University of Virginia Library

The Fourth LETTER.

In Answer to the former.

Dear Friend,

Your Letter I with Grief perus'd,
Finding therein Heav'n and your self abus'd:
Which yet I hope is rather the Effect
Of Humour, than of either a Neglect:
However, lest it may too aptly find
A real Entertainment in your Mind,
I have once more endeavour'd to revive
Reason, that may incite you to believe.
But first your timely Caution I'll commend,
I'll stile you less a Satirist than Friend:
For 'tis preposterous to dress, and say
Matters so serious in a Stile so gay:
It robs them of their Weight and their Esteem,
Men waking scorn the Terrors of a Dream.
So because I did great Concerns express
In too light Measures, they to you seem'd less.
But now an apter Stile I chuse to show,
How little you to your great Reason owe.
Reason, that's lent you for a better end,
Than thus its sacred Author to offend:
Reason that did against it self dispute,
For which my Reason I would yours confute:
Reason, that like a base and cunning Enemy,
Does Faith in th'Art, not Strength of Mind defy:
Why generous Faith, in parley much too weak,
Stands fair to all the Blows its Force can make.
These mighty Rivals for thy Soul dispute,
Be valiant and reject bold Reason's Suit;
That but an earthly Pleasure does propose,
This heav'nly Joys which you shall never lose.
Say, if you can, who was't before your Birth
That gave you Life, or who 'twas made the Earth?
If all things, as you say, of Nature be,
Then you of Nature make a Deity.
Ah! miserable wilful Ignorance,
Thus to a God a Notion to advance.
Is Holy Writ so mean in your Esteem,
That you no more regard it than a Dream?
Can you contemn its just Authority,
Rejecting all its Offers as a Lye?
Why should you think an honest harmless Priest
Should thus design to lead you in a Mist?
Were there no God, why should not he, like you,
Indulge himself in sinful Pleasures too?
You think, perhaps, his dull Capacity,
In flight of Reason, cannot soar so high,
As to confirm him in his Sophistry.
Does all the learned World, but your good Sect,
Wander in Paths to Truth most indirect?
I'm of Opinion, you as probably
May err, as those that own a Deity.
Does your proud Maggot so abuse your Sense,
To make you think ours but a weak Pretence,
And only yours the mighty Argument?
For shame of so unjust a Pride repent.
If dull Religion, as you call it, be
A Cheat, what need the Actors disagree?
What need they different Opinions frame,
When they by one alone might reach the same?
You'd not care how, so you did win the Game.
Strange Light of Nature, which your Will directs
Nothing to see, but what your Light affects:
But now I'm thinking of the Hell you made;
Ah! to what future Grief you are betray'd?
To this, I fancy, with some small amends,
You, as to Heav'n, will recommend your Friends.
Let but the Wine be good, and Gaming square,
You'd not repine to live for ever there:
And let the Miss be sound, and 'tis compleat,
These would to you be Joys divinely sweet.
You'd with those sensual Pleasures ever last,
And fear Eternity made too much haste.
The old Elysium would be too severe,
There drinking is not A-la-Mode I fear;
But Mahomet's Paradise comes very near.
Howe'er it be, pray God you be so wise,
To keep your self out of Fool's Paradise;
There, I'm afraid, your self at last you'll find,
Led on by Reason, that blind Guide o'th'Mind.
Thro Labyrinths of Thought, and envious Ways,
It will conduct you to the fatal Place,
And leave you there—
Naked to Shame, to Horror, and Amaze.
O then, from such Idolatry refrain,
To worship the Chimeras of your Brain.
Make not your Faith your Reason's Sacrifice,
Which only does prevail in Fallacies:
Thus you the Deity the Victim make,
And for the God the Sacrifice mistake.
As by Rebellion Subjects oft become
Lords of their Monarch, and pronounce his Doom:
So Reason, to your wicked Nature join'd,
Rebels 'gainst Faith, whose Slave it was design'd.
For your own sake these fatal Errors mend,
And by your Penitence make glad your Friend,