Lainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch blest,
✔hom Faithful Abraham due time shall call,
fon, and of his son a grand-child leaves,
ike him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;
The grand-child with twelve fons increaft, departs
From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd
Egypt, divided by the river Nile;

See where it flows, difgorging at feaven mouths
Into the fea: to fojourn in that land
He comes invited by a younger fon
In time of dearth, a fon whofe worthy deeds
Raise 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 seeks
To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
Too numerous; 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 spoil back to their promis'd land.
But first 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 cattel muft of rot and murrain die,
Botches and blaines must all his flesh imbofs,
And all his people; thunder mixt with hail,

Hail mixt with fire must rend th’Egyptian skie
And wheel on th'earth, devouring where it rouls;
What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
A darksome cloud of locufts swarming 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 must lie 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 hard❜nd after thaw, till in his rage
Pursuing whom he late difmifs'd, the fea
Swallows him with his hoft, but them lets pass
As on drie land between two christal walls,
Aw'd by the rod of Mofes so to stand
Divided, till his refcu'd gain their shoar:
Such wondrous power God to his faint 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 th❜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 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 imbattl'd ranks the waves return,
And overwhelm their war: the race elect
Safe towards Canaan from the shoar advance
Through the wild desert, not the readiest way,
-Left entring on the Canaanite allarm'd

War terrifie them inexpert, and fear

- Return them back to Egypt, chofing 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 fenate choose
Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordain'd:
God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top
Shall tremble, he defcending, will himself
In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets found
Ordaine them laws; part such as appertaine
To civil juftice, part religious rites
hOf facrifice, informing them by types

And fhadows of that deftin'd feed to bruife
The ferpent, by what means he shall atchieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God
To mortal ear is dreadful; they befeech
That Mofes might report to them his will,
And terror ceafe; he grants * what they besaught,
Inftructed that to God is no access

Without mediator, whose high office now
Mofes in figure beares, to introduce
One greater, of whose day he shall fortell,
2d. Ed. 1. them their defire.

And all the prophets in their age the times
Of great Meffiah fhall fing. Thus laws and rites
Establisht, fuch delight hath God in men
Obedient to his will, that he voutfafes
Among them to set up his tabernacle,
The holy one with mortal men to dwell:
By his prescript a fanctuarie is fram'd
Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein
An ark, and in the ark his testimony,
The records of his cov'nant, over these
A mercie-feat of gold between the wings
Of two bright cherubim, before him burn
Seaven lamps as in a Zodiac representing
The heav'nly fires; over the tent a cloud
Shall reft by day, a fierie gleame by night,
Save when they journie, and at length they come,
Conducted by his angel to the land

Promised to Abraham and his feed: the reft
Were long to tell, how many battles fought,
How many kings destroy'd, and kingdoms won,
Or how the fun fhall in mid heaven stand still
A day entire, and night's due course adjourne,
Man's voice commanding, fun in Gibeon stand,
And thou moon in the vale of Aialon,
Till Ifrael overcome; fo call the third
From Abraham, fon of Ifaac, and from hina
His whole defcent, who thus fhall Canaan win,

Here Adam interpos'd. O fent from heav'n, Enlightner of my darkness, gracious things Thou haft reveal'd, thofe chiefly which concern Juft Abraham and his feed: now first I find

Mine eyes true op'ning, and my heart much eas'd,
Erewhile perplext with thoughts what would become
Of me and all mankind; but now I fee
His day, in whom all nations shall be bleft,
Favour unmerited by me, who fought
Forbidd'n knowledge by forbidd'n 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 ;
So many laws argue so many fins
Among them; how can God with fuch refide ?

To whom thus Michael. Doubt not but that fin
Will reign among them, as of thee begot;
And therefore was law giv'n them to evince
Their natural pravitie by stirring up

Sin against law to fight; that when they fee
Law can discover fin, but not remove,
Save by thofe fhadowie expiations weak,
The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude
Some blood more precious must be paid for man,
Juft for unjust, that in such righteousness
To them by faith imputed, they may find
Juftification towards God, and peace
Of conscience, which the law by ceremonies
Cannot appease, nor man the moral part
Perform and not performing cannot live.
So law appears imperfect, and but giv'n
With purpose to refign them in full time
Up to a better cov'nant, disciplin'd

From shadowie types to truth, from flesh to spirit,
From impofition of strict laws, to free

P