| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | Inspiration of the Bible | | By John Dryden |
| | | WHENCE, but from Heaven, could men unskill’d in arts, | |
| In several ages born, in several parts, | |
| Weave such agreeing truths? or how, or why, | |
| Should all conspire to treat us with a lie? | |
| Unask’d their pains, ungrateful their advice, | 5 |
| Starving their gain, and martyrdom their price. | |
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| If on the book itself we cast our view, | |
| Concurrent heathens prove the story true: | |
| The doctrine, miracles; which must convince, | |
| For Heaven in them appeals to human sense; | 10 |
| And though they prove not they confirm the cause, | |
| When what is taught agrees with nature’s laws. | |
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| Therefore the style, majestic and divine, | |
| It speaks no less than God in every line: | |
| Commanding words; whose force is still the same | 15 |
| As the first fiat that produc’d our frame. | |
| All faiths beside, or did by arms ascend; | |
| Or sense indulg’d has made mankind their friend: | |
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| This only doctrine does our lusts oppose: | |
| Unfed by nature’s soil, in which it grows; | 20 |
| Cross to our interests, curbing sense and sin; | |
| Oppress’d without, and undermin’d within, | |
| It thrives through pain; its own tormentors tires, | |
| And with a stubborn patience still aspires. | | | | |
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