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,

95

Ice

ICS

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

FO

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

121

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

125

130

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

135

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

R

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150

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

156

160

165

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,

170

175

185

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:

195

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

211

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

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220

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

230

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