Will arrogate dominion undeserved
Over his brethren, and quite dispossess
Concord and law of nature from the earth; Hunting, and men not beasts shall be his game, With war and hostile snare such as refuse Subjection to his empire tyrannous.
A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled1 Before the Lord, as in despite of heav'n, Or from heav'n claiming second sov'reignty; And from rebellion shall derive his name, Though of rebellion others he accuse. He with a crew, whom like ambition joins With him or under him to tyrannize, Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge Boils out from under ground, the mouth of hell: Of brick and of that stuff they cast to build A city and tow'r, whose top may reach to heav'u, And get themselves a name, lest far disperst In foreign lands their memory be lost, Regardless whether good or evil fame. But GOD, who oft descends to visit men Unseen, and through their habitations walks To mark their doings, them beholding soon, Comes down to see their city, ere the tower Obstruct Heav'n-tow'rs, and in derision sets Upon their tongues a various spirit, to rase Quite out their native language, and instead To sow a jangling noise of words unknown. Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud Among the builders, each to other calls
Not understood, till hoarse, and all in rage,
As mock'd they storm; great laughter was in heav'n, And looking down, to see the hubbub strange And hear the din; thus was the building left
Nimrod, who is supposed to have been the first who assumed kingly power. See Gen. x. 9
2 The name Nimrod is derived from a Hebrew word that signifies to rebel,
"And it came to pass, as they jour neyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter." Gen. xi. 2, &c.
Ridiculous, and the work Confusion' named. Whereto thus Adam fatherly displeased. O execrable son! so to aspire Above his brethren, to himself assuming Authority usurp'd, from God not giv'n. He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl, Dominion absolute; that right we hold By His donation; but man over men He made not lord; such title to Himself Reserving, human left from human free. But this usurper his encroachment proud Stays not on man; to GOD his tower intends Siege and defiance. Wretched man! what food Will he convey up thither to sustain
Himself and his rash army, where thin air Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross, And famish him of breath, if not of bread?
To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorr'st That son, who on the quiet state of men Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue Rational liberty; yet know withal, Since thy original lapse, true liberty
Is lost, which always with right reason dwells Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being: Reason in man obscured, or not obey'd, Immediately inordinate desires
And upstart passions catch the government From reason, and to servitude reduce Man till then free. Therefore, since he permits Within himself unworthy powers to reign Over free reason, GOD in judgment just Subjects him from without to violent lords Who oft as undeservedly enthral His outward freedom. Tyranny must be, Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse. Yet sometimes nations will decline so low From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong, But justice, and some fatal curse annex'd, Deprives them of their outward liberty,
1 Babel signifies confusion in Hebrew.
Their inward lost: witness the irreverent son Of him who built the ark, who for the shame Done to his father, heard this heavy curse, 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,
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 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
1 Gen. ix. 22-25.
Abraham.
Terah, Abraham's father, was an idoleter. See Josh, xxiv. 2. Jewish tradition
represents the father and grandfather of Abraham to have been carvers of idols. Terah was born in Noah's lifetime.
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 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 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 slav ́s 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 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 loath'd intrusion, and fill all the land:
His cattle must of rot and murrain die; Blotches and blains must all his flesh imboss, And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail, Hail mix'd with fire, must rend the 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 ewarming 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 This river-dragon' 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 Moses once more his potent rod extends Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys; On their imbattled 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 ent'ring on the Canaanite alarm'd
1 An allusion to the crocodile, the Egyptian animal. Rzekiel also styles
Pharoah "the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers.'
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