Man till then free. Therefore fince he permits 90 Within himself unworthy Powers to reign
Over free Reason, God in Judgement juft Subjects 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 fometimes Nations will deciine fo low From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong, But Juftice, and some fatal curfe annext Deprives them of their outward liberty, Their inward loft: Witness th' irreverent Son Of him who built the Ark, who for the fhame 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 last 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 felect
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 fo fupid grown, While yet the Patriarch liv'd, who fcap'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 vouchsafes To call by Vision from his Father's house,
His kindred and falfe Gods, into a Land
Which he will fhew him, and from him will raise A mighty Nation, and upon him shower
His benediction fo, that in his Seed
All Nations shall be bleft; he ftraight 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 Soil Ur of Chaldaa, paffing now the Ford
To Haran, after him a cumbrous Train
Of Herds and Flocks, and numerous fervitude; Not wandring poor, but trufting all his wealth With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown. Canaan he now attains, I fee his Tents Pitcht about Sechem, and the neighbouring Plain Of Morch; 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) 14• From Hermon Eaft to the great Western Sea, Mount Hermon, yonder Sea, each place behold In profpect, as 1 point them; on the hoar Mount Carmel; here the double-founted ftream Jordan, true limit Eaftward; 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 bleffed; 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 bleft, Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call, A Son, and of his Son a Grand-child leaves, Like him in faith, in wifdom, and renown; The Grand child with twelve Sons increaft, departs From Canaan, to a Land hereafter call'd Egypt, divided by the River Nile;
See where it flows, difgorging at feven mouths Into a Sea: to fojourn in that Land
He comes invited by a younger Son
In time of dearth, a Son whose worthy deeds Raife him to be the fecond in that Realm Of Pharao: there he dies, and leaves his Race Growing into a Nation, and now grown Sufpected to a fequent King, who feeks 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 (thofe two brethren call Mofes and Aaron) fent from God to claim His people from Enthralment, they return With glory and fpoil 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 Signs and Judgements dire; To blood unfhed 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 Cattle muft of Rot and Murren die,
Botches and blaines muft all his flesh imbofs, 180 And all his people; Thunder mixt with Hail, Hail mixt with fire muft rend th' Egyptian Sky And wheel on th'Earth, devouring where it rolls, What it devours not, Herb, or Fruit, or Grain, A darkfom Cloud of Locusts swarming down Muft ear, and on the ground leave nothing green: Darkness muft overshadow all his bounds, Palpable darkness, and blot out three days; Laft with one midnight stroke all the first-born Of Eygpt muft lye 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 ftill as Ice More harden'd after thaw, till in his rage Purfuing whom he late difinifs'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 fo to ftand
Divided, till his refcu'd gain their fhoar:
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 purfues : 205 All night he will purfue, 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 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 fhoar advance Through the wild Defert, not the readiest way, Left entring on the Canaanite alarm'd
War terrifie them inexpert, and fear
Return them back to Egypt, chusing 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 shall they gain by their delay
In the wide Wilderness, there they shall found Their government, and their great Senate chufe 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 fuch as appertain To civil Juftice, part religious Rites of facrifice, informing them, by types
And fhadows, of that deftin'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 Enftructed that to God is no accefs
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