They first re-edify, and for a while
In mean estate live moderate, till, grown In wealth and multitude, factious they grow. But first among the priests dissension springs; Men who attend the altar, and should most Endeavor peace. Their strife pollution brings Upon the temple itself. At last they seize The scepter, and regard not David's sons; Then lose it to a stranger, that the true Anointed king, Messiah, might be born Barred of his right. Yet at his birth a star, Unseen before in Heaven, proclaims him come, And guides the Eastern sages, who inquire His place, to offer incense, myrrh, and gold: His place of birth a solemn angel tells To simple shepherds, keeping watch by night; They gladly thither haste, and by a quire Of squadroned angels hear his carol sung.
A Virgin is his mother, but his sire
The power of the Most High. He shall ascend
The throne hereditary, and bound his reign
With Earth's wide bounds, his glory with the Heavens. He ceased; discerning Adam, with such joy
Surcharged, as had, like grief, been dewed in tears, Without the vent of words; which these he breathed:
O prophet of glad tidings, finisher
Of utmost hope! now clear I understand
What oft my steadiest thoughts have searched in vain; Why our great Expectation should be called
The Seed of Woman: Virgin Mother, hail!
High in the love of Heaven; yet from my loins Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son Of God Most High; so God with Man unites. Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise Expect with mortal pain; say where and when
Their fight; what stroke shall bruise the Victor's heel?
To whom thus Michael: Dream not of their fight, As of a duel, or the local wounds
Of head or heel; not, therefore, joins the Son Manhood to Godhead, with more strength to foil Thy enemy; nor so is overcome
Satan, whose fall from Heaven, a deadlier bruise, Disabled not to give thee thy death's wound; Which He, who comes thy Saviour, shall re-cure, Not by destroying Satan, but his works
In thee, and in thy seed: nor can this be, But by fulfilling that which thou didst want, Obedience to the law of God, imposed On penalty of death; and suffering death, The penalty to thy transgression due,
And due to theirs, which out of thine will grow;
So only can high justice rest appaid.
The law of God exact he shall fulfill,
Both by obedience and by love, though love Alone fulfill the law; thy punishment He shall endure, by coming in the flesh To a reproachful life and cursed death; Proclaiming life to all who shall believe In his redemption, and that his obedience, Imputed, becomes theirs by faith; his merits To save them, not their own, though legal, works. For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed, Seized on by force, judged, and to death condemned, A shameful and accursed, nailed to the cross
By his own nation; slain for bringing life. But to the cross he nails thy enemies, The law that is against thee, and the sins Of all mankind with him there crucified, Never to hurt them more who rightly trust In this his satisfaction. So he dies, But soon revives; death over him no. power Shall long usurp. Ere the third dawning light
Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light, Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems, His death for man, as many as offered life Neglect not, and the benefit embrace
By faith not void of works. This Godlike act
Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldst have died,
In sin forever lost from life; this act
Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms,
And fix far deeper in his head their stings Than temporal death shall bruise the Victor's heel, Or theirs whom he redeems—a death like sleep, A gentle wafting to immortal life.
Nor after resurrection shall he stay Longer on earth than certain times to appear To his disciples, men who in his life
Still followed him; to them shall leave in charge To teach all nations what of him they learned, And his salvation; them who shall believe Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign Of washing them from guilt of sin to life Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall, For death, like that which the Redeemer died. All nations they shall teach; for, from that day, Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins Salvation shall be preached, but to the sons Of Abraham's faith wherever through the world; So in his seed all nations shall be blest.
Then to the Heaven of heavens he shall ascend
With victory, triumphing through the air, Over his foes and thine; there shall surprise The Serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains Through all his realm, and there confounded leave; Then enter into glory, and resume
His seat at God's right hand, exalted high
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