66

"No matter what dissension leaders make,
"Where every private man may save a stake:
"Ruled by the Scripture and his own advice,
"Each has a blind by-path to Paradise,
"Where driving in a circle slow or fast
Opposing sects are sure to meet at last.
"A wondrous charity you have in store
"For all reformed to pass the narrow door,
"So much, that Mahomet had scarcely more.
"For he, kind prophet, was for damning none,
"But Christ and Moses were to save their own;
"Himself was to secure his chosen race,

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"Yet, lady, still remember I maintain
"The Word in needful points is only plain."
"Needless or needful I not now contend,
"For still you have a loophole for a friend,"
Rejoined the matron; "but the rule you lay

Though reason good for Turks to take the place, "And he allowed to be the better man

135

"In virtue of his holier Alcoran."

"True," said the Panther, "I shall ne'er deny
My brethren may be saved as well as I :

Though Huguenots contemn our ordination,
Succession, ministerial vocation,

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145

"Has led whole flocks and leads them still astray

"In weighty points, and full damnation's way.

"For did not Arius first, Socinus now

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"The Son's eternal Godhead disavow?

"And did not these by gospel texts alone

"Condemn our doctrine and maintain their own?

"Have not all heretics the same pretence,
"To plead the Scriptures in their own defence?
"How did the Nicene Council then decide

155

"That strong debate? was it by Scriptures tried?
"No, sure to those the rebel would not yield ;†

"Where piles with piles, and eagles eagles met.+

"With texts point-blank and plain he faced the foc :

"And did not Satan tempt our Saviour so?

"The good old bishops took a simpler way;
"Each asked but what he heard his father say,

165

* Luther's doctrine of consubstantiation.

Those in this line was changed by Broughton to that, probably because Scripture is in the preceding line in Dryden's carly editions.

But the same editions have Scriptures in line 155. The lesser change is to print Scriptures also in line 157, as is done in this edition. The omission of an s at the end of a word is a very common error. Subsequent editors, including Scott, have followed Broughton.

"Infestisque obvia signis

Signa, pares aquilas, et pila minantia pilis."

R

LUCAN, Pharsalia, iii. 7.

"Or how he was instructed in his youth,

"And by tradition's force upheld the truth."

The Panther smiled at this, and "when," said she, "Were those first Councils disallowed by me? "Or where did I at sure tradition strike,

"Provided still it were apostolic?"

170

"Friend," said the Hind, "you quit your former ground, "Where all your faith you did on Scripture found : "Now, 'tis tradition joined with Holy Writ; "But thus your memory betrays your wit."

64 No," said the Panther, "for in that I view

"When your tradition's forged, and when 'tis true.
"I set them by the rule, and as they square
"Or deviate from undoubted doctrine there,
"This oral fiction, that old faith declare."

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180

(Hind.) "The Council steered, it seems, a different course;

Nor dare on one foundation to rely.

They tried the Scripture by tradition's force;

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"The Word is then deposed, and in this view
"You rule the Scripture, not the Scripture you."

Thus said the dame, and, smiling, thus pursued : "I see tradition then is disallowed,

"When not evinced by Scripture to be true,

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"And Scripture as interpreted by you.

"But here you tread upon unfaithful ground,

"Unless you could infallibly expound;

"Which you reject as odious Popery,

"And throw that doctrine back with scorn on me.

195

Suppose we on things traditive divide,

"And both appeal to Scripture to decide;

"By various texts we both uphold our claim,

Nay, often ground our titles on the same :

"After long labour lost and time's expense,

"Both grant the words and quarrel for the sense.
"Thus all disputes for ever must depend,
"For no dumb rule can controversies end.

Thus, when you said tradition must be tried

By Sacred Writ, whose sense your selves decide,
"You said no more but that your selves must be
"The judges of the Scripture sense, not we.
Against our Church-tradition you declare,
"And yet your clerks would sit in Moses' chair;
"At least 'tis proved against your argument,
"The rule is far from plain, where all dissent.

"If not by Scriptures, how can we be sure,'
Replied the Panther, "what tradition's pure?
"For you may palm upon us new for old;
"All, as they say, that glitters is not gold."

