Servant of Servants, on his vicious 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; 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 invoked, A Nation from one faithful man to spring: Him on this side Euphrates yet residing, Bred up in Idol-worship; O that men (Can thou believe?) should be so stupid grown, While yet the Patriarch lived, who escaped 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 vouchsafed To call by Vision from his Fathers 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 blessed; he straight obeys, Not knowing to what Land, yet firm believes: I see him, but thou can not, with what Faith He leaves his Gods, his Friends, and native Soil Ur of Chald??a, 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 called him, in a land unknown. Canaan he now attains, I see his Tents Pitched about Sachem, 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 Hormone East to the great Western Sea, Mount Hormone, 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 Serpents head; whereof to thee anon Plainlier shall be reveled. This Patriarch blessed, 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 Grandchild with twelve Sons increased, departs From Canaan, to a Land hereafter called 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 Pharao: 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 (those two brethren call Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim His people from enthralling, 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 compelled by Signs and Judgements dire; To blood unshed the Rivers must be turned, 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 blaines must all his flesh emboss, And all his people; Thunder mixed with Hail, Hail mixed with fire must rend theEgyptian 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 tamed at length submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as Ice More hardened after thaw, till in his rage Pursuing whom he late dismissed, 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 Firey 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 wilde Desert, not the readiest way, Least entering on the Canaanite alarmed 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 Untraind 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 ordained: 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 destined Seed to bruise The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve Mankinds 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 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 Established, such delight hath God in Men Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafed Among them to set up his Tabernacle, The holy One with mortal Men to dwell: By his prescription 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 Mercie-seat of Gold between the wings Of two bright Cherubim, before him burn Seven Lamps as in a Zodiac 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, 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 destroyed, and Kingdoms won, Or how the Sun shall in mid Heaven stand still A day entire, and Nights due course adjourn, Mans 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.