<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=419855" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Religio Laici</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">(OR A LAYMAN'S FAITH)</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Dim, as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars<br> To lonely, weary, wand'ring travellers,<br> Is reason to the soul; and as on high,<br> Those rolling fires discover but the sky<br> Not light us here; so reason's glimmering ray<br> Was lent not to assure our doubtful way,<br> But guide us upward to a better day.<br> And as those nightly tapers disappear<br> When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere<br> So pale grows reason at religion's sight:<br> So dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light.<br> Some few, whose lamp shone brighter, have been led<br> From cause to cause, to Nature's secret head;<br> And found that one first principle must be:<br> But what, or who, that Universal He;<br> Whether some soul incompassing this ball<br> Unmade, unmov'd; yet making, moving all;<br> Or various atoms' interfering dance<br> Leapt into form (the noble work of chance <br> Or this great all was from eternity;<br> Not even the Stagirite himself could see;<br> And Epicurus guess'd as well as he:<br> As blindly grop'd they for a future state;<br> As rashly judg'd of Providence and Fate:<br> But least of all could their endeavours find<br> What most concern'd the good of human kind.<br> For happiness was never to be found;<br> But vanish'd from 'em, like enchanted ground.<br> One thought content the good to be enjoy'd:<br> This, every little accident destroy'd:<br> The wiser madmen did for virtue toil:<br> A thorny, or at best a barren soil:<br> In pleasure some their glutton souls would steep;<br> But found their line too short, the well too deep;<br> And leaky vessels which no bliss could keep.<br> Thus anxious thoughts in endless circles roll,<br> Without a centre where to fix the soul:<br> In this wild maze their vain endeavours end:<br> How can the less the greater comprehend?<br> Or finite reason reach infinity?<br> For what could fathom God were more than He.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Deist thinks he stands on firmer ground;<br> Cries [lang g]eur{-e}ka[lang e] the mighty secret's found:<br> God is that spring of good; supreme, and best;<br> We, made to serve, and in that service blest;<br> If so, some rules of worship must be given;<br> Distributed alike to all by Heaven:<br> Else God were partial, and to some deny'd<br> The means his justice should for all provide.<br> This general worship is to PRAISE, and PRAY:<br> One part to borrow blessings, one to pay:<br> And when frail Nature slides into offence,<br> The sacrifice for crimes is penitence.<br> Yet, since th'effects of providence, we find<br> Are variously dispens'd to human kind;<br> That vice triumphs, and virtue suffers here,<br> (A brand that sovereign justice cannot bear <br> Our reason prompts us to a future state:<br> The last appeal from fortune, and from fate:<br> Where God's all-righteous ways will be declar'd;<br> The bad meet punishment, the good, reward.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Thus man by his own strength to Heaven would soar:<br> And would not be oblig'd to God for more.<br> Vain, wretched creature, how art thou misled<br> To think thy wit these god-like notions bred!<br> These truths are not the product of thy mind,<br> But dropt from Heaven, and of a nobler kind.<br> Reveal'd religion first inform'd thy sight,<br> And reason saw not, till faith sprung the light.<br> Hence all thy natural worship takes the source:<br> 'Tis revelation what thou think'st discourse.<br> Else how com'st thou to see these truths so clear,<br> Which so obscure to heathens did appear?<br> Not Plato these, nor Aristotle found:<br> Nor he whose wisdom oracles renown'd.<br> Hast thou a wit so deep, or so sublime,<br> Or canst thou lower dive, or higher climb?<br> Canst thou, by reason, more of God-head know<br> Than Plutarch, Seneca, or Cicero?<br> Those giant wits, in happier ages born,<br> (When arms, and arts did Greece and Rome adorn)<br> Knew no such system; no such piles could raise<br> Of natural worship, built on pray'r and praise,<br> To one sole God.<br> Nor did remorse, to expiate sin, prescribe:<br> But slew their fellow creatures for a bribe:<br> The guiltless victim groan'd for their offence;<br> And cruelty, and blood was penitence.<br> If sheep and oxen could atone for men<br> Ah! at how cheap a rate the rich might sin!