I Had pass'd by the gross Scurrility of your last Prologue with the same Contempt that I have always had for the rest of your Scribling, had not some of my Acquaintance suggested to me, that it was unfit to suffer you any longer to go on without Reproof. I will now therefore take you as much into my consideration as so trifling a subject does deserve: Not at all doubting but to kill this Tetter of yours with the ordinary Remedy of a little Ink. The Method I purpose to use, shall be, First to expose your Faults, (I do not mean all) for that were as Diego said of the Poor of his Parish, All the Parish. No— you are too abundant and plentifull a Fop for any man to mis-employ so much time upon, but enough to satisfie any man of Judgment with the Abilities of our Poet Laureat.

And next I will detect your Thefts, letting the World know how great a Plagiary you are; and that for all your pretences to Wit and Judicious Censure, you do live in as much Ignorance and Darkness as you did in the Womb: That your Wri­tings are like a Jack of all Trades Shop, they have [Page 4] Variety, but nothing of value. And that if thou art not the dullest Plant-Animal that ever the Earth pro­duced, all that I have convers'd with are strangely mistaken in thee.

For this time farewel: Within two or three days you shall hear further from me.

I Have written to you within the Time to which I was by my promise engaged, and you may perceive by this Letter with what care I have read over your Conquest of Granada, a dull heavy Task, which few but my self, except some Choice Fe­male Spirits, and Peculiar Friends of yours at Court (as your Brother Bayes has it in the Rehearsal) would have undertaken. You have therefore, to use one of your own Compliments, the more grand obligement to me, for going through with a Work of that diffi­culty. I must confess I did not make an end of it without twenty Stops, forty Oaths, and at least an [Page 5] hundred and fifty Resolutions at every Page to give it over, and truly

that I should ever finish it. In this vexation of mind I frequently threw the paltry Book to the ground, I scratch'd my Head, I rubb'd my Forehead, put up my Black Lead Pen, and exprest all the postures that men use, when they are troubled with an Impertinent. Yet after all this, with much strugling Opus exegi, and send you the Fruits of my Labour, to whom of right they are most due; being beforehand assured that you will not be concern'd for any thing I say, since the com­mon Opinion (how unjust soever) has been to your ad­vantage; Preface to Alman­zor. and having swept the stakes, you can be con­tent to sit quietly, to hear your Fortune curs'd by some, and your Faults arraigned by others. The plain and natural construction of which words as they lie be­fore us, is, that having received your Money from the Door-keepers, having pick'd the Pockets of your Auditors, you care not a Rush with what Contempt and Nauseousness the Judicious speak of your Bauble; yet you grant that a severe Critick is the greatest help to a good Wit. He does the Office of a Friend, whilst he designs that of an Enemy; Preface. and his malice keeps a Poet within those Bounds which the Luxuriancy of his Wit and Fancy would tempt him to over-leap. How luxuri­ant your Wit and Fancy is, will presently appear without any need of great severity in the Critick, who has omitted at least a hundred good thumping substantial Faults, for one he has taken notice of.

To begin with your Character of Almanzor, which you avow to have taken from the Achilles in Homer; [Page 6] pray hear what Famianus Strada says of such Takers as Mr. Dryden, Ridere soleo cum video homines▪ ab Ho­meri virtutibus strenuè declinantes, si quid vero irrepsit vitii, id avid [...] arripientes. But I might have spared this Quotation, and you your avowing: For this Character might as well have been borrowed from some of the Stalls in Bedlam, or any of your own hair-brain'd Coxcombs, which you call Heroes, and Persons of Honour. I remember just such another fu­ming Achilles in Shakespear, one Ancient Pistol, whom he qvows to be a man of so fiery a temper, and so impatient of an injury, even from Sir Iohn Falstaff his Captain, and a Knight, that he not onely disobeyed his Commands about carrying a Letter to Mrs. Page, but return'd him an answer as full of contumely, and in as opprobrious terms as he could imagine.Merry Wives of Windsor.

Let's see e'er an Abencerrago fly a higher pitch. Take him at another turn quarrelling with Corporal Nym, an old Zegri: The difference arose about mine Hostess. Quickly (for I would not give a Rush for a man un­less he be particular in matters of this moment) they both aimed at her body, but Abencerrago Pistol defies his Rival in these words:

There's enough. Does not Quotation sound as well as

But the Four Sons of Ammon, the Three bold Bea­chams, the Four London Prentices, Tamerlain the Scy­thian Shepherd, Muleasses, Amurath, and Bajazet, or any raging Turk at the Red Bull and Fortune, might as well have been urged by you as a Pattern of your Almanzor, as the Achilles in Homer, but then our Laureat had not pass'd for so Learned a man as he de­sires his unlearned Admirers should esteem him.

But I am strangely mistaken if I have not seen this very Almanzor of yours in some disguise about this Town, and passing under another Name. Prethee tell me true, was not this Huff-cap once the Indian Emperour, and at another time did not he call him­self Maximine? Was not Lyndaraxa once called Al­meria, I mean under Montezuma the Indian Empe­rour? I protest and vow they are either the same, or so alike, that I can't for my heart distinguish one from the other. You are therefore a strange unconsci­onable Thief, that art not content to steal from others, but do'st rob thy poor wretched Self too.

