HUDIBRAS.

PART III. CANTO II'.

Argument.

The Saints engage in fierce contests
About their carnal interests,
To share their sacrilegious preys,
According to their rates of Grace :
Their various frenzies to reform,
When Cromwell left them in a storm;
Till, in the effige of Rumps, the rabble
Burn all their Grandees of the Cabal.

THE learned write, an insect breeze
Is but a mongrel prince of bees,
That falls before a storm on cows,
And stings the founders of his house,
From whose corrupted flesh, that breed
Of vermin did at first proceed:
So, ere the storm of war broke out,
Religion spawn'd a various rout

This Canto is entirely independent of the adventures of Hudibras and Ralpho; neither of our heroes make their appearance: other characters are introduced, and a new vein of satire is exhibited. The Poet steps out of his road, and skips from the time wherein these adventures happened to Cromwell's death, and from thence to the dissolution of the Rump Parliament.

2 Breezes often bring along with them great quantities of insects, which some opine are generated from viscous exhalations in the air; but Butler raises them from the cow.

Of petulant capricious sects,
The maggots of corrupted texts,
That first run all religion down,
And after every swarm its own.
For as the Persian Magi once
Upon their mothers got their sons,
That were incapable to' enjoy
That empire any other way;
So Presbyter begot the other

Upon the Good Old Cause, his mother,
Then bore them like the devil's dam,
Whose son and husband are the same;
And yet no natural tie of blood,
Nor interest for the common good,
Could, when their profits interfered,
Get quarter for each other's beard:
For when they thrived they never fadged,
But only by the ears engaged;

Like dogs that snarl about a bone,

And play together when they have none:
As by their truest characters,

Their constant actions, plainly' appears.
Rebellion now began, for lack

Of zeal and plunder, to grow slack ;
The Cause and Covenant to lessen,
And Providence to be out of season:
For now there was no more to purchase
O'the' King's revenue, and the Churches,
But all divided, shared, and gone,
That used to urge the Brethren on ;
Which forced the stubborn'st for the Cause,
To cross the cudgels to the laws,

That what by breaking them they had gain'd,
By their support might be maintain'd;

Like thieves, that in a hemp-plot lie,
Secured against the Hue-and-cry;
For Presbyter and Independent

Were now turn'd Plaintiff and Defendant;
Laid out their apostolic functions
On carnal Orders and Injunctions;
And all their precious Gifts and Graces
On Outlawries and Scire facias;
At Michael's term had many trial,
Worse than the Dragon and St. Michael,
Where thousands fell, in shape of fees,
Into the bottomless abyss.

For when, like brethren, and like friends,
They came to share their dividends,
And every partner to possess

His church and state joint-purchases,
In which the ablest Saint, and best,
Was named in trust by all the rest
To pay their money, and, instead
Of every Brother, pass the deed,
He straight converted all his gifts
To pious frauds and holy shifts,
And settled all the other shares
Upon his outward man, and 's heirs ;
Held all they claim'd as forfeit lands
Deliver'd up into his hands,
And pass'd upon his conscience
By pre-entail of Providence ;
Impeach'd the rest for Reprobates,
That had no titles to estates,
But by their spiritual attaints
Degraded from the right of Saints.
This being reveal'd, they now begun
With law and conscience to fall on,

And laid about as hot and brain-sick
As the' Utter-barrister of Swanswick3 ;
Engaged with money-bags, as bold

4

As men with sandbags did of old,
That brought the lawyers in more fees
Than all unsanctified Trustees;
Till he who had no more to show
I' the' case, received the overthrow ;
Or, both sides having had the worst,
They parted as they met at first.

Poor Presbyter was now reduced,
Secluded, and cashier'd, and choused!
Turn'd out, and excommunicate
From all affairs of Church and State,
Reform'd to' a reformado Saint,
And glad to turn itinerant,

To stroll and teach from town to town,
And those he had taught up teach down',
And make those uses serve again
Against the New-enlighten'd men,
As fit as when at first they were
Reveal'd against the Cavalier;
Damn Anabaptist and Fanatic,
As pat as Popish and Prelatic;
And, with as little variation,
To serve for any sect i' the' nation.

3 Prynne was born at Swanswick, and used to style himself Utter-barrister; which seems to imply a champion as well as advocate. See Minshew in voc.

4 A combat in a legal way, by knights and gentlemen, was fought with sword and lance; by yeomen, with sand-bags fastened to the end of a truncheon.

5 The Independents urged the very same doctrines against the Presbyterians, which the latter had urged against the Bishops.

The Good Old Cause, which some believe
To be the devil that tempted Eve
With knowledge, and does still invite
The world to mischief with, New Light,
Had store of money in her

purse,
When he took her for better or worse,
But now was grown deform'd and poor,
And fit to be turn'd out of door.

The Independents (whose first station
Was in the rear of Reformation,
A mongrel kind of Church-dragoons,
That served for horse and foot at once,
And in the saddle of one steed

The Saracen and Christian rid;
Were free of every spiritual order,

To preach, and fight, and pray, and murder')

6 The officers and soldiers among the Independents got into pulpits, and preached and prayed as well as fought. Oliver Cromwell was famed for a preacher, and has a sermon in print, entitled Cromwell's Learned, Devout, and Conscientious Exercise, held at Sir Peter Temple's in Lincoln's Inn Fields, upon Rom. xiii. 1, in which are the following flowers of rhetoric: 'Dearly beloved brethren and sisters, it is true, this text is a malignant one; the wicked and ungodly have abused it very much; but, thanks be to God, it was to their own ruin.'

'But now that I spoke of kings the question is, Whether, by the higher powers, are meant kings or commoners? Truly, beloved, it is a very great question among those that are learned for may not every one that can read observe, that Paul speaks in the plural number, higher powers? Now, had he meant subjection to a king, he would have said, "Let every soul be subject to the higher power," if he had meant one man; but by this you see he meant more than one: he bids us "be subject to the higher powers," that is, the Council of State, the House of Commons, and the Army.' Ib. p. 3. Ib. Sir Roger L'Estrange observes upon the pretended saints of those times, That they did not set one step, in the whole tract of this iniquity, without seeking the Lord first,