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 fuftain

Himself and his rafh 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. 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

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,

nifi irrationalibus dominari, non hominem homini, fed hominem pecori. Aug. c. 15. 1. 19. de Civit. Dei. For Milton, tho' he speaks contemptibly of the Fathers, yet fometimes makes ufe of their fenti

ments.

73.-to God his tow'r intends &c.] This being not afferted in Scripture, but only fuppos'd by fome writers, is better put into the mouth of Adam, than of the Angel. I wish the poet had taken the fame care in ver. 51.

75

80

85

Imme

ere the tower

Obftruct Heav'n-tow'rs.

-

Immediately inordinate defires

And upftart paffions catch the government

From reason, and to fervitude reduce

Man till then free. Therefore fince he permits
Within himself unworthy pow'rs to reign

90

Over free reason, God in judgment juft
Subjects him from without to violent lords;
Who oft as undefervedly inthrall

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

95

Yet fometimes nations will decline fo low
From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,
But juftice, and fome fatal curfe annex'd
Deprives them of their outward liberty,
Their inward loft: Witness th' irreverent fon

100

Of

Of him who built the ark, who for the fhame
Done to his father, heard this heavy curse,
Servant of fervants, 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; 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 spring:

105.

110

Him

to the one peculiar nation of the race of Abraham, from whence the Meffiah was to defcend.

114. Him on this fide Euphrates yet

refiding,] That is Not yet, when Michael was fpeaking; bat yet when God refolv'd to felect one peculiar nation from all the reft, ver. 111. No need therefore for Dr. Bentley's word then, instead of yet. Pearce.

15. Bred up in idol-worship; ] We read in Joshua XXIV. 2. Your fathers dwelt on the other fide of the flood in old time, even Terab the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they ferved other Gods. Now as Terah Abraham's father

was

Him on this fide Euphrates yet refiding,
Bred up in idol-worship; O that men

115

(Canft thou believe?) should be so stupid 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 moft High vouchfafes
To call by vifion from his father's house,

His kindred and falfe Gods, into a land

Which he will fhow him, and from him will raise
A mighty nation, and upon him shower
His benediction fo, that in his feed

was an idolater, I think we may be certain that Abraham was bred up in the religion of his father, though he renounc'd it afterwards, and in all probability converted his father likewife, for Terah removed with Abraham to Haran, and there died. See Gen. XI, 31, 32.

117. While yet the patriarch liv'd,

who fcap'd the flood,] It appears from the computations given by Mofes, Gen. XI. that Terah the father of Abraham was born 222 years after the flood, but Noah lived after the food 350 years. Gen. IX. 28. and we have proved from Joshua, that Terah and the anceftors of Abraham ferved other Gods; and from the Jewish tradi

121

125 All

tions we learn farther that Terah, and Nachor his father, and Serug his grandfather were ftatuaries and carvers of idols: and therefore idolatry was fet up in the world, while yet the patriarch liv'd, who fcap'd the flood.

120.

Yet him God the most High &c.] The fame him repeated as in ver. 114. Now the Lord had faid unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great na-· tion, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blefing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth Cc 2

thee:

All nations fhall be bleft; he ftrait obeys,
Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes:
I fee him, but thou canst not, with what faith
He leaves his Gods, his friends, and native foil
Ur of Chaldæa, paffing now the ford

To Haran, after him a cumbrous train
Of herds and flocks, and numerous fervitude;

126.

thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blefed, Gen. XII. 1, 2, 3. he firait obeys, Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes:] According to the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, XI. 8. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which be fhould after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

128. I fee him, but thou canst not, &c.] As the principal defign of this epifode was to give Adam an idea of the holy Perfon who was to reinftate human nature in that happinefs and perfection from which it had fallen, the poet confines himfelf to the line of Abraham, from whence the Meffiah was to defcend. The Angel is defcribed as feeing the patriarch actually traveling towards the land of promife, which gives a particular liveliness to this part of the narration. Addifon.

Our poet, fenfible that this long hiftorical defcription might grow irkfome, has varied the inanner of reprefenting it as much as poffible, beginning first with fuppofing Adam

130

Not

to have a profpect of it before his eyes, next by making the Angel the relator of it, and laftly by uniting the two former methods, and making Michael fee it as in vifion, and give a rapturous inliven'd account of it to Adam. This gives great eafe to the languishing attention of the reader. Thyer.

130. Ur of Chaldæa,] Gen. XI. 31. And they went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. Chaldea, a province of Afia, lying eaft of the Euphrates and weft of the Tigris. Ur, a city of Chaldæa, the country of Terah and Abraham. The word Ur in Hebrew fignifies light or fire; and this name was given to the city, becaufe the fun and its fymbol, fire, were worshipped therein. Paf fing now the ford, palling over the river Euphrates where it was fordable, to Haran; by this it fhould feem, that our author conceiv'd Haran to lie weft of the river Euphrates; and I find M. Bafnage in his Antiquities of the Jews maintains, that Haran was a town, at prefent unknown, out of the limits

of