So Faiths faln Guide, now Baals great Champion raign’d;
Wide was his Sway, and Mighty his Command:
Whilst with implacable revenge he burn’d,
And all his Rage against Gods Israel turn’d.
Here his invenom’d Souls black gall he flings,
Spots all his Snakes, and points his Scorpions stings:
Omits no Force, or Treacherous Designe,
Blest Israel to assault, or undermine.
But the first Sword did his keen Malice draw,
Was aim’d against the God-like Deborah.
Deborah, the matchless pride of Judah’s Crown,
Whose Female hand Baal’s impious Groves cut down,
His banisht Wizards from her Israel thrust,
And pounded all their Idols into dust.
Her Life with indefatigable pain,
By Daggers long, and poysons fought in vain:
At length they angry Jabins Rage enflam’d,
Hazors proud King, for Iron Chariots fam’d;
A Warriour powerful, whose most dreadful Hoast
Proclaim’d Invincible, (were humane Boast
Infallible) by haughty Sisera led,
’Gainst Deborah their bloody Banners spread.
Here Deborah her Barak calls to War;
Barak, the Suns fam’d fellow-traveller,
Who wandring o’re the Earths surrounded Frame,
Had travelled far as his great Mistress Fame.
Here Barak did with Deborah’s vengeance fly,
And to that swift prodigious Victory,
So much by Humane Praises undefin’d,
That Fame wants Breath, and Wonder lags behind.
To Heav’ns high Arch her sounding Glories rung,
Whilst thus great Deborah and Barak sung.

18 Hear, oh ye Princes, oh ye Kings give Ear,
And Israels great Avengers honour hear.
When God of Hosts, thou Israels Spear and Shield,
Wentst out of Seir, and marched’st from Edoms field,
Earth trembled, the Heaven’s drop’d, the Clouds all pour’d;
The Mountains melted from before the Lord;
Even thy own Sinai melted into streams,
At Israels dazling Gods refulgent Beams.
In Shamgar and in Jael’s former days,
The wandring Traveller walked through by-ways.
They chose new Gods. No Spear nor Sword was found,
To have Idolatry depos’d, Truth Crown’d,
Till I alone, against Jehovahs Foes;
I Deborah, I Israels Mother rose.
Wake Deborah, wake, raise thy exalted Head;
Rise Barak, and Captivity Captive lead.
For to blest Deborah, belov’d of Heav’n,
Over the Mighty is Dominion given.
Great Barak leads, and Israels Courage warms;
Ephraim and Benjamin march down in Arms:
Zebulon and Nepthali my Thunder bore,
Dan from her Ship, and Asher on the Shore.
Behold Megiddoes waves, and from afar,
See the fierce Jabins threatning storm of War.
But Heav’n ’gainst Sisera fought, and the kind Stars
Kindl’d their embattel’d Fires for Deborah’s Wars,
Shot down their Vengeance that miraculous day,
When Kishons Torrants swept their Hosts away.
But curse ye Meroz, curse ’em from on high.
Did the denouncing voice of Angels cry;
Accurst be they that went not out t’oppose
The Mighty Deborah’s, God’s, and Israel’s Foes.
Victorious Judah! Oh my Soul, th’hast trod,
Trod down their strengths. So fall the Foes of God.
But they who in his Sacred Laws delight,
Be as the Sun when he sets out in might.

Thus sung, they conquer’d Deborah; thus fell
Hers, and Heav’ns Foes. But no Defeat tames Hell.
By Conquest overthrown, but not dismay’d,
’Gainst Israel still their private Engines play’d.
19 And their dire Machinations to fulfil,
Their stings torn out, they kept their poyson still.
And now too weak in open force to joyn,
In close Cabals they hatcht a damn’d Design,
To light that Mine as should the world amaze,
And set the ruin’d Israel in a blaze.

When Judahs Monarch with his Princes round,
Amidst his glorious Sanedrim sate Crown’d,
Beneath his Throne a Cavern low, and dark
As their black Souls, for the great Work they mark.
In this lone Cell their Midnight-Hands bestow’d
A Stygian Compound, a combustive load
Of Mixture wondrous, Execution dire,
Ready the Touch of their Infernal Fire.
Have you not seen in yon æthereal Road,
How at the Rage of th’angry driving God,
Beneath the pressure of his furious wheels
The Heav’ns all rattle, and the Globe all reels?
So does this Thunder’s Ape its lightning play,
Keen as Heav’ns Fires, and scarce less swift than they.

A short-liv’d glaring Murderer it flies,
In Times least pulse, a Moments wing’d surprize;
’Tis born, looks big, talks lowd, breaths death, and dies.
}

This Mixture was th’Invention of a Priest;
The Sulphurous Ingredients all the best
Of Hells own growth: for to dire Compounds still
Hell finds the Minerals, and the Priest the Skill.

From this curst Mine they had that blow decreed,
A Moments dismal blast, as should exceed
All the Storms, Battles, Murders, Massacres,
And all the strokes of Daggers, Swords, or Spears,
Since first Cain’s hand at Abels Head was lift:
A Blow more swift than Pestilence, more swift
Than ever a destroying Angel rod,
To pour the Vial of an angry God.

The Train was laid, the very Signal giv’n;
But here th’all-seeing, Israels Guardian, Heav’n
Could hold no longer; and to stop their way,
With a kind Beam from th’Empyræan Day,
20 Disclos’d their hammering Thunder at the Forge;
And made their Cyclops Cave their Bolts disgorge.

Discover’d thus, thus lost, betray’d, undone,
Yet still untir’d, the Restless Cause goes on;
And to retrieve a yet auspicious day,
A glowing spark even in their Ashes lay,
Which thus burst out in flames. In Geshur Land,
The utmost Bound of Israels Command,
Where Judah’s planted Faith but slowly grew,
A Brutal Race that Israels God n’er knew:
A Nation by the Conquerors Mercy grac’d,
Their Gods preserv’d, and Temples undefac’d;
Yet not content with all the Sweets of Peace,
Free their Estates, and free their Consciences;
’Gainst Israel those confederate Swords they drew,
Which with that vast Assassination flew
Two hundred thousand Butcher’d Victims shar’d
One common doom: No Sex nor Age was spar’d:
Not kneeling Beauties Tears, not Virgins Cries,
Nor Infants Smiles: No prey so small but dies.
Alas, the hard-mouth’d Blood-hound, Zeal, bites through;
Religion hunts, and hungry Jaws pursue.
To what strange Rage is Superstition driven,
That Man can outdo Hell to fight for Heav’n!
So Rebel Geshur fought: so drown’d in gore,
Even Mother Earth blusht at the Sons she bore;
And still asham’d of her old staining Brand,
Her Head shrinks down and Quagmires half their Land.
Yet not this blow Baals Empire could enlarge
For Israel still was Heav’ns peculiar charge:
Unshaken still in all this Scene of Blood,
Truths Temple firm on Golden Columns stood.
Whilst Sauls Revenging Arm proud Geshur scourg’d,
From their rank soyl their Hydra’s poyson purg’d.

Yet does not here their vanquish’d spleen give o’re,
But as untir’d, and restless as before,
Still through whole waiting Ages they outdo
At once the Chimists pains and patience too.
Who though he sees his bursting Limbecks crack,
And at one blast, one fatal Minutes wrack,
21 The forward Hopes of sweating years expire;
With sad, yet painful hand new lights his Fire:
Pale, lean, and wan, does Health, Wealth, all consume;
Yet for the great Elixir still to come,
Toyls and hopes on. No less their Plottings cease;
So hope, so toyl, the foes of Israels peace.