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the virtue of any creature, but the exercise of those powers and inclinations which God has infused into it?) if that (I say) be virtue, we ought not to esteem any thing vice, which is the most proper, if not the only, means of attaining of it:

It is a truth so certain, and so clear,
That to the first-born man it did appear;
Did not the mighty heir, the noble Cain,
By the fresh laws of nature taught, disdain
That (though a brother) any one should be
A greater favourite to God than he ?

He strook him down; and so (said he) so fell
The sheep, which thou didst sacrifice so well.
Since all the fullest sheaves which I could bring,
Since all were blasted in the offering,
Lest God should my next victim too despise,
The acceptable priest I 'll sacrifice.

Hence, coward fears; for the first blood so spilt,
As a reward he the first city built.

'Twas a beginning generous and high,

Fit for a grand-child of the Deity.

So well advanc'd, 't was pity there he staid ;
One step of glory more he should have made,
And to the utmost bounds of greatness gone;

Had Adam too been kill'd, he might have reign'd

alone.

One brother's death, what do I mean to name,
A small oblation to revenge and fame ?

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The mighty-soul'd Abimelec, to shew
What for high place a higher spirit can do,
A hecatomb almost of brethren slew,
And seventy times in nearest blood he dy'd
(To make it hold) his royal purple pride.
Why do I name the lordly creature man?
The weak, the mild, the coward woman, can,
When to a crown she cuts her sacred way,
All that oppose with manlike courage slay.
So Athaliah, when she saw her son,
And with his life her dearer greatness, gone,
With a majestick fury slaughter'd all
Whom high-birth might to high pretences call:
Since he was dead who all her power sustain❜d,
Resolv'd to reign alone; resolv'd, and reign'd.
In vain her sex, in vain the laws, withstood,
In vain the sacred plea of David's blood;
A noble and a bold contention, she
(One woman) undertook with destiny.
She to pluck down, destiny to uphold
(Oblig'd by holy oracles of old)

}

The great Jessæan race on Judah's throne;
Till 't was at last an equal wager grown,
Scarce Fate, with much ado, the better got by one.
Tell me not, she herself at last was slain ;
Did she not first seven years (a life-time) reign?
Seven royal years t' a publick spirit will seem
More than the private life of a Methusalem.
"T is godlike to be great; and, as they say,
A thousand years to God are but a day,

}

So to a man, when once a crown he wears,
The coronation-day's more than a thousand years."

He would have gone on, I perceived, in his blasphemies, but that by God's grace I became so bold as thus to interrupt him: "I understand now perfectly (which I guessed at long before) what kind of angel and protector you are; and, though your style in verse be very much mended * since you were wont to deliver oracles, yet your doctrine is much worse than ever you had formerly (that I heard of) the face to publish; whether your long practice with mankind has increased and improved your malice, or whether you think us in this age to be grown so impudently wicked, that there needs no more art or disguises to draw us to your party."

"My dominion (said he hastily, and with a dreadful furious look) is so great in this world, and I am so powerful a monarch of it, that I need not be ashamed that you should know me; and that you may see I know you too, I know you to be an obstinate and inveterate malignant; and for that reason I shall take you along with me to the next garrison of ours; from whence you shall go to the Tower, and from thence to the court of justice, and from

*This compliment was intended, not so much to the forego ing as to the following verses; of which the author had reason to be proud, but, as being delivered in his own person, could not so properly make the panegyrick. HURD.

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thence you know whither." I was almost in the very pounces of the great bird of prey:

When, lo, ere the last words were fully spoke,
From a fair cloud, which rather op'd than broke,
A flash of light, rather than lightning, came,
So swift, and yet so gentle, was the flame.
Upon it rode (and, in his full career,
Seem'd to my eyes no sooner there than here)
The comeliest youth of all th' angelick race;
Lovely his shape, ineffable his face.

The frowns, with which he strook the trembling fiend,
All smiles of human beauty did transcend;
His beams of locks fell part dishevel'd down,
Part upwards curl'd, and form'd a natural crown,
Such as the British monarchs us'd to wear;
If gold might be compar'd with angels' hair.
His coat and flowing mantle were so bright,
They seem'd both made of woven silver light:
Across his breast an azure ruban went,
At which a medal hung, that did present,
In wondrous living figures, to the sight,
The mystick champion's, and old dragon's, fight;
And from his mantle's side there shone afar
A fix'd, and, I believe, a real star.

In his fair hand (what need was there of more ?)
No arms, but th' English bloody cross, he bore,
Which when he tow'rds th' affrighted tyrant bent,
And some few words pronounc'd (but what they
meant,

SAC

"

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