What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain, A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green; Darkness must overshadow all his bounds, Palpable darkness, and blot out three days; Last, with one midnight stroke, all the first-born Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds The river-dragon tamed, at length submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft Humbles his stubborn heart; but still as ice More hardened after thaw; till, in his rage Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea Swallows him with his host; but them lets pass As on dry land, between two crystal walls; Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand Divided, till his rescued gain their shore: Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend, Though present in his angel; who shall go Before them in a cloud, and pillar of fire; By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire; To guide them in their journey, and remove Behind them, while th' obdurate king pursues: All night he will pursue, but his approach Darkness defends between till morning watch; Then through the fiery pillar and the cloud God looking forth will trouble all his host, And craze their chariot wheels: when by command Moses once more his potent rod extends Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys;
On their embattled ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war: the race elect Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance Through the wild desert, not the readiest way; Lest, entering on the Canaanite alarmed, War terrify them inexpert, and fear Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather Inglorious life with servitude; for life To noble and ignoble is more sweet Untrained in arms, where rashness leads not on. This also shall they gain by their delay In the wide wilderness; there they shall found Their government, and their great senate choose Thro' the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained: God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top Shall tremble, he descending, will himself, In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpet's sound, Ordain them laws; part, such as appertain To civil justice; part, religious rites Of sacrifice; informing them, by types And shadows, of that destined seed to bruise The serpent, by what means he shall achieve Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God To mortal ear is dreadful: they beseech That Moses might report to them his will, And terror cease; he grants what they besought, Instructed that to God is no access Without mediator, whose high office now Moses in figure bears; to introduce One greater, of whose day he shall foretell,
And all the prophets in their age the times Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus, laws and rites Established, such delight hath God in men Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes Among them to set up his tabernacle, The holy One with mortal men to dwell: By his prescript a sanctuary is framed Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein An ark, and in the ark his testimony, The records of his covenant; over these A mercy-seat of gold, between the wings Of two bright cherubim; before him burn Seven lamps, as in a zodiac representing The heavenly fires; over the tent a cloud Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night, Save when they journey, and at length they come, Conducted by his angel, to the land
Promised to Abraham and his seed: the rest Were long to tell; how many battles fought; How many kings destroyed, and kingdoms won; Or how the sun shall in mid heaven stand still A day entire, and night's due course adjourn, Man's voice commanding, 'Sun, in Gibeon stand, And thou moon in the vale of Aialon, Till Israel overcome!' so call the third From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win."
Here Adam interposed. "O sent from Heaven, Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things Thou hast revealed; those chiefly which concern Just Abraham and his seed: now first I find Mines eyes true opening, and my heart much eased,
Erewhile perplexed with thoughts what would become
Of me and all mankind; but now I see His day, in whom all nations shall be blest; Favour unmerited by me, who sought Forbidden knowledge by forbidden means. This yet I apprehend not, why to those Among whom God will deign to dwell on earth So many and so various laws are given; So many laws argues so many sins Among them; how can God with such reside?" To whom thus Michael. "Doubt not but that sin
Will reign among them, as of thee begot; And therefore was law given them, to evince Their natural pravity, by stirring up Sin against law to fight: that when they see Law can discover sin, but not remove, Save by those shadowy expiations weak, The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude Some blood more precious must be paid for man: Just for unjust; that in such righteousness To them by faith imputed, they may find Justification towards God, and peace Of conscience; which the law by ceremonies |Can not appease, nor man the mortal part
Perform; and, not performing, can not live. So law appears imperfect; and but given With purpose to resign them in full time, Up to a better covenant; disciplined
From shadowy types to truth; from flesh to spirit; From imposition of strict laws to free Acceptance of large grace; from servile fear To filial; works of law to works of faith. And therefore shall not Moses, though of God Highly beloved, being but the minister Of law, his people into Canaan lead; But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call, His name and office bearing, who shall quel The adversary serpent, and bring back Through the world's wilderness long wandered
Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.
