But this ufurper his encroachment proud Stays not on man; to God his tow'r intends Himself and his rafh army, where thin air 75 80 Is loft, which always with right reafon dwells Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being: ; Reason in man obfcur'd, or not obey'd, mmediately inordinate defires nd upstart paffions catch the government Ian till then free. Therefore fince he permits His outward freedom: tyranny must be, ; et fometimes nations will decline fo low 90 95 100 Of 402 Of him who built the ark, who for the fhame Hur 115 Him on this fide Euphrates yet refiding, To worship their own work in wood and stone His kindred and falfe Gods, into a land Vhich he will show him, and from him will raise 121 125 All as an idolater, I think we may be ertain that Abraham was bred up the religion of his father, though e renounc'd it afterwards, and in ll probability converted his father kewife, for Terah removed with Abraham to Haran, and there died. ee Gen. XI, 31, 32. 117. While yet the patriarch liv'd, who fcap'd the flood,] It apears from the computations given by Mofes, Gen. XI. that Terah the ather of Abraham was born 222 wears after the flood, but Noah ived after the flood 350 years. Gen. IX. 28. and we have proved from ofhua, that Terah and the ancestors of Abraham ferved other Gods; and from the Jewish tradi (Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd) 141 145 dan, as it is commonly faid to arife from two fources at the foot of mount Libanus, the one called for, and the other Dan, as Thamifis from the Thame and Ifis; true limit eastward according to Numb. XXXIV. 10, 12. And ye shall point out your eaft-border from Hazarenan, a village at the fountain of Jordan, and the border shall go down to Jordan &c. For the name of Canaan, tho' fometimes it in cludes the whole land poffeffed by the twelve tribes, yet peculiarly belongs to no more than the country weftward of the river Jordan: and the Jews themselves make a diftinction between the land promis'd to their fathers, and the lands of Sihon and Og which were to the eastward of the river. Mofes plainly does the fame in this expreffion, Deut. II. 29. Until I hall pass over Jordan, into the land which the Lord our God giveth us. And the land on this fide Jordm was efteemed more holy than the land on the other. The one was barely called the land of your p feffion, the other the land of the po feffion of the Lord, Joshua XXII. See Univerfal History, Vol. 1. p. 566, 567. This river was the tra limit eaft-ward, but his fons were to extend themfelves farther, dwell to Senir, that long rig hills. This Senir or Shenir is the fame as mount Hermon, mention as the eastern border before ve 141. as appears from Deut. III. c. Which Hermon the Sidonians call §. rion, and the Amorites call it Shear And a more exact account of the boundaries of the promis'd land we fhall hardly find in any profauthor, than our poet has given us here in verfe. |