su should thy goodness and thy greatness both 163 Be question'd and blasphemed without defence.

To whom the great Creator thus replied: O Son, in whom my soul hath chief delight, Son of my bosom, Scn who art alone My word, my wisdom, and effectual might, 170 All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all As my eternal purpose hath decreed; Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will ; Yet not of will in him, but grace in me Freely vouchsafed ; once inore I will renew 170 His lapsed powers, though forfeit, and enthrallid By sin to foul exorbitant desires ; Upheld by me, yet once more we shall stand On even ground against his mortal foe; By me upheld, that he may know how frail 180 His fallen condition is, and to me owe All his deliverance, and to none but me. Some I have chosen of peculiar grace, Elect above the rest ; so is my will : The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn'd Their sinful state, and to appease betimes The incensed Deity, while offer'd grace Invites ; for I will clear their senses dark, What may sufice, and soften stony hearts To pray, repent, and bring obedience due. 190 To prayer, repentance, and obedience due, Though but endeavour'd with sincere intent, Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut. And I will place within them as a guide, My umpire Conscience; whom if they will hear, 196 Light after light, well used, they shall attain, And to the end, persisting safe arrive. This my long sufferance, and my day of grace, They who neg:ect and scorn shall never taste ; But hard be harden'd, blind be blinded more, Thar: they may stumble on, and deeper fall ; And none but such froni mercy J excluga.

But yet all is not dono ; Man disobeying,
Disloyal, breaks his fealty, and sins
Against the high supremacy of Heaven,

209
Affecting Godhead ; and, so losing all,
To cxpiate 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

210 Some other able, and as willing, pay The rigid satisfaction, death for death. Say, heavenly Powers, where shall we find such love. Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem Man's mortal crime, and just the unjust to save ? 215 Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear ?

He ask'd, but all the heavenly choir stood mute, And silence was in Heaven: On Man's behalf Patron or intercessor none appear’d, Much less that durst upon his own head draw 220 The deadly forfeiture and ransom set. And now without redemption all mankind Must have been los, adjudged to Death and Hell By doom severe, had not the Son of God, In whom the fulness dwells of love divine, 225 His dearest mediation thus renew'd :

Father, thy word is passid, Man shall find graco , And shall grace not find means, that finds her wav, The speudiest of thy winged messengers, To visit all thy creatures, and to all

230 Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought ? Flappy for Man, so coming : he her aid (ar never seek, once dead in sins, and lost; Atonement for himself, or offering meet, indebted and undone, hath none to bring; 235 Bel.old 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 husom, and this glory next to thee Forly put off and for him lastly dio

240

Well pleased ; on me lct Death wreak ail nis raga;
Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquish'd ; thou hast given me to possess
Life in myself for ever ; by thee I live,
Though now to Death' yield, and am his due 245
All that of me can die ; yet, that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loatnsome grave
His prey, nor suffer ty unspotted soul
For cver with corruption there to dwell;
But I shall rise victorious, and subdue
My vanquisher, spoild of his vaunted spoil ;
Death his death's wound then shall receive, and stoou
Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarm’d.
I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead Hell captive, maugre Hell, and show 255
The Powers of darkness bound. Thou, at the sight
Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile;
While, by thce raised, I ruin all my foes,
Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave
Then, with the multitude of my redeemid,
Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and return, ,
Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace assured
And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy preserce joy entire.

His words here ended, but his moek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal lovo
To mortal men, above which only shone
Filial obedience: As a sacrifice
Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will

210 Of his great Father. Admiration seized All Ileaven, what this might mean, and whither tende "Vondering ; but soon the Almighty thus replied:

O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peaco Found out for mankind under wrath! O thon 226 My so.e complacence! well thou know'st liow doar To mo are all my works, nor Man the least, "hough list created that for himn I spira

260

Thee from my busom and right hand, to save,
By loosing thee a while, the whole race lost. 2004
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 wondrous 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 restored
As many as are restored, without thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit, 290
Imputed, sha:l absolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee liansplanted, and frm theo
Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for Man, be judged and die, 215
And dying rise, and rising with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem;
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate

300
So easily destroy'd, and still destroys
In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume
Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own.
Because thou hast, though throned in highest blin 306
Equal to God, and equally enjoying
Godlike fruition, quitted all, to save
A world from utter loss, and hast been found
By nierit more than birtliright Son of God,
Found worthiest to be so by being good,

310
Far more than great or high; because in theo
Love hath abounded more than glory abounds,
Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
With thee thy manhood also to this throne :
Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign 313
Both (God and Man, Son both of God and Man,

Anointed universal king; all power
I givo inee ; reign for ever, and assume
Thy nerits ; under thee, as head supreme,
Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions I rodaco :
All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide 121
In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell
When thou, attended gloriously from Heaven,
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The summoning Archangels to proclaim
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 slecp.
Then, all thy saints assembled, thcu shalt judge 330
Bad Men and Angels; they, arraign'd, shall sink
Beneath thy sentenco; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile
The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,
And, after all their tribulations long,

338
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 a:l in all. But, all ye Gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honour him as me.

No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all The multitude of Angels, with a shout Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from bless'd voices, uftering joy, Heaven rang With jubilee, and loud Hosannas fill'd Tue eternal regions: Lowly reverent Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground With solemn adoration down they cast Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold Immortal amarant, a flower which once In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,