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The Hind and the Panther.
For how can she constrain them to obey
Who has her self cast off the lawful sway?
Rebellion equals all, and those who toil
In common theft, will share the common spoil.
Let her produce the title and the right
Against her old superiours first to fight;
If the reform by Text, ev'n that's as plain
For her own Rebels to reform again.
As long as words a diff'rent sense will bear,
And each may be his own Interpreter,
Our ai'ry faith will no foundation find:
The word's a weathercock for ev'ry wind:
The Bear, the Fox, the Wolfe, by turns prevail,
The most in pow'r supplies the present gale.
The wretched Panther crys aloud for aid
To church and councils, whom the first betray'd;
No help from Fathers or traditions train,
Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain.
And by that scripture which the once abus'd
To Reformation, stands her self accus'd.
Who has her self cast off the lawful sway?
Rebellion equals all, and those who toil
In common theft, will share the common spoil.
Let her produce the title and the right
Against her old superiours first to fight;
If the reform by Text, ev'n that's as plain
For her own Rebels to reform again.
As long as words a diff'rent sense will bear,
And each may be his own Interpreter,
Our ai'ry faith will no foundation find:
The word's a weathercock for ev'ry wind:
The Bear, the Fox, the Wolfe, by turns prevail,
The most in pow'r supplies the present gale.
The wretched Panther crys aloud for aid
To church and councils, whom the first betray'd;
No help from Fathers or traditions train,
Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain.
And by that scripture which the once abus'd
To Reformation, stands her self accus'd.
What