<br> And great oppressors might Heaven's wrath beguile<br> By offering his own creatures for a spoil!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Dar'st thou, poor worm, offend Infinity?<br> And must the terms of peace be given by thee?<br> Then thou art justice in the last appeal;<br> Thy easy God instructs thee to rebel:<br> And, like a king remote, and weak, must take<br> What satisfaction thou art pleas'd to make.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> But if there be a pow'r too just, and strong<br>To wink at crimes, and bear unpunish'd wrong;<br>Look humbly upward, see his will disclose<br>The forfeit first, and then the fine impose:<br>A mulct thy poverty could never pay<br>Had not Eternal Wisdom found the way:<br>And with celestial wealth supply'd thy store:<br>His justice makes the fine, his mercy quits the score.<br>See God descending in thy human frame;<br>Th'offended, suff'ring in th'offender's name:<br>All thy misdeeds to him imputed see;<br>And all his righteousness devolv'd on thee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> For granting we have sinn'd, and that th'offence<br>Of man, is made against omnipotence,<br>Some price, that bears proportion, must be paid;<br>And infinite with infinite be weigh'd.<br>See then the Deist lost: remorse for vice,<br>Not paid, or paid, inadequate in price:<br>What farther means can reason now direct,<br>Or what relief from human wit expect?<br>That shows us sick; and sadly are we sure<br>Still to be sick, till Heav'n reveal the cure:<br>If then Heaven's will must needs be understood,<br>(Which must, if we want cure, and Heaven be good)<br>Let all records of will reveal'd be shown;<br>With Scripture, all in equal balance thrown,<br>And our one sacred Book will be that one.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Proof needs not here, for whether we compare<br>That impious, idle, superstitious ware<br>Of rites, lustrations, offerings, (which before,<br>In various ages, various countries bore)<br>With Christian faith and virtues, we shall find<br>None answ'ring the great ends of human kind,<br>But this one rule of life: that shows us best<br>How God may be appeas'd, and mortals blest.<br>Whether from length of time its worth we draw,<br>The world is scarce more ancient than the law:<br>Heav'n's early care prescrib'd for every age;<br>First, in the soul, and after, in the page.<br>Or, whether more abstractedly we look,<br>Or on the writers, or the written Book,<br>Whence, but from Heav'n, could men unskill'd in arts,<br>In several ages born, in several parts,<br>Weave such agreeing truths? or how, or why<br>Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie?<br>Unask'd their pains, ungrateful their advice,<br>Starving their gain, and martyrdom their price.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> If on the Book itself we cast our view,<br>Concurrent heathens prove the story true:<br>The doctrine, miracles; which must convince,<br>For Heav'n in them appeals to human sense:<br>And though they prove not, they confirm the cause,<br>When what is taught agrees with Nature's laws.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Then for the style; majestic and divine,<br>It speaks no less than God in every line:<br>Commanding words; whose force is still the same<br>As the first fiat that produc'd our frame.<br>All faiths beside, or did by arms ascend;<br>Or sense indulg'd has made mankind their friend:<br>This only doctrine does our lusts oppose:<br>Unfed by Nature's soil, in which it grows;<br>Cross to our interests, curbing sense, and sin;<br>Oppress'd without, and undermin'd within,<br>It thrives through pain; its own tormentors tires;<br>And with a stubborn patience still aspires.<br>To what can reason such effects assign,<br>Transcending Nature, but to laws divine:<br>Which in that sacred volume are contain'd;<br>Sufficient, clear, and for that use ordain'd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> But stay: the Deist here will urge anew,<br>No supernatural worship can be true:<br>Because a general law is that alone<br>Which must to all, and everywhere be known:<br>A style so large as not this Book can claim<br>Nor aught that bears reveal'd religion's name.<br>'Tis said the sound of a Messiah's Birth<br>Is gone through all the habitable earth:<br>But still that text must be confin'd alone<br>To what was then inhabited, and known:<br>And what Provision could from thence accrue<br>To Indian souls, and worlds discover'd new?<br>In other parts it helps, that ages past,<br>The Scriptures there were known, and were embrac'd,<br>Till sin spread once again the shades of night:<br>What's that to these who never saw the light?