Ecclesia and Factio/Annotated

ell me Proud Insect, since thou canst not Fly, By what assistance thou art Hopped so high:
 * The busy swarms of Gnats and Wasps around,
 * With Hum, and Buzz, thy Revelations sound,
 * And cry in thee (alone) their happiness is found.

Me they Despise, and thee they Praise aloud, Admire thee, and Adore thee as a God: Misled by false Enthusiastic Light, They’ve raised thee now to a Destructive height, Who restless strivest, by thy accustomed ways, To stain those Glories, which thou ne’er couldst raise;
 * And like your Dam (the Babylonian Beast)
 * Cry down those Truths (by which Mankind are blest)
 * Which Reason, well as Faith, makes manifest.

Thou knowest I’m founded on a fateless Rock, Freed from the danger of an Envious shock: Scripture’s my Bass, Immovable I stand, Guarded by Lawful Power, on ev’ry hand.
 * Established by a National Consent,
 * Preach Faith, and Charity, do ills prevent;
 * And for the Truths I Teach, am made Predominant.

Steadfast and Pure, from Innovations free, Preserved entire from Mutability; Safe from your Pride, and Envy, Armed with Law, To humble stiff Precisians, who withdraw
 * From my Communion, Conscious to agree
 * With Heads uncovered, or a bended Knee,
 * And think a Bow a rank Idolatry.

Religion, like a Prince, though ne’er so Pure, By Power to Punish, must be made secure, Or else your Saints, to Reformation given, Would quickly cut Ten Thousand Paths to Heaven.
 * Could I from Factious Insolence be free,
 * And live unstained, without an Enemy,
 * (But that, till thou art crushed, can never be)

Then Church, and State might happily Unite, To Mankind’s Safety, and to Heaven’s Delight: But you, by Pride, are swelled to such a Rage, (Fed by the Vice of a Corrupted Age) That now you strike, with Envy, at my Power, And aimest above my Sacred Head to tower; But all in vain—— For that Blest Edifice can never drop, Which, when assailed, good Heaven is still the Prop.

You urge a Barn, or Stable, where you Meet, A Field, a Coffee-House, Dancing-School or Street, Are fit for Heavenly Worship, and for Prayer Sacred, as unpolluted Temples are. Rare Arrogance indeed, so vilely prone, To justify Irreverence to a God-head done. A Room where Men their common Lusts pursue, Drink, Swear, Lie, Cheat, all Worldly-business do, In Christian Reason, is a hopeful Place To beg God’s Presence, or expect His Grace; Whilst His own House, for Holy use ordained, To Him Erected, by our Sins unstained, Shall be Despised, and Unregarded stand, A useless Fabric, in an Impious Land: Yet doest thou grumble in oppressive tones, And rail at me for Persecutions.

If you, through studied Prejudice, retire From what the Laws of God, and Man require, A Legal Force may justly then be used; Such Factious Serpents may in time be bruised:
 * My Power’s from God, and in His Word declared,
 * To those who to my Laws bear no regard,
 * Heaven’s Punishments are Just, as to the Good Reward.

The Scriptures whatsoever I Teach contain, What’s Easy I Recite, what’s Hard Explain: Virtue commend to Practice, Sin reprove, Excite to Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love, Obedience, Loyalty, Repentance, Prayer, The use of what we Spend, or what we Spare. Truth I advance, and what is False suppress, You can no more than these, I do no less. Then tell me what strange Fever in the Head, At first those Superstitious Frenzies bred? From whence you raise that causeless discontent, Which makes you from my Temples thus Dissent?

External Order first informs our Sense, And raises in us a due Reverence,
 * Either towards Place, or Person, where we see
 * Concurrent parts, in Noble Form, agree;
 * And tend to a peculiar Harmonie.

