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Down on the finful land where he was fent,
T' inflict the tardy punishment.

"Ah! yet," said he, " yet, ftubborn king! repent, "Whilft thus unarm'd I ftand,

"Ere the keen fword of God fill my commanded hand; "Suffer but yet thyfelf, and thine to live :

"Who would, alas! believe

"That it for man," said he,

"So hard to be forgiven should be,. "And yet for God fo eafy to forgive !"

He fpoke, and downward's flew,

And o'er his fhining form a well-cut cloud he threw,
Made of the blackeft fleece of Night,

And clofe-wrought to keep in the powerful light,
Yet wrought so fine it hinder'd not his flight;
But through the key-holes and the chinks of doors,
And through the narrow'st walks of crooked pores,
He past more swift and free,

Than in wide air the wanton fwallows flee.
He took a pointed Peftilence in his hand;
The spirits of thousand mortal poisons made

The strongly-temper'd blade,

The sharpeft fword that e'er was laid

Up in the magazines of God to scourge a wicked land.
Through Egypt's wicked land his march he took,
And as he march'd the facred first-born strook

Of every womb ; none did he spare,

None, from the meanest beast to Cenchre's purple heir.

VOL. II.

F

The

The fwift approach of endless night
Breaks ope the wounded fleepers' rolling eyes;
They' awake the reft with dying cries,

And darkness doubles the affright;

The mixed founds of fcatter'd deaths they hear,
And lose their parted fouls 'twixt grief and fear.
Louder than all the flirieking women's voice
Pierces this chaos of confufed nòife;

As brighter lightning cuts a way

Clear and diftinguifh'd through the day.
With lefs complaints the Zoan temples found,
When the adored heifer's drown'd,

And no true-mark'd fucceffor to be found.
Whilst health and ftrength, and gladness, does poffefs
The feftal Hebrew cottages;

The bleft Destroyer comes not there,
To interrupt the facred chear

That new begins their well-reformed year:
Upon their doors he read and understood,
God's protection, writ in blood;
Well was he skill'd i' th' character Divine ;
And, though he pass'd by it in hafte,
He bow'd and worship'd, as he past,

The mighty myftery through its humble fign.

The fword ftrikes now too deep and near,
Longer with its edge to play;

No diligence or coft they spare

To hafte the Hebrews now away,

Pharaoh

Pharaoh himself chides their delay ;

So kind and bountiful is Fear!

But, oh the bounty which to fear we owe,
Is but like fire ftruck out of stone;

So hardly got, and quickly gone,

That it scarce out-lives the blow. Sorrow and fear foon quit the tyrant's breast; Rage and revenge their place poffefs'd; With a vast hoft of chariots and of horse, And all his powerful kingdom's ready force, The travelling nation he purfues;

Ten times o'ercome, he still th' unequal war renews. Fill'd with proud hopes, "At least," faid he, "Th' Egyptian Gods, from Syrian magic free, "Will now revenge themfelves and me; "Behold what pafsless rocks on either hand, "Like prifon-walls, about them stand, "Whilft the fea bounds their flight before! "And in our injur'd justice they must find "A far worse stop than rocks and feas behind; "Which shall with crimson gore

"New paint the water's name, and double dye the shore.”

He spoke; and all his hoft

Approv'd with fhouts th' unhappy boast, A bidden wind bore his vain words away,

And drown'd them in the neighbouring fea,
No means t' escape the faithless travellers spy,

And, with degenerous fear to die,
Curfe their new-gotten liberty.
F&

But

But the great Guide well knew he led them right,
And faw a path hid yet from human sight :

He strikes the raging waves, the waves on either fide
Unloofe their clofe embraces, and divide ;
And backwards prefs, as in fome folemn fhow
The crowding people do

(Though juft before no space was seen) To let the admired triumph pass between. The wondering army faw on either hand

The no-lefs-wondering waves like rocks of crystal ftand:

They march'd betwixt, and boldly trod
The fecret paths of God.

And here and there all scatter'd in their way
The fea's old spoils, and gaping fishes, lay
Deferted on the fandy plain

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The fun did with aftonishment behold

The inmoft chambers of the open'd main;
For, whatfoe'er of old

By his own priests the poets has been faid,
He never funk till then into the ocean's bed.

Led chearfully by a bright captain, Flame,
To th' other shore at morning-dawn they came,
And faw behind th' unguided foe

March diforderly and flow.

The prophet straight from th' Idumean strand

Shakes his imperious wand :

The upper waves, that highest crowded lie,
The beckoning wand espy;

Strait

Strait their first right-hand files begin to move,
And, with a murmuring wind,

Give the word " March" to all behind.
The left-hand fquadrons no less ready prove,
But, with a joyful, louder noise,
Answer their distant fellows' voice,

And hafte to meet them make,

As feveral troops do all at once a common fignal take.
What tongue th' amazement and th' affright can tell
Which on the Chamian army fell,

When on both fides they faw the roaring main
Broke loofe from his invifible chain !
They saw the monstrous death and watery war
Come rolling down loud ruin from afar!
In vain fome backward and fome forwards fly
With helpless hafte; in vain they cry

To their cœleftial Beafts for aid;

In vain their guilty king they' upbraid;

In vain on Mofes he, and Mofes' God, does call,
With a repentance true too late;

They 're compass'd round with a devouring fate,
That draws, like a strong net, the mighty fea upon
them all.

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