Page images
PDF
EPUB

t;

Affecting godhead, and fo lofing all,
To expiate his treason hath nought left
But to deftruction facred and devote,
He, with his whole posterity, must die;
Die he or justice muft; unlefs for hin
Some other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid fatisfaction, death for death.

210

Say, heav'nly powers, where Thall we find fuch love? Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem

Man's mortal crime, and juft th' unjuft to fave? 215 Dwells in all heaven charity fo dear ?

He afk'd but all the heav'nly quire ftood mute,
And filence was in heav'n: on man's behalf
Patron or interceffor none appear'd,

Much less that durft 'upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
And now without redemption all mankind
Muft have been loft, adjudge'd to death and hell
By doom fevere, had not the Son of God,

In whom the fullness dwells of love divine,
His deareft mediation thus renew'd.

220

225

Father, thy word is past, man shall find grace; And shall grace not find means, that finds her way, The speediest of thy winged messengers,

To vifit all thy creatures, and to all

230

Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unfought?

Happy for man, fo coming: he her aid

Can never feek, once dead in fins, and lost;
Atonement for himself, or offering meet,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring.
Behold me then; me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall;
Account me man; I for his fake will leave
Thy bofom, and this glory next to thee

Freely put off, and for him laftly die

233

Well pleas'd; on me let Death wreak all his rage:

240

N

Under his gloomy pow'r I shall not long

Lie vanquith'd; thou haft giv'n me to possess

Life in myself for ev'r; by thee I live,

Though now to Death I yield, and am his due 245
All that of me can die; yet, that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathfome grave
His prey, nor fuffer my unfpotted foul

For ever with corruption there to dwell;
But I fhall rife victorious, and subdue

My vanquisher, fpoil'd of his vaunted fpoil;

250

Death his death's wound fhall then receive, and stoop Inglorious, of his mortal fting disarm'd.

I through the ample air, in triumph high

Shall lead hell captive, maugre hell, and fhow
The powers of darkness bound. Thou at the fight
Pleas'd, out of heaven fhalt look down, and fmile;
While, by thee rais'd, I ruin all my foes,
Death laft, and with his carcafe glut the grave:
Then, with the multitude of my redeem'd,
Shall enter heav'n, long abfent, and return,
Father to fee thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace affur'd,
And reconcilement; wrath fhall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy prefence joy entire.

255

260

His words here ended, but his meek afpéct Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love To mortal men, above which only shone Filial obedience: as a facrifice

265

Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will

Of his great Father. Admiration feiz'd

270

All heaven, what this might mean, and whither tend Wond'ring; but foon th' Almighty thus reply'd.

O thou in heaven and earth the only peace Found out for mankind ander wrath! O thou My fole complacence! well thou know'st how dear To me are all my works; nor man the least,

275

Though laft created; that for him I fpare
Thee from my bofom and right hand, to fave,
By losing thee a while, the whole race loft.
Thou therefore, whom thou only can't redeem,
Their nature alfo to thy nature join;
And be thyfelf man among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time fhall be, of virgin feed,
By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam's room
The head of all mankind, though Adam's fon.
As in him perish all men, fo in thee,

As from a fecond root, fhall be reftor'd
As many as are reftor'd, without thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his fons; thy merit
Imputed fhall abfolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee tranfplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So man, as is most just,
Shall fatisfy for man, be judg'd, and die;
And dying rife, and rifing with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heav'nly love fhall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem, what hellish hate
So eafily deftroy'd, and fill deftroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace.

Nor fhalt thou, by defcending to affume

Man's nature, leffen or degrade thine own.

280

285

290

295

300

Because thou haft, though thron'd in higheft blifs, 305 Equal to God, and equally enjoying

God-like fruition, quitted all, to fave

A world from utter lofs, and haft been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God,
Found worthieft to be fo by being good,
Far more than great cr high; because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory' abounds;
Therefore thy humiliation fhall exalt

310

With thee thy manhood also to this throne;
Here fhalt thou fit incarnate, here shalt reign
Both God and man, Son both of God and man,
Anointed univerfal King; all power

I give thee; reign for ever, and assume

Thy merits; under thee, as head supreme,

315

321

Thrones, princedoms, powers, dominions I reduce:
All knees to thee fhall bow, of them that bide
In heav'n, or earth, or under earth in hell.
When thou attended gloriously from heaven
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee fend
The fummoning archangels to proclaim

325

Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds,

The living, and forthwith the cited dead

Of all past ages, to the general doom

Shall haften; fuch a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then all thy faints affembled, thou fhalt judge 330
Bad men and angels; they arraign'd shall sink
Beneath thy fentence; hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth fhall be for ever fhut. Meanwhile
The world fhall burn, and from her ashes spring
New heav'n and earth, wherein the just shall dwell:
And after all their tribulations long,

336

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,

With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth,

Then thou thy regal fceptre fhalt lay by,
For regal fceptre then no more fhall need,
God fhall be all in all. But all ye gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honour him as me.

340

No fooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all

The multitude of angels, with a shout

345

Loud as from numbers without number, fweet

As from blefs'd voices, uttering joy, heav'n rung

With jubilee, and loud hofannas fill'd

Th' eternal regions. Lowly reverent,

Tow'ards either throne they bow, and to the ground

With folemn adoration down they caft

351

Their crowns, inwove with amarant, and gold;

Immortal amarant, a flower which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but foon for man's offence

355

To heav'n remov'd, where firft it grew, there grows,

And flowers aloft fhading the fount of life,

And where the riv'r of blifs through midft of heav'n Rolls o'er Elyfian flow'rs her amber stream:

With these, that never fade, the spi'rits elect

360

Bind their refplendent locks, inwreath'd with beams;

Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement, that like a fea of jafper fhone,
Impurpled with celeftial rofes fmil'd.

366

Then crown'd again, their golden harps they took;
Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their fide
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming fymphony they introduce
Their facred fong, and waken raptures high;

No voice exempt, no voice but well could join
Melodious part, fuch concord is in heaven.
Thee, Father, firft they fung omnipotent,
Immutable, immortal, infinite,..

370

Eternal King; thee author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyfelf invifible:

3756

3

Amidst the glorious brightnefs where thou fitt'ft
Thron'd inacceffible, but when thou fhad'st

The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud
Drawn round about thee like a radiant thrine,
Dark with exceffive bright thy skirts appear ;
Yet dazzle heaven, that brighteft Seraphim
Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.
Thee next they fang of all creation first,

Begotten Son, divine fimilitude,

3805

In whofe confpicuous count'nance, without cloud 385;

« PreviousContinue »