ECCLESIASTICISM.
With crosses, relics, crucifixes,
Beads, pictures, rosaries, and pixes;
The tools of working out salvation
By mere mechanic operation.
Hudibras, Pt. III. Canto I. S. BUTLER.
Till Peter's keys some christened Jove adorn,
And Pan to Moses lends his pagan horn.
The Dunciad, Bk. III. A. POPE.
Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
That all the Apostles would have done as they did.
Don Juan, Canto I. LORD BYRON.
To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite,
Who never mentions hell to ears polite.
Moral Essays, Epistle IV. A. POPE.
Perverts the Prophets and purloins the Psalms.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. LORD BYRON.
So shall they build me altars in their zeal,
Where knaves shall minister, and fools shall kneel:
Where faith may mutter o'er her mystic spell,
Written in blood—and Bigotry may swell
The sail he spreads for Heaven with blast from hell!
Lalla Rookh: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. T. MOORE.
In hope to merit heaven by making earth a hell.
Childe Harold, Canto I. LORD BYRON.
When pious frauds and holy shifts
Are dispensations and gifts.
Hudibras, Pt. I. Canto III. S. BUTLER.
Yes,—rather plunge me back in pagan night,
And take my chance with Socrates for bliss,
Than be the Christian of a faith like this,
Which builds on heavenly cant its earthly sway,
And in a convert mourns to lose a prey.
Intolerance. T. MOORE.
And after hearing what our Church can say,
If still our reason runs another way,
That private reason 'tis more just to curb,
Than by disputes the public peace disturb;
For points obscure are of small use to learn,
But common quiet is mankind's concern.
Religio Laici. J. DRYDEN.