This indulgence being granted to all the fects, it ought in reason to be expected, that they should both receive it, and receive it thankfully. For, at this time of day, to refufe the benefit, and adhere to those whom they have esteemed their perfecutors, what is it elfe, but publicly to own, that they suffered not before for confcience-fake, but only out of pride and obftinacy, to feparate from a church for thofe impofitions, which they now judge may be lawfully obeyed? After they have fo long contended for their claffical ordination (not to speak of rites and ceremonies), will they at length. fubmit to an epifcopal? If they can go fo far out of complaifance to their old enemies, methinks a little reafon should perfuade them to take another step, and fee whither that would lead them.

Of the receiving this toleration thankfully I fhall fay no more, than that they ought, and I doubt not they. will confider from what hand they received it. It is not from a Cyrus, a heathen prince, and a foreigner, but from a chriftian king, their native fovereign; who expects a return in fpecie from them, that the kindness, which he has graciously fhewn them, may be retaliated. on thofe of his own perfuafion.

As for the poem in general, I will only thus far fatisfy the reader, that it was neither imposed on me, nor. fo much as the fubject given me by any man. It was written during the laft winter, and the beginning of this fpring; though with long interruptions of ill health and other hindrances. About a fortnight before I had finished it, his majefty's declaration for liberty of

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confcience

confcience came abroad: which if I had fo foon 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 fome hope, that the church of England might have been perfuaded to have taken off the penal laws and the teft, which was one design of the poem, when I proposed to myself the writing of it.

It is evident that fome part of it was only occafional, and not first intended: I mean that defence of myself, to which every honeft man is bound, when he is injuriously attacked in print: and I refer myself to the judgment of thofe, who have read the Answer to the defence of the late king's papers, and that of the dutchefs (in which laft I was concerned) how charitably I have been reprefented there. I am now informed both of the author and supervisors of this 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 confider whether he deserved not a more fevere reprehenfion, than I gave him formerly, for ufing fo little respect to the memory of those, whom he pretended to anfwer; and at his leifure, look out for fome original treatife of humility, writtten by any Proteftant in English; I believe I may fay in any other tongue; for the magnified piece of Duncomb on that fubject, which either he must mean, or none, and with which another of his fellows has upbraided me, was tranflated from the Spanish of Rodriguez; though with the omiffion of the feventeenth, the twenty-fourth, the

twenty

twenty-fifth, and the laft chapter, which will be found in comparing of the books.

He would have infinuated to the world, that her late highness died not a Roman Catholic. He declares himself to be now fatisfied to the contrary, in which he has given up the caufe: for matter of fact was the principal debate betwixt us, In the mean time, he would difpute the motives of her change; how prepofterously, let all men judge, when he seemed to deny the fubject 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 faft, because he will not take up the cudgels against Mrs. James, to confute the Proteftant religion.

I have but one word more to fay concerning the poem as fuch, and abstracted from the matters, either religious or civil, which are handled in it. The firft part, confifting moft in general characters and narration, I have endeavoured to raise, and give it the majestic turn of heroic poefy. The fecond being matter of difpute, and chiefly concerning church authority, I was obliged to make as plain and perfpicuous as poffibly I could; yet not wholly neglecting the numbers, though I had not frequent occafions for the magnificence of verse. The third, which has more of the nature of domestic converfation, is, or ought to be, more free and familiar than the two former.

There are in it two epifodes or fables, which are interwoven with the main defign; fo that they are pro

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perly

perly parts of it, though they are alfo diftinct ftories of themselves. In both of these I have made use of the common-places of fatire, whether true or falfe, which are urged by the members of the one church against the other: at which I hope no reader of either party will be fcandalized, because they are not of my invention, but as old, to my knowledge, as the times of Boccace and Chaucer on the one fide, and as thofe of the Reforma tion on the other.

THE HIND AND THE PANTHER.

A

Milk-white Hind, immortal and unchang'd,

Fed on the lawns, and in the foreft rang'd; Without unfpotted, innocent within,

She fear'd no danger, for she knew no fin.

Yet had fhe oft been chas'd with horns and hounds,
And Scythian fhafts; and many winged wounds.
Aim'd at her heart; was often forc'd to fly,
And doom'd to death though fated not to die.
Not fo her young; for their unequal line
Was hero's make, half human, half divine.
Their earthly mold obnoxious was to fate,
Th' immortal part affum'd immortal state..
Of thefe a flaughter'd army lay in blood,
Extended o'er the Caledonian wood,
Their native walk; whofe vocal blood arofe,
And cry'd for pardon on their perjur'd foes.
Their fate was fruitful, and the fanguine feed,
Endued with fouls, increas'd the facred breed,

So

So captive Ifrael multiply'd in chains,
A numerous exile, and enjoy'd her pains.
With grief and gladness mix'd the mother view'd
Her martyr'd offspring, and their race renew'd;
Their corps to perish, but their kind to laft,
So much the deathlefs plant the dying fruit furpafs'd..
Panting and penfive now she rang'd alone,
And wander'd in the kingdoms, once her own.
The common hunt, though from their rage reftrain'd
By fovereign power her company difdain'd;
Grinn'd as they pafs'd, and with a glaring eye
Gave gloomy figns of fecret enmity.

"Tis true, fhe bounded by, and trip'd fo light,
They had not time to take a steady fight...
For truth has fuch a face and fuch a mien,
As to be lov'd needs only to be feen.

The bloody bear, an independent beast,
Unlick'd to form, in groans her hate exprest.
Among the timorous kind the quaking hare
Profefs'd neutrality, but would not swear..
Next her the buffoon ape, as atheists use,
Mimick'd all fects, and had his own to chufe:
Still when the lion look'd, his knees he bent,
And paid at church a courtier's compliment.
The bristled baptist boar, impure as he,
But whiten'd with the foam or fanctity,
With fat pollutions fill'd the facred place,
And mountains level'd in his furious race:
So first rebellion founded was in grace.

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