A nation from one faithful man to spring:
Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,
Bred up in idol-worship: O, that men

(Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown,

While yet the patriarch lived who 'scaped the flood,
As to forsake the living God, and fall

To worship their own work in wood and stone

For gods! Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes

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To call by vision, 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 so, that in his seed

m

All nations shall be blest: he straight obeys; 1
Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes:
I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith
He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil,
Ur of Chaldæa," passing now the ford
To Haran; after him a cumbrous train
Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude;
Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth
With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains; I see his tents

j Bred up in idol-worship.

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We read in Josh. xxiv. 2: "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods." Now as Terah, Abraham's father, was an idolater, I think we may be certain that Abraham was bred up in the religion of his father, though he renounced it afterwards, and in all probability converted his father likewise; for Terah removed with Abraham to Haran, and there died. See Gen. xi. 31, 32.-NEWTON.

While yet the patriarch lived.

It appears from the computations given by Moses, Gen. xi. that Terah, the father of Abraham, was born two hundred and twenty-two years after the flood, but Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years, Gen. ix. 28; and we have proved from Joshua, that Terah, and the ancestors of Abraham, "served other gods;" and from the Jewish traditions we learn farther, that Terah, and Nachor his father, and Serug his grandfather, were statuaries and carvers of idols: and therefore idolatry was set up in the world, while yet the patriarch lived who 'scaped the flood.-NEWTON.

Milton, sensible that this long historical description might grow irksome, has varied the manner of representing it as much as possible; beginning first with supposing Adam to have a prospect of it before his eyes; next, by making the angel the relater of it; and, lastly, by uniting the two former methods, and making Michael see it as in vision, and give a rapturous enlivened account of it to Adam. This gives great ease to the languishing attention of the reader.-THYER.

n Ur of Chaldæa.

See Gen. xi. 31. Chaldæa, a province of Asia, lying east of the Euphrates, and west of the Tigris; Ur, a city of Chaldæa, the country of Abraham and Terah.-NEWTON.

• A cumbrous train.

The poet here has an opportunity of introducing the picturesque description of Abraham, with his long train of flocks, herds, family and servants, passing in procession the river, which description I consider as a fortunate application of the account given of Jacob's returning from Mesopotomia into Canaan, Gen. xxxii. 13, 16, 22, 23.-DUNSTER.

Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighbouring 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 unnamed)
From Hermon east to the great western sea;
Mount Hermon; yonder sea-each place behold
In prospect, as I point them; on the shore,
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 blessed: by that seed
Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise
The serpent's head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch blest,
Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,
A son, and of his son a grandchild, leaves;
Like him in faith, in wisdom; and renown;
The grandchild, with twelve sons increased, departs
From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd
Egypt, divided by the river Nile;

See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths
Into the sea to sojourn in that land

He comes, invited by a younger son

In time of dearth; a son, whose worthy deeds
Raise him to be the second in that realm

Of Pharaoh there he dies, and leaves his race
Growing into a nation; and now grown

Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks

To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests

Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves
Inhospitably, and kills their infant males:

Till by two brethren (these two brethren call

Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim

His people from enthralment, they return,

With glory and spoil, back to their promised land.
But first, the lawless tyrant, who denies
To know their God, or message to regard,
Must be compell'd by signs and judgments dire;
To blood unshed the rivers must be turn'd;
Frogs, lice, and flies must all his palace fill
With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land;
His cattle must of rot and murren die;
Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss,
And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail,
Hail mix'd with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky,
And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls;
What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down
Must cat, and on the ground leave nothing green;

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Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,
Palpable darkness, and blot out three days;
Last, with one midnight-stroke, all the first-born
Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds
The river-dragon P tamed at length submits
To let his sojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his stubborn heart: but still, as ice
More harden'd after thaw; till, in his rage
Pursuing whom he late dismiss'd, the sea
Swallows him with his host; but them lets pass,
As on dry land, between two crystal walls;
Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand
Divided till his rescued gain their shore:
Such wondrous power God to his saint 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 the 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 host,

And craze their chariot-wheels: when by command

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Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance
Through the wild Desert; not the readiest way,
Lest, entering on the Canaanite alarm'd,
War terrify them inexpert, and fear

Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather
Inglorious life with servitude; 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 senate choose
Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws, ordain'd:
God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top
Shall tremble, he descending, will himself

P The river-dragon.

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225

The river-dragon, as Addison has observed, is Pharaoh, in allusion to Ezekiel, xxix. 3.-TODD.

a The race elect.

It is remarkable that here Milton omits the moral cause, though he gives the poetical, of the Israelites wandering forty years in the wilderness; and this was their poltron mutiny on the return of the spies. He omitted this with judgment; for this last speech of the angel was to give such a representation of things as might convey comfort to Adam; otherwise the story of the brazen serpent would have afforded noble imagery.-WARBURTON.