Meanwhile they, in their earthly Canaan placed, Long time shall dwell and prosper; but when sins National interrupt their public peace, Provoking God to raise them enemies; From whom as oft he saves them penitent By judges first, then under kings: of whom The second, both for piety renowned And puissant deeds, a promise shall receive Irrevocable, that his regal throne For ever shall endure; the like shall sing All prophecy, that of the royal stock
Of David (so I name this king) shall rise A Son, the woman's seed to thee foretold, Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust All nations; and to kings foretold, of kings The last; for of his reign shall be no end. But first, a long succession must ensue; And his next son, for wealth and wisdom famed, The clouded ark of God, till then in tents Wandering shall in a glorious temple enshrine. Such follow him, as shall be registered Part good, part bad; of bad the longer scroll; Whose foul idolatries, and other faults Heaped to the popular sum, will so incense God, as to leave them, and expose their land, Their city, his temple, and his holy ark, With all his sacred things, a scorn and prey To that proud city, whose high walls thou saw'st Left in confusion; Babylon thence called. There in captivity he lets them dwell
Upon the temple itself; at last they seize The sceptre, and regard not David's sons; Then lose it to a stranger, that the true Anointed king Messiah might be born Barred of his right; yet at his birth a star, Unseen before in Heaven, proclaims him come And guides the eastern sages, who inquire His place, to offer incense, myrrh, and gold: His place of birth a solemn angel tells To simple shepherds, keeping watch by night; They gladly thither haste, and by a choir Of squadroned angels hear his carol sung. A virgin is his mother, but his sire
The power of the Most High: he shall ascend The throne hereditary, and bound his reign With earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heavens."
He ceased, discerning Adam with such joy Surcharged, as had like grief been dewed in tears, Without the vent of words; which these he breathed.
“O prophet of glad tidings, finisher
Of utmost hope! now clear I understand What oft my steadiest thoughts have search'd in vain,
Why our great Expectation should be called The seed of woman: virgin mother, hail! High in the love of Heaven; yet from my loins Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son Of God most High: so God with man unites! Needs must the serpent now his capital bruise Expect with mortal pain: say where and when Their fight, what stroke shall bruise the victor's heel."
As of a duel, or the local wounds Of head or heel: nor therefore joins the Son Manhood to Godhead, with more strength to foil Thy enemy; nor so is overcome
Satan, whose fall from Heaven, a deadlier bruise, Disabled, not to give thee thy death's wound: Which he, who comes thy Saviour, shall recure, Not by destroying Satan, but his works In thee, and in thy seed: nor can this be, But by fulfilling that which thou didst want, Obedience to the law of God imposed
The space of seventy years; then brings them On penalty of death, and suffering death,
Remembering mercy, and his covenant sworn To David, stablished as the days of Heaven. Returned from Babylon by leave of kings
The penalty to thy transgression due ;
And due to theirs which out of thine will grow.
So only can high justice rest appaid. The law of God exact he shall fulfil
Their lords, whom God disposed, the house of God Both by obedience and by love, though love They first re-edify, and for a while
In mean estate live moderate; till, grown In wealth and multitude, factious they grow; But first among the priests dissension springs, Men who attend the altar, and should most Endeavour peace: their strife pollution brings
Alone fulfil the law; thy punishment He shall endure, by coming in the flesh To a reproachful life and cursed death; Proclaiming life to all who shall believe In his redemption; and that his obedience, Imputed, becomes theirs by faith, his merits
To save them, not their own, though legal, works. For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed, Siezed on by force, judged, and to death con- demned
A shameful and accursed, nailed to the cross By his own nation; slain for bringing life; But to the cross he nails thy enemies, The law that is against thee, and the sins Of all mankind, with him there crucified, Never to hurt them more who rightly trust In this his satisfaction; so he dies, But soon revives; death over him no power Shall long usurp; ere the third dawning light Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems. His death for man, as many as offered life Neglect not, and the benefit embrace
By faith not void of works: this godlike act Annuls thy doom, the death thou should'st have died,
In sin for ever lost from life; this act Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, Defeating sin and death, his two main arms, And fix far deeper in his head their stings Than temporal death shall bruise the victor's heel, Or theirs whom he redeems; a death, like sleep, A gentle wafting to immortal life. Nor after resurrection shall he stay Longer on earth than certain times to appear To his disciples, men who in his life Still followed him; to them shall leave in charge To teach all nations what of him they learned And his salvation; them who shall believe Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign Of washing them from guilt of sin to life Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall, For death, like that which the Redeemer died, All nations they shall teach; for, from that day, Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins Salvation shall be preached, but to the sons Of Abraham's faith, wherever through the world; So in his seed all nations shall be blest. Then to the Heaven of Heavens he shall ascend, With victory, triumphing through the air Over his foes and thine; there shall surprise The serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains Through all his realm, and there confounded leave; Then enter into glory, and resume His seat at God's right-hand, exalted high
Shall all be Paradise, far happier place Than this of Eden, and far happier days."
