And spurred, as jockies use, to break, Or padders to secure, a neck: Where let us leave 'em for a time, And to their churches turn our rhyme; 1605 To hold forth their declining state, Which now come near an even rate.
The saints engage in fierce contests
About their carnal interests,
To share their sacrilegious preys
According to their rates of grace:
Their various frenzies to reform,
When Cromwell left them in a storm;
Till, in th' effige of Rumps, the rabble
Burn all their grandees of the cabal.
THE learned write, an insect breeze Is but a mongrel prince of bees, That falls before a storm on cows, And stings the founders of his house; From whose corrupted flesh that breed Of vermin did at first proceed.
So, ere the storm of war broke out, Religion spawned a various rout Of petulant capricious sects, 10 The maggots of corrupted texts, That first run all religion down, And after every swarm its own: For as the Persian Magi once Upon their mothers got their sons, 15 That were incapable t' enjoy That empire any other way;
So presbyter begot the other
Upon the good old cause, his mother,
Then bore them like the devil's dam,
20 Whose son and husband are the same;
And yet no natural tie of blood,
Nor interest for the common good,
Could, when their profits interfered,
Get quarter for each other's beard:
25 For when they thrived they never fadged,
But only by the ears engaged:
Like dogs that snarl about a bone,
And play together when they've none;
As by their truest characters,
30 Their constant actions, plainly appears.
Rebellion now began, for lack
Of zeal and plunder, to grow slack;
The cause and covenant to lessen,
And prov'dence to be out of season:
For now there was no more to purchase
O' th' king's revenue, and the church's,
But all divided, shared, and gone,
That used to urge the brethren on;
Which forced the stubborn'st for the cause,
To cross the cudgels to the laws,
That what by breaking them th' had gained
By their support might be maintained ;
Like thieves, that in a hemp-plot lie
Secured against the hue-and-cry;
45 For presbyter and independent
Were now turned plaintiff and defendant; Laid out their apostolic functions On carnal orders and injunctions; And all their precious gifts and graces 50 On outlawries and scire facias;
At Michael's term had many trial,
Worse than the Dragon and St. Michael, Where thousands fell, in shape of fees, Into the bottomless abyss.
For when, like brethren, and like friends,
They came to share their dividends,
And every partner to possess
His church and state joint-purchases,
In which the ablest saint, and best,
60 Was named in trust by all the rest,
To pay their money, and, instead
Of every brother, pass the deed;
He straight converted all his gifts
To pious frauds, and holy shifts,
65 And settled all the other shares
Upon his outward man and 's heirs;
Held all they claimed as forfeit lands
Delivered up into his hands,
And passed upon his conscience
70 By pre-entail of providence;
Impeached the rest for reprobates,
That had no titles to estates,
But by their spiritual attaints
Degraded from the right of saints.
75 This being revealed, they now begun.
With law and conscience to fall on,
And laid about as hot and brain-sick
As th' utter barrister of Swanswick;
Engaged with money-bags, as bold
80 As men with sand-bags did of old,
That brought the lawyers in more fees
Than all unsanctified trustees;
Till he who had no more to show
I' th' case, received the overthrow;
85 Or, both sides having had the worst,
They parted as they met at first.
Poor presbyter was now reduced,
Secluded, and cashiered, and choused!
Turned out, and excommunicate
From all affairs of church and state,
Reformed t'a reformado saint,
And glad to turn itinerant,
To stroll and teach from town to town,
And those he had taught up, teach down,
And make those uses serve again
Against the new-enlightened men,
As fit as when at first they were
Revealed against the cavalier;
Damn anabaptist and fanatic,
100 As pat as popish and prelatic;
And, with as little variation,
To serve for any sect i' th' nation,
The good old cause, which some believe
To be the devil that tempted Eve
105 With knowledge, and does still invite
The world to mischief with new light,
Had store of money in her purse,
When he took her for better or worse,
But now was grown deformed and poor,
And fit to be turned out of door.
The independents (whose first station
Was in the rear of reformation,
A mongrel kind of church-dragoons,
That served for horse and foot at once,
And in the saddle of one steed
The Saracen and Christian rid;
Were free of every spiritual order,
To preach, and fight, and pray, and murder :)
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