TH

VI.

CAIN's Punishment.

HUS impious CAIN unveil'd the first fad
Scene,

And taught his mournful Sire what Death did mean:
Where is thy Brother, GOD in Thunder cries;
I neither know nor care, the Churl replies.
Am I bis Keeper, that thou me doft charge?
My Fields are narrow, but his Walks are large:
O Wretch, he cries, thy Crimes thou canst not hide;
In vain to him, who all things fees, deny'd:
What hift thou done? From Earth unto the Skies
Thy murder'd Brother's Blood for Vengeance cries:
Accurs'd art thou, and Earth thy Curfe fhall bear ;
The barren Soil ungrateful to thy Care.
Trembling and fearful thou in vain shalt run
From Man's dear Face. Thy felf thou canst not sun.

When thus the moody Murd'rer in Despair
'My Punishment I cannot, will not bear.
"I'm from my Father's Pious Houfe disjoyn'd,
"And banifh'd from the Face of Human-Kind.
"If any me a helpless Exile find,

"They foon the trembling Fugitive will flay, "Or he to wild and ravenous Beafts a Prey.

}

No

"No-thou thy hated Life a while fhalt bear, "And my juft Vengeance to the World declare:

Th' Almighty answers -- "I my felf will place. "The dreadful Stains of Murther on thy Face, "That all may fhun thy Crimes and Fate. He faid,

The Caitiff heard, with ghaftful Looks he fled,
And oft he turns his guilty Eyes behind,
And starts at every noife, and Breath of Wind:
His guilty Eyes and ghaftful Looks confefs'd

The fecret bellifh Pain that gnaw'd his anxious
Breaft.

GENESIS, Chap. IV. from Ver. 9. το 14.

9. The Lord faid unto Cain, where is Abel th brother? and be faid, I know not: am I my brothers. keeper?

10. And he faid, what hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's bloul crieth unto me from the ground. 11. And now art thou curfed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's bloud from thy hand.

12. When thou tilleft the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a Vagabond fhalt thou be in the earth.

13. And Cain faid unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear, &c.

VII. The Ark and Flood.

NOR

OR this nor Cain's, nor Lamech's Blood fuffice, To purge a guilty World orewhelm'd in Vice: The Wicked Seed prevail, their monstrous Race With Rapes and Murthers cover Earths fad Face: Noah alone his Innocence retain'd,

Of Millions, only Noah, Just, remain'd

}

And ftemm'd a World; nor this to him unknown
Who all furveys from his Celestial Throne:
His injur'd Patience wou'd no longer wait,
His Fuftice feals the hardned Rebels Fate;
But righteous Noah he refolves to fpare,
And bids him a capacious Ark prepare
T'embark the future World, and fave it there.
Of every Species, thus had Heav'n enjoyn'd,
Of either Sex, ftill to preferve the Kind
He to the Ark conveys, of all that breath,
And rescues from th' approaching Watry Death.
--- Which now from injur'd angry Heav'n defcends,
While the vex'd Earth with dire Convulfions rends:
And Old Abyss, which round the Center lay
Reveals her hidden Stores to wondring Day:
Rivers their Banks, the Sea forgets her Shore
Her Waves by God's Decree reftrain'd no more:
Higher the Waters climb, and ftill more high,
To Trees and Hills in vain the Wretches fly,
For only there a fhort Reprive they found,
The Trees and lofty Hills themselves are drown'd:
Whatever breath'd is loft; in Oceans Caves
Their Bodies whelm'd, or floating on the Waves:
Noah, the Universal Wreck furvives,

By the Great Pilot steer'd, his feebie Vessel lives.

V.

GENESIS, Chap. VI. Ver. 4. Chap. VII.

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to the End.

vi. 5. God faw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.

7. And the Lord faid I will deftroy Man, whom I have created.

8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 14,19. And Godsaid make thee anArk of Gopherwood. Of every living thing of all flesh, two of every fort fhalt thou bring into the Ark.

vii. 10, 21. The Waters of the flood were upon the earth - And all flesh died that moved upon the earth.

VIII.

The Flood ceafes, Noah goes out of the Ark, and facrifices, God's Promife to him.

A

ND now Almighty Goodness calls to Mind The poor Remains of Nature, long confin'd Within their floating Vault; The Floods decrease" At his Command; tumultuous Whirlwinds ceale, And all the jarring Elements are Peace. See from the teeming Ark a Second Birth Descending to renew the defert Earth!

Birds, Reptiles, Beafts in friendly Pairs are joyn'd,
The fame the Godlike Race of fav'd Mankind:

Noah, their Prince and Father them conveys, 2
Then does of Living Turf an Altar raise,
And to their kind Preferver kneels and prays.
Two of the fairest Birds, and Beafts he gave
To him who them, and all the reft did save;
But chiefly did a grateful Heart prefent:
Up to high Heav'n the pleafing Odour went,
Thus fpake th' Almighty Sire, and shook the
Firmament:

"While Time remains, and these fairOrbs shall roll, "While Earth its Center knows, or Heav'n the Pole, "Shall Nature now her fteddy Course pursue "Alternate Seafons fhall the World renew.

'Ye cheerful Days your conftant Walk maintain. "And, Oye Nights, affert your peaceful Reign! Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter's hoary Face Each other ftill fucceed in Time's revolving Race!

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