</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Of all objections this indeed is chief<br>To startle reason, stagger frail belief:<br>We grant, 'tis true, that Heav'n from human sense<br>Has hid the secret paths of Providence:<br>But boundless wisdom, boundless mercy, may<br>Find ev'n for those bewilder'd souls, a way:<br>If from his nature foes may pity claim,<br>Much more may strangers who ne'er heard his name.<br>And though no name be for salvation known,<br>But that of his eternal Son's alone;<br>Who knows how far transcending goodness can<br>Extend the merits of that Son to man?<br>Who knows what reasons may his mercy lead;<br>Or ignorance invincible may plead?<br>Not only charity bids hope the best,<br>But more the great Apostle has expressed.<br>That, if the Gentiles (whom no law inspir'd,)<br>By nature did what was by law requir'd;<br>They, who the written rule had never known,<br>Were to themselves both rule and law alone:<br>To nature's plain indictment they shall plead;<br>And, by their conscience, be condemn'd or freed.<br>Most righteous doom! because a rule reveal'd<br>Is none to those, from whom it was conceal'd.<br>Then those who follow'd reason's dictates right;<br>Liv'd up, and lifted high their natural light;<br>With Socrates may see their Maker's Face,<br>While thousand rubric-martyrs want a place.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Nor does it baulk my charity, to find<br>Th'Egyptian Bishop of another mind:<br>For, though his Creed eternal truth contains,<br>'Tis hard for man to doom to endless pains<br>All who believ'd not all, his zeal requir'd,<br>Unless he first could prove he was inspir'd.<br>Then let us either think he meant to say<br>This faith, where publish'd, was the only way;<br>Or else conclude that, Arius to confute,<br>The good old man, too eager in dispute,<br>Flew high; and as his Christian fury rose<br>Damn'd all for heretics who durst oppose.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Thus far my charity this path has tried;<br>(A much unskilful, but well meaning guide <br>Yet what they are, ev'n these crude thoughts were bred<br>By reading that, which better thou hast read,<br>Thy matchless Author's work: which thou, my friend,<br>By well translating better dost commend:<br>Those youthful hours which, of thy equals most<br>In toys have squander'd, or in vice have lost,<br>Those hours hast thou to nobler use employ'd;<br>And the severe delights of truth enjoyed.<br>Witness this weighty book, in which appears<br>The crabbed toil of many thoughtful years,<br>Spent by thy author in the sifting care<br>Of rabbins' old sophisticated ware<br>From gold divine; which he who well can sort<br>May afterwards make algebra a sport.<br>A treasure, which if country-curates buy,<br>They Junius and Tremellius may defy:<br>Save pains in various readings, and translations;<br>And without Hebrew make most learn'd quotations.<br>A work so full with various learning fraught,<br>So nicely ponder'd, yet so strongly wrought,<br>As nature's height and art's last hand requir'd:<br>As much as man could compass, uninspir'd.<br>Where we may see what errors have been made<br>Both in the copier's and translator's trade:<br>How Jewish, Popish, interests have prevail'd,<br>And where infallibility has fail'd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> For some, who have his secret meaning guess'd,<br>Have found our author not too much a priest:<br>For fashion-sake he seems to have recourse<br>To Pope, and Councils, and tradition's force:<br>But he that old traditions could subdue,<br>Could not but find the weakness of the new:<br>If Scripture, though deriv'd from Heavenly birth,<br>Has been but carelessly preserv'd on earth;<br>If God's own people, who of God before<br>Knew what we know, and had been promis'd more,<br>In fuller terms, of Heaven's assisting care,<br>And who did neither time, nor study spare<br>To keep this Book untainted, unperplex'd;<br>Let in gross errors to corrupt the text:<br>Omitted paragraphs, embroil'd the sense;<br>With vain traditions stopp'd the gaping fence,<br>Which every common hand pull'd up with ease:<br>What safety from such brushwood-helps as these?<br>If written words from time are not secur'd,<br>How can we think have oral sounds endur'd?<br>Which thus transmitted, if one mouth has fail'd,<br>Immortal lies on ages are entail'd:<br>And that some such have been, is prov'd too plain;<br>If we consider interest, church, and gain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Oh but says one, tradition set aside,<br>Where can we hope for an unerring guide?