855

What churches have fuch able pastors,

And precious, powerful, preaching masters ?
Poffefs'd with abfolute dominions

O'er brethren's purfes and opinions?
And trufted with the double keys
Of heav'n, and their warehouses;
Who, when the cause is in diftrefs,
Can furnish out what fums they please,
That brooding lie in bankers' hands,
To be difpos'd at their commands;
And daily increase and multiply,
With doctrine, use, and ufury:

Can fetch in parties, as in war

All other heads of cattle are,

From th' enemy of all religions,

As well as high and low conditions,

And share them, from blue ribbands down
To all blue aprons in the town;

860

865

870

From ladies hurry'd in calleches,

With cornets at their footmen's breeches,

To bawds as fat as mother Nab,

All guts and belly, like a crab.
Our party's great, and better ty'd
With oaths, and trade, than any fide
Has one confiderable improvement
To double-fortify the cov'nant ;
I mean our covenant to purchase
Delinquents' titles, and the church's,
That pafs in fale, from hand to hand,
Among ourselves, for current land,
And rife or fall, like Indian actions,
According to the rate of factions;
Our best reserve for reformation,
When new outgoings give occafion;
That keeps the loins of brethren girt,
Their covenant, their creed, t' affert ;

875

880

885

And, when they 've pack'd a parliament,
Will once more try th' expedient:
Who can already muster friends

To ferve for members to our ends,

That represent no part o' th' nation,

But Fisher's-folly congregation ;

Are only tools to our intrigues,

And fit like geefe to hatch our eggs;
Who, by their precedents of wit,
T'outfaft, outloiter, and outfit,

And order matters underhand,

To

put all bus'ness to a stand;

Lay public bills aside, for private,

And make 'em one another drive out;

Divert the great and necessary,

With trifles to contest and vary ;

And make the nation represent,

And serve for us in parliament ;

890

895

900

905

Cut out more work than can be done
In Plato's year, but finish none,
Unless it be the bulls of Lenthal,
That always pass'd for fundamental :
Can fet up grandee against grandee,
To fquander time away, and bandy ;
Make lords and commoners lay fieges
To one another's privileges;

910

And, rather than compound the quarrel, 915 Engage, to th' inevitable peril

Of both their ruins, th' only scope

And confolation of our hope;

Who, tho' we do not play the game,

Affift as much by giving aim;

Can introduce our ancient arts,

For heads of factions t' act their parts;
Know what a leading voice is worth,
A seconding, a third, or fourth;

920

How much a casting voice comes to,
That turns up trump of aye or no ;
And, by adjusting all th' end,
Share every one his dividend,

An art that so much study cost,
And now 's in danger to be loft
Unless our ancient virtuofos,

That found it out, get into th' houses.
These are the courses that we took

To

carry things by hook or crook, And practis'd down from forty-four, Until they turn'd us out of door. Befides, the herds of Boutefeus

We fet on work without the house,

When ev'ry knight and citizen
Kept legislative journeymen,
To bring them in intelligence,
From all points of the rabble's sense,

925

930

935

940