"On Controversies in Religion"
By
Katherine Philips
Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Staff and Research Assistants at The University of Virginia, John O'Brien, Sara Brunstetter, Rachel Retica
EaglePhilips alludes
to Aesop’s fable, "The Eagle and The Arrow."ChimeraA fabled fire-breathing monster of Greek mythology, with a
lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail (or, according to others,
the heads of a lion, a goat, and a serpent).
(Oxford English Dictionary).
59
On Controversies in Religion
1Religion, which true Policy befriends,
2Design’d by God to serve Man’s noblest ends,
3Is by that old Deceiver’s subtle Play
4Made the chief Party in its own decay,
5And meets that Eagle’s destiny, whose Breast
6Felt the same shaft which his own
Feathers drestEagleEaglePhilips alludes
to Aesop’s fable, "The Eagle and The Arrow.".
7For that great Enemy of Souls perceiv’d,
8The notion of a Deity was weav’d
9So closely in Man’s Soul; to ruine that,
10He must at once the World depopulate.
11But as those Tyrants who their Wills pursue,
12If they expound old Laws, need make no new:
13So he advantage takes of Nature’s light,
14And raises that to a bare useless height;
15Or while we seek for Truth, he in the Quest
16Mixes a Passion, or an Interest,
17To make us lose it; that, I know not how,
18’Tis not our Practice, but our Quarrel now.