Him staggering so, when hell’s dire agent found,
  While fainting virtue scarce maintain’d her ground,
  He pours fresh forces in, and thus replies: 

    The eternal God, supremely good and wise,
  Imparts not these prodigious gifts in vain;
  What wonders are reserved to bless your reign! 
  Against your will your arguments have shown,
  Such virtue’s only given to guide a throne. 380
  Not that your father’s mildness I contemn;
  But manly force becomes the diadem. 
  ’Tis true he grants the people all they crave;
  And more perhaps than subjects ought to have: 
  For lavish grants suppose a monarch tame,
  And more his goodness than his wit proclaim. 
  But when should people strive their bonds to break,
  If not when kings are negligent or weak? 
  Let him give on till he can give no more,
  The thrifty Sanhedrim shall keep him poor; 390
  And every shekel which he can receive,
  Shall cost a limb of his prerogative. 
  To ply him with new plots shall be my care;
  Or plunge him deep in some expensive war;
  Which, when his treasure can no more supply,
  He must with the remains of kingship buy
  His faithful friends, our jealousies and fears
  Call Jebusites, and Pharaoh’s pensioners;
  Whom when our fury from his aid has torn,
  He shall be naked left to public scorn. 400
  The next successor, whom I fear and hate,
  My arts have made obnoxious to the state;
  Turn’d all his virtues to his overthrow,
  And gain’d our elders to pronounce a foe. 
  His right, for sums of necessary gold,
  Shall first be pawn’d, and afterwards be sold;
  Till time shall ever-wanting David draw,
  To pass your doubtful title into law;
  If not, the people have a right supreme
  To make their kings, for kings are made for them. 410
  All empire is no more than power in trust,
  Which, when resumed, can be no longer just. 
  Succession, for the general good design’d,
  In its own wrong a nation cannot bind: 
  If altering that the people can relieve,
  Better one suffer than a nation grieve. 
  The Jews well know their power:  ere Saul they chose,
  God was their king, and God they durst depose. 
  Urge now your piety, your filial name,
  A father’s right, and fear of future fame; 420
  The public good, that universal call,
  To which even Heaven submitted, answers all. 
  Nor let his love enchant your generous mind;
  ’Tis nature’s trick to propagate her kind. 
  Our fond begetters, who would never die,
  Love but themselves in their posterity. 
  Or let his kindness by the effects be tried,
  Or let him lay his vain pretence aside. 
  God said, he loved your father; could he bring
  A better proof, than to anoint him king?