As 'twas made out to us the laft
Expedient,-(I mean Margaret's fast)
When Providence had been fuborn'd
What answer was to be return'd:
Elfe why fhould tumults fright us now,
We have fo many times gone through,

520

And understand as well to tame

1525

As, when they serve our turns, t' inflame?

Have prov'd how inconfiderable

Are all engagements of the rabble;

Whose frenzies must be reconcil'd

With drums and rattles, like a child,
But never prov'd fo profperous,
As when they were led on by us;
For all our fcouring of religion
Began with tumults and fedition;

530

When hurricanes of fierce commotion

535

Became ftrong motives to devotion

(As carnal feamen, in a storm,

Turn pious converts, and reform);

When rusty weapons, with chalk'd edges,
Maintain'd our feeble privileges,

540

And brown-bills, levy'd in the City,

Made bills to pass the Grand Committee;
When Zeal, with aged clubs and gleaves,
Gave chace to rochets and white fleeves,

And

Ver. 521. Alluding to the impudence of thofe pretended faints, who frequently directed God Almighty what anfwers he fhould return to their prayers. Mr. Simeon Ah was called the God-challenger,

And made the Church, and State, and Laws,
Submit t' old iron, and the Caufe.
And as we thriv'd by tumults then,
So might we better now again,

545

T' appease our jealoufies and fears:
And yet for all these providences
W' are offer'd, if we had our fenfes,
We idly fit, like stupid blockheads,
Our hands committed to our pockets,
And nothing but our tongues at large,
To get the wretches a discharge :

560

Like men condemn'd to thunderbolts,

565

Who, ere the blow, become mere dolts;

Or fools befotted with their crimes,
That know not how to shift betimes,
That neither have the hearts to stay,
Nor wit enough to run away;

Who, if we could refolve on either,
Might stand or fall at least together;
No mean nor trivial folaces

To partners in extreme diftrefs;
VOL. II.

570

D

Whe

For thrashing mountains, and with spells
For hallowing carriers' packs and bells;
Things that the legend never heard of,
But made the Wicked fore afeard of.

The quacks of government (who sate
At th' unregarded helm of state,
And understood this wild confufion
Of fatal madnefs and delufion,
Muft, fooner than a prodigy,
Portend deftruction to be nigh)
Confider'd timely how t withdraw,

And fave their wind-pipes from the law;
For one rencounter at the bar

Was worse than all they 'ad fcap'd in war;
And therefore met in confultation

To cant and quack upon the nation;

Not for the fickly patient's fake,

Nor what to give, but what to take;
To feel the pulfes of their fees,
More wife than fumbling arteries;
Prolong the fnuff of life in pain,
And from the grave recover-Gain.

'Mong these there was a politician With more heads than a beaft in vision,

345

359

And

66 cup; let their blood be fpilled like water; let their "blood be facrificed to thee, O God, for the fins of "our nation."

Ver. 351.] This was Sir Anthony-Ashley Cooper, wh complied with every change in thofe times.

But barbarous when they came to fall : ·
For, by trepanning th' old to ruin,

365

He made his intereft with the new one;
Play'd true and faithful, though against
His confcience, and was still advanc'd:
For, by the witchcraft of rebellion
Transform'd t' a feeble State-camelion,
By giving aim from side to side,
He never fail'd to fave his tide,

370

But got the start of every state,

And, at a change, ne'er came too late ;

Could turn his word, and oath, and faith,

375

As many ways as in a lath;

By turning wriggle, like a screw,

Int' highest trust, and out, for new:
For when he 'ad happily incurr'd,

Inftead of hemp, to be preferr'd,

380

And pafs'd upon a government,

He play'd his trick, and out he went

But

But being out, and out of hopes
To mount his ladder (more) of ropes,
Would strive to raise himself upon

The public ruin, and his

So little did he understand

own;

The defperate feats he took in hand,
For, when he 'ad got himself a name

385

For frauds and tricks, he fpoil'd his game;
Had forc'd his neck into a noose,

390

To fhew his play at fast and loose;

And, when he chanc'd t' escape, miftook,

For art and subtlety, his luck.

So right his judgment was cut fit,

395

And made a tally to his wit,

And both together moft profound

At deeds of darkness under ground;
As th' earth is eafieft undermin'd,
By vermin impotent and blind.

By all these arts, and many more

400

He 'ad practis'd long and much before,

Our ftate-artificer forefaw

Which way the world began to draw:

For, as old finners have all points

405

O' th' compass in their bones and joints;

Can by their pangs and aches find
All turns and changes of the wind,
And, better than by Napier's bones,
Feel in their own the age of moons;
So guilty finners, in a state,
Can by their crites prognofticate,

410