NOTES UPON Mr, Drydens' Poems IN Four Letters. By M. CLIFFORD, late Master of the Charter House, LONDON. To which are annexed some Reflections upon the HIND and PANTHER. By another Hand. Et Musarum & Apollinis oede relictà, Ipse facit versus. Juven. Sat. 7. LONDON Printed in the Year. 1687. THE First Letter. SIR, I Had passed by the gross Scurrility of your last Prologue with the same Contempt that I have always had for the rest of your Scribbling, 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 plentiful a Fop for any man to mis-employ so much time upon, but enough to satisfy any man of Judgement with the Abilities of our Poet Laureate. 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 Trade's Shop, they have Variety, but nothing of value. And that if thou art not the dullest Plant-Animal that ever the Earth produced, all that I have conversed with are strangely mistaken in thee. So dull thou art, as if thou'dst largely quaffed All sleepy juices for thy morning's draught; Henbane and Hemlock, which man's Soul benight, Mandrake and Poppy, etc. For this time farewel: Within two or three days you shall hear further from me. THE Second Letter. 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 myself, 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 hundred and fifty Resolutions at every Page to give it over, and truly — I did dare To be so impudent as to despair— Alman. Page ●. that I should ever finish it. In this vexation of mind I frequently threw the paltry Book to the ground, I scratched my Head, I rubbed my Forehead, put up my Black Lead Pen, and expressed all the postures that men use, when they are troubled with an Impertinent. Yet after all this, with much struggling 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 concerned 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 cursed 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 Doorkeepers, having picked 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 Critic 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 overleap. How luxuriant your Wit and Fancy is, will presently appear without any need of great severity in the Critic, 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; 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 hare-brained Coxcombs, which you call Heroes, and Persons of Honour. I remember just such another fuming Achilles in Shakespeare, one Ancient Pistol, whom he qvows to be a man of so fiery a temper, and so impatient of an injury, even from Sir john Falstaff his Captain, and a Knight, that he not only disobeyed his Commands about carrying a Letter to Mrs. Page, but returned him an answer as full of contumely, and in as opprobrious terms as he could imagine. * Merry Wives of Windsor. Let Vultures gripe thy guts, for gourd and Fullam holds, And high and low beguiles the rich and poor. Tester I'll have in pouch, when thou shall lack, Base Phrygian Turk, etc. 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: Fetch from the Powdering-tub of Infamy That Lazar-Kite of Cressida's kind, Doll Tearsheer, she by name, and her espouse: I have and I will hold The quondam Quickly for the only she. And pauca— 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 Laureate had not passed 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. Prithee tell me true, was not this Huff-cap once the Indian Emperor, and at another time did not he call himself Maximine? Was not Lyndaraxa once called Almeria, I mean under Montezuma the Indian Emperor? 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 dost rob thy poor wretched Self too. I have thus far made bold with you out of mere 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 Shakespeare, that his Plays were grounded upon Impossibilities, and so meanly written, that the Comedy neither caused your Mirth, nor 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 lose: 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 Namesake and Countryman of yours, Essay of Dramatic Poetry. who pilfered out of Monsieur Hedelin, Menardiere, and Corneille, an Essay of Dramatic 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, etc. — Si sic omnia dixisset. You shall hear further from me ere it be long. THE Third Letter. 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 myself to proceed in this mild way of Correcting your Insolence which I have begun, submitting it to the Judgement 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 Brave Almanzor Who like a Tempest that outrides the Wind. Almanz. Act. 2. pag. 13. The sense of it to my weak and shallow Understanding, is, a Tempest that outrides itself: And if it be so, pray resolve me * Preface. whether you be not cozened 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. Great Souls discern not when the leaps too wide, Act. 4. Because they only view the farther side. 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 formed 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 Heroic Verse. LYNDARAXA. This is my Will, and this I will have done. Or this. None could be seen whilst Almahid was by, Because she was to be her Majesty. Therefore to reprehend you in your own Lofty Style, by applying an ingenious Couplet. Either confess your Fault, or hold your Tongue; For I am sure I am not now i'th' wrong. 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 Shakespeare 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 Ben. Johnson's Cethegus before him; saying in your Preface, that his Rodomontades 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. I'll face this storm that thickens in the Wind; Act. 2. And with bend forehead full against it go, Till I have found the last and utmost Foe. If Fate weaves common Thread, he'll change the doom, Act. 3. And with new Purple spread a Nobler Loom. But here's a dreadful one: — My word is past, I'll take his heart by th' Roots and hold it fast. If the proudest hardhearted Cethegus of 'em all heard this terrible menace, I believe — The busy thing His Soul would strait pack up, and be on Wing; Alman. Act. 4. p. 123. Like parting Swallows when they seek the Spring. He'd shuder up with cold: as you elegantly express it in your Maiden Queen, pag. 60. I'll hector Kings to grant my wild Demands. Act. 3. Fate after him below with pain did move, Part 1. Act. 2. And Victory could scarce keep pace above. Caetera de genere hoc adeo sunt multa, etc. We follow Fate which does too fast pursue. 