The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems
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All nations shall be blest. He straight6247 obeys,
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Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes.
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“I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith
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He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil,
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Ur6248 of Chaldaea, passing now the ford
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To Haran,6249 after him a cumbrous train
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Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude,6250
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Not wand’ring poor, but trusting all his wealth
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With God, who called him, in a land unknown.
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Canaan he now attains; I see his tents
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Pitched about Sechem,6251 and the neighboring plain
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Of Moreh. There by promise he receives
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Gift to his progeny of all that land,
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From Hamath6252 northward to the desert south
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( Things by their names I call, though yet unnamed),
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From Hermon6253 east to the great western sea.6254
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Mount Hermon—yonder sea—each place behold
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In prospect, as I point them. On the shore,
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Mount Carmel.6255 Here, the double-founted6256 stream,
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Jordan, true limit 6257 eastward, but his6258 sons
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Shall dwell to Senir,6259 that long ridge of hills.
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“This ponder, that all nations of the earth
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Shall in his seed be blessèd. By that seed
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Is meant thy great Deliverer,6260 who shall bruise6261
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The serpent’s head, whereof to thee anon6262
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Plainlier shall be revealed. This patriarch blest,
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Whom ‘faithful Abraham’ due time6263 shall call,
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A son6264 and of his son a grand-child 6265 leaves,
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Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown.
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The grandchild, with twelve sons increased, departs
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From Canaan to a land hereafter called
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Egypt, divided by the river Nile.
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See where it flows, disgorging6266 at seven mouths
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Into the sea. To sojourn 6267 in that land
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He comes, invited by a younger son6268
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In time of dearth,6269 a son whose worthy deeds
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Raise him to be the second in that realm
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Of Pharaoh. There he dies, and leaves his race
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Growing into a nation, and now grown
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Suspected to a sequent6270 king, who seeks
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To stop their overgrowth, as inmate 6271 guests
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Too numerous,6272 whence of 6273 guests he makes them slaves,
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Inhospitably, and kills their infant males.
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Till by two brethren (these two brethren call
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Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim
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His people from enthralment,6274 they return,
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With glory and spoil, back to their promised land.
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“But first, the lawless tyrant, who denies6275
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To know their God, or message to regard,
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Must be compelled by signs and judgments dire.
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To blood unshed6276 the rivers must be turned.
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Frogs, lice, and flies, must all his palace fill
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With loath’d intrusion,6277 and fill all the land.
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His cattle must of rot and murren6278 die,
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Botches6279 and blains6280 must all his flesh emboss,6281
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And all 6282 his people. Thunder mixed with hail,
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Hail mixed with fire, must rend th’ Egyptian sky,
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And wheel 6283 on th’ earth, devouring where it rolls.
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What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
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A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down
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Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green.
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Darkness must overshadow all his6284 bounds,
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Palpable 6285 darkness, and blot out three days.
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Last, with one midnight stroke all the first-born
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Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds
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The river-dragon6286 tamed at length submits
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To let his sojourners depart, and oft
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Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as ice
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More hardened after thaw, till in his rage
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Pursuing whom he late6287 dismissed,6288 the sea
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Swallows him with his host,6289 but them6290 lets pass
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As6291 on dry land, between two crystal walls,
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Awed6292 by the rod of Moses so to stand
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Divided, till his rescued gain their shore.
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“Such wondrous power God to His saint will lend,
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Though present in His Angel, who shall go
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Before them in a cloud and pillar 6293 of fire,
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By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire,
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To guide them in their journey, and remove6294
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Behind them, while the obdurate6295 king pursues.
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All night he will pursue, but his approach
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Darkness defends6296 between6297 till morning watch.
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Then through the fiery pillar, and the cloud,
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God looking forth will trouble6298 all his6299 host,
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And craze6300 their chariot-wheels, when by command
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Moses once more his potent rod extends
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Over the sea. The sea his rod obeys;
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On their embattled 6301 ranks the waves return,
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And overwhelm their war.6302 The race elect6303
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Safe toward Canaan from the shore6304 advance
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Through the wild desert, not the readiest6305 way,
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Lest ent’ring6306 on the Canaanite alarmed6307
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War terrify them6308 inexpert,6309 and fear
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Return them6310 back to Egypt, choosing rather
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Inglorious life with servitude, for life
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To noble (and ignoble) is more sweet
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Untrained in arms, where rashness leads not on.6311
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“This also shall they gain by their delay
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In the wide wilderness. There they shall found6312
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Their government, and their great senate6313 choose
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Through the twelve tribes,6314 to rule by laws ordained.
