God's pamper'd people, whom debauch'd with ease,
No king could govern, nor no God could pleafe;
Gods they had try'd of every fhape and fize,
That godfmiths could produce, or priests devife:
Thefe Adam-wits too fortunately free,
Began to dream they wanted liberty;
And when no rule, no precedent was found,
Of men, by laws lefs circumfcrib'd and bound;
They led their wild defires to woods and caves,
And thought that all but favages were flaves.
They who, when Saul was dead, without a blow,
Made foolish Ifhbofheth the crown forego;
Who banish'd David did from Hebron bring,
And with a general fhout proclaim'd him king:
Thofe very Jews, who at their very best
Their humour more than loyalty expreft,
Now wonder'd why fo long they had obey'd
An idol monarch, which their hands had made;
Thought they might ruin him they could create,
Or melt him to that golden calf a state.
But thefe were random bolts: no form'd defign,
Nor intereft made the factious crowd to join:
The fober part of Ifrael, free from stain,
Well knew the value of a peaceful reign;
And, looking backward with a wife affright,
Saw feams of wounds dishonest to the fight:
In contemplation of whofe ugly fears,
They curft the memory of civil wars.
The moderate fort of men thus qualify'd,
Inclin'd the balance to the better fide;
manag'd it fo well, The bad found no occafion to rebel.
But when to fin our bias'd nature leans,
The careful devil is ftill at hand with means;
And providently pimps for ill defires :
The good old cause reviv'd a plot requires.
Plots true or falfe are neceffary things,
To raise up commonwealths, and ruin kings.
Th' inhabitants of old Jerufalem
Were Jebufites; the town fo call'd from them;
And theirs the native right-
But when the chofen people grew more strong,
The rightful cause at length became the wrong;
And every loss the men of Jebus bore,
They still were thought God's enemies the more.
Thus worn or weaken'd, well or ill content,
Submit they must to David's government :
Impoverish'd and depriv'd of all command,
Their taxes doubled as they loft their land ;
And what was harder yet to flesh and blood,
Their gods difgrac'd, and burnt like common wood.
This fet the heathen priesthood in a flame;
For priests of all religions are the fame.
Of whatfoe'er descent their godhead be,
Stock, ftone, or other homely pedigree,
In his defence his fervants are as bold,
As if he had been born of beaten gold.
The Jewish rabbins, though their enemies,
In this conclude them honeft men and wife :
For 'twas their duty, all the learned think,
Tespouse his caufe, by whom they eat and drink.
From hence began that plot, the nation's curfe,
Bad in itself, but reprefented worse;
Rais'd in extremes, and in extremes decry'd;
With oaths affirm'd, with dying vows deny'd;
Not weigh'd nor winnow'd by the multitude;
But fwallow'd in the mass, unchew'd and crude.
Some truth there was, but dafh'd and brew'd with lies,
To please the fools, and puzzle all the wife.
Succeeding times did equal folly call,
Believing nothing, or believing all.
Th' Egyptian rites the Jebusites embrac'd ;
Where gods were recommended by their taste.
Such favoury deities muft needs be good,
As ferv'd at once for worship and for food.
By force they could not introduce these gods ;
For ten to one in former days was odds.
So fraud was us'd, the facrificer's trade:
Fools are more hard to conquer than perfuade.
Their bufy teachers mingled with the Jews,
And rak'd for converts ev'n the court and stews :
Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took,
Because the fleece accompanies the flock.
Some thought they God's anointed meant to flay
By guns, invented fince full many a day :
Our author fwears it not; but who can know
How far the devil and Jebufites may go?
This plot, which fail'd for want of common sense,
Had yet a deep and dangerous confequence:
For as, when raging fevers boil the blood,
The ftanding lake foon floats into a flood,
And every hoftile humour, which before
Slept quiet in its channels, bubbles o'er ;
So feveral factions from this first ferment,
Work up to foam and threat the government.
Some by their friends, more by themselves thought wife,
Oppos'd the power to which they could not rife.
Some had in courts been great, and thrown from thence,
Like fiends were harden'd in impenitence.
Some, by their monarch's fatal mercy, grown
From pardon'd rebels kinsmen to the throne,
Were rais'd in power and public office high;
Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie.
Of these the false Achitophel was firft;
A name to all fucceeding ages curft:
For close designs, and crooked counsels fit;
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Restless, unfix'd in principles and place;
In power unpleas'd, impatient of difgrace:
A fiery foul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy-body to decay,
And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleas'd with the danger when the waves went high,
He fought the ftorms; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the fands to boast his wit.
Great wits are fure to madness near ally'd,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide;
Elfe why should he, with wealth and honour bleft,
Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?
Punish a body which he could not please ;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease?
And all to leave what with his toil he won,
To that unfeather'd two-legg'd thing, a son;
Got, while his foul did huddled notions try;
And born a fhapeless lump, like anarchy.
In friendship falfe, implacable in hate;
Refolv'd to ruin, or to rule the state.
To compass this, the triple bond he broke ;
The pillars of the public fafety fhook;
And fitted Ifrael for a foreign yoke :
Then, feiz'd with fear, yet ftill affecting fame,
Ufurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name.
So eafy fill it proves in factious times,
With public zeal to cancel private crimes.
How fafe is treafon, and how facred ill,
Where none can fin against the people's will!
Where crowds 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 easy 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 ;
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