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.