Much less the scripture; for suppose debate
Betwixt pretenders to a fair estate,
Bequeathed by some legator's last intent;
(Such is our dying Saviour's testament:)
The will is proved, is opened, and is read,
The doubtful heirs their differing titles plead;
All vouch the words their interest to maintain,
And each pretends by those his cause is plain.
Shall then the testament award the right?
No, that's the Hungary for which they fight;
The field of battle, subject of debate;
The thing contended for, the fair estate.
The sense is intricate, 'tis only clear

What vowels and what consonants are there.
Therefore 'tis plain, its meaning must be tried
Before some judge appointed to decide.—
Suppose, the fair apostate said, I grant,
The faithful flock some living guide should want,
Your arguments an endless chace pursue:
Produce this vaunted leader to our view,
This mighty Moses of the chosen crew.—
The dame, who saw her fainting foe retired,
With force renewed, to victory aspired;
And, looking upward to her kindred sky,
As once our Saviour owned his Deity,
Pronounced his words-" She whom ye seek am
I." t

Nor less amazed this voice the Panther heard,
Than were those Jews to hear a God declared.
Then thus the matron modestly renewed:
Let all your prophets and their sects be viewed,

It is probable, that from this passage Swift took the idea of comparing the scripture to a testament in his "Tale of a Tub." + By this asseveration the author seems to infer, that, because the church of Rome avers her own infallibility, she is therefore infallible.

And see to which of them yourselves think fit
The conduct of your conscience to submit;
Each proselyte would vote his doctor best,
With absolute exclusion to the rest:
Thus would your Polish diet disagree,
And end, as it began, in anarchy;
Yourself the fairest for election stand,
Because you seem crown-general of the land;
But soon against your superstitious lawn
Some presbyterian sabre would be drawn ;
In your established laws of sovereignty
The rest some fundamental flaw would see,
And call rebellion gospel-liberty.

*

To church-decrees your articles require
Submission mollified, if not entire. †
Homage denied, to censures you proceed;
But when Curtana ‡ will not do the deed,
You lay that pointless clergy-weapon by,
And to the laws, your sword of justice, fly.
Now this your sects the more unkindly take,
(Those prying varlets hit the blots you make,)
Because some ancient friends of yours declare,
Your only rule of faith the scriptures are,
Interpreted by men of judgment sound,
Which every sect will for themselves expound;

* In a Polish Diet, where unanimity was necessary, the mode adopted of ensuring it was for the majority to hew to pieces the first individual who expressed his dissent by the fatal veto.

"The church, according to the articles of faith, hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's word written, neither may it so expound one place of scripture, that it be repugnant to another." Article

XX.

This romantic name is given to the sword of mercy; which wants a point, and is said to have been that of Edward the Confessor. It is borne at the coronation. The sword of Ogier the Dane, famous in romance, the work of Galand, who made Joyeuse and Durandal, was also called Curtana,

Nor think less reverence to their doctors due
For sound interpretation, than to you.

If then, by able heads, are understood
Your brother prophets, who reformed abroad;
Those able heads expound a wiser way,

That their own sheep their shepherd should obey.
But if you mean yourselves are only sound,
That doctrine turns the reformation round,
And all the rest are false reformers found;
Because in sundry points you stand alone,
Not in communion joined with any one;
And therefore must be all the church, or none.
Then, till you have agreed whose judge is best,
Against this forced submission they protest;
While sound and sound a different sense explains,
Both play at hardhead till they break their brains;
And from their chairs each other's force defy,
While unregarded thunders vainly fly.

I pass the rest, because your church alone
Of all usurpers best could fill the throne.
But neither you, nor any sect beside,
For this high office can be qualified,

With necessary gifts required in such a guide.
For that, which must direct the whole, must be
Bound in one bond of faith and unity;
But all your several churches disagree.
The consubstantiating church and priest
Refuse communion to the Calvinist;

The French reformed from preaching you restrain,
Because you judge their ordination vain ; †
And so they judge of yours, but donors must ordain.

The Lutherans.

+ The Huguenot preachers, being Calvinists, had received classical, and not episcopal ordination: hence, unless re-ordained, they were not admitted to preach in the established church of England.

In short, in doctrine, or in discipline,
Not one reformed can with another join;
But all from each, as from damnation, fly:
No union they pretend, but in non-popery.
Nor, should their members in a synod meet,
Could any church presume to mount the seat,
Above the rest, their discords to decide;
None would obey, but each would be the guide;
And face to face dissensions would increase,
For only distance now preserves the peace.
All in their turns accusers, and accused;
Babel was never half so much confused;
What one can plead, the rest can plead as well;
For amongst equals lies no last appeal,
And all confess themselves are fallible.
Now, since you grant some necessary guide,
All who can err are justly laid aside;
Because a trust so sacred to confer
Shows want of such a sure interpreter ;
And how can he be needful who can err?

Then, granting that unerring guide we want,
That such there is you stand obliged to grant ;
Our Saviour else were wanting to supply
Our needs, and obviate that necessity.
It then remains, that church can only be
The guide, which owns unfailing certainty;
Or else you slip your hold, and change your side,
Relapsing from a necessary guide.

But this annexed condition of the crown,

Immunity from errors, you disown;

Here then you shrink, and lay your weak pretensions down. †

For petty royalties you raise debate ;

But this unfailing universal state

You shun; nor dare succeed to such a glorious

weight;

† Note VIII.

}

}

And for that cause those promises detest,
With which our Saviour did his church invest;
But strive to evade, and fear to find them true,
As conscious they were never meant to you;
All which the mother-church asserts her own,
And with unrivalled claim ascends the throne.
So, when of old the Almighty Father sate
In council, to redeem our ruined state,
Millions of millions, at a distance round,
Silent the sacred consistory crowned,

To hear what mercy, mixt with justice, could propound;

All prompt, with eager pity, to fulfil
The full extent of their Creator's will:

But when the stern conditions were declared,
A mournful whisper through the host was heard,
And the whole hierarchy, with heads hung down,
Submissively declined the ponderous proffer'd crown.
Then, not till then, the Eternal Son from high
Rose in the strength of all the Deity;

Stood forth to accept the terms, and underwent
A weight which all the frame of heaven had bent,
Nor he himself could bear, but as Omnipotent.
Now, to remove the least remaining doubt,
That even the blear-eyed sects may find her out,
Behold what heavenly rays adorn her brows,
What from his wardrobe her beloved allows,
To deck the wedding-day of his unspotted spouse!*
Behold what marks of majesty she brings,
Richer than ancient heirs of eastern kings!
Her right hand holds the sceptre and the keys,
To show whom she commands, and who obeys;
With these to bind, or set the sinner free,
With that to assert spiritual royalty.