CANTO II.]
HUDIBRAS.
361
And if we did such feats at first,[1]
What can we now we 're better vers'd?
Who have a freer latitude 835
Than sinners give themselves, allow'd;
And therefore likeliest to bring in,
On fairest terms, our Discipline;
To which it was reveal'd long since
We were ordain'd by Providence, 840
When three saints' ears, our predecessors,
The Cause's primitive confessors,[2]
B'ing crucify'd, the nation stood
In just so many years of blood,[3]
That, multiply'd by six, express'd 845
The perfect Number of the Beast,[4]
And prov'd that we must be the men
To bring this work about agen;
And those who laid the first foundation,
Complete the thorough Reformation: 850
For who have gifts to carry on
So great a work, but we alone?
What churches have such able pastors,
And precious, powerful, preaching masters?
Possess'd with absolute dominions 855
O'er brethren's purses and opinions,
What can we now we 're better vers'd?
Who have a freer latitude 835
Than sinners give themselves, allow'd;
And therefore likeliest to bring in,
On fairest terms, our Discipline;
To which it was reveal'd long since
We were ordain'd by Providence, 840
When three saints' ears, our predecessors,
The Cause's primitive confessors,[2]
B'ing crucify'd, the nation stood
In just so many years of blood,[3]
That, multiply'd by six, express'd 845
The perfect Number of the Beast,[4]
And prov'd that we must be the men
To bring this work about agen;
And those who laid the first foundation,
Complete the thorough Reformation: 850
For who have gifts to carry on
So great a work, but we alone?
What churches have such able pastors,
And precious, powerful, preaching masters?
Possess'd with absolute dominions 855
O'er brethren's purses and opinions,
- ↑ The schemes described in these lines are those which the presbyterians were charged with practising in the beginning of the civil commotions, to enrage the people against the king and the Church of England.
- ↑ Burton, Prynne, and Bastwick, who, before the civil war, were set in the pillory, and had their ears cropt. The severe sentence which was passed on these persons, and on Leighton, contributed much to inflame the minds of men, and to incense them against the bishops, the Star-chamber, and the government.
- ↑ The civil war lasted six years, from 1642, till the death of the king in 1648-9.
- ↑ Alluding to Revelations, ch. xiii. 18. "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six." The multiplication of three units by six, gives three sixes, and the juxtaposition of three sixes makes 666, or six hundred sixty-six, the number of the beast. This mysterious number and name excited the curiosity of mankind very early, and the conjectural solutions of it are numberless; every nation, sect, or person, finding by one means or other that the name of the hostile nation, sect, or person, involved the mystical 666.
