DRYDEN'S

POEMS.

ABSALOM AND

ACHITOPHEL.

Who banish'd David did from Hebron bring,
And with a general fhout proclaim'd him king:
Thofe very Jews, who at their very best
Their humour more than loyalty expreft,
Now wonder'd why fo long they had obey'd
An idol monarch, which their hands had made;
Thought they might ruin him they could create,
Or melt him to that golden calf a state.
But thefe were random bolts: no form'd defign,
Nor intereft made the factious crowd to join:
The fober part of Ifrael, free from stain,
Well knew the value of a peaceful reign;
And, looking backward, with a wife affright,
Saw feams of wounds dishonest to the fight:
In contemplation of whofe ugly scars,
They curft the memory of civil wars.
The moderate fort of men thus qualify'd,
Inclin'd the balance to the better fide;
And David's mildness manag'd it fo well,
The bad found no occafion to rebel.
But when to fin our bias'd nature leans,
The ca eful devil is ftill at hand with means;
And providently pimps for ill defires:
The good old cause reviv'd a plot requires.
Plots true or false are neceffary things,
To raife up commonwealths, and ruin kings.
Th' inhabitants of old jerufalem

IN pious times ere prieftcraft did begin,
Before polygamy was made a fin;
When man on many multiply'd his kind,
Ere one to one was curfedly confin'd;
When nature prompted, and no law deny'd
Promifcuous ufe of concubine and bride;
Then ifrael's monarch after heaven's own heart
His vigorous warmth did variously impart
To wives and flaves; and wide as his command,
Scatter'd his Maker's image through the land.
Michal, of royal blood, the crown did wear;
A foil ungrateful to the tiller's care:
Not fo the rest; for feveral mothers bore
To god-like David feveral fons before.
But fince like flaves his bed they did ascend,
No true fucceffion could their feed attend,
Of all the numerous progeny was none
So beautiful, fo brave as Abfalom:
Whether infpir'd by fome diviner luft,
His father got him with a greater guft,
Or that his confcious destiny made way,
By manly beauty to imperial fway.
Early in foreign fields he won renown,
With kings and states ally'd to Ifrael's crown:
In peace the thoughts of war he could remove,
And feem'd as he were only born for love.
Whate'er he did was done with fo much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please:
His motions all accompany'd with grace;
And paradife was open'd in his face.
With fecret joy indulgent David view'd
His youthful image in his fon renew'd:
To all his wishes nothing he deny'd;
And made the charming Annabel his bride.
What faults he had, for who from faults is free?
His father could not, or he would not fee.
Some warm exceffes which the law forbore,
Were construed youth that purged by boiling o'er;
And Amnon's murder by a fpecious name,
Was call'd a juft revenge for injur'd fame.
Thus prais'd and lov'd, the noble youth remain'd,
While David undisturb'd in Sion reign'd.
But life can never be fincerely bleft:
Heav'n punishes the bad, and proves the best.
The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murmuring race,
As ever try'd th' extent and stretch of grace;
God's pamper'd people, whom debauch'd with eafe,
No king could govern, nor no God could please;
Gods they had try'd of every shape and size,
That godfmiths could produce or priests devife:
Thefe Adam-wits too fortunately free,
Began to dream they wanted liberty;
And when no rule, no precedent was found,
Of men, by laws lefs circumfcrib'd and bound;
They led their wild defires to woods and caves,
And thought that all but savages were slaves.
They who, when Saul was dead, without a blow,
Made foolish Ifhbofheth the crown forego;

Were Jebufites; the town fo call'd from them;
And theirs the native right-

But when the chofen people grew more strong,
The rightful cause at length became the wrong;
And every lofs the men of Jebus bore,
They ftill were thought God's enemies the more.
Thus worn or weaken'd, well or ill content,
Submit they muft to David's government:
Impoverish'd and depriv'd of all command,
Their taxes doubled as they loft their land;
And what was harder yet to flesh and blood,
Their gods difgrac'd and burnt like common wood.
This fet the heathen priesthood in a flame;
For priefts of all religions are the fame.
Of whatfoe'er descent their godhead be,
Stock, ftone, or other homely pedigree,
In his defence his fervants are as bold,
As if he had been born of beaten gold.
The Jewish rabbins, though their enemies
For 'twas their duty, all the learned think,
In this conclude them honeft men and wife :
T'efpoufe his cause, by whom they eat and drink.
From hence began that plot, the nation's curse,
Rad in itself, but reprefented worse;
Rais'd in extremes, and in extremes decry'd;
With baths affirm'd, with dying vows deny'd}
Not weigh'd nor winnow'd by the multitude;
But fwallow'd in the mafs, unchew'd and crude.
Some truth there was, but dash'd and brew'd with

lies,

To pleafe the fools, and puzzle all the wife.

