}

Man till then free. Therefore since he permits 90
Within himself unworthy Powers to reign
Over free Reason, God in Judgement just
Subjets him from without to violent Lords;
Who oft as undeservedly enthral
His outward freedom: Tyranny must be,
Though to the Tyrant thereby no excufe.
Yet sometimes Nations will deciine so low
From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,
But Justice, and fome fatal curse annext
Deprives them of their outward liberty,
Their inward loft: Witness th' irreverent Son
Of him who built the Ark, who for the shame
Done to his Father, heard his heavy curse,
Servant of Servants, on his vitious Race.
Thus will this latter, as the former World,
Still tend from bad to worse, till God at lait
Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw
His prefence 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

ICO

105

From all the rest, of whom to be invok'd,
A Nation from one faithful man to spring:
Him on this fide Euphrates yet residing,
Bred up in Idol-worship. O that men
(Canft thou believe?) should 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

For Gods! yet him God the most High vouchsafes o call by Vision from his Father's house,

lis kindred and false Gods, into a Land

121

Vhich he will shew him, and from him will raise

miglity Nation, and upon him shower

lis benediction so, that in his Seed

All Nations shall be bleft; he straight obeys,
Jot knowing to what Land, yet firm believes:

see him, but thou canst not, with what Faith
He leaves his Gods, his Friends, and native Soil

125

130

135

Or of Chaldea, passing now the Ford To Haran, after him a cumbrous Train Of Herds and Flocks, and numerous servitude; Not wandring poor, but trufting all his wealth With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown. Canaan he now attains, I see his Tents Pitcht about Sechem, and the neighbouring Plain Of Moreh; there by promise he receives Gift to his Progeny of all that Land; From Hamath Northward to the Defert South (Things by their names I call, tho' yet unnam'd) 149 From Hermon East to the great Western Sea, Mount Hermon, yonder Sea, each place behold In prospect, as I point them; on the shoar 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

145

Shall in his Seed be blessed; by that Seed
Is meant thy great deliverer, who shall bruise

R

150 Arch

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 Son a Grand-child leaves,
Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;
The Grand child with twelve Sons increast, departs
From Canaan, to a Land hereafter call'd
Egypt, divided by the River Nile;
See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths
Into a Sea: to fojourn in that Land

156

160

165

He comes invited by a younger Son
In time of dearth, a Son whose worthy deeds
Raife him to be the second in that Realm
Of Pharao: there he dies, and leaves his Race
Growing into a Nation, and now grown
Suspected to a sequent King, who secks
To ftop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
Toonumerous; whence of guests he makes them flaves
Inhofpitably, and kills their infant Males:
Till by two brethren (those two brethren call
Mofes and Aaron) sent 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 Judgements dire;
To blood unshed the Rivers must be turn'd, 175
Frogs, Lice and Flies must all his Palace fill
With loath'd intrusion, and fill all the land;
His Cattle muft of Rot and Murren die,

170

阳

193

Botches and blaines must all his flesh imboss, 180
And all his people; Thunder mixt with Hail,
Hail mixt 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 darksom Cloud of Locusts swarming down 185
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 Eygpt must lye dead. Thus with ten wounds
The River-dragon tam'd at length fubmits
To let his fojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his stubborn heart, but ftill as Ice
More harden'd after thaw, till in his rage
Pursuing whom he late dismiss'd, the Sea
Swallows him with his Hoft, but them lets pass
As on dry land between two christal walls,
Aw'd by the rod of Mofes so to stand
Divided, till his rescu'd gain their shoar:
Such wondrous pow'r God to his Saint will lend, 200
Though present in his Angel, who shall go
Before him 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'obdurat 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 Host

195

21-1

And craze their Chariot wheels: when by command
Mofes once more his potent Rod extends
Over the Sea; the Sea his Rod obeys;
On their embattl'd ranks the Waves return,
And overwhelm their War: the Race elect,

Safe towards Canaan from the shoar advance
Through the wild Defert, not the readiest way,
Left entring on the Canaanite alarım'd

War terrifie them inexpert, and fear
Return them back to Egypt, chusing rather
Inglorious life with servitude; for life

215

220

Το noble and ignoble is more sweet

Untrain'd in Arms, where rasiness 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 chuse 225
Thro' the twelve Tribes, to rule by Laws ordain'd:
God from the Mount of Sinai, whose gray top

Shall tremble, he descending, will himself
In Thunder, Lightning and loud Trumpets found
Ordain them Laws; part such as appertain

To civil Justice, part religious Rites

230

Of facrifice, informing them, by types
And fhadows, of that destin'd Seed to bruise
The Serpent, by what means he shall atchieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God 235
To mortal ear is dreadful; they beseech
That Mofes might report to them his will,
And terror cease; he grants what they befought
Instructed shat to God is no access