Oh frail estate of human things, And slippery hopes below! Now to our cost your emptiness we know; (For 'tis a lesson dearly bought) Assurance here is never to be sought. The best and best belov'd of kings, And best deserving to be so, When scarce he had escap'd the fatal blow Death did his promis'd hopes destroy: So saints, by supernatural power set free, For twelve long years of exile borne. Twice twelve we number'd since his blest return: So strictly wert thou just to pay, Even to the driblet of a day, Yet still we murmur, and complain The quails and manna should no longer rain: Those miracles 'twas needless to renew; The chosen flock has now the Promis'd land in view. A warlike prince ascends the regal state, A prince long exercis'd by Fate: Long may he keep, though he obtains it late! Heroes in Heaven's peculiar mould are cast; [the last. With toil and sweat, With hardening cold, and forming heat, Before 'twas tried and found a masterpiece. View then a monarch ripen'd for a throne! O'er infancy he swiftly ran; The future god, at first, was more than man: Ev'n o'er his cradle lay in wait, And there he grappled first with Fate: In his young hands the hissing snakes he prest; So early was the deity confest : Thus, by degrees, he rose to Jove's imperial seat; Thus difficulties prove a soul legitimately great. Like his, our hero's infancy was tried; Betimes the Furies did their snakes provide, And to his infant arms oppose His father's rebels, and his brother's foes; As after Numa's peaceful reign 'Tis rous'd, and with a new-strung nerve the spear already shakes. No neighing of the warrior-steeds, No drum, or louder trumpet, needs To' inspire the coward, warm the cold; His voice, his sole appearance, makes them bold. foe. Long may they fear this awful prince, In all the changes of his doubtful state, His valour can triumph o'er land and main : With conquest basely bought, and with inglorious gain. For once, O Heaven! unfold thy adamantine Book, And let his wondering senate see, If not thy firm immutable decree, At least the second page of strong contingency, Such as consists with wills originally free: Let them not still be obstinately blind, To starve the royal virtues of his mind. Faith is a Christian's and a subject's test; Oh give them to believe, and they are surely blest! In orderly array, a martial, manly train. A conquering navy proudly spread; The' asserted Ocean rears his reverend head, The faces of the main. THE HIND AND PANTHER. A POEM, IN THREE PARTS. 1687. PREFACE TO THE READER. THE nation is in too high a ferment for me to expect either fair war, or even so much as fair quarter, from a reader of the opposite party. All men are engaged either on this side or that; and though Conscience is the common word which is given by both, yet if a writer fall among enemies, and cannot give the marks of their conscience, he is knocked down before the reasons of his own are heard. A Preface, therefore, which is but a bespeaking of favour, is altogether useless. What I desire the reader should know concerning me, he will find in the body of the Poem, if he have but the patience to peruse it only this advertisement let him take beforehand, which relates to the merits of the cause. No general characters of parties (call them either sects or churches) can be so fully and exactly drawn as to comprehend all the several members of them; at least, all such as are received under that denomination. For example, there are some of the church |