Servant of servants, on his vicious race. Thus will this latter, as the former world, Still tend from bad to worse, till God at last Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw His presence from among them, and avert His holy eyes: resolving from thenceforth To leave them to their own polluted ways; And one peculiar nation to select
From all the rest, of whom to be invok'd, A nation from one faithful man to spring; Him on this side Euphrates yet residing, Bred up in idol worship; O that men
(Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown, While yet the patriarch liv'd, who 'scap'd the flood, As to forsake the living God, and fall
To worship their own work in wood and stone For gods! yet him God the most high vouchsafes To call by vision from his father's house, His kindred and false gods, into a land
Which he will show him, and from him wil. raise A mighty nation, and upon him shower His benediction so, that in his seed
All nations shall be blest; he straight obeys, Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes: I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil Ur of Chaldea, passing now the ford To Haran, after him a cumberous train Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude; Not wand'ring poor, but trusting all his wealth With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown. Canaan he now attains; I see 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 desert south,
(Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd.) From Hermon east to the great western sea
Mount Hermon, yonder sea eich place behold
In prospect, as I point them on the shore Mount Carmel; here the double-founted stream Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills. This ponder, that all nations of the earth Shall in his seed be blessed; by that seed Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise The serpent's head; whereof to thee anon Plainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch blest Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call, A son, and of his son a granchild leaves, Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown; The granchild with twelve sons increas'd departs From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd Egypt, divided by the river Nile;
See where it flows, disgorging at sev'n mouths Into the sea to sojourn in that land
He comes invited by a younger son
In time of dearth, a son 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 Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves Inhospitably, and kills their infant males:
Till by two brethren (those two brethren call Moses and Aaron,) sent them from God to claim His people from enthralment, they return With glory and spoil back to their promis'd land. But first the lawless tyrant, who denies To know their God. or message to regard, Must be compell'd by signs and judgments dire⚫ To blood unshed 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 must 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 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 tam'd at length submits. To let his sojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as ice More harden'd after thaw, till in his rage F'ursuing whom he late dismiss'd, the sea Swallows him with his host, but them lets pass As on dry land, between two crystal walls, Aw'd by the rod of Moses so to stand Divided, till his rescu'd gain their shore: Such wondrous pow'r 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 th' obdurate 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 ent'ring on the Canaanite alarm'd 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
Untrain'd in arms, where rashness leads not on This also shall they gain by their delay
In the wide wilderness; there they shall found Their government, and their great senate choose Through the twelve tribes to rule by laws ordain'd God from the mount of Sinai, whose grey top Shall tremble, he descending, will himself In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpet's sound, Ordain them laws; part such as appertain To civil justice, part religious rites
Of sacrifice, informing them by types
And shadows, of that destin'd seed to bruise The serpent, by what means he shall acheive Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of Goa 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 foretel, And all the prophets in their age the times Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus laws and rites Establish'd, 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 fram'd 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 Sev'n lamps as in a zodiac representing The heav'nly 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
Promis'd to Abraham and his seed: the rest Were long to tell, how many battles fought, How many kings destroy'd and kingdoms von, Or how the sun shall in mid heav'n 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 Abrahamn, son of Isaac, and from him His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win. Here Adam interpos'd: O sent from heav'n, Enlight'ner of my darkness, gracious things Thou hast reveal'd, those chiefly which concern Just Abraham and his seed: now first I find Mine eyes true opening, and my heart much eas'd, Erewhile perplex'd with thoughts what would becease Of me and all mankind; but now I see His day, In whom all nations shall be blest, Favour 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 argues so many sins
Among them; how can God with such reside?
To whom thus Michael: Doubt not but that 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 now 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 mortal part
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