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 breaft; Rage and revenge their place poffefs'd; With a vast host of chariots and of horse, And all his powerful kingdom's ready force, The travelling nation he purfues;

Ten times o'ercome, he ftill th' unequal war renews. Fill'd with proud hopes, "At least," faid he, "Th' Egyptian Gods, from Syrian magic free,

"Will now revenge themselves and me "Behold what passless rocks on either hand,

e;

"Like prifon-walls, about them stand, "Whilft the fea bounds their flight before! "And in our injur'd juftice they must find "A far worse ftop than rocks and feas behind; "Which fhall 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.

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

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

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

The no-lefs-wondering waves like rocks of cryftal 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 fpoils, and gaping fishes, lay
Deferted on the sandy plain :

The fun did with astonishment behold

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

By his own priests the poets has been said,
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 ftrand
Shakes his imperious wand:

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

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,
Anfwer their diftant 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 invisible chain !
They faw the monftrous 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 compafs'd round with a devouring fate,
That draws, like a ftrong net, the mighty fea upon
them all.

DAVIDE IS,

A SACRED

POEM

OF THE TROUBLES OF DAVID.

IN FOUR BOOKS.

"Me verò primùm dulces ante omnia Mufe, "Quarum facra fero ingenti percuffus amore, Accipiant, Coelique vias ac Sidera monftrent." VIRG. Georg. II.

The Propofition. The Invocation. The entrance into the history from a new agreement betwixt Saul and David. A defcription of hell. The Devil's speech. Envy's reply to him. Her appearing to Saul in the fhape of Benjamin. Her fpeech, and Saul's to himfelf after fhe was vanished. A defcription of heaven. God's fpeech: he fends an Angel to David: the Angel's meffage to him. David fent for, to play before Saul. A digreffion concerning mufic. David's pfalm. Saul attempts to kill him. His efcape to his own houfe, from whence being purfued

by

I

by the king's guard, by the artifice of his wife Michal he efcapes and flies to Naioth, the Prophets' college at Ramah. Saul's fpeech, and rage at his efcape. A long digreffion defcribing the Prophets' college, and their manner of life there, and the ordinary subjects of their Poetry. Saul's guards purfue David thither, and prophefy. Saul among the prophets. He is compared to Balaam, whofe fong concludes the book.

Sing the man who Judah's fceptre bore

In that right-hand which held the crook before;
Who from best poet, beft of kings did grow;
The two chief gifts Heaven could on man beftow.
Much danger first, much toil, did he sustain,
Whilst Saul and Hell cross'd his strong fate in vain.
Nor did his crown lefs painful work afford,
Lefs exercife his patience, or his sword;
So long her conqueror, Fortune's spite pursued;
Till with unwearied virtue he fubdued
All home-bred malice, and all foreign boasts;
Their ftrength was Armies, his the Lord of Hofts.

5

10

Thou, who didst David's royal stem adorn,
And gav'ft him birth from whom thyfelf waft born;
Who didft in triumph at Death's court appear, 15
And flew ft him with thy nails, thy crofs, and fpear,
Whilft Hell's black tyrant trembled to behold
The glorious light he forfeited of old;

Who, heaven's glad burden now, and jufteft pride,
Sitt'ft high enthron'd next thy great Father's fide

F 4

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(Where