Cross to our interests, curblng 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 ought 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 provision 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,
Till sin spread once again the shades of night:
What's that to these who never saw the light?
Of all objections this indeed is chief
To startle reason, stagger frail belief.
We grant is true that Heav'n from human 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 tho' no name be for salvation known
But that of his eternal Son alone,
Who knows how far transcending goodness can
Extend the merits of that Son to man?
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 exprest;
That, "if the Gentiles (whom no law inspir'd) 200
By nature did what was by law 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."
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 her natʼral light;
With Socrates may see their Maker's face,
While thousand rubric martyrs want a place.
Nor doth it baulk my charity to find
Th' Egyptian bishop of another mind:
For tho' 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 hath try'd, (A much unskilful, but well-meaning guide) Yet what they are, e'en those crude thoughts were bred By reading that which better thou hast read,
Thy matchless author's work; which thou, my friend,
By well translating better dost commend:
Those youthful hours, which of thy equals most 230
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 apears
The crabbed toil of many thoughtful years,
Spent by thy author in the sifting care
Of Rabins' 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 quotations:
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 requir'd:
As much as man could compass uninspir'd;
Where we may see what errors have been made
Both in the copiers' and translators' trade;
How Jewish, Popish int'rests have prevail'd,
And where the infallibility has fail'd.
For some, who have his secret meaning guess'd,
Have found our author not too much a priest:
For fashion-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's assisting care,
And who did neither time, nor study spare
To keep this Book untainted, unperplext,
Let in gross errors to corrupt the text,
Omitted paragraphs, embroil'd the sense,
With vain traditions stopp'd 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 t' have oral sounds endur'd?
Which thus transmitted if one mouth has fail'd,
Immortal lies on ages are entail'd;
And that some such have been, is prov'd too plain,
If we consider int'rest, church, and gain.
Oh but, says one, tradition set aside,
Where can we hope for an unnerring guide?
For, since th' original Scripture has been lost,
All copies disagreeing, maim'd the most,
Or Christian faith can have no 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;
But if this mother be a guide so sure
As can all doubts resolve, all truths secure,
Then her infallibility as well,
Where copies are corrupt, or lame, can tell;
Restore lost canon with as little pains
As truly explicate what still remains;
Which yet no council can 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 bless'd 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,
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