Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/280

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��By his donation: but man over men 69 He made not lord such title to himself Reserving, human left from human free. But this Usurper his encroachment proud Stays not on Man; to God his Tower intends Siege and defiance. Wretched man ! what

food

Will he convey up thither, to sustain Himself and his rash 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 : " Justly thou

abhorr'st

That son, who on the quiet state of men 80 Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue Rational liberty; yet know withal, Since thy original lapse, true liberty Is lost, which always with right reason

dwells Twinned, and from her hath no dividual

being.

Reason in Man obscured, or not obeyed, Immediately inordinate desires And upstart passions catch the govern- ment

From Reason, and to servitude reduce Man, till then free. Therefore, since he

permits 90

Within himself unworthy powers to reign Over free reason, God, in judgment just, Subjects him from without to violent lords, Who oft as undeservedly enthral His outward freedom. Tyranny must be, Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse. Yet sometimes nations will decline so low From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong, But justice and some fatal curse annexed, Deprives them of their outward liberty, too Their inward lost: witness the irreverent

son Of him who built the Ark, who, for the

shame

Done to his father, heard this heavy curse, Servant of servants, 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, resolving from thenceforth To leave them to their own polluted

ways, 1 10

And one peculiar nation to select

��From all the rest, of whom to be invoked A nation from one faithful man to spring. Him on this side Euphrates yet residing, Bred up in idol-worship Oh, that men (Canst thou believe ?) should be so stupid

grown, While yet the patriarch lived who scaped

the Flood,

As to forsake the living God, and fall To worship their own work in wood and

stone

For gods ! yet him God the Most High voutsafes 120

To call by vision from his father's house, His kindred, and false gods, into a laud Which 'he will shew him, and from him

will raise

A mighty nation, and upon him shower His benediction so that in his seed All nations shall be blest. He straight

obeys ;

Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes. I see him, but thou canst not, with what

faith He leaves his gods, his friends, and native

soil,

Ur of Chaldaea, passing now the ford 130 To Harau after him a cumbrous train Of herds and flocks, and numerous servi- tude Not wandering poor, but trusting all his

wealth

With God, who called him, in a land un- known.

Canaan he now attains; I see his tents Pitched about Sechem, and the neighbour- ing plain

Of Moreh. There, by promise, he receives Gift to his progeny of all that land, From Hamath northward to the Desert

south

(Things by their names I call, though yet

unnamed), 140

From Hermon east to the great western

sea; Mount Hermon, yonder sea, each place

behold

In prospect, as I point them : on the shore, Mount Carmel; here, the double-founted

stream ,

Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of

hills.

This ponder, that all nations of the Earth Shall in his seed be blessed. By that seed

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