To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet
Inspir'd? disdain not such access to me."
To whom our Saviour with unalter'd brow:
"Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,
I bid not or forbid; do as thou find'st
Permission from above; thou canst not more."
He added not; and Satan, bowing low
His gray dissimulation, disappear'd,
Into thin air diffus'd: for now began
Night with her sullen wings ngs to double-shade
The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couch'd;
And now wild.beasts came forth the woods to roam.
The disciples of Jesus, uneasy at his long absence, reason amongst themselves concerning it. Mary also gives vent to her maternal anxiety,; in the expression of which she recapitulates many circumstances respecting the birth and early life of her Son. Satan again meets his infernal council, reports the bad success of his first temptation of our blessed Lord, and calls upon them for counsel and assistance. Belial proposes the tempting of Jesus with woman. Satan rebukes Belial for his dissoluteness, charging on him all the profligacy of that kind ascribed by the poets to the heathen gods, and rejects his pro-frosal, as in no respect likely to succeed. Satan then suggests other modes of temptation, particularly proposing to avail himself of the circumstance of our Lord's hungering; and, taking a band of chosen spirits with him, returns to resume his enterprize. Jesus hungers in the desert. Night comes on; the manner in which our Saviour passes the night is described. Morning advanees. Satan again appears to Jesus, and, after expressing wonder that he should be so entirely neglected in the wilderness where others had been miraculously fed, tempts him with a sumptuous banquet of the most luxurious kind. This he rejects, and the banquet vanishes. Satan, finding our Lord not to be assailed on the ground of appetite, tempts him again by offering him riches, as the means of acquiring power: this Jesus also rejects, producing many instances of great actions. performed by persons under virtuous poverty, and specifying the danger of riches, and the cares and pains inseparable from power and greatness..
MEANWHILE the new baptized, who yet remain'd
At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen
Him whom they heard so late expressly call'd
Jesus,, Messiah, Son of God declar'd,
And on that high authority had believ'd,.
And with him talk'd, and with him lodg'd, (I mean
Andrew and Simon, famous after known,
With others, though in holy writ not nam'd,)
Now missing him, their joy so lately found,
So lately found, and so abruptly gone,
Began to doubt, and doubted many days,
And as the days increas'd, increas'd their doubt,
Sometimes they thought he might be only shown,
And for a time caught up to God, as once
Moses was in the mount, and missing long;
And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels
Rode up to heaven, yet once again to come.
Therefore as those young prophets then with care
Sought lost Elijah, so in each place these
Nigh to Bethabaras in Jericho,
The city of Palms, Ænon and Salem old,
Machærus, and each town or city walid
On this side the broad lake Genezaret,
Or in Peræa; but return'd in vain.
Then on the banks of Jordan, by a creek,
Where winds with reeds and osiers whisp'ring play,
Plain fishermen, no greater men them call,
Close in a cottage low together got,
Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreath'd:
"Alas, from what high hope to what relapse
Unlook'd for are we fallen! our eyes beheld
Messiah certainly now come, so long
• Expected of our fathers; we have heard
His words, his wisdom, full of grace and truth:
Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand,
The kingdom shall to Israel be restor'd:
Thus we rejoic'd, but soon our joy is turn'd
Into perplexity and new amaze :
For whither is he gone, what accident
Hath wrapp'd him from us? will he now retire
After appearance, and again prolong
Our expectation? God of Israel
Send thy Messiah forth, the time is come;
Behold the kings of the earth how they oppress
Thy chosen, to what height their power unjust
They have exalted, and behind them cast
All fear of thee: arise, and vindicate
Thy glory; free thy people from their yoke.
But let us wait; thus far he hath perform'd,
Sent his Anointed, and to us reveal'd him,
By his great prophet, pointed at and shown
In public, and with him we have convers'd;
Let us he glad of this, and all our fears
Let us be glad of this, and all our fears
Lay on his Providence; he will not fail,
Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall,
Mock us with his bless'd sight, then snatch him
Soon shall we see our hope, our joy, return."
Thus they out of their plaints new bope resume To find whom at the first they found unsought: But to his mother Mary, when she saw Others return'd from baptism, not her son, Nor left at Jordan tidings of him none, [pure, Within her breast though calm, her breast, though Motherly cares and fears got head, and rais'd Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus
"O what avails me now that honour high
To have conceiv'd of God, or that salute,
* Hail highly favour'd, among women bless'd!"
While I to sorrows am no less advanc'd,
And fears as eminent, above the lot
Of other women, by the birth I bore,
In such a season born, where scarce a shed
Could be obtain'd to shelter him or me
From the bleak air: a stable was our warmth,
A manger his; yet soon enforc'd to fly
Thence into Egypt, till the murd'rous king
Were dead, who sought his life, and, missing, fild
With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.
From Egypt home return'd, in Nazareth
Hath been our dwelling many years; his life
Private unactive, calm, contemplative,
Little suspicious to any king; but now
Full grown to man, acknowledg'd, as I hear,
By John the Baptist, and in public shown,
Son own'd from heaven by his Father's voice,
I look'd for some great change: to honour? no,
But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretold,
That to the fall and rising he should be
Of many in Israel, and to a sign
Spoken against, that through my very soul
A sword shall pierce; this is my favour'd lot,
My exaltation to afflictions high!
Afflicted I may be, it seems, and bless'd':
I will not argue that, nor will repine.
But where delays he now? some great intent
Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce haď
I lost him, but so found, as well I saw
[seen,
He could not lose himself; but went about
His Father's business: what he meant I mus'd,
Since understand; much more his absence now
Thus leng to some great purpose he obscures.
But I to wait with patience am inur'd;
My heart bath been a store-house long of things
And sayings laid up, portending strange events,"
Thus Mary, pondering oft, and oft to mind
Recalling what remarkably had pass'd
Since first her salutation heard, with thoughts
Meekly compos'd awaited the fulfilling;
The while her Son tracing the desert wild,
Sole, but with holiest meditations fed,
Into bimself descended, and at once
All his great work to come before him set;
How to begin, how to accomplish best
His end of being on earth, and mission high;
For Satan with sly preface to return
Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone
- Up to the middle region of thick air,
Where all his potentates in council sat;
There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,
Solicitous and blank, he thus began :
"Princes, heaven's ancient sons, ethereal thrones,
Demonian spirits now, from th' element
Each of his reign allotted, rightlier call'd
Powers of fire, air, water, and earth beneath,
So may we hold our place and these mild seats
Without new trouble; such an enemy
Is risen to invade us, who no less
Threatens than our expulsion down to hell;
I, as I undertook, and with the vote
Consenting in full frequence was impower'd,
Have found him, view'd him, tasted him, but find
Far other labour to be undergone
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