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SAMSON AGONISTES. 113
Promis'd by heav'hly meffage twice defcending.
Under his fpecial eye
Abftemious I grew up and thriv'd amain ;
He led me on to mightieft deeds
Above the nerve of mortal arm
Againft th' uncircumcis'd, our enemies:
But now hath caft me off as never known,
And to thofe cruel enemies,
Whom I by his appointment had provok'd,
Left me all helplefs with th' irreparable lofs
Of fight, referv'd alive to be repeated
The fubjeft of their cruelty or fcorn.
Nor am I in the lift of them that hope;
Hopelefs are all my evils, all remedilefs;
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, fpeedy death,
The clofe of all my mifcries, and the balm.
CHORUS.
Many are the fayings of the wife
In ancient and in modern books inroll'd,
Extolling patience as the trueft fortitude;
And to the bearing well of all calamities,
All chances incident to man's frail life,
Confolatories writ
With ftudy'd argument, and much perfuafion fought
Lenient of grief and anxious thought:
But with th' afflicted in his pangs their found
Little prevails, or rather feems a tune
Harih, and of diffonant mood from his complaint;
Unlefs he feel within
Some fource of coufolation from above,,
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