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How fafe is treason, and how facred ill,

Where none can fin against the people's will?

Where crouds can wink, and no offence be known,
Since in another's guilt they find their own?
Yet fame deferv'd no enemy can grudge;
The statesman we abhor, but praise 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 eafy of access.
Oh! had he been content to serve 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;
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 croud his arm to fhake the tree.
Now, manifeft of crimes contriv'd long fince,
He stood at bold defiance with his prince :
Held up the buckler of the people's cause
Against the crown, and fculk'd behind the laws.
The wifh'd occafion of the plot he takes;
Some circumftances finds, but more he makes.
By buzzing emiffaries fills the ears

Of lift'ning crouds with jealoufies and fears
Of arbitrary counfels brought to light,
And proves the King himfelf a Jebusite.
Weak arguments! which yet he knew full well,
Were ftrong with people eafy to rebel.
For govern'd by the moon, the giddy Jews
Tread the fame track when the the prime renews;

And

And once in twenty years their fcribes record,
By natural inftin&t they change their lord.
Achitophel ftill wants a chief, and none
Was found fo fit as warlike Abfalom.
Not that he wish'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 croud :
That kingly pow'r, thus ebbing out, might be
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.

Him he attempts with ftudied arts to please,
And sheds his venom in fuch words as thefe.
Aufpicious prince, at whofe nativity
Some royal planet rul'd the fouthern sky;
Thy longing country's darling and defire;
Their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire:
Their fecond Mofes, whofe extended wand
Divides the feas, and fhews the promis'd land:
Whofe dawning day in every distant age,
Has exercis'd the facred prophet's rage:
The people's pray'r, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vifion, and the old men's dream!
Thee, Saviour, thee the nation's vows confefs,
And never fatisfy'd with feeing, blefs:
Swift unbefpoken pomps thy steps proclaim,
And ftammering babes are taught to lip thy name.
How long wilt thou the general joy detain,
Starve and defraud the people of thy reign;
Content ingloriously to pass thy days,
Like one of virtue's fools that feed on praife;
'Till thy fresh glories which now fhine fo bright,
Grow ftale, and tarnish with our daily fight?
Believe me, royal youth, thy fruit must be
Or gather'd ripe, or rot upon the tree.
Heaven has to all allotted, foon or late,
Some lucky revolution of their fate:

4

Whofe

Whose motions if we watch and guide with skill,
For human good depends on human will,
Our fortune rolls as from a fmooth defcent,
And from the first impreffion takes the bent:
But if unfeiz'd fhe glides away like wind,
And leaves repenting folly far behind.

Now, now the meets you with a glorious prize,
And spreads her locks before you as the flies.
Had thus old David, from whofe loins you spring,
Not dar'd when fortune call'd him to be King,
At Gath an exile he might still remain,
And heaven's anointing oil had been in vain.
Let his fuccefsful youth our hopes engage;
But fhun th' example of declining age:
Behold him setting in his western skies,
The fhadows lengthening as the vapours rife.
He is not now, as when on Jordan's fand
The joyful people throng'd to fee him land,
Cov'ring the beach and black'ning all the ftrand;
But like the prince of angels, from his height
Comes tumbling downward with diminish'd light:
Betray'd by one poor plot to publick scorn:
Our only bleffing fince his curft return :
Those heaps of people which one fheaf did bind,
Blown off and scatter'd by a puff of wind.
What ftrength can he to your defigns oppofe,
Naked of friends and round befet with foes?
If Pharaoh's doubtful fuccour he fhould ufe,
A foreign aid would more incenfe the Jews:
Proud Egypt would diffembled friendship bring;
Foment the war but not fupport the King:
Nor would the royal party e'er unite
With Pharaoh's arms to affift the Jebusite;
Or if they fhould, their intereft foon would break,
And with fuch odious aid make David weak.
All forts of men by my fuccefsful arts,
Abhorring Kings, eftrange their alter'd hearts

}

From David's rule: and 'tis their general cry,
Religion, commonwealth, and liberty.
If you, as champion of the publick good,
Add to their arms a chief of royal blood,
What may not Ifrael hope, and what applaufe
Might fuch a general gain by fuch a cause?
Not barren praise alone, that gaudy flow'r
Fair only to the fight, but folid pow'r:
And nobler is a limited command,
Given by the love of all your native land,
Than a fucceffive title, long and dark,
Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark.

What cannot praise effect in mighty minds,
When flatt'ry fooths, and when ambition blinds?
Defire of pow'r, on earth a vicious weed,
Yet fprung from high is of celestial feed:
In God 'tis glory; and when men afpire,
'Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire.
Th' ambitious youth too covetous of fame,
Too full of angel's metal in his frame,
Unwarily was led from virtue's ways,

Made drunk with honour, and debauch'd with praife.
Half loath, and half confenting to the ill,

For royal blood within him ftruggled ftill,

He thus reply'd,

And what pretence have I

To take up arms for public liberty?
My father governs with unqueftion'd right;
The faith's defender, and mankind's delight;
Good, gracious, juft, obfervant of the laws;
And heav'n by wonders has efpous'd his cause.
Whom has he wrong'd in all his peaceful reign?
Who fues for juftice to his throne in vain ?
What millions has he pardon'd of his foes,
Whom juft revenge did to his wrath expofe?
Mild, eafy, humble, ftudious of our good;
Inclin'd to mercy, and averfe from blood.

If mildnefs ill with stubborn Ifrael fuit,
His crime is God's beloved attribute.
What could he gain his people to betray,
Or change his right for arbitrary fway?
Let haughty Pharaoh curfe with such a reign
His fruitful Nile, and yoke a fervile train.
If David's rule Jerufalem difplease,

The dog-ftar heats their brains to this disease.
Why then should I, encouraging the bad,
Turn rebel and run popularly mad?

Were he a tyrant, who by lawless might
Opprefs'd the Jews, and rais'd the Jebufite,
Well might I mourn; but nature's holy bands
Would curb my spirits and retrain my hands:
The people might affert their liberty ;
But what was right in them were crime in me.
His favour leaves me nothing to require,
Prevents my wishes, and out-runs defire;
What more can I expe& while David lives?
All but his kingly diadem he gives:

And that-But here he paus'd; then fighing, faid-
Is justly deftin'd for a worthier head.

For when my father from his toils fhall reft,
And late augment the number of the bleft,
His lawful iffue fhall the throne afcend,
Or the collateral line, where that shall end.
His brother, tho' opprefs'd with vulgar fpite,
Yet dauntless, and fecure of native right,
Of every royal virtue ftands poffeft;
Still dear to all the braveft and the best.
His courage foes, his friends his truth proclaim;
His loyalty the King, the world his fame.
His mercy c'en th' offending croud will find;
For fure he comes of a forgiving kind.
Why fhould I then repine at heaven's decree,
Which gives me no pretence to royalty?

Yet

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