Jainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch blest,
Vhom Faithful Abraham due time shall call,
fon, and of his fon 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 seaven mouths
Into the fea: to sojourn in that land
He comes invited by a younger fon
In time of dearth, a son whose worthy deeds
Raise 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 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
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,
Frogs, lice and flies must all his palace fill
With loath'd intrufion, and fill all the land;
His cattel must of rot and murrain die,
Botches and blaines must all his flesh tmbofs,
And all his people; thunder mixt with hail,
Hail mixt with fire must rend th'Egyptian skie
And wheel on th'earth, devouring where it rouls;
What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down
Muft 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 hard'nd after thaw, till in his rage
Pursuing whom he late dismiss'd, the fea
Swallows him with his host, but them lets pass
As on drie land between two christal walls,
Aw'd by the rod of Moses so to stand
Divided, till his rescu'd gain their shoar:
Such wondrous power God to his faint 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 fea; the sea his rod obeys:
On their imbattl'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,
Lest entring on the Canaanite allarm'd
War terrifie them inexpert, and fear
Return them back to Egypt, chosing rather
Inglorious life with fervitude; for life
-To noble and ignoble is more sweet
Untrain'd in arms, where rafhness leads not on.
This also shall they gain by their delay
In the wide wilderness, there they shall found
Their government, and their great fenate choose
Through 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
Ordaine them laws; part such as appertaine
To civil justice, part religious rites
Of facrifice, informing them by types
And shadows of that destin'd feed to bruife
The ferpent, by what means he shall atchieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God
To mortal ear is dreadful; they beseech
That Mofes might report to them his will,
And terror cease; he grants * what they besaught,
Instructed that to God is no access
Without mediator, whose high office now
Moses in figure beares, to introduce
One greater, of whose day he shall fortell,
* 2d. Ed. 1st. them their defire.
And all the prophets in their age the times
Of great Meffiah shall fing. Thus laws and rites
Establisht, such delight hath God in men
Obedient to his will, that he voutsafes
Among them to set up his tabernacle,
The holy one with mortal men to dwell :
By his prescript a sanctuarie is fram'd
Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein
An ark, and in the ark his testimony,
The records of his cov'nant, over these
A mercie-feat of gold between the wings
Of two bright cherubim, before him burn
Seaven lamps as in a Zodiac reprefenting
The heav'nly fires; over the tent a cloud
Shall rest by day, a fierie gleame by night,
Save when they journie, and at length they come,
Conducted by his angel to the land
Promised to Abraham and his feed: the rest
Were long to tell, how many battles fought,
How many kings destroy'd, and kingdoms won,
Or how the fun shall in mid heaven stand still
A day entire, and night's due course adjourne,
Man's voice commanding, fun in Gibeon stand,
And thou moon in the vale of Aialon,
Till Ifrael overcome; so call the third
From Abraham, son of Ifaac, and from hina
His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win,
Here Adam interpos'd. O fent from heav'n,
Enlightner of my darkness, gracious things
Thou haft reveal'd, those chiefly which concern
Just Abraham and his feed: now first I find
Mine eyes true op'ning, and my heart much eas'd,
Erewhile perplext with thoughts what would become
Of me and all mankind; but now I fee
His day, in whom all nations shall be blest,
Favour unmerited by me, who fought
Forbidd'n knowledge by forbidd'n 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 fins
Among them; how can God with such reside ?
To whom thus Michael. Doubt not but that fin
Will reign among them, as of thee begot;
And therefore was law giv'n them to evince
Their natural pravitie by stirring up
Sin against law to fight; that when they fee
Law can discover sin, but not remove,
Save by those shadowie expiations weak,
The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude
Some blood more precious must be paid for man,
Just for ur.just, that in such righteousness
To them by faith imputed, they may find
Justification towards God, and peace
Of confcience, which the law by ceremonies
Cannot appease, nor man the moral part
Perform and not performing cannot live.
So law appears imperfect, and but giv'n
With purpose to resign them in full time
Up to a better cov'nant, difciplin'd
From shadowie types to truth, from flesh to spirit,
From imposition of strict laws, to free
|