Succeeding times did equal folly call,
Believing nothing, or believing all.
The Egyptian rites the Jebufites embrac`d;
Where gods were recommended by their taste.
Such favoury deities muft needs be good,
As ferv'd at once for worship and for food.
By force they could not introduce these gods;
For ten to one in former days was odds.
So fraud was us'd, the facrificer's trade:
Fools are more hard to conquer than perfuade.
Their bufy teachers mingled with the Jews,
And rak'd for converts ev'n the court and stews:
Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took,
Because the fleece accompanies the flock.
Some thought they God's anointed meant to slay
By guns invented fince full many a day:
Our author fwears it not; but who can know
How far the devil and Jebufites may go?
This plot, which fail'd for want of common fenfe,
Had yet a deep and dangerous confequence:
For as, when raging fevers boil the blood,
The standing lake foon floats into a flood,
And every hoftile humour, which before
Slept quiet in its channels, bubbles o'er;
So feveral factions from this first ferment,
Work up to foam and threat the government.
Some by their friends, more by themfelves thought
wife,

Oppos'd the power to which they could not rife.
Some had in courts been great, and thrown from
thence,

Like fiends were harden'd in impenitence.
Some, by their monarch's fatal mercy, grown
From pardon'd rebels kinsmen to the throne,
Were rais'd in power and public office high;
Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie.
Of thefe the falfe Achitophel was first;
A name to all fuccceding ages curit :
For clofe defigns, and crooked councils fit;
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Reftlefs, unfix'd in principles and place;
In power unpleas'd, impatient of difgrace:
A fiery foul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy-body to decay,
And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;

Pleas'd with the danger when the waves went high,
He fought the forms; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the fands to hoaft his wit.
Great wits are fure to madness near ally'd,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide;
Elfe why fhould he with wealth and honour bleft,
Refufe his age the needful hours of reft?
Punish a body which he could not please;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of eafe?
And all to leave what with his toil he won,
To that unfeather'd two-legg'd thing, a fon;
Got, while his foul did huddled notions try ;
And born a shapelefs lump, like anarchy.
In friendship falfe, implacable in hate;
Refolv'd to ruin, or to rule the state.

To compafs this the triple bond he broke ;
The pillars of the public fafety shook;
And fitted Ifrael for a foreign yoke:
Then, feiz'd with fear, yet still affecting fame,
Ufurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name.
So eafy ftill it proves in factious times,
With public zeal to cancel private crimes.

How fafe is treafon, and how facred ill,
Where none can fin against the people's will!
Where crouds can wink, and no offence be known,
Since in another's guilt they find their own?
Yet fame deferv'd ro enemy can grudge;
The ftatefman we abhor, but praife the judge.
In Ifrael's court ne'er fat an Abethdin
With more difcerning eyes, or hands more clean,
Unbrib'd, unfought, the wetched to redress;
Swift of difpatch, and eafy of accefs.
Oh! had he been content to ferve the crown,
With virtues only proper to the gown;
Or had the ranknefs of the foil been freed
From cockle, that opprefs'd the noble feed;
David for him his tuneful harp had strung,
And heaven had wanted one immortal fong.
But wild ambition loves to flide, not ftand,
And fortune's ice prefers to virtue's land.
Achitophel, grown weary to poffefs
A lawful fame, and lazy happiness,
Difdain'd the golden fruit to gather free,
And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree.
Now, manifeft of crimes contriv'd long fince,
He flood at bold defiance with his prince;
Held up the buckler of the people's caufe
Arainft the crown, and fculk'd behind the laws.
The with'd occafion of the plot he takes;
Some circumftances finds, but more he makes.
By buzzing emiffaries fill the ears

