AIL, holy Light! offspring of Heav'n first-born! Or of th' Eternal coeternal beam!
May I express thee'unblam'd? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream, Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the fun, Before the heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didft invest The rifing world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Thee I revisit now with bolder wing, Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd In that obfcure sojourn; 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 defcent, and up to reascend,. Though hard and rare. Thee I revisit fafe, And feel thy fov'reign vital lamp; but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs, 25
Or dim fuffusion veil'd. Yet not the more Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt Clear spring, or shady grove, or funny hill, Smit with the love of facred song; but chief Thee, Sion, and the flow'ry brooks beneath, That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor sometimes forget
Those other two equall'd with me in fate,
So were I equall'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 shadiest covert hid Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year 40
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 rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men. Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with an univerfal blank
Of nature's works, to me expung'd and raz'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 invisible to mortal fight.
Now had th' almighty Father from above, From the pure empyréan where he fits High thron'd above all height, bent down his eye, His own works and their works at once to view : About him all the fanclities 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, unrivall'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 side 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 past, present, future, he beholds, Thus to his only Son forefeeing spake.
Only begotten Son, seest thou what rage Transports our adverfary? whom no bounds Prefcrib'd, no bars of hell, nor all the chains Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyss
Wide interrupt can hold; fo bent he seems On defperate revenge, that shall 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'ards the new-created world, And man there plac'd, with purpose to essay
If him by force he can destroy, or worfe, By fome false guile pervert; and shall pervert; For man will hearken to his gloffing lies, And easily transgress the fole command, Sole pledge of his obedience: so will fall, He and his faithless progeny. Whose fault? Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me
All he could have: I made him just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all th' ethereal powers And spi'rits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd; Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. Not free, what proof could they have giv'n fincere Of true allegiance, constant faith or love, Where only what they needs must do appear'd, 105 Not what they would? what praise could they receive? What pleasure I from such obedience paid, When will and reason (reason also' is choice,) Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil'd, Made paffive both, had ferv'd necessity, Not me? They therefore, as to right belong'd, So were created, nor can justly' accuse Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,
As if predestination over-rul'd
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. So without least impulse or shadow' of fate,
Or ought by me immutably foreseen, They trespass, authors to themselves in all, Both what they judge and what they chuse; for fo I form'd them free, and free they must remain, Till they inthrall themselves; I else must change 125 Their nature, and revoke the high decree
Unchangeable, eternal, which ordain'd Their freedom; they themselves ordain'd their fall. The first fort by their own suggestion fell,
Self-tempted, felf-deprav'd: man falls, deceiv'd 130 By th' other first: man therefore shall find grace, The other none: in mercy' and justice both, Through heaven and earth, so shall my glory' excel;
But mercy first and last shall brightest shine. Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance fill'd
All heaven, and in the blessed spirits elect Sense of new joy ineffable diffus'd: Beyond compare the Son of God was seen Most glorious; in him all his Father shone
Substantially express'd; and in his face Divine compaffion visibly appear'd, Love without end, and without measure grace; Which uttering thus be to his Father spake.
O Father, gracious was that word which clos'd Thy sov'reign sentence, that man should find grace; For which both heav'n and earth shall high extol 146 Thy praises, with th' innumerable found Of hymns and facred songs, wherewith thy throne Incompass'd shall resound thee ever bless'd. For should man finally be lost, should man Thy creature late so lov'd, thy youngest fon, Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though join'd With his own folly? that be from thee far, That far be from thee, Father, who art judge Of all things made, and judgest only right. Or shall the adversary thus obtain His end, and frustrate thine? shall he fulfil His malice, and thy goodness bring to nought, Or proud return, though to his heavier doom, Yet with revenge accomplish'd, and to hell Draw after him the whole race of mankind, By him corrupted? or wilt thou thyself
Abolish thy creation, and unmake
For him, what for thy glory thou hast made ? So should thy goodness and thy greatness both 165 Be question'd and blafphem'd without defence.
To whom the great Creator thus reply'd. Son, in whom my foul hath chief delight,
Son of my bosom, Son who art alone
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