Shall spend their days in joy unblam'd, and dwell
Long time in peace, by families and tribes,
Under paternal rule: till one shall rise
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 beasts shall be his game) 30 With war and hoftile fnare fuch as refuse
Subjection to his empire tyrannous:
A mighty hunter thence he shall be fil'd
Before the Lord, as in despite of Heaven,
Or from Heav'n claming second sovranty;
And from rebellion fhall derive his name,
Though of rebellion others he accuse.
He, with a crew, whom like ambition joins
With him, or under him to tyrannize,
Marching from Eden towards the weft, fhall find 40
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 tow'r, whose top may reach to Heaven;
And get themselves a name; left, far difpers'd
In foreign lands, their memory be loft,
Regardless whether good or evil fame.
But God,who oft descends to visit men
Unseen, and through their habitations walks
To mark their doings, them beholding soon,
Comes down to fee their city, ere the tower
Obftruct Heav'n-tow'rs, and in derifion,fets
Upon their tongues a various spi rit to rase
Quite out their native language, and instead
To fow a jangling noise of words unknown:
Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud
Among the builders; each to other calls
Not understood, till hoarfe, and all in rage,
As mock'd they storm; great laughter was in Heaven, And looking down, to see the hubbub strange, 60 And hear the din; thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confusion nam'd. Whereto thus Adam, fatherly difpleas'd.
O execrable son so to aspire
Above his brethren, to himself assuming
Authority ufurp'd, from God not given:
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation; but man over men
He made 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 sustain
Himself and his rash 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 ftate of men Such trouble brought, affecting to fubdue Rational liberty; yet know withal,
Since thy original lapse, true liberty
Is loft, which always with right reason dwells Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being: 85 Reason in man obscur'd, or not obey'd,
Immediately inordinate defires
And upftart paffions catch the government
From reason, and to fervitude reduce
Man,till then free. Therefore fince he permits go
Within himself unworthy pow'rs to reign
Over free reason, 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 reason, that no wrong,
But juftice, and fome fatal curfe 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 curse,
Servant of fervants, on his vicious race.
Thus will this latter, as the former world,
Still tend from bad to worse, till God,at laft,
Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw
His presence 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 rest, of whom to be invok'd;
A nation from one faithful man to spring:
Him on this fide Euphrates yet residing,
Bred up in idol-worship; O that men
(Canft thou believe?) should be so stupid 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
For Gods! yet him God the most High vouchfafes 120
To call by vifion, 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 fo, that in his feed
All nations shall be bleft; he strait 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 Chaldæa, 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 Moreh; there by promise he receives
Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hamath northward to the desert south,
(Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd)
From Hermon eaft to the great western sea;
Mount Hermon, yonder sea, each place behold
In profpect, as I point them; on the shore
Mount Carmel; here the double-founted ftream
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 blessed; by that feed
Is meant thy great deliverer, who shall bruise
The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier fhall be reveal'd. This patriarch blest,
Whom faithful Abraham due time fhall call,
A fon, and of his fon a grand-child leaves,
Like him in faith, in wisdom, 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 son,
In time of dearth; a son whose worthy deeds
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