Balaam's beast did Balak's hafte delay,
nd the full purpose of the prophet brake,
Then he beheld the angel by the way,
irst out from beast, and to his master spake:
'hose execration able to aftound

he fun, when he his fummer's height did boaft,
nd with a word could instantly confound
he world, were it a congregated hoft.
e whose wife lips could oracles compile,
nd judgments irrevocable did pafs,
hould be confounded by the thing most vile,
y that bafe creature, the dull worthlefs afs,
uling his mouth as with a rider's bit,
idden by Belback to denounce their fall:
oth all his dreadful menaces acquit,
sunding their bleffing and their enemies fall.
When this mild man that only did remain,
f those from Egypt that the Lord did bring,
'hich he in juftice fundry ways had flain,
or their falfe worship and their murmuring.
nce he remifs at Meriba was prov'd

nd there his zeal not ardently expreft,

Where the sweet South lays forth her fwelling

breaft.

With a pleas'd eye he filently survey'd,
To that fair city whose high towers do reft
Under the palm trees most delicious shade.
When this meek man approaching to his death,
In death ev'n pleas'd fair Canaan to behold,
Whilft he had use of his expiring breath,
Thus his last farewell mildly doth enfold.
Ifrael (quoth hc) dear Ifrael now adieu,
Mofes no more is, that your leader was,
Jofhua and Caleb, none but only you,
Of the last age muft over Jordan país.
Th' Egyptian horrors yet 'twas I did fee,
And through those strange calamities did wade,
And Ifrael's charge impofed was on me,
When they (but then) had fear cely learn'd to dade.
Forty-two journies have I ftraitly pafs'd
Since first this glorious pilgrimage begun,
In wrath or mercy where as first or laft,
Some wond'rous thing hath happily been done.
M' immortal Maker that fo oft have seen

The Lord did fwear though him he dearly lov'd) (That God of wonder) these complaints not boot, le should not come to Canaan as the rest.

and now approaching Abaris, the place

In yonder fields fo delicate and green,
That may not fet my miferable foot.

rom whence he might that promis'd country fee,

So much the Lord good Mofes pleas'd to grace)

ut there his days must confummated be.

When this great prophet zealoufly had bless'd ach fev'ral tribe with a particular good,

Those parting them with forrow so opprefs'd,

Thus leaning back against the rifing cleeve,
Railing his faint hands to the hopeful skies,
Meek as the morning never feen to strive,
Great'it of the prophets, the good Mofes dies.
An hundred twenty hardly paffed years,
His natural vigour no whit did affuage,

blood.

As in the height and fummer of his age.
Who being diffolv'd, the angels did inter
Near to Bethpeor in the vallied ground,
But yet fo fecret kept his fepulchre

That it by mortal never should be found.

That shedding tears, their eyes shed drops of His eyes as bright, his body then appears

To Nebo feated admirably high,

The fpirit prepares him fafely to retire)

Which thrufts his head into the cloudy sky,

Iga fo proudly thither dare afpire.

ilga the height of Abaris, and this

The height of Pifga over all doth stand,

That as the eye of mighty Abaris

urveyeth the imparalleled land.

here goodly Gilead unto him he shews

s far as ever he could look to Dan,

The length and breadth how every way it goes, all her brow kiss the calm Mediterian.

That with their own weight brake them in the fall, Wanting a little fustenance and fleep.

Down this proud lump ambitioufly he flung,

Into base duft diffolving it with fire,

That fince they for variety did long,

The greedy people with the very fight
Are fill'd before they come thereof to taste,
That with fuch furfeit gluts their appetite,
Their queasy stomachs ready are to caft.
Those that for beef in gluttony did call

Those the high'st God his powerfulness to try,
Cloys with the fowl that from the heavens do fall,
Until they stuff their stomachs by the eye.
But whilst the flesh betwixt their teeth they chew,
And fuck the fat so delicately fweet,

(With too much plenty that even fulfome grew
That lies fo common trodden under feet.)
That God impartial and so rightly just,

When he had given them more than they defire,
Duly to punish their infatiate lift,

Pours down his plagues confuming as his fire.
And with a strong hand violently strake

Their blood, distemper'd with luxurious diet,
That foon the fores in groins and arm-pits brake,
Thus could the Lord scourge their rebellious riot.
Aaron and Miriam, all too much it were
For grief when Mofes ready is to die;

But you whom one womb happily did bear
'Gainst your mild brother needs muft mutiny.
O unkind Aaron when thou foudly fram'dit,
That beaft-like idol bowing Ifrael's knee,
He then thee begg'd, and those so bafely blanı'dst,
And did divert the judgment due to thee.
Immodest Miriam, when the hand of might mig
Left thee with lothsome leprofy defil'd,
Contemn'd and abject in the vileft fight,
From the great host perpetually exil'd:
When thou hadst spit the utmost of thy spite,
And for thy fin this plague on thee was thrown,

-He not forfook thee, but in heavy plight
Kneeling to God obtain'd thee for his own.
His wond'rous patience ever was apply'd
To those on him that caufelessly complain,
Who did with comely carelessness deride
What happy men should evermore disdain.

