Starving the while he worshippeth his meat!
Who makes a root his god, how low is he,
If God and man be fever'd infinitely!
What wretchednefs can give him any room,
Whose house is foul, while he adores his broom?
None will believe this now, though money be
In us the fame tranfplanted foolery.
Thus Sin in Egypt sneaked for a while;
His highest was an Ox or Crocodile,
And fuch poor game. Thence he to Greece doth pass,
And being craftier much than Goodness was,
He left behind him Garrisons of fins,
To make good that which every day he wins.
Here Sin took heart, and for a garden-bed
Rich shrines and oracles he purchased:
He grew a gallant, and would needs foretell
As well what should befall, as what befell.
Nay, he became a Poet, and would serve
His pills of fublimate in that conferve.
The world came both with hands and purfes full
To this great lottery, and all would pull.
But all was glorious cheating, brave deceit,
Where some poor truths were fhuffled for a bait
To credit him, and to difcredit those,
Who after him should braver truths disclose.
From Greece he went to Rome: and as before
He was a God, now he's an Emperor.
Nero and others lodged him bravely there,
Put him in trust to rule the Roman sphere.
Glory was his chief inftrument of old:
Pleasure fucceeded straight, when that grew cold:
Which foon was blown to fuch a mighty flame,
That though our Saviour did destroy the game,
Difparking oracles, and all their treasure,
Setting affliction to encounter pleasure ;
Yet did a rogue with hope of carnal joy,
Cheat the most subtle nations. Who fo coy,
So trim, as Greece and Egypt? yet their hearts
Are given over, for their curious arts,
To fuch Mahometan ftupidities,
As the old Heathen would deem prodigies.
How dear to me, O God, thy counfels are!
Who may with thee compare?
Only the Weft and Rome do keep them free
From this contagious infidelity.
And this is all the Rock, whereof they boast,
As Rome will one day find unto her cost.
Sin being not able to extirpate quite
The Churches here, bravely resolved one night
To be a Churchman too, and wear a Mitre :
The old debauched Ruffian would turn writer.
I saw him in his study, where he fate
Bufy in controverfies sprung of late.
A Gown and Pen became him wondrous well:
His grave Afpect had more of Heaven than Hell:
Only there was a handsome picture by,
To which he lent a corner of his eye.
As Sin in Greece a Prophet was before,
And in old Rome a mighty Emperor;
So now being Priest he plainly did profess
To make a jeft of Chrift's three Offices:
The rather fince his fcatter'd jugglings were
United now in one both time and sphere.
From Egypt he took petty deities,
From Greece oracular infallibilities,
And from old Rome the liberty of pleasure,
By free difpenfings of the Church's treasure.
Then in memorial of his ancient throne,
He did furname his palace, Babylon.
Yet that he might the better gain all nations,
And make that name good by their tranfmigrations;
From all these places, but at divers times,
He took fine vizards to conceal his crimes:
From Egypt Anchorism and retiredness,
Learning from Greece, from old Rome stateliness ;
And blending thefe, he carried all men's eyes,
While Truth fat by, counting his victories:
Whereby he grew apace and scorn'd to use
Such force as once did captivate the Jews;
But did bewitch, and finally work each nation
Into a voluntary transmigration.
All poft to Rome: Princes fubmit their necks
Either to his public foot or private tricks.
It did not fit his gravity to ftir,
Nor his long journey, nor his gout and fur:
Therefore he fent out able Ministers,
Statesmen within, without doors Cloisterers;
Who without spear, or fword, or other drum,
Than what was in their tongue, did overcome;
And having conquer'd, did so strangely rule,
That the whole world did seem but the Pope's mule.
As new and old Rome did one empire twist;
So both together are one Antichrist;
Yet with two faces, as their Janus was,
Being in this their old crack'd looking-glass.
How dear to me, O God, thy counfels are !
Who may with thee compare?
Thus Sin triumphs in Western Babylon;
Yet not as Sin, but as Religion.
Of his two thrones he made the latter beft,
And to defray his journey from the East.
Old and new Babylon are to Hell and night,
As is the Moon and Sun to Heaven and light.
When the one did set, the other did take place,
Confronting equally the Law and grace.
They are hell's land-marks, Satan's double crest:
They are Sin's nipples, feeding the east and weft.
But as in vice the Copy still exceeds
The pattern, but not fo in virtuous deeds;
So though Sin made his latter seat the better,
The latter Church is to the first a debtor.
The fecond Temple could not reach the first :
And the late reformation never durft
Compare with ancient times and purer years;
But in the Jews and us deserveth tears;
Nay, it shall every year decrease and fade;
Till fuch a darkness do the world invade
At Christ's last coming, as his first did find:
Yet must there fuch proportions be affign'd
To these diminishings, as is between
The spacious world and Jewry to be seen.
Religion ftands on tiptoe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand.
When height of malice, and prodigious lufts,
Impudent finning, witchcrafts, and distrusts,
(The marks of future bane,) fhall fill our cup
Unto the brim, and make our measure up;
When Seine fhall fwallow Tiber, and the Thames
By letting in them both, pollutes her streams:
When Italy of us shall have her will,
And all her Calendar of fins fulfil;
Whereby one may foretell, what fins next year
Shall both in France and England domineer :
Then shall Religion to America flee:
They have their times of Gospel, e'en as we.
My God, thou doft prepare for them a way,
By carrying first their gold from them away:
For gold and grace did never yet agree:
Religion always fides with poverty.
We think we rob them, but we think amifs:
We are more poor, and they more rich by this.
Thou wilt revenge their quarrel, making grace
To pay our debts, and leave our ancient place
To go to them, while that, which now their nation
But lends to us, shall be our desolation.
Yet as the Church shall thither weftward fly,
So Sin shall trace and dog her instantly:
They have their period also and set times
Both for their virtuous actions and their crimes.
And where of old the Empire and the Arts
Ufher'd the Gospel ever in men's hearts,
Spain hath done one; when Arts perform the other, The Church shall come, and Sin the Church shall fmother:
That when they have accomplished the round,
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