And David's mildness manag'd it fo well,

The bad found no occafion to rebel.

But when to fin our bias'd nature leans,
The careful devil is ftill at hand with means;
And providently pimps for ill defires :

The good old caufe reviv'd a plot requires.
Plots true or falfe are neceflary things,
To raise up commonwealths, and ruin kings.
Th' inhabitants of old Jerufalem

Were Jebufites; the town fo call'd from them;
And theirs the native right-

But when the chofen people grew more strong,
The rightful caufe at length became the wrong;
And every lofs the men of Jebus bore,

They ftill were thought God's enemies the more.
Thus worn or weaken'd, well or ill content,
Submit they muft to David's government :
Impoverish'd and depriv'd of all command,
Their taxes doubled as they lost their land;
And what was harder yet to flesh and blood,
Their gods difgrac'd, and burnt like common wood.
This fet the heathen priesthood in a flame;
For priests of all religions are the fame.
Of whatfoe'er defcent their godhead be,
Stock, ftone, or other homely pedigree,
In his defence his fervants are as bold,
As if he had been born of beaten gold.
The Jewish rabbins, though their enemies,
In this conclude them honeft men and wife:
For 'twas their duty, all the learned think,
Tespouse his cause, by whom they eat and drink.

From

From hence began that plot, the nation's curse,
Bad in itself, but represented worse;
Rais'd in extremes, and in extremes decry'd;
With oaths affirm'd, with dying vows deny'd;
Not weigh'd nor winnow'd by the multitude;
But fwallow'd in the mass, unchew'd and crude.
Some truth there was, but dafh'd and brew'd with lies,
To please the fools, and puzzle all the wife.

Succeeding times did equal folly call,

Believing nothing, or believing all.

Th' Egyptian rites the Jebusites embrac'd;
Where gods were recommended by their taste.
Such favoury deities must needs be good,
As ferv'd at once for worship and for food.
By force they could not introduce thefe gods;
For ten to one in former days was odds.
So fraud was us'd, the facrificer's trade:
Fools are more hard to conquer than perfuade.
Their bufy teachers mingled with the Jews,
And rak'd for converts ev'n the court and stews :
Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took,
Because the fleece accompanies the flock.
Some thought they God's anointed meant to flay
By guns, invented fince full many a day :
Our author fwears it not; but who can know
How far the devil and Jebufites may go?
This plot, which fail'd for want of common sense,
Had yet a deep and dangerous confequence:
For as, when raging fevers boil the blood,
The standing lake foon floats into a flood,

And

And every hoftile humour, which before

Slept quiet in its channels, bubbles o'er ;
So feveral factions from this first ferment,
Work up to foam and threat the government.
Some by their friends, more by themselves thought wife,
Oppos'd the power to which they could not rise.
Some had in courts been great, and thrown from thence,
Like fiends were harden'd in impenitence.
Some, by their monarch's fatal mercy, grown
From pardon'd rebels kinsmen to the throne,
Were rais'd in power and public office high;
Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie.
Of these the falfe Achitophel was first;
A name to all fucceeding ages curft:
For close designs, and crooked counfels fit;
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Reftlefs, unfix'd in principles and place;
In power unpleas'd, impatient of disgrace :
A fiery foul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy-body to decay,

And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;

Pleas'd with the danger when the waves went high,

He fought the ftorms; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the fands to boast his wit.
Great wits are fure to madness near ally'd,

And thin partitions do their bounds divide;
Elfe why should he, with wealth and honour bleft,
Refufe his age the needful hours of rest?

5

Punish

Punish a body which he could not please ;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of cafe?
And all to leave what with his toil he won,
To that unfeather'd two-legg'd thing, a son;
Got, while his foul did huddled notions try;
And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy.
In friendship falfe, implacable in hate;
Refolv'd to ruin, or to rule the state.
To compass this, the triple bond he broke ;
The pillars of the public fafety fhook;
And fitted Ifrael for a foreign yoke:

Then, feiz'd with fear, yet ftill affecting fame,
Ufurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name.
So eafy ftill it proves in factious times,
With public zeal to cancel private crimes.
How fafe is treason, and how facred ill,
Where none can fin against the people's will!
Where crowds can wink, and no offence be known,

Since in another's guilt they find their own?
Yet faine deferv'd no enemy can grudge;
The statesman we abhor, but praife the judge.
In Ifrael's courts ne'er fat an Abethdin

With more difcerning eyes, or hands more clean,
Unbrib'd, unfought, the wretched to redrefs;
Swift of dispatch, and easy of access.

Oh! had he been content to ferve the crown,
With virtues only proper to the gown;
Or had the rankness of the foil been freed
From cockle, that opprefs'd the noble feed;

K 2

}

David

David for him his tuneful harp had ftrung,
And heaven had wanted one immortal fong.
But wild ambition loves to flide, not ftand,
And fortune's ice prefers to virtue's land.
Achitophel, grown weary to poffefs
A lawful fame, and lazy happiness,
Difdain'd the golden fruit to gather free,
And lent the crowd his arm to fhake the tree.
Now, manifeft of crimes contriv'd long fince,
He ftood at bold defiance with his prince;
Held up the buckler of the people's cause
Against the crown, and sculk'd behind the laws.
The wifh'd occafion of the plot he takes;
Some circumstances finds, but more he makes.
By buzzing emiffaries fills the ears

Of liftening crowds with jealoufies and fears
Of arbitrary counfels brought to light,
And proves the king himself a Jebufite.
Weak arguments! which yet he knew full well,
Were ftrong with people easy to rebel.
For, govern'd by the moon, the giddy Jews
Tread the fame track when the the prime renews;
And once in twenty years their fcribes record,
By natural instinct they change their lord.
Achitophel ftill wants a chief, and none
Was found fo fit as warlike Abfalom.
Not that he wifh'd his greatness to create,
For politicians neither love nor hate :
But, for he knew his title not allow'd,
Would keep him ftill depending on the crowd: