Your greedy slav'ring to devour,
Before 'twas in your clutches' power;
That sprung the game you were to set,
Before you'd time to draw the net:
Your spite to see the Church's lands
Divided into other hands;
And all your sacrilegious ventures
Laid out in tickets and debentures :
Your envy to be sprinkled down,
By under churches in the town;
And no course used to stop their mouths,
North' Independents' spreading growths:
All which consider'd, 'tis most true
None bring him in so much as you,
Who have prevail'd beyond their plots,
Their midnight juntos, and seal'd knots;
That thrive more by your zealous piques,
Than all their own rash politics:
And this way you may claim a share,
In carrying (as you brag) th' affair;
Else frogs and toads, that croak'd the Jews
•From Pharaoh and his brick-kilns loose,
And flies and mange, that set them free
From taskmasters and slavery,
Were likelier to do the feat,
In any indifferent man's conceit.
For who e'er heard of Restoration,
Until your thorough Reformation?
That is, the King's and Church's lands
Were sequester'd int' other hands::.
For only then, and not before,
Your eyes were open to restore.
And, when the work was carrying on,
Who cross'd it but yourselves alone?
As by a world of hints appears,
All plain, and extant, as your ears.
But first, o' th' first: The Isle of Wight
Will rise up, if you should deny 't;
Where Henderson,1 and th' other Masses,2
Were sent to cap texts and put cases:
To pass for deep and learned scholars,
Although but paltry Ob3 and Sollers :
As if th' unseasonable fools
Had been a-coursing in the schools:
Until they'd proved the Devil author
O' th' Covenant, and the Cause his daughter.
For, when they charged him with the guilt
Of all the blood that had been spilt,
They did not mean he wrought th' effusion,
In person, like Sir Pride, or Hewson ;4
But only those who first begun
The quarrel, were by him set on.
And who could those be but the Saints,
Those Reformation termagants?
But, ere this pass'd, the wise debate
Spent so much time, it grew too late;
For Oliver had gotten ground,
T'enclose him with his warriors round:
Had brought his providence about,
And turn'd th' untimely sophists out.
Nor had the Uxbridge bus'ness less
Of nonsense in 't, or sottishness;
When from a scoundrel holder-forth,5
The scum, as well as son o' th' earth,
''Henderson :' wrong-the brave Henderson was then dead.i. e., masters.—' 'Ob,' &c.: nicknames for Henderson, &c. Hewson' noted members of Cromwell's Upper House. holder-forth: Christopher Love.
2Masses:" Pride and
A scoundrel
Your mighty senators took law,
At his command, were forced t' withdraw,
And sacrifice the peace o' th' nation
To doctrine, use, and application.
So, when the Scots, your constant cronies,
Th' espousers of your cause and moneys,
Who had so often, in your aid,
So many ways been soundly paid;
Came in at last for better ends,
Το prove themselves your trusty friends:
You basely left them, and the Church
They train'd you up to, in the lurch,
And suffer'd your own tribe of Christians
To fall before, as true Philistines.
This shows what ùtensils you 've been
To bring the King's concernments in :
Which is so far from being true,
That none but he can bring in you:
And, if he take you into trust,
Will find you most exactly just:
Such as will punctually repay
With double interest, and betray.
Not that I think those pantomimes,
Who vary action with the times,
Are less ingenious in their art,
Than those who dully act one part;
Or those who turn from side to side,
More guilty than the wind and tide.
All countries are a wise man's home,
And so are governments to some;
Who change them for the same intrigues
That statesmen use in breaking leagues :
While others, in old faiths and troths,
Look odd, as out-of-fashion'd clothes:
C
And nastier, in an old opinion,
Than those who never shift their linen.
For True and Faithful's sure to lose,
Which way soever the game goes;
And, whether parties lose or win,
Is always nick'd, or else hedged in.
While power usurp'd, like stol'n delight,
Is more bewitching than the right;
And, when the times begin to alter,
None rise so high as from the halter.
And so may we, if we 've but sense
To use the necessary means,
And not your usual stratagems
On one another, lights and dreams.
To stand on terms as positive,
As if we did not take, but give ;
Set up the Covenant on crutches,
'Gainst those who have us in their clutches;
And dream of pulling churches down,
Before we 're sure to prop our own:
Your constant method of proceeding,
Without the carnal means of heeding:
Who, 'twixt your inward sense and outward,
Are worse, than if y' had none, accoutred.
I grant, all courses are in vain,
Unless we can get in again;
The only way that's left us now,
But all the difficulty 's, how?
'Tis true, we've money, the only power
That all mankind fall down before;
Money, that, like the swords of kings,
Is the last reason of all things;
And therefore need not doubt our play
Has all advantages that way;
As long as men have faith to sell,
And meet with those that can pay
Whose half-starved pride and avarice,
One church and state will not suffice,
T'expose to sale, beside the wages,
Of storing plagues to after ages.
Nor is our money less our own
Than 'twas before we laid it down:
For 'twill return, and turn t' account,
If we are brought in play upon
Or but, by casting knaves, get in,
What power can hinder us to win?
We know the arts we used before,
In peace and war, and something more;
And, by th' unfortunate events,
Can mend our next experiments:
For, when we 're taken into trust,
How easy are the wisest choused!
Who see but th' outsides of our feats,
And not their secret springs and weights;
And, while they're busy at their ease,
Can carry what designs we please.
How
easy is 't to serve for agents,
To prosecute our old engagements!
To keep the good old Cause on foot,
And present power from taking root;
Inflame them both with false alarms
Of plots and parties taking arms;
To keep the nation's wounds too wide
From healing up of side to side ;
Profess the passionat'st concerns,
For both their interests, by turns;
The only way t' improve our own,
By dealing faithfully with none
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