From whom the institution came,
When Church and State they set on flame,
And worn by them as badges then
Of spiritual warfaring-men,—1170
Judge rightly if regeneration
Be of the newest cut in fashion:
Sure 'tis an orthodox opinion,
That grace is founded in dominion.[1]
Great piety consists in pride;1175
To rule is to be sanctified:
To domineer, and to control,
Both o'er the body and the soul,
Is the most perfect discipline
Of church-rule, and by right divine.1180
Bell and the Dragon's chaplains were
More moderate than those by far:[2]
For they, poor knaves, were glad to cheat,
To get their wives and children meat;
But these will not be fobb'd off so,1185
They must have wealth and power too;
Or else with blood and desolation'
They '11 tear it out o' th' heart o' th' nation.
Sure these themselves from primitive
And heathen priesthood do derive,1190
- ↑ The Presbyterians held that those only who possessed grace were entitled to power.
- ↑ The priests, their wives, and children, feasted upon the provisions offered to the idol, and pretended that he bad devoured them. See the Apocrypha, Bel and the Dragon, v. 15. The great gorbellied idol, called the Assembly of Divines (says Overton in his arraignment of Persecution), is not ashamed in this time of state necessity, to guzzle down and devour daily more at an ordinary meal than would make a feast for Bell and the Dragon; for, besides their fat benefices forsooth, they must have their four shillings a day for setting in constollidation.
initials of their names make the word Smectymnus: and, by way of distinction, they wore handkerchiefs about their necks, which afterwards degenerated into carnal cravats. Hall, bishop of Exeter, presented a humble remonstrance to the high court of parliament, in behalf of liturgy and episcopacy; which was answered by the junto under the title of The Original of Liturgy and Episcopacy, discussed by Smectymnuus. (See John Milton's Apology for Smectymnuus.) They are remarkable also for another book, "The King's Cabinet unlocked," in which all the chaste and endearing expressions in letters that passed between Charles I. and his Queen are, by their painful labours in the Devil's vineyard, turned into ridicule.
