Dissenters, void of reason, have been heard
To use this argument, the most absurd.
Whoever may such sophistry adopt,
Thereby their claim to reason must be dropp'd.
In things divine if Cæsar be SUPREME,
His power in every State must righteous seem.
If Cæsar have a right to legislate,
Mahometans are right, beyond debate.
And they are right the BIBLE who rufuse,
Who, in the East, the VEDA rather choose.
Your sophistry must sober reason shock,
Whose purblind notions are repell'd by LOCKE.
Lawn sleeves beneath a Christian's serious care;
Unenvied, those who can, may mitres wear.
TITHE EXACTORS
RESUME THE ARGUMENT.
Now hear the Clergy answer, with one voice, TITHES! or the BAYONET! friends, take your choice. CHURCH RATES! or IPSWICH GAOL! at once decide!
Or pay the CHURCH RATES, or in GAOL abide.
If you refuse to us the TITHES to pay,
The CLUB LAW ours, we have no more to say.
The Gospel was by Paul propounded here!
This proves VICTORIA'S right to domineer.
WE speak not here of the dark ages past;
Friend CHILDS remembers where his lot was cast.
Can this be Moderation? do respond,
And let your voice with reason correspond.
Thus saith the LORD, whose language must be known,
Your MODERATION should to all be shown!
But most immoderate is CLUB LAW's tone.
So may the thief cry, argue as you please,
I claim your purse, I must have bread and cheese,
The TITHES are plunder, from the Papists torn;
And how can plunder legaliz'd be borne?
The Papists first obtain'd them by deceit;
By plunder HARRY gave his friends a treat.
To
say that TITHES are legal, renders worse
The national disgrace, a flying curse :
The roll in length is twenty cubits long,
In breadth ten cubits, adds the prophet's song:
For every one that steals the LORD declares,
For him who falsely by JEHOVAH swears:
It shall consume the timber and the stones
Of every house, as Jeremiah owns.
As by its fruit a worthless tree is known,
A system mark'd by VIOLENCE is shown.
A CURCH MAINTAIN'D BY FORCE MUST ODIOUS
THE FLOWER OF PARADISE IS LOVE
The distich last rehears'd must overthrow
The FORCE of TITHE EXACTORS, at a blow,
Peruse, and re-peruse that distich, friend,
Then, if you can, the English Church defend.
Such is the weak defence of mother Church:
We leave them now a better one to search:
A broken reed betrays their feeble hand;
With such a wretched prop they cannot stand.
If Paul at Perranzabuloe were seen,
Does this make Christians vassals to the Queen?
If Joseph, Aristobulus, and James,
Here preach'd the truth, does this prove Cæsar's claims?
Did Paul, and Joseph ever domineer?
Or their Supremacy establish here?
When good men public errors circulate,
When HIRELINGS Church and Queen, vociferate,
Their boasted virtues cast a gauze, or veil,
Around their errors, which like weeds prevail.
Whatever virtues Doctor PUSEY claim,
The truth with "PAPIST" justly brands his
So all the advocates of Church and State
Rebel against THE ONLY POTENTate.
I speak not here at random, but rehearse
The arguments of learned men, in verse,
In reference to "GOOD men," as above!
Need more be said their folly to reprove?
Two clergymen on me such stuff have press'd,
Whose names in charity are here suppress'd :
But here their charter'd logic is express'd.
And others probably have heard the same:
Some highly laud what reason must disclaim.
This they call argument! to add no more,
We heave a sigh, their nonsense to deplore.
Our harps upon the willows silent hung,
We weep that such good men such songs have sung.
THE Temple of the LORD, the Temple WE,"
"The Church," to TITHES gives no validity.
Dry ORTHODOXY, destitute of LOVE,
A phantom, is IDOLATRY above.
And LOVE, and VIOLENCE, antipodes,
Who can defend the sacerdotal FEES?
The highest Potentate, in sacred things,
Must humbly bow before the KING of kings.
The Flower of Paradise we blighted see,
By Princes claiming the SUPREMACY.
The CHURCH, its pristine beauty to restore,
VICTORIA, must only GOD adore:
And all, like MARY, join, with one accord,
To sing, "My soul doth magnify the LORD."
But though a woman may NOT DOMINEER,
Her right to propagate the truth is clear.
Friends, cease from man, hereon let God be heard,
Who woman has ORDAIN'D to preach his word :
Whose Love combin'd with wisdom, charms the
And draws with irresistible control:
A magnet of the most efficient power,
Of Paradise man's choice remaining flower.
Born of the SPIRIT, made the heirs of grace,
And renovated found in CHRIST's embrace,
Lo! JESUS polishes the corner stones
In Zion's temple. AMEN.
Anagram.
Lo! JESUS. AMEN.
SAMUEL JONES.
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