Dryden's defense of the Protestant Anglican Church, originally starts with a lengthy description of why he decided to write the poem. He starts by proclaiming that his being a layman makes him no less a suitable candidate for spiritual discussion. He goes on that his writing is supported by both officially sanctified concepts of the Church of England and has been approved by a knowledgeable scholar. While this scholar gave him notes he could not follow all of them without sacrificing his own personality within the text.
The next section describes his view on faith. He considers the history of Christianity and reveals that in his opinion the concept of the chosen people is used in so many contexts that it has become invalid, as if in God's plan the devil always had first choice (as he has more options among the "unchosen"). He contemplates that the one true religion was given to Noah and that each subsection that came after slowly degraded the holy rite, therefore losing all opportunity to be the one true faith. He talks about science and the laws of nature and how they all fit into the scheme, even though certain religious and philosophical figures discourage them. He concludes this section by stating that the word of God, as found in the Holy Scripture is the only anchor a human needs.
The next section talks about the philosophy of Athanasius, a Bishop of ancient Constantinople famous for his pursuit against heretics within the old Catholic faith. Dryden disagrees with Athanasius and concludes that the words of the apostles are to be used as the only source of wisdom as these are easy to understand. This section concludes his exploration of history, saying that this world view, based simply on the scripture, leaving what is unknown unknown, makes him an enemy of the papacy and religious fanatics. He considers both these groups of little consequence as the fanatics are too entrenched in their own battles and the Catholics have no dominion over England, even though they think they do.
He goes on to explain that good Catholics (those that still see the English Crown as their sovereign) should be easily convinced to see the truth the English throne and disband their loyalties towards Rome. He also goes into a deeper explanation about the fanatics of the English Church and their sins against humanity and civility. The final part of the introduction to the poem explains about different protestant views and sections that have had some influence and infights within the English church throughout the years prior to the publication of this work. Dryden finishes the introduction by explaining about the ability of his work to be used for instruction, as a learned man is able to be reasoned to truth.
The poem proper is composed of 456 lines in 23 uneven stanzas. The first explains about the primacy of reason in the lives of man. Reason has led some individual on the right path and has the opportunity to do this for others as well. The second stanza contrasts the view of the deist, who thinks he is chosen with the truth that history and provenance has shown humankind that only good deeds lead to salvation. The third stanza scorns men for trying to explain the will of God. Dryden likens them to philosophers of ancient Greece, who did not believe into the true God, knowing as much as they do. Truth and Reason are implanted into Humankind by God and only God. The fourth stanza shortly asks the reader if he is able to go outside this law and do what he wants. This is followed by a proclamation on the sacrifice of Christ, where he took our sins on him. Again, this is related to the hubris of men to think they know God's way. The sixth stanza warns people to only listen to the scripture as truth can only be found in it, followed by a plea that rites, tradition and philosophy do not contain the truth, but only the word of God can give us this.
The tenth stanza then goes back to the view of the other believers that a true word can only be true if it is known by everyone, which is not true for the Bible, as is exemplified by the recently discovered American Indians. Dryden counters this argument with the assertion that Providence always finds a way, exemplified in the journey of the Gentiles, who were not forced by any given law. He also contests the notion that good people who did not know the true word would suffer in eternity, as this goes against the basic of the written word. The 13th chapters contemplates the problem of wrong translation of the holy word and all the ill this has caused. Stanza 14 brings up the problem of the apocrypha, a collection of religious texts kept out of the Bible by Catholic concepts. Dryden states that these holes in the knowledge are filled with ill placed tradition and bad rites.
In answer to this, 15 and 16 ask for a true, fully realized and bias free version of the holy text, which can be found in the lost original. This does not, however, mean that all tradition is bad. Christ is still the Lord and still a Man. The next sections of the poem are concerned with Dryden's view from the Layman's perspective. He states that the Layman has the ability to see what is true and just among all the fancy translation errors in the scripture. The common man should keep these truths he finds to his heart and not let the fancy text bring him off the true path.
Stanza 19 concerns the stern critique of the Catholic viewpoint. Following from what has been said before, Dryden complains that the Catholic faith believes to own the whole Christian faith, when they only are a part of it. In the 20th stanza, he goes on to explain how the Catholic history has corrupted this branch of Christianity. Their keeping the whole wisdom, as mentioned before, from the common folk lead to a number of problems. People started to have their own interpretations, believed everything they heard. The good and common thread of love and compassion got lost. Dryden complains that this practice caused a thousand sects per day to rise.
The final two stanzas finish the poem with the main message. The common man must only have the basic truths of Christianity to hold onto. Every addition given from the outside has to be rejected.
