* Laft folemn fabbath faw the Church at

tend;

The Paraclete in fiery pomp

defcend;

20

But when his wond'rous † octave roll'd again,
He brought a royal infant in his train.
So great a bleffing to fo good a king,
None but the Eternal Comforter could bring.
Or did the mighty Trinity confpire,

25

As once, in council to create our fire?
It feems as if they fent the new-born guest
To wait on the proceffion of their feast;
And on their facred anniverfe decreed
To ftamp their image on the promis'd feed. so
Three realms united, and on one bestow'd,
An emblem of their mystic union show'd:
The Mighty Trine the triple empire shar'd,
As every person would have one to guard.

35

Hail fon of prayers! by holy violence Drawn down from heaven; but long be ba nifh'd thence,

And late to thy paternal skies retire:

To mend our crimes whole ages would require;

Whit-Sunday. Original edition.

Ver. 20. The Paraclete in fiery pomp defcend;] So Parnell: The fiery pomp afcending left the view.

+ Trinity Sunday. Original edition.

JOHN WARTon.

Ver. 37. And late to thy paternal skies retire :]

Serus in cœlum redeas.

Hor.

JOHN WARTON,

To change the inveterate habit of our fins,
And finish what thy godlike fire begins.
Kind heaven, to make us Englishmen again,
No lefs can give us than a patriarch's reign.
The facred cradle to your charge receive,
Ye feraphs, and by turns the guard relieve;
Thy father's angel, and thy father join,
To keep poffeffion, and fecure the line;
But long defer the honours of thy fate:
Great may they be like his, like his be late ;
That James this running century may view,
And give his fon an aufpice to the new.

cry,

55

40

45

50

}

Our wants exact at least that moderate stay: For fee the Dragon* winged on his way, To watch the travail, and devour the prey. Or, if allufions may not rife fo high, Thus, when Alcides rais'd his infant The fnakes befieg'd his young divinity: But vainly with their forked tongues they threat; For oppofition makes a hero great. To needful fuccour all the good will run, And Jove affert the godhead of his fon. O ftill repining at your prefent ftate, Grudging yourselves the benefits of fate,

Ver. 49.

fon.

Ver. 50.

this running century] Orig. edition.

TODD.

60

his fon] Orig. edit. Derrick has this TODD.

Alluding only to the Commonwealth party, here and in other places of the poem. Original edition.

Rev. xii. 4. Original edition.

Look up, and read in characters of light
A bleffing fent you in your own defpight.
The manna falls, yet that celestial bread

65

Like Jews you munch, and murmur while you

feed.

May not your

fortune be like their's, exil'd, Yet forty years to wander in the wild : Or if it be, may Mofes live at least,

To lead you to the verge of promis'd rest.

70

Though poets are not prophets, to foreknow What plants will take the blight, and what will

grow,

ways,

75

By tracing heaven his footsteps may be found:
Behold! how awfully he walks the round!
God is abroad, and, wond'rous in his
The rife of empires, and their fall furveys;
More (might I fay) than with an usual eye,
He fees his bleeding Church in ruin lie,
And hears the fouls of faints beneath his
altar cry.

80

Already has he lifted high the fign *,
Which crown'd the conquering arms of Con-

ftantine:

The moon † grows pale at that prefaging fight, And half her train of stars have loft their light.

The crofs. Original edition.

The crefcent which the Turks bear for their arms. Orig. edition.

85

Behold another Sylvefter*, to bless The facred standard, and fecure fuccefs; Large of his treasures, of a foul fo great, As fills and crowds his universal feat. Now view at home a fecond Constantine † ; (The former too was of the British line) Has not his healing balm your breaches clos'd, 90 Whose exile many fought, and few oppos'd? Or, did not heaven by its eternal doom Permit those evils, that this good might come? So manifeft, that e'en the moon-ey'd fects See whom and what this Providence protects. 95 Methinks, had we within our minds no more Than that one shipwreck on the fatal ore ‡, That only thought may make us think again, What wonders God referves for fuch a reign.

*The pope in the time of Conftantine the Great, alluding to the prefent pope. Original edition.

Ver. 84. Behold another Sylvefter, &c.] The pope, in James the Second's time, is here compared to him who governed the Romish Church in the time of Conftantine, to whom the king is likened a little lower down. DERRICK.

King James the Second. Original edition.

Ver. 89. The former too was of the British line] St. Helen, mother of Conftantine the Great, was an Englishwoman; and Archbishop Ufher affirms, that the emperor himself was born in this kingdom. DERRICK.

Ver. 92. Or, did not &c.] Original edition. Derrick has O, did not &c.

TODD.

The Lemmon ore. Original edition. Ver. 97. that one shipwreck on the fatal ore,] The fandbank, on which the Duke of York had like to have been loft in 1682, on his voyage to Scotland, is known by the name of Lem.

man ore.

DERRICK.

To dream that chance his preservation wrought,
Were to think Noah was preferv'd for nought;
Or the furviving eight were not defign'd
To people earth, and to restore their kind.
When humbly on the royal babe we gaze,
The manly lines of a majestic face
Give awful joy: 'tis paradife to look
On the fair frontispiece of Nature's book:
If the first opening page fo charms the fight,
Think how the unfolded volume will delight!
See how the venerable infant lies

105

110

In early pomp; how through the mother's eyes
The father's foul, with an undaunted view,
Looks out, and takes our homage as his due.
See on his future fubjects how he fmiles,
Nor meanly flatters, nor with craft beguiles; 115
But with an open face, as on his throne,
Affures our birthrights, and affumes his own:
Born in broad day-light, that the ungrateful

rout

May find no room for a remaining doubt; Truth, which itself is light, does darkness shun, And the true eaglet fafely dares the fun.

121

*Fain would the fiends have made a dubious

birth,

Loth to confefs the godhead cloth'd in earth :

• Alluding to the temptations in the wilderness; Original edition.