Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/139

Rh Here is the soldier's spear, and passion-nails Whose quantity would serve for building Paul's; Chips, some from Holy Cross, from Tyburn some, Honoured by many a Jesuit's martyrdom; All held of special and miraculous power, Not Tabor more approved for ague's cure. Here shoes, which once perhaps at Newgate hung, Angling their charity that passed along, Now for St. Peter's go, and the office bear For priests, they did for lesser villains there.
 * These are the Fathers' implements and tools,

Their gaudy trangums for inveigling fools; These serve for baits the simple to ensnare, Like children spirited with toys at fair. Nor are they half the artifices yet, By which the vulgar they delude and cheat; Which should I undertake, much easier I, Much sooner, might compute what sins there be Wiped off, and pardoned at a jubilee; What bribes enrich the datary each year, Or vices treated on by Escobar; How many punks in Rome profess the trade, Or greater numbers by confession made.
 * One undertakes by scale of miles to tell

The bounds, dimensions, and extent of hell; How far and wide the infernal monarch reigns, How many German leagues his realm contains; Who are his ministers, pretends to know, And all their several offices below; How many chaldrons he each year expends In coals for roasting Huguenots and fiends;

Rh