And freely facrifice their ears T'appeafe our jealoufies and fears: And yet for all these providences W' are offer'd, if we had our fenfes, We idly fit, like stupid blockheads, Our hands committed to our pockets, And nothing but our tongues at large, To get the wretches a discharge; Like men condemn'd to thunderbolts, Who, ere the blow, become mere dolts; Or fools befotted with their crimes, That know not how to fhift betimes, That neither have the hearts to stay, Nor wit enough to run away; Who, if we could refolve on either, Might stand or fall at least together; No mean nor trivial folaces To partners in extreme distress; Who ufe to leffen their despairs By parting them int' equal shares; As if, the more they were to bear, They felt the weight the easier; And every one the gentler hung, The more he took his turn among. But 'tis not come to that, as yet, If we had courage left, or wit, Who, when our fate can be no worse, Are fitted for the bravest course. Have time to rally, and prepare Our laft and beft defence, defpair: Defpair, by which the gallant'ft feats dave been atchiev'd in greatest straits, And horrid'st dangers fafely wav'd, By being courageously outbrav'd; As wounds by wider wounds are heal'd, And poifons by themfelves expell'd: And fo they might be now again,

f we were, what we fhould be, men; and not fo dully defperate,

o fide against ourselves with Fate:

is criminals, condemn'd to fuffer,

565 Who taught them all their sprinkling lessons, 625 Their tones, and fanctify'd expreflions, Beftow'd their gifts upon a Saint,

Like charity, on thofe that want;
And learn'd th' apocryphal bigots

570 T' inipire themselves with short-hand notes; 63a
For which they fcorn and hate them worse
Than dogs and cats do fow-gelders:
For who first bred them up to pray,
And teach the Houfe of Commons' way?

$75 Where had they all their gifted phrafes
But from our Calamies and Cafes?

Without whofe fprinkling and fowing,
Who e'er had heard of Nye or Owen ?
Their Difpenfations had been ftifled,

580 But for our Adoniram Byfield;

And, had they not begun the war,
They 'ad ne'er been fainted as they are:
For Saints in peace degenerate,
And dwindle down to reprobate;

635

640

585 Their zeal corrupts, like standing water, In th' intervals of war and flaughter; Abates the sharpness of its edge, Without the power of facrilege:

645

And though they 've tricks to caft their fins,

590 As eafy as ferpents do their skins, That in a while grow out again,

650

o be excus'd the efficace :

or fpiritual men are too tranfcendent,

hat mount their banks, for independent, o hang, like Mahomet, in the air, r St. Ignatius, at his prayer,

y pure geometry, and hate ependence upon church or ftate: ifdain the pedantry o' th' letter,

nd, fince obedience is better

The Scripture fays) than facrifice, efume the lefs on 't will fuffice; nd fcorn to have the moderat'st stints refcrib'd their peremptory hints, rany opinion, true or falfe, eclar'd as fuch, in Doctrinals;

auns.

VOL. II,

he had the profit of printing the Directory, the copy whereof was fold for 40cl. though, when printed, the price was but three-pence.

Ver. 648. It is an obfervation made by many writers upon the Affembly of Divines, that in their annotations upon the Bible they cautiously avoid fpeaking upon the subject!of_facrilege.

3 [N]

But that which does them greatest harm,
Their fpirital gizzards are too warm,
Which puts the over heated fots
In fever ftill, like other goats;
For though the Whore bends heretics
With flames of fire, like crooked sticks,
Our Schifmatics fo vaftly differ,

Th' hotter they 're they grow the stiffer;
Still fetting off their fpiritual goods
With fierce and pertinacious feuds ;
For Zeal's a dreadful termagant,

That teaches Saints to tear and rant;
And Independents to profefs
The doctrine of Dependences;
Turns meek, and fec.et, fneaking ones,
To Rawheads fierce and Bloodybones;
And, not content with end'efs quarrels
Against the Wicked and their morals,
The Gibellines, for want of Guelfs,
Divert their rage upon themselves.
For, now the war is not between
The Brethren and the Men of Sin,
But Saint and saint, to fpill the blood
Of one another's Brotherhood,
Where neither fide can lay pretence
To liberty of confcience,

Or, zealous fuffering for the Caufe,
To gain one groat's-worth of applaufe;
For, though endur'd with refolution,
'Twill ne'er amount to perfecution.
Shall precious Saints, and fecret ones,
Break one another's outward bones,
And eat the flesh of Brethren,
Instead of kings and mighty men?
When fiends agree among themselves,
Shall they be found the greater elves?
When Bell's at union with the Dragon,
And Baal-Peor friends with Dagon;
When favage bears agree with bears,
Shall fecret one lug Saints by th' ears,
And not atone their fatal wrath,
When common danger threatens both?

