And it above all Humane things they prize.
No Torments could make them their Faith deny,
They willingly for their Religion die:
Their Liberties were also dear to them,
Sprung from a free, and not a slavish Stem,
Th' _Egyptian_ Bondage for their Souls unfit,
They never in _Judea_ would permit;
Their own known Laws, they willingly obey,
Hate Tyranny and Arbitrary Sway:
Nor did they many Priviledges want,
Kept from the Time they first the Land did plant;
For which to Death they lawfully would strive,
If injur'd by their King's Prerogative:
For some of them have try'd to break the Bound,
And did like _Ethnick_ Kings, their People's Freedom wound,
So _Rehoboam_ caus'd them to rebell,
And lost at once ten Tribes of _Israel_.
No people were more ready to obey
Their Kings, who rul'd them by a gentle Sway,
Who never sought their Consciences to curb,
Their Freedom or Religion to disturb.
To such they always open-hearted were,
For them, they neither Coin, nor Blood would spare.
Such Kings might their Prerogatives improve,
And rule the _Jews_, ev'n as they pleas'd with Love;
But stiff indeed they were, and moody grew, }
When Tyrants did with cruel Stripes pursue }
Them sore oppress'd, and sometimes murmur'd too. }
Kings they had try'd of ev'ry sort and size.
Best govern'd by the Warlike and the wise.