Vented much policy, and projects deep Of enemies, of aids, battels and leagues, Plaufible to the World, to me worth nought. Means I must use thou say'ft, prediction else Will unpredict and fail me of the Throne: My time I told thee (and that time for thee Were better fartheft off) is not yet come; When that comes, think not thou to find me slack On my part aught endeav'ring, or to need Thy politic maxims, or that cumbersome Luggage of War there fhewn me, argument Of human weakness rather than of strength. My Brethren, as thou call'ft them, those ten Tribes I must deliver, if I mean to reign
David's true heir, and his full Scepter fway 405 To juft extent over all Ifrael's Sons.
But whence to thee this zeal, where was it then For Ifrael, or for David, or his Throne,
When thou ftood'ft up his Tempter to the pride Of numb'ring Ifrael, which coft the lives Of threescore and ten thousand Ifraelites By three days Peftilence? fuch was thy zeal To Ifrael then, the fame that now to me. As for those captive Tribes, themselves were they Who wrought their own captivity, fell off From God to worship Calves, the Deities Of Egypt, Baal next and Afbtaroth; And all th'Idolatries of Heathen round,
Befides their other worse than heath'nish crimes ; Nor in the land of their captivity
Humbled themselves, or penitent befought
The God of their Fore-fathers; but so dy'd Impenitent, and left a race behind
Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce From Gentiles, but by Circumcifion vain, And God with Idols in their Worship join'd. Should I of these the liberty regard,
Who freed, as to their ancient Patrimony, Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreform'd,
Headlong wou'd follow; and to their Gods perhaps Of Bethel and of Dan? no, let them serve Their enemies, who ferve Idols with God. Yet he at length, time to himself best known, Remembring Abrabam, by fome wondrous call May bring them back repentant and fincere, 435 And at their paffing cleave th' Affyrian flood, While to their native land with joy they hafte; As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft, When to the promis'd land their Fathers pafs'd; To his due time and providence I leave them. 440 So fpake Ifrael's true King; and to the Fiend, Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles. So fares it when with truth falfhood contends,
The End of the Third Book.
Erplex'd and troubled at his bad fuccefs The Tempter ftood, nor had what to
Discover'd in his fraud, thrown from his
So oft, and the persuasive Rhetoric
That fleek'd his tongue, and won fo much on Eve, $ So little here, nay loft; but Eve was Eve, This far his over-match, who self-deceiv'd And rafh, before-hand had no better weigh'd The ftrength he was to cope with or his own: But as a man who had been matchless held In cunning, over-reach'd where least he thought, To falve his credit, and for very spight Still will be tempting him who foils him ftill, And never cease, though to his fhame the more; Or as a fwarm of flies in vintage-time, About the wine-press where fweet muft is pour'd, Beat off, returns as oft with humming found;
Or furging waves against a solid rock,
Though all to fhivers dash'd, th' affault renew, Vain batt'ry, and in froth or bubbles end; So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse Met ever, and to shameful filence brought, Yet gives not o'er though defp'rate of success, And his vain importunity pursues, He brought our Saviour to the western fide
Of that high mountain, whence he might behold Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide, Wash'd by the Southern Sea, and on the North To equal length back'd with a ridge of hills, That fcreen'd the fruits of th'earth and feats of men From cold Septentrion blasts, thence in the midst 3 Divided by a river, of whose banks On each fide an Imperial City stood, With Tow'rs and Temples proudly elevate On fev'n fmall Hills, with Palaces adorn'd, Porches and Theatres, Baths, Aqueducts, Statues and Trophies, and Triumphal Arcs, Gardens and Groves presented to his eyes, Above the height of Mountains interpos'd. By what strange Parallax or Optic skill Of Vision multiply'd through air, or Glafs Of Telescope, were curious to enquire: And now the Tempter thus his filence broke. The City which thou feeft no other deem Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth 45 So far renown'd, and with the spoils enricht
Of Nations: there the Capitol thou seest
Above the reft lifting his stately head
On the Tarpeian Rock, her Citadel Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine Th' Imperial Palace, compass huge and high The Structure, skill of noblest Architects, With gilded battlements, confpicuous far, Turrets and Terraffes, and glitt'ring Spires. Many a fair Edifice befides, more like Houses of Gods (fo well I have difpos'd My airy Microscope) thou may'st behold Outfide and infide both, pillars and roofs, Carv'd work, the hand of fam'd Artificers In Cedar, Marble, Ivory or Gold.
Thence to the Gates caft round thine eye, and fee
What conflux iffuing forth, or entring in,
Pretors, Proconfuls to their Provinces Hafting or on return, in robes of State ; Lictors and rods the enfigns of their pow'r, Legions and Cohorts, turmes of horse, and wings: Or Embaffies from Regions far remote In various habits on the Appian road, Or on th'Emilian; fome from fartheft South, Syene, and where the fhadow both way falls, Meroe Nilotic Ifle, and more to West,
The Realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor Sea; From th' Afian Kings and Parthian among these, From India and the golden Cherfonefs,
And utmost Indian Inle Taprobane,
Dusk faces with white filken Turbants wreath'd;
From Gallia, Gades, and the British West,
Germans and Scythians, and Sarmatians North Beyond Danubius to the Tauric Pool,
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