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
Plainlier shall be reveal'd.
(Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call ) A son, and of his son a grand-child, leaves; Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown.
« The grand-child, with twelve sons encreas'd, departs From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd 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 (these two brethren call Moses 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 judgments dire ; To blood unshed the rivers must be turn'd: Frogs, lice, and flies, must all his palace fill With loath'd intrusion, and fill all the land; His cattle must of rot and murrain die : Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss, And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail, Hail mix'd 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 tam'd at length, submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft Humbles his stubborn heart; but still, as ice More harden'd after thaw; till, in his rage Pursuing whom he late dismiss'd, the sea Swallows him with his host; but them lets As on dry land, between two crystal walls;
Aw'd by the rod of Moses so to stand Divided, till his rescued gain their shore. Such wondrous power God to his saint 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 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 command 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 alarm'd,
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 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 choose Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordain'd : God from the mount of Sinai, whose grey top Shall tremble, he descending, will himself In thunder, lightning, and loud tempest's sound, Ordain them laws; part, such as appertain To civil justice; part, religious rites Of sacrifice; informing them, by types And shadows, of that destin'd Seed to bruise The serpent, by wkat 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 Moses in figure bears; to introduce
One greater, of whose day he shall foretel, And all the prophets in their age the times Of great Messiah shall sing.
« Thus, laws and rites Establish'd, such delight hath God in men Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes Among them to set up his tabernacle; The Holy One with mortal men to dwell. By his prescript a sanctuary is fram'd 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
Promis'd to Abraham and his seed. The rest Were long to tell; how many battles fought; How many kings destroy'd, and kingdoms won; Or how the sun shall in mid heaven stand still A day entire, and night's due course adjourn, Man's voice commanding, sun, in Gibeon stand, And thou, moon, in the vale of Aialon,
Till Israel overcome! so call the third
From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.. Here Adam interpos'd : « O sent from heaven, Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things Thou hast reveal'd; those chiefly, which concern Just Abraham and his seed; now first I find Mine eyes true opening, and my heart much eas'd; Erewhile perplex'd with thoughts, what would become Of me and all mankind: but now I see
His day, in whom all nations shall be blest : Favour unmerited by me, who sought Forbidden knowledge by forbidden 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;
many laws argue so many sins
Among them; how can God with such reside? >>
To whom thus Michael : « Doubt not but that sin
Will reign among them, as of thee begot;
And therefore was law given them to evince Their natural pravity, by stirring up
Sin against law to fight; then when they see Law can discover sin, but not remove, Save by those shadowy expiations weak,
The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude Some blood more precious must be paid for man : Just for unjust; that, in such righteousness To them by faith imputed, they may find Justification towards God, and peace
Of conscience; which the law by ceremonies Cannot appease; nor man the moral part
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