When now the spials for the promis'd foil,
For the twelve tribes that twelve in number went,
Having discover'd forty days with toil,
Safely return'd as happily they went:

Bringing the figs, pomegranates, and the grapes,
Whose verdurous clusters that with moisture swell,
Seem by the taste and strangeness of the shapes,
The place that bare them faithfully to tell:
That well exprefs'd the nature of the earth,
So full of liquor and so wond'rous great,
That from fuch wished fruitfulness in birth,
Suck'd the sweet marrow of a plenteous teat.
But whilit they stand attentively to hear
The fundry foils wherein they late had been,
Telling what giants did inhabit there,
What towns of war that walled they had seen.
Of Anack's offspring when they came to tell,
And their huge ftature when they let them fee,
And of their shapes so terrible and fell,

Which were fuppos'd the Titanois to be;

That they their God do utterly refuse,
Against just Mofes openly exclaim,
And were in hand a captain them to choose
To guide them back to Goshen whence they came,
Not at the dread of the Egyptian days,

What by mild Mofes he to pass had brought,
Nor seen by him done at the purple feas,
On their vile minds a higher temper wrought.
Whom when of God he begg'd with bloody eyes,
And against heaven did obstinately strive,
Obtain'd fo hardly their immunities,
Whose fin feem'd greater than he could forgive.
Caleb and Joshua, you courageous men,
When bats and ftones against your breasts were

laid,

Oppofe yourselves against the other ten,
That expedition bafely that diffuade.

Quoth they. To conquer as he did before
No more than men, what praife his puiffance yields,
But he whose force the very rocks did gore,
Can with the fame hand cleave their brazen shields.
He that forefaw that this should be our feat,
And only knew the goodness of the fame,
Poffefs'd the place with those that were so great
For us to keep it fafely till we came.
For which the Lord did vow that not a man
At Sinai muster'd, where fuch numbers were,
Should live to come to fruitful Canaan,
Only those two fo well themselves that bear.
And for the bafeness of those recreant fpies,
Whose melting minds this impious slander bred,
And the vile people's incredulities,
In that their God so strongly promifed.
For forty days difcovery of the land,
They forty years in wilderness shall waste,
Confum'd with plagues from his impetuous hand,
Until that age be abfolutely past.
Which scarcely spoke, but quickly took effect,
For those so cold, and cowardly-before,
Hearing the cenfure of their base neglect,
To make his vengeance and their fin the more.
Ent'ring the land which Moses them denies,
Their defp'rate will no better can afford,
Offering those lives they did so lightly prize
Unto the vengeance of the heath'nish sword.
And in the host new factions daily grew,
When Choran, Dathan, and Abiram rife,
Two hundred men of special note that drew,
Whose strength gave power to their confederacies.
But the vast earth incontinently clave,
And on the sudden hurried them to hell;
With the thrill scream the shrieking people gave,
The fainting host into a fever fell
The rest of the conspirators were left
(From the first's fall enforsing their retire,
Of all the fuccours of the hoft bereft)
Confum'd to ashes with heaven's violent fire
And those th' abettors of this vile attempt
That did mild Mofes cruelly pursue,
From th' other's fin that could not be exempt,

Their hearts funk down, and though the fruits Them with the dreadful pestilence he flew.

they faw

By their rare beauty might allure their eyes,

Yet this report their coward fouls did awe,
And so much daunt the forward enterprise,

That had not Aaron when all hope was fled,
With holy incenfe their atonement wrought,
Thrafting himself 'twixt the living and the dead,
All had to ruin utterly been brought.

Where fourteen thousand and feven hundred sunk | When they the time no longer could adjourn,
Under the burden of their odious fin,

Which now was wax'd fo infufferably rank,
It was high time his vengeance should begin.
When after this so terrible a thing,
Now that triumphant and miraculous wand
Brings forth ripe almonds, strongly witueffing
In Levi's tribe the priesthood still to stand.
With leaves and blosioms bravely it doth flourish,
Some budding, fome as inflantly but blown.
As when the fame the natural rind did nourish,
For Mofes' fake fuch miracles were shewn.
Forward to Cade they their journey cast,
Where the good Miriam makes her latest hour,
Miriam the fair, the excellent, the chaste,
Miriam that was of wonianhood the flower,
Here bids her brothers lovingly adieu,
Who at her parting kifs her clofing eyes,
Whose wond'rous lofs fufficiently to rue,
More is the grief that tears cannot fuffice.
Moist are their eyes, their lips are fhrunk with heat,
Their grief within, as outward it appears,
'Their want of water in that place as great,
As it to them is plentiful of tears.
'They at one instant mutiny and mourn,
Sorrows creep confusedly together,
The tears for her incontinent they turn

To words 'gainft Mofes that did guide them thi
ther.

