nity that God did ever offer to the godly of this kingdom, to give them some money to lend to this cause: and I remember in this ordinance of Parliament it is called advance money: it is called an ordinance to advance money towards the maintaining the Parliament forces ; and truly it is the highest advance of money to make money an instrument to advance religion: the Lord give your hearts to believe this. For my part, I speak it in the name of myself, and in the names of these reverend ministers, we will not only speak to persuade you to contribute, but every one of us that God hath given any estate to, we will all to our utmost power; we will not only say ite, but venite."

V. 585. Have they invented tones to win.] Alluding to the whining tones in which the puritanical teachers were accustomed to deliver their discourses.

V. 587-8. The men, as Indians with a female

Tame elephant inveigle the male.] The following account of taking and taming wild elephants is to be found in Bewick's History of Quadrupeds. "In the midst of a forest abounding with elephants, a large piece of ground is marked out, and surrounded with strong palisades, interwoven with branches of trees: one end of the inclosure is narrow; from which it widens gradually, so as to take in a vast extent of country. Several thousand men are employed on the occasion, who place themselves in such a manner as to prevent the wild elephants from making their escape : they kindle large fires at certain distances, and make a dreadful noise with drums and various kinds of discordant instruments, calculated for the purpose of stunning and terrifying the poor animals; whilst another party, consisting of some thousands, with the assistance of tame female elephants, trained for the purpose, drive the wild elephants slowly towards the great gate of the inclosure, the whole train of hunters closing in after them, shouting and making a great noise, till they are driven by insensible degrees into the narrow part of the inclosure, through which there is an opening into a smaller space, strongly fenced in

and guarded on all sides. As soon as one of the elephants enters this strait, a strong bar closes the passage from behind, and he finds himself completely environed. On the top of this narrow passage some of the huntsmen stand with goads in their hands, urging the creature forward to the end of the passage, where there is an opening just wide enough to let him pass. He is now received into the custody of two females, who stand on each side of him, and press him into the service. If he be likely to prove refractory, they begin to discipline him with their trunks, till he is reduced to obedience, and suffers himself to be led to a tree, where he is bound by the leg with stout thongs, made of untanned elk or buck-skin. The tame elephants are then led back to the inclosure, and others are made to submit in the same manner. They are all suffered to remain fast to the trees for several days. Attendants are placed by the side of each animal, who supply him with food by little and little, till he is brought by degrees to be sensible of kindness and caresses, and allows himself to be led to the stable. In the space of fourteen days his absolute submission is completed. During that time he is fed daily with cocoa-nnt leaves, and led once a day to the water by the tame ones. He becomes accustomed to the voice of his keeper, and at last quietly resigns his prodigious powers to the dominion and service of man."

V. 589. Have they told Providence what it must do.] It was a common practice for the preachers in their sermons to inform God of the transactions of the times. "Oh! my good Lord God," says Mr. G. Swathe, Prayers, p. 12, "I hear the King hath set up his standard at York against the Parliament and city of London.Look thou upon them, take their cause into thine own hand; appear thou in the cause of thy saints; the cause in hand-It is thy cause, Lord; we know that the King is misled, deluded, and deceived by the popish, arminian, temporising, rebellious, malignant, faction and party, &c." To such a height did their extravagancies proceed, "that they would," says Dr. Echard," in their

prayers and sermons, tell God, that they would be willing to be at any charge and trouble for him, and to do, as it were, any kindness for the Lord; the Lord might now trust them, and rely upon them, they should not fail him: they should not be unmindful of his business: his work should not stand still, nor his designs be neglected. They must needs say, that they had formerly received some favours from God, and have been, as it were, beholden to the Almighty, but they did not much question but that they should find some opportu. nity of making some amends for the many good things, and (as I may so say) civilities, which they had received from him: indeed, as for those that are weak in the faith, and are yet but babes in Christ, it is fit that such should keep at some distance from God, should kneel before him, and stand (as I may so say) cap in hand to the Almighty: but as for those that are strong in all gifts, and grown up in all grace, and are come to a fulness and ripeness in the Lord Jesus, it is comely enough to take a great chair, and sit at the end of the table, and, with their cocked hats on their heads, to say, God, we thought it not amiss to call upon thee this evening, and let thee know how affairs stand; we have been very watchful since we were last with thee, and they are in a very hopeful condition; we hope that thou wilt not forget us, for we are very thoughtful of thy concerns: we do, somewhat long to hear from thee; and if thou pleasest to give us such a thing (victory) we shall be (as I may so say) good to thee in something else when it lies in our way."

