And hold no sin so deeply red
As that of breaking Priscian's head,
The head and founder of their order,
That stirring hats held worse than murder.
These thinking they're obliged to troth
In swearing, will not take an oath:
Like mules, who if they 'ave not their will
230 To keep their own pace, stand stock-still;
But they are weak, and little know
What free-born consciences may do.
'Tis the temptation of the devil
That makes all human actions evil; 235 For saints may do the same things by The spirit, in sincerity,
Which other men are tempted to,
And at the devil's instance do;
And yet the actions be contrary,
Just as the saints and wicked vary.
For as on land there is no beast
But in some fish at sea's expressed;
So in the wicked there's no vice
Of which the saints have not a spice;
245 And yet that thing that's pious in
The one, in th' other is a sin.
Is 't not ridiculous and nonsense,
A saint should be a slave to conscience,
That ought to be above such fancies,
As far as above ordinances ?
She's of the wicked, as I guess,
B' her looks, her language, and her dress :
And though, like constables, we search
For false wares one another's church;
255 Yet all of us hold this for true,
No faith is to the wicked due.
The truth is precious and divine,
Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.'
Quoth Hudibras, All this is true;
260 Yet 'tis not fit that all men knew
Those mysteries and revelations ;
And therefore topical evasions
Of subtle turns, and shifts of sense,
Serve best with th' wicked for pretence,
265 Such as the learned jesuits use,
And presbyterians, for excuse
Against the protestants, when th' happen
To find their churches taken napping:
As thus; A breach of oath is duple,
And either way admits a scruple,
And may be, ex parte of the maker,
More criminal than th' injured taker;
For he that strains too far a vow,
Will break it, like an o'er-bent bow:
And he that made and forced it, broke it,
Not he that for convenience took it.
A broken oath's, quatenus oath,
As sound t' all purposes of troth,
As broken laws are ne'er the worse,
280 Nay, till they 're broken have no force.
What's justice to a man, or laws,
That never comes within their claws?
They have no power, but to admonish;
Cannot control, coerce, or punish,
285 Until they're broken, and then touch
Those only that do make them such.
Beside, no engagement is allowed
By men in prison made, for good;
For when they're set at liberty,
290 They're from th' engagement too set free.
The rabbins write, when any Jew
Did make to God or man a vow,
Which afterwards he found untoward,
And stubborn to be kept, or too hard,
295 Any three other Jews o' th' nation
Might free him from the obligation :
And have not two saints power to use
A greater privilege than three Jews?
The court of conscience, which in man
300 Should be supreme and sovereign,
Is 't fit should be subordinate
To every petty court i' the state,
And have less power than the lesser,
To deal with perjury at pleasure?
35 Have its proceedings disallowed, or
Allowed, at fancy of pie-powder ?
Tell all it does, or does not know,
For swearing ex officio?
Be forced t' impeach a broken hedge,
310 And pigs unringed at vis. franc. pledge?
Discover thieves, and bawds, recusants,
Priests, witches, eves-droppers, and nuisance;
Tell who did play at games unlawful,
And who filled pots of ale but half-full;
315 And have no power at all, nor shift,
To help itself at a dead lift?
Why should not conscience have vacation
As well as other courts o' th' nation?
Have equal power to adjourn,
320 Appoint appearance and return ?
And make as nice distinctions serve
To split a case, as those that carve,
Invoking cuckolds' names, hit joints?
Why should not tricks as slight, do points?
Is not th' high-court of justice sworn
To judge that law that serves their turn?
Make their own jealousies high-treason,
And fix them whomso'er they please on?
Cannot the learned counsel there
Make laws in any shape appear?
Mould 'em as witches do their clay,
When they make pictures to destroy?
And vex them into any form
That fits their purpose to do harm?
335 Rack 'em until they do confess,
Impeach of treason whom you please,
And most perfidiously condemn
Those that engaged their lives for them?
And yet do nothing in their own sense,
But what they ought by oath and conscience.
Can they not juggle, and with slight
Conveyance play with wrong and right;
And sell their blasts of wind as dear,
As Lapland witches bottled air?
Will not fear, favour, bribe, and grudge,
The same case several ways adjudge?
As seamen with the self-same gale,
Will several different courses sail;
As when the sea breaks o'er its bounds,
And overflows the level grounds,
Those banks and dams, that, like a screen,
Did keep it out, now keep it in;
So when tyrann 'cal usurpation
Invades the freedom of a nation,
The laws o' th' land, that were intended
To keep it out, are made defend it.
Does not in chancery every man swear
What makes best for him in his answer?
Is not the winding up witnesses,
360 And nicking, more than half the business? For witnesses, like watches, go
Just as they're set, too fast or slow;
And where in conscience they 're strait-laced,
"Tis ten to one that side is cast.
365 Do not your juries give their verdict,
As if they felt the cause, not heard it?
And as they please, make matter o' fact
Run all on one side, as they're packed?
Nature has made man's breast no windores,
370 To publish what he does within doors;
Nor what dark secrets there inhabit,
Unless his own rash folly blab it.
If oaths can do a man no good
In his own business, why they should
In other matters do him hurt,
I think there's little reason for 't.
He that imposes an oath makes it,
Not he that for convenience takes it:
Then how can any man be said
380 To break an oath he never made?
These reasons may perhaps look oddly
To th' wicked though they evince the godly;
But if they will not serve to clear
My honour, I am ne'er the near.
385 Honour is like that glassy bubble,
That finds philosophers such trouble;
Whose least part cracked, the whole does fly,
And wits are cracked to find out why.'
Quoth Ralpho, 'Honour's but a word
To swear by only in a lord:
In other men 'tis but a huff
To vapour with, instead of proof;
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