That kings can do no wrong we must believe;
None can they do, and muft they all receive?
Help heaven! or fadly we shall see an hour,
When neither wrong nor right are in their power!
Already they have loft their best defence,
The benefit of laws which they dispense.
No justice to their righteous cause allow'd;
But baffled by an arbitrary crowd.
And medals grav'd their conqueft to record,
The stamp and coin of their adopted lord.

The man who laugh'd but once, to see an ass Mumbling to make the cross-grain'd thistles pass; Might laugh again to see a jury chew

The prickles of unpalatable law.

The witnesses, that leech-like liv'd on blood,
Sucking for them was med'cinally good;

But when they fasten'd on their fefter'd fore,
Then justice and religion they forswore ;
Their maiden oaths debauch'd into a whore.
Thus men are rais'd by factions, and decry'd;

And

rogue and faint distinguish'd by their fide. They rack even fcripture to confefs their cause, And plead a call to preach in spight of laws. But that's no news to the poor injur'd page, It has been us'd as ill in every age:

And is conftrain'd with patience all to take,

For what defence can Greek and Hebrew make?
Happy who can this talking trumpet seize;
They make it speak whatever sense they please!
'Twas fram'd at first our oracle to enquire;
But fince our fects in prophecy grow higher,
The text infpires not them, but they the text inspire.
London, thou great emporium of our isle,
O thou too bounteous, thou too fruitful Nile!
How fhall I praise or curse to thy desert ?
Or feparate thy found from thy corrupted part
I call'd thee Nile; the parallel will stand:
Thy tides of wealth o'erflow the fatten'd land;
Yet monfters from thy large increase we find,
Engender'd on the flime thou leav'ft behind.
Sedition has not wholly feiz'd on thee,
Thy nobler parts are from infection free.
Of Ifrael's tribes thou haft a numerous band,
But ftill the Canaanite is in the land.

Thy military chiefs are brave and true;
Nor are thy difinchanted burghers few.
The head is loyal which thy heart commands,

But what's a head with two fuch gouty
hands?
The wife and wealthy love the fureft way,
And are content to thrive and to obey.

?

But wisdom is to floth too great a flave;

None are fo bufy as the fool and knave.

Those let me curfe; what vengeance will they urge,
Whofe ordures neither plague nor fire can purge?
Nor fharp experience can to duty bring,
Nor angry heaven, nor a forgiving king!
In gospel-phrase their chapmen they betray;
Their fhops are dens, the buyer is their prey.
The knack of trades is living on the spoil;
They boast even when each other they beguile.
Customs to steal is fuch a trivial thing,
That 'tis their charter to defraud their king.
All hands unite of every jarring fect;

They cheat the country first, and then infect. They for God's caufe their monarchs dare. dethrone,

And they'll be sure to make his cause their own.
Whether the plotting jefuit, lay'd the plan
Of murdering kings, or the French puritan,
Our facrilegious fects their guides outgo,
And kings and kingly power would murder too.
What means their traiterous combination lefs,
Too plain to evade, too fhameful to confess.
But treafon is not own'd when 'tis defcry'd;
Successful crimes alone are juftify'd.

The men who no confpiracy would find
Who doubts? but had it taken, they had join'd,
Join'd in a mutual covenant of defence;

At first without, at last against their prince.
If fovereign right by fovereign power they scan,
The fame bold maxim holds in God and man :
God were not fafe, his thunder could they shun
He should be forc'd to crown another fon.

Thus when the heir was from the vineyard thrown,

The rich poffeffion was the murderer's own.
In vain to sophistry they have recourse :

'Tis working in the immediate

fee

By proving their's no plot, they prove 'tis worse;
Unmask'd rebellion, and audacious force:
Which tho not actual, yet all eyes may
power to be;
For from pretended grievances they rise,
First to dislike, and after to despise.
Then cyclop-like in human flesh to deal,
Chop up a minifter at every meal:
Perhaps not wholly to melt down the king;
But clip his regal rights within the ring.
From thence to affume the power of peace

war;

And ease him by degrees of public care.

and

Yet to confult his dignity and fame,

He should have leave to exercise the name;

And hold the cards while commons play'd the game.

For what can power give more than food and

drink,

To live at ease, and not be bound to think?
These are the cooler methods of their crime,
But their hot zealots think 'tis lofs of time;
On utmost bounds of loyalty they stand,
And grin and whet like a Croatian band ;
That waits impatient for the last command.
Thus outlaws open villainy maintain,

They steal not, but in fquadrons fcour the plain:
And if their power the paffengers fubdue,
The most have right, the wrong is in the few.
Such impious axioms foolishly they show,
For in fome foils republics will not grow:
Our temperate ifle will no extremes sustain,
Of popular sway or arbitrary reign :
But flides between them both into the best,
Secure in freedom, in a monarch bleft,
And tho the climate vex'd with various winds,
Works thro our yielding bodies on our minds.
The wholesome tempeft purges what it breeds,
To recommend the calmness that succeeds.