For certainly there's no such word
In all the Scripture on record:
Therefore unlawful, and a sin;[1]
And so is, secondly, the thing: 810
A vile assembly 'tis, that can
No more be proved by Scripture, than
Provincial, Classic, National;[2]
Mere human creature-cobwebs all.
Thirdly, it is idolatrous; 815
For when men run a-whoring thus[3]
With their inventions, whatsoe'er
The thing be, whether dog or bear,
It is idolatrous and pagan,
No less than worshipping of Dagon. 820
Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat;
Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate:
For though the thesis which thou lay'st
Be true, ad amussim,[4] as thou say'st;
For that bear-baiting should appear, 825
Jure divino, lawfuller
Than synods are, thou dost deny
Totidem verbis; so do I:
Yet there's a fallacy in this;
For if by sly homœosis,[5] 830
Thou wouldst sophistically imply
Both are unlawful, I deny.
And I, quoth Ralpho, do not doubt
But bear-baiting may be made out,
In gospel-times, as lawful as is 835
Provincial, or parochial Classis;
- ↑ The disciplinarians held, that the Scriptures were full and express on every subject, and that everything was sinful which was not there directed. Some of the Huguenots refused to pay rent to their landlords, unless they could produce a text of Scripture directing them to do so.
- ↑ These words represent things of man's invention, therefore carnal and unlawful. The vile assembly means the bear-baiting, but alludes covertly to the Assembly of Divines.
- ↑ See Psalm cvi. 38.
- ↑ Exactly true, and according to rule.
- ↑ The explanation of a thing by something resembling it. Between this line and the next, the following couplet is inserted in several editions:—
Tussis pro crepitu, an art
Under a cough to slur a f—rt.