I have thus far made bold with you out of meer Cha­rity;Preface. for you say that observing your Errors is a great step to the correcting them.

But pray give me leave without any offence, to ask you why it was a Fault in Shakespear, that his Plays were grounded upon Impossibilities, and so meanly writ­ten, that the Comedy neither caused your Mirth, nor [Page 8] the serious part your Concernment? This you say in your Postscript, and in your Preface, you tell us, that a Poet was not tied to a bare Representation of what is possible, but might let himself loose: For he has only his Fancy for his Guide, which sees farther in its own Empire, and produces more satisfactory notions.

I understand not well your meaning, but my dear Friend, thou may'st remember Aristotle was of another opinion.

I was about six years since a little acquainted with a Name-sake and Countreyman of yours,Essay of Dramatick Poe­try. who pilfer'd out of Monsieur Hedelin, Menardiere, and Corneille, an Essay of Dramatick Poetry, wherein he tells us a­nother tale, and says, a Play ought to be a just and live­ly Image of Humane Nature, Representing its Passions and Humours, &c.

You shall hear further from me e're it be long.

WHen you have wiped off all former stains from your Reputation, I shall think you worthy to be called to another manner of Account, but till then I will content my self to proceed in this mild way of Correcting your Insolence which I have begun, submitting it to the Judgment of all Men, which of us two deserve best the Honourable Title of a Railer.

And now if you were not too peevish to endure a Question, I would make bold to ask you the meaning of this Simile:

The sense of it to my weak and shallow Understand­ing, is, a Tempest that out-rides it self: And if it be so, pray resolve mePreface. whether you be not cozen'd with the sound, and never took the pains to examine the sense of your own Verses, which is a Fault you object to o­thers in your modest Preface.

Another of the same.

[Page 10] Turn that into Prose, and then this is the Nonsense of it; They do not discern the distance, because they only view the distance. And if that be the best Constru­ction it can bear, then answer me, Whether you Preface to A [...]nan. who have undertaken to write Verse without being form'd by Art or Nature for it, whether you who have written one of the worst in it, could have written worse without it?

I think this Instance I am going to give you, would have done every jot as well in Prose, as in Heroick Verse.

Or this.

Therefore to reprehend you in your own Lofty Stile, by applying an ingenious Couplet.

Mr. Dryden,

THere is one of your Virtues which I cannot for­bear to animadvert upon, which is your excess of Modesty; When you tell us in your Postscript to Gra­nada, That Shakespear is below * the Dullest Writer of Ours, or any precedent Age. In which by your favour, You Recede as much from your own Right, as you dis­parage Almanzor, because he is yours, in preferring [Page 11] Ben. Iohnson's Cethegus before him; saying in your Preface, that his Rodomontadoes are neither so irrati­onal as the others, nor so impossible to be put in execu­tion. I'll give you so many instances to the contrary, as shall convince you, and bring you over to my side.

But here's a dreadfull one:

If the proudest hard-hearted Cethegus of 'em all heard this terrible menace, I believe

as you elegantly express it in your Maiden Queen, pag. 60.

You must not take it ill, Mr. Dryden, if I suspect both those Verses to have a strong Tincture of Non­sense, but if you'l defend 'em, of all loves I beg of thee that thou would'st construe them, and put them into sense: for to me, as Parson Hugh says in Shakespear, they seemed Lunacies, it is mad as a mad Dog, it is af­fectatious.

I once thought to have ended this Letter here with a Distich of your own:

But if I had so concluded; I should have omitted a me­morable conceit or two; the one is in a Speech of Al­manzor to his Mothers Ghost.

The second is a Speech of Porphyrius to Maximine, in thy Tyrannick Love.

Charter-House, July, 1. 1672. SInce I cannot draw you to make a reply to me, assure your self that after this Letter you shall hear no further from me.

I intended to have made no more Animadversions upon the viciousness of your Style, till in reviewing the several Pamphlets you have published, I found so much good new matter of that kind, that I could not forbear to return once more to the same subject, and reserve the the other heads for the Press.

My first observation shall be of the admirable facility of your Muse in Similes, which allude to nothing. This your Brother Bayes has before taken notice of in the Rehearsal. But I think it not amiss to insist a little longer on that point; referring it wholly to the Judg­ment of those fair Ladys, who have hitherto been the best strength of your party, hoping there will be no need of further pains than just transcribing, and laying them before them.

The first I light upon is an excellent Illustration of Grief.

Another.

A Melting Simile upon the like Occasion.

Upon Anger.

Upon Famine.

Pray, why not like States in their declining State?

Where by the way, Mr. Dryden, if you had reserv'd this Davenantism till the opportunity, you might have given the Hollanders a frump, and very honestly have got a Clinch into the Bargain.

Bloss me! What stuff is this? prethee▪ speak impar­tially, does not this worthless Collection now seem to you a confused Mass of thoughts tumbling o're one ano­ther, in the Dark? as you wittily say to my Lord of Orrery in the Dedication of the Rival Ladies?

Now I'll make bold to have a fling at that kind of thy Writing, which thou, thy Comerades, and thy Admirers call great and noble thoughts.

