 | Poems on Affairs of State |  |
The Assembly of the Moderate Divines.
1
Pray pardon John Bays, for I beg your Excuse,If I make no Stranger of your belov'd Muse,
It being your Talent Divines to abuse.
2
Divines that can scruple and cant with the Times,As Settle and Shadwel for Bread belch their Rhymes;
But St. Peter and St. Judas you know had their Crimes.
3
If amongst twelve Apostles we can produce twoDid exceed any cruel and hard-hearted Jew,
Why then should we wonder that we have a few?
4
There's the Bishop of Bugdon, for Lincoln he ne'er saw;And there's naked Truth with his scrupulous Paw,
And London pray beware of the Common Law.
5
There's the D---n of St. Paul's admir'd by someFor his Works against England, Geneva and Rome,
Idolatry, Separation, Irenicum.
6
There's a moderate Dean too that talks much of Love,As if a Fanatick was as meek as a Dove;
But for him and Ralph Cudworth, a G--- let them prove.
153
7
But B---net, where art thou, thou Man of the Lord!For Mary Hill's loss you may take the Plank's word;
For betwixt you and I 'twas a Prophetick Board.
8
With you Anthony Horneck the Pulpit disgraces,With your whining, your sour and tub-like Faces;
But the Rolls and the Savoy are privileg'd Places.
9
Saint Laurence for Whichcot does stifly dispute;Perhaps he might cant well if he was not mute:
But he preaches as Marr-All does play on the Lute.
10
There's a moderate Doctor of Cornhill St. Miles,Whom the Clergy's Contemner per Slip-stocking stiles;
He's an eloquent Preacher, none hears him but smiles.
11
And there's Boanerges his Brother that thunders,He cants in Old Fish-street, and who I pray wonders?
For he has an excellent Voice to cry Flounders.
12
There's old Father Gifford in St. Dunstan's i'th' East,Who among the rude Vulgar's a Prophet at least;
But whoe'er preach'd well when the People were pleas'd?
13
There's a Reverend Doctor at Cr---gate dwells,Who Sm---thy his Curate in trimming excels;
But Bunyan the Quaker has tickled his Gills.
14
There's Pain of White-Chappel, a Simoniack they say,A Man that's cut out to be Vicar of Bray,
If the Times do but change, as he wishes they may.
15
There's Hospital Patrick, a Captain they call him,For burlesquing the Psalms some highly extol him,
But Oh! L'Estrange and Sam's Coffee-house gall him.
154
16
There's one Squire Ramsey, a famous Divine,Who no less than ten Women did love at one time;
But it might be call'd Lust in any but him.
17
There's Johnson th'Apostate, who deserves to be hemp'd,For he alone (were all others exempt)
Were occasion enough for the Clergy's Contempt.
18
There's Colchester Hickeringil, the Fanaticks Delight,Who Gregory Gray-Beard and Meroz did write:
You may see who are Saints in a Pharisee's sight.
19
There's Titus the Witness, the Nation's trite Theme,Who for Satan and Hell hath so great an Esteem,
That Damnation would be a Preferment to him.
20
There's Geering of Southwark, and Lewis o'th' Wall,The one hath a Sacrament at a Whig's Call;
For he made his Saviour St. John's Jackall.
21
There's B---B. there's Aldgate paid;There's Messieurs Raggous wears no Shirt, as 'tis said,
Because they resemble a Surplice indeed.
22
But Kid---r, thy trimming above human Race,For Faction turn'd out of the Rolls with Disgrace,
And Orthodox B---net succeeds in thy Place.
23
There's Scotch bawling Anderson proof against Pen,Has a Voice that drowns a Cathedral Amen;
But 'tis thought he catches more Women than Men.
24
There's Durham of Bread-street has trim'd fifty years,So old, so grave, so foolish appears,
At once he deserves both Laughter and Tears.
155
25
But Trimming's the Subject of brave Roger's Pen,Who scourges these Monsters call'd moderate Men;
For Trimming the Scourge of Rebellion has been.
26
But who all Divinity-Trimmers can tell,Who ev'ry where teach, and no where do dwell?
I hate Knaves in it, but I love the Gown well.
| Poems on Affairs of State | |