Enough at once to lie at stake 735
For Cov'nant,[1] and the Cause's sake?[2]
But in that quarrel dogs and bears,
As well as we, must venture theirs?
This feud, by Jesuits invented,
By evil counsel is fomented; 740
There is a Machiavelian plot,
Tho' ev'ry nare olfact it not;[3]
A deep design in't, to divide
The well-affected that confide,
By setting brother against brother 745
To claw and curry one another.
Have we not enemies plus satis,
That cane et angue pejus[4] hate us?
And shall we turn our fangs and claws
Upon our own selves, without cause? 750
That some occult design doth lie
In bloody cynarctomachy,[5]
Is plain enough to him that knows
How saints lead brothers by the nose.
I wish myself a pseudo-prophet, 755
But sure some mischief will come of it,
- ↑ This was the Solemn League and Covenant, which was first framed and taken by the Scottish parliament, and by them sent to the parliament of England, in order to unite the two nations more closely in religion. It was received and taken by both houses, and by the City of London, and ordered to be read in all the churches throughout the kingdom; and every person was bound to give his consent by holding up his hand at the reading of it. See a copy of it in Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion.
- ↑ Sir William Dugdale informs us, that Mr Bond, preaching at the Savoy, told his auditors from the pulpit, "That they ought to contribute, and pray, and do all they were able to bring in their brethren of Scotland, for settling of God's cause: I say, quoth he, this is God's cause, and if our God hath any cause, this is it; and if this be not God's cause, then God is no God for me; but the devil is got up into heaven."
- ↑ Meaning, though every nose do not smell it. Nare from Nares, the Latin for nostrils.
- ↑ A proverbial saying, used by Horace, expressive of bitter aversion. The punishment for parricide among the Romans was, to be put into a sack with a snake, a dog, and an ape, and thrown into the river.
- ↑ A compound of three Greek words, signifying a fight between dogs and bears. Colonel Cromwell, finding the people of Uppingham, in Rutlandshire, bear-baiting on the Lord's-day, caused the bears to be seized, tied to a tree, and shot.
