ON THE CREW OF A CERTAIN VESSEL

In life's unsettled, odd career

What changes every day appear

To please or plague the eye:

A goodly brotherhood of priests

Are here transformed to swearing beasts

Who heaven and hell defy.

Here Bonner, bruised with many a knock,

Has changed his surplice for a frock;

Old Erskine swabs the decks,

And Watts, who once such pleasure took

In writing Hymns — here, turned a cook,

Sinners no longer vex.

Here Burnet, Tillotson, and Blair,

With Jemmy Hervey, curse and swear,

Here Cudworth mixes grog;

Pearson the crew to dinner hails,

A graceless Sherlock trims the sails,

And Bunyan heaves the log.