Of liftening crowds with jealoufies and fears
Of arbitrary counfels brought to light,
And proves the king himfelf a Jebusite.
Weak arguments! which yet he knew full well,
Were ftrong with people eafy to rebel.
For, govern'd by the moon, the giddy Jews
Tread the fame track when the the prime renews;
And once in twenty years their scribes record,
By natural inftin&t they change their lord.
Achitophel ftill wants a chief, and none
Was found fo fit as warlike Abfalom.
Not that he with'd his greatnefs to create,
For politicians neither love nor hate:
But, for he knew his title not allow'd,
Would keep him ftill depending on the crowd:
That kingly power, thus ebbing out, might be
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
Him he attempts with studied arts to please,
And fheds his venom in fuch words as these.
Aufpicious prince, at whofe nativity
Some royal planet rul'd the fouthern sky;
Thy longing country's darling and defire:
Their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire:
Their fecond Mofes, whofe extended wand ·
Divides the feas, and fhews the promis'd land:
Whofe dawning day, in every diftant age,
Has exercis'd the facred prophet's rage:
The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vifion, and the old men's dream!
Thee, Saviour, thee the nation's vows confefs,
And, never fatisfy'd with feeing, blefs:
Swift unbefpoken pomps thy fteps proclaim,
And ftammering babes are taught to lifp thy name.
How long wilt thou the general joy detain,
Starve and defraud the people of thy reign;
Content ingloriously to pafs thy days,
Like one of virtue's fools that feed on praife;
Till thy frefh glories, which row fhine fo bright,
Grow ftale and tarnish with our daily fight?

Believe me, royal youth, thy fruit must be
Or gather'd ripe, or rot upon the tree.
Heaven has to all allotted, feon or late,
Some lucky revolution of their fate:

Whofe motions if we watch and guide with skill,
For human good depends on human will,
Our fortune rolls as from a smooth defcent,
And from the first impreffion takes the bent;
But if unfeiz'd the glides away like wind,
And leaves repenting folly far behind.
Now, now the meets you with a glorious prize,
And fpreads her locks before you as fhe flies.
Had thus old David, from whofe loins you spring,
Not dar'd when fortune call'd him to be king,
At Gath an exile he might ftill remain,
And heaven's anointing oil had been in vain.
Let his fuccefsful youth your hopes engage;
But fhun th' example of declining age:
Behold him fetting in his western skies,
The fhadows lengthening as the vapours rife.
He is not now, as when on Jordan's fand
The joyful people throng'd to fee him land,
Covering the beach, and blackening all the ftrand;.
But like the prince of angels, from his height
Comes tumbling downward with diminish'd light:
Betray'd by one poor plot to public fcom :
Our only bleffing fince his curft return:
Thofe heaps of people which one theaf did bind,
Blown off and fcatter'd by a puff of wind.
What ftrength can he to your defigns oppofe,
Naked of friends, and round befet with foes?
If Pharaoh's doubtful fuccour he fhould use,
A foreign aid would more incenfe the Jews:
Proud Egypt would diffembled friendship bring;
Foment the war but not fupport the king:
Nor would the royal party e'er unite
With Pharaoh's arms t' affift the Jebusite;
Or if they should, their intereft foon would break,
And with fuch odious aid make David weak.
All forts of men by my fuccefsful arts,
Abhorring kings, eftrange their alter'd hearts
From David's rule; and 'tis their general cry,
Religion, commonwealth, and liberty.
If you, as champion of the public good,
Add to their arms a chief of royal blood,
What may not Ifrael hope, and what applause
Might fuch a general gain by fuch a caufe?
Not barren praife alone, that gaudy flower
Fair only to the fight, but folid power:
And nobler is a limited command,
Given by the love of all your native land,
Than a fucceffive title, long and dark,
Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark.

What cannot praife effect in mighty minds,
When flattery fooths, and when ambition blinds?
Defire of power, on earth a vicious weed,
Yet fprung from high is of celeftial feed:
In God 'tis glory: and when men afpire,
Tis but a fpark too much of heavenly fire.
Th' ambitious youth, too covetous of fame,
Too full of angel's metal in his frame,
Unwarily was led from virtue's ways,

My father governs with unqueftion'd right;
The faith's defender, and mankind's delight;
Good, gracious, juft, obfervant of the laws;
And heaven by wonders has efpous'd his caufe.
Whom has he wrong'd in all his peaceful reign?
Who fues for justice to his throne in vain ?
What millions has he pardon'd of his foes,.
Whom juft revenge did to his wrath expofe!
Mild, eafy, humble, ftudious of our good;
Inclin'd to mercy, and averfe from blood.
If mildnefs ill with ftubborn Ifrael fuit,
His crime is God's beloved attribute.
What could he gain his people to betray,
Or change his right for arbitrary fway?
Let haughty Pharaoh curfe with fuch a reign
His fruitful Nile, and yoke a fervile train.
If David's rule Jerufalem difplay,
The dog-flar heats their brains to this disease.
Why then fhould I, encouraging the bad,
Turn rebel, and run popularly mad?
Were he a tyrant, who by lawless might
Opprefs'd the Jews, and rais'd the Jebufite,
Well might I mourn; but nature's holy bands
Would curb my fpirits and reftrain my hands:
The people might affert their liberty:
But what was right in them were crime in me.
His favour leaves me nothing to require,
Prevents my wishes, and out-runs defire;
What more can I expect while David lives?
All but his kingly diadem he gives:

