These are the courses we must run,
Spight of our hearts, or be undone;
And not to stand on terms and freaks, 1425
Before we have secur’d our necks;
But do our work, as out of sight,
As stars by day, and suns by night;
All licence of the people own,
In opposition to the Crown; 1430
And for the Crown as fiercely side,
The head and body to divide;
The end of all we first design’d,
And all that yet remains behind
Be sure to spare no publick rapine, 1435
On all emergencies, that happen;
For ’tis as easy to supplant
Authority as men in want;
As some of us, in trusts, have made
The one hand with the other trade; 1440
Gain’d vastly by their joint endeavour;
The right a thief; the left receiver;
And what the one, by tricks, forestall’d,
The other, by as sly, retail’d. 
For gain has wonderful effects 1445
T’ improve the Factory of Sects;
The rule of faith in all professions. 
And great Diana of the Ephesians;
Whence turning of Religion’s made
The means to turn and wind a trade:  1450
And though some change it for the worse,
They put themselves into a course;
And draw in store of customers,
To thrive the better in commerce: 
For all Religions flock together, 1455
Like tame and wild fowl of a feather;
To nab the itches of their sects,
As jades do one another’s necks. 
Hence ’tis, Hypocrisy as well
Will serve t’ improve a Church as zeal:  1460
As Persecution or Promotion,
Do equally advance Devotion.

Let business, like ill watches, go
Sometime too fast, sometime too slow;
For things in order are put out 1465
So easy, Ease itself will do’t;
But when the feat’s design’d and meant,
What miracle can bar th’ event? 
For ’tis more easy to betray,
Than ruin any other way. 1470
All possible occasions start
The weighty’st matters to divert;
Obstruct, perplex, distract, intangle,
And lay perpetual trains to wrangle. 
But in affairs of less import, 1475
That neither do us good nor hurt,
And they receive as little by,
Out-fawn as much, and out-comply;
And seem as scrupulously just,
To bait our hooks for greater trust; 1480
But still be careful to cry down
All publick actions, though our own: 
The least miscarriage aggravate,
And charge it all upon the Sate;
Express the horrid’st detestation, 1485
And pity the distracted nation
Tell stories scandalous and false,
I’ th’ proper language of cabals,
Where all a subtle statesman says,