Then Ifrael's monarch after heav'n's own heart,
His vigorous warmth did variously impart

To wives and flaves; and wide as his command,
Scatter'd his Maker's image through the land.
Michal, of royal blood, the crown did wear ;
A foil ungrateful to the tiller's care:
Not fo the reft; for feveral mother's bore
To god-like David feveral fons before.
But fince like flaves his bed they did afcend,
No true fucceffion could their feed attend.
Of all the numerous progeny was none
So beautiful, fo brave, as Abfalom:
Whether infpir'd by fome diviner luft,
His father got him with a greater guft:
Or that his confcious destiny made way,
By manly beauty to imperial fway.
Early in foreign fields he won renown,
With kings and ftates ally'd to Ifrael's crown :
In peace the thoughts of war he could remove,
And feem'd as he were only born for love.
Whate'er he did, was done with fo much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please:
His motions all accompany'd with grace;
And paradife was open'd in his face.
With fecret joy indulgent David view'd
His youthful image in his fon renew'd:
To all his wishes nothing he deny'd;
And made the charming Annabel his bride.
What faults he had, for who from faults is free?
His father could not, or he would not fee.

Some warm exceffes which the law forbore,

Were conftru'd youth that purg'd by boiling o'er ;
And Amnon's murder by a fpecious name,

Was call'd a juft revenge for injur'd fame.

Lady Ann Scot daughter of Francis III, earl of Bucclough.

Thus

Thus prais'd and lov'd, the noble youth remain'd,
While David undisturb'd in Sion reign'd.

But life can never be fincerely bleft:

Heaven punishes the bad, and proves the best.
The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murmuring race,
As ever try'd th' extent and stretch of grace;
God's pamper'd people, whom debauch'd with ease,
No King could govern, nor no God could please;
Gods they had try'd of every shape and fize,
That goldfmiths could produce, or priests devife:
Thefe 2 Adam-wits too fortunately free,
Began to dream they wanted liberty;

And when no rule, no precedent was found,
Of men, by laws lefs circumfcrib'd and bound;
They led their wild defires to woods and caves,
And thought that all but favages were slaves.
They who, when Saul was dead, without a blow,
Made foolish Ifhbofheth the crown forego;
Who banish'd David did from Hebron bring,
And with a general fhout proclaim'd him king:
Thofe very Jews, who at their very best,
Their humour more than loyalty expreft,
Now wonder'd why fo long they had obey'd
An idol monarch, which their hands had made;
Thought they might ruin him they could create,
Or melt him to that golden calf a state.

But thefe were random bolts: no form'd defign,
Nor intereft made the factious crowd to join :
The fober part of Ifrael, free from stain,
Well knew the value of a peaceful reign;
And looking backward with a wife affright,
Saw feams of wounds dishoneft to the fight:

1 Thefe Adam-wits, &c. Perfons difcontented in happy circumfances are not unluckily called "Adam-wits," from a remembrance of Adam's weakness in Paradife, who, aiming at being happier than the happiest, by perfuafion of Eve, eat of the forbidden fruit, and thereby forfeited the divine favour, and was excluded the garden of Eden.

In contemplation of whofe ugly fears,
They curft the memory of civil wars.
The moderate fort of men thus qualify'd,
Inclin'd the balance to the better fide;
And David's mildnefs manag'd it fo well,
The bad found no occafion to rebel.
But when to fin our bias'd nature leans,
The careful devil is ftill at hand with means;
And providently pimps for ill defires :
The good old caufe reviv'd a plot requires.
Plots true or falfe are neceffary things,
To raife up commonwealths, and ruin kings.
Th' inhabitants of old Jerufalem

Were Jebufites; the town fo call'd from them;
And theirs the native right-

But when the chofen people grew more ftrong,
The rightful caufe at length became the wrong;
And every
lofs the men of Jebus bore,
They ftill were thought God's enemies the more.
Thus worn or weaken'd, well or ill content,
Submit they must to David's government :
Impoverish'd and depriv'd of all command,
Their taxes doubled as they loft their land;
And what was harder yet to flesh and blood,
Their gods difgrac'd, and burnt like common wood.
This fet the heathen priesthood in a flame;
For priefts of all religions are the fame.
Of whatfoe'er defcent their godhead be,
Stock, ftone, or other homely pedigree,
In his defence his fervants are as bold,
As if he had been born of beaten gold.
The Jewish rabbins, though their enemies,
In this conclude them honeft men and wife:
For 'twas their duty all the learned think,
T'efpoufe his caufe, by whom they eat and drink.
From hence began that plot, the nation's curfe,
Bad in itself, but reprefented worse;

Rais'd in extremes, and in extremes decry'd :
With oaths affirm'd, with dying vows deny'd;
Not weigh'd nor winnow'd by the multitude;
But swallow'd in the mass, unchew'd and crude.
Some truth there was, but dafh'd and brew'd with lies,
To please the fools, and puzzle all the wife.

Succeeding times did equal folly call,
Believing nothing, or believing all.
Th' Egyptian rites the Jebufites embrac'd;
Where gods were recommended by their tafte.
Such favory deities muft needs be good,
As ferv'd at once for worship and for food.
By force they could not introduce these gods;
For ten to one in former days was odds.
So fraud was us'd, the facrificer's trade :
Fools are more hard to conquer than perfuade.
Their busy teachers mingled with the Jews,
And rak'd for converts even the court and flews:
Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took,
Because the fleece accompanies the flock,
Some thought they God's anointed meant to flay
By guns, invented fince full many a day :
Our author fwears it not; but who can know
How far the devil and Jebufites may go?

་

This plot, which fail'd for want of common fenfe,
Had yet a deep and dangerous confequence:

For as when raging fevers boil the blood,
The ftanding lake foon foats into a flood,
And every hoftile humour, which before
Slept quiet in its channels, bubbles o'er ;
So feveral factions from this first ferment,
Work up to foam and threat the government.
Some by their friends, more by themfelves thought wife,
Oppos'd the pow'r to which they could not rife.

Some had in courts been great, and thrown from thence,
Like fiends were harden'd in impenitence.

1 4

Some,

Some, by their monarch's fatal mercy, grown
From pardon'd rebels kinsmen to the throne,
Were rais'd in pow'r and public office high;
Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie.
Of thefe the falfe Achitophel was firft;
A name to all fucceeding ages curft:
For close designs, and crooked counfels fit;
Sagacious, old, and turbulent of wit;

Reftlefs

In P. A fie

Frette

And o

true o

ife

x'd in principles and place; leas'd, impatient of difgrace: which working out its way, Pigmy-body to decay,

inform'd the tenement of clay.

A darin pilot in extremity;

Pleas'd with the danger when the waves went high,
He fought the ftorms; but for a calm unfit

Would fteer too nigh the fands to boat his wit.
Great wits are fure to madnefs near ally'd,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide;
Elfe why fhould he with wealth and honour bleft,
Refufe his age
the needful hours of reft ?
Punish a body which he could not please;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of eafe?
And all to leave what with his toil he won,
To that unfeather'd two-legg'd thing, a fon;
Got, while his foul did huddled notions try;
And born a fhapelefs lump, like anarchy.
In friendship falfe, implacable in hate;
Refolv'd to ruin, or to rule the ftate,
To compafs this the triple bond he broke;
The pillars of the public fafety shook;
And fitted Ifrael for a foreign yoke:
Then feiz'd with fear, yet ftill affecting fame,
Ulurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name.
So eafy fill it proves in factious times,
With public zeal to cancel private crimes.

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How