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Of whose strange crimes no Canonist can tell
In what Commandment's large contents they dwell:

One, one man only breeds my just offence; 45 Whom crimes gave wealth, and wealth gave

Impudence: Time, that at last matures a clap to pox, Whose gentle progress makes a calf an ox; And brings all natural events to pass, Hath made him an Attorney of an Ass.

50 No

young divine, new-benefic'd, can be More

pert, more proud, more positive than he. What further could I wish the fop to do, But turn a wit, and scribble verses too; Pierce the soft lab'rinth of a Lady's ear 55 With rhymes of this per cent, and that per year

. ? Or court a Wife, spread out his wily parts, Like nets or lime-twigs, for rich Widows hearts 3 Call himself Barrister to ev'ry wench, And wooc in language of the Pleas and Bench? 60 Language, which Boreas might to Auster hold More rough than forty Germans when they scold.

NOTES ture or the Gospel cornmands. A just ridicule on those practica! Commentators, as they are called, who include all moral and religious Duties within them. Whereas their true original

Then fick with Poetry, and poffest with Muse

Thou wast, and mad I hop'd; but men which chuse

Law practice for meer gain ; bold soul repute
Worse than imbrotheld strumpets prostitute 4.

Now like an owl-like watchman he must walk,

His hand still at a bill; now he must talk

Idly, like prisoners, which whole months will swear,

That only suretyship hath brought them there,
And to every suitor lye in every thing,
Like a King's Favourite --- or like a King.

NOTE s.

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fense is much more confined, being a short summary of duty fifted for a single People, upon a particular occasion, and to ferve tranfitory ends.

Ver. 61. Language, which Boreas — ] The Original has here a very fine stroke of fatire,

Than when winds in our ruin'd Abbyes roar. The frauds with which that work (fo necessary for the welfare both of religion and the state) was begun ; 'the rapine with which it was carried on; and the diffoluteness in which the plunder arising from it was wasted, had scandalized all fober inen; and disposed the best Protestants to wish, that some part of that immense wealth, arising from the suppression of the

Monafteries, had been reserved for Charity, Hospitality, and ieven for the public service of Religion.

65

Curs'd be the wretch, so venal and so vain : Paltry and proud, as drabs in Drury-lane. "Tis such a bounty as was never known, If PETER deigns to help you to your own : What thanks, what praise, if Peter but supplies, And what a solemn face if he denies ! Grave, as when pris’ners shake the head and swear 'Twas only Suretiship that brought 'em there. 70 His Office keeps your Parchment fates entire, He starves with cold to save them from the fire For you he walks the streets thro' rain or dust, For not in Chariots Peter puts his trust; For you he sweats and labours at the laws, Takes God to witness he affects

75 And lies to ev'ry Lord in ev'ry thing, Like a King's Favourite --- or like a King.

your cause,

Like a wedge in a block", wring to the barre,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless farrę
Than çarted whores, lye to the grave Judge; for
Bastardy abounds not in King's titles, nor
Simony and Sodomy in Church-men's lives,
As these things do in him; by these he thrives,
Shortly (as th' sea) he'll compass all the land,
From Scots to Wight, from Mount to Dover strand,
And spying heirs melting with Luxury,
Satan will not joy at their fins as he:
For (as a thrifty wench scrapes kitchen-stuffe,
And barrelling the droppings, and the snuffę
Of wasting candles, which in thirty year,
Reliquely kept, perchance buys wedding chear)
Piecemeal he gets lands, and spends as much time
Wringing each acre, as maids pulling prime.
In parchment then, large as the fields, he draws
Assurances, big as gloss'd civil laws,
So huge that men (in our times forwardness)
Are Fathess of the Church for writing less

NOTES

shings as Peter, and those whom Peter considered (and so usęd) as his patrimony,

These are the talents that adorn them all,
From wicked Waters ev'n to godly*
Not more of Simony beneath black gowns,

80
Nor more of bastardy in heirs to Crowns,
In shillings and in pence at first they deal ;
And steal so little, few perceive they steal;
Till, like the Sea, they compass all the land, 84
From Scots to Wight, from Mount to Dover strand:
And when rank Widows purchase luscious nights,
Or when a Duke to Jansen punts at White's,
Or City-heir in mortgage melts away;
Satan himself feels far less joy than they.
Piecemeal they win this acre first, then that, go
Glean on, and gather up the whole estate.
Then strongly fencing ill-got wealth by law,
Indentures, Cov'nants, Articles they draw,
Large as the fields themselves, and larger far
Than Civil Codes, with all their Glosses, are; 95
So vast, our new Divines, we must confess,
Are Fathers of the Church for writing less.

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