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570

While the bright Pomp afcended jubilant.
Open, ye everlasting Gates, they fung,
Open, ye Heav'ns, your living dores; let in
The great Creator from his work returnd
Magnificent, his Six days work, a World;
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deigne
To vifit oft the dwellings of just Men
Delighted, and with frequent intercourse
Thither will fend his winged Meffengers
On errands of fupernal Grace. So fung
The glorious Train afcending: He through Heav'n,
That open'd wide her blazing Portals, led
To Gods Eternal house direct the way,
A broad and ample rode, whofe duft is Gold
And pavement Starrs, as Starrs to thee appeer,
Seen in the Galaxie, that Milkie way

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Pouderd with Starrs. And now on Earth the Seaventh

Which nightly as a circling Zone thou seest

Eev'ning arose in Eden, for the Sun

Was fet, and twilight from the East came on,
Forerunning Night; when at the holy mount
Of Heav'ns high-feated top, th' Impereal Throne
Of Godhead, fixt for ever firm and fure,

The Filial Power arriv'd, and fate him down
With his great Father (for he also went
Invisible, yet ftaid (fuch priviledge

Hath Omnipresence) and the work ordain'd, 590
Author and end of all things, and from work
Now refting, bless'd and hallowd the Seav'nth day,
As resting on that day from all his work,
But not in filence holy kept; the Harp
Had work and rested not, the folemn Pipe,

And Dulcimer, all Organs of sweet stop,
All founds on Fret by String or Golden Wire
Temper'd foft Tunings, intermixt with Voice
Choral or Unifon; of incense Clouds

Fuming from Golden Cenfers hid the Mount. 600
Creation and the Six dayes acts they fung,
Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite

Thy power; what thought can measure thee or
Relate thee; greater now in thy return [tongue
Then from the Giant Angels; thee that day
Thy Thunders magnifi'd; but to create
Is greater then created to destroy.

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Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound
Thy Empire? easily the proud attempt
Of Spirits apoftat and thir Counsels vaine
Thou haft repeld, while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who feekes
To leffen thee, against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might: his evil
Thou useft, and from thence creat'st more good.
Witness this new-made World, another Heav'n
From Heaven Gate not farr, founded in view
On the cleer Hyaline, the Glaffie Sea;
Of amplitude almost immenfe, with Starr's
Numerous, and every Starr perhaps a World
Of deftind habitation; but thou know'st
Thir seasons among these the feat of men,
Earth with her nether Ocean circumfus'd,
Thir pleasant dwelling place. Thrice happie men,
And fons of men, whom God hath thus advanc't,
Created in his Image, there to dwell

:

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And worship him, and in reward to rule
Over his Works, on Earth, in Sea, or Air,
And multiply a Race of Worshippers
Holy and just thrice happie if they know
Thir happiness, and persevere upright.

So fung they, and the Empyrean rung, With Halleluiahs: Thus was Sabbath kept. And thy request think now fulfill'd, that ask'd How first this World and face of things began, And what before thy memorie was don From the beginning, that posteritie

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Informd by thee might know; if else thou seek'st Aught, not surpaffing humane measure, say. 640

The End of the Seventh Book.

Paradife Loft.

BOOK VIII.

while

HE Angel Ended and in Adam's Ear
So Charming left his Voice that he a
[fixt to hear;
Thought him still speaking, ftill ftood
Then as new waked thus gratefully replied.
What thanks fufficient, or what recompence
Equal have I to render thee, Divine
Hyftorian, who thus largely haft allayd
The thirst I had of knowledge, and voutsaf't
This friendly condescention to relate
Things elfe by me unfearchable, now heard
With wonder, but delight, and, as is due,
With glorie attributed to the high
Creator; fome thing yet of doubt remaines,
Which onely thy folution can refolve.
When I behold this goodly Frame, this World
Of Heav'n and Earth confifting, and compute,
Thir magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a graine,
An Atom, with the Firmament compar'd
And all her numberd Starrs, that feem to rowle
Spaces incomprehenfible (for fuch

Thir distance argues and thir fwift return
Diurnal) meerly to officiate light

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