Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity,
With fome regard to what is juft and right
Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace,
Lab'ring the foil, and reaping plenteous crop,
Corn wine and oil; and from the herd or flock,
Oft facrificing bullock, lamb, of kid,
With large wine-offerings pour'd, and facred feast,
Shall spend their days in joy unblam'd, and dwell
Long time in peace by families and tribes
Under paternal rule; till one fhall rise
Of proud ambitious heart, who not content
With fair equality, fraternal state,
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 gain)
With war and hoftile fnare fuch as refuse
Subjection to his empire tyrannous :
A mighty hunter thence he fhall be stil'd
Before the Lord, as in defpite of Heaven,
Or from Heav'n claiming fecond 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 west, shall 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, whofe top may reach to Heaven;
And get themselves a name, left far difpers'd
In foreign lands their memory be loft,
Regardlefs whether good or evil fame.
But God who oft defcends to vifit men
Unfeen, and through their habitations walks
To mark their doings, them beholding foon,
Comes down to fee their city, ere the tower
Obftruct 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 rifes 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 fee the hubbub strange
And hear the din; thus was the building left)
Ridiculous, and the work Confufion nam❜d.
Whereto thus Adam fatherly difpleás’d.
O execrable fon so to aspire
Above his brethren, to himself affuming
Authority ufurp'd, from God not givén:
He gave us only over beast, 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 mân; to God his tow'r intends
Siege and defiance: Wretched man! what food
Will he convey up thither to fuftain
Himself and his rafh 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'ft
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 reason dwells
Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being: 85
Reafon in man obfcur'd, or not obey'd,
Immediately inordinate defires
And upftart paffions catch the government
From reafon, and to fervitude reduce
Man till then free. Therefore fince he permits 90
Within himself unworthy pow'rs to reign
Over free reason, God in judgment just
Subjects him from without to violent lords;
Who oft as undeservedly inthrall
His outward freedom: tyranny must be,
Though to the tyrant thereby nó excuse.
Yet fometimes nations will decline fo low
From virtue, which is reafon, 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 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 fele&t
From all the reft, of whom to be invok'd,
A nation from one faithful man to fpring:
Him on this fide Euphrates yet residing,
Bred up in idol-worthip; O that men
(Canft thou believe?) fhould be so ftupid grown, While yet the patriarch liv'd, who 'cap'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 moft High vouchfafes To call by vifion from his father's house,
His kindred and falfe 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 ftrait 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 soil
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
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 eaft to the great western sea;
Mount Hermon, yonder fea, cach place behold
In profpect, as I point them; on the fhore
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 bleffed; by that feed
Is meant thy great deliverer, who fhall bruife
The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier fhall be reveal'd. This patriarch bleft,
Whom faithful Abraham due time fhall call,
A fon, and of his fon a grand-child leaves,
Like him in faith, in wifdom, 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 whose worthy deeds
Raise him to be the fecond 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 ftop 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 fpoil 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 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 cattel muft of rot and murren die; Botches and blains must all his flesh imbofs, And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail, Hail mix'd with fire muft 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 darkness, and blot out three days; Laft with one midnight stroke all the first-born
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