That rook'd upon us with defign To out-reform and undermine; Took all our interests and commands 670 Perfidioufly out of our hands; Involv'd us in the guilt of blood, Without the motive-gains allow'd, And made us ferve as minifterial, Like younger fons of Father Belial: And yet, for all th' inhuman wrong They 'ad done us and the Cause so long, We never fail'd to cary on

675

680

The Work ftill, as we had begun;
But true and faithfully obey 'd,

And neither preach'd them hurt, nor pray'd;
Nor troubled them to crop our ears,
Nor hang us, like the Cavaliers;
Nor put them to the charge of jails,
To find us pillories and carts'-tails,
685 Or hangman's wages, which the state
Was forc'd before them to be at:
That cut, like tallies to the ftumps,
Our ears for keeping true accompts,
And burnt our veffels, like a new
Seal'd peck, or bushel, for being true;
But hand in hand, like faithful Brothers,
Held for the Caufe against all others,
Difdaining equally to yield

690

695

700

905

Shall mastiffs, by the collars pull'd,

Engag'd with bulls, let go their hold?

710

No notice of the danger take?

But though no power of heaven or hell

Can pacify fanatic zeal,

Who would not guess there might be hopes,

715

The fear of gallowfes and ropes,

Before their eyes, might reconcile

Their animofities a while,

Although 'twas our and their opinion,
Each other's church was but a Rimmon;
And yet for all this Gofpel-union,

And outward fhew of Church-communion,
They'd ne'er admit us to our fhares,
Of ruling church or ftate affairs,
Nor give us leave t' abfolve, or fentence
T'our own conditions of repentance; `
But fhar'd our dividend o' the Crown
We had fo painfully preach'd down,
And forc'd us, though against the grain,
T' have calls to teach it up again;
For 'twas but justice to restore
The wrongs we had receiv'd before;
And when 'twas held forth in our way,
We 'ad been ungrateful not to pay;
Who, for the right we've done the nation,
Have earn'd our temporal falvation,

And put our veffels in a way,

This none but we alone could doubt, Who understand their workings-out, And know them, both in foul and conscience, Given up t'as reprobate a nonfenfe As fpiritual outlaws, whom the power Of miracle can ne'er reftore. We whom at first they set-up under In revelation only' of plunder, Who fince have had fo many trials Of their incroaching felf-denials,

Once more, to come again in play:

25

For if the turning of us out

Has brought this providence about,
And that our only fuffering

Is able to bring-in the King,

What would our actions not have done,

730 Had we been suffer'd to go on?

And therefore may pretend t' a share,
At least, in carrying on th' affair;

860

865

But whether that he fo or not,

We've done enough to have it thought,
And that's as good as if we 'ad done 't,
And easier pafs'd upon account:
For if it be but half deny'd,
'Tis half as good as justify'd.
The world is naturally averfe
To all the truth it fees or hears,
But fwallows nonfenfe, and a lye,
With greedinefs and gluttony;

And though it have the pique, and long,
'Tis ftill for fomething in the wrong;
As women long, when they're with child,
For things extravagant and wild;
For meats ridiculous and fulfome,

From th' enemy of all religions,

As well as high and low conditions,

And fhare them, from blue ribbands, down To all blue aprons in the town:

870

From ladies hurried in calleches,

With cornets at their footmen's breeches,

But feldom any thing that 's wholefome;

To bawds as fat as Mother Nab, All guts and belly, like a crab,

875

And, like the world, men's jobbernoles
Turn round upon their ears, the poles,
And what they're confidently told,
By no fenfe elfe can be control'd.

For, as relapfes make diseases

And this, perhaps, may prove the means Once more to hedge in Providence.

