Told it the news o' th' last express,
And after good or bad success
Made prayers, not so like petitions
As overtures and propositions,
(Such as the Army did present
To their Creator, the Parl'ament)
In which they freely will confess,
They will not, cannot acquiesce,
Unless the Work be carry'd on
In the same way they have begun,

595

600

v. 602. Alluding probably to their saucy expostulations with God from the pulpit. Mr. Vines, in St. Clenient's Church, near Temple-bar, used the following words: "O Lord, thou hast never given us a victery this long while, for all our frequent fasting. "What dost thou mean, O Lord, to fling into a ditch, " and there to leave us?" And one Robinson, in his Prayer at Southampton, Aug, 25, 1642, expressed himself in the following manner: O God, O God, many "are the hands that are lift up against us, but there "is one God, it is thou thvself, O Father, who does 66 us more mischief than they all." They seemed to encourage this sauciness in their public sermons.--"Gather upon God, (says Mr. R. Harris, Fast Sermon before the Commons) and hold him to it as Jacob did; press him with his precepts, with his promises, with "his hand, with his seal, with his oath, till we do "EvoWπε, as some Greek Fathers boldly speak; that " is, if I may speak it reverently enough, put the "Lord out of countenance; put him, as you would "say, to the blu h, unless we be inasters of our re"quests."

By setting Church and Commonweal
All on a flame, bright as their zeal,
On which the Saints were all agog,

605

And all this for a Bear and Dog?

The Parlament drew up petitions

To 'tself, and sent them, like commissions,

610

With papers in their hats, that show'd
As if they to the pill'ry rode?

Have all these courses, these efforts,

Been try'd by people of all sorts,

Velis et remis, omnibus nervis,

And all t' advance the Cause's service,
And shall all now be thrown away

In petulant intestine fray?

Shall we, that in the Cov'nant swore
Each man of us to run before

Another, still in Reformation

Give Dogs and Bears, a dispensation?
How will Dissenting Brethren relish it?
"What will Malignants say? Videlicet,
That each man swore to do his best
To damn and perjure all the rest?

620

625

630

And bid the Devil take the hin'most
Which at this race is like to win most.
They'll say our bus'ness, to Reform
The Church and State, is but a worm;
For to subscribe, unsight, unseen,
T'an unknown Church discipline,
What is it else, but beforehand
T'engage, and after understand?.
For when we swore to carry on
The present Reformation,
According to the purest mode
Of churches best reform'd abroad,
What did we else but make a vow

635

640

645

To do we know not what, nor how?

v. 651.] The Holy League in France, designed and made for the extirpation of the Protestant religion, was the original out of which the Solemn League and Covenant here was (with difference only of circumstances) most faithfully transcribed. Nor did the success of both differ more than the intent and purpose; for, after the destruction of vast numbers of people of all sorts, both ended with the murder of two kings, whom they had both sworn to defend. And as our Co

These slanders will be thrown upon
The cause and work we carry on,

If we permit men to run headlong
T'exorbitances fit for Bedlam,
Rather than gospel-walking times,

655

When slightest sins are greatest crimes.
But we the matter so shall handle,

As to remove that odious scandal:

662

In name of King and Parlament,

I charge ye all, no more foment

This feud, but keep the peace between
Your brethren and your countrymen,

665

And to those places straight repair
Where your respective dwellings are,
But to that purpose first surrender
The Fiddler as the prine offender,
Th' incendiary vile, that is chief
Author and engineer of mischief;
That makes division between friends,
For profane and malignant ends.
He and that engine of vile noise,
On which illegally he plays,

670

venanters swore every man to run one before another in the way of Reformation, so did the French, in the Holy League, to fight to the last drop of blood.

v. 673---676.1 The threatening punishment to the Fiddle was much like the threats of the pragmatical troopers to punish Ralph Dobbin's waggon, Plain

Shall (dictum factum) both be brought
To condign pun'shment, as they ought.
This must be done, and I would fain see
Mortal so sturdy as to gainsay;

675

For then I'll take another course,
And soon reduce you all by force.

630

This said, he clapt his hand on sword,
To shew he meant to keep his word.

But Talgol, who had long supprest
Inflamed wrath in glowing breast,

Dealer, vol. i. "I was driven (says he) into a town upon the 29th of May, where my waggon was to "dine. There came up in a great rage seven or eight "of the troopers that were quartered there, and asked "What I bushed out my horses for?" I told them, "To drive flies away." But they said, I was a Jaco"bite rascal, that my horses were guilty of high trea"son, and my waggon ought to be hanged. I an"swered, "It was already drawn, and within a yard 66 or two of being quartered; but as to being hanged, "it was a compliment we had no occasion for, and "therefore desired them to take it back again, and keep it in their own hands, till they had an oppor"tunity to make use of it." "I had no sooner spoke "these words, but they fell upon me like thunder, "stript my cattle in a twinkling, and beat me black "and blue with my own oak branches."

v. 683,684.] It may be asked, Why Talgol was the first in answering the Knight, when it seems more incumbent upon the Bearward to make a defence? Probably Talgol might then be a Cavalier; for the character the Poet has given him doth not infer the

Volume 1.

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