Broad-back'd, and brawny-built for love's delight;
A prophet form'd to make a female profelyte.
A theologue more by need than genial bent;
By breeding fharp, by nature confident.
Intereft in all his actions was difcern'd;

More 8 learn'd than honeft, more a wit than learn'd;
Or forc'd by fear, or by his profit led,
Or both conjoin'd, his native clime he fled:
But brought the virtues of his heaven along;
A fair behaviour, and a fluent tongue.
And yet with all his arts he could not thrive;
The most unlucky parafite alive.
Loud praises to prepare his paths he fent,
And then himfelf purfu'd his compliment;
But by reverse of fortune chas'd away,
His gifts no longer than their author stay:

8 More learn'd than boneft, more a wit than learn'd. It is certain he gave room for this impeachment of his honesty, by drawing up two papers in defence of divorce and polygamy; a task very unworthy of a clergyman: and by his behaviour, with regard to the earl of Lauderdale's affairs in the house of commons, where he was examined as to what he heard that nobleman fay, about arming the Irish papifts, and bringing a Scotch army into England, to fupport fome arbitrary measures intended to be fet on foot by the king, and to overawe the parliament. He at first refused to anfwer upon the latter point, and was difmiffed; he then return'd,

uncall'd, his patron to controul,
Divulg'd the fecret whispers of his foul;
Stood forth th' accufing Satan of his crimes,
And offered to the Moloch of the times.

Having waited for fome time in the lobby, in hope of being called in again, he defired to be re-admitted, and now revealed every thing that had paffed between them in private converfation; for which conduct he makes but a poor excufe in his hiftory of his own times. The house of commons laid great firefs upon his declaration, and thus furnished with fresh matter renewed their address against the earl.

The papers above-mentioned, were written to fupport a defign fet on foot by Shaftesbury and his emiffaries, to divorce the king and procure him another wife, whofe iflue might exclude the duke of York from the fucceffion; they are to be found in Mackay's memoirs.

He shakes the dust against th' ungrateful race,
And leaves the ftench of ordures in the place.
Oft has he flatter'd and blafphem'd the fame;
For in his rage he spares no fov'reign's name:
The hero and the tyrant change their style
By the fame measure that they frown or fmile.
When well receiv'd by hofpitable foes,
The kindness he returns, is to expofe;
For courtefies, tho' undeferv'd and great,
No gratitude in felon-minds beget;

As tribute to his wit, the churl receives the treat.
His praise of foes is venomously nice;

So touch'd, it turns a virtue to a vice:

"A Greek, 9 and bountiful, forewarns us twice."
Seven facraments he wifely does difown,
Because he knows confeffion ftands for one;
Where fins to facred filence are convey'd,
And not for fear, or love, to be betray'd:
But he, uncall'd, his patron to controul,
Divulg'd the fecret whispers of his foul;
Stood forth th' accufing Satan of his crimes,
And offer'd to the Moloch of the times.
Prompt to affail, and careless of defence,
Invulnerable in his impudence,

He dares the world; and eager of a name,
He thrufts about, and juftles into fame.
Frontlefs, and fatire-proof, he fcow'rs the streets,
And runs an Indian-muck at all he meets.
So fond of loud report, that not to mifs
Of being known (his last and utmost bliss)
He rather would be known for what he is.

Such was, and is the captain of the teft,
Tho' half his virtues are not here exprefs'd;
The modefty of fame conceals the reft.

}

Eneid I. 11.

The

The spleenful Pigeons never could create.
A prince more proper to revenge their hate:
Indeed, more proper to revenge, than save;
A king, whom in his wrath th' Almighty gave:
For all the grace the landlord had allow'd,
But made the Buzzard and the Pigeons proud;
Gave time to fix their friends, and to feduce the crowd.
They long their fellow-fubjects to inthral,
Their patron's promife into queftion call,

And vainly think he meant to make them lords of all.
Falfe fears their leaders fail'd not to fuggeft,
As if the Doves were to be difpoffefs'd;

Nor fighs, nor groans, nor gogling eyes did want;
For now the Pigeons too had learn'd to cant.
The house of prayer is stock'd with large increase;
Nor doors, nor windows can contain the prefs:
For birds of every feather fill th' abode;
E'en atheists out of envy own a God:

And reeking from the ftews adulterers come,
Like Goths and Vandals to demolish Rome.

