As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd, Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares, 940 O'er bog, or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way, Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd, Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 960 And Discord with a thousand various mouths. I' whom Satan turning boldly, thus. Ye Powers And Spirits of this nethermost abyss, 970 Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, 980 I travel this profound; direct my course; Directed no mean recompence it brings To your behoof, if I that region lost, All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce To her original darkness and your sway (Which is my present journey) and once more Erect the standard there of ancient Night; Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge. Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, With falt'ring speech and visage incompos'd, Answer'd. I know thee, stranger, who thou art, That mighty leading Angel, who of late 991 Made head against Heav'n's king, though overthrown. I saw and heard, for such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frighted deep With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded; and Heav'n gates Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands 1000 Encroach'd on still through your intestine broiis,' He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply, 1010 Into the wild expanse, and through the shock And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he; Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 1031 1043 Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven END OF THE SECOND BOOK. 1050 BOOK III. THE ARGUMENT. God sitting on his throne sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shews him to the Son who sat at his right hand; foretels the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created Man free and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards Man; but God again declares, that Grace cannot be extended towards Man without the satisfaction of divine justice; Man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for Man: the Father 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 quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb ; where wandering he first finds a place, since called the Limbo of Vanity; what persons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: His passage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there Uriel the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner Angel; and pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had placed here, enquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed; alights first on mount Niphates. HAIL holy Light, offspring of Heav'n first-born, Or of th' Eternal coeternal beam May I express thee' unblam'd? Since God is light, Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, |