Epistle from Dr. Waldren to Dr. Chetwood, on His Refusing to Take the Oaths

Since at a tavern I can't meet you, In paper embassy I greet you; T' advise you not to be so wary, Touching King William and Queen Mary; That, spight of fellowship and pupils, You 'll weigh your conscience out in scruples.

If (as ye Queen's-men must believe) Two negs make one affirmative; Why i'th name o' th' predicaments, And all your analytic sense, Will you deny two affirmations In their turn too to make negations? This postulatum any pate Will grant that 's unprejudicate; Nay th' argument, I will assure you, To some appears à fortiori.

Hoc dato et concesso, thus I In baralypton blunderbuss ye: He that to two kings takes an oath Is by the last absolv'd from both; For, each oath being an affirmation, Both (as was own'd) make a negation. Thus, scientifically, you see, The more you 're bound, the more you 're free; As jugglers, when they knit one more, Undo the knot they ty'd before.

I admire that your Smiglecian under- -standing should make so strange a blunder, As roundly to aver subjection Were n't couzen-german to protection: Nay more, they 're relatives (unless ye Mistake Tom Hobbes) secundum esse— But I'm in hope you 've slily taken The oath elsewhere, to save your bacon: As spark, by country-clap half undone, Takes coach, and steals a cure at London.