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 190
The river-dragon tam'd at length fubmits

To let his fojourners depart, and oft
Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as ice
More harden'd after thaw, till in his rage
Pursuing whom he late difmifs'd, the fea

195 Swallows him with his hoft, but them lets pass

As on dry land between two crystal walls,
Aw'd by the rod of Mofes fo to stand

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
Though present in his Angel, who shall go
Before them in a cloud, and pill'ar of fire,
By day a cloud, by night a pill'ar of fire,
To guide them in their journey, and remove
Behind them, while th' 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
Mofes once more his potent rod extends

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.
Cant.

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
Safe towards Canaan from the fhore advance

Through the wild defert, not the readieft way,
Left entring on the Canaanite alarm'd

War terrify them inexpert, and fear

Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather
Inglorious life with fervitude; for life

To noble and ignoble is more sweet

Untrain'd in arms, where rafhness leads not on.
This also fhall they gain by their delay

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:
God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top
Shall tremble, he defcending, will himself

In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets found,
Ordain them laws; part fuch as appertain
To civil justice, part religious rites
Of facrifice, informing them, by types

230

And shadows, of that deftin'd Seed to bruise
The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God 235
To mortal ear is dreadful; they befeech

That Mofes might report to them his will,

And terror cease; he grants what they befought
Inftructed that to God is no access

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
humor
Liquitur.

Virg. Georg. I. 43.
Hume.

But this epithet was more proper
and peculiar to Sinai at that time,
as it was cover'd with clouds and
Smoke. See Exod. XIX.

230. &c 245 &c.] By thefe paffages Milton feems to have under

240

Without mediator, whofe high office now
Mofes in figure bears, to introduce
One greater, of whose day he fhall foretel,
And all the prophets in their age the times

Of great Meffi'ah fhall fing. Thus laws and rites
Establish'd, fuch delight hath God in men

Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes
Among them to set up

his tabernacle,

The holy One with mortal men to dwell:
By his prescript a fanctuary is fram'd

245

Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein

250

An ark, and in the ark his teftimony,

The records of his covenant, over these
A mercy-feat of gold between the wings

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