134
UPON AN HYPOCRITICAL
IX.
But when his painful Gifts h'employs
In holding-forth, the Virtue lies
Not in the Letter of the Sense,
But in the spiritual Vehemence,
The Pow'r, and Dispensation of the Voice,
The zealous Pangs and Agonies,
And heav'nly turnings of the Eyes;
The Groans, with which he piously destroys,
And drowns the Nonsense in the Noise:
And grows so loud, as if he meant to force
And take in Heav'n by Violence;
To fright the Saints into Salvation,
Or scare the Devil from Temptation;
Until he falls so low and hoarse,
No kind of carnal Sense,
Can be made out of what he means:
But as the antient Pagans were precise
To use no short-tail'd Beast in Sacrifice,[1]
He still conforms to them, and has a Care,
T'allow the largest Measure to his paltry Ware,
But when his painful Gifts h'employs
In holding-forth, the Virtue lies
Not in the Letter of the Sense,
But in the spiritual Vehemence,
The Pow'r, and Dispensation of the Voice,
The zealous Pangs and Agonies,
And heav'nly turnings of the Eyes;
The Groans, with which he piously destroys,
And drowns the Nonsense in the Noise:
And grows so loud, as if he meant to force
And take in Heav'n by Violence;
To fright the Saints into Salvation,
Or scare the Devil from Temptation;
Until he falls so low and hoarse,
No kind of carnal Sense,
Can be made out of what he means:
But as the antient Pagans were precise
To use no short-tail'd Beast in Sacrifice,[1]
He still conforms to them, and has a Care,
T'allow the largest Measure to his paltry Ware,
- ↑ But as the ancient Pagans were precise,—To use no short-tail'd Beast in Sacrifice.] This I suppose refers to nothing more than the common Rule in all Religions, of which Sacrifice made a Part, to admit no Beast to be offer'd in Sacrifice, that was not entirely perfect.
And
