Dissolving at one stroke the batter'd boat,
And down the men fall drenched in the moat;
With every fierce encounter they are forced
To quit their boats, and fare like men unhorsed.
The bigger whale like some huge carrack lay,
Which wanteth sea-room with her foes to play :
Slowly she swims, and when, provoked, she would
Advance her tail, her head salutes the mud :
The shallow water doth her force infringe,
And renders vain her tail's impetuous swinge:
The shining steel her tender sides receive,
And there, like bees, they all their weapons leave.
This sees the cub, and does himself oppose
Betwixt his cumber'd mother and her foes:
With desperate courage he receives her wounds,
And men and boats his active tail confounds.
Their forces join'd, the seas with billows fill,
And make a tempest though the winds be still.
Now would the men with half their hoped prey
Be well content, and wish this cub away:
Their wish they have: he (to direct his dam
Unto the gap through which they thither came)
Before her swims, and quits the hostile lake,
A prisoner there but for his mother's sake.
She, by the rocks compell'd to stay behind,
Is by the vastness of her bulk confined.
They shout for joy! and now on her alone
Their fury falls, and all their darts are thrown.
Their lances spent, one bolder than the rest,
With his broad sword provoked the sluggish beast:
Her only side devours both blade and heft,
And there his steel the bold Bermudan left.
Courage the rest from his example take,
And now they change the colour of the lake:
Blood flows in rivers from her wounded side,
As if they would prevent the tardy tide,
And raise the flood to that propitious height,
As might convey her from this fatal streight.
She swims in blood, and blood does spouting throw
To Heaven, that Heaven men's cruelties might
Their fixed javelins in her side she wears, [know.
And on her back a grove of pikes appears;
You would have thought, had you the monster seen
Thus dress'd, she had another island been.
Roaring she tears the air with such a noise,
As well resembled the conspiring voice
Of routed armies, when the field is won,
To reach the ears of her escaped son.
He, though a league removed from the foe,
Hastes to her aid: the pious Trojan' so,
Neglecting for Creüsa's life his own,
Repeats the danger of the burning town.
The men, amazed, blush to see the seed
Of monsters human piety exceed.
this kindness, what the Grecian sung,
That Love's bright mother from the Ocean sprung.
Their courage droops, and, hopeless now, they wish
For composition with the' unconquer'd fish ;
So she their weapons would restore again,
Through rocks they'd hew her passage to the main.
But how instructed in each other's mind?
Or what commerce can men with monsters find?
Not daring to approach their wounded foe,
Whom her courageous son protected so,
They charge their muskets, and with hot desire
Of fell revenge, renew the fight with fire;
Standing aloof, with lead they bruise the scales,
And tear the flesh of the incensed whales.
But no success their fierce endeavours found,
Nor this
way could they give one fatal wound.
Now to their fort they are about to send
For the loud engines which their isle defend;
But what those pieces, framed to batter walls,
Would have effected on those mighty whales,
Great Neptune will not have us know, who sends
A tide so high that it relieves his friends:
And thus they parted with exchange of arms;
Much blood the monsters lost, and they their arms.
Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant;
Sic nos Scripturæ depascimur aurea dicta;
Aurea! perpetuâ semper dignissima vitâ ! **
Nam divinus amor cùm cæpit vociferari,
Diffugiunt animi terrores. **
Exul eram, requiesque mihi, non fama, petita est,
Mens intenta suis ne foret usque malis : **
Namque ubi mota calent sacrâ mea pectora Musâ,
Altior humano spiritus ille malo est.
Ovid. de Trist. lib. iv. el. 1.
1. Asserting the authority of the Scripture, in which this love is revealed.
2. The preference and love of God to man in the creation. 3. The same love more amply declared in our redemption. 4. How necessary this love is to reform mankind, and how excellent in itself.
5. Showing how happy the world would be, if this love were universally embraced.
6. Of preserving this love in our memory, and how useful the contemplation thereof is.
THE Grecian Muse has all their gods survived,
Nor Jove at us nor Phoebus is arrived;
Frail deities! which first the poets made,
And then invoked, to give their fancies aid :
Yet if they still divert us with their rage,
What may be hoped for in a better age,
When not from Helicon's imagined spring,
But Sacred Writ, we borrow what we sing?
This with the fabric of the world begun,
Elder than light, and shall outlast the sun.
Before this oracle, like Dagon, all
The false pretenders, Delphos, Ammon, fall:
Long since despised and silent, they afford
Honour and triumph to the' eternal Word.
As late philosophy our globe has graced,
And rolling earth among the planets placed,
So has this Book entitled us to Heaven,
And rules to guide us to that mansion given:
Tells the conditions how our peace was made,
And is our pledge for the great Author's aid.
His power in Nature's ample book we find,
But the less volume does express his mind.
This light unknown, bold Epicurus taught
That his bless'd gods vouchsafe us not a thought,
But unconcern'd let all below them slide,
As fortune does, or human wisdom guide.
Religion thus removed, the sacred yoke
And band of all society is broke.
What use of oaths, of promise, or of test,
Where men regard no God but interest?
What endless war would jealous nations tear,
If none above did witness what they swear?
Sad fate of unbelievers, and yet just,
Among themselves to find so little trust!
Were Scripture silent, Nature would proclaim,
Without a God, our falsehood and our shame.
To know our thoughts the objects of his eyes
Is the first step towards being good or wise;
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