So fhalt thou thrive in Love, fond Boy;
If thy Tears and Sighs discover
Thy grief, thou never shalt enjoy
The juft reward of a bold Lover:
But when with moving accents thou
Shalt conftant Faith and Service vow,
Thy Celia fhall receive those charms
With open Ears, and with unfolded Arms.

The ENQUIRY.

the

By the fame Hand.

Love and my fighs thus intertalk'd,

Tell me (faid I in deep diftrefs)

Where may I find my Shepherdefs?

Thou fool (faid Love) know'st thou not this, In every thing that's good the is;

In yonder Tulip go and feek,

There thou may't find her Lip, her Cheek,

In yon ennamel'd Panfie by,

There thou shalt have her curious Eye;
In bloom of Peach, in Rosie bud,
There wave the streamers of her Blood.

In brighteft Lilly that there ftands,
The Emblem of her whiter hands.
In yonder rifing Hill there fmell
Such fweets as in her Bofom dwell.

'Tis true (faid-1) and thereupon
I went to pluck them one by one,,
To make of parts a union;
But on a fudden all was gone,

With that I ftopt; faid Love, These be
(Fond Man) refemblances of thee,
And as these flow'rs, thy joys fhall die,
Even in the twinkling of an Eye:

And all thy hopes of her fhall wither,
Like these short sweets, thus knit together.

The

Proteftation, a SONNET. -
By the fame Hand.

O more fhall Meads be deckt with Flowers,
Nor fweetnefs dwell in Rofie Bowers;

Nor greeneft Buds on Branches fpring,
Nor warbling Birds delight to fing,
Nor April Violets paint the Grove,
If I forfake my Celia's Love.

The Fish fhall in the Ocean burn,
And Fountains fweet hall bitter turn,
The humble Oak no Flood fhall know
When Floods fhall highest Hills o'erflow;
Black Lethe fhall Oblivion leave,
If e'er my Celia I deceive.

Love fhall his Bow and Shaft lay by,
And Venus Doves want wings to fly,
The Sun refufe to fhew his light,
And Day fhall then be turn'd to Night,
And in that Night no Star appear,
If once I leave my Celia dear.

Love fhall no more inhabit Earth,
Nor Lovers more fhall love for worth,
Nor joy above in Heaven dwell,
Nor pain torment poor Souls in Hell;
Grim Death no more fhall horrid prove,
If e'er I leave bright Celia's Love,

OR, A

Layman's Faith.

A

POEM.

Written by Mr. DRYDEN.

Ornari res ipfa negat; contenta doceri

Printed in the Year MDCCXVI.

T HE

PREFACE.

A

Poem with fo bold a Title, and a Name prefix'd from which the handling of fo ferious a Subject wou'd not be expected, may reasonably oblige the Author to fay fomewhat, in Defence both of himself and of his undertaking. In the first place, if it be objected to me, that being a Layman. Iought not to have concern'd my felf with Speculations, which belong to the Profeffion of Divinity; I cou'd Answer, that perhaps, Laymen, with equal Advantages of Parts and Knowledge, are not the most incompetent Fudges of Sacred things; But in the due Senfe of my own Weakness and want of Learning, I plead not this: I pretend not to make my self a Fudge of Faith in others, but only to make a Confeffion of my own; Ilay no unhallowed Hand upon the Ark; but wait on it with the Reverence that becomes me at a distance. In the next place I will ingenuously confefs,that the helps I have us'd in this fmall Treatife, were many of them taken from the Works of our own Reverend Divines of theChurch of England; so that the Weapons with which