88a

More desperate than their first accesses,

If we but get again in power,

Our work is eafier than before, And we more ready and expert I' th' mystery, to do our part: We, who did rather undertake The firft war to create than make; And, when of nothing 'twas begun, Rais'd funds, as ftrange, to carry it on; Trepann'd the ftate, and fac'd it down, With plots and projects of our own; And if we did fuch feats at first, What can we, now we're better verft? Who have a freer latitude,

Than finners give themselves, allow'd; And therefore likelieft to bring in,

On fairest terms, our Difcipline;

To which it was reveal'd long fince We were ordain'd by Providence, When three Saints' ears, our predeceffors, The Caufe's primitive confeffors, Being crucify'd, the nation flood in just fo many years of blood, That, multiply'd by Six, exprest The perfect number of the Beast, And prov'd that we must be the men To bring this work about again; And those who laid the first foundation, Complete the thorough Reformation: For who have gifts to carry on So great a work, but we alone; What Churches have fuch able pastors,

835

Our party's great, and better ty'd
With oaths, and trade, than any fide;
Has one confiderable improvement
To double fortify the Covenant;
I mean our Covenant to purchase
Delinquents' titles, and the Church's,
That pafs in fale, from hand to hand,
Among ourselves, for current land,
And rife or fall, like Indian actions,
According to the rate of factions;
Our best referve for Reformation,
When new Outgoings give occafion;
That keeps the loins of Brethren girt,
The Covenant (their creed) t' affert;
And, when they 've pack'd a Parliament,

885

89@

830 Will once more try th' expedient:
Who can already mufter friends
To ferve for members to our ends,
That reprefent no part o' th' nation,
But Fisher's-folly congregation;
Are only tools to our intrigues,
And fit like geefe to hatch our eggs;
Who, by their precedents of wit,

895

T' outfaft, outloiter, and outfit,

Can order matters underhand,

840

Το put all bufinets to a stand;

900

Lay public bills afide for private,

And make them one another drive out;

905

Divert the great and neceffa. y, With trifles to contest and vary; 845 And make the nation reprefent, And ferve for us in Parliament Cut out more work than can be done In Plato's year, but finish none, Unless it be the bulls of Lenthal, 850 That always pafs'd for fundamental;

910

Ver. 909.] Mr. Lenthal was Speaker to that Houfe of Commons which begun the Rebellion, murdered the King, becoming then but the Rump, or fag-end of a Houfe, and was turned out by Oliver Cromwell; reitored after Richard was outed, and at last diffolved themselves at General Monk's command: and as his name was fet to the ordinances of this Houfe, thefe ordinances are here called the Bulls of Lentbal, in allufion to the Pope's bulls, which are humorously defcribed by the author of A Tale of a Tub,

3 [N] 2

Can fet up grandee against grandee,
To fquander time away and bandy;
Make Lords and Commoners lay fieges
To one another's privileges;

And, rather than compound the quarrel,
Engage, to th' inevitable peril

Of both their ruins, th' only scope
And confolation of our hope;
Who, though we do not play the game,
Affift as much by giving aim;
Can introduce our ancient arts,
-For heads of factions, t' act their parts;
Know what a leading voice is worth,
A feconding, a third, or fourth;
How much a cafting voice comes to,
That turns up trump of Aye or No;
And, by adjusting all at th' end,
Share every one his dividend:
An art that fo much study cost,
And now 's in danger to be loft,
Unleis our ancient virtuofo's,
That found it out, get into th' Houses,
Thefe are the courfes that we took
To carry things by hook or crook,
And pratis'd down from forty-four,
Until they turn'd us out of door.
Befides, the herds of Bout:feus
We fet on work without the Houfe,
When every knight and citizen
Kept legislative journeymen,
To bring them in intelligence,
From all points, of the rabble's fenfe,
And fill the lobbies of both Houfes,
With politic iriportant buzzes;
Set up committees of cabals,
To pack defigns without the walls;
Examine, and draw up all news,
And fit it to our present ute;
Agree upon the plot o' the farce,
And every one his part reliçarse;
Make Q's of anfwers, t waylay
What th' other party 's like to fay;
What repartees, and mart reflections,
Shall be return'd to all objections;
And who fhall break the matter-jeft,
And what, and how, upon the reft:
Help pamphlets out, with fafe editions,
Of proper anders and feditions,
And treafon for a token fend,
By letter, to a country friend;
Difperfe lampoons, the only wit
That men, like burglary, commit,
With falfer than a padder's face,
That all its owner does betrays,
Who therefore dares not truft it, when
He 's in his calling to be feen;
Difperfe the dung on barren earth,
To bring new weeds of difcord forth;

Be fure to keep up congregations,
In fpite of laws and proclamations:
For chiarlatans can do no good,
Until they're mounted in a crowd;

