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PART III.

SECOND CANTO.

The Argument.

The Saints engage in fierce contests
About their carnal interests,
To fhare their facrilegious preys
According to their rates of grace:
Their various frenzies to reform,
When Cromwell left them in a form;
Till, in th' effige of Rumps, the rabble
Burn all their grandees of the cabal.

Part 3. Canto 2. Line 1497.

1.Res sculp.

HUDI BRAS.

CANTO II.

THE learned write, an insect breeze

Is but a mongrel prince of bees,
That falls before a storm on cows,

And stings the founders of his house;
From whose corrupted flesh that breed
Of vermin did at first proceed.

5

So, ere the storm of war broke out,
Religion spawn'd a various rout
Of petulant capricious fects,
The maggots of corrupted texts,
That first run all religion down,
And after ev'ry swarm its own:
For as the Perfian Magi once

Upon their mothers got their fons,

10

That were incapable t' enjoy

15

That empire any other way;

So Prefbyter begot the other

Upon the good old caufe, his mother,
That bore them like the devil's dam,
Whofe fon and husband are the fame;
And yet no natʼral tie of blood,
Nor int'rest for their common good,
Could, when their profits interfer'd,
Get quarter for each other's beard:

20

For when they thriv'd they never fadg'd,
But only by the ears engag'd;

Like dogs that fnarl about a bone,
And play together when they've none;
As by their trueft characters,
Their constant actions, plainly appears.
Rebellion now began, for lack

Of zeal and plunder, to grow flack;
The cause and covenant to leffen,
And providence to b' out of season:
For now there was no more to purchase
O' th' king's revenue, and the churches,
But all divided, fhar'd, and gone,

That us'd to urge the brethren on;
Which forc'd the stubborn'ft for the cause,
To cross the cudgels to the laws,

That what by breaking them they 'ad gain'd, By their fupport might be maintain’d;

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