Trepann'd your party with intrigue,
And took your grandees down a peg;
New-modell'd the army, and cashier'd
All that to Legion Smec adher'd;[1]
Made a mere utensil o' your church,525
And after left it in the lurch;
A scaffold to build up our own,
And when w' had done with 't, pull'd it down;
Capoch'd[2] your rabbins of the Synod,[3]
And snapp'd their canons with a why-not.530
Grave synod-men, that were rever'd
For solid face, and depth of beard,
Their Classic model prov'd a maggot,
Their Direct'ry an Indian pagod;[4]
And drown'd their discipline like a kitten,535
On which they'd been so long a sitting;[5]
Decry'd it as a holy cheat,
Grown out of date, and obsolete,
And all the saints of the first grass,[6]
As castling foals of Balaam's ass.540
At this the Knight grew high in chafe,
And staring furiously on Ralph,
He trembled, and look'd pale with ire,[7]
Like ashes first, then red as fire.
- ↑ See above, p. 124, for an explanation of the term Smectymnuus. The majority originally in favour of Presbyterianism, which was overthrown by the Independents, is ridiculed under the name of Legion.
- ↑ So in the first editions, afterwards altered by Butler to O'er-reach'd, and again restored. Capoch'd means hood-winked. Why-not is a fanciful term used in Butler's Remains, vol. i. p. 178; and signifies the obliging a man to yield his assent.
- ↑ These were the Assembly of Divines, whoso work was almost all undone by the supremacy of the Independents.
- ↑ The Directory was a book drawn up by the Assembly of Divines (120 Divines and 30 Laymen) and published by authority of Parliament, containing instructions to their ministers for the regulation of public worship. It became a mere curiosity when the Independents set up freedom of worship.
- ↑ That is, from July 1, 1643, their first meeting, to August 28, 1648, when their discipline by classes was established. The Divines of the Assembly being paid by the day, are presumed to have had an interest in prolonging their work.
- ↑ The Presbyterians, the first sectaries that sprang up and opposed the established church.
- ↑ These two lines are not in the first editions; but were added in 1674.
