H U DI B R A S.

IN THREE PARTS.

PART III.

CANTO II.

THE

ARGUMENT.
The Saints engage in fierce contets
About their carnal interests,
To share their facrilegious preys
According to their rates of Grace :
Their various frenzies to reform,
When Cromwell left them in a form;
Till, in th' efige of Rumps, the rabble
burn all their Grandees of the Cabal.

HE learned write, an infe&t breeze

That falls before a storm on cows,
And stings the founders of his house,

From

This Canto is entirely independent of the adventures of Hudibras and Ralpho: neither of our heroes make their appearance: other characters are introduced, and a new vein of satire is exhibited. The Poet iteps out ef his road, and skips from the time wherein these

B 2

adventures

Laid out their apostolic functions
On carnal Orders and Injunctions ;
And all their precious Gifts and Graces
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,
Was nam'd in trust by all the rest

their

money, and, instead
Of every Brother, pass the deed,
He straight converted all his gifts
To pious frauds and holy shifts,
And settled all the other shares
Upon his outward man and 's heirs ;
Held all they claim'd as forfeit lands
Deliver'd up into his hands,
And pass’d upon his conscience
By pre-entail of Providence ;
Impeach'd the rest for Reprobates,
That had no titles to estates,
But by their spiritual attaints
Degraded from the right of Saints.
This being reveal’d, they now begun
With law and conscience to fall on,

To pay

65

70

75

And

And laid about as hot and brain-fick
As th' Utter barrister of Swanswick;
Engag'd with money-bags, as bold
As men with sand-bags did of old,
That brought the lawyers in more fees
Than all unsanctify'd Trustees ;
Till he who had no more to show
I'th' case, receiv'd the overthrow ;
Or, both sides having had the worst,
They parted as they met at first.
Poor Presbyter was now reduc'd,
Secluded, and cashier'd, and chous'd!
Turn'd out, and excommunicate
From all affairs of Church and State,
Reform'd t'a reformado Saint,
And glad to turn itinerant,
To itroll and teach from town to town,
And those he had taught up teach down,
And make those uses serve again
Against the New-enlightend men,
As fit as when at first they were
Reveal'd against the Cavalier ;
Damn Anabaptist and Fanatic
As pat as Popish and Prelatic ;,
And, with as little variation,
To serve for any feet i' th’nation.
The Good old Cause, which some believe
To be the devil that tempted Eve
With knowledge, and does still invite
The world to mischief with New Light,

B 4
Ver, 78.] W. Prynne, a voluminous writer.

95

100

105

Had

IIO

Had store of money in her purse,
When he took her for better or worse :
But now was grown deform'd and poor,
And fit to be turn'd out of door.

The Independents (whose first station
Was in the rear of Reformation,
A mongrel kind of Church-dragoons,
That sery'd for horse and foot at once,
And in the faddle of one steed

115
The Saracen and Christian rid;
Were free of every spiritual order,
To preach, and fight, and pray, and murder)

No Ver. 118.] The officers and soldiers among the Independents got into pulpits, and preached and prayed as well as fought. Oliver Cromwell was fam'd for a preacher, and has a sermon * in print, intituled, Cromawell's Learned, Devout, and Conscientious Exercise, beld at Sir Peter Temple's in Lincoln's Inn-fields, upon Rom. xiii. 1. in which are the following flowers of rhetoric : " Dearly beloved brethren and lifters, it is

true, this text is a malignant one; the wicked and “ ungodly have abused it very much ; but, thanks be " to God, it was to their own ruin.

“ But now that I spoke of Kings, the question is, “Whether, by the higher powers, are meant kings or

commoners ? Truly, beloved, it is a very great “ question among those that are learned : for may not

every one that can read observe, that Paul speaks in “ the plural num'er, higher powers? Now, had he “ incant subjectie, to a king, he would have said, “ “Let every foul te subject to the higher power," if “ he had meant one man ; but by this you see he

meant * This, however, is now well known to be an imposture. N.