Ere this, if saints had any secret motion,
'Twas chamber-practice all, and close devotion.
I pass the peccadillos of their time;
Nothing but open lewdness was a crime.
A monarch's blood was venial to the nation,
Compared with one foul act of fornication[77].
Now, they would silence us, and shut the door
That let in all the bare-faced vice before.
}
{ As for reforming us, which some pretend,