THE ARGUMENT. GOD, sitting on his throne, sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son, who sat at his right hand; foretels the success of Satan in perverting mankind, clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created man free and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards man: but God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards man without the satisfaction of divine justice: man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to godhead, and therefore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man: the Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in heaven and earth; commands all the angels to adore him. They obey, and hymning to their harps in full quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place, since called the Limbo of Vanity: what persons and things fly up thither: thence comes to the gate of heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: his passage thence to the orb of the sun: he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel; and, pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed: alights first on mount Niphates. PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. HAIL, holy Light! offspring of heaven first born! May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light, 5 Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee, 10 Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt And Tiresias, and Phineus, prophets old; Of nature's works, to me expung'd and ras'd, 50 And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out! So much the rather thou, celestial light, Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mist from thence Purge and disperse; that I may see and tell 55 Of things invisible to mortal sight. Now had the Almighty Father from above, 60 About him all the sanctities of heaven Stood thick as stars, and from his sight receiv'd The radiant image of his glory sat, His only Son. On earth he first beheld In blissful solitude. He then survey'd To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet, 80 Him God beholding from his prospect high, "Only begotten Son! seest thou what rage "Transports our adversary? whom no bounds "Prescrib'd, no bars of hell, nor all the chains "Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyss "Wide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seems 85 "On desperate revenge, that shall redound 66 66 Upon his own rebellious head. And now, Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way "Not far off heaven, in the precincts of light, "Directly towards the new-created world, 90 "And man there plac'd, with purpose to essay "If him by force he can destroy, or, worse, "And easily transgress the sole command, 95" Sole pledge of his obedience so will fall, "He and his faithless progeny. Whose fault? 100 105 "All he could have; I made him just and right, "Such I created all the ethereal Powers "And spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd; Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. 66 "Not free, what proof could they have given sincere "Where only what they needs must do appear'd, "What pleasure I from such obedience paid; "Not me? They therefore, as to right belong'd, 115 "Their will, dispos'd by absolute decree, "Or high foreknowledge. They themselves decreed. "Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew, "Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault, "Which had no less prov'd certain unforeknown. 120"So, without least impulse, or shadow of fate, "Or aught by me immutably foreseen, 66 They trespass; authors to themselves in all, "Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so "I form'd them, free; and free they must remain, 125" Till they enthral themselves: I else must change "Their nature, and revoke the high decree 66 Unchangeable, eternal, which ordain'd "Their freedom: they themselves ordain'd their fall. "The first sort by their own suggestion fell, 130 "Self-tempted, self-deprav'd: man falls, deceiv'd 66 'By the other first: man therefore shall find grace, |