142 BAXTER'S POEMS. It's no law, till their sentence make it known; Not their mere teaching by truth's evidence. , Religion they corrupt by forg'd traditions, They think God's laws too big, and yet make more, All's not enough without their vain additions, Religion was an infant-thing before. And under Christ, the churches only head, They've found one King, or one church-parlia- - ment, Whose Sovereign rule the Christian world must dread And all that will be saved, must consent. This Sovereign's kingdom is the whole round earth, The lands where they can never have access; From it their canon-law receiv'd its birth, To which they all obedience profess. But the false name of council-general, Is now a cheat to serve the Roman King, Where are those councils ? whence ? who must them call? Who them from all the earth together bring ? Could not our Lord without all this ado, · Have made sufficient universal law, But our religion must have so much new, Which th' ancient Christians never heard, ·or saw:? Communion's made subjection by this cheat, None can be saved that are not canon-proof; Obey them or they '11 say you separate ; They build the church, beginning at the roof.
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