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Elect above the rest! so is my will:

The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn'd,
Their sinful state, and to appease betimes
Th' incensed Deity, while offer'd grace
Invites; for I will clear their senses dark,
What may suffice, and soften stony hearts
To pray, repent, and bring obedience due.
To pray'r, repentance, and obedience due,
Though but endeavour'd with sincere intent,
Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut;
And I will place within them as a guide
My umpire conscience, whom if they will hear.
Light after light well us'd they shall attain,
And to the end persisting, safe arrive.
This my long sufferance and my day of grace
They who neglect and scorn shall never taste;
But hard be harden'd, blind be blinded more,
That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;
And none but such from mercy I exclude."

ON THE SUBSTITUTION OF CHRIST.
"He with his whole posterity must die,
Die he or justice must; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid satisfaction, death for death.

Say, heav'nly Powers! where shall we find such love?
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem

Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save?

Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?"

Book iii. 208-216.

"Behold me then; me for him life for life

I offer; on me let thine anger fall;

Account me Man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee

Freely put off, and for him lastly die

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

Under his gloomy pow'r I shall not long

Lie vanquish'd."

Book iii. 236-243.

ON FAITHFUL AND ARDENT ZEAL IN RELIGION.

"So spake the fervent Angel; but his zeal

None seconded, as out of season judg'd,
Or singular and rash; whereat rejoic'd
The Apostate."

"So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmov'd,
Unshaken, unseduc'd, unterrify'd,

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal:

Nor number, nor example, with him wrought

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single."

Book v. 849-851; 896-903.

ON THE PLEASURES OF AN APPROVING CONSCIENCE.

"On to the sacred hill

They led him high applauded, and present

Before the seat supreme; from whence a voice,
From midst a golden cloud thus mild was heard :

"Servant of God well done; well hast thou fought

The better fight, who single hast maintain'd

Against revolted multitudes the cause

Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms;

And for the testimony of truth hast borne

Universal reproach, far worse to bear

Than violence; for this was all thy care

To stand approv'd in sight of God, though worlds
Judg'd thee perverse.'"

ON RATIONAL LIBERTY.

"Let me serve,

In Heav'n God ever blest, and his divine

Behests obey, worthiest to be obey'd."

Book vi. 25-37.

Book vi. 183-185.

ON THE ENTRANCE OF SIN INTO THE WORLD.

"So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat.
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost."

ON NEGRO COLONIAL SLAVERY.

"O execrable son so to aspire
Above his brethren, to himself assuming
Authority usurp'd, from God not given;
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute: that right we hold
By his donation; but man over men
He made not lord: such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free."

Book xii. 64-72.

ON BAPTISM.

"To his disciples, men who in his life

Still follow'd him; to them shall leave in charge
To teach all nations what of him they learn'd,
And his salvation, them who shall believe
Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign
Of washing them from guilt of sin to life
Pure and in mind prepar'd, if so befall,
For death, like that which the Redeemer dy'd.
All nations they shall teach; for from that day
Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins
Salvation shall be preach'd, but to the sons
Of Abraham's faith wherever through the world;
So in his seed all nations shall be blest."

Book xii. 438-450.

His negociation with the bookseller to publish this most admirable poem, is now considered a subject of astonishment! Let it, however, be recollected, that the subject of copyright was but imperfectly understood, and that literary property was not, as now, so inviolably secured. In addition to this, MILTON's republicanism could not have been forgotten, as the anecdote of the learned licenser fully proves! There were many, doubtless, who would have thought, that to describe "the sun new risen," and "shorn of its beams by misty air," must have been an overt act of treason! and who would therefore be

* i. Cor. 15. "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not.

afraid to purchase a book, respecting which, doubtless, it would be both said and sung, that the learned licenser had at first refused, and at last had, with great hesitation, consented to place his imprimatur upon a manuscript poem of poor old blind MILTON, who had written the "Tenure of Kings,"* &c. &c. !

His contract for the copyright of "Paradise Lost," with Samuel Simmons the bookseller, is dated April 27th, 1667. It was printed in that year, without the name of the purchaser as its printer; but in the next year it re

* His respectable biographer, Simmons, has recorded an anecdote which is certainly very characteristic of the parties to whom it relates, though not supported by any authority. "The Duke of York, as it is reported, expressed one day to the king his brother, a wish to see old MIL TON, of whom he had heard so much. The king replied, that he felt no objection to the Duke satisfying his curiosity; and soon after James went privately to MILTON's house, where, after an introduction, which explained to the old republican the rank of his guest, a free conversation ensued between these very dissimilar and discordant characters. In the course, however, of the conversation, the Duke asked MILTON whether he did not regard the loss of his eye-sight as a judgment inflicted upon him for what he had written against the late king. MILTON's reply was to this effect: 'If your highness thinks that the calamities which befall us here are indications of the wrath of Heaven, in what manner are we to account for the fate of the king your father? The displeasure of Heaven must, u pon this supposition, have been much greater against him than against me; for I have lost only my eyes, but he lost his head.' Much discomposed by this answer, the Duke soon took his leave and went away. On his return to court, the first words which he spoke to the king were, 'Brother, you are greatly to blame, that you don't have that old rogue MILTON, hanged.' 'Why, what is the matter, James'?' said the king: 'you seem in a heat. What! have you seen MILTON?' 'Yes,' answered the Duke, 'I have seen him.' 'Well,' said the king, 'in what condition did you find him? 'Condition! why, he is old and very poor.' 'Old and poor! Well, he is blind too, is he not?' 'Yes, blind as a beetle.' 'Why, then,' observed the king, 'you are a fool, James, to have him hanged as a punishment: to hang him will be doing him a service; it will be taking him out of his miseries. No, if he be old, poor, and blind, he is miserable enough in all conscience, let him live.'"

ceived a new title-page, when the name of S. Simmonds appeared in its proper place. The copyright was sold for the actual payment of five pounds, and the contingent payment, on the sale of two thousand six hundred copies, of two other equal sums. At the end of two years, thirteen hundred copies had been circulated. In five after this period a second edition was published, and in four years after this, a third was demanded by the public. Before the end of twenty years, it had passed through twenty editions.

years

It is said that he produced his other poem, "Paradise Regained," in about ten months after the idea first struck his mind; which is by no means incredible, even when it is considered how great an inconvenience his blindness must have occasioned in regard to his being under the necessity of employing an amanuensis. At the same time, it must have been favourable to that mental ab. straction which the study of so glorious a subject required. The serious, contemplative person, who reads attentively this strictly religious poem, will soon form an idea, from its contents, how happy and pure must have been the mind of MILTON, at the time when he wrote his "Paradise Regained." This was published in 1670.

"It is

Of this poem, in four books only, Todd says: generally esteemed much inferior to Paradise Lost; which he could not endure to hear, being quite of another mind. This occasioned some one to say wittily enough, that MILTON might be seen in Paradise Lost, but not in Paradise Regained!" And this is the estimate still put upon the work, which, if it were surpassed by its own_author, has never been equalled by any other. I suspect that its decidedly religious and evangelical character has procured for it less attention from mere critics, than it would have otherwise received: I need not men

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