Subjects him from without to violent lords;
Who oft as undeservedly inthrall
His outward freedom: tyranny muft be,
Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse,
Yet fometimes nations will decline fo low
From virtue, which is reafon, that no wrong,
But juftice, and fome fatal curfe annex'd
Deprives them of their outward liberty,
Their inward loft: Witness th' irreverent fon
Of him who built the ark, who for the fhame
Done to his father, heard this heavy curfe,
"Servant of fervants," on his vicious race.
Thus will this latter, as the former world,
Still tend from bad to worse, till God at laft
Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw
His presence from among them, and avert
His holy eyes; refolving from thenceforth
To leave them to their own polluted ways;
And one peculiar nation to select
From all the reft, of whom to be invok'd,
A nation from one faithful man to fpring:
Him on this fide Euphrates yet refiding,
Bred up in idol-worship; O that men
(Canft thou believe?) fhould be so stupid grown,
While yet the patriarch liv'd, who scap'd the flood,
As to forfake the living God, and fall
To worship their own work in wood and stone
For Gods! yet him God the most High vouchfafes
To call by vifion from his father's houfe,
His kindred and falfe Gods, into a land
Which he will show him, and from him will raise
A mighty nation, and upon him shower
His benediction fo, that in his feed
All nations shall be bleft; he straight obeys,
Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes:
I fee him, but thou canst not, with what faith
He leaves his Gods, his friends, and native foil
Ur of Chaldæa, paffing now the ford
To Haran, after him a cumbrous train
Of herds and flocks, and numerous fervitude;
Not wand'ring poor, but trufting all his wealth
With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains; I fee his tents
Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighb'ring plain
Of Moreh; there by promise he receives
Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hamath northward to the defert fouth,
(Things by their names I call, though yet unnam’d)
From Hermon east to the great western sea;
Mount Hermon, yonder fea, each place behold
In profpect, as I point them; on the shore
Mount Carmel; here the double-founted ftream
Jordan, true limit eastward; but his fons
Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.
This ponder, that all nations of the earth
Shall in his feed be bleffed; by that feed
Is meant thy great deliverer, who shall bruife
The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch bleft,
Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,
A son, and of his fon a grand-child leaves,
Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;
The grand-child with twelve fons increas'd departs
From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd
Egypt, divided by the river Nile;
See where it flows, difgorging at fev'n mouths
Into the fea to fojourn in that land
He comes invited by a younger fon
In time of dearth, a fon whose worthy deeds
Raise him to be the second in that realm
Of Pharaoh there he dies, and leaves his race
Growing into a nation, and now grown
Sufpected to a fequent king, who seeks
To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them
Inhofpitably', and kills their infant males:
Till by two brethren (thofe two brethren call
Mofes and Aaron) fent from God to claim
His people from inthralment, they return
With glory' and spoil back to their promis'd land.
But firft the lawless tyrant, who denies
To know their God, or meffage to regard,
Must be compell'd by figns and judgments dire;
To blood unfhed the rivers must be turn'd;
Frogs, lice, and flies must all his palace fill
With loath'd intrusion, and fill all the land;
His cattle muft of rot and murrain die;
Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss,
And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail,
Hail mix'd with fire must rend th' Egyptian sky,
And wheel on th' earth, devouring where it rolls;
What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
A darkfome cloud of locufts fwarming down
Muft eat, and on the ground leave nothing green;
Darkness must overfhadow all his bounds,
Palpable darkness, and blot out three days;
Laft with one midnight stroke all the first born
Of Egypt muft lie dead. Thus with ten wounds
The river-dragon tam'd at length submits
To let his fojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his ftubborn heart, but still as ice
More harden'd after thaw, till in his rage
Pursuing whom he late difmifs'd, the fea
Swallows him with his hoft, but them lets pafs
As on dry land between two crystal walls,
Aw'd by the rod of Mofes fo to stand
Divided, till his rescued gain their shore:
Such wondrous pow'r God to his faint will lend,
Though present in his Angel, who shall go
Before them in a cloud, and pill'ar of fire,
By day a cloud, by night a pill'ar of fire,
To guide them in their journey, and remove
Behind them, while th' obdurate king pursues: 205
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 hoft,
And craze their chariot wheels: when by command
Mofes once more his potent rod extends
Over the fea; the fea his rod obeys;
On their imbattel'd ranks the waves return,
And overwhelm their war: the race elect
Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance
Through the wild defert, not the readiest way,
Left ent'ring on the Canaanite alarm'd
War terrify them inexpert, and fear
Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather
Inglorious life with fervitude; for life
To noble and ignoble is more sweet
Untrain'd in arms, where rashness leads not on.
This also fhall they gain by their delay
In the wide wilderness, there they shall found
Their government, and their great fenate choose 225
Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordain'd:
God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top
Shall tremble, he defcending, will himself
In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets found,
Ordain them laws; part fuch as appertain
To civil juftice, part religious rites
Of facrifice, informing them, by types
And shadows, of that deftin'd Seed to bruife
The Serpent, by what means he fhall achieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God 235
To mortal ear is dreadful; they befeech
That Mofes might report to them his will,
And terror cease; he grants what they befought
Inftructed that to God is no accefs
Without mediator, whose high office now
Mofes in figure bears, to introduce
One greater, of whofe day he shall foretel,
And all the prophets in their age the times
Of great Meffi'ah fhall fing. Thus laws and rites
`Establish'd, fuch 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 fanctuary is fram'd
Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein
An ark, and in the ark his teftimony,
The records of his covenant, over these
A mercy-feat of gold between the wings
Of two bright Cherubim; before him burn
Sev'n lamps as in a zodiac representing
The heav'nly fires; over the tent a cloud
Shall reft by day, a fiery gleam by night,
Save when they journey, and at length they come,
Conducted by his Angel to the land
Promis'd to Abraham and his feed: the rest 260
Were long to tell, how many battles fought,
How many kings deftroy'd, and kingdoms won,
Or how the fun fhall in mid Heav'n stand still
A day entire, and night's due courfe adjourn,
Man's voice commanding, Sun in Gibeon ftand,
And thou moon in the vale of Aijalon,
Till Ifrael overcome; fo call the third
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