And to the devil himself may go, If they have motives thereunto : For as there is a war between The dev❜l and them, it is no fin If they, by fubtle stratagem,
Make use of him, as he does them. Has not this present parl'ament
A ledger to the devil fent,
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 fitting above ground,
Whole days and nights upon their breeches, Not feeling pain, were hang'd for witches;
And fome for putting knavish tricks
Upon green geese and turkey-chicks,
Or pigs, that fuddenly 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 wou'd have gull'd him with a trick, But Mart. was too, too politick. Did he not help the Dutch to purge, At Antwerp, their cathedral church? Sing catches to the faints at Mascon, And tell them all they came to ask him? Appear in divers fhapes to Kelly,
And speak i̇' th' nun of Loudon's belly? Met with the parl'ament's committee, At Woodstock, on a pers'nal treaty ? At Sarum take a cavalier, I' th' caufe's fervice, prisoner?
As Withers, in immortal rhyme, Has register'd to after-time.
Do not our great reformers use This Sidrophel to forebode news; To write of victories next year, And castles taken, yet i̇' th' air? 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 What s'e'er the close committee would? Made Mars and Saturn for the cause, The Moon for fundamental laws? The ram, the bull, the goat, declare Against the book of common prayer? The scorpion take the protestation, And bear engage for reformation?
Made all the royal stars recant, Compound, and take the covenant? Quoth Hudibras, the cafe is clear The faints may 'mploy a conjurer, As thou haft prov'd it by their practice; No argument like matter of fact is : And we are best of all led to
Men's principles, by what they do. Then let us strait advance in quest Of this profound gymnosophist,
And as the fates and he advife, Pursue, or wave this enterprise. This faid, he turn'd about his fteed, And eftfoons on th' adventure rid; Where leave we him and Ralph awhile, And to the conj'rer turn our style, To let our reader understand
What's useful for him before hand.
He had been long t'wards mathematics,
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 felf-fame place 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 thofe fowls that live in water
Are never wet, he did but smatter; What e'er he labour'd to appear, His understanding still was clear;
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