Yet to consult his dignity and fame, He should have leave to exercise the name; And hold the cards while commons play'd the game. 240 They steal not, but in squadrons scour the plain; The most have right, the wrong is in the few. 245 250 But slides between them both into the best, But thou, the pander of the people's hearts, 255 260 For all must curse the woes that must descend on all. Religion thou hast none; thy Mercury Has pass'd thro' every sect, or theirs thro' thee. But what thou givest, that venom still remains; And the pox'd nation feels thee in their brains. What else inspires the tongues and swells the breasts Of all thy bellowing renegado priests, That preach up thee for God; dispense thy laws; And with thy stum ferment their fainting cause? Fresh fumes of madness raise; and toil and sweat To make the formidable cripple great. Yet should thy crimes succeed, should lawless power Compass those ends thy greedy hopes devour, To promise heaven, or threaten us with hell. 290 And wink at crimes he did himself commit. A tyrant theirs; the heaven their priesthood paints A conventicle of gloomy sullen saints; A heaven like Bedlam, slovenly and sad; Foredoom'd for souls, with false religion mad. Without a vision poets can foreshow 285 What all but fools by common sense may know: If true succession from our isle should fail, 300 But short shall be his reign: his rigid yoke crane. 305 The cut-throat sword and clamorous gown shall jar, tend; Lords envy lords, and friends with every friend 310 315 In hate of kings shall cast anew the frame; Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli. 320 69 RELIGIO LAICI; OR, A LAYMAN'S FAITH. THE PREFACE. A POEM with so bold a title, and a name prefixed from which the handling of so serious a subject would not be expected, may reasonably oblige the author to say somewhat in defence, both of himself and of his undertaking In the first place, if it be objected to me that, being a layman, I ought not to have concerned myself with speculations, which belong to the profession of divinity, I could answer, that perhaps laymen, with equal advantages of parts and knowledge, are not the most incompetent judges of sacred things; but in the due sense of my own weakness and want of learning I plead not this; I pretend not to make myself a judge of faith in others, but only to make a confession of my own. I lay no unhallowed hand upon the ark, but wait on it, with the reverence that becomes me, at a distance. In the next place I will ingenuously confess, that the helps I have used in this small treatise were many of them taken from the works of our own reverend divines of the Church of England; so that the weapons with which I combat irreligion are already consecrated; though I suppose they may be taken down as lawfully as the sword of Goliah was by David, when they are to be employed for the common cause against the enemies of piety. I intend not by this to entitle them to any of my errors, which yet, L hope, are only those of charity to mankind; and such as my own charity has caused me to commit, that of others may more easily excuse. Being naturally inclined to scepticism |