Or virtue in them as the vermin,

1035

Those who have try'd them can determine.

Indeed 'tis pity you should mifs

Th' arrears of all your fervices,
And, for th' eternal obligation
Y' faid upon th' ungrateful nation,
Be us'd fo unconscionably hard,

1040

As not to find a just reward

For letting rapine loofe, and murther,
To rage juft fo far, but no further,

And, setting all the land on fire,

1043

To burn t' a scantling, but no higher;

For venturing to affaffinate

ول

And cut the throats of Church and State,

And not be allow'd the fittest men

To take the charge of both again :

3050

Especially that have the grace

Of felf-denying gifted face;

Who, when your projects have mifcarry'd,
Can lay them, with undaunted forehead,

On those you painfully trepann'd,

And sprinkled in at fecond-hand;

1955

As we have been, to share the guilt

Of Christian blood, devoutly spilt;

For fo our ignorance was flamm'd,

To damn ourselves, t' avoid being damn'd;
Till, finding your old foe, the hangman,

-gammon,

Was like to lurch you at Back-
And win your necks upon the fet,
As well as ours, who did but bet

1060

(For

(For he had drawn your cars before,
And nick'd them on the felf-fame score),
We threw the box and dice

away,

Before y' had loft us at foul play,

1065

And brought you down to rook and lye,
And fancy only on the bye;

1070

Redeem'd your forfeit jobbernoles,
From perching upon lofty poles,

And rescued all your outward traitors
From hanging up, like aligators;

For which ingenuously ye 've fhew'd

1075

Your Prefbyterian gratitude;

Would freely have paid us home in kind,

And not have been one rope behind.

Those were your motives to divide,

And fcruple, on the other fide;

To turn your zealous frauds, and force,
To fits of confcience and remorse;
To be convinc'd they were in vain,
And face about for new again:
For truth no more unveil'd your eyes,

Than maggots are convinc'd to flies;
And therefore all your Lights and Calls
Are but apocryphal and false,

1080

1085

Το

Ver. 1065.] Alluding to the cafe of Mr. Prynne, who had his ears cropped twice for his feditious writings.

Ver. 1086. Than maggots are convinc'd to flies.] Thus it ftands in all editions to 1710, exclufive, and then altered, Than maggots when they turn to flies.

To charge us with the confequences

Of all your native infolences,

That to your own imperious wills

Laid Law and Gospel neck and heels;
Corrupted the Old Teftament,
To ferve the New for precedent;
T' amend its errors and defects
With murther and rebellion texts ;
Of which there is not any one

In all the book to fow upon;

And therefore (from your tribe) the Jews
Held Chriftian doctrine forth, and ufe;
As Mahomet (your chief) began

Denounc'd and pray'd, with fierce devotion,

1090

1095

1100

To mix them in the Alcoran;

And bended elbows on the cushion;

Stole from the beggars all your tones,

1105

And gifted mortifying groans;

Had lights where better eyes were blind,

As pigs are faid to see the wind;

Fill'd Bedlam with predestination,

And Knightsbridge with illumination;

1110

Made children, with your tones, to run for 't,
As bad as Bloodybones or Lunsford.

While

Ver. 1093.] This was done by a fanatical printer, in the feventh commandment; who printed it, Thou fhalt commit adultery, and was fined for it in the Starchamber, 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

E3

alarms,,

While women, great with child, miscarry'd,
For being to malignants marry'd:
Transform'd all wives to Dalilahs,
Whofe hufbands were not for the Caufe;
And turn'd the men to ten-horn'd cattle,
Because they came not out to battle;
Made taylors' 'prentices turn heroes,
For fear of being tranform'd to Meroz,

And rather forfeit their indentures,

Than not efpoufe the Saints' adventures:
Could transfubftantiate, metamorphofe,
And charm whole herds of beafts, like Orpheus;

Inchant

alarms, and to fill the people full of frightful apprehenfions. In particular they raised a terrible outcry of the imaginary danger they conceived from the Lord Digby and Colonel Lunsford. Lilburn glories, upon. his trial, for being an incendiary on fuch occafions, and mentions the tumult he raised against the innocent Colonel as a meritorious action: "I was once ar"raigned (fays he) before the Houfe of Peers, for "fticking clofe to the liberties and privileges of this "nation, and thofe that stood for them, being one of "thofe two or three men that firft drew their fwords "in Weftminster-hall against Colonel Lunsford, and "fome fcores of his affociates: at that time it was

fuppofed they intended to cut the throats of the "chiefeft men then fitting in the House 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 gentleman the more deteftable, they made horrid pictures of him. Colonel Lunsford, after all, was a perfon of extraordinary fobriety, induftry, and courage, and was killed at the taking of Bristol by the King, in 1643.

Inchant the King's and Church's lands,

T'obey and follow your commands,

And settle on a new freehold,

As Marcly-hill had done of old;

Could turn the Covenant, and tranflate
The Gospel into spoons and plate;
Expound upon all merchants' cashes,
th' intricateft places ;

And open

Could catechise a money-box,
And prove all pouches orthodox ;
Until the Caufe became a Damon,
And Pythias the wicked Mammon :
And yet, in fpite of all your charms
To conjure Legion up in arms,
And raise more devils in the rout,
Than e'er y' were able to caft out,

Y' have been reduc'd, and by those fools
Bred up (you fay) in your own schools,
Who, though but gifted at your feet,
Have made it plain they have more wit;
By whom you 've been so oft trepann'd,
And held forth out of all command;
Out-gifted, out-impuls'd, out-done,
And out-reveal'd at Carryings-on;
Of all your Difpenfations worm'd;
Out-providenc'd, and out-reform'd;
Ejected out of Church and State,
And all things but the people's hate;
And fpirited out of th' enjoyments
Of precious, edifying employments,