The Gates of Azza, Poft, and maffie Bar
Up to the Hill by Hebron, feat of Giants old,
No journey of a Sabbath day, and loaded fo; 149
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heav'n.
Which shall I first bewail,
Thy Bondage or loft Sight,
Prifon within Prifon
Infeparably dark?
Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!)
The Dungeon of thy felf; thy Soul
(Which Men enjoying fight oft without cause com
Imprison'd now indeed,
In real darkness of the body dwells,
up from outward light
To incorporate with gloomy night;
For inward light alas
Puts forth no visual beam.
O mirror of our fickle ftate,
Since man on earth unparallel'd!
The rarer thy example stands,
By how much from the top of wondrous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.
For him I reckon not in high estate
Whom long descent of birth
Or the fphear of fortune raises;
But thee whose strength, while vertue was her mate, Might have fubdu'd the Earth,
Univerfally crown'd with highest praises.
Sam. I hear the found of words, thir sense the air Diffolves unjointed e're it reach my ear. Chor. Hee fpeaks, let us draw nigh. Matchlefs in might,
The glory late of Ifrael, now the grief;
We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown
From Efhtaol and Zora's fruitful Vale
To vifit or bewail thee, or if better,
Counsel or Confolation we may bring,
Salve to thy Sores, apt words have power to fwage
The tumors of a troubl❜d mind,
And are as Balm to fefter'd wounds.
Sam. Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I learn Now of my own experience, not by talk, How counterfeit a coin they are who friends Bear in their Superscription (of the most I would be understood) in profperous days They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head Not to be found, though fought. Yee fee, O friends, How many evils have enclos'd me round; Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me, Blindness, for had I fight, confus'd with shame, How could I once look up, or heave the head, Who like a foolish Pilot have shipwrack't, My Veffel trusted to me from above, Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear, Fool, have divulg'd the secret gift of God To a deceitful Woman: tell me Friends, Am I not fung and proverbd for a Fool In every street, do they not fay, how well Are come upon him his deserts? yet why? Immeasurable strength they might behold In me, of wisdom nothing more then mean; This with the other should, at least, have paird, These two proportiond ill drove me transverse.
Chor. Tax not divine difpofal, wifeft Men
Have err'd, and by bad Women been deceiv'd;
And shall again, pretend they ne're so wise.
Deject not then fo overmuch thy felf,
Who haft of forrow thy full load befides;
Yet truth to fay, I oft have heard men wonder
Why thou shouldft wed Philiftian women rather
Then of thine own Tribe fairer, or as fair,
At least of thy own Nation, and as noble.
Sam. The first I faw at Timna, and she pleas'd
Mee, not my Parents, that I fought to wed,
The daughter of an Infidel: they knew not
That what I motion'd was of God; I knew
From intimate impulse, and therefore urg'd
The Marriage on; that by occafion hence
I might begin Ifrael's Deliverance,
The work to which I was divinely call'd;
She proving false, the next I took to Wife
(O that I never had! fond with too late.)
Was in the Vale of Sorec, Dalila,
That specious Monster, my accomplisht fnare. 230
I thought it lawful from my former act,
And the fame end; ftill watching to opprefs
Ifrael's oppreffours: of what now I fuffer
She was not the prime cause, but I my self,
Who vanquisht with a peal of words (O weakness!)
Gave up my fort of filence to a Woman.
Chor. In feeking juft occafion to provoke
The Philiftine, thy Countries Enemy,
Thou never waft remiss, I bear thee witness:
Yet Ifrael ftill serves with all his Sons.
Sam. That fault I take not on me, but transfer On Ifrael's Governours, and Heads of Tribes,
Who seeing those great acts which God had done Singly by me against their Conquerours
Acknowledg'd not, or not at all confider'd
Deliverance offerd: I on th' other fide
Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds, [dooer ;
The deeds themselves, though mute, fpoke loud the
But they perfifted deaf, and would not feem
To count them things worth notice, till at length
Thir Lords the Philistines with gather'd powers
Enterd Judea feeking mee, who then
Safe to the rock of Etham was retir'd,
Not flying, but fore-casting in what place
To set upon them, what advantag'd best
Mean while the men of Judah to prevent
The harrafs of thir Land, befet me round;
I willingly on fome conditions came
Into thir hands, and they as gladly yield me
To the uncircumcis'd a welcom prey,
Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threds
Toucht with the flame: on thir whole Host I flew
Unarm'd, and with a trivial weapon fell'd
Their choiceft youth; they only liv'd who fled.
Had Judah that day join'd, or one whole Tribe,
They had by this poffefs'd the Towers of Gath,
And lorded over them whom now they serve;
But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
And by thir vices brought to fervitude,
Then to love Bondage more then Liberty,
Bondage with ease then ftrenuous liberty;
And to defpife, or envy, or fufpect
Whom God hath of his special favour rais'd
As thir Deliverer; if he aught begin,
How frequent to defert him, and at last
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds?
Chor. Thy words to my remembrance bring
How Succoth and the Fort of Penuel
Thir great Deliverer contemn'd,
The matchlefs Gideon in pursuit
Of Madian and her vanquisht Kings:
And how ingrateful Ephraim
Had dealt with Jephtha, who by argument,
Not worse then by his shield and spear
Defended Ifrael from the Ammonite,
Had not his prowefs quell'd thir pride
In that fore battel when fo many dy'd
Without Reprieve adjudg'd to death,
For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth.
Sam. Of fuch examples adde mee to the roul,
Mee easily indeed mine may neglect,
But Gods propos'd deliverance not so.
Chor. Juft are the ways of God,
And justifiable to Men;
Unless there be who think not God at all,
If any be, they walk obfcure;
For of fuch Doctrine never was there School,
But the heart of the Fool,
And no man therein Doctor but himself.
Yet more there be who doubt his ways not just, As to his own edicts, found contradicting, Then give the rains to wandring thought, Regardless of his glories diminution; Till by thir own perplexities involv'd They ravel more, still less refolv'd, But never find self-satisfying solution.
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