Tell good Barzillai thou canft fing no more,
And tell thy foul she should have fled before:
Or fled fhe with his life, and left this verse
To hang on her departed patron's hearse?
Now take thy fteepy flight from heav'n, and fee
If thou canft find on earth another he:
Another he would be too hard to find;

See then whom thou canft fee not far behind.
Zadoc the priest, whom, fhunning pow'r 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 ftate:
Whom David's love with honors did adorn,
That from his disobedient fon were torn.

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 diftrefs;
In public storms of manly stedfastness :
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 easy 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 paffion 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 represent them all.

2

Now rafher charioteers the feat afcend,
Whofe loofe careers his steady skill commend:
They, like th' unequal ruler of the day,
Mifguide the seasons, and mistake the way;
While he withdrawn at their mad labors fmiles,
And fafe enjoys the fabbath of his toils.

1

These were the chief, a small but faithful band Of worthies, in the breach who dar'd to ftand, And tempt th' united fury of the land, With grief they view'd fuch powerful engines bent, To batter down the lawful government. A numerous faction, with pretended frights, In fanhedrims to plume the regal rights; The true fucceffor from the court remov'd; The plot, by hireling witneffes, improv❜d. These ills they faw, and, as their duty bound, They fhew'd the king the danger of the wound; That no conceffions from the throne wou'd please, But lenitives fomented the disease:

That Abfalom, ambitious of the crown,

Was made the lure to draw the people down:
That falfe Achitophel's pernicious hate
Had turn'd the plot to ruin church and state :
The council violent, the rabble worse:
That Shimei taught Jerufalem to curse.

With all these loads of injuries opprest,
And long revolving in his careful breast
The event of things, at laft his patience tir'd,
Thus, from his royal throne, by heaven inspir'd,
The god-like David fpoke; with awful fear
His train their Maker in their mafter hear.
Thus long have I by native mercy fway'd,
My wrongs diffembled, my revenge delay'd :
So willing to forgive the offending age;
So much the father did the king affuage.
But now fo far my clemency they flight,
The offenders queftion my forgiving right,
That one was made for many, they contend;
But 'tis to rule; for that's a monarch's end.
They call my tenderness of blood, my fear:
Tho manly tempers can the longest bear.
Yet fince they will divert my native course,
'Tis time to fhew I am not good by force.
Those heap'd affronts that haughty subjects
bring,

Are burdens for a camel, not a king.
Kings are the public pillars of the state,
Born to fuftain and prop the nation's weight:
If my young Sampfon will pretend a call
To shake the column, let him share the fall:

But oh, that yet he would repent and live !
How eafy 'tis for parents to forgive!
With how few tears a pardon might be won
From nature, pleading for a darling son !
Poor, pitied youth, by my paternal care,
Rais'd up to all the height his frame could bear!
Had God ordain'd his fate for empire born,
He would have given his foul another turn:
Gull'd with a patriot's name, whose modern sense
Is one that would by law fupplant his prince;
The people's brave, the politician's tool;
Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.
Whence comes it, that religion and the laws
Should more be Abfalom's than David's caufe?
His old inftructor ere he loft his place,
Was never thought indu'd with so much grace.
Good heavens, how faction can a patriot paint!
My rebel ever proves my people's faint.
Would they impose an heir upon the throne,
Let fanhedrims be taught to give their own.
A king's at least a part of government;
And mine as requifite as their confent:
Without my leave a future king to chuse,
Infers a right the present to depose.
True, they petition me to approve their choice:

But Efau's hands fuit ill with Jacob's voice.