GOD, sitting on His throne, sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created shows him to the Son, who sat at His right hand; foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created man free, and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards man; but God again declares that grace cannot be extended towards man without the satisfaction of divine justice; man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man; The Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces His exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth; commands all the angels to adore him; they obey, and by hymning to their harps in full quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place, since called the Limbo of Vanity; what persons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: his pas sage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel; and pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed: alights first on mount Niphates.
HAIL, holy Light! offspring of Heaven firstborn! Or of the Eternal coëternal beam,
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, And never but in unapproachéd light Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream, Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun, Before the Heaven thou wert; and at the voice Of God, as with a mantle didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Thee I revisit now with bolder wing,
Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight Through utter and through middle darkness borne With other notes than to the Orphéan lyre sung of Chaos and eternal Night;
Taught by the heavenly muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to re ascend, Though hard and rare: Thee I revisit safe, And feel thy sovereign vital lamp; but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs, Or dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath, That washed thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget Those other two equalled with me in fate, So were I equalled with them in renown, Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides, And Tiresias and Phineas, prophets old: Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight, of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank
Of nature's works to me expunged and rased, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial Light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.
Now had the Almighty Father from above, From the pure empyréan where he sits
High throned above all height, bent down his eye, His own works and their works at once to view: About him all the sanctities of Heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received Beatitude past utterance; on his right The radiant image of his glory sat, His only Son; on earth he first beheld Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the happy garden placed, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love,
In blissful solitude; he then surveyed Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night, In the dun air sublime, and ready now
To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet On the bare outside of this world, that seemed Firm land embosomed, without firinament, Uncertain which, in ocean or in air. Him God beholding from his prospect high, Wherein past, present, future, he beholds, Thus to his only Son forseeing spake:
"Only begotten Son, seest thou what rage Transports our adversary? whom no bounds Prescribed, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains Heaped on him there, nor yet the main abyss Wide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seems On desperate revenge, that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head. And now Through all restraint broke loose he wings his way Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of light, Directly towards the new-created world,
And man there placed, with purpose to essay
If him by force he can destroy, or worse, By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert, For man will hearken to his glozing lies, And easily transgress the sole command, Sole pledge of his obedience: so will fall He and his faithless progeny: whose fault? Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me All he could have: I made him just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all the ethereal powers
And spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd; Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have given sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love,
Where only what they needs must do appeared,
Not what they would? what praise could they receive? What pleasure I from such obedience paid, When will and reason (reason also is choice) Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled, Made passive both, had served necessity, Not me? They therefore as to right belonged, So were created, nor can justly accuse Their Maker, or their making, or their fate, As if predestination over-ruled
Their will, disposed by absolute decree
Or high foreknowledge; they themselves decreed Their own revolt, not I; if I foreknew, Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault, Which had no less proved certain unforeknown. So without least impulse or shadow of fate, Or aught by me immutably foreseen,
They trespass, authors to themselves in all
Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so I formed them free and free they must remain, Till they enthral themselves; I else must change Their nature, and revoke the high decree Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained
Their freedom; they themselves ordained their fall, The first sort by their own suggestion fell, Self-tempted, self-depraved: man falls deceived
By the other first; man therefore shall find grace, The other none: in mercy and justice both,
Through Heaven and earth, so shall my glory excel; But mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine." Thus while God spake ambrosial fragrance filled All Heaven, and in the blessed spirits elect Sense of new joy ineffable diffused: Beyond compare the Son of God was seen Most glorious; in him all his Father shone Substantially expressed; and in his face Divine compassion visibly appeared,
Love without end, and without measure grace, Which uttering thus he to his father spake:
"O Father, gracious was that word which closed Thy sovereign sentence, that man should find grace; For which both Heaven and earth shall high extol Thy praises, with the innumerable sound
Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne Encompassed shall resound thee ever blessed. For should man finally be lost, should man, Thy creature late so loved, thy youngest son, Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though joined With his own folly? that be from thee far, That far be from thee, Father, who art judge Of all things made, and judgest only right. Or shall the adversary thus obtain
His end, and frustrate thine? shall he fulfil His malice, and thy goodness bring to nought, Or proud return, though to his heavier doom, Yet with revenge accomplished, and to Hell Draw after him the whole race of mankind, By him corrupted? or wilt thou thyself Abolish thy creation, and unmake
For him, what for thy glory thou hast made? So should thy goodness and thy greatness both Be questioned and blasphemed without defence." To whom the great Creator thus replied: "O Son, in whom my soul hath chief delight, Son of my bosom, Son who art alone My word, my wisdom, and effectual might,
« PreviousContinue » |