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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 scarce out-lives the blow. Sorrow and fear foon quit the tyrant's breast; Rage and revenge their place poffefs'd; With a vast hoft of chariots and of horfe, And all his powerful kingdom's ready force, The travelling nation he pursues; Ten times o'ercome, he still th' unequal war renews. Fill'd with proud hopes, "At least," faid he, "Th' Egyptian Gods, from Syrian magic free, "Will now revenge themselves and me; "Behold what passless rocks on either hand, "Like prifon-walls, about them stand, "Whilft the fea bounds their flight before ! "And in our injur'd justice they must find "A far worse stop than rocks and feas behind; "Which shall with crimfon gore

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

He spoke; and all his hoft
Approv'd with shouts th' unhappy boaft;
A bidden wind bore his vain words away,
And drown'd them in the neighbouring fea.
No means t' escape the faithless travellers spy,
And, with degenerous fear to die,
Curse their new-gotten liberty.

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But the great Guide well knew he led them right,
And saw a path hid yet from human fight :
He strikes the raging waves, the waves on either fide
Unloose their close embraces, and divide;
And backwards press, as in some folemn show

The crowding people do

(Though just before no space was seen)

To let the admired triumph pass between.
The wondering army saw on either hand
The no-lefs-wondering waves like rocks of crystal

stand:

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

And here and there all scatter'd in their way
The fea's old spoils, and gaping fishes, lay
Deferted on the sandy plain:
The fun did with astonishment behold

The inmost chambers of the open'd main;
For, whatsoe'er of old

By his own priests 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 straight from th' Idumean strand
Shakes his imperious wand :
The upper waves, that highest crowded lie,
The beckoning wand espy;

Strait their first right-hand files begin to move,
And, with a murmuring wind,
Give the word "March" to all behind.
The left-hand squadrons no less ready prove,
But, with a joyful, louder noise,

Answer their distant fellows' voice,
And haste to meet them make,

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

When on both sides they saw the roaring main
Broke loose from his invisible chain !
They saw the monstrous death and watery war
Come rolling down loud ruin from afar!
In vain some backward and some forwards fly
With helpless haste; in vain they cry
To their cœlestial Beasts for aid;

In vain their guilty king they' upbraid;

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

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

them all.

F3

DAVIDEIS, [70]

DAVIDEIS,

A SACRED POЕМ

OF THE TROUBLES OF DAVID.

IN FOUR BOOKS.

" Me verò primum dulces ante omnia Musæ,
"Quarun facra fero ingenti percuffus amore,
"Accipiant, Cœlique vias ac Sidera monftrent."

B

VIRG. Georg. IL.

I.

CONTENTS.

The Propofition. The Invocation. The entrance into the history from a new agreement betwixt Saul and David. A defcription of hell. The Devil's speech. Envy's reply to him. Her appearing to Saul in the shape of Benjamin. Her speech, and Saul's to himfelf after she was vanished. A description of hea

God's fpeech: he sends an Angel to David: the Angel's message to him. David fent for, to play before Saul. A digression concerning music. David's pfalm. Saul attempts to kill him. His efcape to his own house, from whence being pursued 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 speech, and rage at his escape. A long digression describing the Prophets. college, and their manner of life there, and the ordinary fubjects of their Poetry. Saul's guards pursue David thither, and prophefy. Saul among the prophets. He is compared to Balaam, whose song concludes the book.

ven.

by.

▼ Sing the man who Judah's fceptre bore

In that right-hand which held the crook before;

Who from best poet, best of kings did grow;
The two chief gifts Heaven could on man bestow.
Much danger first, much toil, did he sustain,
Whilst Saul and Hell cross'd his strong fate in vain.
Nor did his crown less painful work afford,
Less exercise his patience, or his sword;
So long her conqueror, Fortune's spite pursued;

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

15

Who, heaven's glad burden now, and justest pride,
Sitt'st high enthron'd next thy great Father's fide

F4

20

(Where

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