}

That Confcience, which to all their crimes was mute, Now calls aloud, and cries to perfecute:

No rigour of the laws to be releas'd,

And much the lefs, because it was their Lord's request:
They thought it great their fovereign to controul,
And nam'd their pride, nobility of foul.

'Tis true, the Pigeons, and their prince elect,
Were fhort of power, their purpose to effect:
But with their quills did all the hurt they could,
And cuff'd the tender Chickens from their food:
And much the Buzzard in their caufe did ftir,
Tho' naming not the patron, to infer
With all respect, he was a grofs idolater.

x And much the Buzzard in their caufe did fiir
Tho' naming not the patron, &c.

But

But when th' imperial owner did efpy,
That thus they turn'd his grace to villany,
Not fuff'ring wrath to difcompofe his mind,
He ftrove a temper for th' extremes to find.
So to be just, as he might ftill be kind;
Then, all naturely weigh'd, pronounc❜d a doom
Of facred ftrength for every age to come.
By this the Doves their wealth and ftate poffefs,
No rights infring'd, but licence to oppress:
Such power have they as factious lawyers long
To crowns afcrib'd, that kings can do no wrong.
But fince his own domeftic birds have try'd
The dire effects of their deftru&tive pride,
He deems that proof a measure to the reft,
Concluding well within his kingly breaft,
His fowls of nature too unjustly were oppreft.
He therefore makes all birds of every fect
Free of his farm, with promife to respect,
Their feveral kinds alike, and equally protect.
His gracious edict the fame franchise yields
To all the wild increase of woods and fields,
And who in rocks aloof, and who in fteeples builds:
To Crows the like impartial grace affords,

And Choughs and Daws, and fuch republic birds:
Secur'd with ample privilege to feed,

Each has his diftrict, and his bounds decreed:
Combin'd in common int'reft with his own,
But not to pass the Pigeons Rubicon.

Here ends the reign of his pretended Dove;
All prophecies accomplish'd from above,
For Shiloh comes the fcepter to remove.

}

On the fifth of November, 1684, Burnet preached a fermon in the rolls chapel against povery, in which he dropped fome oblique reflections on the king. On this account it was ordered he should preach in that place no more, and he foon after found it neceffary to withdraw to Holland. The king demanded him of the fates as a traitor, but they refused to acquiefce.

Reduc'd

Reduc'd from her imperial high abode,
Like 2 Dionyfius to a private rod,

The paffive church, that with pretended grace
Did her diftinctive mark in duty place,
Now touch'd, reviles her Maker to his face.
What after happen'd is not hard to guess:
The small beginnings had a large increase,
And arts and wealth fucceed the fecret spoils of
"Tis faid, the Doves repented, tho' too late,
Become the fmiths of their own foolish fate:
Nor did their owner haften their ill hour;
But, funk in credit, they decreas'd in power:
Like fnows in warmth that mildly pass away,
Doffolving in the filence of decay.

peace.

The Buzzard, not content with equal place,
Invites the feather'd Nimrods of his race;
To hide the thinnefs of their flock from fight,
And all together make a feeming goodly flight:
But each have fep'rate int'refts of their own;
Two Czars are one too many for a throne.
Nor can th' ufurper long abftain from food;
Already he has tafted Pigeons blood:
And may be tempted to his former fare,

}

}

When this indulgent lord fhall late to heaven repair.
Bare benting times, and moulting months may come,
When, lagging late, they cannot reach their home;
Or rent in schism (for fo their fate decrees)
Like the 3 tumultuous college of the bees,
They fight their quarrel, by themselves oppreft;
The tyrant fmiles below, and waits the falling feast.
Thus did the gentle Hind her fable end,
Nor would the Panther blame it, nor commend;

2 Like Dionyfius, &c. A tyrant of Sicily, who, being banished, turned schoolmaker, that he might at leaft play the tyrant over children.

3 The college of phyficians had many difputes among themselves which are finely ridiculed in the Difpenfary by Sir Samuel Garth.

G
G4

But,