To take the height on't, and explain
To what degree it is profane:
Whats'ever will not with thy—what d'ye call
Thy light—jump right, thou call'st synodical. 1080
As if presbytery were a standard
To size whats'ever's to be slander'd.
Dost not remember how this day
Thou to my beard was bold to say,
That thou could'st prove bear-baiting equal 1085
With synods, orthodox and legal?
Do, if thou can'st, for I deny't,
And dare thee to't with all thy light.[1]
Quoth Ralpho, Truly that is no
Hard matter for a man to do, 1090
That has but any guts in's brains,[2]
And could believe it worth his pains;
But since you dare and urge me to it,
You'll find I've light enough to do it.
Synods are mystical bear-gardens, 1095
Where elders, deputies, church-wardens,
And other members of the court,
Manage the Babylonish sport.
For prolocutor, scribe, and bearward,
Do differ only in a mere word, 1100
Both are but sev'ral synagogues
Of carnal men, and bears, and dogs:
Both antichristian assemblies,
To mischief bent, as far's in them lies:
Both stave and tail with fierce contests, 1105
The one with men, the other beasts.
The diff'rence is, the one fights with
The tongue, the other with the teeth;
And that they bait but bears in this,
In th' other souls and consciences; 1110
- ↑ The Independents were great pretenders to inward light, for such they assumed to be the light of the spirit. They supposed that all their actions, as well as their prayers and preachings, were immediately directed by it.
- ↑ A proverbial expression for one who has some share of common sense, used by Sancho Pança to Don Quixote (Gayton's Translation) upon his mistaking the barber's bason for a helmet. Sec Ray, in Handbook of Proverbs, p. 163.
