Leave the warm people no confidering time:
For then rebellion may be thought a crime.
Avail yourself of what occafion gives,
But try your title while your father lives:
And that your arms may have a fair pretence,
Prodhim you take them in the king's defence;
Whafe 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.
Iffe, by force he wishes to be gain'd:
Like women's lechery, to seem constrain'd.
Doubt not but, when he most affects the frown,
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 set aside,

Not ftain'd with cruelty, nor puft with pride.
How happy had he been, if destiny
Had higher plac'd his birth, or not fo high!
H's kingly virtues might have claim'd a throne,
And bleft all other countries but his own.
But charming greatnefs fince fo few refuse,
"Tis jufter to lament him than accuse.
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, Achitophel unites
The malcontents of all the Ifraelites:
Whofe differing parties he could wifely join,
For feveral ends, to ferve the fame defign.
The beft, 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 these the fprings of property were bent,
And wound fo high, they crack'd the government.
The next for interest fought to embroil the state,
To their duty at a dearer rate;

And make their Jewish markets of the throne; Pretending public good to ferve their own. Others thought kings an ufelefs heavy load, Who caft too much, and did too little good. Thefe were for laying honeft David by, O 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, Nonly hating David, but the king; The Solymaan rout; well vers'd of old, In goodly faction, and in treason bold; Coring and quaking at a conqueror's fword, But lifty to a lawful prince reftor'd; Saw with dildain an Ethnic plot begun, And fcorn'd by Jebufites to be outdone. Hot Levites headed thele; who puil'd before From hark, which in the judges days they bore, Relum'd their cant, and with a zealous cry, Purfaed their old belov'd theocracy:

Where fanhedrim and priest enflav'd the nation,
And justify'd their spoils by infpiration :
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 fcent,
Yet deepest-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 talk too much,
These out of mere inftinct, 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 stand:
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 nothing long;
But, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemift, fidler, ftatefman, 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 wifh, or to enjoy!
Railing and praifing were his ufual 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 fquandering wealth was his peculiar art:
Nothing went unrewarded but defert.
Beggar'd by fools, whom ftill he found too late;
He had his jeft, and they had his estate.
He laugh'd himself from court; then fought relief
By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief:
For fpite of him the weight of bufinefs fell
On Abfalom, and wife Achitophel:
Thus, wicked but in will, of means bereft,
He left not faction, but of that was left.
Titles and names 'twere tedious to rehearse
Of lords, below the dignity of verse. [beft:
Wits, warriors, commonwealth-men, were the
Kind husbands, and mere nobles, all the rest.
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 porridge for the pafchal lamb.
Let friendship's holy band fome names affure;
Some their own worth, and fome let fcorn fecure,
Nor shall the rafcal 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 treafon law.
But he, though bad, is follow'd by a worse,
The wretch who heaven's anointed dar'd to curfe;
Shimei, whofe youth did early promife bring
Of zeal to God, and hatred to his king;

Did wifely from expensive fins refrain,
And never broke the fabbath but for gain:
Nor ever was he known an oath to vent,
Or curfe unless 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 hate
Against his mafter, chofe him magistrate.
His hand a vase of justice 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 Shemei, though not prodigal of pelf,
Yet lov'd his wicked neighbour as himself.
When two or three were gather'd to declaim
Against the monarch of Jerufalem,
Shimei was always in the midst 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 cause
Would free the suffering faint from human laws.
For laws are only made to punish those
Who ferve the king, and to protect his foes.
If any leifure time he had from power,
Because 'tis fin to mifemploy an hour:
His bufinefs was, by writing to perfuade,
That kings were useless and a clog to trade:
And that his noble ftyle he might refine,
No Rechabite more fhun'd the fumes of wine.
Chafte were his cellars and his fhrieval board
The groffness of a city feaft abhorr'd:
His cooks with long difufe their trade forgot;
Cool was his kitchen, though his brains were hot.
Such frugal virtue malice may accule;
But fure 'twas neceffary 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, Corah, thou shalt from oblivion pass;
Erect thyself, thou monumental brafs,
High as the ferpent of thy metal made,
While nations ftand fecure beneath thy fhade.
What though his birth were base, yet comets rife
From earthly vapours ere they fhine in fkies.
Prodigious actions may as well be done
By weaver's iffue, as by prince's fon.
This arch-atteftor for the public good
By that one deed ennobles all his blood.
Who ever afk'd the witness's high race,
Whose oath with martyrdom did Stephen 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, nor 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;

Which therefore cannot be accounted lies,
For human wit could never fuch devife.
Some future truths are mingled in his book;
But where the witnefs fail'd the prophet spoke :
Some things like vifionary flight appear;
The spirit caught him up the Lord knows where;
And gave him his rabbinical degree,
Unknown to foreign university.

