The Authors Apology for his Book.
Yea, he must Pipe, and Whistle to catch this;
Yet if he does so, that Bird he will miss.
If that a Pearl may in a Toads-head dwell,
And may be found too in an Oister-shell;
If things that promise nothing, do contain
What better is then Gold; who will disdain,
(That have an inkling of it,) there to look,
That they may find it. Now my little Book,
(Tho void of all those paintings that may make
It with this or the other Man to take,)
Is not without those things that do excel
What do in brave but empty notions dwell.
Well, yet I am not fully satisfied,
That this your Book will stand; when soundly try'd
Why, what's the matter! it isdark, what tho?
But it is feigned. What of that I tro?
Some men by feigning words as dark as mine,
Make truth to spangle, and its rayes to shine.
But they want solidness: Speak man thy mind,
They drown'd the weak; Metaphors make us blind.
Solidity, indeed becomes the Pen
Of him that writeth things Divine to men:
But must I needs want solidness, because
By Metaphors I speak; Was not Gods Laws,
His Gospel-Laws, in oldertime held forth
By Types, Shadows and Metaphors? Yet loth
Will any sober man be made to find fault
With them, left he be found for to assault
The highest Wisdom. No, he rather stoops,
And seeks to find out what by pins and loops,
Yet if he does so, that Bird he will miss.
If that a Pearl may in a Toads-head dwell,
And may be found too in an Oister-shell;
If things that promise nothing, do contain
What better is then Gold; who will disdain,
(That have an inkling of it,) there to look,
That they may find it. Now my little Book,
(Tho void of all those paintings that may make
It with this or the other Man to take,)
Is not without those things that do excel
What do in brave but empty notions dwell.
Well, yet I am not fully satisfied,
That this your Book will stand; when soundly try'd
Why, what's the matter! it isdark, what tho?
But it is feigned. What of that I tro?
Some men by feigning words as dark as mine,
Make truth to spangle, and its rayes to shine.
But they want solidness: Speak man thy mind,
They drown'd the weak; Metaphors make us blind.
Solidity, indeed becomes the Pen
Of him that writeth things Divine to men:
But must I needs want solidness, because
By Metaphors I speak; Was not Gods Laws,
His Gospel-Laws, in oldertime held forth
By Types, Shadows and Metaphors? Yet loth
Will any sober man be made to find fault
With them, left he be found for to assault
The highest Wisdom. No, he rather stoops,
And seeks to find out what by pins and loops,
By,
