Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreform'd,

Headlong would follow'; and to their Gods perhaps

Of Bethel and of Dan? no, let them serve
Their enemies, who ferve idols with God.
Yet he at length, time to himself best known,
Remembring Abraham, by fome wondrous call
May bring them back repentant and fincere,
And at their paffing cleave th' Affyrian flood,

430. Headlong would follow; and to their Gods perhaps Of Bethel and of Dan?] There is fome difficulty and obfcurity in this paffage; and feveral conjec

tures and emendations have been offer'd to clear it, but none, I think, entirely to fatisfaction. Mr. Sympfon would read Headlong would fall off and c. or Headlong would fall, bow and i. e. bowing the A. Sax. participle. But Mr. Calton feems to come nearer the poet's meaning. Whom or what would they follow, fays he? There wants an accufative cafe; and what muft be understood to complete the fense, can never be accounted for by an elleipfis, that any rules or ufe of language will juftify. He therefore fufpects, that by fome ill accident or other a whole line may have been loft; and proposes one, which he says may ferve for a commentary at leaft, to explain the fense, though it can't be allowed for an emendation.

431

435

While

Their fathers in their old iniquities
Headlong would follow; &c.

Or is not the construction thus,
ancient patrimony, and to their Gods
Headlong would follow as to their
perhaps &c?

431. no, let them ferve Their enemies, who serve idols with God's conftant dealing with the God.] This is agreeable to Jewish nation as recorded in the old Teftament. Thyer.

436. And at their paffing cleave

th' Affyrian flood, &c.] There are feveral prophecies of the reftoration of Israel: but in saying that the Lord would cleave th' Affyrian flood, that is the river Euphrates, at their return from Affyria, as he cleft the Red Sea and the river Jordan at their coming from Egypt, the poet feems particularly to allude to Rev. XVI. 12. And the fixth Angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that

the

While to their native land with joy they hafte,
As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,
When to the promis'd land their fathers pass'd;
To his due time and providence I leave them. 440

So fpake Ifrael's true king, and to the Fiend
Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.
So fares it when with truth falfhood contends.

the way of the kings of the east might be prepared: and to Ifa. XI. 15, 16. And the Lord hall utterly deftroy the tongue of the Egyptian fea, and with his mighty wind hall be shake his hand over the river, and fhall fmite it in the fe

ven ftreams, and make men go over dry-fhod: And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Affyria, like as it was to Ifrael in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

The end of the Third Book.