Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small]

Both are but several fynagogues

Of carnal men, and bears and dogs:
Both Antichriftian affemblies,

To mifchief bent as far's in them lies:

1105 Both ftave and tail, with fierce contests,
The one with men, the other beafts.
The diff'rence is, the one fights with
The tongue, the other with the teeth;
And that they bait but bears in this,
II10 In th' other fouls and confciences;
Where faints themselves are brought to stake
For gofpel-light, and confcience-fake;
Expos'd to fcribes and prefbyters,

Instead of mastiff dogs and curs:

1115 Than whom th' have lefs humanity, For thefe at fouls of men will fly.

This to the prophet did

appear,

Who in a vifion faw a Bear,

Prefiguring the beastly rage

1120 Of church-rule, in this latter age; As is demonstrated at full

By him that baited the Pope's bull.

v. 1095. Synods are myftical bear-gardens.] See Notes upon Canto i. v. 193, 194, and Mercurius Rufticus, No. 12, p. 125, where the trials of clergymen by committees are entitled bear baitings.

v. 1117, 1118. This to the Prophet did appear,-Who in a vifion Jaw a Bear.] This Prophet is Daniel, who relates the vifion, in chap. vii. v. 5.

* v. 1122. By him that baited the Pope's bull.] A learned divine in King James's time wrote a polemic work against the Pope, and gave it that unlucky nickname of The Pope's Bull baited.

S 3

v. 1129,

Bears naturally are beafts of prey,
That live by rapine; fo do they.
1125 What are their orders, constitutions,
Church-cenfures, curfes, abfolutions,
But fev'ral mystic chains they make
To tie poor Chriftians to the stake;
And then fet Heathen officers,
1130 Instead of dogs, about their ears?
For to prohibit and dispense,
To find out, or to make offence;
Of hell and heaven to dispose,

v. 1129, 1130. And then fet Heathen officers,-Inflead of dogs, about their ears.] They were much more tyrannical in office than any officers of the bishops' courts; and it was a pity that they did not now and then meet with the punishment that was inflicted upon the archbishop's apparitor, anno 18 Edw. I. who having ferved a citation upon Boga de Clare, in parliament-time, his fervants made the apparitor eat both citation and wax. "Cum Johannes [de Waleys] in pace domini regis, et ex parte archiepifcopi, intraffet domum prædicti Bogonis de Clare, in civitate London, et ibidem detuliffet quafdam literas de citatione quadam faciendâ: quidam de familiâ prædicti Bogonis ipfum Johannem literas illas, et etiam figilla appenfa, vi, et contra voluntatem fuam, manducare fecerunt, et ipfum ibidem imprisonaverunt, et male tractârunt, contra pacem domini, et ad dampnum ipfius Jonannis 20 d. et etiam in contemptum domini regis, 20001." Prynne's Parliamentary Writs, part iv. p. 825. See likewife Nelfon's Rights of the Clergy, under the title Apparitor.

v. 1131, 1132, 1133, 1134. For to prohibit and dispense,—To find out, or to make offence;-Of hell and heaven to difpofe,-To play with fouls at faft and loofe.] They acted much like the Popish bifhop, in Poggius's Fable, entitled, A Bishop and a Curate; fee L'Eftrange's Fables, vol. i. fab. 356. He informs us of a curate, who gave his dog a Christian burial: the bishop threatened a fevere punishment for profaning the rites of the church: but when the curate informed him, that the dog made his will, and had left him a legacy of a hundred crowns, he gave the priest absolution, found it a very good will, and a very canonical burial. See a story to the fame purpofe, Gil Blas, edit. 1716, p. 2.

v. 1139.

To play with fouls at faft and loose;
1135 To fet what characters they please,
And mulcts on fin or godliness;
Reduce the church to gofpel-order,
By rapine, facrilege, and murder;
To make Prefbytery supreme,

1140 And Kings themselves fubmit to them;
And force all people, though against
Their confciences, to turn faints;
Muft prove a pretty thriving trade,
When faints monopolifts are made:

v. 1139. To make Prefbytery fupreme, &c.]