So spake the archangel Michael; then paused, As at the world's great period: and our sire, Replete with joy and wonder, thus replied. "O goodness infinite, goodness immense! That all this good of evil shall produce, And evil turn to good; more wonderful Than that which by creation first brought forth Light out of darkness! Full of doubt I stand, Whether I should repent me now of sin By me done and occasioned, or rejoice Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring,
To God more glory, more good will to men, From God, and over wrath grace shall abound. But say, if our Deliverer up to Heaven Must reascend, what will betide the few His faithful, left among the unfaithful herd, The enemies of truth? who then shall guide His people, who defend? will they not deal Worse with his followers than with him they dealt ?"
"Be sure they will," said the angel; "but from Heaven
He to his own a Comforter will send,
The promise of the Father, who shall dwell His spirit within them; and the law of faith, Working through love, upon their hearts shall write,
To guide them in all truth; and also arm With spiritual armour, able to resist Satan's assaults, and quench his fiery darts; What man can do against them, not afraid, Though to the death; against such cruelties With inward consolaticas recompensed, And oft supported so as shall amaze Their proudest persecutors: for the Spirit, |Poured first on his apostles, whom he sends To evangelize the nations, then on all Baptized, shall them with wondrous gifts endue To speak all tongues, and do all miracles, As did their Lord before them. Thus they win Great numbers of each nation to receive With joy the tidings brought from Heaven: at length
Their ministry performed, and race well run, Their doctrine and their story written left, They die; but in their room, as they forewarn, Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves,
Above all names in Heaven; and thence shall Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven
When this world's dissolution shall be ripe,
With glory and power to judge both quick and dead;
To judge the unfaithful dead, but to reward
His faithful, and receive them into bliss,
To their own vile advantages shall turn Of lucre and ambition; and the truth With superstitions and traditions taint, Left only in those written records pure, Though not but by the Spirit understood. Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names,
Whether in Heaven or earth; for then the earth Places, and titles and with these to join
Secular power; though feigning still to act By spiritual, to themselves appropriating The spirit of God, promised alike and given To all believers; and, from that pretence, Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force On every conscience; laws which none shall find Left them enrolled, or what the Spirit within Shall on the heart engrave. What will they then But force the spirit of grace itself, and bind His consort liberty? what, but unbuild His living temples, built by faith to stand Their own faith, not another's? for, on earth, Who against faith and conscience can be heard Infallible? yet many will presume: Whence heavy persecution shall arise On all, who in the worship persevere
Of spirit and truth; the rest, far greater part, Will deem in outward rites and specious forms Religion satisfied; truth shall retire
Bestuck with slanderous darts, and works of faith Rarely be found: so shall the world go on, To good malignant, to bad men benign; Under her own weight groaning, till the day Appear of respiration to the just, And vengeance to the wicked, at return Of him so lately promised to thy aid, The woman's seed; obscurely then foretold, Now amplier known thy Saviour and thy Lord; Last, in the clouds, from Heaven to be revealed In glory of the Father, to dissolve
Satan with his perverted world; then raise From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined, New Heavens, new earth, ages of endless date, Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love; To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss."
He ended; and thus Adam last replied. "How soon hath thy prediction, Seer blest, Measured this transient world, the race of time, Till time stands fixed! beyond is all abyss, Eternity, whose end no eye can reach. Greatly instructed I shall hence depart; Greatly in peace of thought, and have my fill Of knowledge, what this vessel can contain; Beyond which was my folly to aspire. Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best, And love with fear the only God; to walk As in his presence; ever to observe His providence; and on him sole depend, Merciful over all his works, with good Still overcoming evil, and by small Accomplishing great things, by things deemed weak
Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise By simply meek: that suffering for truth's sake Is fortitude to highest victory,
And, to the faithful, death the gate of life; Taught this by his example, whom I now Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest."
To whom thus also the angel last replied.
"This having learned, thou hast attained the sum Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the stars Thou knew'st by name, and all the ethereal powers, All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works, Or works of God in Heaven, air, earth, or sea, And all the riches of this world enjoyedst, And all the rule, one empire; only add Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith, Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love, By name to come called charity, the soul Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath To leave this Paradise, but shall possess A Paradise within thee, happier far. Let us descend now therefore from this to Of speculation; for the hour precise Exacts our parting hence; and see! the guards, By me encamped on yonder hill, expect Their motion; at whose front a flaming sword, In signal of remove, waves fiercely round: We may no longer stay: go, waken Eve; Her also I with gentle dreams have calmed Portending good, and all her spirits composed To meek submission; thou, at season fit, Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard, Chiefly what may concern her faith to know, The great deliverance by her seed to come (For by the woman's seed) on all mankind: That ye may live, which will be many days, Both in one faith unanimous, though sad, With cause, for evils past, yet much more cheered With meditation on the happy end."
