Palpable darkness, and blot out three days; Last with one midnight stroke all the first-born To let his fojourners depart, and oft 195 Swallows him with his hoft, but them lets pass As on dry land between two crystal walls, Divided, till his rescued gain their shore: ing watch;] To defend here has the fignification of to forbid, to hinder, to keep off; as the Latin defendo is fometimes ufed, and the French defendre. There is hoftem defendere in Ennius, folftitium pecori defendite in Virgil, defendere frigus in Horace. Darkness between defends, forbids and hinders, his approach till the morning watch, alluding to Exod. XIV. 19, 20. And the Angel of God, which went before the camp of Ifrael, removed and avent 205 Such wondrous pow'r God to his faint will lend, 200 behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and ftood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Ifrael, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to thefe, fo that the one came not near the other all the night. And Milton himself has used defended in the fame manner, XI. 86. that defended fruit. See the note there. And again in Parad. Reg. II. 369. no interdict Defends the touching of thefe viands pure. 211 Over 210. And craze their chariot wheels:] Bruife or break them in pieces. Craze from the French ecrafer to bruise or break. So I. 311. the chariot wheels are faid to have been broken, though Exod. XIV. 25. 'tis only faid' they were taken off, fo that the chariots were driven heavily. Milton who perfectly understood the original has And fo Spenfer ufes it, Fairy Queen, therefore expounded this taking off B. 4. 3. St. 32. to be breaking; tho' that may mean no more, than what we do when we Himself to fave, and danger to fay fuch a one is crazy, broken with age and disabled. Richardfon. defend. The Over the fea; the fea his rod obeys; On their imbattel'd ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war: the race elect Through the wild defert, not the readieft way, War terrify them inexpert, and fear Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather To noble and ignoble is more sweet Untrain'd in arms, where rafhness leads not on. 215 220 In the wide wildernefs, there they shall found Their government, and their great fenate choose 225 Through 216. not the readieft way,] For Exod. XIII. 17, 18. It came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. That was the nearest way from Egypt to Canaan, and was a journey of not above three days, as Philo fays; others fay of ten. But certainly it was no great way, for the fons of Jacob went it often to and fro. See Bifhop Patrick. For God faid, Left peradventure the people repent, when they fee war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. 227.—whofs Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordain'd: In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets found, 230 And shadows, of that deftin'd Seed to bruise That Mofes might report to them his will, And terror cease; he grants what they befought 227. whofe gray top] An ufual epithet of mountains, because the fnow lies longer there than in the valleys, and upon fome of their lofty brows all the year long. Gelidus canis cum montibus Virg. Georg. I. 43. But this epithet was more proper 230. &c 245 &c.] By thefe paffages Milton feems to have under 240 Without mediator, whofe high office now Of great Meffi'ah fhall fing. Thus laws and rites Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes his tabernacle, The holy One with mortal men to dwell: 245 Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein 250 An ark, and in the ark his teftimony, The records of his covenant, over these foretel, And all the prophets &c.] A&ts III, 22, 24. For Mofes truly faid unto the fathers, A prophet fhall the Lord your God raife up unto you of your brethren, like unto me-yea and all the prophets from Samuel, and thofe that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewife foretold of thefe days. 255. Sev'n lamps as in a zodiac representing The heav'nly fires;] That the feven lamps fignified the feven planets, and that therefore the lamps ftood flopewife, as it were to exprefs the obliquity of the zodiac, is the glofs of Of Jofephus, from whom probably our author borrow'd it. Jofeph. Antiq, Lib. 3. c. 6 & 7. and De Bel. Jud. Lib. 5. c. 5. See likewife Mede's Difcourfe 10th. upon the feven ArchAngels. Mr. Hume quotes likewife the Latin of Philo to the fame purpofe: Myfticè candelabrum hoc feptifidum imago erat fphæræ feptiluftris, five feptem planetarum. Tabernaculum typus mundi. Sanctum fanctorum, typus cœli empyrei beatorum. See Cornelius a Lapide upon Exod. XXV. 31. 258. Save when they journey,] Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord |