So he has found are all restraints

To thriving and free-conscienced Saints;
For the same thing enriches that confines;
And, like to Lully, when he was in hold,1
He turns his baser metals into gold;
Receives returning and retiring fees

For holding forth, and holding of his peace,
And takes a pension to be advocate

And standing counsel 'gainst the Church and State
For gall'd and tender consciences;

Commits himself to prison, to trepan,

Draw in, and spirit all he can ;
For birds in cages have a call,

To draw the wildest into nets,
More prevalent and natural,

Than all our artificial pipes and counterfeits.

VII.

His slipp❜ry conscience has more tricks
Than all the juggling empirics,

And ev'ry one another contradicts;

All laws of Heav'n and Earth can break, And swallow oaths, and blood, and rapine easy; And yet is so infirm and weak,

"Twill not endure the gentlest check,

But at the slightest nicèty grows queasy;
Disdains control, and yet can be

No where, but in a prison, free ;
Can force itself, in spite of God,

Who makes it free as thought at home,

A slave and villain to become,

To serve its interests abroad:

Like to Lully, when he was in hold,' &c.: Lully was a famous chemist in the thirteenth century, who, journeying to the east, was thrown into prison, and continued there to prosecute his researches.

And, though no Pharisee was e'er so cunning
At tithing mint and cummin;

No dull idolater was e'er so flat

In things of deep and solid weight;
Pretends to charity and holiness,
But is implacable to peace,

And out of tenderness grows obstinate.

And, though the zeal of God's house ate a Prince And Prophet up (he says) long since,

His cross-grain'd peremptory zeal

Would eat up God's house, and devour it at a meal.

VIII.

He does not pray, but prosecute,
As if he went to law, his suit;
Summons his Maker to appear,
And answer what he shall prefer ;
Returns him back his gift of pray'r,
Not to petition, but declare ;
Exhibits cross Complaints

Against him for the breach of Covenants,
And all the charters of the Saints;
Pleads guilty to the action, and yet stands
Upon high terms and bold demands;
Excepts against him and his laws,
And will be judge himself in his own cause;
And grows more saucy and severe

Than th' Heathen Emp'ror was to Jupiter,1
That used to wrangle with him, and dispute,

And sometimes would speak softly in his ear,
And sometimes loud, and rant, and tear,
And threaten, if he did not grant his suit.

1 Heathen Emp'ror was to Jupiter:' Caligula. See Suetonius.

IX.

But when his painful gifts h' employs
In holding forth, the virtue lies
Not in the letter of the sense,

But in the spiritual vehemence,
The pow'r and dispensation of the voice,
The zealous pangs and agonies,

And heav'nly turnings of the eyes;
The groans, with which he piously destroys,
And drowns the nonsense in the noise ;
And grows so loud, as if he meant to force
And take in Heav'n by violence;

To fright the Saints into salvation,
Or scare the Devil from temptation;
Until he falls so low and hoarse,
No kind of carnal sense

Can be made out of what he means:
But as the ancient Pagans were precise
To use no short-tail'd beast in sacrifice,
He still conforms to them, and has a care,
T'allow the largest measure to his paltry ware.

X.

The ancient Churches, and the best,

By their own martyrs' blood increased;
But he has found out a new way,

To do it with the blood of those
That dare his Church's growth oppose,

Or her imperious canons disobey;

And strives to carry on the work,

Like a true primitive reforming Turk,
With holy rage and edifying war,

More safe and pow'rful ways by far:
For the Turk's patriarch, Mahomet,

Was the first great Reformer, and the chief
Of th' ancient Christian belief,

That mix'd it with new light, and cheat,
With revelations, dreams, and visions,
And apostolic superstitions,

To be held forth, and carry'd on by war;
And his successor was a Presbyter,

With greater right than Haly or Abubeker.'

XI.

For as a Turk, that is to act some crime
Against his Prophet's holy law,
Is wont to bid his soul withdraw,
And leave his body for a time :
So, when some horrid action 's to be done,
Our Turkish proselyte puts on
Another spirit, and lays by his own;
And when his over-heated brain

Turns giddy, like his brother Mussulman,
He's judged inspired, and all his frenzies held
To be prophetic, and reveal'd.

The one believes all madmen to be saints,

Which th' other cries him down for, and abhors;

And yet in madness all devotion plants,

And where he differs most concurs;

Both equally exact and just

In perjury and breach of trust;

So like in all things, that one Brother
Is but a counterpart of th' other;

And both unanimously damn

And hate (like two that play one game)

Each other for it, while they strive to do the same.

Haly or Abubeker:' Haly and Abubeker were Mahomet's immediate successors, the one in Arabia, and the other at Bagdat.

XII.

Both equally design to raise

Their churches by the self-same ways;

With war and ruin to assert

Their doctrine, and with sword and fire convert; To preach the Gospel with a drum,

And for convincing overcome;

And though, in worshipping of God all blood
Was by his own laws disallow'd,
Both hold no holy rites to be so good:
And both to propagate the breed

Of their own Saints one way proceed;
For lust and rapes in war repair as fast,
As fury and destruction waste;
Both equally allow all crimes

As lawful means to propagate a sect;
For laws in war can be of no effect,
And licence does more good in Gospel-times.
Hence 'tis, that holy wars have ever been

The horrid'st scenes of blood and sin;

For when Religion does recede

From her own nature, nothing but a breed
Of prodigies and hideous monsters can succeed.

UPON MODERN CRITICS.

A PINDARIC ODE.

1.

TIs well that equal Heav'n has placed
Those joys above that to reward
The just and virtuous are prepared,