And that-But here he paus'd, then fighing, said—
Is juftly deftin'd for a worthier head.
For when my father from his toils fhall reft,
And late augment the number of the bleft,
His lawful iffue fhall the throne afcend,
Or the collateral line, where that fhall end.
His brother, though opprefs'd with vulgar fpite,
Yet dauntlefs and fecure of native right,
Of every royal virtue ftands poffeft;
Still dear to all the braveft and the beft.
His courage foes, his friends his truth proclaim;
His loyalty the king, the world his fame.
His mercy ev'n th' offending crowd will find;
For fure he comes of a forgiving kind.
Why fhould I then repine at heaven's decree,
Which gives me no pretence to royalty?
Yet oh that fate, propitiously inclin'd,
Had rais'd my birth, or had debas'd my mind;
To my large foul not all her treasure lent,
And then betray'd it to a mean defçent!
I find, I find my mounting fpirits bold,
And David's part difdains my mother's mould.
Why am I fcanted by a niggard birth?
My foul difclaims the kindred of her earth;
And made for empire whifpers me within,
Defire of greatnefs is a god-like fin.

Him ftaggering fo, when hell's dire agent found,
While fainting virtue fcarce maintain'd her ground,
He pours freth forces in, and thus replies:
Th' eternal God, fupremely good and wife,
Imparts not these prodigious gifts in vain:
What wonders are referv'd to bless your reign!

Made drunk with honour, and debauch'd with Againft your will your arguments have shown,

praise.

Half loath, and half confenting to the ill,
For royal blood within him ftruggled ftill,
He thus reply'd.And what pretence have I
To take up arms for public liberty?

Such virtue's only given to guide a throne,
Not that your father's mildness I contemn;
But manly force becomes the diadem.
'Tis true he grants the people all they crave;
And more perhaps than fubjects ought to have;

For lavish grants fuppofe a monarch tame,
And more his goodness than his wit proclaim.
But when thould people ftrive their bonds to break,
If not when kings are negligent or weak?
Let him give on till he can give no more,
The thrifty fanhedrim shall keep him poor:
And every shekel, which he can receive,
Shall coft a limb of his prerogative.
To ply him with new plots fhall be my care;
Or plunge him deep in some experfive war ;
Yich when his treasure can no more fupply,
He must, with the remains of kingship, buy
His faithful friends, our jealoufies and fears
Call jebufites, and Pharaoh's penfioners;
Whom when our fury from his aid has torn,
He shall be naked left to public fcorn.
The next fucceffor, whom I fear and hate,
My arts have made obroxious to the state;
Turn'd all his virtues to his overthrow,
And gain'd our elders to pronounce a foe.
His right, for fums of neceffary gold,
Shall first be pawn'd, and afterwards be fold;
Till time fhall ever-wanting David draw,
To pafs your doubtful title into law;
If not, the people have a right fupreme

To make their kings; or kings are made for them.
All empire is no more than power in trust,
Which, when refum'd, car be no longer just.
Succeffion, for the general good defign'd,
In its own wong a nation cannot bind:
If altering that the people can relieve,
Better one fuffer than a nation grieve.

The Jews well know their power: ere Saul they chofe,
God was their king, and God they durft depose.
Urge now your piety, your filial rame,
A father's right, and fear of future fame;
The public soo, that univerfal call,

To which ev'n heaven fubmitted, anfwers all.
Nor let his love enchant your generous mind;
'Tis nature's trick to propagate her kind.
Our fond begetters, who would never die,
Love but themselves in their posterity.
Or let his kindness by th' effects be try'd,
Or let him lay his vain pretence afide.
God fud, he 'ov'd your father; could be bring
A better proof, than to anoint him king?
It furely fhew'd he lov'd the shepherd well,
Who gave fo fair a flock as ifrael.

