Pharaoh himself chides their delay;

So kind and bountiful is Fear!

But, oh! the bounty which to fear we owe,
Is but like fire ftruck out of stone

So hardly got, and quickly gone,

That it fcarce out-lives the blow.
Sorrow and fear foon quit the tyrant's breaft;
Rage and revenge their place poffefs'd;
With a vaft hoft of chariots and of horse,
And all his powerful kingdom's ready force,
The travelling nation he purfues;

Ten times o'ercome, he ftill th' unequal war renews.
Fill'd with proud hopes," At leaft," faid he,
"Th' Egyptian Gods, from Syrian magic free,
"Will now revenge themfelves and me;
"Behold what pafslefs rocks on either hand,
"Like prifon-walls, about them ftand,
"Whilft the fea bounds their flight before!
"And in our injur'd juftice they must find
"A far worfe ftop than rocks and feas behind;
"Which fhall with crimfon gore

"New paint the water's name, and double dye the fhore."

He fpoke; and all his hoft

Approv'd with fhouts th' unhappy boasts
A bidden wind bore his vain words away,
And drown'd them in the neighbouring fea.
No means t' efcape the faithlefs travellers ipy,

And, with degenerous fear to die,

Curfe their new-gotten liberty.

But the great Guide well knew he led them right,
And faw a path hid yet from human fight :

He ftrikes the raging waves, the waves on either fide
Unloose their clofe embraces, and divide;"
And backwards press, as in some folemn show
The crowding people do

(Though just before no fpace was feen) To let the admired triumph pafs between. The wondering army faw on either hand

The no-lefs-wondering waves like rocks of crystal ftand:

They march'd betwixt, and boldly trod
The fecret paths of God.

And here and there all fcatter'd in their way
The fea's old spoils, and gaping fishes, lay
Deserted on the fandy plain :

The fun did with aftonishment behold
The inmoft chambers of the open'd main j
For, whatfoe'er of old

By his own priefts the poets has been faid,
He never funk till then into the ocean's bed.

Led chearfully by a bright captain, Flame,
To th' other shore at morning-dawn they came,
And faw behind th' unguided foe

March disorderly and flow.

The prophet ftraight from th' Idumean ftrand

Shakes his imperious wand:

The upper waves, that highest crowded lie,
The beckoning wand espy;

Strait their firft right-hand files begin to move,
And, with a murmuring wind,
Give the word "March" to all behind.
The left-hand fquadrons no lefs ready prove,
But, with a joyful, louder noise,
Anfwer their diftant fellows' voice,

And hafte to meet them make,

As feveral troops do all at once a common fignal take.
What tongue th' amazement and th' affright can tell
Which on the Chamian army fell,

When on both fides they faw the roaring main
Broke loofe from his invifible chain !
They faw the monftrous death and watery war
Come rolling down loud ruin from afar !
In vain fome backward and fome forwards fly
With helpless hafte; in vain they cry

To their coeleftial Beafts for aid;

In vain their guilty king they' upbraid;

In vain on Mofes he, and Mofes' God, does call,
With a repentance true too late;

They 're compafs'd round with a devouring fate,
That draws, like a ftrong net, the mighty fea upon

them all.

DAVIDEIS,

T3

DAVIDE IS,

A SACRED

POEM

OF THE TROUBLES OF DAVID.

IN FOUR BOOKS.

"Me verò primùm dulces ante omnia Mufæ,
Quartun facra fero ingenti percuffus amore,
Accipiant, Colique vias ac Sidera monftrent."
VIRG. Georg. IL.

6.6

The Propofition. The Invocation. The entrance into the history from a new agreement betwixt Saul and David. A defcription of hell. The Devil's fpeech. Envy's reply to him. Her appearing to Saul in the fhape of Benjamin. Her fpeech, and Saul's to himfelf after he was vanished. A defcription of heaGod's fpeech: he sends an Angel to David: the Angel's meffage to him. David fent for, to play before Saul. A digreffion concerning mufic. David's pfalm. Saul attempts to kill him. His efcape to his own house, from whence being pursued

ven.

by.

by the king's guard, by the artifice of his wife Michal he escapes and flies to Naioth, the Prophets' college at Ramah. Saul's fpeech, and rage at his efcape. A long digreffion defcribing the Prophets' college, and their manner of life there, and the ordinary fubjects of their Poetry. Saul's guards purfue David thither, and prophefy. Saul among the prophets. He is compared to Balaam, whose song concludes the book.

Sing the man who Judah's fceptre bore

In that right-hand which held the crook before;
Who from best poet, beft of kings did grow;
The two chief gifts Heaven could on man bestow.
Much danger first, much toil, did he sustain,
Whilft Saul and Hell crofs'd his ftrong fate in vain.
Nor did his crown lefs painful work afford,
Lefs exercife his patience, or his sword;
So long her conqueror, Fortune's spite purfaed;
Till with unwearied virtue he fubdued

ΤΟ

All home-bred malice, and all foreign boasts;
Their ftrength was Armies, his the Lord of Hofts.
Thou, who didft David's royal stem adorn,
And gav'ft him birth from whom thyself waft born;
Who didft in triumph at Death's court appear, 15
And flew'ft him with thy nails, thy crofs, and spear,
Whilft Hell's black tyrant trembled to behold.
The glorious light he forfeited of old

Who, heaven's glad burden now, and jufteft pride,
Sitt'it high enthron'd next thy great Father's fide, zo