THE subject proposed. Invocation of the Holy Spirit. The poem opens with John baptizing at the river Jordan. Jesus, coming there, is baptized; and is attested by the descent of the Holy Ghost, and by a voice from Heaven, to be the Son of God. Satan, who is present, upon this immediately flies up into the regions of the air; where, summoning his infernal council, he acquaints them with his apprehensions that Jesus is that seed of the Woman, destined to destroy all their power; and points out to them the immediate necessity of bringing the matter to proof, and of attempting, by snares and fraud, to counteract and defeat the person from whom they have so much to dread: this office he offers himself to undertake; and, his offer being accepted, sets out on his enterprise. In the meantime, God, in the assembly of holy Angels, declares that he has given up his Son to be tempted by Satan; but foretells that the tempter shall be completely defeated by him : upon which the Angels sing a hymn of triumph. Jesus is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, while he is meditating on the commencement of his great office of Saviour of mankind. Pursuing his meditations, he narrates, in a soliloquy, what divine and philanthropic impulses he had felt from his early youth, and how his mother, Mary, on perceiving these dispositions in him, had acquainted him with the circumstances of his birth, and informed him that he was no less a person than the Son of God; to which he adds what his own inquiries and reflections had supplied in confirmation of this great truth, and particularly dwells on the recent attestation of it at the river Jordan. Our Lord passes forty days, fasting in the wilderness; where the wild beasts become mild and harmless in his presence. Satan now appears under the form of an old I peasant; and enters into discourse with our Lord, wondering what could have brought him alone into so dangerous a place, and at the same time professing to recognise him for the person lately acknowledged by John at the river Jordan, to be the Son of God. Jesus briefly replies. Satan rejoins with a description of the difficulty of supporting life in the wilderness; and entreats Jesus, if he be really the Son of God, to manifest his divine power, by changing some of the stones into bread. Jesus reproves him, and at the same time tells him that he knows who he is. Satan instantly avows himself, and offers an artful apology for himself and his conduct. Our blessed Lord severely reprimands him, and refutes every part of his justification. Satan, with much semblance of humility, still endeavours to justify himself; and, professing his admiration of Jesus and his regard for virtue, requests to be permitted at a future time to hear more of his conversation; but is answered, that this must be as he shall find permission from above. Satan then disappears, and the book closes with a short description of night coming on in the desert. I, WHO erewhile the happy garden sung, Thou Spirit, who ledst this glorious eremite Against the spiritual foe, and broughtst him thence And unrecorded left through many an age; That heard the Adversary, who, roving still 10 20 30 About the world, at that assembly famed "O ancient Powers of Air, and this wide world! 66 (For much more willingly I mention Air, 66 66 Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven 40 50 "And now, too soon for us, the circling hours "This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we "Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound; "At least, if so we can, and, by the head Broken,' be not intended all our power "To be infringed, our freedom and our being, "Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear. 60 70 I saw "Purified, to receive him pure, or rather, "Of hazard, which admits no long debate, "But must with something sudden be opposed "Not force, but well-couched fraud, well-woven snares— "Ere in the head of nations he appear, "Their king, their leader, and supreme on Earth. "I, when no other durst, sole undertook "The dismal expedition, to find out "And ruin Adam; and the exploit performed 66 Successfully: a calmer voyage now "Will waft me; and the way found prosperous once "Induces best to hope of like success. He ended, and his words impression left 80 90 100 110 At first, against mankind so well had thrived The purposed counsel, preordained and fixed, "Gabriel! this day by proof thou shalt behold, "Great in renown, and called the Son of God; "Then toldst her, doubting how these things could he "To her a virgin, that on her should come "The Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest 120 130 "O'ershadow her. This Man, born and now upgrown, 140 "To show him worthy of his birth divine "And high prediction, henceforth I expose "To Satan: let him tempt, and now assay "His utmost subtlety, because he boasts "And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng 150 "Of female seed, far abler to resist "All his solicitations, and at length "All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell, |