Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/413

Rh Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained. God, from the Mount of Sinai, whose grey top Shall tremble, he descending, will himself In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets sound, Ordain them laws; part, such as appertain To civil justice; part, religious rights Of sacrifice, informing them, by types And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve Mankind's 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 besought, Instructed that to God is no access Without Mediator, whose high office now Moses in figure bears, to introduce One greater, of whose day he shall foretell, And all the Prophets, in their age, the times Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus laws and rites Established, such 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 sanctuary is framed Of cedar, overlaid with gold; therein An ark, and in the ark his testimony, The records of his covenant; over these