1483 d Hence ’tis Possessions, &c.] Criminals, in their indictments, are charged with not having the fear of God before their eyes, but being led by the instigation of the Devil.

1521 e When to a legal Utlegation, &c.] When they return the excommunication into the Chancery, there is issued out a writ against the person.

1524 f Distrain on Soul, &c.] Excommunication, which deprives men from being Members of the visible church, and formally delivers them up to the Devil.

PART III

CANTO II.

THE ARGUMENT.

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The Saints engage in fierce Contests
About their Carnal interests;
To share their sacrilegious Preys,
According to their Rates of Grace;
Their various Frenzies to reform,
When Cromwel left them in a Storm
Till, in th’ Effigy of Rumps, the Rabble
Burns all their Grandees of the Cabal.
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The learned write, an insect breeze
Is but a mungrel prince of bees,
That falls before a storm on cows,
And stings the founders of his house;
From whose corrupted flesh that breed 5
Of vermin did at first proceed. 
So e’re the storm of war broke out,
Religion spawn’d a various rout
Of petulant Capricious sects,
The maggots of corrupted texts, 10
That first run all religion down,
And after ev’ry swarm its own. 
For as the Persian Magi once
Upon their mothers got their sons,
That were incapable t’ enjoy 15
That empire any other way;
So presbyter begot the other
Upon the good old Cause, his mother,
Then bore then like the Devil’s dam,
Whose son and husband are the same. 20
And yet no nat’ral tie of blood
Nor int’rest for the common good
Cou’d, when their profits interfer’d,
Get quarter for each other’s beard. 
For when they thriv’d, they never fadg’d, 25
But only by the ears engag’d: 
Like dogs that snarl about a bone,
And play together when they’ve none,
As by their truest characters,
Their constant actions, plainly appears. 30
Rebellion now began, for lack
Of zeal and plunders to grow slack;
The Cause and covenant to lessen,
And Providence to b’ out of season: 
For now there was no more to purchase 35
O’ th’ King’s Revenue, and the Churches,
But all divided, shar’d, and gone,
That us’d to urge the Brethren on;
Which forc’d the stubborn’st for the Cause,
To cross the cudgels to the laws, 40
That what by breaking them th’ had gain’d. 
By their support might be maintain’d;
Like thieves, that in a hemp-plot lie