment they shall plead;
And by their conscience be condemn'd or
freed."

sense

Has hid the secret paths of Providence :
But boundless wisdom, boundless mercy, may
Find, ev'n for those bewilder'd souls, a way;
If from his nature foes may pity claim,
Much more may strangers who ne'er heard his

name.

And though no name be for salvation known,
But that of his eternal Son's alone;
Who knows how far transcending goodness can
Extend the merits of that Son to man?

Most righteous doom! because a rule reveal'd Is none to those from whom it was conceal'd. Then those who follow'd reason's dictates

right

Liv'd up, and lifted high their natʼral light; With Socrates may see their Maker's face, While thousand rubric-martyrs want a place.

Nor does it baulk my charity to find Th' Egyptian bishop of another mind; For though his creed eternal truth contains, 'Tis hard for man to doom to endless pains All who believ'd not all his zeal requir'd; Unless he first could prove he was inspir'd. Then let us either think he meant to say, This faith, where publish'd, was the only way; Or else conclude that, Arius to confute, The good old man, too eager in dispute, Flew high; and as his Christian fury rose Damn'd all for heretics who durst oppose.

Thus far my charity this path has tried; A much unskilful, but well-meaning guide: Yet what they are, e'en these crude thoughts were bred,

By reading that which better thou had read. Thy matchless author's work; which thou my friend,

By well translating better dost commend; Those youthful hours which of thy equals

most

In toys have squander'd, or in vice have lost;
Those hours hast thou to nobler use employ'd,
And the severe delights of truth enjoy'd.
Witness this weighty book, in which appears
The crabbed toil of many thoughtful years,
Spent by thy author, in the sifting care
Of rabbins old sophisticated ware
From gold divine; which he who well can sort
May afterwards make algebra a sport.
A treasure, which if country curates buy,
They Junius and Tremellius may defy;
Save pains in various readings and translations;
And without Hebrew make most learn'd quo-
tations.

A work so full with various learning fraught, So nicely ponder'd, yet so strongly wrought, As nature's height and art's last hand re

quir'd,

As much as man could compass, uninspir'd:

Where we may see what errors have been made Both in the copyer's and translator's trade; How Jewish, Popish int'rests have prevail'd, And where infallibility has fail'd.

For some, who have his secret meaning guess'd,

Have found our author not too much a priest :
For fashion's sake he seems to have recourse
To Pope, and councils, and tradition's force:
But he that old traditions could subdue,
Could not but find the weakness of the new :
If Scripture, tho' deriv'd from heav'nly birth,
Has been but carelessly preserv'd on earth;
If God's own people, who of God before
Knew what we know, and had been promis'd

more

In fuller terms of heav'n' assisting care,
And who did neither time nor study spare,
To keep this book untainted, unperplex'd,
Let in gross errors to corrupt the text,
Omitted paragraphs, embroil'd the sense,
With vaiu traditions stopt the gaping fence,
Which ev'ry common hand pull'd up with ease,
What safety from such brushwood-helps as
these?

If written words from time are not secur'd, How can we think have oral sounds endur'd? Which thus transmitted, if one mouth bas fail'd,

Immortal lyes on ages are entail'd: And that some such have been, is prov'd too plain,

If we consider int'rest, church, and gain.

O but, says one, tradition set aside, Where can we hope for an unerring guide? For since th' original Scripture has been lost, All copies disagreeing, maim'd the most, Or Christian faith can have uo certain ground, Or truth in church tradition must be found.

Such an omniscient church we wish indeed; 'Twere worth both Testaments; cast in the creed:

If others in the same glass better see,
'Tis for themselves they look, but not for me:
For my salvation must its doom receive,
Not from what others, but what I believe.

Must all tradition then be set aside?
This to affirm, were ignorance and pride.
Are there not many points, some needful sure
To saving faith, that Scripture leaves obscure?
Which ev'ry sect will wrest a sev'ral way;
For what one sect interprets all sects may:
We hold, and say we prove from Scripture
plain,

That Christ is God; the bold Socinian From the same Scripture urges he's but man. Now what appeal can end th’important suit? Both parts talk loudly, but the rule is mute.

Shall I speak plain, and in a nation free
Assume an honest layman's liberty?
I think, according to my little skill,
To my own mother church submitting still,
That many have been saved, and many may,
Who never heard this question brought in
play.

Th' unletter'd Christian, who believes in gross,
Plods on to heav'n, and ne'er is at a loss:
For the strait gate would be made straiter yet,
Were none admitted there but men of wit.
The few by nature form'd, with learning
fraught,

But if this mother be a guide so sure
As can all doubts resolve, and truth secure,
Then her infallibility, as well
Where copies are corrupt or fame, can tell;
Restore lost canons with as little paius,
As truly explicate what still remains :
Which yet no council dare pretend to do;
Unless, like Esdras, they could write it new:
Strange confidence still to interpret true,
Yet not be sure that all they have explain'd
Is in the blest original contain'd.
More safe, and much more modest, 'tis to say,
God would not leave mankind without a way:
And that the scriptures, tho' not ev'ry where
Free from corruption, or entire or clear,
Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, entire,
In all things which our needful faith require.

Born to instruct, as others to be taught, Must study well the sacred page; and see Which doctrine, this or that, does best agree With the whole tenor of the work divine, And plainliest points to Heaven's reveal'd design?

Which exposition flows from genuine sense,
And which is forc'd by wit and eloquence,
Not that tradition's parts are useless here;
When gen`ral, old, disiut'rested, and clear;
That ancient fathers thus expound the page.
Gives truth the reverend majesty of age;
Confirms its force by 'biding ev'ry test;
For best authorities next rules are best.
And still the nearer to the spring we go,
More limpid, more unsoil'd, the waters flow.
Thus first traditions were a proof alone;
Could we be certain, such they were, so known
But since some flaws in long descent may be,
They make not truth but probability.
E'en Arius and Pelagius durst provoke
To what the centuries preceding spoke.
Such difference is there in an oft-told tale:
But truth by its own sinews will prevail.
Tradition written therefore more commends
Authority, than what from voice descends:
And this as perfect as its kind can be,
Rells down to us the sacred history:
Which from the universal church receiv'd,
Is tried, and after for itself believ'd.