"But if th' afflicted miserable sort,

To idle incredulity inclin❜d,

[ground."

Shall not," quoth Moses, "credit my report,
That thou to me hast so great power assign'd."
"Cast down," quoth God, "thy wand unto the
Which he obeying fearfully, behold
The same a serpent suddenly was found,
Itself contorting into many a fold.
With such amazement Moses doth surprise,
With cold convulsions shrinking every vein,
That his affrighted and uplifted eyes,
Fven shot with horrour, sink into his brain.
But being encourag'd by the Lord to take
The ugly tail into his trembling hand,
As from a dream he suddenly doth wake,
When at the instant it became a wand.
By the same hand into his bosom shut,
Whose eyes his wither'd leprosy abhorr'd,
When forth he drew it, secondly being put,
Unto the former purity restor❜d.

These signs he gives this sad admiring man,
Which he the weak incredulous should show,
When this frail mortal freshly now began
To forge new causes, why unfit to go?
Egypt accusing to have done him wrong,
Scantling that bounty nature had bestow'd,
Which had well-near depriv'd him of his tongue,
Which to this office chiefly had been ow'd :
When he whose wisdom nature must obey,
In whose resistance reason weakly fails,
To whom all human instances give way,
'Gainst whom not subtil argument prevails,
Thus doth remove this idle vain excuse,
"Who made the mouth? who th' eye? or who the
Or who deprives those organs of their use? [ear?
That thou thy imbecility should'st fear?
Thy brother Aaron cometh unto thee,
Which as thy speaker purposely I bring,
To whom thyself even as a god shall be,
And he interpret to th' Egyptian king.
That when he at thy miracles shall wonder,
And wan with fear shall tremble at thy rod,
To feel his power that sways the dreadful thunder,
That is a jealous and a fearful God

Then shall mine ownself purchase me renown,
And win me honour by my glorious deed
On all the Pharoahs on th' Egyptian throne,
That this proud mortal ever shall succeed."

And to the Hebrews in th' impatient hand
Of mighty Egypt all his power implies,
And as the Lord expressly did command,
Acteth his wonders in their pleased eyes.
Those miracles mortality beholds
With an astonish'd and distracted look,
The mind that so amazedly enfolds,
That every sense the faculty forsook,
The little infant with abundant joy,
To man's estate immediately is sprung,
And though the old man could not back turn boy,
Casts half his years so much becoming young,
Whilst mirth in fulness measureth every eye,
Each breast is heap'd up with excess of pleasure,
Rearing their spread hands to the glorious sky,
Gladly embracing the Almighty's leisure.
These Hebrews ent'ring the Egyptian court,
Their great commission publicly proclaim,
Which there repulsed as a slight report,
Doth soon denounce defiance to the same.
Where now these men their miracles commend,
By which their power precisely might be try'd,
And Pharoah for his sorcerers doth send,
By them the Hebrews only to deride.
Where Heaven must now apparently transcend
Th' infernal powers imperiously to thwart,
And the bright perfect Deity contend
With abstruse magic and fallacious art,
Never was so miraculous a strife
Where admiration ever so abounded,
Where wonders were so prodigally rife,
That to behold it nature stood confounded.
Casting his rod a serpent that became,
Which he suppos'd with marvel them might strike,
When every priest assaying in the same,
By his black skill did instantly the like:
Which Pharoah's breast with arrogance doth fill,
Above the high God's to exalt his power,
When by his power (t' amate their weaker skill)
The Hebrew's rod doth all their rods devour:
Which deed of wonder slightly he rejects,
His froward spirit insatiately elate,
Which after caus'd those violent effects
That sate on Egypt with the power of fate.
When he whose wisdom ere the world did fare,
From whom not counsel can her secrets hide,
Forewarneth Moses early to prepare
T'accost the proud king by the river's side.

