If thou canst prove the Saints have freedom

To go to sorc'rers when they need 'em,

Says Ralpho, There's no doubt of that;

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Those principles I quoted late\__
Prove that the Godly may alledge
For any thing their priviledge,
And to the dev'l himself may go,
If they have motives thereunto:
For, as there is a war between
The dev'l and them, it is no sin
If they by subtle stratagem

Make use of him, as he does them.
Has not this present Parliament

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A ledger to the devil sent,

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Fully empower'd to treat about

Finding revolted witches out?

And has not he, within a year,

Hang'd threescore of 'em in one shire?

Some only for not being drown'd,

And some for sitting above ground,

Whole days and nights, upon their breeches,
And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches';
And some for putting knavish tricks

Upon green geese and turkey-chicks,

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Or pigs that suddenly deceast

Of griefs unnat❜ral, as he guest;
Who after prov'd himself a witch,
And made a rod for his own breech.

Did not the dev'l appear to Martin
Luther in Germany, for certain,

And would have gull'd him with a trick,
But Mart. was too, too politic?

Did he not help the Dutch to purge,
At Antwerp, their cathedral church?

Sing catches to the Saints at Mascon,
And tell them all they came to ask him?
Appear in divers shapes to Kelly,

And speak i' th' Nun of Loudon's belly?
Meet with the Parl'ament's Committee,
At Woodstock, on a pers'nal treaty ?

At Sarum take a cavalier,

I' th' Cause's service, prisoner?
As Withers in immortal rhyme
Has register'd to aftertime.
Do not our great Reformers use
This Sidrophel to forebode news;
To write of victories next year,
And castles taken, yet i' th' air?

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Of battles fought at sea, and ships

Sunk two years hence the last eclipse?
A total o'erthrow giv'n the King

In Cornwall, horse and foot, next Spring?
And has not he point-blank foretold

Whats'e'er the Close Committee would?
And Mars and Saturn for the Cause?
The Moon for fundamental laws?
The Ram, the Bull, and Goat, declare
Against the Book of Common Pray'r?

The Scorpion take the Protestation,
And Bear engage for Reformation?
Made all the Royal stars recant,
Compound, and take the Covenant? \

Quoth Hudibras, the case is clear.
The Saints may 'mploy a conjurer,

As thou hast prov'd it by their practice:
No argument like matter of fact is;

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This said, he turn'd about his steed,

And eftsoons on th' adventure rid;

Where leave we him and Ralph a while,

And to the conj'rer turn our style,

To let our reader understand

What's useful of him beforehand.

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He had been long t'wards mathematics, 205

Optics, philosophy, and statics,
Magic, horoscopy, astrology,
And was old dog at physiology;
But as a dog that turns the spit
Bestirs himself, and plies his feet

To climb the wheel, but all in vain,

His own weight brings him down again,
And still he's in the self-same place

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Where at his setting out he was;

So in the circle of the arts

Did he advance his nat'ral parts,

Till falling back still, for retreat,
He fell to juggle, cant, and cheat.
For as those fowls that live in water
Are never wet, he did but smatter;
Whate'er he labour'd to appear,
His understanding still was clear;

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Yet none a deeper knowledge boasted,

Since old Hodge Bacon, and Bob Grosted.
Th' intelligible world he knew,

And all men dream on't to be true,

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That in this world there's not a wart

That has not there a counterpart ;
Nor can they on the face of ground
An individual beard be found
That has not in that foreign nation
A fellow of the self-same fashion;
So cut, so colour'd, and so curl'd,
As those are in th' inferior world.
He'ad read Dee's prefaces before

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The Dev'l, and Euclid, o'er and o'er ;

And all th' intrigues 'twixt him and Kelly,
Lascus and th' Emperour, would tell ye :
But with the moon was more familiar

Than e'er was almanack well-willer ;
Her secrets understood so clear,
That some believ'd he had been there;
Knew when she was in fittest mood

For cutting corns or letting blood ;
When for anointing scabs or itches,
Or to the bum applying leeches;

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