But fince the mighty ravage, which he made
In German forefts, had his guilt betray'd,
With broken tusks, and with a borrow'd name,
He shun'd the vengeance, and conceal'd the shame;
So lurk'd in fects unfeen. With greater guile
False Reynard fed on confecrated spoil:

The graceless beast by Athanafius first

Was chas'd from Nice, then by Socinus nurs'd:
His impious race their blasphemy renew'd,
And nature's king through nature's optics view'd.
Revers'd they view'd him leffen'd to their eye,
Nor in an infant could a God descry.

New swarming fects to this obliquely tend,
Hence they began, and here they all will end.
What weight of antient witness can prevail,
If private reafon hold the public fcale ?
But, gracious God, how well doft thou provide
For erring judgments an unerring guide!
Thy throne is darkness in th' abyss of light,
A blaze of glory that forbids the fight.
O teach me to believe thee thus conceal'd,
And fearch no farther than thyself reveal'd;
But her alone for my director take,

Whom thou haft promis'd never to forsake!
My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain defires,
My manhood, long misled by wandering fires,
Follow'd falfe lights; and, when their glimpse was gone,
My pride ftruck out new sparkles of her own.
Such was I, fuch by nature ftill I am;

Be thine the glory, and be mine the shame.

Good

Good life be now my task: my doubts are done: What more could fright my faith, than three in one? Can I believe eternal God could lie

Difguis'd in mortal mold and infancy?

That the great Maker of the world could die?
And after that truft my imperfect sense,
Which calls in queftion his omnipotence?

Can I my reafon to my faith compel ?

And fhall my fight, and touch, and tafte,' rebel?
Superior faculties are set aside;

Shall their fubfervient organs be my guide?
Then let the moon ufurp the rule of day,
And winking tapers fhew the fun his way;
For what my fenfes can themselves perceive,
I need no revelation to believe.

Can they who fay the host should be descry'd
By fenfe, define a body glorify'd ?
Impaffable, and penetrating parts ?

Let them declare by what myfterious arts
He shot that body through th' opposing might
Of bolts and bars impervious to the light,
And stood before his train confess'd in open fight.
For fince thus wondrously he pass'd, 'tis plain,
One fingle place two bodies did contain.
And fure the fame omnipotence as well
Can make one body in more places dwell.
Let reafon then at her own quarry fly,
But how can finite grafp infinity?

'Tis urg'd again, that faith did first commence By miracles, which are appeals to fenfe,

}

}

And

THE

PREFACE TO THE READER.

fair

THE nation is in too high a ferment, for me to expect either fair war, or even fo much as quarter, from a reader of the oppofite party. All men are engaged either on this fide or that; and though confcience is the common word, which is given by both, yet if a writer fall among enemies, and cannot give the marks of their confcience, he is knocked down before the reasons of his own are heard. A preface, therefore, which is but a befpeaking of favour, is altogether useless. What I defire the reader should know concerning me, he will find in the body of the poem, if he have but the patience to perufe it. Only this advertisement let him take before-hand, which relates to the merits of the caufe. No general characters of parties (call them either fects or churches) can be fo fully and exactly drawn, as to comprehend all the feveral 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 confcience to diffenters; as being well fatisfied that, according to their own principles, they ought not to perfecute them. Yet these, by reason of their fewness, I could not diftinguish from the numbers of the rest, with whom they are embodied in one common name. On the other fide, there are many of our fects, and

more indeed than I could reasonably have hoped, who have withdrawn themfelves from the communion of the Panther, and embraced this gracious indulgence of his majefty in point of toleration. But neither to the one nor the other of thefe is this fatire any way intended: it is aimed only at the refractory and disobedient on either fide. For thofe, who are come over to the royal party, are consequently supposed to be out of gun-fhot. Our phyficians have obferved, that, in procefs of time, fome difeafes have abated of their virulence, and have in a manner worn out their malignity, fo as to be no longer mortal: and why may not I fuppofe the fame concerning fome 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 perfecution is far from being an article of our faith.

It is not for any private man to cenfure the proceedings of a foreign prince: but, without fufpicion of flattery, I may praise our own, who has taken contrary measures, and those more suitable to the fpirit of Chriftianity. Some of the diffenters, in their addreffes to his majefty, have faid, "That he has reftored God to "his empire over confcience." I confefs, I dare not ftretch the figure to fo great a boldness: but I may fafely say, that confcience is the royalty and prerogative of every private man. He is abfolute in his own breast, and accountable to no earthly power, for that which paffes only betwixt God and him. Those who are driven into the fold are, generally fpeaking, rather made hypocrites than converts.