'Tis just that Flames should be condemned to Fire. You must not take it ill, Mr. Dryden, if I suspect both those Verses to have a strong Tincture of Nonsense, but if you'll defend 'em, of all loves I beg of thee that thou wouldst construe them, and put them into sense: for to me, as Parson Hugh says in Shakespeare, 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: Let us at length so many faults forget, And lose the tale, and take 'em by the great. 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 Mother's Ghost. I'll rush into the Covert of thy Night, And pull thee backward by thy Shroud to Light. Or else I'll squeeze thee like a Bladder there, And make thee groan thyself away to air. The second is a Speech of Porphyrius to Maximine, in thy Tyrannic Love. Wherever thou standest, I'll levelly at thy face, My gushing blood, and sprout it at that place. THE Fourth Letter. Charter-House, July, 1. 1672. SInce I cannot draw you to make a reply to me, assure yourself that after this Letter you shall hear no further from me. An horrid Silence shall invade your Ear, On the King's Restoration. But in that Silence a fierce Tempest fear. 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 Judgement of those fair Ladies, 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. Then setting free a sigh from her fair Eyes She wiped two Pearls the remnant of Wild Showers, Maiden Queen. page 49. And hung like drops upon the Bells of Flowers. Another. My Soul lies hid in shades of grief, When like the Bird of Night with half shut Eyes, Riu. Lad. p. 32. She peeps and sickens at the sight of day. A Melting Simile upon the like Occasion. As some fair Tulip by a storm oppressed Shrinks up, Alm. p. 61. and folds its silken Arms to rest, And bending to the blast, all pale and dead, Hears from within the Wind sing round its head, So shrouded up that beauty disappears. Upon Anger. Why will you in your breast your passion crowd Like unborn Thunder rolling in a Cloud? Alm p. 101 Upon Famine. As callow Birds whose Mother's killed in seeking of the prey, Ind. Emp. Cry in their Nests, and think her long away, And at each leaf that stirs each blast of Wind Gape for the food which they must never find. So cry the People in their Misery. Pensive like Kings in their declining State. Riu. Lad. Pray, why not like States in their declining State? Where by the way, Mr. Dryden, if you had reserved this Davenantism till the opportunity, you might have given the Hollanders a frump, and very honestly have got a Clinch into the Bargain. I shall keep the fasts of Seraphims And wake for joy, like Nightingales in May. Maiden Queen. Bloss me! What stuff is this? prithee▪ speak impartially, does not this worthless Collection now seem to you a confused Mass of thoughts tumbling o'er 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. Now Chance assert thy own inconstancy And fortune fight, that thou may'st fortune be. Alm p. 106 — Birds ne'er impose. Riu. Lad. A Rich plumed Mistress, on their feathered Sons, But leave their loves more open yet and free Than all the Fields of Air, their spacious Birthright. Harsh words from her, Idem. like blows from angry Kings Though they are meant affronts, are construed favours. Seas are the Fields of Combat for the Winds▪ But when they sweep along some flowery Coast Their Wings move mildly, and their rage is lost. All p 158. Move swiftly Sun; and fly a Lover's pace, Leave Weeks and Months behind thee in thy race. 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. Zulema. Dare you what sense and reason prove deny? Al. p. 138. Alm. When she's in question, sense and reason lie. 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.) Quis leget haec?— nemo Hercule nemo, Vel duo, vel nemo. Persius. For Example. Whatever Izabella shall command, Alm. part 2. p. 113. Shall always be a Law to Ferdinand. To what e'er service you ordain my hand Name your request, and call it your Command▪ p. 89. Imagine what must needs be brought to pass, My Hearts not made of Marble, Or of Brass. Orbella. Your Father wonders much at your delay. Ind Emp. p. 13. Cydaria. So great a wonder for so small a stay? Without delay th' unlucky Gift restore, Al. p. 104. p. 89. Or from this Minute never see me more. Grant that she loves me not, at least I see She loves not others, if she loves not me. 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 hadst done so too, at the writing. I foresee that this is labour ill bestowed upon you, for when thou art reprehended for producing a Chimerical 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 strait slap us in the Mouth, and tell us, you designed it so on purpose to make your Play go off more smartly▪ Which Apology how it differs from what Bays the Laureate says, I'll make you yourself 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 entered 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'll 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 yourself to some honest Calling, wherein you may, (and truly hope will) thrive better, than at this domned 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 raised, since you have now no furthur use of their service, to ease yourself of the charge of continuing them in pay, faith, even 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▪ etc.— You know they have already those that will take care of and provide for them.