And then sunk underneath the state,
That rode him above horsemen's weight.
And now the saints began their reign,
For which th' had yearn'd so long in vain,
And felt such bowel-hankerings,

235

To see an empire all of kings,

240

Deliver'd from the Egyptian awe

Of justice, government, and law,

And free t' erect what spiritual cantons

Should be reveal'd, or gospel Hans-Towns,

To edify upon the ruins

245

Of John of Leyden's old out-goings;

Who for a weather-cock hung up,

Upon the mother church's top:
Was made a type, by Providence,

250

Of all their revelations since;
And now fulfill'd by his successors,

Who equally mistook their measures:

For when they came to shape the model,

Not one could fit another's noddle;

But found their light and gifts more wide 255 From fadging than th' unsanctify'd;

While ev'ry individual brother

Strove hand to fist against another;

And still the maddest, and most crackt,

Were found the busiest to transact:

For though most hands dispatch apace,
And make light work (the proverb says,)
Yet many diffrent intellects

Are found t' have contrary effects;

260

245. John of Leyden, whose name was Buckhold, was a butcher of the same place, but a crafty, eloquent, and seditious fellow, and one of those called Anabaptists. He went and set up at Munster, where, with Knipperdolling, and others of the same faction, they spread their abominable errors, and ran about the streets in enthusiastical raptures, crying, 'Repent, and be baptized;" pronouncing dismal woes against all those that would not embrace their tenets. About the year 1533, they broke out into an open insurrection, and seized the palace and magazines, and grew so formidable, that it was very dangerous for those who were not of their persuasion to dwell in Munster; but at length he and his associates being subdued and taken, he was executed at Munster, and had his flesh pulled off by two executioners, with red-hot pincers for the space of an hour, and then run through with a sword.

And many heads t' obstruct intrigues,
As slowest insects have most legs.
Some were for setting up a king;
But all the rest for no such thing,
Unless King Jesus. Others tamper'd

265

For Fleetwood, Desborough, and Lambert; 270 Some for the Rump, and some, more crafty, For Agitators, and the safety;

Some for the gospel, and massacres

Of spiritual affidavit-makers,

That swore to any human

regence

Oaths of supremacy and allegiance;
Yea, though the ablest swearing saint
That vouch'd the bulls o' the Covenant:
Others for pulling down th' high places
Of synods and provincial classes,
That us'd to make such hostile inroads
Upon the saints, like bloody Nimrods:
Some for fulfilling prophecies,

And th' extirpation of th' excise;

275

280

And some against th' Egyptian bondage 285

Of holy-days, and paying poundage:

Some for the cutting down of groves,

And rectifying bakers' loaves;

And some for finding out expedients
Against the slav'ry of obedience:
Some were for gospel ministers,
And some for red-coat seculars,
As men most fit t' hold forth the word,
And wield the one and th' other sword:

Some were for carrying on the work
Against the Pope, and some the Turk:
Some for engaging to suppress
The Camisado of surplices,

That gifts and dispensations hinder'd,

290

295

And turn'd to th' outward man the inward; 300

More proper for the cloudy night

Of popery than gospel light:"

Others were for abolishing

That tool of matrimony, a ring,

With which th' unsanctify'd bridegroom

Is marry'd only to a thumb

305

(As wise as ringing of a pig,

That us'd to break up ground, and dig ;)
The bride to nothing but her will,

That nulls the after-marriage still:
Some were for th' utter extirpation
Of linsey-woolsey in the nation;
And some against all idolizing

310

The cross in shop-books, or baptizing;

Others to make all things recant

315

The Christian or surname of saint,

And force all churches, streets, and towns,

The holy title to renounce :

Some 'gainst a third estate of souls,

And bringing down the price of coals:
Some for abolishing black-pudding,
And eating nothing with the blood in;
To abrogate them roots and branches;
While others were for eating haunches
Of warriors, and, now and then,
The flesh of kings and mighty men;
And some for breaking of their bones
'With rods of ir'n, by secret ones;
For thrashing mountains, and with spells
For hallowing carriers' packs and bells:
Things that the legend never heard of,
But made the wicked sore afear'd of.

The quacks of government (who sate
At th' unregarded helm of state,
And understood this wild confusion
Of fatal madness and delusion,
Must, sooner than a prodigy,
Portend destruction to be nigh)

Consider'd timely how t' withdraw,

320

330

335

And save their wind-pipes from the law; 340
For one rencounter at the bar

Was worse than all th' had 'scap'd in war;
And therefore met in consultation,

To cant and quack upon the nation;
Not for the sickly patient's sake;
Nor what to give but what to take;
To feel the pulses of their fees,
More wise than fumbling arteries;

345

Prolong the snuff of life in pain,
And from the grave recover-Gain.

350

'Mong these there was a politician

With more heads than a beast in vision,

And more intrigues in ev'ry one

Than all the whores of Babylon;

So politic, as if one eye

355

Upon the other were a spy,

That, to trepan the one to think

The other blind, both strove to blink;

And in his dark pragmatic way,

As busy as a child at play.

360

H' had seen three governments run down,

And had a hand in ev'ry one;

Was for 'em and against 'em all,

But barb'rous when they came to fall:
For, by trepanning th' old to ruin,

365

He made his int'rest with the new one;
Play'd true and faithful, though against
His conscience, and was still advanc'd:
For by the witchcraft of rebellion
Transform'd t' a feeble state-camelion,
By giving aim from side to side,
He never fail'd to save his tide,

But got the start of ev'ry state,

And at a change ne'er came too late;

370

Could turn his word, and oath, and faith, 375

As many ways as in a lathe;

By turning, wriggle, like a screw,
Int' highest trust, and out, for new:
For when h' had happily incurr'd,
Instead of hemp, to be preferr'd,
And pass'd upon a government,
He play'd his trick, and out he went;
But being out, and out of hopes

380

To mount his ladder (more) of ropes,

Would strive to raise himself upon
The public ruin, and his own;

385

So little did he understand

The desp'rate feats he took in hand,

351. This was the famous E. of S. who was endued with a particular faculty of undermining and subverting all sorts of government.

For when h' had got himself a name
For fraud and tricks, he spoil'd his game; 390
Had forc'd his neck into a noose,

To show his play at fast and loose;

And when he chanc'd t' escape, mistook,
For art and subtlety, his luck.

So right his judgment was cut fit,
And made a tally to his wit,
And both together most profound
At deeds of darkness under-ground;
As th' earth is easiest undermin'd
By vermin impotent and blind.

By all these arts, and many more

395

400

H' had practis'd long and much before,

Our state artificer foresaw

Which way the world began to draw:

For as old sinners have all points

405

O' th' compass in their bones and joints,

Can by their pangs and aches find

All turns and changes of the wind,
And better than by Napier's bones
Feel in their own the age of moons;
So guilty sinners in a state

Can by their crimes prognosticate,
And in their consciences feel pain
Some days before a show'r of rain:

410

He therefore wisely cast about,

415

All ways he could, t' ensure his throat;

And hither came, t' observe and smoke

What courses other riskers took;

And to the utmost do his best

To save himself, and hang the rest.

420

To match this saint, there was another

As busy and perverse a brother,

A haberdasher of small wares

In politics and state affairs:

409. The famous Lord Napier, of Scotland, the first inventor of logarithms, contrived also a set of square pieces, with numbers on them, made generally of ivory (which perform arithmetical and geometrical calculations,) and are commonly called Napier's hones.

421. The great Colonel John Litbourn, whose trial is so remarkable, and well known at this time