The Sun, honest Mr. Dryden would have done so though Almanzor had not commanded him, and if you doubt of it, I refer you to Gadbury, Sanders, Lilly, Rider, Poor Robin, or any of those learned Men, for your satisfaction.

Thou hast within thee, without thee, and about thee a most inexhaustible store of such Trumpery; that I must quit this and pass to another head, which is thy dull Quarlism, or Witherism to save my own labour and my Readers (if any be so idle to read this.)

For Example.

[Page 16] Canst thou after this have the Confidence to say thy Plays are written with more Flame than Art. I vow to thee, I cannot perceive either Art, Flame, or the least Spark of fire in thy Poetry. I must acknowledge it has all the qualities of another Element, I mean the Earth, 'tis cold, dry, and so heavy, that at the hearing of it, the judicious part of thy com­pany fall asleep, and one would have thought, thou had'st done so too, at the writing. I foresee that this is labour ill bestow'd upon you, for when thou art reprehended for producing a Chymerical Ninny upon the Stage, thy defence runs thus.

Who told my over wise Censors I intended him a perfect Cha­racter, or, indeed, what necessity was there that he should be so? —or when we quarrel at some other fault, you straight slap us in the Mouth, and tell us, you design'd it so on purpose to make your Play go off more smartly▪ Which Apology how it differs from what Bayes the Laureat says, Ile make you your self Judge.

Some will say,Rehearsal. this sense is not much to the purpose, why I grant it, I meant it so, but then 'tis as full of Wit and Drollery as ever it can hold, 'tis like an Orange stuck with Cloves.

I thought to have rebuked thee for thy scattering of Non­sense under another distinct and peculiar head, but if I had enter'd upon that Theme, I should never have made an end. Therefore I'll conclude with a word, or two, only of advice, for the discharge of my Conscience, as a friend, and one that wishes you well; though I know before hand, you are so prejudiced against me, that you'l be deaf to all I can say; yet notwithstanding your aversion I will take the liberty of Counselling you to give over this way of mistaken Poetry, and apply your self to some honest Calling, wherein you may, (and truly hope will) thrive better, than at this domn'd Trade of a Play-wright. And for your Almanzor, Porphyrius, Maximin, with the old Roman Legions the Abencerrages and Zegrys, and the rest of your invincible Heroes, which you have already rais'd, since you have now no furthur use of their service, to ease your self of the charge of continuing them in pay, faith, e'en do a deed of Charity, let 'em not lie upon your hands, but lend any one of 'em to the Dutch against the K. of France. Who knows what an Almanzor may do? he if any Man may save the Coun­try. As for your Ladies, Orbella, Lyndaraxa, Almeria, Cydaria▪ &c.—You know they have already those that will take care of and provide for them.—Longum formose vale, vale.

THE Present you have made me of the Hind and Panther, is variously talked of here in the Countrey. Some wonder what kind of Cham­pion the Roman Catholicks have now gotten: for they have had divers ways of representing themselves; but this of Rhiming us to death, is altogether new, and unheard of, before Mr. Bayes set about it. And indeed he hath done it in the Sparkishest Poem that ever was seen: 'Tis true, he hath written a great ma­ny fine things; but he never had such pure Swiftness of Thought, as in this Composition, nor such fiery Flights of Fancy. Such hath always been his Drama­tical and Scenical way of Scribling, that there was no Post nor Pillar in the Town exempt from the pasting up of the Titles of his Plays; Insomuch that the Foot­boys, for want of skill in Reading, do now (as we hear) often bring away by mistake, the Title of a [Page 18] new Book against the Church of England, instead of taking down the Play for the Afternoon: yet if he did it well or handsomly, he might deserve some Par­don; but alas! how ridiculously doth he appear in Print for any Religion, who hath made it his business to laugh at all! How can he stand up for any mode of Worship, who hath been accustomed to bite, and spit his Venom against the very Name thereof?

Wherefore I cannot but wish our Adversaries Joy in their New-converted Hero, Mr. Bayes; whose Prin­ciple it is to fight single with whole Armies; and this one quality he prefers before all the moral Vertues put together: The Roman Catholicks may talk what they will, of their Bellarmin and Perrone, their Hector and Achilles, and I know not who; but I desire them all, to shew one such Champion for the Cause, as this Drawcansir: For he is the Man, that kills whole Na­tions at once; who, as he never wrote any thing, that any one can imagin has ever been the practise of the World, so in his late endeavours to pen Controversie, you shall hardly find one word to the purpose: He is that accomplished Person, who loves Reasoning so much in Verse, and hath got a knack of writing it smoothly. The Subject (he treats of in this Poem) did in his Opinion, require more than ordinary Spi­rit and Flame; therefore he supposed it to be too great for Prose; for he is too proud, to creep servilly after sense; so that in his Verse, he soares high above the reach of it; to do this, there is no need of Brain; 'tis but scanning right; the labour is in the Finger, not in the Head.

However, if Mr. Bayes would be pleased to abate a little of the exuberancy of his Fancy and Wit; to dispense with his Ornaments and Superfluencies of Invention and Satyr, a Man might consider, whether [Page 19] he should submit to his Argument; but take away the Railing, and no Argument remains; so that one may beat the Bush a whole day, and after so much la­bour, only spring a Butterfly, or start an Hedg-hog.

