And silence was in Heaven: on Man's behalf The Son Patron or intercessor none appeared

offers himself

to die

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 lost, adjudged to Death and
Hell

By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renewed :-

:

'Father, thy word is passed, Man shall find

grace;

And shall Grace not find means, that finds her
way,

The speediest of thy wingèd messengers,
To visit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought?
Happy for Man, so coming! He her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost―
Atonement for himself, or offering meet,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring.
Behold 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 bosom, and this glory next to thee
Freely put off, and for him lastly die
Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all his

240

230

rage.

Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquished. Thou hast given me to possess
Life in myself for ever; by thee I live;
Though now to Death I yield, and am his due,
All that of me can die, yet, that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave

Admira His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul tion For ever with corruption there to dwell; But I shall rise victorious, and subdue

seized all

Heaven My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil.

Death his death's wound shall then receive, and
stoop

Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed;
I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show
The powers of Darkness bound. Thou, at the
sight

252

Pleased, out of Heaven shall look down and smile,
While, by thee raised, I ruin all my foes-
Death last, and with his carcase glut the grave;
Then, with the multitude of my redeemed, 260
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 presence joy entire.'

His words here ended; but his meek aspéct
Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love
To mortal men, above which only shone
Filial obedience: as a sacrifice

Glad to be offered, he attends the will
Of his great Father. Admiration seized
All Heaven, what this might mean, and whither
tend,

270

Wondering; but soon the Almighty thus re

plied

:

O thou in Heaven and Earth the only peace Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou My sole complacence! well thou know'st how

dear

How

spare

mankind
should be

To me are all my works; nor Man the least,
Though last created, that for him I
Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, restored
By losing thee a while, the whole race lost! 280
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,
Imputed, shall absolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for Man, be judged and die,
And dying rise, and, rising, with him raise
His brethren, ransomed 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 destroyed, and still destroys

291

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 bliss
Equal to God, and equally enjoying
God-like 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,

310

All power Far more than great or high; because in thee
to be Love hath abounded more than glory abounds;
given to Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
the Son

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 :

320

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 330
Bad men and Angels; they arraigned shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; 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,
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; 340
God shall be all in all. But all ye Gods,
Adore him who, to compass all this, dies;

The

Adore the Son, and honour him as me.'
No sooner had the Almighty ceased but-all rejoicing
The multitude of Angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy-Heaven rung
With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled
The eternal regions. Lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bo

of the
Heavenly
quire

and to the

350

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,
Began to bloom, but, soon for Man's offence
To Heaven removed where first it grew, there

grows

And flowers aloft, shading the Fount of Life,
And where the River of Bliss through midst of
Heaven

Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream!
With these, that never fade, the Spirits elect 360
Bind their resplendent locks, inwreathed with
beams.

Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,
Impurpled with celestial roses smiled.
Then, crowned again, their golden harps they
took-

Harps ever tuned, 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 370
Melodious part; such concord is in Heaven.