The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10Dryden, John
Religion
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10
Dryden, John
English literature
Note II.
_As I remember, said the sober Hind,
Those toils were for your own dear self designed,
As well as me; and with the self-same throw, }
To catch the quarry and the vermin too, }
(Forgive the slanderous tongues that called you so.)}
Howe'er you take it now, the common cry
Then ran you down for your rank loyalty._--P. 162.
The country party, during the 1679, and the succeeding years, were as
much incensed against the divines of the high church of England as
against the Papists. The furious pamphlet, quoted in the last note,
divides the enemies of this country into four classes; officers,
courtiers, over-hot churchmen, and papists. "Over-hot churchmen," it
continues, "are bribed to wish well to popery, by the hopes, if not of
a cardinal's cap, yet at least by a command over some abbey, priory,
or other ecclesiastical preferment whereof the Romish church hath so
great plenty. These are the men, who exclaim against our parliament's
proceedings, in relation to the plot, as too violent, calling these
times by no other name than that of _forty_ or _forty-one_;[181]
when, to amuse as well his sacred majesty as his good people, they
again threaten us with another _forty-eight_; and all this is done to
vindicate underhand the Catholic party, by throwing a suspicion on
the fanatics. These are the gentlemen who so magnify the principles
of Bishop Laud, and so much extol the writings of that same late
spirited prelate Dr Heylin, who hath made more Papists, by his books
than Christians by his sermons. These are those episcopal Tantivies,
who can make even the very scriptures pimp for the court, who out of
_Urim and Thummim_ can extort a sermon, to prove the not paying of
tithes and taxes to be the sin against the Holy Ghost; and had rather
see the kingdom run down with blood, than part with the least hem of a
sanctified frock, which they themselves made holy."--Appeal, &c. _State
Tracts_, p. 403. In a very violent tract, written expressly against
the influence of the clergy,[182] they are charged with being the
principal instruments of the court in corrupting elections. "I find,"
says the author, when talking of the approaching general election,
"all persons very forward to countenance this public work, except the
high-flown ritualists and ceremony-mongers of the clergy, who, being in
the conspiracy against the people, lay themselves out to accommodate
their masters with the veriest villains that can be picked up in all
the country, that so we may fall into the hands again of as treacherous
and lewd a parliament, as the wisdom of God and folly of man has most
miraculously dissolved. To which end they traduce all worthy men for
fanatics, schismatics, or favourers of them. Nay, do but pitch upon
a gentleman, who believes it his duty to serve his God, his king,
and country, faithfully, they cry him down as a person dangerous and
disaffected to the government; thinking thereby to scare the people
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