God fitting on his throne fees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; fhows him to the Son, who fat at his right hand; foretels the fuccefs of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own juftice 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 feduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifeftation of his gracious purpofe towards Man; but God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards Man without the fatiffaction of divine juftice; Man hath offended the majefty of God by afpiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death must die, unlefs fome one can be found fufficient to answer for his offenfe, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransome 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. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wand'ring he first finds a place, fince call'd the Limbo of Vanity; what perfons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, defcrib'd afcending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: His paffage thence to the orb of the fun; he finds there Uriel the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the fhape of a meaner Angel; and pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had plac'd here, inquires of him the place of his habita. tion, and is directed; alights firft on mount Niphates.
AIL holy Light, off-spring of Heav'n first-born,
Or of th' Eternal coeternal beam
May I express thee' unblam'd? fince God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright effence increate.
Or heart thou rather pure ethereal ftream,
Whofe fountain who fhall tell? before the fun,
Before the Heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didit invest
The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formlefs infinite.
Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
Efcap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd
In that obfcure fojourn, while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness borne
With other notes than to th' Orphéan lyre
I fung of Chaos and eternal Night,
Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to re-afcend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revifit safe,
And feck thy fovran vital lamp; but thau
Revifit'ft not thefe eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim fuffufion veil'd. Yet not the more
Ceafe I to wander, where the Muses haunt
Clear fpring, or fhady grove, or funny hill,
Smit with the love of facred fong; but chief
Thee, Sion, and the flowry brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor fometimes forget
Those other two equal'd with me in fate,
So were I equal'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides,
And Tirefias and Phineus prophets old:
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in fhadiest covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
Seafons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or fight of vernal bloom, or fummer's rofe,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the chearful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Prefented with a univerfal blank
Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd,
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 fee and tell
Of things invifible to mortal fight.
Now had th' almighty Father from above, From the pure empyréan where he fits
High thron'd above all highth, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view :
About him all the Sanctities of Heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his fight receiv'd
Beatitude past utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his glory fat,
His only Son; on earth he first beheld
Our two first parents, yet the only two
Of mankind, in the happy garden plac'd,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrival'd love
In blissful folitude; he then furvey'd
Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there
Coasting the wall of Heav'n on this fide Night
In the dun air fublime, and ready now
To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet
On the bare outside of this world, that seem'd
Firm land imbofom'd, without firmament,
Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
Him God beholding from his profpect high,
Wherein paft, prefent, future he beholds,
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.
Only begotten Son, feest thou what rage
Transports our Adverfary? whom no bounds
Prescrib'd, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyfs
Wide interrupt can hold; so bent he seems
On defperate revenge, that fhall redound
Upon his own rebellious head. And now
Through all restraint broke loose he wings his way
Not far off Heav'n, in the precincts of light,
Directly tow'rds the new created world,
And Man there plac'd, with purpose to assay
If him by force he can deftroy, or worse,
By fome falfe guile pervert; and shall pervert,
For Man will hearken to his glozing lies,
And easily tranfgrefs the fole command,
Sole pledge of his obedience: So will fall,
He and his faithlefs progeny: Whofe fault?
Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have ftood, though free to fall.
Such I created all th' ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood and them who fail'd';
Freely they food who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere
Of true allegiance, conftant faith or love,
Where only what they needs must do appear'd,
Not what they would? what praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from fuch obedience paid,
When will and reafon (reason alfo' is choice)
Ufelefs and vain, of freedom both despoil'd,
Made paffive both, had ferv'd neceffity,
Not me? They therefore as to right belong'd,
So were created, nor can juftly' accufe
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