"How but by following her," replied the dame, "To whom derived from sire to son they came;

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205

210

215

"Where every age does on another move,
"And trusts no farther than the next above;
"Where all the rounds like Jacob's ladder rise,
"The lowest hid in earth, the topmost in the skies?"
Sternly the savage did her answer mark,
Her glowing eye-balls glittering in the dark,
And said but this :-"Since lucre was your trade,
Succeeding times such dreadful gaps have made,
""Tis dangerous climbing: to your sons and you
"I leave the ladder, and its omen too."

66

220

225

(Hind.) “The Panther's breath was ever famed for sweet,+

"But from the Wolf such wishes oft I meet;

"You learned this language from the blatant beast,+

230

"Or rather did not speak, but were possessed.

"As for your answer, 'tis but barely urged :

"You must evince tradition to be forged,

"Produce plain proofs, unblemished authors use,

"As ancient as those ages they accuse;

235

"Till when, 'tis not sufficient to defame;

"An old possession stands till elder quits the claim.

"Then for our interest, which is named alone

"To load with envy, we retort your own;

"For, when traditions in your faces fly,

240

Resolving not to yield, you must decry.

"As when the cause goes hard, the guilty man

"Excepts, and thins his jury all he can;

"So when you stand of other aid bereft,

"You to the twelve Apostles would be left.

245

"Your friend the Wolf did with more craft provide

"But, madam Panther, you, though more sincere,

250

"The way to please them was to make them proud.

"Thus with full sails they ran upon the shelf;

"Who could suspect a cozenage from himself?

"On his own reason safer 'tis to stand

"Than be deceived and damned at second hand.

* The omen is the gallows.

The sweetness of the panther's breath is an old belief. Nat. xxi. 7).

260

It is mentioned by Pliny Hist.

"The panther with sweet service of her breath
First charms their sense whom she hath marked for death."
Mirror of Magistrates.

↑ The "blatant beast" here is probably the Wolf, the Presbyterian. Derrick thought it referred to the Blatant Beast of Spenser's "Fairy Queen," Slander; and Scott and other editors have adopted Derrick's explanation, printing the two words with initial capitals, which Dryden

did not do.

And garble some, and some you quite forsake,
Pretending Church auctority to fix,
"And yet some grains of private spirit mix,
"Are like a mule made up of differing seed,
"And that's the reason why you never breed,
"At least, not propagate your kind abroad,
"For home-dissenters are by statutes awed.*
"And yet they grow upon you every day,
"While you, to speak the best, are at a stay,

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270

"For sects that are extremes abhor a middle way.

"Like tricks of state to stop a raging flood

"Or mollify a mad-brained senate's mood,

"Of all expedients never one was good.

"Well may they argue, (nor can you deny,)
"If we must fix on Church-auctority,

275

But they must prove episcopacy's right.

Thus, those led horses are from service freed;
"You never mount them but in time of need.
"Like mercenaries, hired for home defence,
"They will not serve against their native Prince.

66

Against domestic foes of hierarchy

"These are drawn forth, to make fanatics fly;
"But, when they see their countrymen at hand,
Marching against them under Church command,
Straight they forsake their colours and disband."

66

Thus she; nor could the Panther well enlarge
With weak defence against so strong a charge;
But said, For what did Christ his word provide,
"If still his Church must want a living guide?
"And if all saving doctrines are not there,
"Or sacred penmen could not make them clear,
"From after ages we should hope in vain

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300

"For truths, which men inspired could not explain."

Before the word was written," said the Hind,

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310

* These statutes were suspended by James's Declaration before publication of this

poem.

"This was the way our wise Redeemer chose,
"Who sure could all things for the best dispose,
"To fence his fold from their encroaching foes.
"He could have writ himself, but well foresaw
"The event would be like that of Moses' law;
"Some difference would arise, some doubts remain,
"Like those which yet the jarring Jews maintain.
"No written laws can be so plain, so pure,
"But wit may gloss and malice may obscure;
"Not those indited by his first command,

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320

"A prophet graved the text, an angel held his hand.
"Thus faith was ere the written Word appeared,
"And men believed, not what they read, but heard,
"But since the Apostles could not be confined
"To these or those, but severally designed
"Their large commission round the world to blow,

325

"To spread their faith, they spread their labours too.

"Yet still their absent flock their pains did share;

"They hearkened still, for love produces care.

"A guide was therefore needful, therefore made;

"As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood." (2 Peter iii. 16.)