Would David have you thought his darling fon,
What means he then to alienate the crown?
The name of godly he may bluth to bear:
Is 't after God's own heart to cheat his heir?
He to his brother gives fupreme command,
To you a legacy of harren land;

Perhaps th old harp, on which he thrums his lays,
Or fome dull Hebrew ballad in your praise.
Then the next heir. a prince fevere and wife,
Akeady looks on you with jealous eyes;
Sees through the thin difguifes of your arts,
And marks your progress in the people's hearts;
Though now his mighty foul its grief contains:
Fe meditates revenge who least complains:
And like a lion, flum' ering in the way,
Or fleep diflembling, while he waits his prey,
His fearless foes with n his diftance draws,
Conftrains his roaring, and contracts his paws;
Till at the last his time for fury found,

The proftrate vulgar paffes o'er and spares,
But with a lordly rage his hunters tears.
Your cafe no tame expedients will afford:
Refolve on death, or conqueft by the fword,
Which for no iefs a flake than life you draw;
And felf-detence is nature's eldest law.
Leave the warm people no confidering time:
For then rebell on may be thought a crime:
Avail yourfelf of what occafion gives,

But try your title while your father lives:
And that your arms may have a fair pretence,
Proclaim you take them in the king's defence;
Whofe facred life each minute would expofe
To plots, from feeming friends and fecret foes.
And who can found the depth of David's foul?
Perhaps his fear his kindness may controul.
He fears his brother, though he loves his fon,
For plighted vows too late to be undone.
If fo, by force he withes to be gain'd:
Like women's lechery, to feem constrain'd.
Doubt not: but when he most affects the frowns
Commit a pleafing rape upon the crown.
Secure his perfon to fecure your cause :
They who poffefs the prince poffefs the laws.
He faid; and this advice above the reft,
With Abfalom's mild nature fuited best;
Unblam'd of life, ambition fet afide,
Not ftain'd with cruelty, nor puft with pride.
How happy had he been, if destiny
Had higher plac'd his birth, or not so high!
His kingly virtues might have claim'd a throne,
And bleft all other countries but his own.
Bot charming greatnefs fince fo few tesuse,
'Tis jufter to lament him than accufe.
Strong were his hopes a rival to remove,
With blandifhments to gain the public love:
To head the faction while their zeal was hot,
And popularly profecute the plot.
To further this, Achitophe! unites
The malcontents of all the Ifraelites:
Whofe differing parties he could wifely joir,
For feveral ends, to ferve the fame defign.
The heft, and of the princes fome were fuch,
Who thought the power of monarchy too much;
Mistaken men, and patriots in their hearts;
Not wicked, but feduc'd by impious arts.
By thefe the fprings of property were bent,
And wound fo high, they crack'd the rovernment.
The next for intereft fought to embroil the state,
To fell their duty at a dearer rate;
And make their Jewish markets of the throne;
P etending public good to ferve their own.
Others thought kings an useless heavy load,
Who coft too much, and did too little good.
Thefe were for laying honeft David by,
On principles of pure good husbandry.
With them join'd all th' haranguers of the throng,
That thought to get preferment by the tongue
Who follow next a double danger bring,
Not only hating David, but the king;
The Solymæan rout; well vers`d of old,
In godly fation, and in treafon bold;
Cowring and quaking at a conqueror's fword,
But lofty to a lawful prince restor'd;
Saw with difdain an Ethnic plot begun,
And fcorn'd by Jebufites to be outdone.
Hot Levites headed thefe; who pull'd before

He shoots with fudden vengeance from the ground; From th' ark, which in the judges days they bore,

DRYDEN'S POEMS.

cry,

Refum'd their cant, and with a zealous
Purfued their old belov'd theocracy:
Where fanhedrim and priest enflav'd the nation,
And juftify'd their spoils by in piration:
For who fo fit to reign as Aaron's race,
If once dominion they could found in grace?
Thefe led the pack; though not of fureft scent,
Yet deepeft-mouth'd against the government.
A numerous hoft of dreaming faints fucceed,
Of the true old enthufiaftic breed:

'Gainst form and order they their power employ,
Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.
But far more numerous was the herd of fuch,
Who think too little, and who tall too much,
These out of mere instinct, they knew not why,
Ador'd their fathers God and property;
And by the fame blind benefit of fate,
The devil and the Jebufite did hate:
Born to be fav'd ev'n in their own defpite,
Because they could not help believing right.
Such were the tools: but a whole Hydra more
Remains of fprouting heads too long to fcore.
Some of their chiefs were princes of the land;
In the first rank of thefe did Zimri ítand:
A man fo various, that he feem'd to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome:
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong;
Was every thing by starts, and rothing long;
But, in the courfe of one revolving moon,
Was chemift, fidler, statesman, and buffoon:
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,
Befides ten thousand freaks that dy'd in thinking.
Bleft madman, who could every hour employ,
With fomething new to with, or to enjoy!
Railing and praifing were his usual themes;
And both, to fhew his judgment, in extremes:
So over-violent, or over-civil,

