What laws and freedom, persecution?B'ing out of pow'r and contribution.

128/

What makes a church a den of thieves?
A dean and chapter, and white sleeves.
And what would serve if those were gone,
To make it orthodox?-Our own.

What makes morality a crime,
The most notorious of the time;
Morality, which both the saints
And wicked too cry out against?-
'Cause grace and virtue are within
Prohibited degrees of kin;

1290

And therefore no true saint allows
They shall be suffer'd to espouse:
For saints can need no conscience,
That with morality dispense;

1295

As virtue 's impious, when 'tis rooted
a nature only, and not imputed:
Sut why the wicked should do so,
Ne neither know, or care to do.
What's liberty of conscience,
th' natural and genuine sense?
'Tis to restore, with more security,
Rebellion to its ancient purity;
And Christian liberty reduce
To th' elder practice of the Jews.
For a large conscience is all one,
And signifies the same with none.

It is enough (quoth he) for once,

And has repriev'd thy forfeit bones:

Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick

1300

1305

1310

(Though he gave his name to our Old Nick)

But was below the least of these,

That pass i' th' world for holiness.

This said, the furics and the light

In th' instant vanish'd out of sight,

And left him in the dark alone,

With stinks of brimstone and his own.

1315

1320

The Queen of Night, whose large command Rules all the sea, and half the land,

1321. The moon influences the tides, and predomi nates over all humid bodies; and persons distempered in mind are called lunatics.

And over moist and crazy brains,

In high spring-tides, at midnight reigns,
Was now declining to the west,

1325

To go to bed, and take her rest;

When Hudibras, whose stubborn blows
Deny'd his bones that soft repose,
Lay still, expecting worse and more,
Stretch'd out at length upon the floor:
And though he shut his eyes as fast
As if he 'd been to sleep his last,
Saw all the shapes that fear or wizards
Do make the devil wear for vizards;
And pricking up his ears, to heark
If he could hear too in the dark,

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1335

Was first invaded with a groan,

And after, in a feeble tone,

These trembling words: Unhappy wretch!

What hast thou gotten by this fetch,

1340

Of all thy tricks, in this new trade,
Thy holy brotherhood o' th' blade?
By saunt'ring still on some adventure,
And growing to thy horse a Centaur?
To stuff thy skin with swelling knobs
Of cruel and hard-wooded drubs?

1345

For still th' hast had the worst on't yet,

As well in conquest as defeat.

Night is the sabbath of mankind,

To rest the body and the mind,

1350

Which now thou art deny'd to keep,

And cure thy labour'd corpse with sleep.

The Knight, who heard the words, explain'd

As meant to him this reprimand,

Because the character did hit

1355

Point-blank upon his case so fit;
Believ'd it was some drolling sprite,
That staid upon the guard that night,
And one of those h' had seen,
and felt
The drubs he had so freely dealt;

1360

134 The Centaurs were a people of Thessaly, and supposed to be the first managers of horses; and the neighbouring inhabitants never having seen any such thing before, fabulously reported them monsters, ha then and half horses.

When, after a short pause and groan,
The doleful spirit thus went on :

This 'tis t' engage with dogs and bears
Pell-mell together by the ears,

And, after painful bangs and knocks,
To lie in limbo in the stocks,
And from the pinnacle of glory
Fall headlong into purgatory.

(Thought he, this devil's full of malice,

That on my late disasters rallies.)

Condemn'd to whipping, but declin'd it,
By being more heroic minded;

And at a riding handled worse,

With treats more slovenly and coarse:
Engag'd with fiends in stubborn wars,
And hot disputes with conjurers;
And when th' hadst bravely won the day,
Wast fain to steal thyself away.
(I see, thought he, this shameless elf
Would fain steal me too from myself,
That impudently dares to own
What I have suffer'd for and done.)

And now, but vent'ring to betray,

Hast met with vengeance the same way.

1365

1370

1375

1380

Thought he, how does the devil know 1385

What 'twas that I design'd to do?

His office of intelligence,

His oracles, are ceas'd long since;

And he knows nothing of the saints,

But what some treacherous spy acquaints. 1390

That is some pettifogging fiend,

Some under door-keeper's friend's friend,

That undertakes to understand,

And juggles at the second-hand;

And now would pass for Spirit Po,

1395

And all men's dark concerns foreknow.

I think I need not fear him for't;

These rallying devils do no hurt.

With that he rous'd his drooping heart,

And hastily cry'd out, What art?

140€

A wretch (quoth he) whom want of grace

Has brought to this unhappy place.

I do believe thee, quoth the Knight;
Thus far I'm sure th' art in the right;
And know what 'tis that troubles thee,
Better than thou hast guess'd of me.
Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite,
Condemn'd to drudg'ry in the night;
Thou hast no work to do in th' house,
Nor halfpenny to drop in shoes;
Without the raising of which sum
You dare not be so troublesome

To pinch the slatterns black and blue,

For leaving you their work to do.

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1410

This is your bus'ness, good Pug-Robin, 1415 And your diversion dull dry-bobbing,

T'entice fanatics in the dirt,

And wash them clean in ditches for't;

Of which conceit you are so proud,

At ev'ry jest you laugh aloud,

As now you would have done by me,
But that I barr'd your raillery.

1420

Sir (quoth the voice,) y' are no such Sophi As you would have the world judge of ye. If you design to weigh our talents

I' th' standard of your own false balance,

Or think it possible to know

Us ghosts as well as we do you;

We, who have been the everlasting

1425

Companions of your drubs and basting, 1430

And never left you in contest,

With male or female, man or beast,
But prov'd as true t' ye, and entire,
In all adventures, as your Squire.

Quoth he, That may be said as true
By th' idlest pug of all your crew:
For none could have betray'd us worse
Than those allies of ours and yours.
But I have sent him for a token
To your low-country Hogen-Mogen,

1435

1440

1423. Sophi is at present the name of the kings of Persia, not superadded, as Pharaoh was to the kings of Egypt, but the name of the family itself, and religion of Hali, whose descendants by Fatima, Mahomet's daughter, took the name of Sophi. L

To whose infernal shores I hope
He'll swing like skippers in a rope.
And if y' have been more just to me
(As I am apt to think) than he,
I am afraid it is as true,

What th' ill-affected say of you:

Y' have spous'd the Covenant and Cause,

1445

By holding up your cloven paws.

Sir, (quoth the voice,) 'tis true, I grant,

We made and took the Covenant;

1450

But that no more concerns the Cause

Than other perj`ries do the laws,

Which, when they're prov'd in open court,
Wear wooden peccadillos for't:

And that's the reason Cov'nanters

1455

Hold up their hands, like rogues at bars.
I see, quoth Hudibras, from whence
These scandals of the saints commence,
That are but natural effects

Of Satan's malice, and his sects,

Those spider-saints, that hang by threads,

Spun out o' th' entrails of their heads.

Sir, (quoth the voice) that may as true' And properly be said of you,

1460

Whose talents may compare with either, 1465 Or both the other put together:

For all the Independents do

Is only what you forc'd 'em to;
You, who are not content alone
With tricks to put the devil down,
But must have armies rais'd to back
The gospel work you undertake;
As if artillery, and edge-tools,
Were th' only engines to save souls:
While he, poor devil, has no pow'r
By force to run down and devour;
Has ne'er a Classis; cannot sentence
To stools, or poundage of repentance;
Is ty'd up only to design,

Tentice, and tempt, and undermine;

- 1470

1475

1480

1454. Peccadillos were stiff pieces that went about the neck, and round about the shoulders, to pin the band, worn by persons nice 'n dressing; but his wooden una Ls a pillory.