At least the second page of strong contingency; To starve the royal virtues of his mind. blest. They do; and with a distant view I see In orderly array, a martial, manly train. The asserted ocean rears his reverend head, VERSES TO J. NORTHLEIGH. TO MY FRIEND MR. J. NORTHLEIGH, AUTHOR OF THE PARALLEL, ON HIS TRIUMPH OF THE BRITISH MONARCHY. So Joseph, yet a youth, expounded well The boding dream, and did th' event foretell; Judged by the past, and drew the parallel. Thus early Solomon the truth explored, The right awarded, and the babe restored. Thus Daniel, ere to prophecy he grew, The perjured Presbyters did first subdue, And freed Susanna from the canting crew. Well may our monarchy triumphant stand, While warlike James protects both sea and land; THE PREFACE TO THE READER. THE nation is in too high a ferment for me to expect either fair war, or even so much as fair quarter, from a reader of the opposite party. All men are engaged either on this side or that, and though conscience is the common word, which is given by both, yet if a writer fall among enemies, and cannot give the marks of their conscience, he is knocked down before the reasons of his own are heard. A preface, therefore, which is but a bespeaking of favour, is altogether useless. What I desire the reader should know concerning me, he will find in the body of the poem, if he havebut the patience to peruse it. Only this advertisement let him take beforehand, which relates to the merits of the cause. No gene ral characters of parties (call them either sects or churches) can be so fully and exactly drawn, as to comprehend all the several members of them; at least all such as are received under that denomination. For example: there are some of the church by law established, who envy not liberty of conscience to Dissenters; as being well satisfied that, according to their own principles, they ought not to persecute them. Yet these, by reason of their fewness, I could not distinguish from the numbers of the rest, with whom they are imbodied in one common name. On the other side, there are many of our sects, and more indeed than I could reasonably have hoped, who have withdrawn themselves from the communion of the Panther, and embraced this gracious indulgence of his majesty in point of toleration. But neither to the one nor the other of these is this satire any way intended: it is aimed only at the refractory and disobedient on either side. For those, who are come over to the royal party, are consequently supposed to be out of gun-shot. Our physicians have observ ed, that, in process of time, some diseases have abated of their virulence, and have in a manner worn out their malignity, so as to be no longer mortal; and why may not I suppose the same concerning some of those, who have formerly been enemies to kingly government, as well as Catholic religion? I hope they have now another notion of both, as having found, by comfortable experience, that the doctrine of persecution is far from being an article of our faith. It is not for any private man to censure the proceedings of a foreign prince; but, without suspicion of flattery, I may praise our own, who has taken contrary measures, and those more suitable to the spirit of Christianity. Some of the Dissenters, in their addresses to his majesty, have said, That he has restored God to his empire over conscience.' I confess, I dare not stretch the figure to so great a boldness; but I may safely say, that conscience is the royalty and prerogative of every private man. He is absolute in his own breast, and accountable to no earthly power, for that which passes only betwixt God and him. Those who are driven into the fold are, generally speaking, rather made hypocrites than converts. This indulgence being granted to all the sects, it ought in reason to be expected, that they should both receive it, and receive it thankfully. For, at this time of day, to refuse the benefit, and adhere to those whom they have esteemed their persecutors, what is it else, but publicly to own, that they suffered not before for conscience' sake, but only out of pride and obstinacy, to separate from a church for those impositions, which they now judge may be lawfully obeyed? After they have so long contended for their classical ordination (not to speak of rites and ceremonies) will they at length submit to an episcopal? If they can go so far out of complaisance to their old enemies, methinks a little reason should persuade them to take another step, and see whither that would lead them. Of the receiving this toleration thankfully I shall say no more, than that they ought, and I doubt not they will consider from what hands they received it. It is not from a Cyrus, a heathen prince, and a foreigner, but from a Christian king, their native sovereign; who expects a return in specie from them, that the kindness, which he has graciously shown them, may be retaliated on those of his own persuasion. As for the poem in general, I will only thus far satisfy the reader, that it was neither imposed on me, nor so much as the subject given me, by any man. It was written during the last winter and the beginning of this spring, though with long interruptions of ill health and other hinderances. About a fortnight before I had finished it, his majesty's declaration for liberty of conscience came abroad: which, if I had so soon expected, I might have spared myself the labour of writing many things which are contained in the third part of it. But I was always in some hope, that the church of England might have been persuaded to have taken off the Penal Laws and the Test, which was one design of the poem, when I proposed to myself the writing of it. It is evident that some part of it was only occasional, and not first intended: I mean that defence of myself, to which every honest man is bound, when he is injuriously attacked in print; and I refer myself to the judgment of those who have read the Answer to the Defence of the late King's Papers, and that of the Duchess, (in which last I was concerned,) how charitably I have been represented there. I am now informed both of the author and supervisors of his pamphlet, and will reply, when I think he can affront me: for I am of Socrates's opinion, that all creatures cannot. In the mean time let him consider, whether he deserved not a more severe reprehension, than I gave him formerly, for using so little respect to the memory of those whom he pretended to answer; and, at his leisure, look out for some original treatise of Humility, written by any Protestant in English, (I believe I may say in any other tongue :) for the magnified piece of Duncomb on that subject, which either he must mean, or none, and with which another of his fellows has upbraided me, was translated from the Spanish of Rodriguez; though with