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 bate
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 thron'd in highest bliss
Equal to God, and equally enjoying
Godlike fruition, quitted all to save

A world from utter loss, and hast been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God;
Found worthiest to be so by being good,
Far more than great or high; because in thee
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
Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed Universal King; all power

I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits: under thee, as head supreme,
Thrones, princedoms, powers, dominions, I reduce ;
All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
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 sleep.
Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
Bad men and angels; they arraign'd shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; hell (her numbers full)
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile
The world shall burn, and from ber ashes spring
New heaven and earth, wherein the just shall dwell;
And, after all their tribulations long,

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 all in all. But all ye gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honour him as me!"

No sooner bad the Almighty ceas'd, but all·
The multitude of angels, with a shout

Loud as from numbers without number, sweet,
As from bless'd voices uttering joy, heaven rung:
With jubilee, and loud hosannas fill'd

Th' eternal regions. Lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground
With solemn adoration down they cast
Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold;
Immortal amaranth! a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To heaven remov'd, where first it grew, there grows,
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life;
And where the river of bliss thro' midst of heaven
Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream:
With these, that never fade, the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks, inwreath'd with beams;
Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,.
Impurpled with celestial roses smil'd.

Then crown'd again, their golden harps they took,
Harps ever tun'd, that, glittering by their side,
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming symphony, they introduce

Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;
No voice exempt: no voice but well could join
Melodious part, such concord is in heaven.

Thee, Father," first they sung, "omnipotent, Immutable, immortal, infinite,,

Eternal King; thee, Author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyself invisible

Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st
Thron'd inaccessible, but when thou shad'st.

The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud,
Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine,
Dark with excessive bright, thy skirts appear,
Yet dazzle heaven, that brightest seraphim
Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.”
"Thee," next they sang, "of all creation first,
Begotten Son, divine similitude!

In whose conspicuous count'nance, without cloud
Made visible, th' Almighty Father shines,
Whom else no creature can behold: on thee
Impress'd, th' effulgence of his glory' abides,
Transfus'd on thee his ample Spirit rests.
He heaven of heavens, and all the powers therein,
By thee created, and by thee threw down
Th' aspiring dominations: thou that day
Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare,
Nor stop thy flaming chariot-wheels, that shook
Heaven's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks
Thou drov'st of warring angels disarray'd.

Back from pursuit thy powers with loud acclaim
Thee only extoll'd, Son of thy Father's might,
To execute fierce vengeance on his foes.
Not so on man: him thro' their malice fallen,
Father of mercy and grace! thou didst not doom
So strictly, but much more to pity' incline.
No sooner did thy dear and only Son
Perceive thee purpos'd not to doom frail man
So strictly, but much more to pity' incline,
He, to appease thy wrath, and end the strife
Of mercy' and justice in thy face discern'd,
Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat
Second to thee, offer'd himself to die
For man's offence. O unexampled love!
Love no where to be found less than divine!
Hail Son of God, Saviour of men! Thy name
Shall be the copious matter of my song

Henceforth, and never shall my harp thy praise
Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin."

Thus they in heaven, above the starry sphere,
Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.
Meanwhile upon the firm opacous.globe

Of this round world, whose first convex divides
The luminous inferior orbs, enclosed

From Chaos, and th' inroad of darkness old,
Satan alighted walks. A globe far off

It seem'd, now seems a boundless continent,
Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of night
Starless expos'd, and ever-threat'ning storms
Of Chaos blust'ring round, inclement sky';
Save on that side which from the wall of heaven,
Though distant far, some small reflection gains
Of glimmering air, less vex'd with tempest loud:
Here walked the fiend at large in spacious field.
As when a vulture, on Imaus bred,

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
Dislodging, from a region scarce of prey,
To gorge the flesh of lambs, or yeanling kids
On hills where flocks are fed, flies tow'rds the springs
Of Ganges, or Hydaspes, Indian streams,
But in his way lights on the barren plains
Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

With sails and wind their cany wagons light:
So on this windy sea of land, the fiend
Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey ;,
Alone, for other creatures in this place,
Living or lifeless, to be found was none;
None yet; but store hereafter from the earth
Up hither like aerial vapours flew,

Of all things transitory' and vain, when sin
With vanity had fill'd the works of men :
Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame,
Or happiness in this or th' other life;

All who have their reward on earth, the fruits
Of painful superstition, and blind zeal,
Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find
Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;

All th' unaccomplish'd works of nature's hand,
Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd,
Dissolv'd on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,
Till final dissolution, wander here:

Not in the neighb`ring moon, as some have dream'd;

Those argent fields more likely habitants,
Translated saints or middle spirits hold,
Betwixt th' angelical and human kind.
Hither, of ill-join'd sons and daughters born,
First from the ancient world those giants canie,
With many a vain exploit, though then renown'd:
The builders next of Babel on the plain

Of Sennaar, and still with vain design

New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build.
Others came single: he who, to be deem'd
A god, leap'd fondly into Etna flames,
Empedocles; and he who, to enjoy
Piato's Elysium, leap'd into the sea,
Cleombrotus; and many more too long,
Embryos, and idiots, eremites, and friars,
White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.
Here pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to seek
In Golgotha him dead, who lives in heaven;
And they who, to be sure of Paradise,
Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,

Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis'd.
They pass the planets seven, and pass the fix'd
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talk'd, and that first-mov'd:
And now Saint Peter at heaven's wicket seems
To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
Of heaven's ascent they lift their feet, when lo!
A violent cross wind from either coast

Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry
Into the devious air: then might ye see

Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost
And flutter'd into rags; then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
The sport of winds: all these, upwhirl'd aloft
Fly o'er the backside of the world far off,
Into a Limbo large and broad, since call'd
The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown
Long after now unpeopled, and untrod.,
All this dark globe the fiend found as he pass'd,
And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam.
Of dawning light turn'd thither-ward in haste