What heavenly rapture doth enrich my brain,
And through my blood extravagantly flows,
That doth transport me to that endless main.
Whereas th' Almighty his high glories shows?
That holy heat into my spirit infuse,
Wherewith thou wont'st thy prophets to inspire,
And lend that power to our delightful Muse,
As dwelt in sounds of that sweet Hebraic lyre.
A task unusual I must now assay,
Striving through peril to support this mass,
No former foot did ever tract a way,
Where I propose unto myself to pass.

When Moses meeting the Egyptian king,
Urgeth afresh the Israelites' départ,
And him by Aaron stoutly menacing,
To try the temper of his stubborn heart.

When lo! the torrent, the fleet hurrying flood
So clear and perfect crystaline at hand,
As a black lake or settled marish s'ood
At the extensure of the Hebrew's wand.

I i

! The first plague.

Where segs, rank bulrush, and the sharpen'd reed, | Egypt now hates the world her so should cail,

Yet this proud Pharoah as oppugning fate,
Still doth resist that majesty so high,
And to himself doth yet appropriate
A supreme power his godhead to deny :
When from his wilful stubbornness doth grow
That great amazement to all ears and eyes,
When now the Lord by Aaron's rod will show
His mighty power even in the wretched'st flies':
Varying his vengeance in as many kinds,
As Pharoah doth his obstinacies vary,
Suiting their plagues so fitly with their minds,
As though their sin his punishments did carry.
In summer time as in a evening fair,
The gnats are heard in a tumultuous sound
On tops of hills, so troubled is the air
To the disturbance of the wondering ground.
The skies are darken'd as they yet do hover
In so gross clouds congested in their flight,
That the whole land with multitudes they cover,
Stopping the streams as generally the light.
O cruel land, might these not yet thee move?
Art thou alone so destitute of fear?

Or dost thou mean thy utmost to approve
How many plagues thou able art to bear?
Three have fore-threaten'd thy destruction sure,
And now the fourth is following on as fast,
Dost thou suppose thy pride can still endure?
Or that his vengeance longer cannot last?
These are as weak and worthless as the rest,
Thou much infeebled, and his strength is more,
Fitly prepar'd thee sadly to infest,
Thy sins so many, by their equal store.
This wretched creature, man might well suppose
To be the least that he had need to fear,
Amongst the rest is terrify'd with those
With which before none ever troubled were.
As we behold a swarming cast of bees
In a swoln cluster to some branch to cleave:
Thus do they hang in branches on the trees,
Pressing each plant, and loading ev'ry greave.
The houses cover'd with these must'ring flies,
And the fair windows that for light were made,
Eclips'd with horrour, seeming to their eyes
Like the dim twilight, or some ominous shade.
For human food what Egypt had in store,
The creatures feed on, till they bursting die,
And what in this unhappy land was more,
Their loathsome bodies lastly putrify.

O goodly Goshen, where the Hebrews rest,
How dear thy children in th' Almighty's sight,
That for their sakes thou only should'st be blest,
When all these plagues on the Egyptians light?
What promis'd people rested thee within,
To whom no peril ever might aspire,
For whose dear sake some watchful cherubin
Stood to defend thee arm'd in glorious fire?
Thou art that holy sanctuary made,
Where all th' afflicted cast aside their fear,
Whose privileges ever to invade,

The Heavens command their horrours to forbear.
But since man's pride and insolence is such,
Nor by these plagues his will to pass could bring,
Now with a sharp and wounding hand will touch
The dearer body of each living thing:
To other ends his courses to direct,
By all great means his glory to advance,
Altereth the cause by altering the effect,
To work by wonder their deliverance.

The fourth plague.

