Of whatsoe'er descent their godhead be, Stock, stone, or other homely pedigree, In his defence his servants are as bold, As if he had been born of beaten gold. The Jewish rabbins, though their enemies, In this conclude them honest men and wise; For 'twas their duty, all the learned think, To espouse his cause, by whom they eat and drink. From hence began that plot, the nation's curse, Bad in itself, but represented worse;[235] Raised in extremes, and in extremes decried; With oaths affirmed, with dying vows denied; Not weighed nor winnowed by the multitude, But swallowed in the mass, unchewed and crude. Some truth there was, but dashed and brewed with lies, To please the fools, and puzzle all the wise. Succeeding times did equal folly call, Believing nothing, or believing all. The Egyptian rites the Jebusites embraced, Where gods were recommended by their taste. Such savoury deities must needs be good, As served at once for worship and for food.[236] By force they could not introduce these gods,-- For ten to one in former days was odds,-- So fraud was used, the sacrificer's trade; Fools are more hard to conquer than persuade. Their busy teachers mingled with the Jews, And raked for converts even the court and stews; Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took, Because the fleece accompanies the flock. Some thought they God's anointed meant to slay By guns, invented since full many a day: Our author swears it not; but who can know How far the devil and Jebusites may go?[237] This plot, which failed for want of common sense, Had yet a deep and dangerous consequence; For as, when raging fevers boil the blood, The standing lake soon floats into a flood, And every hostile humour, which before Slept quiet in its channels, bubbles o'er; So several factions, from this first ferment, Work up to foam, and threat the government. Some by their friends, more by themselves thought wise, Opposed the power to which they could not rise; Some had in courts been great, and, thrown from thence, Like fiends, were hardened in impenitence; Some, by their monarch's fatal mercy, grown From pardoned rebels kinsmen to the throne, Were raised in power and public office high; Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie. Of these the false Achitophel[238] was first; A name to all succeeding ages curst: For close designs, and crooked counsels fit; Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit; Restless, unfixed in principles and place; In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace; A fiery soul, which, working out its way, } Fretted the pigmy-body to decay, } And o'er-informed the tenement of clay; } A daring pilot in extremity; Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit,