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Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers;
Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand.
This day I have begot whom I declare

My only Son, and on this holy hill

Him have anointed, whom ye now behold

At my right hand; your head I him appoint;
And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow
All knees in Heaven, and shall confess him Lord:
Under his great viceregent reign abide
United, as one individual soul,

For ever happy. him who disobeys,

Me disobeys, breaks union; and that day,
Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls
Into utter darkness, deep engulfed, his place
Ordained without redemption, without end.

So spake the Omnipotent, and with his words
All seemed well pleased—all seemed, but were not all.
That day, as other solemn days, they spent
In song and dance about the sacred hill:
Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere
Of planets, and of fixed, in all her wheels
Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular

Then most, when most irregular they seem;
And in their motions harmony divine

So smoothes her charming tones, that God's own ear
Listens delighted. Evening now approached—
For we have also our evening and our morn,

We ours for change delectable not need—
Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they turn

Desirous. All in circles as they stood,

Tables are set, and on a sudden piled

With angels' food; and rubied nectar flows

In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold,

Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of Heaven.

On flowers reposed, and with fresh flowerets crowned,

They eat, they drink; and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy, secure

Of surfeit, where full measure only bounds

Excess, before the all-bounteous King, who showered
With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy.

Now when ambrosial night with clouds exhaled

From that high mount of God, whence light and shade
Spring both, the face of brightest Heaven had changed
To grateful twilight, for night comes not there

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All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest;
Wide over all the plain, and wider far

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Than all this globous earth in plain outspread, –
Such are the courts of God,— the angelic throng,
Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend
By living streams among the trees of life,

Pavilions numberless, and sudden reared,

Celestial tabernacles, where they slept

Fanned with cool winds - save those, who, in their course,

Melodious hymns about the sovereign throne

Alternate all night long. But not so waked

Satan

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so call him now, his former name

Is heard no more in Heaven. He of the first,
If not the first Archangel, great in power,
In favor and pre-eminence, yet fraught

With envy against the Son of God, that day
Honored by his great Father, and proclaimed

Messiah, king anointed, could not bear

Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaired.
Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain,
Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour
Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved
With all his legions to dislodge, and leave
Unworshiped, unobeyed, the throne supreme,
Contemptuous: and his next subordinate
Awakening, thus to him in secret spake:

Sleepest thou, companion dear? What sleep can close

Thy eyelids? and rememberest what decree

Of yesterday, so late hath passed the lips

Of Heaven's Almighty? Thou to me thy thoughts
Was wont, I mine to thee was wont to impart;

Both waking we were one; how then can now
Thy sleep dissent? New laws thou seest imposed;
New laws from Him who reigns, new minds may raise
In us who serve, new counsels, to debate
What doubtful may ensue- more in this place
To utter is not safe. Assemble thou,

Of all those myriads which we lead, the chief;
Tell them that by command, ere yet dim night
Her shadowy clouds withdraws, I am to haste,
And all who under me their banners wave,
Homeward, with flying march, where we possess
The quarters of the North; there to prepare
Fit entertainment to receive our King,
The great Messiah, and his new commands,
Who speedily through all the Hierarchies
Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws.

So spake the false Archangel, and infused
Bad influence into the unwary breast
Of his associate. He together calls,

Or several one by one, the regent powers,
Under him regent; tells, as he was taught,
That the Most High commanding, now ere night
Now ere dim night had disencumbered Heaven,
The great hierarchal standard was to move;
Tells the suggested cause, and casts between
Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound
Or taint integrity. But all obeyed

The wonted signal and superior voice
Of their great potentate; for great indeed

His name, and high was his degree in Heaven.
His countenance, as the morning star that guides

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The starry flock, allured them, and with lies
Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host.
Meanwhile the Eternal eye, whose sight discerns
Abstrusest thoughts, from forth His holy mount,
And from within the golden lamps that burn
Nightly before Him, saw without their light
Rebellion rising; saw in whom, how spread
Among the sons of morn, what multitudes
Were banded to oppose His high decree;
And, smiling, to His only Son thus said:

Son, thou in whom my glory I behold
In full resplendence, heir of all my might,
Nearly it now concerns us to be sure
Of our omnipotence, and with what arms
We mean to hold what anciently we claim.
Of deity or empire. Such a foe

Is rising, who intends to erect his throne
Equal to ours, throughout the spacious North;
Nor so content, hath in his thought to try
In battle, what our power is, or our right.

Let us advise, and to this hazard draw
With speed what force is left, and all employ
In our defense; lest unawares we lose

This our high place, our sanctuary, our hill.

To whom the Son, with calm aspect and clear, Lightning divine, ineffable, serene,

Made answer: Mighty Father, Thou thy foes
Justly hast in derision, and, secure,

Laugh'st at their vain designs and tumults vain,
Matter to me of glory, whom their hate
Illustrates, when they see all regal power
Given me to quell their pride, and in event
Know whether I be dextrous to subdue
Thy rebels, or be found the worst in Heaven.

So spake the Son: but Satan with his powers,

Far was advanced on winged speed; a host

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Innumerable as the stars of night,

Or stars of morning dewdrops which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower.
Regions they passed, the mighty Regencies
Of Seraphim, and Potentates, and Thrones,
In their triple degrees — regions, to which
All thy dominion, Adam, is no more
Than what this garden is to all the earth,
And all the sea, from one entire globose
Stretched into longitude - which having passed,
At length into the limits of the North
They came; and Satan to his royal seat,
High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount

Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers
From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold,
The palace of great Lucifer

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so call

That structure in the dialect of men
Interpreted which not long after, he,
Affecting all equality with God,

In imitation of that mount whereon
Messiah was declared in sight of Heaven,
The Mountain of the Congregation called.
For thither he assembled all his train,
Pretending so commanded to consult
About the great reception of their King,
Thither to come; and with calumnious art
Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears.

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers;

If these magnetic titles yet remain

Not merely titular, since by decree

Another now hath to himself engrossed

All power, and us eclipsed, under the name

Of King anointed, for whom all this haste

Of midnight march, and hurried meeting here,
This only to consult how we may best,
With what may be devised of honors new,

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