Sea-monsters, ev'n by nature taught,
To fuckle their own brood,
Draw out the breaft to give a draught,
And cherish them with food;.
But, ah! my people's daughter faint
Seems favage now, no lefs
Than cruel oftriches that haunt
The howling wilderness.
DALETH.
4 Lo! to the fuckling's palate dry,
Fast cleaves his wither'd tongue;
Breafts empty can't his thirft fupply,
So dies the tender young:
The infant wean'd no better fpeed
Can make, from door to door
He fainting begs a crumb of bread,
But none have fo much o'er.
Ev'n thefe inur'd to dainty meats,
Who fumptuoufly had far'd,
Now wand'ring needy through the flreets,
The defolation fhar'd:
The rank brought up among the beft,
In fcarlet beds and drefs,
Were glad, in fearch of food and rest,
The dunghills to embrace.
VAU.
6 Strokes, for her fins, more heavy lay
On Zion's daughter's back,
Than did on Sodom, once-a-day
Involv'd in sudden wrack:
Wrath did them in a trice confume,
Nor were they daily flain,
By human hands; but Zion's doom
Is found a ling'ring bane.
7 Her Nazarites and felect ones
Were fplendid once and gay,
Like high-born feparated fons,
In pompous rich array:
Ver. More pure than fnow they were each one,
More white than milk to fight;
In face the ruby red out-fhone,
In drefs the fapphire bright.
CHETH.
8 But now their beauteous vifage fo
With blacknefs is o'ergrown,
More than a coal; when forth they go.
They're in the fireets unknown.
So close their dry aed parched skin,
Unto their bones doth cleave;
To wither'd flicks they claim a kin,
And fcarce are faid to live.
9 Thofe better are by fword who die,
Their life they quickly yield,
Than thefe whom killing ftraits deny
The increase of the field:
For whom fierce famine ftricken hath,
In torment ev'ry day,
Within the jaws of ling'ring death,
They waiting pine away.
10 Fond mothers wonted to carefs,
And on their young to dote,
Were forc'd, with their own hands, to drefs
The infant for their pot:
The famine's hot devouring flame
So rag'd in every street,
The prattling babes, alas! became
Their gafping mother's meat.
CAPH.
II The Lord his threaten'd fury great,
Now thus accomplish'd hath,
And pour'd out, at a fearful raté,
The fiercenefs of his wrath.
In Zion's midft he rais'd a flame,
That o'er the rafters tour'd,
Then the foundation's total frame
The burning fire devour'd.
12 Kings of the earth, and all that plant
The fpacious world around,
Could ne'er have thought this truth to grant,
Which now too true is found:
That ever could an adverfe foe,
Who Salem's pow'r envy'd,
Her gates invade, and then o'erthrow,
As now is verify'd.
13 But in the ruin juftice fhines;
Whence did it chiefly flow?
Ev'n from her priests and prophets fins,
Which rip'ned her for woe:
Through them in midst of her was fhed,
The blood of prophets juft,
And faints, at whom in her they bred
An hatred and difguft.
14 With darkness blind, with gore defil'd,
They round the ftreets did roam,
Stain'd with the blood of man and child,
They odious were become:
A cruel heart, tongue, hand, or eye,
Each tender fpirit lothes;
Such theirs, as fober men were shy
To touch their bloody clothes.
15 Their piety fo feign'd had been, In fcorn the people cry,
"Depart, depart; touch not th' unclean;" When off they walk and fly.
The very heathen them upbraid,
And packing them away,
"From Salem, be they gone," they faid,
"For there they fhall not flay."
PE.
16 This carries on, faid they, our game;
The Lord hath giv'n them o'er:
His anger hath divided them;
He'll not regard them more,
Ver. Juft Heav'n thus doom'd their difregard
Of ev'ry faithful priest;
True prophets they nor elders fpar'd,
Nor favour'd in the least.
17 Now, as for us, amidst our strait,
Fail'd have as yet our eyes,
While we for help and fuccour wait
From faithlefs weak allies:
Our vain and fruitless hopes have fled,
And justly us mifgave;
We watched for a nation's aid,
Unable us to fave.
18 High batt'ries rais'd above our walls,
The fieging foe completes.;
Their arrows fury on us falls,
And hunts us off our fireets:
Our facred and our civil ftate,
Is thus to ruin come;
Our profperous days are out of date;
How near's our difmal doom!
19 There's no escaping when we fly,
Purfuers fuch are they,
Far fwifter than the eagle's high,
When flying on their prey:
If to the mountains high we fled,
There they purfu'd us ftraight;
If to the defart hafte we made,
There they for us laid wait.
RESH.
20 The Lord's anointed, who, we thought,
Our life and breath would guard,
The royal prey, our prince was caught,
And in their pits infrar'd:
Beneath his fhade we thought to creep,
And fafe 'mong heathen live:
But flighting Chrift, the antitype,
Vain hopes did us mifgive.
21 O Edomite! rejoice, exult
O'er Zion's wrack, but know
The cup of wrath, for this infult,
Its round to thee fhall go:
Thou shalt be drunk, infatuate,
Mad in thy projects all,
Expofe thy felf to fhame and hate,
And ftagg'ring headlong fall.
TAU.
22 The punishment Heav'n did intend,
O Zion! for thy fin;
Ev'n thy captivity fhall end,
When Edom's woes begin,
He'll now, O Edom! punish thee,
For all thy wicked deeds,
Laid ope, to fhew how juftly he
'Gainft thee in wrath proceeds.
CHAP. V.
ZION's pitiful Complaint to GOD in prayer. In which
fbe remonftrates ber prefent calamitous State in ber
Captivity, and protests her Concern for GOD'S
Sanctuary; with a bumble Supplication to, and
Expoftulation with GOD for the Returns of Mercy.
REMEMBER, Lord, what's come on us,
How haughty foes encroach;
Behold our cafe fo infamous,
Confider our reproach,
2 Our heritage and houfes cease
Now to be call'd our own;
Strangers and aliens have our leafe
Of property o'erthrown.
3 As helpless orphans we're bereav'd,
And fatherlefs we mourn;
Our mothers are as widows griev'd,
Lamenting o'er the urn.
Water that's free to every frog,
For money we have drunk;
Pay'd dear for ev'ry wooden log,
So far our rights are funk.
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