To mark their doings, them beholding soon, Comes down to fee their city, ere the tower Obftru&t Heav'n-tow'rs, and in derifion fets Upon their tongues a various fpi'rit to rafe Quite out their native language, and instead To fow a jangling noife 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 ftorm; great laughter was in Heaven And looking down, to fee 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 affuming Authority ufurp'd, from God not given: He gave us only over beaft, fish, fowl Dominion abfolute; 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 rafh army, where thin air Above the clouds will pine his entrails grofs,
And famifh 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 lapfe, true liberty
Is loft, which always with right reafon dwells
Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being: 85 Reason in man obfcur'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 90 Within himself unworthy pow'rs 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 excufe. Yet sometimes nations will decline fo low From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong, But juftice, and fome fatal curse annex'd Deprives them of their outward liberty, Their inward loft: Witness th'irreverent son Of him who built the ark, who for the shame Done to his father, heard this heavy curse, Servant of Servants, on his vicious race. Thus will this latter, as the former world, Still tend from bad to worfe, till God at last 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 felect
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 men
(Canft thou believe?) fhould 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 vouchsafes 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 fhall 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 trufting all his wealth With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown. Canaan he now attains; I fee his tents 135 Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neigh'bring plain Of Moreh; there by promise he receives Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hamath northward to the defart fouth, (Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd) From Hermon east to the great western sea; Mount Hermon, yonder fea, each place behold In profpect, as I point them; on the shore Mount Carmel; here the double-founted ftream Jordan, true limit eastward; 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 fhall bruife The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon 150 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 wifdóm, 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 whofe worthy deeds Raife him to be the second 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 feeks 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 (those two brethren call Mofes and Aaron) fent from God to claim His people from inthralment, they return With glory' and spoil back to their promis'd land. But first the lawlefs tyrant, who denies
To know their God, or meffage to regard, Must be compell'd by figns and judgments dire; 175. 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 cattle muft of rot and murren die; Botches and blains muft all his flesh imbofs, And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail, Hail mix'd with fire must rend th' Egyptian sky, And wheel on th' earth devouring where it rolls; What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain, A darkfome cloud of locufts fwarming down Muft eat, and on the ground leave nothing green; Darkness muft overfhadow all his bounds, Palpable darknéfs, and blot out three days; Laft with one midnight ftroke all the firft-born
Of Egypt muft lie dead. Thus with ten wounds 190 The river-dragon tam'd at length fubmits To let his fojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his ftubborn heart, but still as ice More harden'd after thaw, till in his rage Pursuing whom he late difmifs'd, the fea Swallows him with his hoft, but them lets pafs 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 pow'r God to his faint will lend, 200 Though prefent in his Angel, who fhall 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: 205 All night he will purfue, 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 Mofes once more his potent rod extends Over the fea; the fea his rod obeys;
On their imbattel'd ranks the waves return And overwhelm their war: the race elect Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance Through the wild defert, not the readiest way, Left entring on the Canaanite alarm'd War terrify them inexpert, and fear Return them back to Egypt, choofing rather Inglorious life with fervitude; for life To noble and ignoble is more fweet
Untrain'd in arms, where rashness leads not`on. This alfo fhall they gain by their delay In the wide wildernels, there they fhall found
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