With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land; Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend, 190 185 190 195 200 205 And craze their chariot wheels: when by command 210 On their embattel'd ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war: the race elect q Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance 215 Through the wild Desert; not the readiest way, P The river-dragon. The river-dragon, as Addison has observed, is Pharaoh, in allusion to Ezekiel, xxix. 3. -TODD. 9 The race elect. It is remarkable that here Milton omits the moral cause, though he gives the poetical, of the Israelites wandering forty years in the wilderness; and this was their poltron mutiny on the return of the spies. He omitted this with judgment; for this last speech of the angel was to give such a representation of things as might convey comfort to Adam; otherwise the story of the brazen serpent would have afforded noble imagery.-WARBURTON. Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather To noble and ignoble is more sweet In the wide wilderness; there they shall found In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets' sound, And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise And terrour cease: he grants what they besought, 220 225 230 235 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 240 Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus, laws and rites Ver. 230. &c. 245 250 255 By these passages Milton seems to have understood no more of the Jewish institution than he saw in the small presbyterian systems; otherwise the true idea of the theocracy would have afforded some noble observations.-WARBURTON. Milton speaks of the civil and the ritual, the judicial and the ceremonial precepts delivered to the Jews; but why did he omit the moral law contained in the ten commandments? possibly his reason might be, because this was supposed to be written originally in the heart of man, and therefore Adam must have been perfectly acquainted with it; but however I think, this should have been particularly mentioned, as it was published at this time in the most solemn manner by God from mount Sinai; and as it was thought worthy to be written with his own finger upon two tables of stone, when the rest was conveyed to the people by the writing and preaching of Moses, as a mediator between God and them.-GREENWOOD. Seven lamps, as in a zodiac. That the seven lamps signified the seven planets, and that therefore the lamps stood The heavenly fires; over the tent a cloud Promised to Abraham and his seed: the rest Here Adam interposed: O sent from Heaven, His day, in whom all nations shall be blest; u Among them how can God with such reside? : 260 265 270 275 280 slope-wise, as it were to express the obliquity of the zodiac, is the gloss of Josephus, from whom probably Milton borrowed it. Joseph. Antiq. lib. iii. c. vi. and vii., and De Bel. Jud. lib. v. c. 5. See likewise Mede's discourse x. upon the seven archangels. Mr. Hume quotes likewise the Latin of Philo to the same purpose. See Cornelius à Lapide, upon Exod. xxv. 31.-NEWTON. Save when they journey. See Exod. xl. 34, &c.: "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle: and when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys; but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up; for the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." Thus it was in all places wherever they came: and this is what Milton says: in short, the cloud was over the tent by day, and the fire (called here a fiery gleam) by night, when they journeyed not. He takes no notice how it was when they did: which this text (for the infinite beauty of which we have given it at length) explains; the cloud was then taken up; how then? "The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, to go by day and night," c. xiii. 21. Other armies pitch their ensigns when they encamp, and lift them up when they march: so does the Lord of Hosts, leading forth his people. But, what ensigns! how sublime! Milton seems too concise here.-RICHARDSON. " So many laws argue. The scruple of our first father, and the reply of the angel, are grounded upon St. Paul's To whom thus Michael: Doubt not but that sin Sin against law to fight; that when they see From shadowy types to truth; from flesh to spirit; Acceptance of large grace; from servile fear To filial; works of law to works of faith. And therefore shall not Moses, though of God Of law, his people into Canaan lead; But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call; His name and office bearing w, who shall queil Through the world's wilderness long-wander'd man Meanwhile they, in their earthly Canaan placed, 285 290 295 300 305 310 315 epistles, and particularly those to the Ephesians, Galatians, and Hebrews, as the reader, who is at all conversant with these sacred writings, will easily perceive. Compare the following texts with the poet: Gal. iii. 19. Rom. vii. 7, 8. Rom. iii. 20. Heb. ix. 13, 14. Heb. x. 4, 5. Rom. iv. 22, 23, 24. Rom. v. 1. Heb. vii. 18, 19. Heb. x. 1. Gal. iii. 11, 12, 23. Gal. iv. 7. Rom. viii. 15. Milton has here, in a few verses, admirably summed up the sense and argument of these and more texts of Scripture. It is really wonderful how he could comprise so much divinity in so few words, and at the same time express it with so much strength and perspicuity.-NEWTON. ▾ And therefore shall not Moses. Moses died in Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab, from whence he had the prospect of the Promised Land, but not the honour of leading the Israelites to possess it; which was reserved for Joshua; Deut. xxxiv. Josh. i.-HUME. w His name and office bearing. Joshua was in many things a type of Jesus; and the names are the same, "Joshua" according to the Hebrew, and "Jesus" in Greek. The Seventy always render "Joshua" by "Jesus;" and there are two passages in the New Testament, where "Jesus" is used for "Joshua;" once by St. Stephen, Acts vii., 45, and again by St. Paul, Heb. iv. 8. And the name Joshua, or Jesus, signifies a Saviour.-NEWTON. Provoking God to raise them enemies; For ever shall endure; the like shall sing And his next son for wealth and wisdom famed, Part good, part bad; of bad the longer scroll : The space of seventy years; then brings them back, Their lords, whom God disposed, the house of God In mean estate live moderate; till, grown X In wealth and multitude, factious they grow: * Their strife pollution brings. 320 325 330 335 340 345 350 355 For it was chiefly through the contests between Jason and Menelaus, high priests of the Jews, that the temple was polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes. See 2 Maccab. v., and Prideaux. At last they seize the sceptre: Aristobulus, eldest son of Hyrcanus, highpriest of the Jews, was the first who assumed the title of king after the Babylonish captivity; before Christ 107. And regard not David's sons, none of that family having had the government since Zerubbabel. Then lose it to a stranger; to Herod, who was an Idumean, in whose reign Christ was born. See Josephus and Prideaux.-NEWTON. |