Adonijah affects the Kingdom. Solomon anointed King. Adonijah, Joab, and
UT Kings as well as Empires have their Date, And all muft yield to Time and Age and Fate Broken with Cares, the Monarch now appears,... And finks beneath the Weight of Seventy Years: Languid and Cold, almost a Carcass grown, He lives by Warmth and Vigour not his own: This Adonijab heard, fair Haggith's Son, In Beauty only next to Absalon :
Enfigns of Royalty like him prepar'd,
High on his Chariot rais'd, and circled with a Guards
Abiathar the Pontiff with him joyns, lost o
And Joab aids in his unjuft Designs:
By Rogel's-Well he at Zobeleth ftaid,iigs
His Brethren call'd, a Kingly Feast he made
But Solomon he left with confcious Fear,
Nor Zadok, Nathan, or Benaiah there:
To David, Bathsheba and Nathan bring
The Tidings firft, that he affum'd the King
The Monarch rous'd, by Ifrael's God he wears,
And Solomon his Succeffor declares:
On his own Royal Mule he rides in State,
The Guards and Council him to Gihon wait:
The facred Oyl with Joy they thither bring,
Anoint him there, and fhout--- God save the King!
The bollow Vales reftor'd the diftant Sound,
Shook lofty Olivet, and fhook the Ground:
This to Zobeleth's Stone the Traitors hear,
Vanish'd their Mirth, their Hearts diffolv'd with
Fear:
Their King Himself, and they their King difown,
He quits his fhort-liv'd Reign, and quits his Throne.
For Refuge he to God's High-Altar flies,
And fues for Life, when Solomon, replies,
If Loyal he's fecure, if falfe he dies:
In Peace he thence did to his House retreat;
But foon the curs'd Ambition to be Great,
The Royal Mercy did, and his Resolves defeat:
For David now to his Fore-fathers gon,
Agen he feeks by Wiles to mount the Throne :
To strengthen thus his Title, feeks to wed,
The beauteous Relict of the Royal Bed :
Nor this young Solomon, whose piercing Eyes
The Treafon faw, tho' veil'd in Loves difguife,
And by Bendial's Hand his Rival dies:
Next Joab, vainly to God's Altar fled,
Both claim'd the Living, both the Dead deny'd,
No Witness but their own the King to guide:
What mortal Wisdom cou'd the Cafe decide?
Awhile he weighs with deep confidrate Thought
Then calls his Guards, and bids a Sword be brought;
In equal Parts the Child that did furvive
He bids divide, and half to either give:
The Spurious Mother with th' Award content
His Fuftice prais'd, and gave her full Consent :
Not fo the Genuin, when the Guards prepare
To execute a Sentence so severe ;
Pale as the lifeless Corps that near her lay,
And cold as Death the cries and bids 'em stay:
Then to the King--- O let her all enjoy,
Rather than my dear Infant thus destroy!
---'Tis finifh'd, the fagacious Prince reply'd,
And Nature does herself the Caufe decide;
The Child is Hers--- which the with Joy receives,
With Shame her Rival the Tribunal leaves:
Th' Affembly fhout, and Heav'ns Indulgence own,
Which plac'd fo Wife a King on David's vacant
I KINGS, Chap. III. from Ver. 16. to Ver. 27.
Ver. 25. And the king faid, Divide the living
child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.
26. Then Spake the woman whofe the living child was, unto the king, (for her bowels yerned upon her fon) and fhe faid, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wife flay it: but the other faid, Ler it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.
27. Then the king answered and faid, Give her the living child, and in no wife flay it: he is the mother thereof.
HE Monarch now with Peace and Plenty blefs'd,
For God on ev'ry fide had giv'n him Reft;
A lofty Pile of wondrous Art and Charge,
A Temple opulent, auguft and large:
Whole Majesty might fome Refemblance bear,
Of that dread Pow'r who fix'd his Mansion there,
On tall Moriah's Mount refolves to rear:
To Tyrian Hiram, his Ally, he fends,
(Hiram and David had been ancient Friends.)
His Servants help he gains, for none so well
Cou'd Timber fquare, or lofty Cedars fell:
To Lebanon's fair Forrest they repair,
His Head like barren Calvary's they bare:
The Sun, a Stranger there, the Ground invades,
And drinks new Dew, and drives th' affrighted
To Sidon's Shore, a long and dubious Road, O're craggy Rocks they drag their precious Load;
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