That every man with him was God or Devil,
In fquandring wealth was his peculiar art:
Nothing went unrewarded but defert.
Beggar'd by fools, whom ftill he found too late;
He had his left, and they had his eftate.
He laugh'd himself from court, then fought relief
By forming parties, but could ne'er he chief:
For fpite of him the weight of bufinefs fell
On Abfalom, and wife Achitophel:
Thus, wicked but in will, of means hereft,
He left not faction, but of that was left.

Titles and names 'twere tedious to rehearse
Of lords, below the dignity of verse.
Wits, warriors, commonwealths-men, were the best:
Kind husbands, and mere nobles, all the reft.
And therefore, in the name of dulnefs, be
The well-hung Balaam, and cold Caleb, free:
And canting Nadab let oblivion damn,
Who made new porrige for the pafchal lamb.
Let friendship's holy band fome names affure :
Some their own worth, and fome let fcorn fecure.
Nor fhall the rascal rabble here have place,
Whom kings no title gave, and God no grace:
Not bull-fac'd Jonas, who could statutes draw
To mean rebellion, and make treason law.
But he, though bad, is follow'd by a wo.fe,
The wretch who heaven's anointed dar'd to
Shimei, whose youth did early promise bring
Of zeal to God, and hatred to his king;
Did wifely from expensive fins refrain,
And never broke the fabbath but for gain
VOL. IIL

curfe;

Nor ever was he known an oath to vent,
Or curfe unlefs against the government.
Thus heaping wealth by the most ready way
Among the Jews, which was to cheat and pray;
The city, to reward his pious bate
Againft his mafter, chofe him magiftrate.
His hand a vafe of juftice did uphold;
His neck was loaded with a chain of gold.
During his office treafon was no crime;
The fons of Belial had a glorious time:
For Shimei, though not prodigal of pelf,
Yet lov'd his wi ked neighbour as himself.
When two or three were gather'd to declaim
Against the monarch of Jerufalem,
Shimei was always in the midft of them:
And if they curs'd the king when he was by,
Would rather curfe than break good company.
If any durft his factious friends accufe,
He pack'd a jury of diffenting Jews;
Whofe fellow-feeling in the godly caufe
Would free the fuffering faint from human laws.
For laws are only made to punish those
Who ferve the king, and to protect his foes.
If any le fure time he had from power,
Becaufe 'tis fin to mifemploy an hour:
His bufinefs was, by writing to perfuade,
That kings were ufelefs and a clog to trade:
And that his noble style he might refine,
No Rechabite more fhunn'd the fumes of wine.
Chafte were his cellars, and his fhrieval board
The groffnefs of a city feaft abhorr'd:
His cooks with long d.fufe their trade forgot;
Cool was his kitchen, though his brains were hot.
Such frugal virtue malice may accufe;
But fure 'twas neceflary to the Jews:
For towns, once burnt, fuch magiftrates require
As dare not tempt God's providence by fire.
With fpiritual food he fed his fervants well,
But free from flesh that made the jews rebel:
And Mofes' laws he held in more account,
For forty days of fafting in the mount.
To fpeak the reft, who better are forgot,
Would tire a well-breath'd witnefs of the plot,
Yet, Corab, thou shalt from oblivion pafs;
Ere thyfelf, thou monumental brafs,
High as the ferpent of thy metal made,
While nations ftand fecure beneath thy fhade.
What though his birth were bafe, yet comets rife
From earthly vapours ere they fhine in skies.
Prodigious a&ions may as well be done
This arch-attefor for the public good
By weaver's iffee, as by prince's fon.
By that one deed ernobles all his blood.
Who ever afk'd the witness's high race,
Whofe oath with martyrdom did Stephien grace?
Ours was a Levite, and as times went then,
His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen.
Sunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and loud,
Sure figns he neither choleric was, ror proud:
His long chin prov'd his wit; his faint-like grace
A church vermilion, and a Mofes' face.
His memory, miraculously great,
Could plots, exceeding man's belief, repeat;
For human wit could never fuch devife.
Which therefore cannot be accounted lies,
Some future truths are mingled in his book;
But where the witnefs fail'd, the prophet spoke :