And spying heirs melting with luxury,
Satan will not joy at their fins as he :
For (as a thrifty wench scrapes kitchen-stuffe,
And barrelling the droppings, and the snuffe
Of wafting candles, which in thirty year,
Reliquely kept, perchance buys wedding chear)
Piecemeal he gets lands, and spends as much time
Wringing each acre, as maids pulling prime.
In parchment then, large as the fields, he draws
Affurances, big as glofs'd civil laws,
So huge that men (in our times forwardness)
Are fathers of the church for writing less.
These he writes not; nor for these written payes,
Therefore spares no length (as in those first dayes
When Luther was profeft, he did defire
Short Pater-nofters, faying as a fryer
Each day his beads; but having left those laws,
Adds to Christ's prayer, the power and glory clause )
But when he fells or changes land, h' impaires
The writings, and (unwatch'd) leaves out ses heires;
As flily as any commenter goes by
Hard words, or sense; or, in divinity
As controverters in vouch'd texts, leave out
Shrew'd words, which might against them clear the doubt.
Where are these fpread woods which cloath'd` heretofore
Those bought lands? not built, not burnt within door. Where the old landlords troops, and almes? In halls Carthufian fafts, and fulfome bacchanals
And when rank widows purchase luscious nights,
Or when a duke to Jansen punts at White's,
Or city-heir in mortgage melts away;
Satan himself feels far less joy than they.
Piecemeal they win this acre first, then that,
Glean on, and gather up the whole eftate.
Then ftrongly fencing ill got wealth by law,
Indentures, cov'nants, articles they draw,
Large as the fields themselves, and larger far
Than civil codes, with all their gloffes,
So vaft, our new divines, we must confess,
Are fathers of the church for writing less.
But let them write for you, each rogue impairs
The deeds, and dextrously omits, fes heires:
No commentator can more flily pass
O'er a learn'd, unintelligible place;
Or, in quotation, shrewd divines leave out
Those words, that would against them clear the doubt,
So Luther thought the Pater-nofter long,
When doom'd to say his beads and even-fong;
But having caft his cowl, and left those laws,
Adds to Chrift's pray'r, the power and glory clause.
The lands are bought; but where are to be found
Those ancient woods, that shaded all the ground?
We fee no new-built palaces afpire,
No kitchens emulate the vestal fire.
Where are those troops of poor, that throng'd of yore The good old landlord's hofpitable door?
Well, I could wish, that still in lordly domes
Some beafts were kill'd, tho' not whole hecatombs; That both extremes were banish'd from their walls, Carthufian fafts, and fulfome bacchanals;
Equally I hate. Mean's bleft. In rich men's homes
I bid kill fome beafts, but no hecatombs;
None ftarve, none surfeit so. But (oh!) we allow
Good works as good, but out of fashion now,
Like old rich wardrobes. But my words none draws
Within the vast reach of th' huge ftatutes jaws.
And all mankind might that just mean observe,
In which none e'er could furfeit, none could ftarve.
These as good works, 'tis true, we all allow;
But oh! thefe works are not in fashion now:
Like rich old wardrobes, things extremely rare
Extremely fine, but what no man will wear.
Thus much I've said, I truft, without offence;
Let no court fycophant pervert my sense,
Nor fly informer watch these words to draw
Within the reach of treason, or the law.
ELL; I may now receive, and die. My fin
Indeed is great, but yet I have been in
A purgatory, fuch as fear'd hell is
A recreation, and scant map of this.
My mind, neither with pride's itch, nor hath been Poyfon'd with love to fee or to be seen,
had no fuit there, nor new fuit to show,
Yet went to court; but as Glare which did go
To mafs in jeft, catch'd, was fain to disburse
Two hundred markes, which is the ftatutes curfe
Before he scap'd; so it pleas'd my destiny
(Guilty of my fin of going ) to think me
As prone to all ill, and of good as forget-
full, as proud, luftfull, and as much in debt,
As vain, as witless, and as false, as they
Which dwell in court, for once going that way.
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