What other way I see not; for we here
Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inur'd
More than the camel, and to drink go far,
Men to much misery and hardship born;
But if thou be the Son of God, command
That out of these hard stones be made thee bread,
So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve
With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste.
He ended, and the Son of God replied:
Think'st thou such force in bread? Is it not written
(For I discern thee other than thou seem'st)
Man lives not by bread only, but each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed
Our fathers here with manna? In the mount
Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank;
And forty days Elijah without food

Wander'd this barren waste; the same I now:
Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?
Whom thus answer'd th' archfiend, now undis
guis'd:

"Tis true I am that spirit unfortunate,

Who, leagu'd with millions more in rash revolt,
Kept not my happy station, but was driven
With them from bliss to the bottomless deep;
Yet to that hideous place not so confin'd
By rigour unconniving, but that oft
Leaving my dolorous prison, I enjoy
Large liberty to round this globe of earth,

Or

range in th' air; nor from the heaven of heavens Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.

I came among the Sons of God when he
Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job,
To prove him and illustrate his high worth;
And when to all his angels he propos'd
To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud,
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
I undertook that office, and the tongues
Of all his flattering prophets glibb'd with lies,

To his destruction, as I had in charge;
For what he bids I do; though I have lost
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost
To be belov'd of God, I have not lost
To love, at least contemplate and admire
What I see excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.
What can be then less in me than desire
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
Declar'd the Son of God, to hear attest
Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?
Men generally think me much a foe

To all mankind; why should I? They to me
Never did wrong or violence: by them

I lost not what I lost; rather by them

I gain'd what I have gain'd, and with them dwell
Copartner in these regions of the world,
If not disposer; lend them oft my aid,
Oft my advice, by presages and signs,
And answers, oracles, portents and dreams,
Whereby they may direct their future life,
Envy they say excites me thus to gain
Companions of my misery and wo.
At first it may be; but long since with wo
Nearer acquainted, now I feel, by proof,
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load.
Small consolation then, were man adjoin'd:
This wounds me most, (what can it less ?) that man,
Man fallen shall be restor❜d, I never more.
To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied:
Deservedly thou griev'st, compos'd of lies
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end;
Who boasts release from hell, and leave to come
Into the heaven of heavens: thou com'st indeed
As a poor miserable captive-thrall

Comes to the place where he before had sat
Among the prime in splendour, now depos'd,
Ejected, emptied, gaz'd unpitied, shunn'd,

A spectacle of ruin or of scorn

To all the host of heaven; the happy place
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy,
Rather inflames thy torment representing
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable,
So never more in hell than when in heaven.
But thou art serviceable to heaven's King.
Wilt thou impute t' obedience what thy fear
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?
What but thy malice mov'd thee to misdeem
Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
With all inflictions? but his patience won.
The other service was thy chosen task
To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
Yet thou pretend'st to truth; all oracles
By thee are given, and what confess'd more true
Among the nations? that hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers, what but dark,
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding;
Which they who ask'd have seldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Whoever by consulting at thy shrine
Return'd the wiser, or the more instruct
To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare ?
For God hath justly given the nations up
To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
Idolatrous: but when his purpose is
Among them to declare his providence

To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth
But from him, or his angels president

In every province ? who themselves disdaining
T'approach thy temples, give thee in command
What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say
To thy adorers; thou, with trembling fear,
Or, like a fawning parasite obey'st;
Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold,

But this thy glory shall be soon retrench'd;
No more shalt thou by oracle abuse
The Gentiles ; henceforth oracles are ceas'd,
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
Shalt be inquir'd at Delphos or else where ;
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent his Living Oracle
Into the world to teach his final will,

And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle

To all truth requisite for men to know.

So spake our Saviour; but the subtle fiend,
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned:
Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,

And urg'd me hard with doings, which not will,
But misery, hath wrested from me; where
Easily canst thou find one miserable,

And not enforc'd oft-times to part from truth;
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?
But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord;
From thee I can and must submiss endure
Check or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.
Hard are the ways of Truth, and rough to walk:
Smooth on the tongue discours'd, pleasing to th' ear
And tunable as sylvan pipe or song;

What wonder then if I delight to hear

Her dictates from thy mouth? Most men admire
Virtue, who follow not her lore: permit me
To hear thee when I come (since no man comes)
And talk at least, though I despair t' attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
To tread his sacred courts, and minister
About his altar, handling holy things,
Praying, or vowing, and vouchsaf'd his voice
To Baalam reprobate, a prophet yet
Inspir'd: disdain not such access to me,

B*

Will waft me: and the way found prosp'rous once,
Induces best to hope of like success.

He ended, and his words impression left
Of much amazement to the infernal crew,
Distracted and surpris'd with deep dismay
At these sad tidings; but no time was then
For long indulgence to their fears or grief:
Unanimous they all commit the care
And management of this main enterprise
To him their great dictator, whose attempt
At first against mankind so well had thriv'd
In Adam's overthrow, and led their march
From hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,
Regents and potentates, and kings, yea gods
Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.
So to the coast of Jordan he directs

His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles,
Where he might likeliest find this new declar'd,
This Man of men, attested Son of God,
Temptation, and all guile, on him to try;
So to subvert whom he suspected rais'd
To end his reign on earth, so long enjoy'd;
But contrary, unweeting he fulfill'd
The purpos'd counsel, pre-ordain'd and fix'd
Of the Most high, who in full frequence bright
Of angels, thus to Gabriel, smiling, spake :
Gabriel this day by proof thou shalt behold,
Thou and all angels conversant on earth
With man or men's affairs, how I begin
To verify that solemn message late,
On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure
In Galilee, that she should bear a Son

Great in renown, and call'd the Son of God;

Then told'st her doubting how these things could be
To her a virgin, that on her should come

The Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest
O'er-shadow her; this Man born, and now upgrown,
To show him worthy of his birth divine

And high prediction, henceforth I expose