Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?
What but thy malice mov'd thee to misdeem
Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him.
With all inflictions? but his patience won.
The other service was thy chosen task,
To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
Yet thou pretend'st to truth; all oracles

425

430

435

By thee are giv'n, and what confest more true
Among the nations? that hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers? what but dark,
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,
Which they who ask'd have seldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Who ever by consulting at thy shrine
Return'd the wiser, or the more instruct
To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
For God hath justly given the nations up
To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
Idolatrous. But when his purpose is
Among them to declare his providence

440

445

To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,

But from him or his angels president

In ev'ry province? who, themselves disdaining T'approach thy temples, give thee in command

426 won] Verb neuter, so Spens. F. Q. i. vi. 39:

'And he the stoutest knight that ever won.' Newton.

What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say
To thy adorers; thou with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st;
Then to thy self ascrib'st the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench'd;
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceas'd,
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
Shalt be inquir'd at Delphos or elsewhere,
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent his living oracle

Into the world to teach his final will,

450

455

460

And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell In pious hearts, an inward oracle

To all truth requisite for men to know.

So spake our Saviour; but the subtle fiend, 465 Though inly stung with anger and disdain, Dissembled, and this answer smooth return'd.

470

Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke, And urg'd me hard with doings, which not will, But misery, hath wrested from me; where Easily canst thou find one miserable, And not enforc'd ofttimes to part from truth, If it may stand him more in stead to lie, Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure? But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord; 475 From thee I can, and must, submiss endure Check or reproof, and glad to escape so quit.

456 ceas'd] Juv. Sat. vi. 554.

VOL. II.

'Delphis oracula cessant.' Dunster.

20

Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk, Smooth on the tongue discours'd, pleasing to th' ear, And tuneable as sylvan pipe or song;

What wonder then if I delight to hear

Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire
Virtue, who follow not her lore: permit me
To hear thee when I come, since no man comes,

And talk at least, though I despair to attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
To tread his sacred courts, and minister
About his altar, handling holy things,
Praying or vowing, and vouchsaf'd his voice
To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet
Inspir'd; disdain not such access to me.

To whom our Saviour with unalter'd brow.
Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,
I bid not or forbid: do as thou find'st
Permission from above; thou canst not more.
He added not; and Satan, bowing low
His gray dissimulation, disappear'd

480

485

490

495

487 atheous] Cicero, speaking of Diagoras, 'Atheos qui

dictus est.' De Nat. D. i. 23.

'Atheal' is not uncommon

in old English. Dunster. Todd.

496 gray dissimulation] See Ford's Broken Heart; ed. Weber, p. 304.

'Lay by thy whining gray dissimulation.'

Into thin air diffus'd: for now began

500

Night with her sullen wings to double-shade
The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couch'd;
And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.

499 thin] Virg. Æn. iv. 278.

'Et procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram.' Shakesp. Temp. act iv. sc. 2.

'Are melted into air, into thin air.' Dunster. 500 Night] Nonnus ends the xxvth book of his Dionysiaca thus,

Καὶ σκιερὴν ἐμέλαινεν ὅλην χθόνα σιγαλέη νύξ·
Λαοὶ δ ̓ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα χαμαιστρώτων ἐπὶ λέκτρων
Εσπερίῃ μετὰ δόρπον ὀρειάδι κάππεσον εὐνῇ.

500 double-shade] Ov. Met. xi. 550.

'Duplicataque noctis imago est.'

Dunster.

501 fowls] Beaumont's Psyche, c. xiii. st. 355, ed. 1648.

'Each gentle fair-condition'd bird and beast

Hied them unto their nests and dens . . . .

....

Only some ominous ravens, and screech owles prest
With beasts of prey and night, thro' the black air.'

308

PARADISE REGAINED.

BOOK II.

MEANWHILE the new-baptiz'd, who yet remain'd
At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen
Him whom they heard so late expressly call'd
Jesus, Messiah, Son of God declar'd,

And on that high authority had believ'd,

5

10

And with him talk'd, and with him lodg'd-I mean
Andrew and Simon, famous after known,
With others though in holy writ not nam❜d—
Now missing him their joy so lately found,
So lately found, and so abruptly gone,
Began to doubt, and doubted many days,
And, as the days increas'd, increas'd their doubt:
Sometimes they thought he might be only shown,
And for a time caught up to GÓD, as once
Moses was in the Mount, and missing long;
And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels
Rode up to heaven, yet once again to come.
Therefore as those young prophets then with care

15

6 mean] See this expression in Harington's Ariosto, xxxi. 46. 'I mean Renaldo's House of Montalbane;' and st. 55. 'I mean the cruel Pagan Rodomont.' Newton.

18 shown] Virg. Æn. vi. 869.

'Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata.'