For all this, is it not great pity to see a Man in the flower of his Romantick Conceptions, in the full vi­gour of his Studies on Love and Honour, to fall into such a distraction, as to walk through the Thorns and Briars of Controversie, unless his Confessor hath com­manded it, as a Penance for some past sins: that a Man, who hath read Don Quixot for the greatest part of his Life, should pretend to interpret the Bible, or trace the Footsteps of Tradition, even in the darkest Ages?

But hold, we have a Battel just coming in; and now Mr. Bayes speaks as big, as if Ten Thousand Men were really engaged; at the same time he sings in his Verse, and puts himself into a Warlike posture; so that our Ears are at once entertained with Musick and good Language, and our Eye is also surprised with the Garb and Accoutrements of a Controversial War: Not­withstanding, methinks this blustring Wight is hardly strong and wise enough to demonstrate two such un­toward Points, as Transubstantiation and Infallibility; I fancy, he is as able to Square the Circle. His Brains indeed, have been a long time used to Chimera's, the Raptures and Visions of Poetry, gaudy Scenes, unaccount­able flights of Non-sense, and big Absurdities: conse­quently, he may have a good head for the believing of Legends.

But let us see how he proves his several Positions; which for brevity and distinction sake, I must denomi­nate after this manner, and in this order.

• [Page 20]1. Transubstantiation.
• 2. Reformation.
• 3. Infallibility.
• 4. Novelty and Schism.
• 5. The passive Church.

First, Transubstantiation, he says, we must admit,

Thus Mr. Bayes hath subdued his Understanding, and laying aside his Sense and Reason, is become a zealous Bigot for the Roman Faith. But God Almigh­ty is pleased to deal with us, as Rational Creatures; therefore no Doctrine, that comes from him, is con­trary to our Reason, neither are our Faculties to be renounced for the sake of it; without the use where­of we should not be able to know any thing, that re­lates to the Worship of God, or our own Duty: Nay, in the very planting of the Christian Faith by Miracles, Appeals are always made to the Reason and Sense of the Standers by: We may therefore very well sus­pect, that some Cheat is to be put upon us, when they would have us receive a Doctrine of the Council of Trent, without Sense and Reason. Thus to subdue the Understanding to the Belief of Fictions, is to sup­pose, that God doth not expect, that we should make use of the Soul, which he hath given us in all its Ado­rations to pay him a Rational Service. But Mr. Bayes hath not yet left off to expose Religion; for to feign monstrous Opinions, and then fly to Omnipotence to make them out, is the most unjustifiable Attempt, and the highest Blasphemy, that can be thought on. But our Poet is the same Mr. Bayes still, as He was, when he served the Stage: He did ever scorn to imitate Na­ture, and was altogether given to elevate and sur­prize; [Page 21] so now he would banish Sense and Reason out of Religion, to which he was never a Friend; but above all, his way of managing Controversies is peculiar; 'tis indeed Elevating, Charming, Rhiming, and every thing, but Thinking and Sense; as for In­stance, p. 15.

There's a Rant for you; That's a Flight of Fancy at its full Range, without any Check and Controul of Sense and Reason: Hence it is, that he hath been al­ways wont to shew such hideous, monstrous things in his Plays, that every Man of Wit began to nauseate his swelling Stuff; so now he labours to do the same thing in Divinity; insomuch that his new Church will find it necessary to spue him out.

Secondly, Reformation he rallies at, as the Brat of an old, obscene, and furious Lyon; that is, Henry the 8th's Lust: This is indeed a blustring Verse, and a bold Stroke at the Memory of That King; for thus our Hero will snub even Kings, baffle Armies, and do what He will, without any regard to good Manners or Justice: Nay, he shall win you above a Dozen Battles by this sort of Impudence, one after another. But now among Friends, was there ever any thing spoken so falsly, so maliciously, so ignorantly? He has Face enough to say or unsay any thing, and 'tis his Priviledge, what the School-Divines deny to be even within the Power of the Almighty, To make Contradictions true; that an honest, necessary, and well-grounded Reformation from gross Errors, impo­sed as matters of Faith, should be the product of Wick­edness [Page 22] and Adultery: Or that it should begin upon a shameful Occasion, and from the Extravagance of a private Passion: He will oppose King Henry's Divorce against what I say: But I am not startled at that, no more than at the Fable of our Bishops Consecration at the Nagg's-Head-Tavern, or at the Kentish-men's having long Tailes for the Murder of Thomas Becket. Such fri­volous Arguments as these might have served well enough in the Mouths of the Monks, Two Hundred Years a-go; but they will not pass so easily in an in­quisitive Age: In brief therefore, it is evident, that King Henry VIII. did never intend to proceed to a much greater Distance from the Roman See, than the Gallican Church maintains at this Day: There is no Man of our Church, that looks on his Breach with the Pope, to have been a Reformation: We only esteem it to be of the nature of those Quarrels, which many Princes in the most Catholick Countries have mana­ged against the Holy Chair: The Reformation, to which we stand, is of a later Date: The Primitive Re­formers amongst us beheld the Reasons of Men tamely subjected to one Man's Command, and the Sovereign Powers of all Christendom still exposed to be check'd and destroyed by the Resolutions of his private Will: Upon this they arose to perform two of the greatest Works in the World, at once to deliver the Minds of Christians from Tyranny, and the Dignity of the Throne from Spiritual Bondage: Whatever was the Accidental, this was the real Cause of our Reforma­tion, and of their Separation from us, not ours from them: And this was an Event, which must needs have come to pass near the time, in which it did, tho' King Henry had never forsaken his Wise: Mr. Bayes therefore ought to know, that our Doctrine, as bad as he thinks it is, was established by Christ and his Apostles; and [Page 23] that the Ceremonies of our Worship were not set up by Faction, or by popular Fancy, but by the delibe­rate Counsels of Wise Men, and by the Authority of that Power, which bears the immediate Image of God. This may be enough to satisfie our idle Dreamer on Parnassus, as to this Point; who prides himself in the peculiar Virulency of his Pen, and so he may say a tart thing concerning the Reformers, and give it the Majestick Turn of Heroick Poesie; He cares not what Obloquy he casts upon the History or the Profession of Religion.

