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And try if we by mediation
Of treaty and accommodation,
Can end the quarrel, and compofe
The bloody duel without blows.
Are not our liberties, our lives,
The laws, religion, and our wives,
Enough at once to lie at ftake

For Covenant and the Caufe's fake?

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But

Ver. 736.] This was the Solemn League and Covenant, which was first framed and taken by the Scottish Parliament, and by them fent 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 perfon was bound to give his confent, by holding up his hand, at the reading of it.

Ibid.-and Caufe's fake.] 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 fettling of "God's caufe: I fay (quoth he) this is God's caufe; "and if our God hath any caufe, this is it; and if "this be not God's caufe, then God is no god for me; "but the Devil is got up into heaven." Mr. Calamy, in his fpeech at Guildhall, 1643, fays, "I may truly fay, as the Martyr did, that if I had as many lives as hairs on my head, I would be willing to facrifice "all thefe lives in this caufe;"

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Which pluck'd down the King, the Church, and the Laws,

To fet up an idol, then nick-nam'd The Cause, Like Bell and Dragon to gorge their own maws; as it is expreffed in "The Rump Carbonaded."

But in that quarrel Dogs and Bears,
As well as we, muft venture theirs?
This feud, by Jefuits invented,
By evil counsel is fomented;
There is a Machiavilian plot,
(Though every nare olfact it not)
And deep defign in 't to divide
The well-affected that confide,
By fetting brother against brother,
To claw and curry one another.
Have we not enemies plus fatis,
That cane & angue pejus hate us?
And shall we turn our fangs and claws
Upon our own felves, without cause ?
That some occult defign doth lie
In bloody cynar&tomachy,

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Is plain enough to him that knows

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Nor liberty of Confciences,

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Nor Lords and Commons' Ordinances;

Nor for the Church, nor for Church-lands,

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Th' Egyptians worfhip'd dogs, and for
Their faith made internecine war.

Others ador'd a rat, and fome

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For that church fuffer'd martyrdom.
The Indians fought for the truth
Of th' elephant and monkey's tooth;
And many, to defend that faith,
Fought it out mordicus to death ;
But no beast ever was fo flight,
For man, as for his God, to fight.

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They

Ver. 765.] Nor for free Liberty of Confcience. Thus the two first editions read: the word free was left out in 1674, and all the fubfequent editions; and Mr. Warburton thinks for the worfe; free liberty being a most beautiful and fatirical periphrafis for licentioufnefs, which is the idea the Author here intended to give us.

Ver. 766.] The King being driven from the Parliament, no legal acts of Parliament could be made; therefore when the Lords and Commons had agreed upon any bill, they published it, and required obedience to it, under the title of An Ordinance of Lords and Commons, and fometimes, An Ordinance of Parliament.

They have more wit, alas! and know
Themfelves and us better than fo:
But we, who only do infuse

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In them th' infection of our ills.

For, as fome late philofophers

Have well obferv'd, beafts that converse

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With man take after him, as hogs

Get pigs all th' year, and bitches dogs.

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From whence, no doubt, th' invention came

Of this lewd antichristian game.

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To this, quoth Ralpho, Verily

The point seems very plain to me;

It is an antichristian game,

Unlawful both in thing and name.

First, for the name; the word Bear-baiting
Is carnal, and of man's creating;
For certainly there's no fuch word
In all the Scripture on record;
Therefore unlawful, and a fin;
And fo is (fecondly) The thing:
A vile affembly 'tis, that can

No more be prov'd by Scripture, than

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Provincial,

Provincial, Claffic, National,
Mere human creature-cobwebs all.
Thirdly, It is idolatrous;

For when men run a-whoring thus
With their inventions, whatsoe'er
The thing be, whether Dog or Bear,
It is idolatrous and Pagan,
No less than worshiping of Dagon.
Quoth Hudibras, I fmell a rat;

Ralpho, thou doft prevaricate:

For though the thefis which thou lay'st
Be true ad amussim, as thou say'ft;
(For that Bear-baiting should appear
Jure divino lawfuller

Than Synods are, thou doft deny
Totidem verbis, fo do I)

Yet there's a fallacy in this;

For if by fly homeofis,

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Ver. 831, 832.] Thefe two lines left out in the edi

tions 1674, 1684, 1689, 1700, and restored 1704.

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