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 show'r His benediction so, that in his seed
All nations shall be bless'd; 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 wand'ring 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 desert south, Things by their names I call, though yet unnam❜d, From Hermon east to the great western sea, 141 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 hiils. 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 bless'd, 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 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 Inhospitably, and kills their infant males: [slaves Till by two brethren, those two brethren call Moses and Aaron, sent from God to claim His people from enthralment, they return
155 increas'd] A Latinism, as Plaut. Trucul. ii. vi. 34.
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 murrain die; Botches and blains must all his flesh imboss, 180 And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail, Hail mix'd with fire, must rend th' Ægyptian 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 185 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 This river-dragon tam'd at length submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his stubborn heart; but still as ice
177 fill] Spoil. Bentl. MS.
180 imboss] Shakesp. K. Lear, act iv. sc. 11.
A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle.
168 Palpable] O darkness palpable.' Marston's Sat. ii.
191 This river-dragon] So in the first edition; in the second it is altered to The river-dragon.' Pearce.
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 rescu'd 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 th' obdurate king pursues: 25 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 imbattel'd ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war. The race elect
Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance 215 Through the wild desert, not the readiest way, Lest ent'ring on the Canaanite alarm'd
War terrify them inexpert, and fear
197 crystal walls] In Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 363, the Red Sea is described with walls of crystall.'
207 defends] i.e. forbids, keeps off: so b. xi. 86. "That defended fruit;' and Spens. F. Q. iv. 3. 32.
'Himself to save and daunger to defend.' Todd.
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 235 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 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 245 Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes
238 what they besoguht] In the first edition, 'He grants them their desire.'
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