Or why did the Creator shape the World From a dark Mass, together rudely hurled? But that, in ev’ry part, Mankind should see, The strokes of an All-powerful Deity. From whence the light of Faith does first arise, And makes our Reason subject to our Eyes, For ev’ry wonderous work of Heaven we see, Gives fresh Assurance of Eternity;
 * And by its Graceful Order strikes an Awe,
 * Humbles our Souls, and does Obedience draw
 * By Natural means, to Heaven, and Nature’s Law:
 * Therefore, such decent Rites do I dispense,
 * As best shall Humble, and Affect the Sense;
 * And in my Sons beget a Graceful Reverence.

How insolent it looks? How Evil bred, T’ approach God’s Presence with a Covered Head? Yet to a Great-man Couch, with Hat in Hand, And Bare, before the Wealthy Idol, stand. Or at Devotion so neglectful be, As quite abandon all Humility; And rather than to Bended knees submit, In disrespectful Postures, Lolling sit.

Next, with Church Government you disagree, And causelessly condemn our Hierarchy: Rail at my Bishops, angry at their State, And Envy them, whose Merit made them Great; The Learned, and Pious Characters they wear, Hath raised them to the Dignities they bear. Unstained their Lives, they are as Guardians chose, To save the Church from Error, and from Foes:
 * Without whose Conduct, and Authority,
 * Religions Pristine state can never be
 * Kept from Erroneous Innovations free,

But stand exposed to every abuse, That each Fanatic whimsy shall produce. Then sure such Men, who by a Painful Life, (Through Grace) to Knowledge more sublimed arrive, And, with the piercing Eyes of Reason, see Through all the Mysteries of Divinity, Justly deserve a Spiritual advance, Above an unlearned, or a half-learned Dunce; Whose rolling Eyes, feigned Looks, and yawning Jaws, Can nothing utter, but with Hums, and Haws; Inspired with Ignorance, then roars aloud Audacious Nonsense, to a Brainless Crowd: ’Tis these; who from their Cradle are misled, And backward taught, to Factious Pulpits bred, Who, with impetuous Vi’lence, headlong run, Pursuing Ills, their Rebel Sires begun. Thus in their Father’s faults they persevere, And by Instinct of Nature, envious Dunces are: These, through their barren Ignorance, exclaim Against all, Order and the Church defame. Pelting with Factious, and Calumnious Lies, That Sacred Power, to which they cannot rise:
 * Spurning at all Ecclesiastic Pomp,
 * True Zealous Sons of the detested Rump,
 * Waiting the lucky Minute to be turned up Trump.

Scandal (as you are wont) I know you choose, As the best Weapon, of Offence, to use, Whether, on search, it True, or False be found, No matter which, if you can make it wound. But know my Armour’s tempered against Fate; And much too hard, for you to penetrate: The Iron Walls, my treasured Truths defend, Reverberate all the poisonous balls you send.

You charge me with the want of Loyalty, That am the chief support of Monarchy:
 * By my High Priest the Holy Oil’s applyed,
 * By me Kings Reign, are Crowned, and Sanctified;
 * I am on Earth their Safety, and to Heaven their Guide.

By me the Factious Falsehoods are suppressed, Scattered by restless Rebels, to molest The happy quiet of a Peaceful Reign, Which Traitors Envy, and blind Fools Disdain. Duty to Kings, I to the Public teach, To Loyalty Excite, Persuade, Beseech, That all things to the Throne be easy made, And him thereon be Reverenced, and Obeyed.
 * What are all these, but Marks of Loyalty,
 * Religious Graces, manifest in me,
 * Virtues, I find, too bright for thy dull Eyes to see.

But pray your Reasons to the World impart, Why now you from your old Opinion start. In happy days, when Charles the Scepter swayed, When base Designs, by you know who, were laid, Then all your Awkward, Canting Brood professed ’Twas Damnable, the Bread of Life to Taste Within my Sacred Temple-Walls, but now, What then you held so Dangerous, you Allow.
 * If Once ’twas an Offence so great, we know,
 * (As you maintained, full Twenty Years ago)
 * ’Tis Now the same, and Ever will be so.