"Whilft blind ambition, by fucceffes fed,
Hath you beyond the bounds of fubjects led;
Who, tafting once the fweets of royal fway,
Refolved now no longer to obey :
For Prefbyterian pride contefts as high,
As doth the Popedom, for fupremacy."

An Elegy on King Charles I. p. 13.

v. 1140. And Kings themselves fubmit to them.] A fneer upon the Difciplinarians, and their book of discipline published in Queen Elizabeth's days, in which is the following paffage: "Kings no lefs than the reft muft obey, and yield to the authority of the ecclefiaftical magiftrate." Ecclefiaftical Difcipline, p. 142. And Cartwright fays, "that princes must remember to subject themfelves to the church, and to fubmit their fceptres, and throw down their crowns before the church; yea to lick the dust off the feet of the church:" T. Cartwright, p. 645. Cartwright being atked, Whether the King himself might be excommunicated? anfwered, "That excommunications may not be exercised on Kings, I utterly diflike." See Lyfimachus Nicanor, p. 34. "Even princes and magiftrates ought to be fubject to ecclefiaftical difcipline." Full and plain Declaration of Discipline, by W. Travers. Mr. Strype confirms this, and obferves, Life of Whitgift, p. 333, "That they make the prince fubject to the excommunication of the eldership, where the remaineth, or else they hold her not a child of the church." Buchanan held, "That minitters may excommunicate princes, and they, being by excommunication caft into bell, are not worthy to enjoy any life upon earth." De Jure Regis

S4

apud

1145 When pious frauds and holy shifts
Are difpenfations and gifts,
Their godlinefs becomes mere ware,
And every fynod but a fair.

Synods are whelps of th' inquifition, 1150 A mongrel breed of like pernicion,

apud Scotos, p. 70; Lyfimachus Nicanor, p. 34. See the opinions of others, to the fame purpose, L'Eftrange's Diffenters Sayings, part ii. § viii. p. 39, &c. and Prefbytery difplayed, by Sir Roger L'Eftrange. "The tribunal of the inquifition (to which our English inquifitors in thofe times might juftly have been compared) is arifen to that height in Spain, that the King of Caftile, before his coronation, fubjects himfelf and all his dominions, by a special oath, to the most holy tribunal of this moft severe inquifition." Baker's Hiftory of the Inquifition, chap. vii. p.48.

v. 1145. When pious frauds.] An allufion to the pious frauds of the Romish church, in which they were resembled by these fanatics.

v. 1152. Of fcribes, commiffioners, and triers.] The Presbyterians had particular perfons commiffioned by order of the Two Houses, to try fuch perfons as were to be chosen ruling elders in every congregation; and in an ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament, dated Die Veneris, 26th of September 1646, there is a lift of the names of such persons as were to be triers and judges of the integrity and abilities of fuch as were to be chofen elders within the province of London, and the dueness of their election: the scribes registered the acts of the claffis. There is nothing in this ordinance concerning the trial of such as were to be made minifters; because, a month before, there was an ordinance, dated Die Veneris, 28th of Auguft 1646, whereby it is ordained, that the feveral and respective claffical prefbyteries, within the feveral respective bounds, may and fhall appear, examine, and ordain prefbyters, according to the directory for ordination, and rules for examination, which rules are set down in this ordinance of the directory. See an abstract of the directory in the preface. (Dr. B.)

The learned Dr. Pocock, as Dr.Twells obferves in his Life, p. 41, was called before the triers fome time after, for infufficiency of learning, and after a long attendance, was dismissed at the inftance of Dr. Owen. This is confirmed by Dr. Owen, in a letter to Secretary Thurloe, Oxford, March 20, 1652-3. Thurloe's State Papers, vol. iii. p. 281. "One thing, fays he, I muft needs trouble you with: there are in Berkshire some men of mean quality and

condition,

« PreviousContinue »