the omission of the seventeenth, the twentyfourth, the twenty-fifth, and the last chapter, which will be found in comparing of the books. He would have insinuated to the world, that her late Highness died not a Roman Catholic. He declares himself to be now satisfied to the contrary, in which he has given up the cause: for matter of fact was the principle debate betwixt us. In the mean time, he would dispute the motives of her change; how preposterously, let all men judge, when he seemed to deny the subject of the controversy, the change itself. And because I would not take up this ridiculous challenge, he tells the world I cannot argue: but he may as well infer, that a Catholic cannot fast, because he will not take up the cudgels against Mrs. James, to confute the Protestant religion. I have but one word more to say concerning the poem as such, and abstracting from the matters, either religious or civil, which are handled in it. The first part, consisting most in general characters and narration, I have endeavoured to raise, and give it the majestic turn of heroic poesy. The second, being matter of dispute, and chiefly concerning Church Authority, I was obliged to make as plain and perspicuous as possibly I could; yet not wholly neglecting the numbers, though I had not frequent occasions for the magnificence of verse. The third, which has more of the nature of domestic conversation, is, or ought to be, more free and familiar than the two former. There are in it two Episodes, or Fables, which are interwoven with the main design: so that they are properly parts of it, though they are also distinct stories of themselves. In both of these I have made use of the common-places of Satire, whether true or false, which are urged by the members of the one Church against the other: at which I hope no reader of either party will be scandalized, because they are not of my invention, but as old, to my knowledge, as the times of Boccace and Chaucer on the one side, and as those of the Reformation on the other. THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. A MILK-WHITE hind, immortal and unchang'd, And Scythian shafts; and many winged wounds Her martyr'd offspring, and their race renew'd • The Caledonian wood] The ravages and disor ders committed by the Scotch covenanters gave occasion to these lines. D. Their corpse to perish, but their kind to last, So much the deathless plant the dying fruit surpass'd. Panting and pensive now she rang'd alone, And wander'd in the kingdoms, once her own. The common hunt, though from their rage restrain'd By sovereign power, her company disdain'd; + Grinn'd as they pass'd, and with a glaring eye or, with countenance grim, Glar'd on him passing. T. 1 The bloody Bear, an independent beast] The Independents were a sect of Protestants, who held, that each church, within itself, had sufficient power to do every thing relative to church government.' the First's reign, about the year 1643. Walker calls They sprung up amidst the confusions of Charles them a composition of Jews, Christians, and Turks. And our author, in his Religio Laici, says, And turns to maggots what was meant for food,' Because that, in order to infuse into people a notion that they had a right to choose their own pastors, they corrupted this text: Wherefore, brethren, look you out from among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, whom ye (instead of we) may appoint over this business, Acts, vi. 3. Field is said to have been the first printer of this forgery, and to have received for it 1500. Be that as it may, it is certainly to be found in several of his editions of the Bible, particularly in his fine folio of 1659-60, and his octavo of 1661. D. the quaking Hare Profess'd neutrality, but would not swear] The Quakers: so called from certain tremblings and convulsions, with which they appear to be seized at their religious meetings. They decline all military employments; reject the use of arms, which they call profane and carnal weapons; and refuse the oaths. Their affirmation is now admitted, by Act of Parliament, in our justiciary courts, as of equal force to an oath taken by a person of any other persuasion upon the gospel. D. Next her the buffoon Ape] No particular sect is meant by the buffoon ape, but libertines and latitudinarians, persons ready to conform to any thing to serve their turn. D. The bristled Baptist Boar,* impure as he, So lurk'd in sects unseen. With greater guile Revers'd they view'd him lessen'd to their eye, My manhood, long misled by wandering fires, Follow'd false lights; and, when their glimpse was gone, My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. Can I believe eternal God could lie Disguis'd in mortal mould and infancy? Can they who say the Host should be descried sight. For since thus wondrously he pass'd, 't is plain, 'T is urg'd again, that faith did first commence For latter ages must on former wait, divine, As means or ends of some more deep design? Can I my reason to my faith compell Dryden here advances the doctrine of transubstantiation, which he reconciles to the Divine Omnipotence, and entirely disclaims the use of reason in discussing it. D. Himself the pilot, let us leave the shore, To construe what his clearest words contain, [thee, Rest then, my soul, from endless anguish freed: vour. More haughty than the rest, the wolfish race And pricks up his predestinating ears. • The insatiate Wolf, &c.] Butler, in the first canto of Hudibras, says, that the Presbyterians -prove their doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks.' The general description given of them here is very severe: they hold the doctrine of predestina tion, or a decree of God from all eternity, to save a certain number of persons, from thence called the Elect. 'A sect (of whom Hudibras says a little lower) whose chief devotion lies In odd perverse antipathies.' Such as reputing the eating of Christmas-pies and plum porridge sinful; nay, they prohibited all sorts of merriment at that holy festival, and not only abolished it by order of council, dated Dec. 22, 1657, but changed it into a fast. They wore, during the confusions about Oliver's time, black caps, that left their ears bare, their hair being cropped round quite close; wherefore the wolf, the emblem of Presbytery, is here said to 'Prick up his predestinating ears.' D. Full many a year his hateful head had been These last deduce him from the Helvetian kind, Or since he will be Jew, derive him higher, O happy pair, how well have you increas'd! vance, Rebellion prints the footsteps of the dance. Such are their doctrines, such contempt they show To heaven above, and to their prince below, When the proud sanhedrim, &c.] On this line, in the original edition, the following marginal note occurs-Vide Pref.to Heyl. Hist. of Presb. |