<br>For since th' original Scripture has been lost,<br>All copies disagreeing, maim'd the most,<br>Or Christian faith can have no certain ground,<br>Or truth in Church tradition must be found.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Such an omniscient church we wish indeed;<br>'Twere worth both Testaments, and cast in the Creed:<br>But if this Mother be a guide so sure,<br>As can all doubts resolve, all truth secure;<br>Then her infallibility, as well<br>Where copies are corrupt, or lame, can tell?<br>Restore lost Canon with as little pains,<br>As truly explicate what still remains:<br>Which yet no Council dare pretend to do;<br>Unless like Esdras, they could write it new:<br>Strange confidence, still to interpret true,<br>Yet not be sure that all they have explain'd,<br>Is in the blest Original contain'd.<br>More safe, and much more modest 'tis, to say<br>God would not leave mankind without a way:<br>And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere<br>Free from corruption, or entire, or clear,<br>Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, entire,<br>In all things which our needful faith require.<br>If others in the same glass better see<br>'Tis for themselves they look, but not for me:<br>For my salvation must its doom receive<br>Not from what others , but what I believe.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Must all tradition then be set aside?<br>This to affirm were ignorance, or pride.<br>Are there not many points, some needful sure<br>To saving faith, that Scripture leaves obscure?<br>Which every sect will wrest a several way<br>(For what one sect interprets, all sects may <br>We hold, and say we prove from Scripture plain,<br>That Christ is God ; the bold Socinian<br>From the same Scripture urges he's but man .<br>Now what appeal can end th'important suit;<br>Both parts talk loudly, but the Rule is mute?</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Shall I speak plain, and in a nation free<br>Assume an honest layman's liberty?<br>I think (according to my little skill,<br>To my own Mother-Church submitting still)<br>That many have been sav'd, and many may,<br>Who never heard this question brought in play.<br>Th' unletter'd Christian, who believes in gross,<br>Plods on to Heaven; and ne'er is at a loss:<br>For the Strait-gate would be made straiter yet,<br>Were none admitted there but men of wit.<br>The few, by nature form'd, with learning fraught,<br>Born to instruct, as others to be taught,<br>Must study well the sacred page; and see<br>Which doctrine, this, or that, does best agree<br>With the whole tenor of the Work divine:<br>And plainliest points to Heaven's reveal'd design:<br>Which exposition flows from genuine sense;<br>And which is forc'd by wit and eloquence.<br>Not that tradition's parts are useless here:<br>When general, old, disinteress'd and clear:<br>That ancient Fathers thus expound the page,<br>Gives truth the reverend majesty of age:<br>Confirms its force, by biding every test;<br>For best authority's next Rules are best.<br>And still the nearer to the Spring we go<br>More limpid, more unsoil'd the waters flow.<br>Thus, first traditions were a proof alone;<br>Could we be certain such they were, so known:<br>But since some flaws in long descent may be,<br>They make not truth but probability.<br>Even Arius and Pelagius durst provoke<br>To what the centuries preceding spoke.<br>Such difference is there in an oft-told tale:<br>But truth by its own sinews will prevail.<br>Tradition written therefore more commends<br>Authority, than what from voice descends:<br>And this, as perfect as its kind can be,<br>Rolls down to us the Sacred History:<br>Which, from the Universal Church receiv'd,<br>Is tried, and after, for its self believ'd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The partial Papists would infer from hence<br>Their church, in last resort, should judge the sense.<br>But first they would assume, with wondrous art,<br>Themselves to be the whole, who are but part<br>Of that vast frame, the Church; yet grant they were<br>The handers down, can they from thence infer<br>A right t'interpret? or would they alone<br>Who brought the present, claim it for their own?<br>The Book's a common largess to mankind;<br>Not more for them, than every man design'd:<br>The welcome news is in the letter found;<br>The carrier's not commission'd to expound.