Q. Nay: we desire conformable to be.
B. But unto what? Q. The Image of the Son. {190}
B. What's that to us! We'll have conformity
Unto our form. Q. Then we shall ne'er have done.
For, if your fickle minds should alter, we
Should be to seek a new conformity.
Thus, who to-day conform to Prelacy,
To-morrow may conform to Popery.
But take this for an answer, Bishop, we
Cannot conform either to them or thee;
For while to truth your forms are opposite,
Whoe'er conforms thereto doth not aright.
B. We'll make such knaves as you conform, or lie
Confined in prisons till ye rot and die.
Q. Well, gentle Bishop, I may live to see,
For all thy threats, a check to cruelty;
But in the meantime, I, for my defence,
Betake me to my fortress, Patience.
No sooner was this cruel law made but it was put in execution with
great severity; the sense whereof working strongly on my spirit,
made me cry earnestly to the Lord that he would arise and set up his
righteous judgment in the earth for the deliverance of his people
from all their enemies, both inward and outward; and in these terms
I uttered it:
Awake, awake, O arm of th' Lord, awake,
Thy sword uptake;
Cast what would Thine forgetful of Thee make
Into the lake.
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