With large wine-offerings pour'd, and sacred feast,
Shall spend their days in joy unblam'd, and dwell
Long time in peace by families and tribes
Under paternal rule; till one fhall rife
Of proud ambitious heart, who, not content
With fair equality, fraternal ftate,
Will arrogate dominion undeferv`d
Over his brethren, and quite difpoffefs
Concord and law of nature from the earth,
Hunting, (and men, not beafts, fhall be his game,) 30
With war and hoftile fnare, fuch as refuse,
Subjection to his empire tyrannous :
A mighty Hunter thence he shall be styl'd
Before the Lord, as in despite of heav'n,
Or from heav'n claiming fecond fov'reignty:
And from rebellion fhall derive his name,
Though of rebellion others he accufe.
He with a crew, whom like ambition joins
With him or under him to tyrannize,
Marching from Eden tow'rds the weft, thall find
The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge
Boils out from under ground, the mouth of hell;
Of brick, and of that stuff they caft, to build
A city and tower, whofe top may reach to heav'n;
And get themselves a name, left, far difpers'd
In foreign lands, their memory be lost,
Regardless whether good or evil fame.
But God, who oft defcends to vifit men
Unfeen, and through their habitations walks
To mark their doings, them beholding foon,
Comes down to fee their city, ere the tower
Obftruct Heav'n's tow'rs, and in derifion fets
Upon their tongues a various fpirit, to rafe
Quite out their native language, and instead
To fow a jangling noife of words unknown:
Forthwith a hideous gabble rifes loud
Among the builders; each to other calls
Not understood, till hoarfe, and all in rage,
As mock'd they ftorm; great laughter was in heaven And looking down, to see the hubbub strange,
And hear the din: thus was the building left
Ridiculous, and the work Confufion nam'd.
Whereto thus Adam fatherly difpleas'd:
O execrable fon fo to aspire
Above his brethren, to himself assuming
Authority ufurp'd, from God pot giv'n:
He gave us only over beaft, fish, fowl,
Dominion abfolute; that right we hold
By his donation; but man over men
He inade not lord; fuch title to himself
Referving, human left from human free.
But this ufurper his encroachment proud
Stays not on man; to God his tow'r intends
Siege and defiance: wretched man! what food
Will he convey up thither to fustain
Himself and his rafh army, where thin air
Above the clouds will pine his entrails grofs,
And famish him of breath, if not of bread?.
To whom thus Michael: Juftly thou abhorr'st
That fon, who on the quiet state of men,
Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue
Rational liberty; yet know withal,
Since thy original lapfe, true liberty
Is loft, which always with right reafon dwells
Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being:
Reafon in man'obfcur'd, or not obey'd,
Immediately inordinate defires
And apart paffions catch the government
From reafon, and to fervitude reduce
Man, till then free. Therefore fince he permits
Within himfelf unworthy powers to reign
Over free reafon, God, in judgment juft,
Subjects him from without to violent lords,
Who oft as undeservedly inthrall
His outward freedom; tyranny must be,
Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.
Yet fometimes nations will decline fo low
From virtue, which is reafon, that no wrong,
But juftice, and fome fatal curse annex'd,
Deprives them of their outward liberty,
Their inward loft: witness th' irreverent fon
Of him who built the ark, who, for the fhame
Done to his father, heard this heavy curfe,
Servant of fervants, on his vicious race,
Thus will this latter, as the former world,
Still tend from bad to worfe, till God at laft,
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
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 man
(Canft thou believe?) fhould be fo ftupid grown,
While yet the Patriarch liv'd, who 'cap'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 moft High vouchfafes 120
To call by vifion 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 feed
All nations fhall be bleft: he ftrait 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 foil,
Ur of Chaldea, paffing now the ford
To Haran; after him a cumbrous train
Of herds and flocks, and numerous fervitude;
Not wand'ring poor, but trusting all his wealth
With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains; I fee his tents
Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighb'ring plain
Of Morch; there by promife he receives
Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hamath northward to the defert fouth,
(Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd)
From Hermon east to the great western fea;
Mount Hermon, yonder fea, each place behold
In profpect, as I point them; on the shore
Mount Carmel; here the double-founted stream
Jordan, true limit eaftward; but his fons
Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.
This ponder, that all nations of the earth
Shall in his feed be blefled: by that feed
Is meant thy great deliverer, who shall bruise
The ferpent's head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch bleft,
Whom faithful Abraham due time fhall cali,
A fon, and of his fon a grand-child leaves,
Like him in faith, in wildom, and renown:
The grand-child with twelve fons increas'd departs
From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd
Egypt, divided by the river Nile;
See where it flows, difgorging at fev'n mouths
Into the fea to fojourn in that land
He comes, invited by a younger fon,
In time of dearth, a fon whole worthy deeds
Raile him to be the fecond in that realm
Of Pharoah: there he dies, and leaves his race
Growing into a nation, and now grown
Sufpected to a fequent king, who seeks
To ftop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
Too numerous; whence of guefts 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 lawlefs tyrant, who denies
To know their God, or meffage to regard,
Must be compell'd by figns and judgments dire;
To blood unfhed the rivers must be turn'd;
Frogs, lice, and flies, muft all his palace fill
With loath'd intrufion, and fill all the land;
His cattle muft of rot and murren die;
Botches and blains must all his flesh imbofs,
And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail,
Hail mix'd 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 dark fome cloud of locufts fwarming down
Muft eat, 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 Egypt muft lie dead. Thus with ten wounds 190
The river-dragon tam'd at length submits
To let his fojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his ftubborn heart, but still as ice
More harden'd after thaw, till in his rage
Purfuing whom he late difinifs'd, the fea
Swallows him with his hoft; but them lets pass
As on dry land between two cryftal walls,
Aw'd by the rod of Mofes fo to stand
Divided, till his refcued gain their shore:
Such wondrous power God to his faint will lend, 200
Though prefent 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 purfues :
All night he will purfue, but his approach
Darknets 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 fea; the fea his rod obeys;
On their embattl'd ranks the waves return,
And overwhelm their war: the race elect
Safe towards Canaan from the fhore advance
Through the wild defert, not the readieft way,
Left entering on the Canaanite alarm'd
War terrify them, inexpert, and fear
Return them back to Egypt, choofing rather
Inglorious life with fervitude; for life
VOL. II.
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