Book II.—Of the Harmony of the Old and New Laws.
After the faith was broken by the dint
Of the foe’s breathing renegades, and sworn
With wiles the hidden pest emerged; with lies
Self-prompted, scornful of the Deity
5 That underlies the sense, he did his plagues
Concoct: skilled in guile’s path, he mixed his own
Words impious with the sayings of the saints.
And on the good seed sowed his wretched tares,
Thence willing that foul ruin’s every cause
10 Should grow combined; to wit, that with more speed
His own iniquitous deeds he may assign
To God clandestinely, and may impale
On penalties such as his suasion led;
False with true veiling, turning rough with smooth,
15 And, (masking his spear’s point with rosy wreaths,)
Slaying the unwary unforeseen with death
Supreme. His supreme wickedness is this:
That men, to such a depth of madness sunk!
Off-broken boughs! should into parts divide
20 The endlessly-dread Deity; Christ’s deeds
Sublime should follow with false praise, and blame
The former acts, God’s countless miracles,
Ne’er seen before, nor heard, nor in a heart
Conceived; and should so rashly frame in words
25 The impermissible impiety
Of wishing by “wide dissimilitude
Of sense” to prove that the two Testaments
Sound adverse each to other, and the Lord’s
Oppose the prophets’ words; of drawing down
30 All the Law’s cause to infamy; and eke
Of reprobating holy fathers’ life
Of old, whom into friendship, and to share
His gifts, God chose. Without beginning, one
Is, for its lesser part, accepted. Though
35 Of one are four, of four one, yet to them
One part is pleasing, three they (in a word)
Reprobate: and they seize, in many ways,
On Paul as their own author; yet was he
Urged by a frenzied impulse of his own
40 To his last words: all whatsoe’er he spake
Of the old covenant seems hard to them
Because, deservedly, “made gross in heart.”
Weight apostolic, grace of beaming word,
Dazzles their mind, nor can they possibly