— Longum formose vale, vale. Martin Clifford. REFLECTIONS ON THE Hind & Panther. In a Letter to a Friend. SIR, THE Present you have made me of the Hind and Panther, is variously talked of here in the Country. Some wonder what kind of Champion the Roman Catholics have now gotten: for they have had divers ways of representing themselves; but this of Rhyming us to death, is altogether new, and unheard of, before Mr. Bays 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 Scribbling, 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 new Book against the Church of England, instead of taking down the Play for the Afternoon: yet if he did it well or handsomely, 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. Bays; whose Principle it is to fight single with whole Armies; and this one quality he prefers before all the moral Virtues put together: The Roman Catholics 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 show 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 imagine has ever been the practice of the World, so in his late endeavours to pen Controversy, 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 soars 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. Bays 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 satire, a Man might consider, whether 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 Hedgehog. For all this, is it not great pity to see a Man in the flower of his Romantic 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 Controversy, 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 Battle 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 Music and good Language, and our Eye is also surprised with the Garb and Accoutrements of a Controversial War: Notwithstanding, methinks this blustering 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 Chimeras, the Raptures and Visions of Poetry, gaudy Scenes, unaccountable flights of Nonsense, 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. 1. Transubstantiation. 2. Reformation. 3. Infallibility. 4. Novelty and Schism. 5. The passive Church. First, Transubstantiation, he says, we must admit, — Because Man is to believe Beyond what Sense and Reason can conceive. 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 Standards 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 surprise; 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, Rhyming, and every thing, but Thinking and Sense; as for Instance, p. 15. The Smith Divine, as with a careless Beat, Struck out the mute Creation at a Heat. There's a Rant for you; That's a Flight of Fancy at its full Range, without any Check and Control of Sense and Reason: Hence it is, that he hath been always wont to show 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 spew him out. Secondly, Reformation he rallies at, as the Brat of an old, obscene, and furious Lion; that is, Henry the 8th's Lust: This is indeed a blustering 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 falsely, so maliciously, so ignorantly? He has Face enough to say or unsay any thing, and 'tis his Privilege, 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 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 Bishop's Consecration at the Nagg's-Head-Tavern, or at the Kentish-men's having long Tails 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 Catholic 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 checked 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. Bays therefore ought to know, that our Doctrine, as bad as he thinks it is, was established by Christ and his Apostles; and 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 satisfy 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 Majestic Turn of Heroic Poesy; He cares not what Obloquy he casts upon the History or the Profession of Religion. Thirdly, Infallibility 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 Error: 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, — That this unfailing Guide, In Pope and General Councils must reside. 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 Pastors 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 Judgement. If 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 showed 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 Error; no, not against Sin, which is much more mischievous. But if our Eternal Safety did depend upon the Judgement 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 Infallibility 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 Panegyric of his own Orvietan Balsam. 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 Pastors are only as Inferior 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 of small Consequence, we are to acquiesce in the Decisions of the Church; but if it is visible, that the Pastors teach other Doctrines, than what Christ taught, the People may put in their Appeal to the great Judge, Christ jesus, the Sovereign of the Church. 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 Who setting Councils, Pope, and Church aside, Are every Man his own presuming Guide. However, the use of private Judgement 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 desirable, 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 Scholastic Duncery, before you have replied to the learned and ingenious Answerer of your Pamphlet, which you wrote in Prose in the Case of the Duchess of Y. Your sly Reflection upon Him in this Poem will not do the Business, in which you imitate the Hawking of the Magpie, when she huffs her Train in token of Courage and Victory; whilst, alas! '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 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. We can point out each Period of the Time, When they began, and who begat the Crime; Can Calculate how long the Eclipse endured, Who interposed, what Digits were obscured. Mr. Bays, 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 Controversy, to run us down with Whimsies instead of true Reasoning, as He hath been used to astonish the Spectators in the Playhouse with Scenes, Clothes, and Dances; instead of giving Mankind a Picture of themselves, and thereby making Virtue beloved, Vice abhorred, and the little Irregularities of Men's Tempers, called 