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SAMSON AGONISTES.

POEMS on feveral OCCASIONS.

On the death of a fair Infant, dying of a Cough.

At a Vacation Exercife in the College.

On the MORNING of CHRIST's NATIVITY.
The PASSION.

On TIME.

Upon the CIRCUMCISION.

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ibid.

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The Fifth ODE of Horace, Lib. 1. English'd.

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On the new-forcers of conscience under the Long PARLA

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On the religious memory of Mrs. Catharine Thompson.
To the Lord General FAIRFAX.

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To

I

REGAI N'D.

BOOK I.

Who ere while the happy garden fung,

By one man's disobedience loft, now fing

Recover'd Paradife to all mankind,

By one man's firm obedience fully try'd
Through all temptation, and the tempter foil'd 5
In all his wiles, defeated and repuls'd,
And Eden rais'd in the waste wilderness.

Thou Spirit who ledst this glorious eremite
Into the defert, his victorious field,

Against the spiritual foe, and brought'ft him thence 10
By proof th' undoubted Son of God, inspire,
As thou art wont, my prompted fong else mute,
And bear through highth or depth of nature's bounds
With profp'rous wing full fumm'd, to tell of deeds
Above heroic, though in fecret done,

And unrecorded left through many an age,
Worthy t' have not remain'd fo long unfung.

Now had the great Proclamer, with a voice

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More

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More awful than the found of trumpet, cry'd
Repentance, and Heav'n's kingdom nigh at hand 20
To all baptiz'd: to his great baptifm flock'd
With awe the regions round, and with them came
From Nazareth the son of Joseph deem'd
To the flood Jordan, came as then obscure,
Unmark'd, unknown; but him the Baptift soon 25
Defcry'd, divinely warn'd, and witness bore
As to his worthier, and would have resign'd,
To him his heav'nly office, nor was long
His witness unconfirm'd: on him baptiz'd
Heav'n open'd, and in likeness of a dove
The spi'rit descended, while the Father's voice
From Heav'n pronounc'd him his beloved Son.
That heard the Adversary, who roving still
About the world, at that assembly fam'd
Would not be laft, and with the voice divine
Nigh thunder-ftruck, th' exalted man, to whom
Such high atteft was giv'n, a while survey'd
With wonder, then with envy fraught and rage
Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air
To council fummons all his mighty peers,
Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involv'd,
A gloomy confistory; and them amidst
With looks aghaft and fad he thus bespake.

O ancient Pow'rs of air and this wide world,
For much more willingly I mention air,
This our old conquest, than remember Hell,

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Our

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Our hated habitation; well ye know

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How many ages, as the years of men,
This universe we have poffefs'd, and rul'd
In manner at our will th' affairs of earth,
Since Adam and his facil confort Eve
Loft Paradise deceiv'd by me, though fince
With dread attending when that fatal wound
Shall be inflicted by the feed of Eve
Upon my head: long the decrees of Heav'n
Delay, for longest time to him is short;
And now too foon for us the circling hours
This dreaded time have compafs'd, wherein we
Must bide the stroke of that long threaten'd wound,
At least if so we can, and by the head
Broken be not intended all our power

To be infring'd, our freedom and our being,

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In this fair empire won of earth and air;

For this ill news' I bring, the woman's feed
Deftin'd to this, is late of woman born:

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His birth to our just fear gave no small cause,
But his growth now to youth's full flow'r, difplaying
All virtue, grace, and wifdom to achieve
Things higheft, greatest, multiplies my fear.
Before him a great prophet, to proclame
His coming, his sent harbinger, who all
Invites, and in the confecrated ftream
Pretends to wash off fin, and fit them fo
Purified to receive him pure, or rather

To

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