But with an open face, as on his throne,
Affures our birthrights, and affumes his own:
Born in broad day-light, that th' ungrateful rout
May find no room for a remaining doubt;
Truth, which itself is light, does darkness fhun,
And the true eaglet fafely dares the fun.
Fain would the 3 fiends have made a dubious birth, Loth to confefs the Godhead cloth'd in earth: But ficken'd after all their baffled lies, To find an heir apparent in the skies: Abandon'd to defpair, ftill may they grudge, And, owning not the Saviour, prove the judge. Not great 4 Æneas stood in plainer day, When the dark mantling mift diffolv'd away, He to the Tyrians fhew'd his fudden face, Shining with all his goddefs mother's grace: For the herself had made his count'nance bright, Breath'd honour on his eyes, and her own purple light. If our victorious 5 Edward, as they fay, Gave Wales a prince on that propitious day, Why may not years revolving with his fate Produce his like, but with a longer date? One, who may carry to a diftant shore The terror that his fam'd forefather bore. But why fhould James or his young hero stay For flight prefages of a name or day? We need no Edward's fortune to adorn That happy moment when our prince was born: Our prince adorns this day, and ages hence Shall with his birth-day for fome future prince. Great Michael, prince of all th' ætherial hofts; And whate'er inborn faints our Britain boafts;
3 The malecontents are here compared to the evil fpirits, that prefumed to tempt our Saviour in the wilderne(s.
Edward the black prince, born on Trinity Sunday.
And thou, th' adopted 6 patron of our isle,
With chearful afpects on this infant fmile :
The pledge of heaven, which, dropping from above,
Secures our blifs, and reconciles his love.
Enough of ills our dire rebellion wrought,
When to the dregs we drank the bitter draught;
Then airy atoms did in plagues confpire,
Nor did th' avenging angel yet retire,
But purg'd our ftill-increasing crimes with fire.
Then perjur'd plots, the ftill impending teft,
And worse-but charity conceals the reft:
Here ftop the current of the fanguine flood;
Require not, gracious God, thy martyrs blood;
But let their dying pangs, their living toil,
Spread a rich harvest thro' their native foil :
A harveft ripening for another reign,
Of which this royal babe may reap the grain.
Enough of early faints one womb has giv'n;
Enough increas'd the family of heaven :
Let them for his, and our atonement go;
And reigning bleft above, leave him to rule below.
Enough already has the year foreshow'd
His wonted course, the sea has overflow'd,
The meads were floated with a weeping spring,
And frighten'd birds in woods forget to fing:
The ftrong-limb'd fteed beneath his harnefs faints,
And the fame fhivering sweat his lord attaints.
When will the minister of wrath give o'er ?
Behold him at 7 Araunah's threfhing-floor :
He ftops, and feems to fheath his flaming brand,
Pleas'd with burnt incenfe from our David's hand.
David has bought the Jebufite's abode,
And rais'd an altar to the living God.
7 Alluding to the paffage in the first book of Kings, chap. 24.
Heaven, to reward him, makes his joys fincere;
No future ills nor accidents appear,
To fully and pollute the facred infant's year.
Five months to difcord and debate were given :
He fanctifies the yet remaining seven.
Sabbath of months! henceforth in him be bleft,
And prelude to the realms perpetual reft!
Let his 8 baptifmal drops for us atone;
Luftrations for offences not his own.
Let Confcience, which is Int'reft ill disguis'd,
In the fame font be cleans'd, and all the land baptiz'd.
9 Un-nam'd as yet; at least unknown to fame:
Is there a ftrife in heaven about his name;
Where every famous predeceffor vies,
And makes a faction for it in the skies?
Or muft it be reserv'd to thought alone?
Such was the facred 1 Tetragrammaton.
Things worthy filence muft not be reveal'd:
Thus the true name of 2 Rome was kept conceal'd,
To shun the spells and forceries of those,
Who durft her infant majefty oppose.
But when his tender flrength in time fhall rife
To dare ill tongues, and fascinating eyes;
This itle, which hides the little thunderer's fame,
Shall be too narrow to contain his name:
Th' artillery of heaven shall make him known;
3 Crete could not hold the God, when Jove was grown.
8 By baptifm, the church fuppofes us cleanfed from original fin. 9 The prince was chriftened but not named when this poem was published.
I Jehovah, or the name of God, unlawful to be pronounced by the Jews.
2 Some authors fay, that the true name of Rome was kept a fecret; Ne hoftes eneant amentis deos elicerent.
3 Candia, where Jupiter was born and bred fecretly; while his father Saturn thought he had been murdered, according as he had commanded, in order to defeat a prophecy, that faid his fon fhould ufurp his throne: yet the greatnefs of Jupiter's fpirit fhone out strongly even in obfcurity.
As Jove's increase, who from his 4 brain was born,
Whom arms and arts did equally adorn,
Free of the breaft was bred, whofe milky tafte
Minerva's name to Venus had debas'd;
So this imperial babe rejects the food
That mixes monarch's with plebeian blood:
Food that his inborn courage might controul,
Extinguish all the father in his foul,
And for his Eftian race, and Saxon ftrain,
Might reproduce fome fecond Richard's reign.
Mildness he fhares from both his parents blood:
But kings too tame are despicably good :
Be this the mixture of this regal child,
By nature manly, but by virtue mild.
Thus far the furious tranfport of the news
Had to prophetic madnefs fir'd the muse;
Madness ungovernable, uninfpir'd,
Swift to foretel whatever fhe defir'd.
Was it for me the dark abyfs to tread,
And read the book which angels cannot read?
How was I punish'd when the 5 sudden blast,
The face of heaven, and our young fun o'ercast!
Fame, the fwift ill, increafing as the roll'd,
Disease, despair, and death, at three reprises told:
At three infulting ftrides she stalk'd the town,
And, like contagion, ftruck the loyal down.
Down fell the winnow'd wheat; but mounted high,
The whirlwind bore the chaff, and hid the sky.
Here black rebellion fhooting from below
(As earth's gigantic brood by 6 moments grow)
And here the fons of God are petrified with woe:
4 Pallas or Minerva; faid by the poets to have fprung from the brain of Jove, and to have been bred up by hand, as was this young
The fudden falle report of the Prince's death.
6 Thofe giants are feigned to have grown fifteen ells every day.
An apoplex of grief! fo low were driven
The faints, as hardly to defend their heaven.
As, when pent vapours run their hollow round,
Earthquakes, which are convulfions of the ground,
Break bellowing forth, and no confinement brook,
Till the third fettles what the former fhook;
Such heavings had our fouls; till, flow and late,
Our life with his return'd, and faith prevail'd on fate.
By prayers the mighty bleffing was implor'd,
To prayers was granted, and by prayers restor❜d.
So ere the 7 Shunamite a fon conceiv'd,
The prophet promis'd, and the wife believ'd.
A fon was fent, the fon fo much defir'd;
But foon upon the mother's knees expir'd.
The troubled feer approach'd the mournful door,
Ran, pray'd, and fent his paft'ral staff before,
Then ftretch'd his limbs upon the child and mourn'd,
'Till warmth, and breath, and a new foul return'd.
Thus mercy ftretches out her hand, and faves
Defponding Peter finking in the waves.
As when a fudden storm of hail and rain
Beats to the ground the yet unbearded grain,
Think not the hopes of harvest are destroy'd
On the flat field, and on the naked void;
The light, unloaded ftem, from tempeft freed,
Will raise the youthful honours of his head;
And foon reftor'd by native vigour, bear
The timely product of the bounteous year.
Nor yet conclude all fiery trials paft:
For heaven will exercise us to the last ;
Sometimes will check us in our full career,
With doubtful bleffings, and with mingled fear;
That, ftill depending on his daily grace,
His every mercy for an alms may pass,
7 See the fecond book of Kings, chap. 4.
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