When butchers were the only clerks,[1]
Elders and presbyters of kirks;
Whose Directory was to kill;
And some believe it is so still.[2]
The only diff'rence is, that then1195
They slaughter'd only beasts, now men.
For them to sacrifice a bullock,
Or, now and then, a child to Moloch,
They count a vile abomination,
But not to slaughter a whole nation.1200
Presbytery does but translate
The papacy to a free state,[3]
A commonwealth of popery,
Where ev'ry village is a see
As well as Rome, and must maintain 1205
A tithe-pig metropolitan;
Where ev'ry presbyter and deacon
Commands the keys for cheese and bacon;[4]
And ev'ry hamlet's governed
By's holiness, the church's head,[5]1210
- ↑ Both in the Heathen and Jewish sacrifices the animal was slaughtered by the priests.
- ↑ A banter on the Directory, or form of service drawn up by the Presbyterians, and substituted for the Common Prayer.
- ↑ The resemblance between Papacy and Presbytery, which is here implied, is amusingly set forth by Dean Swift, in his Tale of a Tub, under the names of Peter and Jack.
- ↑ Alluding to the well-known influence which dissenting ministers of all sects and denominations exercise over the purses of the female part of their flocks. As an illustration, Grey gives the following anecdote: Daniel Burgess, dining with a gentlewoman of his congregation, and a large uncut Cheshire cheese being brought to table, he asked where he should cut it. She replied, where you please, Mr Burgess. Upon which he ordered the servant in waiting to carry it to his own house, for he would cut it there.
- ↑ The gentlemen of Cheshire sent a remonstrance to the parliament, wherein they complained that, instead of having twenty-six bishops, they were then governed by a numerous presbytery, amounting, with lay elders and others, to 40,000. This government, say they, is purely papal, for every minister exercises papal jurisdiction. Dr Grey quotes from Sir John Birkenhead revived:
But never look for health nor peace
If once presbytery jade us,
When every priest becomes a pope,
When tinkers and sow-gelders
May,if they can but 'scape the rope,
Be princes and lay-elders.
