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85

And laid about as hot and brain-fick
As th' Utter barrister of Swanfwick. i
Engag'd with money-bags, as bold
As men with fand-bags did of old,
That brought the lawyers in more fees
Than all unfanctify'd Trustees ;

Till he who had no more to show
I' th' cafe, receiv'd the overthrow;
Or, both fides having had the worst,
They parted as they met at first.
Poor Presbyter was now reduc'd,
Secluded, and cashier'd, and chous'd!
Turn'd out, and excommunicate

From all affairs of Church and State,
Reform'd t' a reformado Saint,

And glad to turn itinerant,

To ftroll and teach from town to town,
And thofe he had taught up teach down,
And make thofe ufes ferve again
Against the New-enlighten'd men,
As fit as when at first they were
Reveal'd against the Cavalier;
Damn Anabaptift and Fanatic
As pat as Popish and Prelatic ;;
And, with as little variation,

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95

100

Ver. 78.] W. Prynne, a voluminous writer.

Had ftore 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 ferv'd for horfe and foot at once,
And in the faddle of one steed

The Saracen and Christian rid;

Were free of every spiritual order,

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

Ver, 118.] The officers and foldiers among the Independents got into pulpits, and preached and prayed as well as fought. Oliver Cromwell was fam'd for a preacher, and has a fermon* in print, intituled, Cromwell's Learned, Devout, and Confcientious Exercife, beld 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 fifters, 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.

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"But now that I fpoke of Kings, the queftion is, "Whether, by the higher powers, are meant kings or "commoners? Truly, beloved, it is a very great "queftion among thofe that are learned: for may not "every one that can read obferve, that Paul speaks in "the plural mumber, higher powers? Now, had he "meant fubjection to a king, he would have faid, ""Let every foul be fubject to the higher power," if "he had meant one man; but by this you fee he

"meant

This, however, is now well known to be an impofture. N.

"meant more than one: he bids us be fubject to "the higher powers," that is, the Council of State, "the Houfe of Commons, and the Army." Ib. p. 3.

When in the Humble Petition there was inferted an article against public preachers being members of Parliament, Oliver Cromwell excepted against it exprefsly; "Because he (he faid) was one, and divers officers of "the army, by whom much good had been done" and therefore defired they would explain their ar"ticle." (Heath's Chronicle, p. 408.)

Ib.] Sir Roger L'Eftrange obferves (Reflection upon Poggius's Fable of the Hufband, Wife, and Ghoftly Father, part I. fab. 357.) upon the pretended faints of thofe times, "That they did not fet one ftep, in the "whole tract of this iniquity, without feeking the "Lord firft, and going up to enquire of the Lord, "according to the cant of thofe days; which was no "other than to make God the author of fin, and to "impute the blackest practices of hell to the infpira"tion of the Holy Ghost."

It was with this pretext, of feeking the Lord in prayer, that Cromwell, Ireton, Harrifon, and others of the Regicides, cajoled General Fairfax, who was determined to refcue the King from execution, giving orders to have it speedily done: and, when they had notice that it was over, they perfuaded the General that this was a full return of prayer; and, God having fo manifefted his pleasure, they ought to acquiefce in it. (Perenchief's Life of King Charles I.)

And in a while prevail'd fo far,

To win of them the game of war,

And be at liberty once more

T'attack themselves as they ’ad before..

For now there was no foe in arms T'unite their factions with alarms,

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But all reduc'd and overcome,

Except their worst, themselves, at home,

Who 'ad compass'd all they pray'd, and swore,

And fought, and preach'd, and plunder'd for,
Subdued the Nation, Church, and State,
And all things but their laws and hate;
But when they came to treat and tranfact,
And share the fpoil of all they 'ad ranfackt,

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To botch up what they 'ad torn and rent,

For as two cheats, that play one game,

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(Who to their faith as firmly cleav'd,
And own'd the right they had paid down-
So dearly for, the Church and Crown)
They' united conftanter, and fided
The more, the more their foes divided:
For though out-number'd, overthrown,
And by the fate of war run down,

Their duty never was defeated,

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1709

Ver. 163.] What a lafting monument of fame has our Poet raised to the Royalifts! What merited praises does he bestow on their unfhaken faith and loyalty! How happily does he applaud their conftancy and fufferings! If any thing can be a compenfation to thofe of that party, who met with unworthy difregard and neglect after the Reftoration, it must be this neverdying eulogy. Butler, alas! was one of that unfortunate number.