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Should Ifrael from Philiftian yoke deliver;
Ask for this great deliv'rer now, and find him
Eyelefs in Gaza at the Mill with flaves,
Himself in bonds under Philiftian yoke;
Yet stay, let me not rafhly call in doubt
Divine Prediction: what if all foretold
Had been fulfill'd but thro' mine own default,
Whom have I to complain of but my felf?
Who this high gift of strength committed to me,
In what part lodg'd, how easily bereft me,
Under the Seal of filence could not keep,
But weakly to a Woman must reveal it
O'ercome with importunity and tears.
O impotence of mind, in body strong!
But what is ftrength without a double share
Of wisdom, vaft, unwieldy, burthenfome,

A

Proudly fecure, yet liable to fall

By weakest fubtleties, not made to rule,
But to fubferve where wifdom bears command.
God, when he gave me strength, to shew withal
How flight the gift was, hung it in my Hair.
But Peace, I must not quarrel with the will

Of

Of highest dispensation, which herein
Haply had ends above my reach to know:
Suffices that to me ftrength is my bane,
And proves the source of all my miferies;
So many, and fo huge, that each apart
Would ask a life to wail, but chief of all,
Olofs of fight, of thee I moft complain!
Blind among Enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, decrepit age!

Light the prime work of God to me is extinct,
And all her yarious objects of delight

Annull'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd,
Inferior to the vileft now become

Of man or worm; the vileft here excel me,
They creep, yet fee, I dark in light expos'd
To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong,"
Within doors, or without, ftill as a fool.
In pow'r of others, never in my own;

Scarce half I feem to live, dead more than half.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecov❜rably dark, total Eclipse

Without all hope of day!

O first created Beam, and thou great Word,

Let

Let there be light, and light was over all;

Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree?

The Sun to me is dark

And filent as the Moon,

When she deferts the night

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Since light so necessary is to life,
And almost life it felf, if it be true
That light is in the Soul,

1

She all in ev'ry part; why was the fight
To fuch a tender ball as th'eye confin'd?
So obvious and fo eafie to be quench'd,
And not as feeling through all parts diffus'd,
That she might look at will through ev'ry pore?
Then had I not been thus exil'd from light;
As in the land of darkness yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death,
And bury'd, but O yet more miferable!

My felf, my Sepulchre, a moving Grave,
Bury'd, yet not exempt

By privilege of death and burial

From wort of other evils, pains and wrongs,
But made hereby obnoxious more

Το

To all the miseries of Life,

Life in captivity

Among inhuman foes.

But who are these? for with joint pace I hear
The tread of many feet steering this way;
Perhaps my enemies who come to stare
At my affliction, and perhaps t'infult,
Their daily practice to afflict me more.
Chor. This, this is he; foftly a while,
Let us not break in upon him;

O change beyond report, thought or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelefly diffus'd,
With languish'd head unpropt,

And one past hope, abandon'd,
And by himself given over;

In flavish habit, ill-fitted weeds

O'er-worn and foil'd;

Or do my eyes mifreprefent? Can this be he,

That Heroick, that Renown'd,

Irrefiftible Samfon? whom unarm'd

[withstand;

No strength of man, or fierceft wild beaft could

Who tore the Lion, as the Lion tears the Kid,

Ran on imbattl'd Armies clad in Iron,

And

And weaponless himself,

Made Arms ridiculous, useless the forgery

Of brazen Shield and Spear, the hammer'd Cuirass,

Chalybean temper'd steel, and frock of mail

Adamantean Proof;

But fafeft he who stood aloof,

When insupportably his foot advanc'd,

In fcorn of their proud arms and warlike tools, Spurn'd them to death by Troops. The bold AfcaloFled from his Lion ramp, old Warriors turn'd [nite Their plated backs under his heel;

Orgrov❜ling foil'd their crefted helmets in the duft. Then with what trivial weapon came to hand, The Jaw of a dead Afs, his fword of bone,

A thousand fore-skins fell, the flow'r of Palestin In Ramath-lechi famous to this day:

Then by main force pull'd up,and on hisfhoulders bore
The Gates of Azza, Poft, and maffie Bar

Up to the Hill by Hebron, feat of Giants old,
No journey of a Sabbath-day, and loaded fo;
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heav'n.
Which shall I first bewail, ...

Thy Bondage or loft Sight, anot

Prifon

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