V. 602. They will not, cannot acquiesce.] Alluding probably to their blasphemous expostulations with God from the pulpit. Mr. Vines, one of the pulpit-orators of those dist acted times, used the following words in St. Clement's church, near Temple Bar: "O Lord, thou hast never given us a victory this long while, for all our frequent fastings: what dost thou mean, O Lord, to fling into a ditch, and there to leave us?" And one Robinson, in his prayer, at Southampton, August 25, 1642, expressed himself in the following manner: "O

God, O God! many are the hands that are lift up against us, but there is one God, it is thou thyself, O Father, who does us more mischief than they all." Another of them, one Harris, in a fast sermon preached before the Commons, said to them, "Gather upon God, and hold him fast as Jacob did; press him with his precepts, with his promises, with his hand, with his seal, with his oath, till we (if I may speak it reverently enough) put the Lord out of countenance, put him, as you would say, to the blush, unless we be masters of our requests."

V. 609. The Parliament drew up petitions.] When the seditious members of the House of Commons wanted to have any thing pass the House which they feared would meet with opposition, they would draw up a petition to the Parliament, and send it to their friends in the country to get it signed, and brought it up to the Parliament by as many as could be prevailed on to do it. Their way of doing it, as Lord Clarendon observes in his History of the Rebellion, " was to prepare a petition, very modest and dutiful for the form, and for the matter not very unreasonable; and to communicate it at some public meeting, where care was taken it should be received with approbation: the subscription of a very few hands filled the paper itself where the petition was written, and therefore many more sheets were annexed for the reception of the numbers, which gave all the credit, and procured all the countenance to the undertaking. When a multitude of hands were procured, the petition itself was cut off, and a new one framed, agreeable to the design in hand, and annexed to a long list of names which was subscribed to the former; by this means many men found their names subscribed to petitions of which they before had never heard."

V. 621. Velis et remis, omnibus nervis.] With both sails and oars, their whole strength.

V. 637-8. For to subscribe, unsight, unseen,

To an unknown church-discipline.] Lord Cla. rendon, in his Observations on the Solemn League and

Covenant, says, "They promised to reform the church according to the best reformed churches, though none of them knew, neither could they agree, which churches were best reformed, and very few, if any, of them knew which was the true form of those churches." V. 639-40. What it is else, but beforehand

T'engage, and after understand?] Of this kind was the casuistry of the mayor and jurates of Hastings, one of the Cinque Ports, who would have had some of the assistants to swear in general to assist them, and afterwards they should know the particulars; and when they scrupled, they told them, "They need not to be so scrupulous, though they did not know what they swore unto; it was no harm, for they had taken the same oath themselves to do that which they were to assist them in."

V. 647-8. For no three of us will agree

Where, or what churches these should be.] Amidst the general cry among the sectaries for a reform of the church discipline, there was no two of them that could agree what that reform ought to be: they were united in their hatred of monarchy and episcopacy, but in all other points there was an irreconcilable discordance of opinion among them.

V. 650. With theirs that swore et cæteras.] In the convocation which sat at the beginning of the year 1640, there was an oath framed, which all the clergy were bound to take, in which was this clause: "Nor will I ever give my consent to alter the government of this church, by archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, &c." This was loudly clamoured at, and called swearing to they knew not what. Our poet, in this place, has plainly shown his impartiality; the faulty and ridiculous on the one side, as well as the other, feel the lash of his pen. The satire is fine and pungent in comparing the et cætera oath with the covenant oath; neither of which were strictly defensible. His brother satirist, Cleveland, also could not permit so great an absurdity to pass by him unlashed; but does it in the person of a Puritan zealot, and thereby cuts doubly: