(Myfterious veil, of brightness made,
That's both her luftre and her shade),
And in the lanthorn of the night,
With fhining horns hung out her light; 910
For darkness is the proper sphere,
Where all false glories ufe t' appear.
The twinkling ftars began to muster,
And glitter with their borrow'd lustre ;
While fleep the weary'd world reliev'd,
By counterfeiting death reviv'd.
His whipping penance till the morn,
Our vot'ry thought it beft t' adjourn,
And not to carry on a work
Of fuch importance in the dark,
With erring hafte, but rather stay,
And do't in th' open face of day;
And, in the mean time, go in quest
Of next retreat to take his reft.
The Knight and Squire in hot difpute
Within an ace of falling out,
Are parted with a fudden fright
Of ftrange alarm, and ftranger fight;
With which adventuring to ftickle,
They're fent away in hasty pickle.
IS ftrange how fome men's tempers fuit,
(Like bawd and brandy) with difpute,
That for their own opinions stand faft
Only to have them claw'd and canvaft;
That keep their confciences in cafes,
As fiddlers do their crowds and bases;
Ne'er to be us'd but when they're bent
To play a fit for argument:
Make true and false, unjust, and just,
Of no ufe but to be difcuft;
Difpute and fet a paradox,
Like a strait boot upon the stocks,
And ftretch it more unmercifully,
Than Helmont, Montaign, White or Lully.
So th' ancient Stoics in their porch,
With fierce difpute maintain’d their church,
Beat out their brains in fight and study,
To prove that virtue is a body;
That bonum is an animal,
Mades good with ftout polemic brawl:
In which fome hundreds on the place
Were flain outright, and many a face
Retrench'd of noife, and eyes, and beard,
To maintain what their sect averr'd,
All which the Knight and Squire in wrath
Had like t'have fuffer'd for their faith,
Each striving to make good his own,
As by the fequel shall be shown.
The fun had long fince, in the lap
Of Thetis, taken out his nap.
And like a lobfter boil'd, the morn,
From black to red began to turn;
When Hudibras, whom thoughts and aking, 'Twixt fleeping kept all night, and waking,.
Began to rub his drowsy eyes,
And from his couch prepar'd to rise,
Refolving to dispatch the deed
He vow'd to do with trufty speed.
But firft, with knocking loud, and bawling,
He rous'd the Squire, in truckle lolling:
And, after many circumstances,
Which vulgar authors in romances
Do ufe to spend their time and wits on,
Where now arriv'd, and half unharneft,
To carry on the work in earnest,
He stopp'd, and paus'd upon the fudden,
And with a serious forehead plodding,
Sprung a new scruple in his head,
Which first he fcratch'd, and after faid:
Whether it be direct infringing.
An oath, if I fhould wave this swinging,
And what I've fworn to bear, forbear,
And fo b' equivocation fwear:
Or whether 't be a leffer fin
To be forfworn, than act the thing.
Are deep and subtle points, which must,
T'inform my confcience, be difcuft;
In which to err a tittle, may
To errors infinite make way:
And therefore I defire to know
Thy judgment, ere we further go.
Quoth Ralpho, Since you do injoin 't,
I shall enlarge upon the point;
And for my own part, do not doubt
Th' affirmative may be made out.
But first, to ftate the cafe aright,
For beft advantage of our light;
And thus 'tis, Whether't be a fin
To claw and curry your own skin,
Greater, or lefs, than to forbear,
And that you are forfworn, forfwear.
But firft o' th' firft: the inward man,
And outward like a clan and clan,
Have always been at daggers-drawing,
And one another clapper-clawing:
Not that they really cuff, or fence,
Bat in a spiritual myftic fenfe;
Which to mistake, and make 'em squabble,
In literal fray's abominable:
'Tis Heathenifh, in frequent ufe
With Pagans, and apoftate Jews,
To offer facrifice of Bridewells,
Like modern Indians to their idols:
And mungrel Chriftians of our times,
That explate lefs with greater crimes,
And call the foul abomination
Contrition, and mortification.
Is't not enough we're bruis'd and kicked,
With finful members of the wicked;
Our veffels, that are fanctify'd,
Profan'd and curry'd back and fide;
But we must claw ourselves with fhameful
And Heathen ftripes, by their example?
Which (were there nothing to forbid it)
Is impious, because they did it;
This therefore may be justly reckon'd
A heinous fin, Now to the fecond,
That faints may claim a dispensation
To fwear and forfwear, on occafion,
I doubt not but it will appear
With pregnant light. The point is clear.
Daths are but words, and words but wind;
Too feeble implements to bind ;
And hold with deeds proportion, fo
As fhadows to a fubftance do.
Then when they ftrive for place, 'tis fit
The weaker veffel fhould fubmit:
Altho' your church be oppofite
To ours, as Black Friars are to White,
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