As Aaron grasping ashes in his hand,
Which scarcely cast into the open air,
But brings a murrain over all the land,
With scabs and botches' such as never were.
What chews the cud, or hoof or horn allotted,
Wild in the fields, or tamed by the yoke,
With this contagious pestilence is rotted,
So universal's the Almighty's stroke.
The goodly horse of hot and fiery strain
In his high courage hardly brook'd his food,
That ditch or mound not lately could contain,
On the firm ground so scornfully that stood,
Crest-fall'n hangs down his hardly manag'd head,
Lies where but late disdainfully he trod,

His quick eye fixed heavily and dead,
Stirs not when prick'd with the impulsive goad.
The swine which nature secretly doth teach,
Only by fasting sicknesses to cure,
Now but in vain is to itself a leach,
Whose sudden end infallibly is sure.
Where frugal shepherds reckoning wool and lamb,
Or who by herds hop'd happily to win,
Now sees the young-one perish with the dam,
Nor dare his hard hand touch the poison'd skin.
Those fertile pastures quickly over-spread
With their dead cattle, where the birds of prey
Gorg'd on the garbage (woefully bestead)
Poison'd fall down as they would fly away.
And hungry dogs the tainted flesh refrain'd,
Whereon their master gormandiz'd of late,
What nature for man's appetite ordain'd,
The creature that's most ravenous doth hate.
Thus all that breathes and kindly hath increase,
Suffer for him that proudly did off nd,
Yet in this manner here it shall not cease,
In beasts begun, in wretched man to end.
To whom it further violently can,
Not by th' Almighty limited to slake,
As beasts is plagued for rebellious man,
Man in some measure must his pain partake.
Those dainty breasts that open'd lately were,
Which with rich veins so curiously did flow,
With boils and blains most loathsome do appear,
Which now the damsel not desires to show.
Features disfigur'd only now the fair,
(All are deformed) most ill-favour'd be,
Where beauty was most exquisite and rare,
There the least blemish eas'li'st you might see.
For costly garments fashion'd with device
To form each choice part curious eyes to please,
The sick man's gown is only now in price,
To give their blotch'd and blister'd bodies ease.
It is in vain the surgeon's hand to prove,
Or help of physic to assuage the smart,
For why, the power that ruleth from above
Crossing all means of industry and art.
Egypt is now an hospital forlorn,
Where only cripples and diseased are,
How many children to the world are born,
So many lazars thither still repair.
When those proud Magi as oppos'd to fate,
That durst high Heaven in every thing to dare,

Now in most vile and miserable state
As the mean'st caitiff equally do fare.
Thus stands that man so eminent alone,
Arm'd with his power that governeth the sky,
Now when the wizards lastly overthrown,
Groveling in sores before his feet do lie.

Not one is found unpunished escapes
So much to do his hungry wrath to feed,
Which still appeareth in as many shapes
As Pharoah doth in tyrannies proceed.
Even as some grave wise magistrate to find '
Out some vile treason, or some odious crime,
That beareth every circumstance in mind,
Of place, of manner, instance, and of time:
That the suspected strongly doth arrest,
And by all means invention can devise
By hopes or torture out of him to wrest
The ground, the purpose, and confederacies,
Now slacks his pain, now doth the same augment,
Yet in his strait hand doth contain him still,
Proportioning his allotted punishment
As he's remov'd or pliant to his will.
But yet hath Egypt somewhat left to vaunt,
What's now remaining may her pride repair,
But lest perhaps she should be arrogant,
Till she be humbled he will never spare.
These plagues seem yet but nourished beneath,
And even with man terrestrially to move,
Now Heaven his fury violently shall breath,
Rebellious Egypt scourging from above.

