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 mockt they storm; great laughter was in Heav'n And looking down, to see the hubbub strange 60 And hear the din; thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confufion nam'd. Whereto thus Adam fatherly displeas'd.
O execrable Son fo to aspire
Above his Brethren, to himself affuming
Authoritie ufurpt, from God not giv'n:
He gave us onely 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
Stayes not on Man; to God his Tower intends
Siege and defiance: Wretched man! what food
Will he convey up thither to sustain
Himself and his rash Armie, where thin Aire
Above the Clouds will pine his entrails gross,
And famish him of Breath, if not of Bread?
To whom thus Michael. Juftly thou abhorr'st
That Son, who on the quiet state of men
Such trouble brought, affecting to fubdue
Rational Libertie; yet know withall,
Since thy original lapse, true Libertie
Is loft, which alwayes with right Reason dwells
Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being:
Reason in man obfcur'd, or not obeyd,
Immediately inordinate defires
And upftart Paffions catch the Government
From Reason, and to fervitude reduce
Man till then free. Therefore fince hee permits
Within himself unworthie Powers to reign
Over free Reason, God in Judgement just
Subjects him from without to violent Lords;
Who oft as undeservedly enthrall
His outward freedom: Tyrannie must be,
Though to the Tyrant thereby no excufe.
Yet fomtimes Nations will decline fo low
From vertue, which is reafon, that no wrong,
But Juftice, and fome fatal curse annext
Deprives them of thir outward libertie,
Thir inward loft: Witness th' irreverent Son
Of him who built the Ark, who for the shame
Don to his Father, heard this heavie curse,
Servant of Servants, on his vitious Race.
Thus will this latter, as the former World,
Still tend from bad to worse, till God at last
Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw
His presence from among them, and avert
His holy Eyes; refolving from thenceforth
To leave them to thir own polluted wayes;
And one peculiar Nation to select
From all the reft, 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 Patriark liv'd, who scap'd the Flood, As to forfake the living God, and fall
To worship thir own work in Wood and Stone For Gods! yet him God the most High voutsafes To call by Vision from his Fathers house,
His kindred and false Gods, into a Land
Which he will fhew him, and from him will raise
A mightie Nation, and upon him showre
His benediction fo, that in his Seed
All Nations shall be bleft; hee straight 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 Soile
Ur of Chaldea, paffing now the Ford
To Haran, after him a cumbrous Train
Of Herds and Flocks, and numerous fervitude;
Not wandring poor, but trusting all his wealth
With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains, I fee his Tents
Pitcht about Sechem, and the neighbouring Plaine
Of Moreh; there by promise he receaves
Gift to his Progenie of all that Land;
From Hamath Northward to the Defert South
(Things by thir names I call, though yet unnam'd)
From Hermon Eaft to the great Western Sea, 141
Mount Hermon, yonder Sea, each place behold
In profpect, as I point them; on the shoare
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 bleffed; by that Seed
Is meant thy great deliverer, who shall bruise
The Serpents head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier fhall be reveald. This Patriarch bleft,
Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,
A Son, and of his Son a Grand-childe leaves,
Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;
The Grandchilde with twelve Sons increaft, departs
From Canaan, to a Land hereafter call'd
Egypt, divided by the River Nile;
See where it flows, disgorging at seaven mouthes
Into the Sea to fojourn in that Land
He comes invited by a yonger Son
In time of dearth, a Son whofe worthy deeds
Raife him to be the fecond in that Realme
Of Pharao: there he dies, and leaves his Race
Growing into a Nation, and now grown
Sufpected to a fequent King, who feeks
To stop thir overgrowth, as inmate guests
Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them
Inhospitably, and kills thir infant Males: [flaves
Till by two brethren (those two brethren call
Mofes and Aaron) fent from God to claime
His people from enthralment, they return
With glory and spoile back to thir promis'd Land.
But first the lawless Tyrant, who denies
To know thir God, or message to regard,
Must be compelld by Signes and Judgements dire;
To blood unfhed the Rivers must be turnd,
Frogs, Lice and Flies must all his Palace fill
With loath'd intrufion, and fill all the land;
His Cattel must of Rot and Murren die,
Botches and blaines must all his flesh imboss, 180
And all his people; Thunder mixt with Haile,
Haile 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 Graine,
A darkfom Cloud of Locufts fwarming down
Muft eat, and on the ground leave nothing green:
Darkness muft overshadow all his bounds,
Palpable darkness, and blot out three dayes;
Last with one midnight stroke all the first-born
Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds
This River-dragon tam'd at length fubmits
To let his fojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his stubborn heart, but ftill as Ice
More hard❜nd after thaw, till in his rage
Pursuing whom he late difmifsd, the Sea
Swallows him with his Hoft, but them lets pafs
As on drie land between two christal walls,
Aw'd by the rod of Mofes fo to stand
Divided, till his refcu'd gain thir fhoar:
Such wondrous power God to his Saint will lend,
Though present in his Angel, who shall goe
Before them in a Cloud, and Pillar of Fire,
By day a Cloud, by night a pillar of Fire,
To guide them in thir journey, and remove
Behinde them, while th' obdurat King pursues:
All night he will purfue, but his approach
Darkness defends between till morning Watch;
Then through the Firey Pillar and the Cloud
God looking forth will trouble all his Hoft
And craze thir Chariot wheels: when by command.
Mofes once more his potent Rod extends
Over the Sea; the Sea his Rod obeys;
On thir imbattelld ranks the Waves return,
And overwhelm thir Warr: the Race elect
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