But zeal peculiar privilege affords,

Indulging latitude to deeds and words:
And Corah might for Agag's murder call,
In terms as coarfe as Samuel us'd to Saul.
What others in his evidence did join,
The beft that could be had for love or coin,
In Corah's own predicament will fall :
For Witnefs is a common name to all.

Surrounded thus with friends of

every

Deluded Abfalom forfakes the court:

fort,

Impatient of high hopes, urg'd with renown,
And fir'd with near possession of a crown.
Th' admiring crowd are dazzled with furprize,
And on his goodly perfon feed their eyes.
His joy conceal'd he fets himself to show;
On each fide bowing popularly low :

His looks, his geftures, and his words he frames,
And with familiar eafe 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 easy those and fit,
More flow than Hybla-drops, and far more sweet.

I mourn, my countrymen, your lost estate ;

fate :

Though far unable to prevent your
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 fpoil 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 careless of his fame;
And, brib'd with petty fums of foreign gold,
Is grown in Bathsheba's embraces old;
Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys;
And all his power against himself employs.
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 present power supplies :
No court-informer can thefe arms accufe;
These arms may sons against their fathers use :
And 'tis my wifh, the next fucceffor's reign
May make no other Israelite complain.

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

To him who makes the people's wrongs his own.
The crowd, that still 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 weft 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 house receives him as a guardian god,
And confecrates the place of his abode.
But hofpitable treats did most commend
Wife Iffachar, his wealthy western friend.
This moving court, that caught the people's eyes,
And seem'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 fmooth pretence
Of fpecious love, and duty to their prince.
Religion, and redrefs 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 miafquerade.
Oh foolish Ifrael! never warn'd by ill!
Still the fame bait, and circumvented ftill!
Did ever men forfake their prefent cafe,
In midst of health imagine a disease ;
Take pains contingent mifchiefs to foresee,
Make heirs for monarchs, and for God decrce ?
What fhall we think? Can people give away,
Both for themselves and fons, their native fway?
Then they are left defenceless to the fword
Of each unbounded, arbitrary lord:

And

And laws are vain, by which we right enjoy,
If kings unquestion'd can those laws destroy.
Yet if the crowd be judge of fit and just,
And kings are only officers in trust,
Then this resuming covenant was declar'd
When kings were made, or is for ever barr'd.
If those who gave the scepter 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?

Then kings are flaves to those whom they command,
And tenants to their people's pleasure stand.
Add, that the power for property allow'd

Is mischievously feated in the crowd:
For who can be fecure of private right,
If fovereign 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 faster out?
Nor only crowds but fanhedrims may be
Infected with this public lunacy,

And fhare the madness of rebellious times,
To murder monarchs for imagin'd crimes.
If they may give and take whene'er they pleafe,
Not kings alone, the Godhead's images,

But government itself at length must fall
To nature's state, 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 fafferings were before,
That change they covet makes them fuffer 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 bafe 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 such 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 praise.
In this fhort file Barzillai firft appears;
Barzillai, 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 ftate;
But linking underneath his mafter's fate :