Page:Gondibert, an heroick poem - William Davenant (1651).djvu/44

 whose appetite is Liberty, and their Liberty a license of Lust) the People have often been, since a long, and notorious power hath continued with Divines; whom though with reverence we accuse for mistaken lenity, yet are we not so cruel to expect they should behave themselves to Sinners like fierce Phinehas, or preach with their Swords drawn, to kill all they cannot perswade: But our meaning is to shew how much their Christian meekness hath deceived them in taming this wild monster, the People; and a little to rebuke them for neglecting the assistance of Poets; and for upbraiding the Ethnicks, because the Poets manag'd their Religion; as if Religion could walk more prosperously abroad, than when Morality (respectfully, and bare-headed as her Usher) prepares the way: it being no less true, that during the dominion of Poesie, a willing and peacefull obedience to Superiours becalm'd the world; then that obedience, like the marriage yoak, is a restraint more needfull and advantagious than liberty; and hath the same reward of pleasant quietness, which it anciently had, when Adam, till his disobedience, enjoyed Paradise. Such are the effects of sacred Poesie, which charms the People with harmonious Precepts; and whose aid Divines should not disdain, since their Lord (the Saviour of the World) vouchsaf'd to deliver his Doctrine in Parabolical Fictions.

Those that be of next importance are Leaders of Armies; and such I measure not by the suffrages of the People, who give them respect as Indians worship the evil Spirit, rather for sear of harm, than for affection; but esteem them as the painfull Protectours and Enlargers of Empire; by whom it actively moves, and such active motion of Empire is as necessary as the motion of the Sea, where all things would putrifie, and infect one another, if the Element were quiet: so is it with mens minds on shore, when that Element of greatness and honour, Empire, stands still; of which the largeness is likewise as needfull, as the vastness of the Sea: For God ordain'd not huge Empire as