And now would prove that words and oath
Engage us to renounce them both?

'Tis true the Cause is in the lurch

Between a right and mongrel church,

The Presbyter and Independent,

That stickle which shall make an end on't,

As it was made out to us the last

515

As, when they serve our turns, t' inflame?

525

(As carnal seamen, in a storm,

Turn pious converts and reform;)

"notches"

When rusty weapons, with chalk'd edges,
Maintain'd our feeble privileges,

And brown-bills, levy'd in the City,
Made bills to pass the Grand Committee:
When Zeal, with aged clubs and gleaves,
Gave chace to rochets and white sleeves,

540

Sbishops

And made the Church, and State, and Laws, 545
Submit t' old iron and the Cause.

And as we thriv'd by tumults then,
So might we better now agen,
If we knew how, as then we did,
To use them rightly in our need:
Tumults by which the mutinous
Betray themselves instead of us
The hollow-hearted, disaffected,

550

W' are offer'd, if we had our senses,

560

+

We idly sit, like stupid blockheads,

Our hands committed to our pockets,
And nothing but our tonges at large
To get the wretches a discharge;
Like men condemn'd to thunderbolts,
Who, ere the blow, become mere dolts;
Or fools besotted with their crimes,
That know not how to shift betimes,

That neither have the hearts to stay,

Nor wit enough to run away;

Who if we could resolve on either,

Might stand or fall at least together;

No mean nor trivial solaces

To partners in extreme distress;

Who use to lessen their despairs,

By parting them int' equal shares ;
As if the more they were to bear
They felt the weight the easier,
And ev'ry one the gentler hung,
The more he took his turn among.
But 'tis not come to that as yet,

If we had courage left, or wit,

Who, when our fate can be no worse,

Are fittted for the bravest course,

565

570

575

580

By being courageously outbrav'd ;

As wounds by wider wounds are heal'd,
And poisons by themselves expell'd:

And so they might be now agen,

585

590

If we were, what we should be, men ;

595

And not so dully desperate,

To side against ourselves with Fate:

As criminals condemn'd to suffer

Are blinded first, and then turn'd over.

This comes of breaking Covenants,

And setting up exauns of Saints,

That fine, like aldermen, for grace,
To be excus'd the efficace :

For sp'ritual men are too transcendent,
That mount their banks for independent,

To hang, like Mah'met, in the air,

Or St. Ignatius at his

prayer,

By pure geometry, and hate

Dependance upon church or state:

Disdain the pedantry o' th' latter,
And since obedience is better

(The Scripture says) than sacrifice,

Presume the less on 't will suffice;

And scorn to have the moderat'st stints

Prescrib'd their peremptory hints,

Or any opinion, true or false,

Declar'd as such, in Doctrinals;

But left at large to make their best on,
Without b'ing call'd t' account or question;
Interpret all the spleen reveals,

As Whittington explain'd the bells;
And bid themselves turn back agen

610

615

620

Lord May'rs of New Jerusalem; i
But look so big and overgrown,

They scorn their edifiers to own,

Who taught them all their sprinkling lessons, 625 Their tones, and sanctified expressions;

Bestow'd their Gifts upon a Saint,

Like charity on those that want;

And learn'd th' apocryphal bigots

T'inspire themselves with short-hand notes, 630

For which they scorn and hate them worse

Than dogs and cats do sow-gelders: