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 juft,
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 fcepter 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 mifchievously feated in the crowd:
For who can be secure of private right,
If fovereign sway 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 please,
Not kings alone, the Godhead's images,

But government itself at length must fall
To nature's ftate, 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 fufferings 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 purfue;
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 fuch 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 first 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 fate; But finking underneath his mafter's fate:

In exile with his godlike prince he mourn'd;
For him he fuffer'd, and with him return'd.
The court he practis'd, not the courtier's art :
Large was his wealth, but larger was his heart.
Which well the nobleft objects knew to choose,
The fighting warrior, and recording Muse.
His bed could once a fruitful iffue boast;
Now more than half a father's name is loft.
His eldeft hope, with every grace adorn'd,
By me, fo heaven will have it, always mourn'd,
And always honour'd, fnatch'd in manhood's prime
Bunequal fates, and providence's crime:

Yet not before the goal of honour won,

All parts fulfill'd of subject and of fon :
Swift was the race, but fhort the time to run.
Oh narrow circle, but of power divine,
Scanted in space, but perfect in thy line!

By fea, by land, thy matchlefs worth was known,
Arms thy delight, and war was all thy own:
Thy force infus'd the fainting Tyrians prop'd:
And haughty Pharach found his fortune ftop'd.
Oh ancient honour! Oh unconquer'd hand,
Whom foes unpunish'd never could withstand!
But Ifrael was unworthy of his name:
Short is the date of all immoderate fame.
It looks as heaven our ruin had defign'd,

And dur? not truft thy fortune and thy mind.
Now, free from earth, thy difencumber'd foul

}

Mounts up, and leaves behind the clouds and ftarry pole:

From

From thence thy kindred legions mayst thou bring,
To aid the guardian angel of thy king.

Here ftop, my Mufe, here cease thy painful flight:
No pinions can pursue immortal height:

Tell good Barzillai thou canst sing no more,
And tell thy foul she should have fled before:
Or fled the with his life, and left this verfe
To hang on her departed patron's hearse ?
Now take thy fteepy flight from heaven, and fee
If thou canst find on earth another he:

Another he would be too hard to find;

See then whom thou canst fee not far behind.
Zadoc the priest, whom, fhunning power and place,
His lowly mind advanc'd to David's grace.
With him the Sagan of Jerufalem,

Of hofpitable foul, and noble ftem;

Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.
The prophets fons, by fuch example led,
To learning and to loyalty were bred :
For colleges on bounteous kings depend,
And never rebel was to arts a friend.
To thefe fucceed the pillars of the laws;
Who beft can plead, and best can judge a cause.
Next them a train of loyal peers afcend;
Sharp-judging Adriel, the Mufes' friend,
Himfelf a Mufe: in fanhedrims debate
True to his prince, but not a flave of state;
Whom David's love with honours did adorn,
That from his difobedient fon were torn.

Jotham

Jotham of piercing wit, and pregnant thought;
Endued by nature, and by learning taught,
To move affemblies, who but only try'd
The worse a-while, then chofe the better fide:
Nor chofe alone, but turn'd the balance too;
So much the weight of one brave man can do.
Hufhai, the friend of David in distress;
In public ftorms of manly ftedfastness :
By foreign treaties he inform'd his youth,
And join'd experience to his native truth.
His frugal care fupply'd the wanting throne;
Frugal for that, but bounteous of his own:
'Tis eafy conduct when exchequers flow;
But hard the task to manage well the low :
For fovereign power is too deprefs'd or high,
When kings are forc'd to fell, or crowds to buy.
Indulge one labour more, my weary Muse,
For Amiel who can Amiel's praise refuse?
Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet
In his own worth, and without title great :
The fanhedrim long time as chief he rul'd,
Their reafon guided, and their passion cool'd:
So dextrous was he in the crown's defence,
So form'd to speak a loyal nation's fenfe,
That, as their band was Ifrael's tribes in fmall,
So fit was he to reprefent them all.
Now rafher charioteers the feat afcend,
Whofe loofe careers his fteady fkill commend :
They, like th' unequal ruler of the day,
Mitguide the feafons, and miftake the way;