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244

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 fuffer my unfpotted foul
For ever with corruption there to dwell;
But I fhall rife victorious, and subdue
My vanquisher, spoil'd of his vaunted fpoil;
Death his death's wound fhall then receive, and
ftoop

Inglorious, of his mortal fting difarm'd.

Ver. 249.

250

Ver. 244. Life in myself for ever;] John v. 26. NEWTON. with corruption there to dwell;] Pfalm "Thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, neither fuffer thine Holy one to see corruption ;" applied to our Saviour's Refurrection by St. Peter, Acts ii. 20, 21. NEWTON.

xvi. 10.

Ver. 252. Death his death's wound shall then receive,] I am very forry to obferve, that the quaint conceit in this line is very inconfiftent with the character of the fpeaker, and unworthy of the majefty of the reft of the fpeech. Milton might perhaps be led into it by a witticism of the fame kind in Seneca, who, fpeaking of the terrour Pluto was in from the wound he received from Hercules, fays, Herc. Fur. ver. 568.

"Effugit tenui vulnere faucius,

"Et mortis dominus perlimuit mori." THYER.

Or he might remember Donne, who abounds in quaint coneits, Poems, 4to. 1633. p. 36.

"And death fhall be no more; death, thou shalt die."

But Milton ufes a fimilar conceit in his earlier poem, In Ob. Præf. Elien. ver. 24.

"imprecor neci necem." TODD.

I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead Hell captive, maugre Hell, and show
The Powers of darkness bound. Thou, at the

fight

256

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, 260
Shall enter Heaven, long abfent, and return,
Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace affur'd
And reconcilement; wrath fhall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire. 265
His words here ended, but his meek afpect
Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love

Ver. 254. I through the ample air in triumph high &c.] Pfalm Ixviii. 18. "Thou haft afcended on high, thou haft led captivity captive." Col. ii. 15. “And, having spoiled Principalities and Powers, he made a fhow of them openly, triumphing over them in it." NEWTON.

Ver. 259. Death laft,] 1 Cor. xv. 26. that shall be destroyed, is Death." HUME. Ver. 265. xvi. 11.

"The last enemy,

but in thy prefence joy entire.] Pfalm "In thy prefence is the fulness of joy." TODD.

Ver. 266. His words here ended, but his meek afpect

Silent yet Spake, &c.] What a charming and lovely picture has Milton given us of God the Son confidered as our Saviour and Redeemer? not in the leaft inferiour in its way. to that grander one in the 6th book, where he describes him clothed with majefty and terrour, taking vengeance of his enemies. Before he reprefents him fpeaking, he makes divine compaffion, lore without end, and grace without measure, vifibly to ap

To mortal men, above which only fhone
Filial obedience: As a facrifice

Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will
Of his great Father. Admiration feis'd
All Heaven, what this might
might mean,'

270

mean,' and

whither tend, Wondering; but foon the Almighty thus replied.

O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace Found out for mankind under wrath! O thou 275 My fole complacence! well thou know'ft how dear To me are all my works, nor Man the least,

pear in his face, v. 140, and, carrying on the fame amiable picture, makes him end it with a countenance breathing immortal love to mortal men. Nothing could be better contrived to leave a deep impreffion upon the reader's mind, and I believe one may venture to affert, that no art or words could lift the imagination to a stronger idea of a good and benevolent being. The mute eloquence which our author has fo prettily expreted in his filent yet Spake, is with no lefs beauty defcribed by Taffo at the end of Armida's speech to Godfrey, C. 4. ft. 65.

"Ciò detto tace, e la rifpofta attende

"Con atto, ch'en filentio hà voce, e preghi." THYER.

Ver. 269.

Pfalm xl. 6, and the two following verfes. NEWTON.

Ver. 274.

He is our peace." GILLIES.

Ver. 277.

As a facrifice &c.] An allufion to

the only peace] Ephef. ii. 14.

nor man the leaft,

Though laft created;] The leaft dear; fomewhat

like Shakspeare's Lear to Cordelia, A. i. S. i.

Now, our joy,

"Although the laft, not least."

And Anthony to Trebonius, Jul. Caf. A. iii. S. i.

"Though laft, not least in love." NEWTON.

Though laft created; that for him I spare
Thee from my bofom and right hand, to fave,
By lofing thee awhile, the whole race loft. 280
Thou, therefore, whom thou only canft redeem,
Their nature also to thy nature join;

And be thyfelf Man among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin feed,
By wonderous birth: Be thou in Adam's room 285
The head of all mankind, though Adam's son.
As in him perish all men, fo in thee,
As from a fecond root, fhall be reftor'd
As many as are reftor'd, without thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his fons; thy merit,
Imputed, shall absolve them who renounce 291
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,
Shall fatisfy for Man, be judg'd and die,
And dying rise, and rifing with him raise
His brethren, ranfom'd with his own dear life.
So heavenly love fhall outdo hellish hate,

295

Ver. 282. Their nature] That is, "the nature of them, whom thou only canft redeem." A manner of fpeaking very usual with Milton. NEWTON.

Ver. 287. As in him &c.] 1 Cor. xv. 22. "As in Adam all die, fo in Chrift fhall all be made alive." NEWTON.

Ver. 294, &c. It is obfervable, that Milton on many occafions throughout this Poem, efpecially where the doctrines of revealed religion are treated of, imitates the style of St. Paul. See Rom viii. 30, x. 14. STILLINGFLEET.

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300

Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
So easily deftroy'd, and still destroys
In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Nor fhalt thou, by defcending to affume
Man's nature, leffen or degrade thine own.
Because thou haft, though thron'd in highest bliss

Ver. 299. Giving to death, and dying to redeem,] Milton's fyftem of divinity taught not only that Man was redeemed, but likewife that a real price was paid for his redemption; dying to redeem therefore, fignifying only redemption in a vague uncertain fenfe, but imperfectly represents his system; fo imperfectly, that it may as well be called the Socinian; the price paid (which implies a proper redemption) is wanting. But to pay a price implying a voluntary act, the poet therefore well expreffes it by giving to death; that is, giving himself to death; fo that the fenfe of the line fully expreffes Milton's notion, Heavenly love gave a price for the redemption of mankind, and by virtue of that price really redeemed them. WARBURTON.

St. Matt. xx. 28. "The Son of Man came-to give his life a ranfom for many." GILLIES.

Ver. 301. and ftill destroys] Dr. Bentley objects to fill deftroys, that this fpeech is before Adam's fall; and therefore he thinks that Milton gave it "and will deftroy." But there are many paffages in thefe fpeeches of God and Meffiah, where the Fall is fpoken of as a thing paft; perhaps, because all things, even future ones, are prefent to the Divine Mind. Thus, in v. 151.

And yet these two paffages, with others of the fame kind, Dr. Bentley has fuffered to stand uncenfured. PEARCE.