Winter let loose in his robustious kind
Wildly runs raving through the airy plains,
As though his time of liberty assign'd
Roughly now shakes off his impris'ning chains.
The winds spit fire in one another's face,
And mingled flames fight furiously together,
Thro' the wild Heaven that one the other chase,
Now flying thence and then returning thither.
No light but lightning ceaslessly to burn
Swifter than thought from place to place to pass,
And being gone doth suddenly return
Ere you could say precisely that it was.
In one self moment darkness and the light
Instantly born, as instantly they die,
And every minute is a day and night
That breaks and sets in twinkling of an eye.
Mountain and valley suffer one self ire,
The stately tower and lowly cote alike,
The shrub and cedar this impartial fire
In one like order generally doth strike:
On flesh and plant this subtil lightning preys,
As through the pores its passage fitly finds,
In the full womb the tender burthen slays,
Piercing the stiff trunk through the spongy rinds.
Throughout this great and universal ball
The wrath of Heaven outrageously is thrown,
As the lights quick'ning and celestial
Had put themselves together into one.
This yet continuing, the big-bellied clouds
With heat and moisture in their fulness brake,
And the stern thunder from the airy shrouds
To the sad world in fear and horrour spake.
The black storm bellows and the yearning vault,
Full charg'd with fury as some signal given,
Preparing their artillery to assault,

The birds late shrouded in their safe repair,
Where they were wont from winter's wrath to rest,
Left by the tempest to the open air,
Shot with cold bullets thro' the trembling breast,
Whilst cattle grazing on the batful ground,
Finding no shelter from the shower to hide,
In ponds and ditches willingly are drown'd,
That this sharp storm no longer can abide.
Windows are shiver'd to forgotten dust,
The slates fall shatter'd from the roof above,
Where any thing finds harbour from this gust,
Now even as death it feareth to remove.
The rude and most impenetrable rock
Since the foundation of the world was laid,
Never before stirr'd with tempestuous shock,
Melts with this storm as sensibly afraid.
Never yet with so violent a hand,
A brow contracted and so full of fear,
God scourg'd the pride of a rebellious land,
Since into kingdoms nations gather'd were.
But he what mortal was there ever known,
So many strange afflictions did abide,
On whom so many miseries were thrown,
Whom Heaven so oft and angerly did chide?
Who but relenting Moses doth relieve,
Taking off that which oft on him doth light,
Whom God so oft doth punish and forgive,
Thereby to prove his mercy and his might.
So that eternal providence could frame
The means whereby his glory should be try'd,
That as he please, miraculously can tame
Man's sensual ways, his transitory pride.
But Pharoah bent to his rebellious will,
His hate to Israel instantly renews,
Continuing author of his proper ill,
When now the plagues of grass-hoppers ensues.

Shoot their stern vollies in the face of Heaven.
The bolts new-wing'd with fork'd ethereal fire,
Through the vast region every where do rove,
Goring the earth in their imperious ire,
Pierce the proud'st building, rend the thickest grove.

When the breem hajl as rising in degrees
Like ruffled arrows through the air doth sing,
Beating the leaves and branches from the trees,
Forcing an autumn earlier than the spring.

Long ere they fell, on th' face of Heaven they
In so vast clouds as covered all the skies, [hung,
Colouring the sun-beams piercing through their
With strange distraction to beholding eyes. [throng,
This idle creature that is said to sing
In wanton summer, and in winter poor,
Praising the emmet's painful labouring,
Now eats the labourer and the heaped store.
No blade of grass remaineth to be seen,
Weed, herb, nor flower, to which the spring gives
Yet ev'ry path, even barren hills are green, [birth,
With those that eat the greenness from the earth.
What is most sweet, what most extremely sour,
The loathsome hemloc as the verdurous rose,
These filthy locusts equally devour,
So do the Heavens of every thing dispose.
The trees all barkless nakedly are left,
Like people stript of things that they did wear,
By the enforcement of disastrous theft,
Standing as frighted with erected hair:
Thus doth the Lord her nakedness discover,
Thereby to prove her stoutness to reclaim,
That when nor fear nor punishment could move her,
She might at length be tempted with her shame.
Disrob'd of all her ornaments she stands,
Wherein rich nature whilom did her dight,
That the sad verges of the neighbouring lands
Seem with much sorrow wond'ring at the sight.
But Egypt is so impudent and vile,
No blush is seen that pity might compel,
That from all eyes to cover her awhile,
The Lord in darkness leaveth her to dwell.

? The eighth plague.