With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains; I see his tents

Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighb'ring plain
Of Moreh; there by promise he receives

Gift to his progeny of all that land,

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From Hamath northward to the desert 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 sev'n mouths
Into the sea: to sojourn in that land

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He comes invited by a younger son

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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

[slaves

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To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them
Inhospitably', and kills their infant males:
Till by two brethren (those two brethren call
Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim
His people from inthralment, 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 the land;
His cattle must of rot and murren die;
Botches and blains must all his flesh imboss,
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 darksome cloud of locusts swarming down
Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green;
Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,

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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 199
The river-dragon am'd at length submits

To let his soiurners 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, zoo

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 th' 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 embattl'd ranks the waves return,
And overwhelm their war: the race elect
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 a. d ignoble is more sweet

Untrain'd in arms, where rashness leads not on.
This also shall they gain by their delay

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220

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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 trumpet's 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 terror 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

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One greater, of whose day he shall foretel,
And all the prophets in their age the times

Of great Messi'ah 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 fram'd
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

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Of two bright cherubim; before him burn
Sev'n lamps as in in a zodiac representing
The heav'nly fires; over the tent a cloud
Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night,
Save when they journey, and at length they come
Conducted by his Angel to the land

Promis'd 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 Heav'n 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

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From Abraham, son of Isaac, and from him
His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.
Here Adam interpos'd: O sent from Heav'n, 270
Inlight'ner 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 eas'd,
Erewhile perplex'd with thoughts what would be-

come

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;

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