His judgment yet his memory did excel;
Which piec'd his wondrous evidence fo well,
And fuited to the temper of the times,
Then groaning under Jebufitic crimes.
Let Ifrael's foes fufpect his heavenly call,
And rafhly judge his writ apocryphal;

Our laws for fuch affronts have forfeits made:
He takes his life, who takes away his trade.
Were I myself in witnefs Corah's place,
The wretch who did me such a dire difgrace,
Should whet my memory, though once forgot,
To make him an appendix of my plot.

His zeal to heaven made him his prince despise,
And load his person with indignities.
But zeal peculiar privilege affords,
Indulging latitude to deeds and words:
And Corah might for Agag's murder call,
In terms as courfe as Samuel us'd to Saul.
What others in his evidence did join,
The best that could be had for love or coin,
In Corah's own predicament will fall :
For Witness is a common name to all.

Surrounded thus with friends of every fort,
Deluded Abfalom forfakes the court:
Impatient of high hopes, urg'd with renown,
And fir'd with near poffeffion of a crown.
Th' admiring crowd are dazzled with furprize,
And on his goodly person feed their eyes.
His joy conceal'd, he fets himself to fhow;
On each fide bowing popularly low:

His looks, his geftures, and his words he frames,
And with familiar cafe repeats their names.
Thus form'd by nature, furnish'd out with arts,
He glides unfelt into their fecret hearts.
Then with a kind compaffionating look,
And fighs, bespeaking pity ere he spoke,
Few words he faid; but eafy those and fit,
More flow than Hybla-drops, and far more fwee:
1 mourn, my countrymen, your lost eftate;
Though far unable to prevent your fate;
Behold a banish'd man for your dear cause
Expos'd a prey to arbitrary laws!

Yet oh! that I alone could be undone,
Cut off from empire, and no more a fon :
Now all your liberties a spoil are made;
Egypt and Tyrus intercept your trade,
And Jebufites your facred rites invade.
My father, whom with reverence yet I name,
Charm'd into eafe, is carelefs of his fame;
And, brib'd with petty fums of foreign gold,
Is grown in Bathfheba's embraces old;
Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys;
And all his power against himself empleys.
He gives, and let him give, my right away:
But why should he his own and yours betray?
He, only he, can make the nation bleed,
And he alone from my revenge is freed.

Take then my tears, with that he wip'd his eyes,
'Tis all the aid my prefent power supplies:
No court-informer can these arms accufe;
Thefe arms may fons against their fathers use:
And 'tis my with, the next fucceffor's reign
May make no other Ifraelite complain.

Youth, beauty, graceful action, seldom fail;
But common intereft always will prevail :
And pity never ceafes to be fhewn

To him who makes the people's wrongs his own.
The crowd, that ftill believe their kings opprefs,
With lifted hands their young Meffiah bless:
Who now begins his progress to ordain
With chariots, horsemen, and a numerous train :
From east to west his glories he displays,
And, like the fun, the promis'd land furveys.
Fame runs before him as the morning star,
And fhouts of joy falute him from afar :
Each houfe receives him as a guardian god,
And confecrates the place of his abode.
But hofpitable treats did moft commend
Wife Ifachar, his wealthy western friend.
This moving court, that caught the people's eyes,
And feem'd but pomp, did other ends disguise;
Achitophel had form'd it, with intent

