But to confine the bad and sinful,
Like mortal cattle in a pinfold. 200
A saint's of th' heav'nly realm a peer;[1]
And as no peer is bound to swear,
But on the gospel of his honour,
Of which he may dispose as owner,
It follows, tho' the thing be forgery205
And false th' affirm, it is no perjury,
But a mere ceremony, and a breach
Of nothing, but a form of speech,
And goes for no more when 'tis took
Than mere saluting of the book.[2]210
Suppose the Scriptures are of force,
They're but commissions of course,[3]
And saints have freedom to digress,
But vary from 'em as they please;
Or misinterpret them by private215
Instructions, to all aims they drive at.
Then why should we ourselves abridge,
And curtail our own privilege?
Quakers, that like to lanthorns, bear
Their light within them, will not swear;220
Their gospel is an accidence,
By which they construe conscience,[4]
And hold no sin so deeply red
As that of breaking Priscian's head,[5]
- ↑ Butler cleverly puts this two-edged sarcasm into the mouth of one of those who turned out the peers.
- ↑ As one in a fable of L'Estrange (pt. 2, fab. 227) says—For the swearing, what signifies the kissing of a book, with a calves' skin cover and a pasteboard stiffening betwixt a man's lips and the text?
- ↑ This is, they strained the interpretation of Scripture to their own purposes, just as the Parliament officers took the liberty of disobeying their commissions, on pretence of private instructions or expediency. "They professed their conscience to be the rule and symbol of their faith," says Clement Walker, "and to this they conform the Scriptures, not their consciences to the Scriptures; setting the sun-dial by the clock, not the clock by the sun-dial."
- ↑ The Quakers interpret Scripture literally, and also insist upon correctly using thou in the singular number instead of the plural you, whence Butler charges them with turning the gospel into an English Grammar, and regarding an ungrammatical conventionality as a great offence.
- ↑ Priscian being the acknowledged authority if not the founder of gram-
