And osier cot or lonely desert cave,
Cheer with their songs of piety and love;
There honor saving grace with holy lays
As grateful eve and morning sacrifice;
And there Thy Witnesses true propheci'd,
And the foul harlot's impious rule deni'd.
Still like a tiger hunting for his food
The Image roar'd to give him human blood.
As the fierce tyrant leads his Myrmydons
By treachery to kill, in savage clans
To stain true courage by the coward act
Of pouring on the helpless foul attack,
So slaughter'd murdering ruffians by him led,
And told 'twas done to serve a loving God:
With devilish rancour chases liberty
From shore to shore; and most assiduously
Celestial wisdom drives from land to land,
Destruction wielding in his bloody hand.
Now, Muse, dark night of misery thou must sing, Whilst wo and death must hymn thy doleful strain, Forc'd ignorance o'ershadows groaning earth, Fiends blight her verdure with pestiferous breath. Britannia, weeping, tell it was thy fate
That thy Redeemer's friends should meet thy hate;
How those who track'd thy plains with heavenly boon
Were loaded with contempt, revil'd by scorn,
Pursu❜d by hell-hounds, chas'd from door to door
By diabolic yell, and horrid roar,
Till them the hand of want relievance gave
By giving rest in an untimely grave!*
O durst not thy benevolence and love
Give single portion holy lives to save?
No. Merg'd in darkness, and by tortures aw'd,
Fiends brav'd thy virtues, and thy councils sway'd;
Rode, guided, govern'd by the Prostitute,
'Thou took'st her will thy own to regulate;
Her flaming torch to murder lit thy way,
Expell'd thy mercy, quell'd thy charity.
And thou, Hibernia, say how bloody streams
Ran mourning o'er thy hills and flow'ry plains;
How blooming beauty craved kind suspense
Of torture, pleaded virtue, innocence
'Gainst foulest torments, but, alas, in vain,
As bigotry to murder led his train
And form'd the savage of deluded man.
How wept thy prattling babies when they saw
The ruffian's dagger would no pity shew!
Methinks I hear sweet innocence thus crave-
"I've made no fault, my precious life O save!"
* In the year 1160, and at the time that Waldo was preaching the true faith upon the Continent, some of his disciples came and taught it in England; but these poor men were condemned by the popish Bishops as heretics, beaten with sticks, scourged, burnt in the face, excommunicated, and then turned adrift. And no person being permitted to harbour them, or relieve their necessities, they all perished, in this land of plenty, through cold and hunger. Was this displaying christian charity?
And the blood-thirsty tiger growling say,
“Curst heretic, I give the mortal blow
"Which to th' infernal pit commits thy soul,"
Then, with the fatal plunge, "Down, down to hell!"
How kind Lavinia, in wild frantic strains,
Mourns for her darling murder'd in her arms!
Alas! she too soon feels the tort'rer's pow'r,
And lifeless falls her dying baby near.
The aged parent next is doom'd to see
Death's arrow fly, from the assassin's bow,
Aim'd at his heart; and of his offspring dead
Take last farewell as dying by their side.*
And, Gallia, in solemn mourning, thou
Canst tell the horrors of his murd'ring crew;
Thou heard'st the signal knell, from russet tower,
Bid quick unkennel whelps of Lucifer ;
And 'mid the cover of nocturnal shade
Pursue their prey, renew the bloody trade,
And whispers of the passing zephyrs drown
With shrieks of torture, and the dying groan.†
Ye Alpine vallies mournful sonnets raise, And lend your aid to my concordant lays;
* See the historical account of the Irish Massacre in 1640, in Fox's Martyrs, late edition.
+ Read the account of the murders on the eve of the feast of St. Bartholomew, in Paris, and other parts of France in 1572, in the same book.
Tell how your slaughter'd children nobly bled
For truly serving of a gracious God;
How fire and sword strew'd murder o'er the land,
How bigotry cast the destructive brand,
How blaz'd the humble cot, how innocence
Bled from the dagger of malevolence !*
O, hellish priestcraft, plan and work were thine,
Thou wast contriver of each hellish crime;
And the intent of every cursed act,
Was gold to filch, thy damning reign protect!
Thou forged'st lies with full design to cheat,
As truths then spread'st them by refin'd deceit ;
And who refus'd thy trumpery to trust
Sent'st torturing hags to give them to the dust.
Earth groan'd beneath thy scourge, rejoiced hell,
Kind heaven its rays withdrew, unfit to fall
Upon thy perjur'd tribes; grace took her flight
And left thy steps to tread infernal night.
* Against the harmless Waldenses and Albigenses, the Popes ordered several crusades, with an intent totally to extirpate them. These infernal armies murdered millions of them; but failed in entirely destroying either them or their religious sentiments; as the latter spread in spite of every effort of papal torture and butchery to put them down. Compare the above massacres with the precepts of the gospel, and say whether Popery be a true or false religion? Say if it do not fulfil the prophecy," that the devil gave the Beast his power, his seat, and great dominion?" I say it does; and defy just contradiction.
Lo! then beneath thy curs'd tyrannie reign
The depth of mortal misery was known;
God's Witnesses were slain by thy foul hand,
And idols govern'd the misguided mind.
Yet, 'mid this dreadful reign of human wo,
Plann'd, rais'd, matur'd, and reverenc'd by thee,
Thy swarms increas'd in bigotry and vice,
In riches, pride, and power imperious.
Now shall my muse Bel's dreadful end proclaim,
And o'er her corse death's dirge triumphant sing.
What's yonder glory that illumes the skies?
Lo! 'tis an angel* who rejoicing flies,
And bears the blessed Gospel in his hand+
Again to preach to ev'ry tongue and land!
Hark! Hark! He cries, "Fear, fear the Mighty
God,
"And glorify His name! regard His word!
"He, Great Creator, form'd the earth and sea,
"And fill'd with glowing lights heaven's canopy
"Behold! the awful time of judgment's come,
"When Mystic Babel shall receive her doom!"
See, joyful comes another, calling loud,
"Great Babel falls, God quits a pest so lewd,
* The commencing of the Reformation, see note (39.)
+ See Revelations chap. xiv.
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