Where saints themselves are brought to stake[1]
For gospel-light, and conscience-sake;
Expos'd to scribes and presbyters,
Instead of mastiff dogs and curs;
Than whom th' have less humanity, 1115
For these at souls of men will fly.
This to the prophet did appear,
Who in a vision saw a bear,
Prefiguring the beastly rage
Of church-rule, in this latter age:[2] 1120
As is demonstrated at full
By him that baited the pope's bull.[3]
Bears naturally are beasts of prey,
That live by rapine; so do they.
What are their orders, constitutions, 1125
Church-censures, curses, absolutions,
But sev'ral mystic chains they make,
To tie poor Christians to the stake?
And then set heathen officers,
Instead of dogs, about their ears. 1130
For to prohibit and dispense,
To find out, or to make offence;
Of hell and heav'n to dispose,
To play with souls at fast and loose;
To set what characters they please, 1135
And mulets on sin or godliness;
Reduce the church to gospel-order,
By rapine, sacrilege, and murder;
To make presbytery supreme,
And kings themselves submit to them;[4]1140
- ↑ The Presbyterians, when in power, by means of their synods, assemblies. classes, scribes, presbyters, triers, orders, censures, curses, &c. &c., persecuted the ministers, both of the Independents and of the Church of England, with violence and cruelty little short of the Inquisition.
- ↑ Daniel vii. 5. "And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear; and it raised up itself on one side; and it had three ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh."
- ↑ The Baiting of the Pope's Bull was the title of a polemic pamphlet written against the Pope, by Henry Burton, rector of St Matthew, Friday-street. London, 1627.
- ↑ The Disciplinarians, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, maintained in
