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262.

O God faid he, thou patron of my days,
Guide of my youth in exile and distress!
Who me unfriended brought'ft by wond'rous ways,
The kingdom of my fathers to poffefs:

263.

Be thou my judge, with what unwearied care
I fince have labour'd for my people's good;
To bind the bruifes of a civil war,

And top the iffues of their wafting blood.
264.

Thou who haft taught me to forgive the ill,
And recompenfe as friends, the good misled;
If mercy be a precept of thy will,

Return that mercy on thy fervant's head.
255.

Or if my heedlefs youth has ftep'd aftray,
Too foon forgetful of thy gracious hand;

On me alone thy juft difpleasure lay,

But take thy judgments from this mourning land.

266.

We all have finn'd, and thou haft laid us low,
As humble earth from whence at first we came :
Like flying fhades before the clouds we shew,
And fhrink like parchment in confuming flame.
267.

O let it be enough what thou haft done;

When fpotted deaths ran arm'd through every street, With poifon'd darts which not the good could fhun, The fpeedy could out-fly, or valiant meet.

268.

The living few, and frequent funerals then,
Proclaim'd thy wrath on this forfaken place:
And now thofe few who are return'd agen,
Thy fearching judgments to their dwellings trace.

269.

O país not, Lord, an abfolute decree,
Or bind thy fentence unconditional :
But in thy fentence our remorse foresee,
And in that forefight this thy doom recal.
270.

Thy threatnings, Lord, as thine thou may'st revoke:
But if immutable and fix'd they ftand,
Continue ftill thyfelf to give the ftroke,

And let not foreign foes oppress thy land.

271.

Th' Eternal heard, and from the heavenly quire
Chofe out the cherub with the flaming fword;
And bade him fwiftly drive th' approaching fire
From where our naval magazines were stor❜d.
272.

The bleffed minifter his wings display'd,

And like a shooting star he cleft the night: He charg'd the flames, and thofe that difobey'd He lafh'd to duty with his fword of light.

273.

The fugitive flames chaftis'd went forth to prey
On pious ftru&tures, by our fathers rear'd;

By which to heaven they did affect the way,

Ere faith in churchmen without works was heard.

274.

The wanting orphans faw with watery eyes,
Their founders charity in duft laid low;
And fent to God their ever-anfwer'd cries,
For he protects the poor, who made them fo.

275.

Nor could thy fabric, Paul's, defend thee long,
Tho' thou wert facred to thy Maker's praise:
Though made immortal by a poet's fong;
And poets fongs the Theban walls could raife.

276. The

276.

The daring flames peep'd in, and faw from far
The awful beauties of the facred quire:
But fince it was prophan'd by civil war,

Heaven thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire.

277.

Now down the narrow ftreets it fwiftly came,
And widely opening did on both fides prey:
This benefit we fadly owe the flame,

If only ruin must enlarge our way.

278.

And now four days the fun had feen our woes:
Four nights the moon beheld th' inceffant fire:
It feem'd as if the ftars more fickly rofe,

And farther from the feverish north retire.

279.

In th' empyrean heaven, the blefs'd abode,
The thrones and the dominions proftrate lie,
Not daring to behold their angry God;

And an hufh'd filence damps the tuneful sky.
280.

At length th' Almighty caft a pitying eye,
And mercy foftly touch'd his melting breaft:
He faw the town's one half in rubbish lie,
And eager flames drive on to storm the reft.

281.

An hollow crystal pyramid he takes,
In firmamental waters dipt above;
Of it a broad extinguisher he makes,
And hoods the flames that to their

282.

quarry drove.

The vanquish'd fires withdraw from every place,
Or full with feeding fink into a fleep:
Each houfhold genius fhews again his face,
And from the hearths the little lares creep.

283. Our

283.

Our King this more than natural change beholds ;
With fober joy his heart and eyes abound:
To the All-good his lifted hands he folds,
And thanks him low on his redeemed ground.
284.

As when sharp frofts had long conftrain'd the earth,
A kindly thaw unlocks it with cold rain;
And firft the tender blade peeps up to birth,

And ftraight the green fields laugh with promis'd grain : 285.

By fuch degrees the fpreading gladness grew
In every heart which fear had froze before:
The standing streets with fo much joy they view,
That with lefs grief the perish'd they deplore.

286.

The father of the people open'd wide

His ftores, and all the poor with plenty fed: Thus God's anointed God's own place fupply'd, And fill'd the empty with his daily bread,

287.

This royal bounty brought its own reward,

And in their minds fo deep did print the fenfe; That if their ruins fadly they regard,

"Tis but with fear the fight might drive him thence.

288.

But fo may he live long, that town to sway,
Which by his aufpice they will nobler make,

As he will hatch their afhes by his stay,

And not their humble ruins now forfake.

289.

They have not loft their loyalty by fire;

Nor is their courage or their wealth fo low. That from his wars they poorly would retire, Or beg the pity of a vanquish'd foe.

299. Not

290.

Not with more conftancy the Jews, of old
By Cyrus from rewarded exile fent,
Their royal city did in duft behold,

Or with more vigour to rebuild it went.

291.

The utmost malice of the stars is past,

And two dire comets, which have fcourg'd the town, In their own plague and fire have breath'd the laft, Or dimly in their finking fockets frown.

292.

Now frequent trines the happier lights among,
And high-rais'd Jove, from his dark prison freed,
Those weights took off that on his planet hung,
Will gloriously the new-laid works fucceed.

293.

Methinks already from this chymic flame,
I fee a city of more precious mold:

Rich as the town which gives the Indies name,
With filver-pav'd, and all divine with gold.
294.

Already labouring with a mighty fate,

She shakes the rubbish from her mounting brow, And feems to have renew'd her charter's date, Which heaven will to the death of time allow.

295.

More great than human now, and more auguft,
Now deified fhe from her fires does rife :
Her widening ftreets on new foundations truft,
And opening into larger parts fhe flies.

296.

Before fhe like fome fhepherdefs did fhow,
Who fat to bathe her by a river's fide;
Not answering to her fame, but rude and low,
Nor taught the beauteous arts of modern pride.

297. Now

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