Storehoufe of all proportions! fingle quire!
Which first God's breath did tunefully inspire!
From hence bleft mufic's heavenly charms arife,
From fympathy, which them and man allies.
Thus they our fouls, thus they our bodies, win, 475
Not by their force, but party that 's within :
Thus the ftrange cure, on our spilt blood apply'd,
Sympathy to the distant wound does guide:
Thus, when two brethren-strings are fet alike,
To move them both, but one of them we strike:
Thus David's lyre did Saul's wild rage control,
And tun'd the harfh disorders of his foul.

WHEN Ifrael was from bondage led,

Led by th' Almighty's hand

From out a foreign land,

The great fea beheld, and fled.

As men purfued, when that fear paft they find,

Stop on fome higher ground to look behind;

So, whilft through wondrous ways

The facred army went,

The waves afar ftood up to gaze,

And their own rocks did reprefent,

80

485

496

Solid as waters are above the firmament.

Old Jordan's waters to their spring
Start back with fudden fright;

The fpring, amaz'd at sight,

Afks what news from fea they bring.

The mountains fhook; and to the mountains' fide
The little hills leap'd round, themselves to hide;

495

As young affrighted lambs,

When they aught dreadful spy,

Run trembling to their helpless dams:
The mighty fea and river, by,

Were glad, for their excufe, to fee the hills too fly.

What ail'd the mighty fea to flee ?

Or why did Jordan's tide

Back to his fountain glide?

500

505

Jordan's tide, what ailed thee?

Why leap'd the hills? why did the mountains fhake?

What ail'd them, their fix'd natures to forfake?

Fly where thou wilt, O fea!

And Jordan's current cease!

Jordan, there is no need of thee;

For at God's word, whene'er he please,

510

The rocks fhall weep new waters forth instead of these.

THUS fung the great Musician to his lyre;

And Saul's black rage grew foftly to retire ;

But Envy's ferpent still with him remain'd,

And the wife charmer's healthful voice difdain'd.
Th' unthankful king, cur'd truly of his fit,
Seems to lie drown'd and buried ftill in it;

520

From his past madness draws this wicked ufe,
To fin difguis'd, and murder with excufe :
For, whilft the fearless youth his cure pursues,
And the foft medicine with kind art renews,
The barbarous patient cafts at him his spear
(The ufual fceptre that rough hand did bear)

525

Cafts

Cafts it with violent strength; but into th' room
An arm more strong and fure than his was come;
An Angel, whofe unfeen and easy might

530

Put-by the weapon, and misled it right.

How vain man's power is! unless God command,
The weapon disobeys his master's hand;

Happy was now the error of the blow;

At Gilboa it will not ferve him fo.

535

One would have thought, Saul's fudden rage t' have feen,

He had himself by David wounded been :
He scorn'd to leave what he did ill begin,
And thought his honour now engag'd i' th' fin;
A bloody troop of his own guards he fends
(Slaves to his will, and falfely call'd his friends)
To mend his error by a furer blow;

So Saul ordain'd, but God ordain'd not fo.

Home flies the Prince, and to his trembling wife

Relates the new

w-past hazard of his life;

Which the with decent paffion hears him tell;

540

545

For not her own fair eyes fhe lov'd fo well.

Upon their palace'-top, beneath a row

Of lemon-trees-which there did proudly grow,
And with bright ftores of golden fruit repay

550

The light they drank from the fun's neighbouring ray,-
(A small, but artful Paradise) they walk'd,
And hand in hand fad gentle things they talk'd.
Here Michal first an armed troop espies

(So faithful and fo quick are loving eyes!)

555

Which march'd, and often glifter'd, through a wood,
That on right-hand of her fair palace stood;

She faw them; and cry'd out, "They 're come to kill
"My dearest lord; Saul's fpear pursues thee still.
"Behold his wicked guards! hafte quickly, fly! 560
"For Heaven's fake, hafte! my dear lord, do not die!
"Ah, cruel father! whofe ill-natur'd rage

"Neither thy worth, nor marriage, can affuage! "Will he part those he join'd fo late before? "Were the two-hundred foreskins worth no more? 565 "He shall not part us ;" (then he wept between). "At yonder window thou may'st 'scape unseen; "This hand fhall let thee down! ftay not, but hafte; 'Tis not my ufe to fend thee hence fo fast."

575

"Best of all women !" he replies—and this 570 Scarce spoke, fhe ftops his answer with a kifs; "Throw not away," faid fhe, " thy precious breath; "Thou stay't too long within the reach of death." Timely he' obeys her wife advice; and strait To unjust force she' oppofes juft deceit : She meets the murderers with a virtuous lye, And good diffembling tears; May he not die "In quiet then ?" faid fhe, " will they not give "That freedom, who so fear left he fhould live? "Ev'n Fate does with your cruelty conspire, 580 "And fpares your guilt, yet does what you defire. "Must he not live? for that ye need not fin ;

My much-wrong'd husband fpeechlefs lies within,

"And has too little left of vital breath

To know his murderers, or to feel his death.

585 "One

"One hour will do your work

Here her well-govern'd tears dropp'd down apace :
Beauty and forrow mingled in one face

Has fuch refiftless charms, that they believe,
And an unwilling aptnefs find to grieve
At what they came for. A pale ftatue's head,
In linen wrapp'd, appear'd on David's bed;
Two fervants mournful stand, and filent, by,
And on the table medicinal relics lie;

590

In the clofe room a well-plac'd taper's light

595

Adds a becoming horror to the sight :

And for th' impreffion God prepar'd their fenfe;
They faw, believ'd all this, and parted thence.
How vain attempts Saul's unblest anger tries,
By his own hands deceiv'd, and fervants' eyes!
"It cannot be," faid he, "no, can it? fhall
"Our great ten-thousand-flayer idly fall?
"The filly rout thinks God protects him still;
"But God, alas! guards not the bad from ill.

600

605

"Oh may he guard him! may his members be "In as full ftrength and well-fet harmony "As the fresh body of the firft-made man "Ere fin, or fin's juft meed, Disease, began! "He will be elfe too finall for our vast hate; "And we muft fhare in our revenge with Fate. "No; let us have him whole ; we elfe may fe em "To 'ave fnatch'd away but fome few days from him, "And cut that thread which would have dropp'd in

❝ two;

Will our great anger learn to ftoop fo low?

610

"I know