To found the depths, and fathom where it went,
The people's hearts, diftinguish friends from foes,
And try their strength before they came to blows.
Yet all was colour'd with a smooth pretence
Of fpecious love, and duty to their prince.
Religion, and redress of grievances,
Two names that always cheat, and always please,
Are often urg'd; and good king David's life
Endanger'd by a brother and a wife.
Thus in a pageant fhew a plot is made,
And peace itself is war in masquerade.
Oh foolish Ifrael! never warn'd by ill!
Still the fame bait, and circumvented still!
Did ever men forfake their present ease,
la midst of health imagine a disease;
Take pains contingent mischiefs to foresee,
Make heirs for monarchs, and for God decree?
What fhall we think? Can people give away,
Both for themselves and fons, their native (way?
Then they are left defenceless to the sword
Of each unbounded, arbitrary lord!
And laws are vain, by which we right enjoy,
If kings unqueftion'd can thofe laws deftroy.
Yet if the crowd be judge of fit and just,
And kings are only officers in truft,
Then this refuming covenant was declar'd
When kings were made, or is for ever barr'd.
li thefe who gave the fcepter could not tie
By their own deed their own pofterity,
How then could Adam bind his future race?
How could his forfeit on mankind take place?
Or how could heavenly justice damn us all,
Who ne'er confented to our father's fall? [mand,
Then kings are flaves to those whom they com-
And tenants to their people's pleasure ftand.
Add, that the power for property allow'd
is maschievou fly feated in the crowd:
For who can be fecure of private right,
esercig fway may be diffolv'd by might?

Nor is the people's judgment always true:
The most may err as grofsly as the few;
And faultlefs kings run down by common cry,
For vice, oppreffion, and for tyranny.
What standard is there in a fickle rout,
Which, flowing to the mark, runs fafter out?
Nor only crowds but fanhedrims may be
Infected with this public lunacy,

And share the madness of rebellious times,
To murder monarchs for imagin'd crimes.
If they may give and take whene'er they please,
Not kings alone, the Godhead's images,
But government itself at length must fall
To nature's ftate, where all have right to all.
Yet, grant our lords the people kings can make,
What prudent men a fettled throne would shake?
For whatfoe'er their fufferings were before,
That change they covet makes them suffer more.
All other errors but difturb a state;
But innovation is the blow of fate.

If ancient fabrics nod, and threat to fall,
To patch their flaws, and buttress up the wall
Thus far 'tis duty but here fix the mark;
For all beyond it is to touch the ark.
To change foundations, caft the frame anew,
Is work for rebels, who base ends pursue;
At once divine and human laws controul,
And mend the parts by ruin of the whole.
The tampering world is fubject to this curfe,
To phyfic their difeafe into a worse.

Now what relief can righteous David bring?
How fatal 'tis to be too good a king!
Friends he has few, fo high the madness grows;
Who dare be fuch must be the people's foes.
Yet fome there were, ev'n in the worst of days;
Some let me name, and naming is to praife.

In this fhort file Berzillai firft appears; Berzillai, crown'd with honour and with years. Long fince, the rifing rebels he withstood In regions wafte beyond the Jordan's flood: Unfortunately brave to buoy the state; But finking underneath his master's fate : In exile with his godlike prince he mourn'd; For him he fuffer'd, and with him return'd. The court he practif'd, not the courtier's art : Large was his wealth, but larger was his heart, Which well the nobleft objects knew to choose, The fighting warrior, and recording Mufe. His bed could once a fruitful issue boast; Now more than half a father's name is loft. His eldest hope, with every grace adorn'd, By me, fo heaven will have it, always mourn'd, And always honour'd, fnatch'd in manhood's

prime

B' unequal fates, and providence's crime:
Yet not before the goal of honour won,
All parts fulfill'd of fubject and of fon :
Swift was the race, but short the time to run.
Oh narrow circle, but of power divine,
Scanted in fpace, but perfect in thy line!
By fea, by land, thy matchlefs worth was known,
Arms thy delight, and war was all thy own:
Thy force infuf'd the fainting Tyrians prop'd;
And haughty Pharaoh found his fortune flop'd

Oh ancient honour! Oh unconquer'd hand,
Whom foes unpunifh'd never could withstand!
But Ifrael was unworthy of his name:
Short is the date of all immoderate famė.
It looks as heaven our ruin had defign'd,
And durft not trust thy fortune and thy mind.
Now free, from earth thy difencumber'd foul [pole:
Mounts up, and leaves behind the clouds and starry
From thence thy kindred legions mayft thou bring,
To aid the guardian angel of thy king.
Here ftop, my Mufe, here ceafe thy painful flight:
No pinions can purfue immortal height:
Tell good Barzillai thou canst fing no more,
And tell thy foul fhe fhould have fled before:
Or fled the with his life, and left this verfe
To hang on her departed patron's hearfe?
Now take thy ftcepy flight from heaven, and fee
Jf thou canst find on earth another he:
Another he would be too hard to find;
See then whom thou canst fee not far behind.
Zadoc the priest, whom, fhunning power and
His lowly mind advanc'd to David's grace. [place,
With him the Sagan of Jerufalem,
Of hofpitable foul, and noble ftem;

Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly cloquence.
The prophets fons, by fuch example led,
To learning and to loyalty were bred:
For colleges on bounteous kings depend,
And never rebel was to arts a friend.
To thefe fucceed the pillars of the laws;
Who best can plead, and beft can judge a caufe.
Next them a train of loyal peers afcend;
Sharp-judging Adriel, the Mufes' friend,
Himfelf a Mufe: in fanhedrims debate
True to his prince, but not a flave of flate;
Whom David's love with honours did adorn,
That from his difobedient fon were torn.
Jotham of piercing wit, and pregnant thought;
Endued by nature, and by learning taught,
To move affemblies, who but only try'd
The worfe a-while, then chote the better fide:
Nor chofe alone, but turn'd the balance too;
So much the weight of one brave man can do.
Hufhai, the friend of David in diftrefs;
In public ftorms of manly ftedfaftness:
By foreign treaties he inform'd his youth,
And join'd experience to his native truth.
His frugal care fupply'd the wanting throne;
Frugal for that, but bounteous of his own:
'Tis eafy conduct when exchequers flow;
But hard the tafk to manage well the low:
For fovereign power too deprefs d or high,
When kings are forc'd to fell, or crowds to buy.
Indulge one labour more, my weary Mufe,
For Amiel: who can Amiel's praise refuse?
Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet
In his own worth, and without title great:
The fathedrim long time as chief he rul'd,
Their reafon guided, and their paffion cool'd:
S dextrons was he in the crown's defence,
So form'd to speak a kyal nation's fenfe,
That, as their band was Ifrael's tribes in fmall,
So it was he to reprefent them all.

Now rafher charioteers the feat afcend, Whofe loose careers his steady skill commend: They, like th' unequal ruler of the day, Mifguide the feasons, and mistake the way; While he withdrawn, at their mad labours fmil And fafe enjoys the fabbath of his toils.

Thefe were the chief, a Imall but faithfull band
Of worthies, in the breach who dar'd to stand,
And tempt th' united fury of the land,
With grief they view'd fuch powerful engines
To batter down the lawful government.
A numerous faction, with pretended frights,
In fanhedrims to plume the regal rights,
The true fucceffor from the court remov'd;
The plot, by hireling witneffes, improv'd.
Thefe ills they faw, and, as their duty bound,
They fhew'd the king the danger of the woun
That no conceffions from the throne won
pleafe,

Eut lenitives fomented the difeafe:
That Abfalom, ambitious of the crown,
Was made the lure to draw the people down:
That falfe Achitophel's pernicious hate
Had turn'd the plot to ruin church and state:
The council violent, the rabble worse:
That Shemei taught Jerufalem to curfe

With all thefe loads of injuries oppreft,
And long revolving in his careful breast
Th' event of things, at laft his patience tir'd,
Thus, from his royal throne, by heaven infpir'd
The god-like David fpoke; with awful fear
His train their Maker in their mafter hear.

Thus long have 1, by native mercy fway'd, My wrongs diffembled, my revenge delay'd: So willing to forgive th' offending age; So much the father did the king affuage. But now fo far my clemency they flight, Th' offenders queftion my forgiving right, That one was made for many, they contend; But 'tis to rule; for that's a monarch's end. They call my tenderness of blood, my fear; Though manly tempers can the longest bear. Yet, fince they will divert my native courfe, 'Tis time to fhew I am not good by force. Those heap'd affronts that haughty subjects bri Are burdens for a camel, not a king. Kings are the public pillars of the state, Born to fuflain and prop the nation's weight: If my young Samfon will pretend a call To fhake the column, let him share the fall: But oh, that yet he would repent and live! How eafy 'tis for parents to forgive! With how few tears a pardon might be woa From nature, pleading for a darling fon! Poor, pitied youth, by my paternal care, Raif'd up to all the height his frame could bear Had God ordain'd his fate for empire born, He would have given his foul another turn: Gull'd with a patriot's name, whofe modern t Is one that would by law fupplant his princes The people's brave, the politician's tool; Never was patriot yet, but was a fool. Whence comes it, that religion and the laws Should more be Abfalom's than David's caufe!