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 'scap'd the As to forsake the living God, and fall

[flood,

To worship their own work in wood and stone
For gods! Yet him God the Most High vouch-
To call by vision, from his father's house,

[safes

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 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 Chaldea; 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 neighb'ring 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-
From Hermon east to the great western sea; [ed;)
Mount Hermon; yonder sea;-each place behold
In prospect, as I point them; on the shore,
Mount Carmel; here, the double-founted stream,

Jardan, 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, de-
From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd
Egypt, divided by the river Nile;

[parts

See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths
Into the sea: to sojurn 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 [slaves
Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them
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 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;