And I will place within them as a guide
My umpire conscience, whom if they will hear,
Light after light, well us'd, they shall attain,
And to the end persisting, safe arrive.
This my long sufferance and my day of grace
They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste;
But hard be harden'd, blind be blinded more,
That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;
And none but such from mercy I exclude.
But yet all is not done; man disobeying,
Disloyal, breaks his feälty, and sins
Against the high supremacy of Heaven,
Affecting god-head, and so losing all,
To expiate his treason hath nought left,
But to destruction sacred and devote,
He with his whole posterity must die,
Die he, or justice must; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay

The rigid satisfaction, death for death.

Say, heav'nly powers! where shall we find such love?

Which of ye will be mortal to redeem

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Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save?

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Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?"

He ask'd, but all the heavenly quire stood mute.

And silence was in Heav'n: on man's behalf

Patron or intercessor none appear'd,

Much less that durst upon his own head draw

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The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.

And now without redemption all mankind
Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell
By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renew'd.

"Father, thy word is past, man shall find grace ; And shall grace not find means, that finds her way, The speediest of thy winged messengers,

To visit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unsought?
Happy for man, so coming; he her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins, and lost;
Atonement for himself or offering meet,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring.

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Behold me then; me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall;
Account me man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee

Freely put off, and for him lastly die

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Well pleas'd; on me let Death wreak all his rage;

Under his gloomy pow'r I shall not long

Lie vanquish'd; thou hast giv'n me to possess

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 suffer my unspotted soul

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For ever with corruption there to dwell;

But I shall rise victorious, and subdue

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My vanquisher, spoil'd of his vaunted spoil;

Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoop

Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarm'd.

I through the ample air in triumph high

Shall lead Hell captive, maugre Hell, and show

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The pow'rs of darkness bound. Thou, at the sight

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 carcase glut the grave:

Then, with the multitude of my redeem'd
Shall enter Heav'n, long absent, and return,
Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace assur'd
And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire."

His words here ended, but his meek aspéct
Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love
To mortal men, above which only shone
Filial obedience: as a sacrifice

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Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will

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Of his great Father. Admiration seiz'd

All Heav'n, what this might mean, and whither tend,

Wond'ring; but soon th' Almighty thus reply'd.

"O thou in Heav'n and Earth the only peace

Found out for mankind under wrath! O thou,

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My sole complacence! well thou know'st how dear

To me are all my works, nor man the least,
Though last created; that for him I spare
Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,

By losing thee awhile, the whole race lost.

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Thou therefore, whom thou only canst redeem,
Their nature also to thy nature join;

And be thyself man among men on earth,

Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,
By wond'rous birth: be thou in Adam's room
The head of all mankind, though Adam's son.
As in him perish all men, so in thee,

As from a second root, shall be restor’d
As many as are restor'd, without thee noue.
His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit
Impnted, shall absolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,

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And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So man, as is most just,

Shall satisfy for man, be judg'd and die,

And dying rise, and rising with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate

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So easily destroy'd, and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace.

A world from utter loss, and hast been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God,
Found worthiest to be so by being good,

Far more than great or high; because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory' abounds,
Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
With thee thy manhood also to this throne;

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Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign

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Both God and man, Son both of God and man,
Anointed universal King; all power

I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits; under thee as head supreme,

Thrones, princedoms, pow'rs, dominions, I reduce :
All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou, attended gloriously from Heaven,
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
Thy summoning archangels to proclaim

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Thy dread tribunal, forthwith from all winds
The living, and forthwith the cited dead

Of all past ages, to the general doom

Shall hasten; such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
Bad men and angels; they arraign'd shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be forever shut. Meanwhile

The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring

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New Heav'n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,

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And, after all their tribulations long,

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,

With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth.

Then thou thy regal sceptre shalt lay by,
For regal sceptre then no more shall need,
God shall be all in all. But, all ye Gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honour him as me."

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No sooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all

The multitude of angels, with a shout

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Loud as from numbers without number, sweet

As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung

With jubilee, and loud hosannas fill'd

Th' eternal regions: lowly reverent

Tow'ards either throne they bow, and to the ground

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To Heav'n remov'd, where first it grew, there grows,

And flow'rs aloft, shading the fount of life,

And where the river of bliss through midst of Heaven