Thus will this latter, as the former world, Still tend from bad to worse, till God at last, Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw His presence from among them, and avert His holy eyes, resolving from thenceforth To leave them to their own polluted ways, And one peculiar nation to select From all the rest, of whom to be invoked- A nation from one faithful man to spring. Him on this side Euphrates yet residing, Bred up in idol-worship-Oh, that men (Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown, While yet the patriarch lived who scaped the Flood,
As to forsake the living God, and fall
To worship their own work in wood and stone For gods!-yet him God the Most High voutsafes
To call by wisdom from his father's house, His kindred, and false gods, into a land Which he will show him, and from him will raise A mighty nation, and upon him shower His benediction so that in his seed
All nations shall be blest. He straight obeys; Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes. I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil, Ur of Chaldæa, passing now the ford To Haran-after him a cumbrous train Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude- Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth With God, who called him, in a land unknown. Canaan he now attains; I see his tents
Pitched about Sechem, and the neighbouring plain
The Father of the faithful called
The Of Moreh. There, by promise, he receives Patri- Gift to his progeny of all that land,
archs From Hamath northward to the Desert south
(Things by their names I call, though yet unnamed),
From Hermon east to the great western sea; Mount Hermon, yonder sea, each place behold In prospect, as I point them: on the shore, 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 Shall in his seed be blessed. By that seed Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon 150 Plainlier shall be revealed. This patriarch blest, Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call, A son, and of his son a grandchild, leaves, Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown. The grandchild, with twelve sons increased, departs
From Canaan to a land hereafter called Egypt, divided by the river Nile;
See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths Into the sea. To sojourn in that land
He comes, invited by a younger son
In time of dearth-a son whose worthy deeds Raise him to be the second in that realm Of Pharaoh. 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 Plagues Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim His people from enthralment, they return, With glory and spoil, back to their promised land.
But first the lawless tyrant, who denies To know their God, or message to regard, Must be compelled by signs and judgments dire: To blood unshed the rivers must be turned; Frogs, lice, and flies must all his palace fill With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land; His cattle must of rot and murrain die ; Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss, 180 And all his people; thunder mixed with hail, Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky,
And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls; What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain, A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down 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 Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds The river-dragon tamed at length submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as ice More hardened after thaw; till in his rage, Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea Swallows him with his host, but them lets pass, As on dry land, between two crystal walls, Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand Divided till his rescued gain their shore :
The Law Such wondrous power God to his Saint will
Sinai 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 the 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 com- mand,
Moses once more his potent rod extends Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys; On their embattled ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war. The race elect Safe towards Canaan, from the shore, advance Through the wild Desert-not the readiest way, Lest, entering on the Canaanite alarmed, War terrify them inexpert, and fear Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather Inglorious life with servitude; for life To noble and ignoble is more sweet
Untrained 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 choose Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws or- dained.
God, from the Mount of Sinai, whose grey top Shall tremble, he descending, will himself, In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpet's sound, Ordain them laws-part, such as appertain 230
To civil justice; part, religious rites Of sacrifice, informing them, by types
And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God To mortal ear is dreadful: they beseech That Moses might report to them his will, And terror cease; he grants what they besought, Instructed that to God is no access
Without Mediator, whose high office now 240 Moses in figure bears, to introduce
One greater, of whose day he shall foretell, And all the Prophets, in their age, the times Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus laws and rites Established, 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 sanctuary is framed Of cedar, overlaid with gold; therein An ark, and in the ark his testimony, The records of his covenant; over these A mercy-seat of gold, between the wings Of two bright Cherubim; before him burn Seven lamps, as in a zodiac representing The heavenly fires. Over the tent a cloud Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night, Save when they journey; and at length they come, Conducted by his Angel, to the land
Promised to Abraham and his seed. The rest 260 Were long to tell-how many battles fought; How many kings destroyed, and kingdoms won; Or how the sun shall in mid-heaven stand still A day entire, and night's due course adjourn,
The Sanctuary of the covenant
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