His people from enthralment, they return,
With glory and spoil, back to their promised land.
But first, the lawless tyrant, who denies
To know their God, or message to regard,
Must be compelled by signs and judgments dire.
To blood unshed the rivers must be turned;
Frogs, lice, and flies, must all his palace fill
With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land;
His cattle must of rot and murrain die:
Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss,
And all his people; thunder mixed with hail,
Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky,
And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls;
What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down
Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green;
Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,
Palpable darkness, and. blot out three days;
Last, with one midnight stroke, all the first-born
Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus, with ten wounds,
The river-dragon, tamed, at length submits
To let his sojourners depart, and oft

Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as ice
More hardened after thaw! till, in his rage

Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea
Swallows him with his host, but them lets pass,
As on dry land, between two crystal walls;

Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand
Divided, till his rescued gain their shore:

Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend,
Though present in his Angel, who shall go
Before them in a cloud, and pillar of fire;
By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire;
To guide them in their journey, and remove
Behind them, while the oblurate king pursues.

All night he will pursue, but his approach
Darkness defends between till morning watch;
Then through the fiery pillar and the cloud,
God, looking forth, will trouble all his host,

And craze their chariot-wheels; when, by command,
Moses once more his potent rod extends
Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys;
On their embattled ranks the waves return,
And overwhelm their war. The race elect
Safe towards Canaan, from the shore, advance
Through the wild desert; not the readiest way,
Lest, entering on the Canaanite alarmed,
War terrify them, inexpert, and fear

Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather
Inglorious life with servitude. For life,
To noble and ignoble, is more sweet
Untrained in arms, where rashness leads not on.
This also shall they gain by their delay

In the wild wilderness; there they shall found
Their government, and their great senate choose
Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained;
God, from the mount of Sinai, whose grey top
Shall tremble, He descending, will Himself,
In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets' sound,
Ordain them laws; part, such as appertain
To civil justice; part, religious rites
Of sacrifice; informing them, by types

And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise
The Serpent, by what means He shall achieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God
To mortal ear is dreadful: they beseech
That Moses might report to them his will,
And terror cease. He grants what they besought,

Instructed that to God is no access

Without mediator, whose high office now

Moses in figure bears, to introduce

One greater, of whose day he shall foretell,
And all the prophets in their age, the times
Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus, laws and rites
Established, such delight hath God in men
Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes
Among them to set up his tabernacle
The Holy One with mortal men to dwell:
By his prescript a sanctuary is framed
Of cedar, overlaid with gold; therein
An ark, and in the ark his testimony,
The records of his covenant; over these
A mercy-seat of gold, between the wings
Of two bright cherubim; before him burn
Seven lamps, as in a zodiac, representing
The heavenly fires; over the tent a cloud
Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night,
Save when they journey, and at length they come,
Conducted by his Angel, to the land

Promised to Abraham and his seed. The rest
Were long to tell; how many battles fought;
How many kings destroyed, and kingdoms won;
Or how the sun shall in mid heaven stand still
A day entire, and night's due course adjourn,
Man's voice commanding, Sun, in Gibeon stand,
And thou, Moon, in the vale of Ajalon,
Till Israel overcome !-so call the third
From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him.
His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.

Here Adam interposed: O sent from Heaven
Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things
Thou hast revealed, those chiefly which concern
Just Abraham and his seed. Now first I find
Mine eyes true opening, and my heart much eased,
Erewhile perplexed with thoughts, what would become
Of me and all mankind; but now I see

His day, in whom all nations shall be blest;

Favor unmerited by me, who sought
Forbidden knowledge by forbidden means.
This yet I apprehend not; why to those
Among whom God will deign to dwell on earth,
So many and so various laws are given?

So many laws argue so many sins

Among them; how can God with such reside?

To whom thus Michael: Doubt not that but sin

Will reign among them, as of thee begot;

And, therefore, was law given them, to evince
Their natural pravity, by stirring up

Sin against. law to fight; that when they see

Law can discover sin, but not remove,

Save by those shadowy expiations weak,

The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude
Some blood more precious must be paid for man;
Just for unjust; that in such righteousness,
To them by faith imputed, they may find
Justification towards God, and peace
Of conscience, which the law by ceremonies
Cannot appease, nor man the moral part
Perform, and, not performing, cannot live.
So law appears imperfect and but given
With purpose to resign them, in full time,
Up to a better covenant, disciplined

From shadowy types to truth, from flesh to spirit,
From imposition of strict laws to free

Acceptance of large grace, from servile fear

To filial works of law to works of faith.

And, therefore, shall not Moses, though of God

Highly beloved, being but the minister

Of law, his people into Canaan lead;

But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call,

His name and office bearing, who shall quell

The adversary Serpent, and bring back,

Through the world's wilderness, long-wandered Man

Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.

Meanwhile they, in their earthly Canaan placed,
Long time shall dwell and prosper, but when sins
National interrupt their public peace,

Provoking God to raise them enemies;
From whom as oft He saves them penitent,
By Judges first, then under Kings; of whom
The second, both for piety renowned
And puissant deeds, a promise shall receive
Irrevocable, that his regal throne

For ever shall endure. The like shall sing
All prophecy, that of the royal stock
Of David - so I name this king-shall rise
A son, the Woman's Seed to thee foretold,
Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust
All nations; and to kings foretold, of kings
The last for of his reign shall be no end.

1

But first, a long succession must ensue;

And his next son, for wealth and wisdom famed,
The clouded ark of God, till then in tents
Wandering, shall in a glorious temple enshrine.
Such follow him as shall be registered

Part good, part bad; of bad the longer scroll;
Whose foul idolatries, and other faults,
Heaped to the popular sum, will so incense
God, as to leave them, and expose their land,
Their city, his temple, 'and his holy ark,
With all his sacred things, a scorn and prey

To that proud city, whose high walls thou sawest
Left in confusion - Babylon thence called.

There in captivity He lets them dwell

The space of seventy years; then brings them back,
Remembering mercy, and his covenant sworn
To David, 'stablished as the days of Heaven.
Returned from Babylon by leave of kings,

Their lords, whom God disposed, the house of God