NO, sir; I cannot see to what good end Such bitter words against the clergy tend; Pour'd from a zeal so sharp, so unallay'd, That suffers no exception to be made; While the most mild persuasions, to repress The bitter zeal, still heighten its excess. Its own relentless thought while it pursues, What unrestrain'd expressions it can use! Places of worship, which the people call @3Churches@1, are "synagogues of @3Satan"@1 all; At all @3liturgic@1 pray'r and praise it storms, As @3man's inventions, Spirit-quenching forms@1; And, from @3baptismal@1 down to @3burial@1 rite, Sets ev'ry service in an odious light: All previous order, with regard to time, Place, or behaviour, passes for a crime. Of @3Pharisaic@1 pride it culls the marks, To represent the @3Bishop@1 and his @3Clerks@1; Who are, if offer'd any gentler plea, The @3Devil's Ministers@1, both they and he; @3Blind guides, false prophets@1, and a lengthen'd train Of all hard words that chosen texts contain: These are the @3forms@1 which, when it would object To those in use, it pleases to select; Repeated by its devotees, at once, As like to rote as any church response: Nor is a treatment of this eager kind To this or that society confin'd, Sect, or profession—No, no matter which, @3Leaders or led, all fall into the ditch@1; None but its own severe adepts can claim Of truth and Spirit-worshippers the name. In vain it seeks, by any sacred page, To justify this unexampled rage: Prophets of old, who spake against th' abuse Of outward forms were none of them so loose As to condemn, abolish, or forbid The things prescrib'd, but what the people did; Who minded nothing but the mere outside, Neglecting wholly what it signified; At this neglect the prophets all exclaim'd; No pious rites has any of them blam'd; Their true intent was only to reduce All outward practice to its inward use. The world's Redeemer, coming to fulfil All past predictions of prophetic quill, Who more amidst the @3Jewish@1 priestly pride, Than he, with all @3Mosaic@1 rites complied? Say that the @3Christian@1 priests are now as bad As those blind leaders which the Jews then had,— Was Zachariah's, Simeon's, Anna's mind, Any good priest, or man, or woman blind, To offer incense, or to bear a part In temple service, with an upright heart? Can then the faults of @3Clergymen@1, or @3Lay@1, Destroy heart-worship at this present day? Will pray'r, in vain by @3Pharisees@1 preferr'd, Not from repenting @3Publicans@1 be heard? Will the devout among the christian flock Not be accepted, tho' the priest should mock? If they do right in their appointed spheres, @3His@1 want of truth and spirit is not @3theirs.@1 Our Lord's apostles, with an inward view To reconcile the Gentile and the Jew, To faith in Him, made ev'ry outward care The most subservient to that main affair: The greatest friend to christian freedom, Paul, Intent to save, was "ev'ry thing to all;" To keep, whatever forms should rise or cease, Union of spirit in the bond of peace; Th' effects of hasty, rash, condemning zeal He saw, and mourn'd, and labour'd to repeal. Succeeding saints, when priest or magistrate Became tyrannical in church or state, Reprov'd their evil practices but then Rever'd the office, tho' they blam'd the men. They gave no instance of untemper'd heat, That roots up all before it, tares or wheat; As if, by humanly invented care Of cultivation, wheat itself was tare. 'Tis true all sects are grown corrupt enough, But zeal, so indiscriminately rough, May well give others reason to suspect Some want of knowledge in a novel sect, (If such there be) that seems to take a pride In @3satanizing@1 all the world beside; Without the least authority, yet known, Or species of example, but its own. One mischief is, that its unguarded terms Hurt many sober truths which it affirms; Worship in Truth and Spirit suffers too, By being plac'd in such a hostile view: "Oh! but all self-will worshiping is wrong"— True; but to whom does that defect belong? Is the obedience to a rule or guide, For order's sake, fair proof of such a pride? If it be none at all for men to broach Rude, harsh, and undistinguishing reproach, With resolution to repeat it still, Pray by what marks are we to know @3self-will?@1 |