sees all that is to occur until the Deluge, and, watching Noah
construct the ark, wails because his progeny is to be destroyed by the
flood. The angel, however, demonstrates that the righteous will be
saved and that from them will descend a race more willing to obey
God's commands. The dove and the rainbow, therefore, instil comfort
into Adam's heart, as does God's promise that day and night, seedtime
and harvest shall hold their course until new heavens and earth appear
wherein the just shall dwell.

_Book XII._ Having depicted a world destroyed and foreshadowed a world
restored, the angel shows Adam how man will migrate to a plain, where
by means of bricks and bitumen an attempt will be made to erect a
tower to reach heaven. When Adam expresses displeasure that one of his
race should defy God, Michael assures him he rightly abhors
disobedience, and comforts him by revealing how one righteous man, in
whose "seed all nations shall be blest," is to be brought out of that
country into the Promised Land.

Not only does the angel name Abraham, but depicts his life, the
captivity in Egypt, the exodus, and the forty years in the desert. He
also vouchsafes to Adam a glimpse of Moses on Mount Sinai receiving
the tables of the law, and appointing the worship which the Chosen
People are to offer to their Creator. When Adam wonders at the number
of laws, Michael rejoins that sin has many faces, and that until blood
more precious than that of the prescribed sacrifices has been shed, no
suitable atonement can be made.

After describing how under the Judges and then under the Kings the
people of Israel will continue their career the angel designates David
as the ancestor of the Messiah, whose coming will be heralded by a