What means their traiterous combination lefs,
Too plain t' evade, too fhameful to confefs.
But treafon is not own'd when 'tis defcry'd;
Successful crimes alone are juftify'd.

The men who no confpiracy would find
Who doubts? but had it taken, they had join'd,
Join'd in a mutual covenant of defence;
At first without, at last against, their prince.
If fovereign right by fovereign power they scan,
The fame bold maxim holds in God and man:
God were not fafe, his thunder could they fhun;
He should be forc'd to crown another fon.
Thus, when the heir was from the vineyard thrown,
The rich poffeffion was the murderer's own.
In vain to fophiftry they have recourse :

By proving their's no plot, they prove 'tis worse;
Unmask'd rebellion, and audacious force:

Which though not actual, yet all eyes may fee
'Tis working in th' immediate power to be;
For from pretended grievances they rife,
Fift to diflike, and after to defpife.
Then cyclop-like in human flesh to deal,
Chop up a minister at every meal :
Perhaps not wholly to melt down the king;
But clip his regal rights within the ring.
From thence t' affume the power of peace
And cafe him by degrees of public care.
Yet, to confult his dignity and fame,
He fhould have leave to exercife the name;
And hold the cards while commons play'd the game.

and war;

}

For

For what can power give more than food and drink,
To live at eafe, and not be bound to think?
These are the cooler methods of their crime,
But their hot zealots think 'tis lofs of time;
On utmost bounds of loyalty they stand,
And grin and whet like a Croatian band;
That waits impatient for the last command.
Thus outlaws open villainy maintain,

They steal not, but in squadrons fcour the plain :
And if their power the paffengers fubdue,

The most have right, the wrong is in the few.
Such impious axioms foolishly they show,
For in fome foils republics will not grow:
Our temperate ifle will no extremes fuftain,
Of popular fway or arbitrary reign:
But flides between them both into the best,
Secure in freedom, in a monarch bleft,

And though the climate vex'd with various winds,
Works through our yielding bodies on our minds,
The wholesome tempeft purges what it breeds,
To recommend the calinnefs that fucceeds.

But thou, the pander of the people's hearts,
O crooked foul, and ferpentine in arts,
Whofe blandifhments a loyal land have whor'd,
And broke the bonds the plighted to her lord;
What curfes on thy blasted name will fall!
Which age to age their legacy fhall call;

For all muft curfe the woes that muft defcend on all.
Religion thou haft none: thy Mercury

}

Has pafs'd through every fect, or theirs through thee.

But

But what thou giv'ft, that venom ftill remains;
And the pox'd nation feels thee in their brains.
What else infpires the tongues and fwells the breasts
Of all thy bellowing renegado priests,

That preach up thee for God; dispense thy laws;
And with the stum ferment their fainting caufe?
Fresh fumes of madness raife; and toil and fweat
To make the formidable cripple great.

Yet fhould thy crimes fucceed, fhould lawless power
Compaís thofe ends thy greedy hopes devour,
Thy canting friends thy mortal foes would be,
Thy God and theirs will never long agree;
For thine, if thou haft any, must be one
That lets the world and human-kind alone :
A jolly god, that paffes hours too well
To promife heaven, or threaten us with hell.
That unconcern'd can at rebellion fit,

And wink at crimes he did himself commit.
A tyrant theirs; the heaven their priesthood paints
A conventicle of gloomy fullen faints;

A heaven like Bedlam, flovenly and fad;
Fore-doom'd for fouls, with falfe religion, mad.
Without a vision poets can foreshow

What all but fools by common fenfe may know :
If true fucceffion from our ifle should fail,
And crowds profane with impious arms prevail,
Not thou, nor thofe thy factious arts engage,
Shall reap that harveft of rebellious rage,
With which thou flattereft thy decrepit age.

}

The

The fwelling poifon of the feveral fects,

Which, wanting vent, the nation's health infects,
Shall burft its bag; and fighting out their way
The various venoms on each other prey.
The prefbyter puff'd up with fpiritual pride,
Shall on the necks of the lewd nobles ride:
His brethren damn, the civil power defy;
And parcel out republic prelacy.

But short shall be his reign: his rigid yoke
And tyrant power will puny fects provoke ;
And frogs and toads, and all the tadpole train,
Will croak to heaven for help, from this devouring crane.
The cut-throat fword and clamorous gown fhall jar,
In fharing their ill-gotten fpoils of war:

Chiefs fhall be grudg'd the part which they pretend;
Lords envy lords, and friends with every friend
About their impious merit fhall contend,
The furly commons fhall refpe&t deny,
And justle peerage out with property.
Their general either fhall his traft betray,
And force the crowd to arbitrary sway;
Or they, fufpecting his ambitious aim,
In hate of kings fhall caft anew the frame;
And thrust out Collatine that bore their name.
Thus inborn broils the factions would er gage,
Or wars of exil'd heirs, or foreign rage,
Till halting vengeance overtook our age:
And our wild labours wearied into reft,
Reclin'd us on a rightful monarch's breaft.
Pudet hæc opprobria, vobis

"Et dici potuiffe, & non potuiffe refelli."

}

TAR

TARQUIN

IN

N times when princes cancel'd nature's law,
And declarations which themselves did draw ;
When children us'd their parents to dethrone,
And gnaw their way, like vipers, to the crown;
Tarquin, a favage, proud, ambitious prince,
Prompt to expel, yet thoughtless of defence,
The envied scepter did from Tullius snatch,
The Roman king, and father by the match.
To form his party, hiftories report,

A fanctuary was open'd in his court,
Where glad offenders fafely might refort.

Great was the crowd, and wondrous the success,
For those were fruitful times of wickedness;
And all, that liv'd obnoxious to the laws,
Flock'd to prince Tarquin, and embrac'd his cause.
'Mongst these a pagan priest for refuge fled;
A prophet deep in godly faction read;
A fycophant, that knew the modifh way
To cant and plot, to flatter and betray,
To whine and fin, to fcribble and recant,
A fhameless author, and a lustful faint.
To ferve all times he could diftin&tions coin,
And with great cafe flat contradictions join:
A traitor now, once loyal in extreme,
And then obedience was his only theme:
He fung in temples the moft paffive lays,
And wearied monarchs with repeated praise ;

}

But