915 And when they 're punifh'd, all the hurt
Is but to fare the better for 't;
As long as confeffors are fure
Of double pay for all th' endure,
And what they earn in perfecution,
920 Are paid t'a groat in contribution:
Whence fome tub-holders-forth have made
In powdering-tubs their richest trade;
And, while they kept their fhops in prifon,
Have found their prices ftrangely rifen;
925 Difdain to own the leaft regret,

For all the Chriftian blood we've let; 'Twill fave our credit, and maintain Our title to do so again; That needs not coft one dram of fenfe, 930 But pertinacious impudence. Our conftancy to our principles, In time, will wear out all things elfe; Like marble ftatues, rubb'd in pieces With gallantry of pilgrims' kiffes; 935 While thofe who turn and wind their oaths, Have fwell'd and funk, like other froths; Prevail'd a winle, but 'twas not long Before from world to world they fwung. As they had tu n'd from fide to fide; 940 And as the changelings lived they dy'd.

This faid, th' impatient Statesmonger
Could now contain himself no longer,
Who had not fpar'd to thew his piques
Against th' haranguer's politics.
945 With fmart remarks of leering faces,
And annotations of grimaces,
After h' had adminifter'd a dofe
Of fnuff madungus to his note,
And powder'd th' infile of his fcull,
950 Instead of the outward jobbernol,
He fhook it with a fceful look
On th' adverfary, and thus he fpoke:

In dreifing a calf's head, although
The tongue and brains together 30,
955 Both keep io great a difiance here,
'Tis itrange if ever they come near;
For who did ever play his gambois.
With fuch infufferable rambles,
To make the bringing in the King
960 And keeping of him out one thing?
Which none could do, but thofe that fwore
T'as point-blank nonfenfe heretofore;
That to defend was to invade,
And to affaffinate to aid:

965

975

داو

1000

Ver. 995, 996.] Dr. South remarks upon t Regicides, "That fo fure did they make of ven, and fo fully reckoned themselves is "high road thither, that they never so much "thought that their Saintships fhould take "Tyburn in the way."

Ver. 1004] Grimajbes, edition 1674. Alt 1684.

Ver. 1007.] Infide of bis foul, in the firft edi tion of 16-3. Altered to full, 1684, four ye after Mr. Butler's death.

we have been, to fhare the guilt iChriftian blood, devoutly ipilt; ir four ignorance was flamm'd,

> damn on felves, t' avoid being damn'd; 1060 , finding your old foe, the hangman,

as like to lurch you at Back-gammon,

nd win your necks upon the fet,

well as ours, who did but bet

er he had drawn your ears before,

nd nick'd them on the felf-fame fcore),

ethrew the box and dice away,

Sore y' had loit us at foul play,

ad bought you down to rook and lye,

ad fancy only on the bye;

edeem'd your forfeit jobbernoles,

m perching upon lofty poles,

which ingenuo fly ye 've thew'd

Bar Prefbyterian gratitude;

out freely have paid us home in kind,

not have been one rope behind.

be were your motives to divide,

ad fcruple, on the other fide;

turn your zealous frauds, and force, fits of confcience and remorie;

1065

1070

1075

1080

Ver. 1065] Alluding to the cafe of Mr. Finne, who had his cars cropped twice for his atous writings.

Ver. 1093 This was done by a fanatical printer, in the feventh commandment; who printed it, Theu fhalt commit adultery, and was fined for it in the Star-chamber, or High-commiffion Court.

Ver. 1112. Or Lunsford.] It was one of the artifices of the Male-contents in the Civil war, to raife falfe alarms, and to fill the people full of frightful apprehenfions. In particular they raifed a terrible outcry of the imaginary danger they conceived from the Lord Digby and Colonel Luusford. Lilburn glories, upon his trial, for being an incendiary on fuch occafions, and mentions the tumult he raifed against the innocent Colonel as a meritorious action: "I was once "arraigned (fays he) before the House of Peers, "for flicking clofe to the liberties and privileges "of this nation, and thofe that stood for them, "being one of thefe two or three men that first "drew their fwords in Weftminster-hall again "Colonel Lunsford, and fome scores of his af"fociates: at that time it was fuppofed they in"tended to cut the throats of the chiefeft men "then fitting in the Hoafe of Peers." And, to render him the more odious, they reported that he was of fo brutal an appetite that he would eat children. And, to make this gentieman the more deteftable, they made horrid pictures of him. Colonel Lunsford, after all,