Thirdly, Infalibility of the Pope and Council is the next Subject, which is one of God's peculiar and in­communicable Attributes; and where is no Omnisci­ence, there must be Ignorance in part; and where Ig­norance is, there may be Errour: And if Mr. Bayes understood any thing beyond his Drama-common-place­book, He would see, that the Doctrine of Infallibility was not known in the Church for a Thousand Years; and it hath been much disputed, ever since it was first asserted, and will be so; let Mr. Bayes affirm never so confidently,

But how can this be, when if Infallibility be placed in a General Council, it was not in the Church for the first 320 Years, so it has not been in it this last 120 Years: It is as certain, there was never a General Council of all the Pastours of the Church; neither hath the Scrip­ture set down any Rules, how this Assembly should be called, who should have a right to Vote, or what Num­bers must concur to make up an Infallible Judgment. If [Page 24] then the Pope be not Infallible, you have no other Judge that can pretend to it: And in what place of Scripture is the Pope named for our Guide? If our great Master hath not done it, we must not say, he hath neglected to do something, which He should have done: Not­withstanding, He is our most perfect Saviour, who hath shewed us a sure way to Salvation: But still He hath left us to the free use of our Faculties, and hath not provided an Infallible Preservative against Errour; no, not against Sin, which is much more mischievous. But if our Eternal Safety did depend upon the Judg­ment and Direction of one Infallible Guide; 'tis very strange, that neither Christ nor his Apostles should give Mankind any Notice, whether this Infallibility was to be found in One Man, or in a Body: And it is as strange, that in all the Controversies the Apostles had, whilst they lived, they should never make use of any such Authority to put an end to them, as the Conclave of Cardinals have found out.

She whom ye seek am I, is not a sufficient Warrant for the Church of Rome's claiming an Infallibity in all her Decrees; no more than a Mountebank is to be credi­ted, who after a deal of Scaffold-Pageantry to draw Audience, entertains them by decrying all others with a Panegyrick of his own Orvietan Balsom. And indeed Mr. Bayes seems to be but a raw Divine, and not to understand well the case of Religion; for Jesus Christ is the Sovereign of the Church; the Pastours are only as Inferiour Judges in Civil Affairs; if they manifestly oppose themselves to the Scripture, which is the Law of the Christians, particular Persons may be supposed as competent Judges of That, as in Civil Matters they may be of the Rebellion of the Judges; and in that Case they are bound still to maintain their Obedience to Jesus Christ. In matters indifferent, doubtful, and [Page 25] of small Consequence, we are to acquiesce in the De­cisions of the Church; but if it is visible, that the Pa­stours teach other Doctrines, than what Christ taught, the People may put in their Appeal to the great Judge, Christ Iesus, the Sovereign of the Chruch.

But this being a knotty Point, Mr. Bayes laid his Head close to it, with a Snuff-Box in his Hand no doubt, when he conceived these Verses, p. 39.

However, the use of private Judgment is not so bad, as the Effects of blind Zeal and ignorant Superstition; witness the Wars for establishing the Worship of Images; the Croissades against the Saracens; Princes deposed by Popes, which lasted for many Ages; the Butcheries of the Duke of Alva, the Massacrees of Paris and Ire­land: A small Diversity of Opinion about indifferent Matters was never the cause of such barbarous Cruel­ties; therefore the present State of our Church is more desireable, than the gross Ignorance and besotted Su­perstition of Italy and Spain.

Wherefore I do here admonish you, Mr. Bayes, not to go on in your Censures of this kind, as the Author of Pax Vobis hath done, your Brother in Scholastick Duncery, before you have replyed to the learned and ingenious Answerer of your Pamphlet, which you wrote in Prose in the Case of the Duchess of Y. Your slie Re­flection upon Him in this Poem will not do the Busi­ness, in which you imitate the Hawking of the Magpye, when she huffs her Train in token of Courage and Vi­ctory; whilst, alass! 'tis her fear all, and another way of crying the Hawk Mercy; and to the end, that the Hawk finding nothing but Feathers to strike at, she may so perhaps shelter her Body: It is very fit indeed, you should have a Guide and a Keeper too; but Men in [Page 26] their Wits do believe, that God made Man a reaso­nable Creature, who feels as much Pleasure, when he can give himself a good Account of his Actions, as one that sees, does perceive, in comparison to a blind Man who is led about; and therefore they think, that the same merciful God would not contrive his Religion to be dark, nor place it beyond the reach of their Fa­culties, when he designed it to perfect their Natures, and to raise them to the utmost heights they are capa­ble of.

