As shock the common rules of policy;

None dread like him the growth of Israel's king, And he alone sufficient aids can bring;

Who knows that prince to Egypt can give law, That on our stubborn tribes his yoke could draw; At such profound expense he has not stood,

Nor dy'd for this his hands so deep in blood; 680 Would ne'er through wrong and right his progress

take,

Grudge his own rest, and keep the world awake,
To fix a lawless prince on Judah's throne,
First to invade our rights and then his own;
His dear gain'd conquests cheaply to despoil, 685
And
reap
the harvest of his crimes and toil.
We grant his wealth vast as our ocean's sand,
And curse its fatal influence on our land,
Which our brib'd Jews so numerously partake,
That e'en an host his pensioners would make ; 690
From these deceivers our divisions spring,
Our weakness, and the growth of Egypt's king;
These with pretended friendship to the state,
Our crowd's suspicion of their prince create,
Both pleas'd and frighten'd with the specious cry,
To guard their sacred rites and property.
To ruin, thus the chosen flock are sold,

While wolves are ta'en for guardians of the fold;
Seduc'd by these we groundlessly complain,
And loath the manna of a gentle reign:
Thus our forefathers' crooked paths are trod,
We trust our prince no more than they their God.

700

But all in vain our reasoning prophets preach
To those whom sad experience ne'er could teach,
Who can commence new broils in bleeding scars,
And fresh remembrance of intestine wars;

715

When the same household mortal foes did yield,
And brothers stain'd with brothers' blood the field;
When sons' curst steel the fathers' gore did stain,
And mothers mourn'd for sons by fathers slain!
When thick as Egypt's locusts on the sand,
Our tribes lay slaughter'd thro' the promis'd land,
Whose few survivors with worse fate remain,
To drag the bondage of a tyrant's reign:
Which scene of woes, unknowing, we renew,
And madly, even those ills we fear, pursue;
While Pharaoh laughs at our domestic broils,
And safely crowds his tents with nations' spoils.
Yet our fierce Sanhedrim in restless rage,
Against our absent hero still engage,
And chiefly urge, such did their frenzy prove,
The only suit their prince forbids to move,
Which till obtain'd they cease affairs of state,
And real dangers wave for groundless hate.
Long David's patience waits relief to bring,
With all the indulgence of a lawful king,
Expecting till the troubled waves would cease,
But found the raging billows still increase.
The crowd, whose insolence forbearance swells,
While he forgives too far, almost rebels.
At last his deep resentments silence broke,
Th' imperial palace shook, while thus he spoke :

720

725

730

740

Then Justice wake, and Rigour take her time, For lo! our mercy is become our crime. While halting Punishment her stroke delays, 735 Our sovereign right, heaven's sacred trust, decays? For whose support e'en subjects' interest calls, Woe to that kingdom where the monarch falls! That prince who yields the least of regal sway, So far his people's freedom does betray. Right lives by law, and law subsists by power; Disarm the shepherd, wolves the flock devour. Hard lot of empire o'er a stubborn race, Which heaven itself in vain has tried with grace! When will our reason's long charm'd eyes unclose, And Israel judge between her friends and foes? When shall we see expir'd deceivers' sway, And credit what our God and monarchs say. Dissembled patriots brib'd with Egypt's gold, Even Sanhedrims in blind obedience hold; Those patriots falsehood in their actions see, And judge by the pernicious fruit the tree; If ought for which so loudly they declaim, Religion, laws, and freedom, were their aim; Our senates in due methods they had led, To avoid those mischiefs which they seem'd to

dread;

750

755

But first ere yet they propp'd the sinking state, To impeach and charge, as urg'd by private hate, Proves that they ne'er believ'd the fears they prest, But barbarously destroy'd the nation's rest! 760 O! whither will ungovern'd senates drive,

And to what bounds licentious votes arrive?
When their injustice we are press'd to share,
The monarch urg'd to exclude the lawful heir;
Are princes thus distinguish'd from the crowd, 765
And this the privilege of royal blood?

But grant we should confirm the wrongs they press,
His sufferings yet were than the people's less;
Condemn'd for life the murdering sword to wield,
And on their heirs entail a bloody field:

770

Thus madly their own freedom they betray,
And for the oppression which they fear make way;
Succession fix'd by heaven, the kingdom's bar,
Which once dissolv'd, admits the flood of war ;
Waste, rapine, spoil, without the assault begin, 775
And our mad tribes supplant the fence within.
Since then their good they will not understand,
'Tis time to take the monarch's power in hand;
Authority and force to join with skill,

And save the lunatics against their will.

790

The same rough means that swage the crowd, ap

pease

785

Our senate's raging with the crowd's disease.
Henceforth unbiass'd measures let them draw
From no false gloss, but genuine text of law;
Nor urge those crimes upon religion's score,
Themselves so much in Jebusites abhor.
Whom laws convict, and only they, shall bleed,
Nor Pharisees by Pharisees be freed.
Impartial justice from our throne shall shower,
All shall have right, and we our sovereign power.

795

He said, the attendants heard with awful joy, And glad presages their fix'd thoughts employ; From Hebron now the suffering heir return'd, A realm that long with civil discord mourn'd; Till his approach, like some arriving god, Compos'd and heal'd the place of his abode; The deluge check'd, that to Judea spread, And stopp'd sedition at the fountain's head. Thus in forgiving David's paths he drives, And chas'd from Israel, Israel's peace contrives. The field confess'd his power in arms before, And seas proclaim'd his triumphs to the shore; As nobly has his sway in Hebron shown, How fit to inherit godlike David's throne. Through Sion's streets his glad arrival 's spread, And conscious faction shrinks her snaky head; His train their sufferings think o'erpaid to see The crowd's applause with virtue once agree. Success charms all, but zeal for worth distress'd, A virtue proper to the brave and best; 'Mongst whom was Jothran, Jothran always bent

810

V. 803. nobly has his sway in Hebron shown] When the Duke of York returned from Scotland, in the beginning of 1682, the murmurs against him seemed to have, in a good measure, subsided. He had shown himself so well inclined to support the reformed religion in that kingdom, that he was thanked for it by seven bishops, in an address which was published, to the satisfaction of all ranks of people; and the citizens of London, particularly, treated him on that account with vast respect. D.

V. 811.

Jothran always bent

To serve the crown, and loyal by descent]