Who from the rock Aruck water with the wand,
'That man and beaft might plenteoufly maintain,
But he from rocks that fountains can command,
Cannot yet ftay the fountains of his brain.

Much woe for Miriam these good men did make
Whilft there were two that might bewail this one,
But two departing for their mutual fake,
Mofes remains to mourn himself alone,
Aaron the ancient'ft of Hebrew line,
Replete with natural comelinefs and grace,
(God-like fo far as man might be divine)
Endeth his days in this predeflin'd place.
Which being forewarned to await his end,
And here the fate foretelling him to die,
That the good hour doth only now attend,
Will'd to afcend the mountain (being nigh.)
With Eleazar his dear child he goes,
Led by mild Mofes as the Lord decreed,
To his lov'd fon his garments to difpofe,
Him in the priesthood 'pointed to fucceed.
When turning hack to bid them all adieu,
Who look'd as faft to bid this lord farewell.
Fountains of late fo fast from rocks ne'er flew,
As the falt drops down their fad bofoms fell.
Nor the obdurat'st, nor the ftonieft hearts,
That in deep forrow melting here forbears,
'Those to whom nature not those drops imparts,
Spent what in fighs, the other did in tears.
Sated with fobs, but hungry with his fight,
Their wat'ry eyes him earnestly purfue,
When to difcern him they no longer might,
Where their fighs ends, their forrows do renew.
Com'n to the top, to the appointed place,
His fon in all his ornaments invelted,
Which the good Aaron meekly doth embrace,
And unto him his offices bequested.

After embraces and a flood of woes,
(Which when one ceas'd the other took his turn)
From either's eyes that on the other flows.
Now at the last point, at the gasp of death,
He whom the whole world hath but fuch another,
Gives up his latest, his most blessed breath,
In the dear arms of his beloved brother:
So wifely worketh that eternal being
By the ttill changes of their varying flate,
(As to the end through the beginning seeing)
To build the frame of unavoided fate.

When those given up to their lafcivious wills,
Themselves in Midian wantonness that waite,
Whose fleshly knowledge fip'd those sugar'd ills,
Twenty-four thousand flaughtered at the laft.
Of all those that in Sinai number'd are,
I' th' plains of Moab muster'd then again,
Wafted by time, fire, peftilence, and war,
Those promis'd two, and Mofes did remain.

The time expir'd that they for Aaron meurn'd,
New conquest now, new comfort them doth bring,
Their former hope successively return'd,
That feem'd before fo fadly languishing.
When they the glorious victory obtain
The plains of Horma scatter'd all with shields,
Where Arad and his Canaanites are flain,
Not the leafl fight of many glorious fields.
With Sehon's flaughter feconded again,
And Og's great fall of a gigantic strength,
Whofe bed of iron fathien'd to contain
In breadth four cubits, doubling it in length:
The living remnant of the mighty race
Of big-bon'd Anack terrible and dread,
Which long time bat'ning in that fertile place,
Grew like the fat foil wherein they were bred.
Not poets fictions of the Phlægrian fields,
Where as the giants up to heaven would climb,
Heaping on mountains not fuch wonder yields,
As did the man that lived in that time.
And five proud kings fell in their recreant flight,
Before arm'd Ifrael on the Midian plain,
Zur, Hur, and Eni, men of wonders might,
Reba and Rekem valiantly flain.

And as his stre.gth crush'd mighty kings to daf,
And cleft the helms that thunder proof were

thought,

That hand that help'd them fcourg'd their impactus
When his high judgment to pervert they fought.
And fent thofe ferpents (with their fiery fting)
With inflammations that their flesh did fweil,
Sharply to fcourge their truftless murmurings,
That fill in infidelity did dwell.

Rare in this creature was his wond'rous might,
1 hat should effect the nature of the fire,
Yet to recure the forance by the fight,
Sickness might feem the remedy t' admire.
Only by metal miracles to work,
Theal,
That ferpent's shape, the ferpent's hurt should
To shew in him the mysteries that lurk,
And being to strange, as firangely doth reveal
That the forg'd figure of so vile a thing
Should the difcale so prefently remove,
Only by th' eye a remedy to bring,
Deep fearching magic leaveth to approve.

:

'The Lord did fwear (though him he dearly lov'd) (That God of wonder) these complaints not boot,

That shedding tears, their eyes shed drops of His eyes as bright, his body then appears