Fourthly, the next Charge is Novelty and Schism, thus expressed, p. 66.

Mr. Bayes, you must know, was always good at Eclip­ses; as when he made the Sun, Moon, and Earth act one in a Dance: But I must say, that this is a new way of writing Controversie, to run us down with Whimsies instead of true Reasoning, as He hath been used to astonish the Spectators in the Play-House with Scenes, Clothes, and Dances; instead of giving Man­kind a Picture of themselves, and thereby making Virtue belov'd, Vice abhor'd, and the little Irregu­larities of Men's Tempers, call'd Humours, exposed to Laughter.

But seeing He is so exact at the Calculation of Time, I would have him inform us, how old these following Doctrines are; Transubstantiation, Purgatory, the Merit of Works, Invocation of Saints, the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, the Authority of the Councils, and the Infallibility of the Pope; these being the chief Causes, for which we dissent from Rome. Surely in the begin­ning these things were not so: For according to our [Page 27] Account, Infallibility goes no higher, than the Scholars of Marcus in Irenaeus, or the Gnosticks in Epiphanius; Purgatory comes from Origen, or at the furthest from Ter­tullian, who had it from Montanus: The Denial of Marriage to the Priesthood is derived from Pope Ca­lixtus: Transubstantiation is from the Lateran Council: The Half-Communion is no older, than the time of Aqui­nas: Praying in an unknown Tongue may be fetcht as far as from Gregory the Great: St. Austin denies the Invocation of Saints departed to have been in his Days; and the Supremacy of the Pope began in Bo­niface the Third.

Against Transubstantiation Aquinas argues, Oper. Tom. 12. as a novel and an impossible thing, for one Body to be locally in more places than one, and in all at once. The witholding the Cup from the Laity is against our Saviours Institution, who hath commanded all Men to drink of this Cup, Matth. 26. 27. From the beginning the Holy Scriptures were perused by the People; wit­ness the Traditores in the Persecution of Dioclesian, who were called so from their delivering up of their Bibles, which, before they were forced to the contra­ry, they made daily use of; therefore the Hebrew Text was read Weekly to the Iews, and the New Testament was written in Greek, because that Tongue was most known to the Eastern World; and to pray in an un­known Tongue, is against the plain Sense of the 14th. Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Priests also were permitted to have Wives both in the Old and New Testaments, and many of the Blessed Apostles were Married Men: And St. Paul asserts his Liberty to carry a Wife along with him, as well as Cephas.

These and many more Corruptions (which I could mention) in point of Practice and Doctrine too, a­waken'd the Christian World to look out for a Refor­mation; [Page 28] to enquire for the old paths, and to walk therein, and to reform, what was amiss, by what had been the Belief and Practice of the Christian Church from the beginning. In this Search are discovered the Rise and Progress of all the new-invented Doctrines in the Church of Rome; by what Degrees her several Errours have been brought in: For to go no further back, than the Council of Trent, we find new Articles of Faith, such as the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Doctrine of Purgatory, the Invocation of Saints, the Worship of Images, and the like, were enjoyned under the Pain of Damnation: And in the Canon of the Fourth Session of that Council Unwritten Traditions are decreed to be of equal Authority with the Scriptures: Upon this our first Reformers consulted the Scriptures, and the Pri­mitive Fathers of the Church, that they might see, how things stood from the beginning, and only sepa­rated from them who had parted with the old and the true Religion. Therefore it is in vain for Mr. Bayes to scorn or to complain of us for leaving the Church of Rome, unless He can convince us, that we have forsaken the Word of God, the Doctrine of Christ and his A­postles, the uncorrupted Primitive Church, the Four First General Councils, or the Antient Creeds. This is old Standard Faith, Mr. Bayes, and these the first plantations of the Truth of the Gospel; from the Pro­fession whereof we are no Schismaticks: for Schism must needs be theirs, who give the cause of Separation, not theirs, who do but separate, when the Cause is gi­ven; and we have departed from Rome for this Rea­son, because she hath in many Instances departed from the Faith of Christ: Nay, had not the Pope affected a Supremacy over all other Churches, besides his own, we never had cast off a Yoak, which had never been put on our Necks; and so it is plain, that the Vsurper did make the Schism.

