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Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen
This tumult, and permitted all, advised,
That his great purpose he might so fulfil,
To honour his Anointed Son, avenged

Upon his enemies, and to declare

All power on him transferred. Whence to his Son,
The assessor of his throne, he thus began:-

'Go, then, thou Mightiest, in thy Father's might;

Ascend my chariot; guide the rapid wheels

That shake Heaven's basis; bring forth all my war;
My bow and thunder, my almighty arms,

Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh;
Pursue these Sons of Darkness, drive them out
From all Heaven's bounds into the utter Deep;
There let them learn, as likes them, to despise
God, and Messiah his anointed King.'
He said, and on his Son with rays direct
Shon full. He all his Father full expressed
Ineffably into his face received.

He on his impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as Night. Under his burning wheels
The stedfast Empyrean shook throughout,
All but the Throne itself of God. Full soon
Among them he arrived, in his right hand
Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent
Before him, such as in their souls infixed
Plagues. They, astonished, all resistance lost,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropt;
O'er shields, and helms, and helmèd heads he rode
Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostraté,
That wished the mountains now might be again
Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire.
Hell heard the unsufferable noise; Hell saw
Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled
Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep
Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.
Nine days they fell; confounded Chaos roared,
And felt tenfold confusion in their fall
Through his wild Anarchy; so huge a rout
Incumbered him with ruin. Hell at last,

Yawning, received them whole, and on them closed-
Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
Disburdened Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired
Her mural breach, returning whence it rowled.
Sole victor, from the expulsion of his foes
Messiah his triumphal chariot turned.
To meet him all his Saints, who silent stood
Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts,

With jubilee advanced; and, as they went,

Shaded with branching palm, each order bright
Sung triumph, and him sung victorious King,

IB

S there any word from the Lord?

1

Son, Heir, and Lord, to him dominion given,
Worthiest to reign. He celebrated rode,

Triumphant through mid Heaven, into the courts
And temple of his mighty Father throned

On high; who into glory him received,

Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss.
Thus, measuring things in Heaven by things on Earth,
At thy request, and that thou may'st beware

By what is past, to thee I have revealed

What might have else to human race been hid-
The discord which befell, and war in Heaven
Among the Angelic Powers, and the deep fall
Of those too high aspiring who rebelled
With Satan: he who envies now thy state,
Who now is plotting how he may seduce
Thee also from obedience, that, with him
Bereaved of happiness, thou may'st partake
His punishment, eternal misery;

Which would be all his solace and revenge,
As a despite done against the Most High,
Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
But listen not to his temptations; warn
Thy weaker; let it profit thee to have heard,
By terrible example, the reward

Of disobedience. Firm they might have stood,
Yet fell. Remember, and fear to transgress."

"Great things, and full of wonder in our ears,
Far differing from this World, thou hast revealed,
Divine Interpreter! by favour sent

Down from the Empyrean to forewarn

Us timely of what might else have been our loss,
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach;
For which to the infinitely Good we owe

Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sovran will, the end
Of what we are."

"Know then that, after Lucifer from Heaven
(So call him, brighter once amidst the host
Of Angels than that star the stars among)
Fell with his flaming Legions through the Deep
Into his place, and the great Son returned
Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent
Eternal Father from his Throne beheld

Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake :-
'At least our envious foe hath failed, who thought
All like himself rebellious; by whose aid

This inaccessible high strength, the seat

Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed,

He trusted to have seized, and into fraud

Drew many whom their place knows here no more.

THI

HIS people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

They profess that they know God: but in their works they deny him.

A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear?

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

The Lord knoweth them that are his.

He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.

Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,

Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms,
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due and solemn rites.
But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven-
My damage fondly deemed-I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost, and in a moment will create
Another world; out of one man a race

Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here, till, by degrees of merit raised,
They open to themselves at length the way

Up hither, under long obedience tried,

And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth, One kingdom, joy and union without end.'

Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven

When such was heard declared the Almighty's will. Glory they sung to the Most High, good-will

To future men, and in their dwellings peace

Glory to Him whose just avenging ire

Had driven out the ungodly from his sight

And the habitations of the just; to Him

Glory and praise whose wisdom had ordained

Good out of evil to create-instead

Of Spirits malign, a better Race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.
There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done a creature who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and, upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends; thither with heart, and voice, and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God Supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works. Therefore the Omnipotent

Eternal Father (for where is not He

Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake :-
'Let us make now Man in our image, Man

In our similitude, and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,

Beast of the field, and over all the earth,

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground!'
This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O Man,
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God
Express, and thou becam'st a living Soul.

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