'Tis true, they all have Teeth and Nails;
But prove that Synod-men have tails;
Or that a rugged, shaggy_Fur
Grows o'er the Hide of Presbyter ;
Or that his snout and spacious Ears
Do hold proportion with a Bear's.
A Bear's a savage Beast, of all
Most ugly and unnatural,

Whelpt without form, until the Dam
Have lickt him into shape and frame;
But all thy light can ne'er evict
That ever Synod-man was lickt;
Or brought to any other fashion
Than his own Will and Inclination.

But thou dost further yet in this
Oppugne thy self and sense, that is,
Thou would'st have Presbyters to go
For Bears and Dogs, and Bearwards too.
A strange Chimera of Beasts and Men,
Made up of pieces Heterogene,

Such as in Nature never met

In eodem Subjecto yet.

Thy other Arguments are all

Supposures, Hypothetical,

That do but beg, and we may chuse

Either to grant them, or refuse.

Much thou hast said, which I know when,

And where, thou stol'st from other Men

(Whereby 'tis plain thy light and gifts
Are all but plagiary shifts;)

And is the same that Ranter sed,
That arguing with me, broke my head,
And tore a handful of my Beard:
The self-same Cavils then I heard,
When b'ing in hot dispute about
This Controversie, we fell out;

And what thou know'st I answer'd then,
Will serve to answer thee

agen.

Quoth Ralpho, Nothing but th' abuse
Of Humane Learning you produce;
Learning that Cobweb of the Brain,
Profane, erronious, and vain;
A trade of knowledge as repleat
As others are with fraud and cheat;
An Art t' incumber Gifts and Wit,
And render both for nothing fit;
Makes light unactive, dull and troubled,
Like little David in Saul's Doublet;
A cheat that Scholars put upon
Other mens reason and their own;
A Fort of Error, to ensconce
Absurdity and Ignorance;
That renders all the avenues
To Truth impervious and abstruse,
By making plain things, in debate,
By Art, perplext and intricate :
For nothing goes for Sense or Light
That will not with old rules jump right.
As if Rules were not in the Schools
Deriv'd from Truth, but Truth from Rules.

This Pagan, Heathenish invention
Is good for nothing but Contention.
For as in Sword-and-Buckler Fight,
All blows do on the Target light:
So when Men argue, the great'st part
O' th' Contest falls on terms of Art,
Until the Fustian stuff be spent,
And then they fall to th' Argument.

Quoth Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast
Out-run the Constable at last;
For thou art fallen on a new
Dispute, as sensless as untrue,
But to the former opposite,
And contrary as black to white;
Mere Disparata, that concerning
Presbytery, this Humane Learning;

Two things s' averse, they never yet
But in thy rambling fancy met.
But I shall take a fit occasion

To evince thee by Ratiocination,

Some other time, in place more proper
Than this w' are in: therefore let's stop here,
And rest our wearied bones a while,
Already tir'd with other toil.

B1

Annotations

TO THEЕ

FIRST PART.

That could as well bind o're as swaddle.♫p 4]

Ind over to the Sessions, as being a Justice of the Peace in his Country, as well as Colonel of a Regiment of Foot, in the Parliaments Army, and a Committee-man,

As Mountaigne playing with his Cat. L

Mountaigne in his Essays supposes his Cat thought him a Fool, for loosing his time, in playing with her.

Profoundly skill'd in Analytique. [5]

Analytique is a part of Logick that teaches to Decline and Construe Reason, as Grammar does Words.

A Babilonish Dialect.

A confusion of Languages, such, as some of our Modern Virtuosi use to express themselves in.

That had the Orator, who once, L

Demosthenes, who is said to have a defect in his Pronunciation, which he cur'd by using to speak with little stones in his mouth.

He could reduce all things to Acts.

The old Philosophers thought to extract Notions out of Natural things, as Chymists do Spirits and Essences; and when they had refin'd them into the nicest subtleties, gave them as insignificant Names, as those Operators do their Extractions: But (as Seneca says) the subtler things are render'd, they are but the nearer to Nothing. So are all their definitions of things by Acts, the nearer to Nonsense.

Where Truth in person does appear.

Some Authors have mistaken Truth for a Real thing, when it is nothing but a right Method of putting those Notions, or Images of things (in the understanding of Man) into the same state and order, that their Originals hold in Nature, and therefore Aristotle says, unumquodque sicut se habet secundum esse, ita se habet secundum veritatem. Met. 1. 2.

Like Words congeal'd in Northern Air.

Some report, that in Nova Zemble, and Greenland, Mens words are wont to be Frozen in the Air, and at the Thaw may be heard.

He knew the Seat of Paradise.

There is nothing more ridiculous than the various opinions of Authors about the Seat of Paradise; Sir Walter Rawleigh has taken a great deal of pains to collect them; in the beginning of his History of the World; where those who are unsatisfied, may be fully inform❜d.

By a High Dutch Interpreter.

Goropius Becanus endeavours to prove that High-Dutch was the Language that Adam and Eve spoke in Paradise.

If either of them had a Navel. F

Adam and Eve being Made, and not Conceiv'd, and Form'd in the Womb, had no Navel, as some Learned Men have suppos'd, because they had no need of them.

Who first made Musick Malleable.

Musick is said to be invented by Pythagoras, who first found out the Proportion of Notes, from the sounds of Hammers upon an Anvil.

Like Mahomet's were Ass and Widgeon. L.

Mahomet had a tame Dove that used to pick Seeds out of his Ear, that it might be thought to whisper and Inspire him. His Ass was so intimate with him, that the Mahometans believe it carry'd him to Heaven, and stays there with him to bring him back again.

It was Canonique, and did grow
In Holy Orders by strict Vow.

He made a Vow never to cut his Beard, until the Parliament had subdued the King, of which Order of Phanatique Votaries, there were many in those times.