And that they bait but bears in this,
In th' other fouls and confciences;
Where faints themselves are brought to stake
For gofpel-light and confcience fake;
Expos'd to scribes and presbyters,
Instead of mastiff dogs and curs;
Than whom th' have lefs humanity,
For these at fouls of men will fly.
This to the prophet did appear,
Who in a vifion faw a bear,
Prefiguring the beastly rage
Of church-rule, in this latter age:
As is demonstrated at full
By him that baited the pope's bull.
Bears naturally are beafts of prey,
That live by rapine; fo do they.
What are their orders, constitutions,
Church-cenfures, curfes, abfolutions,
But fev'ral mystic chains they make,
To tie poor Christians to the stake?
And then fet heathen officers,
Instead of dogs, about their ears.
For to prohibit and dispense,
To find out, or to make offence;
Of hell and heav'n to dispose,
To play with fouls at fast and loose ;
To set what characters they please,
And mulets on fin or godliness;
Reduce the church to gofpel-order,
By rapine, facrilege, and murder;
To make presbytery supreme,
And kings themselves fubmit to them;
And force all people, tho' against
Their confciences, to turn faints;
Must prove a pretty thriving trade,
When faints monopolists are made:
When pious frauds, and holy shifts,
Are difpenfations, and gifts;
There godliness becomes mere ware,
And ev'ry fynod but a fair.
Synods are whelps o' th' Inquifition,
A mungrel breed of like pernicion,
And growing up, became the fires
Of fcribes, commiffioners, and triers;
Whose bus'ness is, by cunning flight,
To caft a figure for men's light;
To find, in lines of beard and face,
The phyfiognomy of grace;
And by the found and twang of nose,
If all be found within difclofe,
Free from a crack, or flaw of finning,
As men try pipkins by the ringing;
By black caps, underlaid with white,
Give certain guefs at inward light;
Which ferjeants at the gospel wear,
To make the sp'ritual calling clear.
The handkerchief about the néck,
-Canonical cravat of fmeck,
From whom the inftitution came,
When church and state they set on flame,
And worn by them as badges then
Of fpiritual warfaring-men,—
Judge rightly if regeneration.
Be of the newest cut in fafhion:
Sure 'tis an orthodox opinion,
That grace is founded in dominion.
Great piety consists in pride;
To rule is to be fanctify'd:
To domineer, and to controul,
Both o'er the body and the foul,
Is the most perfect discipline
Of church-rule, and by right divine.
Bell and the Dragons chaplains were
More moderate than those by far:
For they, poor knaves, were glad to cheat,
To get their wives and children meat;
But these will not be fobb'd off so,
They must have wealth and power too;
Or elfe, with blood and defolation,
They'll tear it out o' th' heart o' th' nation.
Sure these themselves from primitive
And heathen priesthood do derive,
When butchers were the only clerks,
Elders and presbyters of kirks;
Whose directory was to kill;
And fome believe it is so still.
The only diff'rence is, that then
They flaughter'd only beasts, now men.
For them to facrifice a bullock,
Or, now and then, a child to Moloch,
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