Whether the serpent, at the fall,
Had cloven feet, or none at all.[1]
All this, without a gloss, or comment, 185
He could unriddle in a moment,
In proper terms, such as men smatter,
When they throw out, and miss the matter.
For his Religion, it was fit
To match his learning and his wit: 190
'Twas Presbyterian true blue,[2]
For he was of that stubborn crew
Of errant[3] saints, whom all men grant
To be the true church militant:[4]
Such as do build their faith upon 195
The holy text of pike and gun;[5]
Decide all controversies by
Infallible artillery;
And prove their doctrine orthodox
By apostolic blows and knocks; 200
Call fire, and sword and desolation,
A godly-thorough-Reformation,
Which always must be carried on,
And still be doing, never done:
- ↑ That curse upon the serpent, "on thy belly shalt thou go," seeming to imply a deprivation of what he enjoyed before, has been thought to imply that the serpent must previously have had feet. Accordingly St Basil says, he went erect like a man, and had the use of speech, before the fall.
- ↑ "True blue," which is found in the old proverb, "true blue will never stain," is used here as an indication of stubborn adherence to party, right or wrong. There is another reference to it in Part III., Canto II., line 870. Blue has immemorially been regarded as the emblematical colour of fidelity, and was the usual livery of servants.
- ↑ Literally, itinerant, such as missionaries. But the poet no doubt uses the word "errant" with a double meaning, that is, in the sense of knights "errant" as well as "errant" knaves.
- ↑ The church on earth is called militant, as struggling with temptations, and subject to persecutions : but the Presbyterians of those days were literally the church militant, fighting with the establishment, and all that opposed them.
- ↑ Cornet Joyce, when he carried away the king from Holdenby, being desired by his Majesty to show his instructions, drew up his troop in the inner court, and said, "These, sir, are my instructions."