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 descent from Rome. Surely in the beginning these things were not so: For according to our Account, Infallibility goes no higher, than the Scholars of Marcus in Irenaeus, or the Gnostics 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 fetched 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 withholding the Cup from the Laity is against our Saviour's 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 jews, 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, awakened the Christian World to look out for a Reformation; to inquire 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 Errors 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 enjoined 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. Bays 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 Ancient 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 Schismatics: 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 Yoke, which had never been put on our Necks; and so it is plain, that the Usurper did make the Schism. It is indeed a Glorious Design to reconcile all Churches to one Doctrine and Communion; but than it must not be done by such Tyranny, as the Popes have practised to fetter Men straighter under the Bondage of fictitious Articles of Faith; but Unity from this kind of Force is rather to be prayed against, than wished 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 Judgement, whatever be our private Opinion: In some parts of his allegorical Poem, one would verily believe, that the Poet himself was turned into a Wolf, for his Speech is all howling, yelling, and barking, that you would imagine, He would presently pull out the Throats, and suck the Blood of all the Protestant Sheep, who are always ready to suffer, rather than commit that Error 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 persuasion 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 Satirist he is; for this reason he hath made a Panther, a spotted Beast of the 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 easy to conjecture at the cause of this his harsh usage of our Church; he hath but lately Apostatised from it, and is but just entered 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 Rebel 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 joan. But (Sir) you have not in the least hit the Relish 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 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 distasteful to Rome its self; who are uneasy, 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 Country, 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 Heresy, as they miscall 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 Majesty's promise; and to Royal and Generous Minds, no Stipulations are so binding, as their own voluntary promises; nor is it to be wondered 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, fantastical 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; 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 loathe his ill-breeding more, than the Buffonery of Ostlers 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 tagged '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 unparallelled Censoriousness, which he exercises over all other Writers. But if the Credit of all Men whatsoever, be, and aught 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 embellished or set off: Ignorant and mistaken Proselyte! 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 mere 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, than any thing is their Duty, that contributes to their Security. For being influenced 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 Playhouse: But so flippant He is, and forward to write against Protestancy in general, that in despite of Sense and good Manners, He huffs, he struts, looks big, and stairs; And all this he can do, because he dares. And when he had cooked up these musty Collections, he recommends them with that high Sauce, the Magnificence of Verse; but methinks he was out in his Politics, 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 good-natured People, are sooner won by good Words than Blows. It hath been an odious Task to me all along to pick out the most noxious pieces of his satire; therefore I shall leave many passages unsearched, 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 imagine the reason, why He should make use of these tedious and impertinent Allegories, unless he thought, that what was solid and argumentative, being imped with something more light and airy, might carry further, and pierce deeper: Unless in this time of Heat and Anger the Roman Catholics may think fit to employ him, as being a spiteful Creature, or the good Fathers may divert themselves awhile with an Animal, that is unlucky, mimical, and gamesome. 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 Controversy about it; they say, you manage Rhythmes well; and that you have a good Art in making high Ideas of Honour, and in speaking noble things: In this Debate, it had been more edifying, if you had wrote in Prose; it would have rendered your Speech more natural, and you would never have made so much Contention, as 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 Scribbler, an empty Politician, an insolent Poet, and an idle pretender to Controversy; so that he is resolved to Rave against us as so many vile Heretics; 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 established 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 fight with Sandbags, the true Emblem of his unjointed, incoherent Stuff; For if he goes on thus in making Volumes of Controversy, his best Confuters, will be the Grocers and Haberdashers of Small Wares, who will bind up their rotten Raisins, and Mundungus in his Papers; and his Booksellers will dwell at the Southside of Paul's, where his Works shall be bound up, as his Forefather William Prynnes were, in Trunks, Hat-cases, and Bandboxes. I am Yours, etc. FINIS.