[Page 29] It is indeed a Glorious Design to reconcile all Churches to one Doctrine and Communion; but then it must not be done by such Tyranny, as the Popes have practised to fetter Men streighter under the Bon­dage of fictitious Articles of Faith; but Unity from this kind of Force is rather to be prayed against, than wish'd for: God only in his own time, and by the in­scrutable Methods of his Providence, is able to range his whole Church scattered over the Face of the Earth, into primitive Unity and Christian Order. In the mean time Mr. Bayes should lay aside his Projects of Pillories, Rods, Gibbets and Inquisitions to make us acquiesce in his Judgment, whatever be our private Opinion: In some parts of his allegorical Poem, one would verily be­lieve, that the Poet himself was turned into a Wolfe, for his Speech is all howling, yelling, and barking, that you would imagin, He would presently pull out the Throats, and suck the Bloud of all the Protestant Sheep, who are always ready to suffer, rather than commit that Errour against their Consciences, which must ren­der them Hypocrites to God, and Knaves amongst Men. Therefore, notwithstanding, Mr. Bayes hath thought fit to pass over from one perswasion of Religion to ano­ther, yet he might forbear to spit thrice at every Arti­cle of Religion, that he hath relinquished, or to ani­mate his new Acquaintance, to trample upon his for­mer Companions; these are Usages, that can only be expected from a Renegado of Argier, or Tunis, to over­do in Expiation, that he may gain better credence of being a sincere Mussulman.

5. He Scoffs at the Church of England, in calling her the Passive, Church: For Mr. Bayes is resolved, see­ing she would not admit him into her Preferments, that she shall know what a Satyrist he is; for this rea­son he hath made a Panther, a spotted Beast of the [Page 30] most innocent and blameless Church; he hath accused of Pride, the humblest; of Rapacity and Covetous­ness, the most inoffensive and bountiful; of Ignorance and want of Devotion, the most Learned and Pious; of false Doctrine, the most Primitive; of ill Disci­pline, the most decent Church under Heaven. And when nothing else could be said, he even upbraids it with its Submission and Obedience. Notwithstanding all his impudent disgraces, there remains this one com­fort to the Church of England, That the same Man who now vilifies her so basely, was thought unworthy of her Communion, for his vicious and ill life: Be­sides, it is easie to conjecture at the cause of this his harsh usage of our Church; he hath but lately Apo­statized from it, and is but just entred into the Romish Faith; therefore he was resolved to give an unque­stionable proof of the Establishment thereof, by revi­ling the Church of England, if any should still doubt of the reality of his Conversion: And this I confess, he hath prosecuted with all the Violence and Bigotry, which commonly accompanies new Converts. Our Ad­versary knew very well, the Church of England to be a Body, that will never Rebell against the King; therefore in derision, he calls her the Passive Church; Thanks be to God, she is so; therefore she is the True Church of Christ: So that, for distinction sake, we will name yours, Mr. Bayes, Armarillis, because of her Ar­mour against all Princes that are not of her mind; and this is now our Poets new Mistress; as a Friend of his broke off his Match with Cloris, to marry Old Ioan. But (Sir) you have not in the least hit the Rellish of the Town by this Conceit; the choicest Spirits, you may have a value for, do despise you for it; for ac­cording to your custom, in This you have done, what was never done before; Traduce a Church for her un­shaken [Page 31] Loyalty, at the same time, that you would be thought a Faithful Subject to the Crown. For this reason, if a Test be of any use at all, it would be to keep out such Zealots, as you are, Mr. Bayes, from being concerned in human Society; who would de­stroy all that stand in their way, according to the ex­ample of that fiery Order, whose vehement Principles are distastful to Rome its self; who are uneasie, unless they carry all before them: Our protection against the heats of these Men, next under God, is wholly placed in our most gracious King, who, as a true Fa­ther of his Countrey, doth act in his Favour and Indul­gence to his People, according to the temper of our most holy Religion, which inspires Mankind with Cha­rity and Mercy: But we must needs have sad appre­hensions of the designs of those, who have ever used all the Arts of Craft and Violence to extirpate the Northern Heresie, as they mis-call our Religion, and to promote their own Interest in opposition to the ends, and the true genius of Christianity: Our sole fence against them is his Majesties promise; and to Royal and Generous Minds, no Stipulations are so binding, as their own voluntary promises; nor is it to be wonder'd at, if they hold those Conditions, that they put upon themselves, the most inviolable.

Now I may Appeal to the common sense of any Reader, whether this Poem be not one of the rankest pieces of Folly and Malice blended together, among all the impertinent, dull, phantastical things, the Town is at this time tired with: Yet the Author would be esteemed a solemn and a grave Person; and he may observe in the Conversation he hath lately had with the Birds and Beasts, that the gravest are the Owl and the Ass. For sometimes this Mr. Bayes is not able to say one good thing in a whole page, if it were to save his Life; [Page 32] then he lays about him, as if he were running a Muck, and had resolved to kill all that he met: At one time he picks quarrels with the Holy Scriptures, and slights the Readers of it with the most impertinent pratings: At another time he Roars and Huffs against the Man in Black, with the most rude and clownish deportment; so that all Civil Company must needs loath his ill-breed­ing more, than the Buffoonry of Hostlers and Porters.

In one place, he blames Protestants for having no Treatise of Humility, but what they have borrowed from Foreigners: So the Protestants Poets say, that Mr. Bayes could never have been an Author, without steal­ing from Milton, and many others, that have been helps for his Wit to furnish out the Stage: And how many good thoughts hath he made his own, as he phrases it in the Rehearsal, by Transprosing and Trans­versing: As now he hopes, these Arguments for Po­pery may pass for his, because he hath put them into an unusual dress, and hath tagg'd 'em with Rhimes. And to speak the truth, there is very little of his own in any Book that he hath published, but the Arrogance and unparallel'd Censoriousness, which he exercises over all other Writers.

