The Complete Poetry of John Milton (127 page)

   90        
Man till then free. Therefore since hee permits

               
Within himself unworthie Powers to reign

               
Over free Reason, God in Judgement just

               
Subjects him from without to violent Lords;

               
Who oft as undeservedly enthrall

   95        
His outward freedom: Tyrannie must be,

               
Though to the Tyrant thereby no excuse.

               
Yet somtimes Nations will decline so low

               
From vertue, which is reason, that no wrong,

               
But Justice, and some fatal curse annext

   100     
Deprives them of thir outward libertie,

               
Thir inward lost: Witness th’ irreverent Son
⁶

               
Of him who built the Ark, who for the shame

               
Don to his Father, heard this heavie curse,

               
Servant of Servants
, on his vitious Race.
⁷

   105     
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

   110     
To leave them to thir own polluted wayes;

               
And one peculiar Nation to select

               
From all the rest, of whom to be invok’d,

               
A Nation from one faithful man
⁸
to spring:

               
Him on this side
Euphrates
yet residing,

   115     
Bred up in Idol-worship; O that men

               
(Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown,

               
While yet the Patriark liv’d, who scap’d the Flood,

               
As to forsake the living God, and fall

               
To worship thir own work in Wood and Stone

   120     
For Gods! yet him God the most High voutsafes

               
To call by Vision from his Fathers house,

               
His kindred and false Gods, into a Land

               
Which he will shew him, and from him will raise

               
A mightie Nation, and upon him showr

   125     
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
⁹

   130     
Ur
of
Chaldæa
, passing now the Ford

               
To
Haran
, after him a cumbrous Train

               
Of Herds and Flocks, and numerous servitude;

               
Not wandring poor, but trusting all his wealth

               
With God, who call’d him, in a land unknown.

   135     
Canaan
he now attains, I see his Tents

               
Pitcht about
Sechem
, and the neighbouring Plain

               
Of
Moreh;
there by promise he receaves

               
Gift to his Progenie of all that Land;

               
From
Hamath
Northward to the Desert South

   140     
(Things by thir 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 shoar

               
Mount
Carmel;
here the double-founted stream

   145     
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

   150     
The Serpents head; whereof to thee anon

               
Plainlier shall be reveald. This Patriarch blest,

               
Whom
faithful Abraham
due time shall call,

               
A Son,
¹⁰
and of his Son a Grand-child leaves,

               
Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;

   155     
The Grandchild with twelve Sons increast, departs

               
From
Canaan
, to a Land hereafter call’d

               
Egypt
, divided by the River
Nile;

               
See where it flows, disgorging at seaven mouths

               
Into the Sea: to sojourn in that Land

   160     
He comes invited by a yonger Son
¹¹

               
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

   165     
Suspected to a sequent King,
¹²
who seeks

               
To stop thir overgrowth, as inmate guests

               
Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves

               
Inhospitably, and kills thir infant Males:

               
Till by two brethren (those two brethren call

   170     
Moses
and
Aaron
) sent from God to claim

               
His people from enthralment, they return

               
With glory and spoil back to thir promis’d Land.

               
But first the lawless Tyrant, who denies

               
To know thir God, or message to regard,

   175     
Must be compell’d by Signes and Judgements dire;

               
To blood unshed the Rivers must be turnd,

               
Frogs, Lice and Flies must all his Palace fill

               
With loath’d intrusion, and fill all the land;

               
His Cattel must of Rot and Murren die,

   180     
Botches and blains must all his flesh imboss,
¹³

               
And all his people; Thunder mixt with Hail,

               
Hail mixt with fire must rend th’
Egyptian
Skie

               
And wheel on th’ Earth, devouring where it rouls;

               
What it devours not, Herb, or Fruit, or Grain,

   185     
A darksom 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 dayes;

               
Last with one midnight stroke all the first-born

   190     
Of
Egypt
must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds

               
The River-dragon
¹⁴
tam’d at length submits

               
To let his sojourners depart, and oft

               
Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as Ice

               
More hard’n’d after thaw, till in his rage

   195     
Pursuing whom he late dismiss’d, the Sea

               
Swallows him with his Host, but them lets pass

               
As on drie land between two christal walls,

               
Aw’d by the rod of
Moses
so to stand

               
Divided, till his rescu’d gain thir shoar:

   200     
Such wondrous power God to his Saint will lend,

               
Though present in his Angel, who shall goe

               
Before them in a Cloud, and Pillar of Fire,

               
By day a Cloud, by night a Pillar of Fire,

               
To guide them in thir journey, and remove

   205     
Behind them, while th’ obdurat King pursues:

               
All night he will pursue, but his approach

               
Darkness defends
¹⁵
between till morning Watch;

               
Then through the Firey Pillar and the Cloud

               
God looking forth will trouble all his Host

   210     
And craze
¹⁶
thir Chariot wheels: when by command

               
Moses
once more his potent Rod extends

               
Over the Sea; the Sea his Rod obeys;

               
On thir imbattell’d ranks the Waves return,

               
And overwhelm thir Warr: the Race elect

   215     
Safe towards
Canaan
from the shoar advance

               
Through the wild Desert, not the readiest way,

               
Least entring on the
Canaanite
allarmd

               
Warr terrifie them inexpert, and fear

               
Return them back to
Egypt
, choosing rather

   220     
Inglorious life with servitude; for life

               
To noble and ignoble is more sweet

               
Untraind in Armes, where rashness leads not on.

               
This also shall they gain by thir delay

               
In the wide Wilderness, there they shall found

   225     
Thir government, and thir great Senate
¹⁷
choose

               
Through the twelve Tribes, to rule by Laws ordaind:

               
God from the Mount of
Sinai
, whose gray top

               
Shall tremble, he descending, will himself

               
In Thunder Lightning and loud Trumpets sound

   230     
Ordain them Laws; part such as appertain

               
To civil Justice, part religious Rites

               
Of sacrifice, informing them, by types

               
And shadows, of that destind Seed to bruise

               
The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve

   235     
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 besaught

               
Instructed that to God is no access

   240     
Without Mediator, whose high Office now

               
Moses
in figure
¹⁸
beares, to introduce

               
One greater, of whose day he shall foretell,

               
And all the Prophets in thir Age the times

               
Of great
Messiah
shall sing. Thus Laws and Rites