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divine juftice; Man hath offended the ma-. jefty of God by afpiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death muft die, unless fome one can be found Sufficient to answer for his offenfe, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himfelf a ransom for Man: the Fa ther 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 hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father and the Son. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermoft orb; where wandring he first finds a place, fince call'd the Limbo of Vanity; what perfons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of heaven, defcrib'd afcending by ftairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: his paffage thence to the orb of the fun: he finds there Uriel the regent of that orb; but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner Angel; and pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God hath plac'd here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed; alights first on mount Niphates.

HALL holy light, offspring of heav'n firft-born!

Or of th' eternal co-eternel beam!

May I express thee unblam'd? fince God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright effence increate!
Or hear'ft thou rather pure ethereal fream,
Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the fun
Before the heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest
The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless Infinite.
Thee I re-vifit now with bolder wing,
Efcap'd the Stygian pool, tho' long detain'd
In that obfcure fojourn ; while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness born,
With other notes than to th' Orphean lyre,
I fung of Chaos, and eternal Night;
Taught by the heav'nly Mufe to venture down
The dark defcent, and up to re-afcend,
Tho' hard, and rare! Thee I re-visit safe,
And feel thy fov'reign vital lamp: but thou
Re-vifit'ft not these eyes, that rowl in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a Drop Serene hath quench'd their orbs
Or dim fuffufion veil'd! Yer not the more
Ceafe I to wander, where the Mufes haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or funny bild,

Smit with the love of facred fong: but chief”
The Sion, and the flow'ry brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit : nor fometimes forget

Thofe other two equal'd with me in fate,
(So were I equal'd with them in renown !)
Blind Thamyris, and blind Meonides:
And Tirefias, and Phineus, Prophets old.
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious Numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in shadieft covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
Seafons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev’n or morn,
Or fight of vernal bloom, or fummer's rose
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine:
But cloud inftead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me from the chearful ways of men:
Cut off; and for the book of knowledge fair,
Prefented with a universal blank

Of nature's works, to me expung'd and ras'd,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out !
So much the rather thou, cœleftial light!

Shine inward, and the mind through all her pow'rs
Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mist from thence
Purge, ad disperse; that I may fee and tell
Of things invifible to mortal fight.

Now had th' Almighty Father from above,

(From the pure empyrean where He fits

High thron'd above all height) bent down His eye,

His own works and their works at once to view:
About Him all the Santities of heav'n
Stood thick as stars, and from His fight receiv'd,
Beatitude paft utt'rance: on His right
The radiant image of His glory fat,
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, unrival'd love,
In blissful folitude. He then furvey'd
Hell, and the gulf between, and Satan there
Coasting the wall of heav'n on this side night,
In the dun air fublime; and ready now

To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet,
On the bare outside of this world, that feem'd
Firm land imbosom'd without firmament;
Uncertain which, in ocean, or in air.

Him God beholding from His prospect high
Wherein paft, prefent, future He beholds,
Thus to His only Son foreseeing spake.

Only begotten Son! feest, thou what rage
Transports our adverfary, whom no bounds
Prefcrib'd, no bars of hell, nor all the chains
Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyfs
Wide-interrupt, can hold? So bent he seems
On defperate revenge, that shall redound
Upon his own rebellious head. And now
Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his

way Tome I.

Not far off heav'n, in the precincts of light,
Diredly towards the new-created world,
And man there plac'd with purpose to affay
If him by force he can destroy, or worse,
By fome false guile pervert : and shall pervert ;
For man will hearken to his glozing lies,
And easily tranfgrefs the fole command,
Sole pledge of his obedience : fo will fall,
He, and his faithlefs progeny. Whose fault?
Whofe but his own? Ingrate! he had of me
All he could have: I made him juft, and right;
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all th' ethereal Pow'rs,

And spirits, both them who stood, and them who fall'd:

Freely they ftood who ftood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have giv❜n fincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love,
Where only what they needs must do, appear'd ;
Not, what they would? What praise could they re-
ceive?

What pleafure I from fuch obedience paid,
When will and reafon (reason alfo is choice)
Ufelefs and vain, of freedom both defpoil'd,
Made paffive both, had serv'd neceffity,
Not Me! They therefore, as to right belong'd,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their Maker, or their making, or their fates
As if predeftination over-rul'd

Their will, difpos'd by abfolute decree,