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&n
bsp; God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top
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Shall tremble, He descending, will Himself
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In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets’ sound
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Ordain them laws, part such as appertain6315
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To civil justice, part religious rites
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Of sacrifice, informing them, by types6316
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And shadows,6317 of that destined seed 6318 to bruise6319
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The serpent, by what means he shall achieve
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Mankind’s deliverance. But the voice of God
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To mortal ear is dreadful. They beseech
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That Moses might report6320 to them His will,
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And terror cease. He grants what they besought,
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Instructed that to God is no access
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Without mediator, whose high office now
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Moses in figure6321 bears, to introduce
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One greater, of whose day he shall foretell,
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And all the prophets in their age the times
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Of great Messiah shall sing.
“Thus, laws and rites
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Established, such delight hath God in men
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Obedient to His will, that he vouchsafes
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Among them to set up His tabernacle,
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The Holy One with mortal men to dwell.
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By His prescript 6322 a sanctuary is framed
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Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein
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An ark,6323 and in the ark His testimony,6324
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The records of His cov’nant. Over these
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A mercy-seat of gold,6325 between the wings
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Of two bright Cherubim. Before him6326 burn
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Seven lamps as in a zodiac6327 representing
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The Heav’nly fires. Over the tent a cloud
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Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night,
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Save when they journey. And at length they come,
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Conducted by His Angel, to the land
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Promised to Abraham and his seed.
“The rest
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Were long to tell, how many battles fought,
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How many kings destroyed, and kingdoms won,
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Or how the sun shall in mid Heav’n stand still
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A day entire, and night’s due course adjourn,
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Man’s voice commanding, ‘Sun, in Gibeon stand,
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And thou moon in the vale of Aialon,
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Till Israel overcome!’6328 So call 6329 the third
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From Abraham, son of Isaac, and from him
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His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.”
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Here Adam interposed:
“O sent from Heav’n,
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Enlight’ner of my darkness, gracious things
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Thou hast revealed, those chiefly which concern
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Just Abraham and his seed. Now first I find
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Mine eyes true-op’ning, and my heart much eased,
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Erewhile perplexed with thoughts what would become
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Of me and all mankind. But now I see
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His day, in whom all nations shall be blest—
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Favor unmerited by me, who sought
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Forbidden knowledge by forbidden means.
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This yet I apprehend not: why to those
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Among whom God will deign to dwell on earth
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So many and so various laws are giv’n?
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So many laws argue so many sins
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Among them. How can God with such reside?”
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To whom thus Michael:
“Doubt not but that sin
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Will reign among them, as of thee begot,
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And therefore was law giv’n them, to evince6330
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Their natural pravity,6331 by stirring up
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Sin against law to fight, that when they see
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Law can discover 6332 sin, but not remove
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(Save by those shadowy6333 expiations6334 weak,
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The blood of bulls and goats), they may conclude
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Some blood more precious must be paid for man,
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Just for unjust, that 6335 in such righteousness
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To them by faith imputed they may find
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Justification6336 towards God, and peace
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Of conscience, which the law by ceremonies6337
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Cannot appease, nor man the moral part
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Perform6338 and, not performing, cannot live.
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So law appears6339 imperfect, and but 6340 giv’n
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With purpose to resign6341 them, in full time,
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Up to a better cov’nant, disciplined 6342
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From shadowy types6343 to truth, from flesh to spirit,
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From imposition of strict laws to free
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Acceptance of large grace, from servile fear
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To filial, works of law to works of faith.
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And therefore shall not Moses, though of God
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Highly belov’d, being but the minister
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Of law, his people into Canaan lead,
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But Joshua, whom the gentiles Jesus call,
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His name and office bearing, who6344 shall quell
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The adversary-serpent, and bring back
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Through the world’s wilderness long-wand’red man
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Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.
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Meanwhile, they in their earthly Canaan placed,
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Long time shall dwell and prosper, but6345 when sins
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National interrupt their public peace,
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Provoking God to raise them enemies,
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From whom as oft He saves them penitent
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By Judges first, then under Kings. Of whom
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The second,6346 both for piety renowned
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And puissant deeds, a promise shall receive
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Irrevocable, that his regal throne
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Forever shall endure. The like6347 shall sing6348
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All prophecy, that of the royal stock
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Of David (so I name this king) shall rise
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A son, the woman’s seed to thee foretold,
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Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust
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All nations, and to kings foretold, of kings
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The last, for of his reign shall be no end.
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But first a long succession must ensue,
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And his6349 next son,6350 for wealth and wisdom famed,
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The clouded ark of God, till then in tents
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Wand’ring, shall in a glorious temple enshrine.