But this ufurper his encroachment proud

Stays not on man; to God his tow'r intends
Siege and defiance: Wretched man! what food
Will he convey up thither to sustain

Himself and his rafh army, where thin air
Above the clouds will pine his entrails grofs,
And famish him of breath, if not of bread?
To whom thus Michael. Juftly thou abhorr'st
That fon, who on the quiet ftate of men
Such trouble brought, affecting to fubdue
Rational liberty; yet know withal,
Since thy original lapfe, true liberty

75

80

Is loft, which always with right reafon dwells Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being: ; Reason in man obfcur'd, or not obey'd,

mmediately inordinate defires

nd upstart paffions catch the government
rom reason, and to fervitude reduce

Ian till then free. Therefore fince he permits
Within himself unworthy pow'rs to reign
ver free reafon, God in judgment juft
abjects him from without to violent lords
Who oft as undeservedly inthrall

His outward freedom: tyranny must be,
hough to the tyrant thereby no excuse.

;

et fometimes nations will decline fo low
rom virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,
ut juftice, and fome fatal curfe annex'd
Deprives them of their outward liberty,
"heir inward loft: Witness th' irreverent fon

90

95

100

Of

402

Of him who built the ark, who for the fhame
Done to his father, heard this heavy curfe,
Servant of fervants, on his vicious race.
Thus will this latter, as the former world,
Still tend from bad to worfe, till God at laft
Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw
His prefence from among them, and avert
His holy eyes; refolving from thenceforth
To leave them to their own polluted ways;
And one peculiar nation to select
From all the reft, of whom to be invok'd,
A nation from one faithful man to fpring:

Hur

115

Him on this fide Euphrates yet refiding,
Bred up in idol-worship; O that men
Canft thou believe?) fhould be fo ftupid grown,
While yet the patriarch liv'd, who fcap'd the flood,
As to forfake the living God, and fall

To worship their own work in wood and stone
For Gods! yet him God the most High vouchfafes
To call by vifion from his father's house,

His kindred and falfe Gods, into a land

Vhich he will show him, and from him will raise
mighty nation, and upon him shower
His benediction fo, that in his feed

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125 All

as an idolater, I think we may be ertain that Abraham was bred up the religion of his father, though e renounc'd it afterwards, and in ll probability converted his father kewife, for Terah removed with Abraham to Haran, and there died. ee Gen. XI, 31, 32.

117. While yet the patriarch liv'd,

who fcap'd the flood,] It apears from the computations given by Mofes, Gen. XI. that Terah the ather of Abraham was born 222 wears after the flood, but Noah ived after the flood 350 years. Gen. IX. 28. and we have proved from ofhua, that Terah and the ancestors of Abraham ferved other Gods; and from the Jewish tradi

(Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd)
From Hermon east to the great western sea;
Mount Hermon, yonder fea, each place behold
In profpect, as I point them; on the shore
Mount Carmel; here the double-founted ftream
Jordan, true limit eastward; but his fons
Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.
This ponder, that all nations of the earth
Shall in his feed be bleffed; by that feed

141

145

dan, as it is commonly faid to arife from two fources at the foot of mount Libanus, the one called for, and the other Dan, as Thamifis from the Thame and Ifis; true limit eastward according to Numb. XXXIV. 10, 12. And ye shall point out your eaft-border from Hazarenan, a village at the fountain of Jordan, and the border shall go down to Jordan &c. For the name of Canaan, tho' fometimes it in cludes the whole land poffeffed by the twelve tribes, yet peculiarly belongs to no more than the country weftward of the river Jordan: and the Jews themselves make a diftinction between the land promis'd to their fathers, and the lands of Sihon and Og which were to the eastward of the river. Mofes plainly does the fame in this expreffion, Deut. II. 29. Until I hall pass over Jordan, into the land which the Lord our God giveth us.

And the land on this fide Jordm was efteemed more holy than the land on the other. The one was barely called the land of your p feffion, the other the land of the po feffion of the Lord, Joshua XXII. See Univerfal History, Vol. 1. p. 566, 567. This river was the tra limit eaft-ward, but his fons were to extend themfelves farther, dwell to Senir, that long rig hills. This Senir or Shenir is the fame as mount Hermon, mention as the eastern border before ve 141. as appears from Deut. III. c. Which Hermon the Sidonians call §. rion, and the Amorites call it Shear And a more exact account of the boundaries of the promis'd land we fhall hardly find in any profauthor, than our poet has given us here in verfe.