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"Stand still,1 in bright array, ye Saints! here stand, "Ye angels armed! this day from battle rest: "Faithful hath been your warfare, and of God "Accepted, fearless in his righteous cause; "And as ye have received, so have ye done "Invincibly: but of this cursed crew "The punishment to other hand belongs: "Vengeance is his, or whose he sole appoints. "Number to this day's work is not ordained, "Nor multitude: stand only, and behold "God's indignation on these godless poured

By me: not you, but me, they have despised,3 "Yet envied; against me is all their rage,

"Because the Father, to whom in Heaven supreme

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Kingdom, and power, and glory appertains, "Hath honoured me according to his will. "Therefore to me their doom he hath assigned; "That they may have their wish, to try with me "In battle which the stronger proves—they all, "Or I alone against them; since by strength "They measure all, of other excellence "Not emulous, nor care who them excels: "Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe.'

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"So spake the Son; and into terror changed "His countenance, too severe to be beheld, "And full of wrath bent on his enemies. "At once the Four spread out their starry wings1 "With dreadful shade contiguous; and the orbs "Of his fierce chariot rolled, as with the sound "Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host.

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"He on his impious foes right onward drove,

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Gloomy as night: under his burning wheels

"The steadfast empyréan shook throughout,

Stand still,-So Exod. xiv. 13, 14.

2 Deut. xxxii. 35; Rom. xii. 19.

3 Not you, but me, they have despised,-See John xiii. 20; Luke x. 16. The Four spread out their starry wings,-See Ezek. i. 9, 19, 24.

5 Under his burning wheels,-Dan. vii. 9, "His wheels as burning fire;" Job xxvii. 11.

"All but the throne itself of God. Full soon

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Among them he arrived, in his right hand "Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent "Before him, such as in their souls infixed

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Plagues: they, astonished, all resistance lost"All courage: down their idle weapons dropt:

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"O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode 840 "Of thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate;

"That wished the mountains now might be again 1
"Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire.
"Nor less, on either side, tempestuous fell
"His arrows, from the fourfold-visaged Four,2
"Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels
"Distinct alike with multitude of eyes;

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"One spirit in them ruled; and every eye "Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire "Among the accursed, that withered all their strength, 850 "And of their wonted vigour left them drained

"Exhausted-spiritless-afflicted-fallen!

"Yet half his strength he put not forth,3 but checked
"His thunder in mid volley; for he meant
"Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven:
"The overthrown he raised; and as a herd
"Of goats, or timorous flock together thronged,
"Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued
"With terrors and with furies, to the bounds

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"And crystal wall of Heaven; which, opening wide, 860 "Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed "Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous sight.

1 Rev. vi. 16.

2 See Ezek. i.

3 Yet half his strength he put not forth,-Milton suggests that the power of the Messiah transcended all description; and it is still farther enhanced by holding up the fallen angels as no more before his power than a herd of goats. The similitude of goats is besides the more appropriate, as our Saviour had represented the wicked under the same image, Matt. xxv. 33. The idea of not putting forth half his strength, is somewhat like that in Ps. lxxviii. 38.

4 With terrors and with furies.-The Furies of Mythology were avenging tormentors; but Milton may allude here to Job vi. 4; Isa. li. 20.

"Struck them with horror backward; but far worse
"Urged them behind: headlong themselves they threw
"Down from the verge of Heaven: eternal wrath
"Burned after them to the bottomless pit.

"Hell heard the insufferable noise: Hell saw
"Heaven ruining1 from Heaven, and would have fled
"Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep
"Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.
"Nine days they fell: confounded Chaos roared,
"And felt tenfold confusion in their fall
"Through his wild anarchy; so huge a rout
"Encumbered him with ruin: Hell at last

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"Yawning received them whole, and on them closed;-875 “Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire

* Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.

* Disburdened Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired

* Her mural breach, returning whence it rolled.
* Sole vietor, from the expulsion of his foes,
* Messiah his triumphal chariot turned:
"To meet him all his saints, who silent stood
"Kye-witnesses of his almighty acts,

* With jubileo* advanced; and, as they went,
“Shaded with branching palm, each order bright,
"Sung triumph, and hiìm sung victorious King,
"Son, Heir, and Lord! to him dominion given,
* Worthiest to reign He, celebrated, rode

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Triumphant through mid Heaven, into the courts *And temple of his mighty Father throned

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“Ou high? who into glory him received,

"Where now de sits at the right hand of bliss.

1 žumum muniça Nourenbos rushing headlong into ruin; using the word is se

♦ Deŭ de dans, puding, recebeul them whok-See Isa. v. 14. * Kuid she wenig in her wall supposed to have been made • fået pewna or the ages out: returning-le the displaced part of

• Mbphy sound af trumpet, sliding to the 50th year, or year white #dcd wax anouvel as the Jews by the animating notes of › V.... whats de nega, alding t 11

← Thus, measuring things in Heaven" by things on Earth, "At thy request, and that thou mayest beware "By what is past, to thee I have revealed

← What might have else to human race been hid;
- The discord which befell, and war in Heaven
- Among the angelic Powers, and the deep fall
"Of those too high aspiring, who rebelled
"With Satan :-be who envies now thy state,
← Who now is plotting how he may seduce
“Thee also from obedience, that, with him
"Bereaved of happiness, thou mayest partake
“His punishment-eternal misery ;

Which would be all his solace and revenge,
“As a despite done against the Most High,
“Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
"But listen not to his temptations: warn
"Thy weaker: let it profit thee to have heard,
"By terrible example, the reward

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"Of disobedience: firm they might have stood, "Yet fell. Remember! and fear to transgress."

1 Thus measuring things in Heaven by things on earth-by way of apology for the bold fictions in this book, which, though blamed by some, will yet be generally admired as genuine poetic beauties.

2 He who envies:-'tis he who. The angel calls Adam's attention especially to Satan, as the great purpose of his mission was to inform him of the evil spirit's envy and insidions designs against the newly-created human race.

3 Thy weaker;-as Peter calls the wife the "weaker vessel," 1 Pet. iii. 7.

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