Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief

Thee, Sion, and the flow'ry brooks beneath,

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That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget

Those other two equall'd with me in fate,
So were I equall'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides,
And Tiresias and Phinens, 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 ev'n 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 an universal blank
Of nature's works to me expung'd and raz'd,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

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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

High thron'd above all height, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view:
About him all the sanctities of Heaven

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Stood thick as stars, and from his sight receiv'd

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 plac'd,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love,
In blissful solitude; he then survey'd
flell and the gulf between, and Satan there
Coasting the wall of Heav'n 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 seem'd
Firm land embosom'd, without firmament,
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 foreseeing spake.

"Only begotten Son seest thou what rage
Transports our adversary? whom no bounds
Prescrib'd, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
Heap'd 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 Heav'n, in the precincts of light,
Directly towards the new created world,

And man there plac'd, with purpose to assay
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,
Aud easily transgress the sole command,

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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.

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Such I created all th' ethereal powers

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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 giv'n sineere

Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,

Where only what they needs must do appear'd,

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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 despoil'd,
Made passive both, had'serv'd necessity,

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Not ine? They therefore as to right belong'd,
So were created, nor can justly' acense
Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,

As if predestination over-rul'd • .

Their will, dispos'd by absolute decree

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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 prov'd certain unforeknown.
So without least impúlse or shadow' of fate,
Orought by me immutably foreseen,

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They tresspass, anthors to themselves in all

Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so

I form'd them free, and free they must remain,

Till they inthral themselves; I else must change
Their nature, and revoke the high decree
Unchangeable, eternal, which ordain'd

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Their freedom; they themselves ordain'd their fall.
The first sort by their own suggestion fell,
Self-tempted, self-deprav'd: man falls, deceiv'd
By th' other first: man therefore shall find grace,
The other none: in mercy' and justice both,
Through Heav'n and Earth, so shall my glory' excel;

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But mercy first and last shall brightest shine."

Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance fill'd

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All Heav'n, and in the blessed spirits elect
Sense of new joy ineffable diffus'd.

Beyond compare the Son of God was seen
Most glorions; in him all his Father shone
Substantially express'd; and in his face
Divine compassion visibly appear'd,

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Love without end, and without measure grace,
Which uttering, thus he to his Father spake.

"O Father, gracious was that word which clos'd
Thy sov'reign sentence, that man should find grace;
For which both Heav'n and Earth shall high extol
Thy praises, with th' innumerable sound

Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne
Iacompass'd shall resound thee ever blest:
For should man finally be lost, should man,

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Thy creature late so lov'd, thy youngest son,

Fall cirenmvented thus by fraud, though join'd

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 nonght,
Or proud return, though to his heavier doom,
et with revenge accomplish'd, and to Hell

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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 question'd and blasphem'd without defence."
To whom the great Creator thus reply'd.

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O Son, in whom my soul hath chief delight, Son of my bosom, Son who art alone

My word, my wisdom, and effectual might,

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All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all

As my eternal purpose hath decreed:

Man shall not quite be lost, but sav'd who will;
Yet not of will in him, but grace in me
Freely vouchsaf'd; once more I will renew

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His lapsed pow'rs, though forfeit, and inthrall'd
By sin to foul exorbitant desires;

Upheld by me, yet once more he shall stand

On even ground against his mortal foe;

By me upheld, that he may know how frail
His fall'n condition is, and to me owe

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All his deliverance, and to none but me.

Some I have chosen of peculiar grace

Elect above the rest; so is my will:

The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn'd,

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Their sinful state, and to appease betimes

Th' incensed Deity, while offer'd grace
Invites; for I will clear their senses dark,
What may suffice, and soften stony hearts
To pray, repent, and bring obedience due.
To pray'r, repentance, and obedience due,
Though but undeavour'd with cincere intent,
Mine ear shall not be slow, mine cye net shut.

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