But if the Credit of all Men whatsoever, be, and ought to be so well guarded, both by Nature, Law, and Discretion, the Clergy certainly, of all others, ought to be kept and preserved Sacred in their Reputation: For they being Men of the same Spirit with others, and no less subject to humane Passions, it is the most unmanly as well as base thing, to treat them with open affronts; to pelt them with Ribaldry, and Atheistical Drollery: For all that, these Calumnies are the grand refinements of Mr. Bayes his Poem; and without these Flowers he thought his new Religion could not be enough em­belish'd or set off: Ignorant and mistaken Proselyte! [Page 33] Who believes it necessary to part with any Virtue, even common Civility, that he may cast Dirt upon the Church of England, as if that did not require and en­courage more Sobriety, more Mortification, than ever He could be guilty of: Whereas it hath always been fruitful of Men, who together with Obedience to the best Discipline, have lived to the Envy of the Papists in their Conversation, and without such true Defenders of the Christian Faith could never have baffled them so shamefully, as they have done of late. Insomuch that I fancy, they will make very few Converts by disputing, unless they may pretend to have turned some (as in the old Florentine Wars) by meer tiring them out, and perfect weariness; or some such Libertines, as Mr. Bayes, who will be seemingly religious, when it is their Inte­rest; but when 'tis not, then any thing is their Duty, that contributes to their Security.

For being influenc'd by this Principle, our Poet is not only contented to leave our Church, but all of a sudden he appears at the Head of the contrary Party; which, supposing the Dispute to be just, yet in him was so mercenary, that none would have descended to act this part, but one, who could not get a Livelihood from the Play-house: But so flippant He is, and forward to write against Protestancy in general, that in despight of Sense and good Manners,

And when he had cook'd up these musty Collections, he recommends them with that high Sauce, the Magnificence of Verse; but methinks he was out in his Politicks, be­cause he hath not recommended his Religion, as He was wont to do his Plays, by Civility, Insinuation, good Language, and all That; for the English being a good­natur'd People, are sooner won by good Words than Blows.

[Page 34] It hath been an odious Task to me all along to pick out the most noxious pieces of his Satyr; therefore I shall leave many passages unsearcht, nor read any far­ther upon his Swallows and Pigeons, where Mr. Bayes makes the bravest Work that ever Man saw; and This is the Bane of all such kind of Writers; the Vulgar ne­ver understand them, and if they did, they would not be one jot the better: No Romance can furnish us with such pleasant and worshipful Tales; they want no­thing of perfection, but that they do not begin with once upon a time; which Mr. Bayes, according to his Ac­curacy, if he had thought on't, would never have omit­ted: And more than this, by changing some Lines, and bringing in a few People talking in the way of Dialogue, this very Poem may serve for a Play, as smiling and frowning are performed in the Face with the same Muscles very little altered. But still I can­not imagin the reason, why He should make use of these tedious and impertinent Allegories, unless he thought, that what was solid and argumentative, being imp'd with something more light and airy, might carry further, and pierce deeper: Unless in this time of Heat and Anger the Roman Catholicks may think fit to employ him, as being a spightful Creature, or the good Fathers may di­vert themselves awhile with an Animal, that is unlucky, mimical, and gamesom.

Yet let me tell you, Mr. Bayes, your best Friends declare you a more competent Judge of some sort of Wit and Delight, than of Religion, or any Contro­versie about it; they say, you manage Rhythmes well; and that you have a good Art in making high Idea's of Honour, and in speaking noble things: In this Debate, it had been more edifying, if you had wrote in Prose; it would have rendred your Speech more natural, and you would never have made so much Contention, as [Page 35] you have done, between the Rhythme and the Sense. But I see, he is not in a condition of taking Counsel, or of correcting his Vices; therefore he will continue in defiance of all the means, that can be used to the contrary, an endless Scribler, an empty Politician, an in­solent Poet, and an idle pretender to Controversie; so that he is resolved to Rave against us as so many vile Here­ticks; just as the Italians, French, and Spaniards, have had the Vanity to boast, that all Wit is to be sought for, no where, but amongst themselves; it is their esta­blish'd Rule, that good Sense has always kept near the warm Sun, and scarce ever yet dared to come farther, than the forty ninth degree Northward; This is a very unaccountable Fancy; but they have the same Opini­on of Religion too, as if all Orthodoxy could not go out of the Bounds, which they have set it.

So Mr. Bayes his Controversial Writings, are unan­swerable, just as some places are impregnable, by reason of the Dirt that lies about them; and to maintain a conflict any longer with his Reasons, were to renew the old way of fighting with Sand-bags, the true Em­blem of his unjoynted, incoherent Stuff; For if he goes on thus in making Volumes of Controversie, his best Confuters, will be the Grocers and Haberdashers of Small Wares, who will bind up their rotten Raisons, and Mundungus in his Papers; and his Book-sellers will dwell at the South-side of Paul's, where his Works shall be bound up, as his Forefather William Prynnes were, in Trunks, Hat-cases, and Bandboxes. I am