As earthly glory, fame, refpect and fhow,
As all rewards their virtue found below!
Alas! Religion proper means prepares,
These means are ours, and muft its End be theirs?
And shall thy Father's spirit meet the fight
Of Heathen Sages cloath'd in heavenly light,
Whose Merit of strict life, feverely fuited
To Reason's dictates, may be faith imputed ?
Whilft thou, to whom he taught the nearer road,
Art ever banish'd from the blefs'd abode.
Oh! if thy temper fuch a fear can find,
This fear were valour of the nobleft kind.
Dar'ft thou provoke, when rebel fouls aspire,
Thy Maker's Vengeance, and thy Monarch's Ire?
Or live entomb'd in fhips, thy leader's prey,
Spoil of the war, the famine, or the fea?
In fearch of pearl, in depth of ocean breathe,
Or live, exil'd the fun, in mines beneath?
Or, where in tempefts icy mountains roll,
Attempt a paffage by the Northern Pole?
Or dar'ft thou parch within the fires of Spain,
Or burn beneath the line, for Indian gain?
Or for fome Idol of thy fancy draw,
Some loose-gown'd dame; O courage made of straw!
Thus, defp'rate Coward! would'ft thou bold
appear,
Yet when thy God has plac'd thee Centry here,
To thy own foes, to bis, ignobly yield,
And leave, for wars forbid, the appointed field?
Know thy own foes; th' Apoftate Angel, he
You ftrive to please, the foremost of the Three;
Thee fain his whole Realm to be quit; and ́as
The worlds all parts wither away and pass,
So the worlds felf, thy other lov'd foe, is
In her decrepit wane, thou loving this,
Doft love a withered and worn strumpet ; laft,
Flefb (it felf's death) and joyes which fefe can taft,
Thou lov'ft; and thy fair goodly foul which doth
Give this flefb power to taft joy, thou doft loath.
Seek true Religion, O where? Mirreus
Thinking her unbous'd here, and fled from us,
Seeks her at Rome; there, because he doth know
That she was there a thousand years agoe,
He loves the raggs fo, as we bere obey
The State-cloth where the Prince fate yesterday.
Grants to fuch brave Loves will not be inthral'd, But loves her only, who at Geneva is call'd Religion, plain, fimple, fullen, young, Contemptuous yet unbandsome: As among Lecherous humours, there is one that judges No wenches wholesome, but coarse country drudges. Grajus ftayes fill at home here, and because Some Preachers, vile ambitious bawds, and Laws Still new like fashions, bids him think that she Which dwells with us, is only perfect, he
He makes the pleafures of his realm the bait,
But can be give for Love, that acts in Hate ?
The World's thy fecond Love, thy fecond Foe,
The World, whofe beauties perifh as they blow,
They fly, fhe fades herself, and at the best
You grafp a wither'd ftrumpet to your breast.
The Fleb is next, which in fruition wafts,
High flush'd with all the fenfual joys it tafts,
While men the fair, the goodly Soul destroy,
From whence the fleb has pow'r to tast a joy.
Seek thou Religion, primitively found
Well, gentle friend, but where may fhe be found?
By Faith Implicite blind Ignaro led,
Thinks the bright Seraph from his Country fled,
And feeks her feat at Rome, because we know
She there was feen a thousand years ago ;
And loves her Relick rags, as men obey
The foot-Cloth where the Prince fat yesterday.
These pageant Forms are whining Obed's fcorn,
Who feeks Religion at Geneva born,
A fullen thing, whofe coarsness fuits the croud,
Tho' young, unhandsome; tho' unhandsome, proud:
Thus, with the wanton, fome perverfely judge 65
All girls unhealthy but the Country drudge.
No foreign schemes make eafy Capio roam,
The man contented takes his Church at home;
Nay should fome Preachers, fervile bawds of gain,
Shou'd fome new Laws, which like new-fashions reign,
Imbraceth her, whom his Godfathers will
Tender'd to bim, being tender; as Wards ftill
Take fuch wives as their Guardians offer, or
Pay valews. Careless Phrygius doth abborr
All, because all cannot be good; as one
Knowing fome women whores, dares marry none.
Gracchus loves all as one, and thinks that fo ́
As women do in divers Countries go
In divers babits, yet are ftill one kind;
So doth, fo is Religion; and this blind
nefs too much light breeds. But unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forc'd but one allow;
And the right; ask thy Father which is she.
Let him ask bis. Though truth and falfbood be
Near twins, yet truth a little elder is.
Be bufie to feek her; believe me this,
Command his faith to count Salvation ty'd
To vifit his, and vifit none befide,
grants Salvation centers in his own, And grants it centers but in his alone:
From youth to age he grafps the proffer'd dame,
And they confer his Faith, who give his Name:
So from the Guardian's hands, the Wards who live
Enthral'd to Guardians, take the wives they give.
From all profeffions careless Airy flies,
For, all profeffions can't be good, he cries,
And here a fault, and there another views,
And lives unfix'd for want of heart to chufe:
So men, who know what fome loose girls have done,
For fear of marrying fuch, will marry none.
The Charms of all, obfequious Courtly ftrike; 85 On each he doats, on each attends alike; And thinks, as diff'rent countrys deck the dame, The dreffes altering, yet the fex the fame ; So fares Religion, chang'd in outward show, But 'tis Religion ftill, where'er we go: This blindness springs from an excess of light, And men embrace the wrong to chufe the right. But thou of force must one Religion own, And only one, and that the Right alone. To find that Right one, ask thy Reverend Sire; Let him of his, and him of his enquire; Tho' Truth and Falfhood feem as twins ally'd, There's Eldership on Trutb's delightful fide, K
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