What could he gain his people to betray,
Or change his right for arbitrary sway?
Let haughty Pharaoh curse with such a reign
His fruitful Nile, and yoke a fervile train.
If David's rule Jerufalem displease,
The dog-star heats their brains to this disease.
Why then should I, encouraging the bad,
Turn rebel and run popularly mad?
Were he a tyrant, who by lawless might
Opprefs'd the Jews, and rais'd the Jebufite,
Well might I mourn; but nature's holy bands
Would curb my spirits and restrain my hands:
The people might affert their liberty;
But what was right in them were crime in me.
His favor leaves me nothing to require,
Prevents my wishes, and out-runs defire;
What more can I expect while David lives?
All but his kingly diadem he gives :
And that--But here he paus'd; then fighing, faid--
Is juftly deftin'd for a worthier head.
For when my father from his toils fhall reft,
And late augment the number of the bleft,
His lawful iffue fhall the throne afcend,
Or the collateral line, where that shall end.
His brother, tho opprefs'd with vulgar spite,
Yet dauntless, and secure of native right,
Of every royal virtue ftands poffeft;
Still dear to all the braveft and the beft.
His courage foes, his friends his truth proclaim;
His loyalty the king, the world his fame.
His mercy e'en th' offending crowd will find
For fure he comes of a forgiving kind.
Why fhould I then repine at heaven's decree,
Which gives me no pretence to royalty?
Yet oh that fate propitioufly inclin'd,
Had rais'd my birth, or had debas'd my
To my large foul not all her treasure lent,
And then betray'd it to a mean descent!
I find, I find my mounting fpirits bold,
And David's part difdains my mother's mould.
Why am I scanted by a niggard birth?
My foul disclaims the kindred of her earth;
And made for empire whispers me within,'
Defire of greatnefs is a god-like fin.
Him ftaggering fo, when hell's dire agent found, While fainting virtue scarce maintain'd her ground, He pours fresh forces in, and thus replies:
Th'eternal God, fupremely good and wife, Imparts not these prodigious gifts in vain : What wonders are referv'd to bless your reign? Against your will your arguments have shown, Such virtue's only given to guide a throne.
Not that your father's mildness I contemn;
But manly force becomes the diadem.
'Tis true he grants the people all they crave;
And more perhaps, than fubjects ought to have:
For lavish grants fuppofe a monarch tame,
And more his goodness than his wit proclaim. But when should people strive their bonds to break,
If not when kings are negligent or weak?
Let him give on 'till he can give no more,
The thrifty fanhedrim shall keep him poor;
And every fhekel, which he can receive,
Shall cost a limb of his prerogative.
To ply him with new plots fhall be my care;
Or plunge him deep in fome expensive war;
Which when his treasure can no more fupply,
He must, with the remains of kingship, buy
His faithful friends, our jealoufies and fears
Call Jebufites, and Pharaoh's penfioners;
Whom when our fury from his aid has torn,
He shall be naked left to public fcorn.
The next fucceffor, whom I fear and hate,
My arts have made obnoxious to the state;
Turn'd all his virtues to his overthrow,
And gain'd our elders to pronounce a foe.
His right, for fums of neceffary gold,
Shall first be pawn'd, and afterwards be fold;
"Till time shall ever-wanting David draw,
To pafs your doubtful title into law;
If not, the people have a right fupreme
To make their kings; for kings are made for them.
All empire is no more than power in trust,
Which, when refumed, can be no longer just.
Succeffion, for the general good defign'd,
In its own wrong a nation cannot bind :
If altering that the people can relieve,
Better one suffer than a nation grieve.
The Jews well know their pow'r: ere Saul they chofe,
God was their king, and God they durft depose.
Urge now your piety, your filial name,
A father's right, and fear of future fame;
The public good, that universal call,
To which e'en heav'n fubmitted, anfwers all.
Nor let his love enchant your generous mind;
'Tis nature's trick to propagate her kind.
Our fond begetters, who would never die,
Love but themselves in their posterity.
Or let his kindness by th' effects be try'd,
Or let him lay his vain pretence afide.
God faid, he lov'd your father; could he bring
A better proof, than to anoint him king?
It surely fhew'd he lov'd the shepherd well,
Who gave fo fair a flock as Ifrael.
Would David have you thought his darling fon?
What means he then to alienate the crown?
The name of godly he may blush to bear :
Is't after God's own heart to cheat his heir?
He to his brother gives fupreme command,
To you a legacy of barren land;
Perhaps th' old harp, on which he thrums his lays,
Or fome dull Hebrew ballad in your praise.
Then the next heir, a prince fevere and wife,
Already looks on you with jealous eyes;
Sees through the thin disguises of your arts,
And marks your progrefs in the people's hearts;
Though now his mighty foul its grief contains:
He meditates revenge who least complains ;
And like a lion, lumbering in the way,
Or fleep diffembling, while he waits his prey,
His fearless foes within his diftance draws,
Constrains his roaring, and contracts his paws;
'Till at the last his time for fury found,
He shoots with fudden vengeance from the
ground;
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