<br>It speaks itself, and what it does contain,<br>In all things needful to be known, is plain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> In times o'ergrown with rust and ignorance,<br>A gainful trade their clergy did advance:<br>When want of learning kept the laymen low,<br>And none but priests were authoriz'd to know:<br>When what small knowledge was, in them did dwell;<br>And he a God who could but read or spell;<br>Then Mother Church did mightily prevail:<br>She parcell'd out the Bible by retail:<br>But still expounded what she sold or gave;<br>To keep it in her power to damn and save:<br>Scripture was scarce, and as the market went,<br>Poor laymen took salvation on content;<br>As needy men take money, good or bad:<br>God's Word they had not, but the priests they had.<br>Yet, whate'er false conveyances they made,<br>The lawyer still was certain to be paid.<br>In those dark times they learn'd their knack so well.<br>That by long use they grew infallible:<br>At last, a knowing age began t'enquire<br>If they the Book, or that did them inspire:<br>And, making narrower search they found, though late,<br>That what they thought the priest's was their estate:<br>Taught by the will produc'd, (the written Word)<br>How long they had been cheated on record.<br>Then, every man who saw the title fair,<br>Claim'd a child's part, and put in for a share:<br>Consulted soberly his private good;<br>And sav'd himself as cheap as e'er he could.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> 'Tis true, my friend, (and far be flattery hence)<br>This good had full as bad a consequence:<br>The Book thus put in every vulgar hand,<br>Which each presum'd he best could understand,<br>The common rule was made the common prey;<br>And at the mercy of the rabble lay.<br>The tender page with horny fists was gall'd;<br>And he was gifted most that loudest bawl'd:<br>The spirit gave the doctoral degree:<br>And every member of a company<br>Was of his trade, and of the Bible free.<br>Plain truths enough for needful use they found;<br>But men would still be itching to expound:<br>Each was ambitious of th'obscurest place,<br>No measure ta'en from knowledge, all from grace .<br>Study and pains were now no more their care:<br>Texts were explain'd by fasting, and by prayer:<br>This was the fruit the private spirit brought;<br>Occasion'd by great zeal, and little thought.<br>While crowds unlearn'd, with rude devotion warm,<br>About the sacred viands buzz and swarm,<br>The fly-blown text creates a crawling brood;<br>And turns to maggots what was meant for food.<br>A thousand daily sects rise up, and die;<br>A thousand more the perish'd race supply:<br>So all we make of Heaven's discover'd Will<br>Is, not to have it, or to use it ill.<br>The danger's much the same; on several shelves<br>If others wreck us, or we wreck ourselves.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> What then remains, but, waving each extreme,<br>The tides of ignorance, and pride to stem?<br>Neither so rich a treasure to forego;<br>Nor proudly seek beyond our pow'r to know:<br>Faith is not built on disquisitions vain;<br>The things we must believe, are few, and plain:<br>But since men will believe more than they need;<br>And every man will make himself a creed:<br>In doubtful questions 'tis the safest way<br>To learn what unsuspected ancients say:<br>For 'tis not likely we should higher soar<br>In search of Heav'n, than all the Church before:<br>Nor can we be deceiv'd, unless we see<br>The Scripture, and the Fathers disagree.<br>If after all, they stand suspected still,<br>(For no man's faith depends upon his will <br>'Tis some relief, that points not clearly known,<br>Without much hazard may be let alone:<br>And, after hearing what our Church can say,<br>If still our reason runs another way,<br>That private reason 'tis more just to curb,<br>Than by disputes the public peace disturb:<br>For points obscure are of small use to learn:<br>But common quiet is mankind's concern.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Thus have I made my own opinions clear:<br>Yet neither praise expect, nor censure fear:<br>And this unpolish'd, rugged verse, I chose;<br>As fittest for discourse, and nearest prose:<br>For, while from sacred truth I do not swerve,<br>Tom Sternhold's, or Tom Shadwell's rhymes will serve.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Dryden">John Dryden</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=419855" data-title="Religio Laici de John Dryden" data-description="(OR A LAYMAN'S FAITH) Dim, as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars To lonely, weary, wand'ring travellers, Is reason to the soul; and as on high, Those rolling fires discover but the sky Not light us here; so reason's glimmering ray Was len..."></div> </div> </div>

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