Why do the Grandees of your Leering Tribe, (Who from rank Dugs their Prejudice imbibe) So curb their Malice, as Conform of late, And with my Flocks they Envy, Congregate. Oft on a Sabbath’s Morning have I seen Rich Awful Zealots, of a bulky Mein, Cheat Heaven, and dissemble with the State, To be by Flattery, and Deceit made Great; Visit my Temples, seem devout as Saints; And for their Interest, turn base Sycophants: Thus with my Worship, through design, agree, And only Mimic, what they hate to be, To climb, unfairly, to Authority. Then, by their own Corrupted Whimsies led, Where the Frape meet, and common Ills are bred; There hear the Church, from whence they came, Lampooned, And True Religion, by an Ape Buffooned; Who o’er his Cushion, full of Yawn, and Hum, Stands Gaping like the Bear that beats the Drum. Thus is the Afternoon at Meeting spent, The Morning in the Church, at Sacrament:
 * Rare Pious Christians, full of Faith, and Grace,
 * To thus with Heav’n, dissemble for a Place;
 * And pawn their Souls to purchase Sword or Mace.

If I am Right, and from Mistakes most free, Why do they not Conform entire to me? If your dark System, they believe most True, Why not alone Communicate with you? Those who for Interest, carry fair with both, Are Just to neither, by their Faith or Troth: But plunged between two Crimes, to Greatness bent, Err with the Wrong, and from the Right Dissent.

No Laws can such loose Principles restrain, No force can bind you, but a Golden Chain.
 * Interest I find, is the prevailing tie,
 * Makes you Approve, Conform, Dissent, Deny,
 * Oppose the Right, or the Wrong Justify.

Interest, from me first made you Separate, And become Rival to the Church, and State. Interest disposed you to Intestine Jars, Improved to Bloody, and Domestic Wars; Wherein being flattered with unjust success, Trampled on Merit, spit in Virtue’s Face, Riffled the Throne, and stained the Judgment-seat, With Crimes too black, and dreadful to repeat; As if to you, Omnipotence had given, A Sanguine, not a Milky-way to Heaven.

Still are your Thoughts by wild Ambition tossed, Aiming to gain that Power, you justly lost: At all Elections, busy are your Brood, Heaving and shoving ’gainst the Public Good. On all Promotions, Zealously intent, Squeeze, Bawl, and Jostle, till their Breaths are spent; Kick, Cuff, and Scandal (heedless of the Laws) Tongues, Feet, and Arms, all working for the Cause;
 * To raise some Meager Darling of their own,
 * Faction in whose penurious looks is shown:
 * Rich by mere Chance, or Fraud, not Great by merit grown.
 * Who can Lie, Cant, Dissemble, or Forswear,
 * Declaim against, or hear the Common-Prayer;
 * Through all Opinions Halt, to Lamely reach the Chair.

Who can his Conscience, to his Interest mould, Run with the Court, or with the City hold. And without shame, can true Reflections face, Or bear all scandal, with a comely Grace.
 * And will his Power beyond just bounds extend,
 * To injure Foes, or to advance a Friend;
 * Or any thing will do, to serve a Factious End.

These are the worthy Dolts, your Sons advance, By their false Polls, and double Diligence. These are the Men of merit, they provide, To Row, and Toe, against the Wind and Tide; Who in Tempestuous Discords, they create, Sail quite repugnant to the Church and State: Yet to such outward Godliness seem bent, To Church they’ll come, though in their Hearts Dissent:
 * But for no Faith, will either Hang, or Starve,
 * Both God and Mammon, for advancement serve;
 * Thus seasonably comply, or in fit times can swerve.

If such unsteady Rovers bear Command, Whilst Men of Worth, shall unregarded stand, By Law, and Nature, Qualified for Trust, To something Fixed, and known in all things Just. If Men like these, shall be by Fraud put by, And yield their Rights to the Pedantic Fry; England must soon from all her Greatness fall, And mourn her Ancient Glories Funeral. Which Heaven prevent—— And (that she may once more her Grandeur boast) Retrieve her Virtues, now so nearly lost; And from all Factious Quarrels, and Despights, Preserve the King, Church, Nation, and our Rights: That in One Faith, we may United be, And accord sweetly, in just Harmonie.