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 Heaven, And looking down, to see the hubbub strange, And hear the din: Thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confusion nam'd. Whereto thus Adam, fatherly displeas'd.
O execrable son! so to aspire
Above his brethren; to himself assuming Authority usurp'd, from God not given: 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 obscur'd, 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 judgement 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; 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 invok'd, A nation from one faithful man1 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
1'One faithful man:' Abraham.
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 shower
His benediction so, that in his seed
All nations shall be blest: 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 num'rous 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,1 and the neighbouring plain Of Moreh; there, by promise, he receives Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hamath northward to the Desart 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 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 encreas'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 slaves 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 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 judgements 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 murren die; Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss, And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail, Hail mix'd with fire, must rend the Egyptian 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 tam'd, 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; Aw'd by the rod of Moses so to stand Divided, till his rescued gain their shore: Such wonderous 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 embattled ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war: The race elect Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance Through the wild Desart, 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 and ignoble is more sweet
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