Preambulation.

IF pious Gifts (by curious disquisition)
Prove not the Badg of antique Superstition;
Or if a Rhyme, reduc'd to holy Reason,
May be allow'd to celebrate the season,
And find admission in a noble heart,
As much as they, whose Riches can impart
Gold of Peru, or those admired works,
That spread the Tables of Triumphant Turks.
I hope the low Oblation of a friend
(That only makes your fair esteem his end)
May find (as it deserves) more grace then he
Whose bounty is a Baud to treachery:
My gift is made of Wishes, such as may
(If granted) live with you, when night and day
Admit of no distinction: perfect bliss
Is now my Theam, and that I wish is this.