His
presence from among them, and avert
His holy eyes; resolving 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 side Euphrates yet residing,
Bred up in idol-worship: O, that men

(Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown, While yet the patriarch liv'd, who 'scap'd 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

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.

All nations shall be blest: he straight obeys;
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

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 Desart south;
(Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd;)
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 grand-child, leaves;
Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown:
The grand-child, with twelve sons increas'd, 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 promis'd 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 loath'd 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 eat, and on the ground leave nothing green;
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 tam'd 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;
Aw'd 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
Moses once more his potent rod extends
Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys;

On their embattled ranks the waves return,
And overwhelm their war: the race elect

Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance
Through the wild Desart, 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

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 destin'd Seed to bruise
The Serpent, by what means He shall achieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God
To mortal ear 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 rights
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 fram'd
Of cedar, overlaid with gold; therein
An ark, and in the ark His testimony,

The records of His covenant; over these

M