In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets' sound,
Ordain them laws; part, such as appertain
To civil justice; part, religious rites
Of sacrifice; informing them, by types
And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise
The serpent, by what means he shall achieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God
To mortal car is dreadful: they beseech
That Moses might report to them his will,
And terrour cease: he grants what they besought,
Instructed that to God is no access

Without mediator; whose high office now
Moses in figure bears, to introduce

One greater, of whose day he shall foretell;
And all the prophets in their age the times
Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus, laws and rites
Establish'd, such delight hath God in men,
Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes
Among them to set up his tabernacle ;-
The Holy One with mortal men to dwell:
By his prescript a sanctuary is framed
Of cedar, overlaid with gold; therein
An ark, and in the ark his testimony,
The records of his covenant; over these
A mercy-seat of gold, between the wings
Of two bright cherubim; before him burn
Seven lamps, as in a zodiacs representing
The heavenly fires; over the tent a cloud
Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night;
Save when they journey, and at length they come,

r Ver. 230, &c.

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235

240

245

250

255

By these passages Milton seems to have understood no more of the Jewish institution than he saw in the small presbyterian systems; otherwise the true idea of the theocracy would have afforded some noble observations.-WARBURTON.

Milton speaks of the civil and the ritual, the judicial and the ceremonial precepts delivered to the Jews; but why did he omit the moral law contained in the ten commandments? possibly his reason might be, because this was supposed to be written iginally in the heart of man, and therefore Adam must have been perfectly acquainted with it; but however I think, this should have been particularly mentioned, as it was published at this time in the most solemn manner by God from Mount Sinai; and as it was thought worthy to be written with his own finger upon two tables of stone, when the rest was conveyed to the people by the writing and preaching of Moses, as a mediator between God and them.-GREENWOOD.

s Seven lamps, as in a zodiac.

That the seven lamps signified the seven planets, and that therefore the lamps stood slope-wise, as it were to express the obliquity of the zodiac, is the gloss of Josephus, from whom probably Milton borrowed it. Joseph. Antiq. lib. iii. c. vi. and vii., and De Bel. Jud. lib. v. c. 5. See likewise Mede's discourse x. upon the seven archangels. Mr. Hume quotes likewise the Latin of Philo to the same purpose. See Cornelius à Lapide, upon Exod. xxv. 31.-NEWTON.

t Save when they journey.

See Exod. xl. 34, &c.: "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle: and when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the chil

Conducted by his angel, to the land
Promised to Abraham and his seed: the rest
Were long to tell; how many battles fought;
How many kings destroy'd, and kingdoms won;
Or how the sun shall in mid heaven stand still
A day entire, and night's due course adjourn,
Man's voice commanding,-Sun, in Gibeon stand
And thou, moon, in the vale of Aialon
Till Israel overcome !-so call the third,
From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him
His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.
Here Adam interposed: O sent from Heaven,
Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things
Thou hast reveal'd; those chiefly, which concern
Just Abraham and his seed; now first I find
Mine eyes true opening, and my heart much eased;
Erewhile perplex'd with thoughts, what would become
Of me and all mankind: but now I see

His day, in whom all nations shall be blest;
Favour unmerited by me who sought
Forbidden knowledge by forbidden 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 sins

Among them: how can God with such reside?

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270

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280

To whom thus Michael; Doubt not but that sin

285

Will reign among them, as of thee begot;

And therefore was law given them, to evince
Their natural pravity by stirring up

Sin against law to fight; that when they see
Law can discover sin, but not remove,

290

dren of Israel went onward in all their journeys; but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up; for the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." Thus it was in all places wherever they came and this is what Milton says: in short, the cloud was over the tent by day, and the fire (called here a fiery gleam) by night, when they journeyed not. He takes no notice how it was when they did: which this text (for the infinite beauty of which we have given it at length) explains; the cloud was then taken up; how then? "The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, to go by day and night." c. xiii. 21. Other armies pitch their ensigns when they encamp, and lift them up when they march: so does the Lord of Hosts, leading forth his people. But, what ensigns! how sublime! Milton seems too concise here.-RICHARDSON.

u So many laws argue.

The scruple of our first father, and the reply of the angel, are grounded upon St. Paul's epistles, and particularly those to the Ephesians, Galatians, and Hebrews, as the reader, who is at all conversant with these sacred writings, will easily perceive. Compare the following texts with the poet: Gal. iii. 19. Rom. vii. 7, 8. Rom. iii. 20. Heb. ix. 13, 14. Heb. x. 4, 5. Rom. iv. 22, 23, 24. Rom. v. 1. Heb. vii. 18, 19. Heb. x. 1. Gal. iii. 11, 12, 23. Gal. iv. 7. Rom. viii. 15. Milton has here, in a few verses, admirably summed up the sense and argument of these and more texts of Scripture. It is really wonderful how he could comprise so much divinity in so few words, and at the same time express it with so much strength and perspicuity.-NEWTON.