e And be thyself Man among men on earth, 285 As many as are reftor'd, without thee none. Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds, And live in thee tranfplanted, and from thee Receive new life. So Man, as is most just, And dying rife, and rifing with him raise fering thou didst not defire, mine ears - baft thou opened; burnt-offering and fin-offering haft thou not required: Then faid I, Lo I come; in the var lume of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart. 277. -nor Man the leaft,] The leaft dear, Though laft created; fomewhat like Shakespear's Lear to Cordelia, A& I. Now our joy, 295 So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate, 300 So eafily deftroy'd, and still destroys In those who, when they may, accept not grace. Nor fhalt thou, by defcending to affume Man's nature, leffen or degrade thine own. Because thou haft, though thron'd in highest bliss Equal to God, and equally enjoying 306 God-like fruition, quitted all to fave A world from utter lofs, and haft been found By merit more than birthright Son of God, 310 Far "demption) is wanting. But to pay a price implying a voluntary act, the poet therefore well expreffes it by giving to death that is giving himself to death; "fo that the fenfe of the line fully expreffes Milton's notion, Heavenly love gave a price for the re"demption of mankind, and by vir "tue of that price really redeemed "them." " 301. and fill deftroys] Dr. Bentley objects to fill defroys, that this fpeech is before Adam's fall, and therefore he thinks that Milton gave it and will deftrey. But there are many paffages in thefe fpeeches of God and Meffiah, where Far more than great or high; because in thee With thee thy manhood alfo to this throne; Here shalt thou fit incarnate, here shalt reign 315 Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man, Anointed univerfal king; all power I give thee; reign for ever, and affume Thy merits; under thee as head fupreme Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions I reduce: Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from bleft voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung Th'eternal regions: lowly reverent Tow'ards either throne they bow, and to the ground With folemn adoration down they caft 'Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold; Immortal amarant, a flow'r which once a fhout loud as &c. Heav'n rung, &c. where the firft words are put in the ablative cafe abfolutely. 351. Pearce. down they caft Their crowns] So they are reprefented Rev. IV. 10. The four and twenty elders fall down before him that fat on the throne, and worship bim that liveth for ever and ever, and caft their crowns before the throne. 353. Immortal amarant,] Amarant Augean Greek, for unfading, that decayeth not; a flower of a purple velvet color, which tho' gather'd, keeps its beauty, and when all other flowers fade, recovers its luftre by being fprinkled with a little water, as Pliny affirms, Lib. 21. c. II. Our author feems to have taken this hint from 1 Pet. I. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, αμαρτίζον: and i Pet. V. I 4. Ye hall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away, aμaggio: both relating to the name of his ever I 351 In lafting amarant, which he has finely fet near the tree of life. Amarantus flos, fymbolum eft immortalitatis. Clem. Alexand. Hume. 357. the fount of life, and river of blifs] The abundant happiness and immortal joys of Heaven are in Scripture generally exprefs'd by the fountain of life and rivers of pleasure: So, Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the fountain of life, Pfal. XXXVI. 8, 9. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne fhall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, Rev. VII. 17. and Rev. XXII. 1. He showed me a pure river of water of life. Hume. 359. Rolls o'er Elyfian flow'rs her amber ftream;] Dr. Bentley reads Rolls o'er relucent gems &c. becaufe (he fays) it is not well conceiv'd that flow'rs grow at the bottom of a river. But (as Dr. Pearce replies) Milton's words don't neceffarily imply fo much; the river In Paradife, faft by the tree of life, Began to bloom; but foon for man's offense... 355 To Heav'n remov'd, where firft it grew, there grows, And flow'rs aloft fhading the fount of life, And where the riv'er of blifs through midst of Heaven Rolls o'er Elyfian flow'rs her amber stream; 360 With these that never fade the Spirits elect et decrefcentia ripas Flumina prætereunt, oll by and within their banks. But f we understand the paffage as it s exprefs'd, there is no kind of abardity in it; for we frequently fee rafs and weeds and flowers growng under water: and we may herefore fuppofe the fineft flowers o grow at the bottom of the river f bliss, or rather the river to roll ver them fometimes, to water hem. The author feems to inend much the fame thing that he as exprefs'd in IV. 240. where peaking of the brooks in Paradife e fays they Now Ran nectar, vifiting each plant, and fed Flow'rs worthy of Paradife. And as there they are flow'rs worthy of Paradife, fo here they are worthy of Elyfuum, the region of the Bleffed: and he makes ufe of the fame expreffion in his poem call'd L'Allegro, From golden flumber on a bed Of heap'd Elyfian flow'rs. And then as to his calling it amber ftream, it is only on account of its clearness and transparency, and not at all on account of its color, that he compares it to amber. The clearness of amber was proverbial among the Ancients; Callimachus in his hymn to Ceres, ver. 29. has aλenTerror i fwp; and in like manner Virgil fays of a river, Georg. III. 522. Purior electro campum petit amnis. 360. With these that never fade} Dr. Bentley reads with this that |