He ended, and they both descend the hill; Descended, Adam to the bower where Eve Lay sleeping, ran before; but found her waked; And thus with words not sad she him received. "Whence thou return'st, and whither went'st, I
For God is also in sleep; and dreams advise, Which he hath sent propitious, some great good Presaging, since with sorrow and heart's distress Wearied I fell asleep: but now led on;
In me is no delay; with thee to go, Is to stay here; without thee here to stay, Is to go hence unwilling; thou to me Art all things under Heaven, all places thou, Who for my wilful crime art banished hence. This further consolation yet secure
I carry hence; though all by me is lost, Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed, By me the promised Seed shall all restore."
So spake our mother Eve, and Adam heard Well pleased, but answered not; for now too nigh The archangel stood; and from the other hill To their fixed station, all in bright array The cherubim descended; on the ground Gliding meteorous, as evening mist Risen from a river o'er the marish glides, And gather's ground fast at the labourer's heel |Homeward returning. High in front advanced
The brandished sword of God before them blazed, | Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat, And vapour as the Lybian air adust, Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat In either hand the hastening angel caught Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast To the subjected plain; then disappeared. They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms: Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They, hand in hand, with wandering steps, and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
The subject proposed. Invocation of the Holy Spirit.— The poem opens with John baptizing at the river Jordan. Jesus coming there is baptized; and is attested, by the descent of the Holy Ghost, and by a voice from Heaven, to be the Son of God. Satan, who is present, upon this immediately
flies up into the regions of the air: where, summoning his infernal council, he acquaints them with his apprehensions that Jesus is that seed of the woman, destined to destroy all their power; and points out to them the immediate necessity of bringing the matter to proof, and of attempting, by snares and fraud, to counteract and defeat the person, from whom they have so much to dread. This office he offers himself to undertake; and his offer being accepted, sets out on his enter. prise. In the mean time God, in the assembly of holy angels,
declares that he has given up his Son to be tempted by Satan; but foretells that the tempter shall be completely defeated by
him:-upon which the angels sing a hymn of triumph. Jesus is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, while he is
meditating on the commencement of his great office of Sa
find permission from above. Satan then disappears, and the book closes with a short description of night coming on in the desert.
I, WHO erewhile the happy garden sung By one man's disobedience lost, now sing Recovered Paradise to all mankind, By one man's firm obedience fully tried Through all temptation, and the tempter foiled In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed, And Eden raised in the waste wilderness.
Thou Spirit, who led'st the glorious eremite Into the desert, his victorious field, Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence
By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire, As thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute; And bear through height or depth of nature's bounds,
With prosperous wing full summed, to tell of deeds Above heroic, though in secret done, And unrecorded left through many an age; Worthy to have not remained so long unsung.
viour of Mankind. Pursuing his meditations, he narrates, in a soliloquy, what divine and philanthropic impulses he had felt from his early youth, and how his mother Mary, on perceiving these dispositions in him, had acquainted him with the circumstances of his birth, and informed him that he was no less a person than the Son of God; to which he adds what Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice his own inquiries and reflections had supplied in confirmation More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried of this great truth, and particularly dwells on the recent attestation of it at the river Jordan. Our Lord passes forty Repentance, and Heaven's kingdom nigh at hand days, fasting in the wilderness; where the wild beasts become To all baptized: to his great baptism flocked mild and harmless in his presence. Satan now appears under With awe the regions round, and with them came the form of an old peasant; and enters into discourse with From Nazareth the son of Joseph deemed our Lord, wondering what could have brought him alone into To the flood Jordan; came, as then obscure, so dangerous a place, and at the same time professing to recognise him for the person lately acknowledged by John, at Unmarked, unknown; but him the Baptist soon the river Jordan, to be the Son of God. Jesus briefly replies. Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore Satan rejoins with a description of the difficulty of supporting As to his worthier, and would have resigned life in the wilderness; and entreats Jesus, if he be really the To him his heavenly office; nor was long Son of God, to manifest his divine power, by changing some His witness unconfirmed: on him baptized of the stones into bread. Jesus reproves him and at the same time tells him that he knows who he is. Satan instantly Heaven opened, and in likeness of a dove avows himself, and offers an artful apology for himself and The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice his conduct. Our blessed Lord severely reprimands him, and From Heaven pronounced him his beloved Son. refutes every part of his justification. Satan, with much That heard the Adversary, who, roving still semblance of humility, still endeavours to justify himself, and, About the world, at that assembly famed professing his admiration of Jesus and his regard for virtue, requests to be permitted at a future time to hear more of his Would not be last, and, with the voice divine conversation; but is answered, that this must be as he shall Nigh thunderstruck, the exalted Man, to whom
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