By doom severe. Lad not the Son of God.
In whom the finess dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renewd.

Father, thy word is past. Man shall find grace; And shall grace not find means, that finds her way, The speediest of thy winged messengers,

To visit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unsought?
Happy for Man, so coming; he her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins, and lost;
Atonement for himself, or offering meet,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring;
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 power I shall not long
Lie vanquish'd; thou hast given me to possess
Life in myself for ever; by thee I live,
Though now to Death I yield, and am his due
All that of me can die; yet that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave
His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul
For ever with corruption there to dwell;

But I shall rise victorious, and subdue

My vanquisher, spoil'd of his vaunted spoil;

Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoop

Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarm'd.

I through the ample air in triumph high

Shall lead Hell captive, maugre Hell, and show

The Powers of darkness bound. Thou, at the sight
Pleas'd, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,

While by thee rais'd, I ruin all
my foes,
Death last, and with his carcass glut the

grave:

Then with the multitude of my redeem'd,
Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and return,
Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace assur'd
And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.

His words here ended, but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love
To mortal men, above which only shone
Filial obedience: As a sacrifice

Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will

Of his great Father. Admiration seiz'd

All Heaven what this might mean, and whither tend, Wondering; but soon the Almighty thus replied.

O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace Found out for mankind under wrath! O thou My sole complacence! well thou know'st how dear To me are all my works, nor Man the least, Though last created; that for him I spare Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, By losing thee a while, the whole race lost. Thou, therefore whom thou only canst redeem,

Their own back

And bure in thee

items mi migrers deeds. resumed md Som the Leceive new l S: Makass Stal was ir Man be fair 3 må de And dying rise, and ring with kim raise Ha brethren, resort'd with his own dear Ea So heavenly love shall condo belt bute, Giving to death and dying to redeem. So dearly to redeem what hellish hate So easily destroy'd, and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace. Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume

Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own. Because thou hast, though thron'd in highest bliss Equal to God, and equally enjoying

God-like fruition, quitted all, to save

A world from utter loss, and hast been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God,
Found worthiest to be so by being good,

Far more than great or high; because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory abounds;
Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt

With thee thy manhood also to this throne:
Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign

Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed universal King; all power

I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits; under thee, as head supreme,

Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions, I reduce:
All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou, attended gloriously from Heaven,
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The summoning Arch-Angels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds,
The living, and forthwith the cited dead
Of all past ages, to the general doom

Shall hasten; such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
Bad men and Angels; they, arraign'd, shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile
The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,
And, after all their tribulations long,

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,

With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth.

Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by,

73

PARADISE LOST.

For regal wepter then no more shall need,
God shall be all in all. But, all ye gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honour him as me.

No sooner had the Almighty ceas'd, but all
The multitude of Angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heaven rung
With jubilee, and loud Hosannas fill'd

The eternal regions: Lowly reverent

Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground

With solemn adoration down they cast

Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;
Immortal amarant, a flower which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence

To Heav'n remov'd, where first it

grew,

there grows, And flowers aloft shading the fount of life,

And where the river of bliss through midst of Heaven
Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;

With these that never fade the Spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks inwreath'd with beams;
Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,
Impurpled with celestial roses smil'd.

Then, crown'd again, their golden harps they took,
Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their side
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming symphony they introduce