Of tyrant Sin; To which we trophies raise, and wear out all our breath. In building up the monuments of Death; We, the choice race, to God and angels kin ! In vain the prophets and apostles come Home to the promis'd Canaan above, Which does with nourishing milk and pleafant honey flow; And even i' th' way to which we should be fed With angels' tasteful bread : But we, alas the flesh-pots love, We love the very leeks and fordid roots below. In vain we judgments feel, and wonders fee! Our Mofes and our guide himself to be! We will not let ourfelves to go, And with worfe harden'd hearts do our own Pharaohs Ah! left at last we perish so, [grow. Think, ftubborn Man, think of th' Egyptian Prince Who Mofes' God doft now refufe, more oft than "If from fome god you come" (faid the proud king Cries Mofes, and cafts down th' all-mighty wand. Th' all-mighty wand a ferpent grew, And his long half in painted folds behind him drew: He gap'd and hifs'd aloud, With flaming eyes furvey'd the trembling crowd, Jannes and Jambres ftopp'd their flight, And with proud words allay'd th' affright. And mutter'd fecret founds that charm the fervile gods. Were ready ftill at hand, And all at the Old Serpent's first command. And And they too gap'd, and they too hifs'd, So much was over-power'd, His fervant's, Nature's, flightly-wrought and feeble generation! On the fam'd'bank the prophets food, Touch'd with their rod, and wounded, all the flood; Flood now no more, but a long vein of putrid blood. The helpless fish were found In their strange current drown'd: The herbs and trees wash'd by the mortal tide Th' amazed crocodiles made hafte to ground; Oh king! could'st ever show From whence thy wandering Nile begins his courfe- Take heed left this do fo! What plague more just could on thy waters fall? The kind, inftructing punishment enjoy ; [ftroy. Whom the red river cannot mend, the Red-fea fhall de The The river yet gave one inftruction more ; And, from the rotting fish and unconcocted gore (Which was but water just before), A loathsome host was quickly made, That fcal'd the banks, and with loud noife did all the country' invade. As Nilus when he quits his facred bed (But like a friend he vifits all the land With welcome presents in his hand) So did this Living Tide the fields o'erspread : To kill their noifome enemies; From th' unexhaufted fource ftill new recruits arife. The temples and the palaces, Nor Pharaoh, nor his gods, they fear; The water thus her wonders did produce; But both were to no use; As yet the forcerers' mimic power ferv'd for excufe. "Try what the earth will do," faid God, and lo! They ftrook the earth a fertile blow, And And all the duft did strait to stir begin; One would have thought some fudden wind 't had been; And every duft did an arm'd vermin prove, Of an unknown and new-created kind, Such as the magic-gods could neither make nor find. The wretched fhameful Foe allow'd no reft Either to man or beast. Not Pharaoh from th' unquiet plague could be, The devils themselves confefs'd This was God's hand; and 'twas but just, To punish thus man's pride, to punish dust with duft. Lo! the third element does his plagues prepare, And march in bodies infinite; In vain 'tis day above, 'tis still beneath them night. And different arms they bore; And fome, like Scythians, liv'd on blood, And fome on green, and fome on flowery food; And Accaron, the airy prince, led on this various host. Houses fecure not men, the populous ill Did all the houses fill: |