Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/206

126 When butchers were the only clerks, Elders and presbyters of kirks; Whose Directory was to kill; And some believe it is so still. The only diff'rence is, that then They slaughter'd only beasts, now men. For them to sacrifice a bullock, Or, now and then, a child to Moloch, They count a vile abomination, But not to slaughter a whole nation. Presbytery does but translate The papacy to a free state, A commonwealth of popery, Where ev'ry village is a see As well as Rome, and must maintain A tithe-pig metropolitan; Where ev'ry presbyter and deacon Commands the keys for cheese and bacon; And ev'ry hamlet's governed By's holiness, the church's head,