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 lofs 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 lost their land;
And what was harder yet to flesh and blood,
Their gods difgrac'd, and burnt like common
wood.

This set the heathen priesthood in a flame;
For priests of all religions are the fame.
Of whatsoe'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 honest men and wife:
For 'twas their duty all the learned think,
T'espouse his caufe, by whom they eat and drink.
From hence began that plot, the nation's curse,
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 Jebufites embrac'd;
Where gods were recommended by their taste.
Such favory 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 busy teachers mingled with the Jews,
And rak'd for converts even 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 consequence :
For as when raging fevers boil the blood,
The standing lake soon floats into a flood,

And every hoftile humor, 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 rise. 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 falfe Achitophel was first ;

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 pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of disgrace:

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 storms; 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 honor bleft,
Refuse his age the needful hours of reft?
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 shapelefs lump, like anarchy.
In friendship false, 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 safety shook ;
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 easy still 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 discerning eyes, or hands more clean,
Unbrib'd, unfought, the wretched to redress;
Swift of difpatch, 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 seed;
David for him his tuneful harp had strung,
And heaven had wanted one immortal fong.
But wild ambition loves to flide, not stand,
And fortune's ice prefers to virtue's land.
Achitophel grown weary to poffess
A lawful fame, and lazy happiness,
Difdain'd the golden fruit to gather free,
And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree.
Now, manifest of crimes contriv'd long fince,
He stood at bold defiance with his prince;