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Or Heav'n write ought of fate, by what the stars Voluminous, or fingle characters,

385

In their conjunction met, give me to fpell,
Sorrows, and labors, oppofition, hate
Attends thee, fcorns, reproaches, injuries,
Violence and stripes, and lastly cruel death;
A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom,
Real or allegoric I difcern not,

Nor when, eternal fure, as without end,
Without beginning; for no date prefix'd
Directs me in the starry rubric set.

390

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So faying he took (for ftill he knew his power Not yet expir'd) and to the wilderness 395 Brought back the Son of God, and left him there, Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose, As day-light funk, and brought in louring night Her fhadowy ofspring, unfubftantial both, Privation mere of light and absent day. Our Saviour meek and with untroubled mind After his aery jaunt, though hurried fore, Hungry and cold betook him to his reft, Wherever, under fome concourse of fhades, 404 Whose branching arms thick interwin'd might shield From dews and damps of night his shelter'd head, But shelter'd slept in vain, for at his head The Tempter watch'd, and foon with ugly dreams Disturb'd his fleep; and either tropic now 409 'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heav'n, the clouds

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From many a horrid rift abortive pour'd
Fierce rain with lightning mix'd, water with fire
In ruin reconcil'd: nor flept the winds
Within their ftony caves, but rush'd abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vex'd wilderness, whose tallest pines,
Though rooted deep as high, and fturdieft oaks
Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,
Or torn up fheer: ill waft thou fhrouded then,
O patient Son of God, yet only flood'st
Unfhaken; nor yet ftay'd the terror there,
Infernal ghosts, and Hellish furies, round (fhriek'd,
Environ'd thee, fome howl'd, fome yell'd, fome
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
Satft unappall'd in calm and finless peace.
Thus pafs'd the night fo foul, till morning fair
Came forth with pilgrim steps in amice gray,
Who with her radiant finger ftill'd the roar
Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, and laid the winds,
And grifly spectres, which the Fiend had rais'd 430
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
And now the fun with more effectual beams
Had chear'd the face of earth, and dry'd the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now behold more freshandgreen, 435
After a night of ftorm fo ruinous,

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Clear'd up their choiceft notes in bush and spray To gratulate the fweet return of morn;

Nor

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Nor yet amidst this joy and brightest morn
Was abfent, after all his mischief done,
The prince of darkness, glad would also seem
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came,
Yet with no new device, they all were spent,
Rather by this his laft affront resolv'd,
Defp'rate of better course, to vent his rage,
And mad despite to be so oft repell'd.
Him walking on a funny hill he found,
Back'd on the north and weft by a thick wood;
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,
And in a careless mood thus to him said.

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Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God, After a difmal night; I heard the wrack As earth and sky would mingle; but myself (them Was diftant; and these flaws, though mortals fear As dang'rous to the pillar'd frame of Heaven, 455 Or to the earth's dark bafis underneath,

Are to the main as inconsiderable,

And harmless, if not wholesome as a fneeze
To man's lefs univerfe, and foon are gone;
Yet as being oft times noxious where they light 460
On man, beaft, plant, waftful and turbulent,
Like turbulencies in th' affairs of men,
Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,
They oft fore-fignify and threaten ill :
This tempeft at this defert most was bent;
Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'ft.

L 2

465

Did

Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject

The perfect feason offer'd with my aid
To win thy deftin'd seat, but wilt prolong
All to the push of fate, pursue thy way

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Of gaining David's throne no man knows when,
For both the when and how is no where told,
Thou shalt be what thou art ordain'd, no doubt;
For Angels have proclaim'd it, but concealing
The time and means: each act is rightlieft done,
Not when it must but when it may be best.
If thou observe not this, be fure to find,
What I foretold thee, many a hard assay
Of dangers, and adverfities, and pains,

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Ere thou of Ifrael's fcepter get fast hold;

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Whereof this ominous night that clos'd thee round,

So many terrors, voices, prodigies

May warn thee, as a fure fore-going fign.

So talk'd he, while the Son of God went on And stay'd not, but in brief him answer'd thus. 485

Me worse than wet thou find'st not; other harm Those terrors which thou spak'st of, did me none; I never fear'd they could, though noising loud And threatning nigh; what they can do as figns Betokening, or ill boding, I contemn 490 As falfe portents, not fent from God, but thee; Who knowing I fhall reign paft thy preventing, Obtrud'ft thy offer'd aid, that I accepting

At least might feem to hold all pow'r of thee,

Am

Ambitious Spi'rit, and wouldst be thought my God,
And storm'ft refus'd, thinking to terrify
Me to thy will; defist, thou art discern'd
And toil'ft in vain, nor me in vain moleft.

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To whom the Fiend now fwoln with rage reply'd. Then hear, O Son of David, Virgin-born;

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For Son of God to me is yet in doubt:
Of the Meffiah I have heard foretold
By all the prophets; of thy birth at length
Announc'd by Gabriel with the first I knew,
And of th' angelic fong in Bethlehem field, 505
On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.
From that time seldom have I ceas'd to eye
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
Till at the ford of Jordan whither all
Flock'd to the Baptift, I among the rest,
Though not to be baptiz'd, by voice from Heaven
Heard thee pronounc'd the Son of God belov'd.
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
A narrower scrutiny, that I might learn

In what degree or meaning thou art call'd
The Son of God, which bears no single sense;
The Son of God I alfo am, or was,

And if I was, I am; relation stands;

510.

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All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought 520 In some respect far higher so declar'd.

Therefore I watch'd thy footsteps from that hour,

And

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