Seated as on the top of virtue's hill,
Discount'nance her defpis'd, and put to rout
All her array; her female pride deject,

220

Or turn to reverent awe; for beauty ftands
In th' admiration only of weak minds
Led captive; cease to' admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial

toy,

225

At every fudden flighting quite abash'd :
Therefore with manlier objects we must try
His conftancy, with such as have more show
Of worth, of honour, glory', and popular praise;
Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd;
Or that which only seems to fatisfy

Lawful defires of nature, not beyond;

230

And now I know he hungers where no food

Is to be found, in the wide wilderness ;
The reft commit to me, I shall let pass

No' advantage, and his strength as oft assay.

234

He ceas'd, and heard their grant in loud acclame;

Then forthwith to him takes a chofen band

Of Spirits likeft to himself in guile
To be at hand, and at his beck appear,
If caufe were to unfold fome active scene
Of various perfons, each to know his part;
Then to the desert takes with these his flight;
Where ftill from shade to fhade the Son of God
After forty days fafting had remain'd,

240

Now hungring firft, and to himself thus faid. 244

Where will this end? four times ten days I've pass'd Wand'ring this woody maze, and human food Nor tafted, nor had appetite; that fast To virtue I impute not, or count part Of what I fuffer here; if nature need not, Or God fupport nature without repast

232. wide wilderness;] In moft of the editions it is falfely printed wild wilderness.

244. Now hungring firft,] There feems, I think, to be a little inaccuracy in this place. It is plain by the Scripture account, that our Saviour hungred before the Devil firft

250 Though

Though needing, what praife is it to endure?
But now I feel I hunger, which declares
Nature hath need of what fhe afks; yet God
Can fatisfy that need fome other way,
Though hunger ftill remain: fo it remain
Without this body's wafting, I content me,
And from the fting of famine fear no harm,
Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts that feed
Me hungring more to do my Father's will.

255

It was the hour of night, when thus the Son 260 Commun'd in filent walk, then laid him down Under the hospitable covert nigh

Of

Adfidet, et totum prope faucibus
Occupat amnem.

266. Him thought, &c.] We fay

now,

and more juftly, he thought; but him thought is of the fame conftruction as me thought, and is used by our old writers, as by Fairfax Cant. 13. St. 40.

Him thought he heard the foftly whiftling wind.

He by the brook of Cherith food, &c. Alluding to the account of Elijah. 1 Kings XVII. 5, 6. He went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan: And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. As what follows, He faw

the

Of trees thick interwoven; there he flept,
And dream'd, as appetite is wont to dream,

264

Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet;
Him thought, he by the brook of Cherith ftood,
And faw the ravens with their horny beaks
Food to Elijah bringing ev'n and morn, [brought:
Though ravenous, taught t' abstain from what they
He faw the prophet alfo how he fled
Into the defert, and how there he flept
Under a juniper; then how awak'd

He found his fupper on the coals prepar'd,
And by the Angel was bid rise and eat,

the prophet alfo &c. is in allufion to 1 Kings XIX. 4. &c. But he himfelf went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and fat down under a juniper-tree.- And as he lay and lept under a juniper-tree, behold then, an Angel touched him, and faid unto him, Arife and eat. And he looked, and behold there was a cake baken on the coals, and a crufe of water at his head; and he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the Angel of the Lord came again the fecond time, and touched him, and faid, Arife and eat, be-. caufe the journey is too great for thee. And be arofe, and did eat and drink, and went in the ftrength of that meat forty days and forty nights, unto Horeb the mount of God. And Da

270

And

niel's living upon pulfe and water
rather than the portion of the
king's meat and drink is celebrat-
ed Dan. I. So that, as our dreams
are often compofed of the matter
of our waking thoughts, our Sa-
viour is with great propriety fup-.
pofed to dream of facred perfons
and fubjects. Lucretius IV. 959.

Et quoi quifque ferè studio de

vinctus adhæret,
Aut quibus in rebus multum
fumus antè morati,
Atque in qua ratione fuit con-

tenta magis mens,
In fomnis eadem plerumque vi-
demur obire.

His very dreams are rightly made
to fhow our Saviour to have me-
ditated

I

And eat the second time after repose,

The strength whereof suffic'd him forty days;
Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,

Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulfe.

275

Thus wore out night, and now the herald lark
Left his ground-neft, high tow'ring to defcry 280
The morn's approach, and greet her with his song:
As lightly from his graffy couch. up rofe

Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream,

Fafting he went to fleep, and fafting wak'd.

Up to a hill anon his steps he rear'd,

285

From whofe high top to ken the profpect round,

If

ditated much on the word of lines in all his works. Knight's