Bishops, judges, Monopolists.  

Bishops.  

WHat strange earth's tremor doth so agitate  
The late firm scite of our Episcopate!  
That what was laid a thousand years ago,  
With hundreds added (as our Annals show)  
Whose high Towers have their heads so proudly borne,  
Should suddenly be from their groundsils torn?   

Is it because their structures were so great,  
They made the groaning earth beneath them sweat?  
Is it because no bound could circumscribe  
Th'expansed power of that Levitick Tribe?  
Or that they had engrossed into their hands  
Such ample purchase of the temporal lands?  
That, not with their due Decimates content,  
Both Tithe and Totall must increase their rent?  
Or as Prelati, steering the Church helm,  
They thought t'out-brave the Pares of the Realm?  
Nay more than that, an higher strain had run,  
As divers proud priests had before them done?  
As Wolstan, Becket, Wolsey, who durst write,  
I and my King, even in his Sovereign's sight:  
And their successors, like ambitious grown,  
Would make the Mitre level with the Crown.   

Or that our modern Prelates have of late  
Sought to raise new combustions in our State;  
And as Incendiaries, thought to devour  
Their Country's freedom with their purse and power  
Or that inclining to the Arminian Sect,  
And preaching in the Romish Dialect,  
They laboured mongst us Protestants to intrude  
What our Reformed Church did quite exclude?  
New Cannons, Oaths and Altars, bending low,  
To where, in time the Images must grow?  
Reviving ancient and forgot Traditions,  
Grounded upon old Popish superstitions.   

Or that a strange sinistor course they took,  
In altering the Scottish Service book;  
By which two sister kingdoms were constrained  
Toopen wars, (which stiffly they maintained.)  
Or that so far beyond all rational bounds,  
By their rough consures in the high Commission,  
Not sparing Priest, the Lawyer, nor Physician?  
Their Ex Officio Oaths, their Ius Divine,  
And Clergy Coutts (which conscience should refine)  
More full of bribes, corruption, and black stain,  
Than the lay benches they so much disdain.  
Yet could I wish, though all these have been proved,  
Th' offenders once being punished and removed,  
The function might remain, to their disgraces,  
To try who better might supply their places.    

Of judges.  

CAn judges be corrupt, or staggering stand,  
Who should be fathers both of laws and land  
They did of old upon wild Asses ride,  
An emblem, that when doubts they did decide,  
They should be slow in sentence, and consider  
The cause, (both parties being brought together.)  
Athens for them did Images devise:  
To intimate, nought should from them be heard,  
Savouring either of favour or reward.  
But corrupt judges (such no doubt there are)  
Punish the purse, and still the person spare.  
And I have heard from a most learned Speaker,  
That no Lawmaker should be a lawbreaker.  
he's only a wise judge that stands in awe  
Of one God solely, one King, and one Law.   

But to our former Quaere; May it be,  
That in these times we any judge shall see,  
Who on the Bench being seated as a god,  
Should be called thence, and beat with a Black Rod?  
Nor wonder is't; when some as grave and great,  
Have in the same or like Judicial Seat,  
(Only to give his wit some vain applause)  
Jested and jeered a poor man from his Cause.  
But O you Judges, that yourselves forget,  
And in the high seat of the Scornful sit;  
Who with the wicked have gone hand in hand,  
You in the future judgement shall not stand.   

But how of late are things grown out of order?  
When we shall see one from a bare Recorder,  
Raised unto such an eminence of state,  
That quite forgetting what he was but late,  
He shall through all Judicial seats aspire,  
Even till he gains the height of his desire:  
And then, through guilt of conscience (none accusing)  
(His place of sovereign trust so much abusing)  
When standing eminent in the World's broad eye,  
Then like a Finch to take his wings and fly,  
Leaving the Purse and the Broad Seal behind him,  
As had they been mere toys, and did not mind them.   

But all have not the fortune to evade  
Their trial: for though some fly, some are stayed.   

When those whose livelihoods are the laws, indeed,  
By which they only can subsist and feed,  
(Which such sworn Fathers should as sacred keep,  
And no hour in their execution sleep)  
When such shall seek to extirp the Law's foundation,  
And in the stead thereof bring innovation;  
To them I leave the Magna Charta's curse:  
Now let the better Judges judge the worse.    

Of Monopolists.  

HOw comes this swarm of Locusts to appear  
More this, than any other Temperate year,  
This crew of moths and cankers that bereaves  
Our flourishing Orchard both of fruit and leaves?  
Who do not only vex us here about,  
But pester all the Trees the Realm throughout?  
I mean those Drones, that fly about in mists,  
Devilish Projectors, damned Monopolists,  
Who now are hid in holes and keep a loof,  
Being indeed not Parliamental proof.  
Yet may we find them in our bread, our meat,  
In every draught or bit we drink or eat.  
Our Bevers and the Boots we pluck on, whether  
We have them made of Calve-skin, or Neat's Leather,  
Our Salt and Oatmeal, Porridge are not free,  
But they from their ingredience must have fee:  
Our cloth, stuff, lace, points, tags, even to a pin,  
Nay even the linen next unto our skin,  
And needle it is sowed with: they make Boot,  
Of every thing we wear, from head to foot.  
Nay I may speak it to them (with a pox)  
I find them even in my Tobacco box.   

To leave your petty feoffors and feoffees,  
And come to your brave scarlet Patentees.  
Who when our soap of sweetest oil was made,  
By which they drove a good and wholesome Trade.  
These by an engrossed Patent coveting gain,  
Composed it all of stinking rape, and train:  
For what care they, so it may make them rich,  
To fill our bodies full of scabs and itch.  
Which was a great cause, as some Artists guest,  
To bring amongst us a contagious pest.  
And then thinks one, where soap hath failed without,  
Balderdash wines within, will work no doubt.   

And then comes in (that project once begun)  
New inposts upon every Pipe and Tun.  
The price of French and Spanish winds are raised,  
How ever in their worth deboyst and craisd.  
The subject suffers in each draught he swallows,  
For which may they be doomed unto the gallows.   

Abel and Cain were shepherds (the Text says)  
But which is strange, turned Vintners in these days.  
The wicked Cain his brother Abel slew:  
Which in these brother Vintners proves not true.  
For unto this day, Cain keeps up his sign,  
But Abel lies drowned in his Medium wine.  
Projecting Kilvert (some say) was the cause,  
Who making new Lords, had devisd new laws.  
But those that would the ancient custom vary,  
Shall now ('tis thought) be made exempleary.     
FINIS.