Especially that have the grace
Of self-denying gifted face;

Who, when your projects have miscarried,
Can lay them, with undaunted forehead,
On those you painfully trepann'd,
And sprinkled in at second-hand;
As we have been, to share the guilt
Of Christian blood, devoutly spilt;
For so our ignorance was flamm'd,

To damn ourselves, to' avoid being damn d;
Till finding your old foe, the hangman,
Was like to lurch you at Back-gammon,
And win your necks upon the set,
As well as ours, who did but bet,
(For he had drawn your ears before, 46
And nick'd them on the self-same score)
We threw the box and dice away,
Before y' had lost us at foul play,
And brought you down to rook and lie,
And fancy only on the bye;
Redeem'd your forfeit jobbernoles,
From perching upon lofty poles,
And rescued all your outward traitors
From hanging up, like alligators;
For which ingeniously ye 'ave shew'd
Your Presbyterian gratitude;

Would freely have paid us home in kind,

And not have been one rope behind.
Those were your motives to divide
And scruple on the other side,

(46) Alluding to the case of Mr. Prynne, who had his ears cropped twice for his seditious writings. Hence Milton in one of his miscellaneous poems says-Crop ye as close as marginal Prynne's ears.'

Y

To turn your zealous frauds, and force,
To fits of conscience and remorse;
To be convinc'd they were in vain,
And face about for new again :
For truth no more unveil'd your eyes,
Than maggots are convinc'd to flies;
And therefore all your Lights and Calls
Are but apocryphal and false,
To charge us with the consequences
Of all your native insolences,
That to your own imperious wills
Laid Law and Gospel neck and heels;
Corrupted the Old Testament 47,
To serve the New for precedent;
To' amend its errors and defects,
With murder and rebellion-texts;
Of which there is not any one
In all the book to sow upon;
And therefore (from your tribe) the Jews
Held Christian doctrine forth, and use;
As Mahomet (your chief) began

To mix them in the Alcoran;

Denounc'd and pray'd, with fierce devotion,
And bended elbows on the cushion;
Stole from the beggars all your tones,
And gifted mortifying groans;
Had lights were better eyes were blind,
As pigs are said to see the wind;
Fill'd Bedlam with predestination,
And Knightsbridge with illumination;

(47) This was done by a fanatical printer, in the seventh commandment; who printed it, Thou shalt commit adultery, and was fined for it in the Star-chamber, or High-commission Court.

Make children, with your tones, to run for't,
As bad as Bloodybones or Lunsford 48.
While women, great with child, miscarried,
For being to Malignants married:
Transform'd all wives to Dalilahs,
Whose husbands were not for the Cause;
And turn'd the men to ten-horn'd cattle,
Because they came not out to battle;
Made tailors' prentices turn heroes,
For fear of being transform'd to Meroz 49 ;
And rather forfeit their indentures,
Than not espouse the Saints' adventures;
Could transubstantiate, metamorphose,
And charm whole herds of beasts, like Orpheus;
Inchant the King's and Church's lands,
To' obey and follow your commands,

(48) It was one of the artifices of the malecontents in the Civil war to raise false alarms, and to fill the people full of frightful apprehensions. In particular, they raised a terrible outery of the imaginary danger they conceived from the Lord Digby and Colonel Lunsford. Lilburn glories, upon his trial, for being an incendiary on such occasions, and mentions the tumult he raised against the innocent Colonel as a meritorious action: 'I was once arraigned (says he) before the House of Peers, for sticking close to the liberties and privileges of this nation, and those that stood for them, being one of those two or three men that first drew their swords in Westminster Hall against Colonel Lunsford, and some scores of his associates at that time it was supposed they intended to cut the throats of the chiefest men then sitting in the House of Peers.' To render him the more odious and detestable, they reported that he was of so brutal an appetite that he would eat children: yet Colonel Lunsford was a person of extraordinary sobriety, industry, and courage, and was killed at the taking of Bristol by the King, in 1643.

(49) See the Book of Judges, chap v.

And settle on a new freehold,
As Marcy-hill had done of old; 50
Could turn the Covenant, and translate
The Gospel into spoons and plate;
Expound upon all merchants' cashes,
And open the' intricatest places;
Could catechise a money-box,
And prove all pouches orthodox ;
Until the Cause became a Damon,
And Pythias the wicked Mammon.

And yet, in spite of all your charms
To conjure Legion up in arms,
And raise more devils in the rout,
Than e'er y' were able to cast out,
Y' have been reduc'd, and by those fools,
Bred up (you say) in your own schools,
Who, though but gifted at your feet,
Have made it plain they have more wit,
By whom you 'ave been so oft trepann'd,
And held forth out of all command;
Out-gifted, out-impuls'd, out-done,
And out-reveal'd at Carryings-on;
Of all your Dispensations worm'd,
Out-providenc'd and out-reform'd ;
Ejected out of Church and State,
And all things but the people's hate;
And spirited out of the enjoyments
Of precious, edifying employments,
By those who lodg'd their gifts and graces
Like better bowlers, in your places:
All which you bore with resolution,
Charg'd on the' account of persecution;

(50) See Camden's Britannia and Stow's Chronicle.

And though most righteously oppress'd,
Against your wills, still acquiesc'd ;
And never hum'd and hah'd Sedition,
Nor snuffled Treason, nor Misprision:
That is, because you never durst:

For, had you preach'd and pray'd your worst,
Alas! you were no longer able

To raise your possé of the rabble :
One single redcoat sentinel

Outcharm'd the magic of the spell,
And with his squirt-fire, could disperse
Whole troops, with chapter rais'd and verse.
We knew too well those tricks of yours,
To leave it ever in your powers;
Or trust our safeties, or undoings,
To your disposing of Outgoings;
Or to your ordering Providence,
One farthing's-worth of consequence.
'For had you power to undermine,
Or wit to carry a design,
Or correspondence to trepan,
Inveigle, or betray one man ;

There's nothing else that intervenes,
And bars your zeal to use the means;
And therefore wondrous like, no doubt,
To bring in kings, or keep them out :
Brave undertakers to restore,
That could not keep yourselves in pow'r ;
To' advance the interests of the Crown,
That wanted wit to keep your own.

"Tis true you have (for I'd be loath
To wrong ye) done your parts in both,
To keep him out, and bring him in,
As Grace is introduc'd by Sin;