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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,
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

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Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions I reduce:
All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide 321
In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou attended gloriously from Heav'n
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
Thy summoning Arch-Angels 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 baston, such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge 330
Pad men and Angels; they arraign'd shail sink
Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Mean while
The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
New Heav'n 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.

340

No sooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all The multitude of Angels, with a shout Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung With jubilee, and loud Hosannas fill'd Th' eternal regions: lowly reverent

Tow'ards either throne they bow, and to the ground
With solemn adoration down they cast

Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold:
Immortal amarant, a flow'r which once

351

In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To Heav'n remov'd, where first it grew,
there grows,
And flow'rs aloft shading the fount of life,
And where the riv'er of bliss through midst of Heaven
Rolls o'er Elysian flow'rs her amber stream;
With these that never fade the Spi'rits elect 360
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.

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Then crown'd again their golden harps they took, Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their side

VOL. I.

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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 379
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, 380
Yet dazzle Heav'n, 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,
Who else no creature can behold; on thee
Impress'd th' effulgence of his glory' abides,
Transfus'd on thee his ample Spirit rests.
He Heav'n of Heav'ns and all the Pow'rs thercin
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 flamia, chariot wheels, that shook
Heav'n's everlasting frame, while o'er the necks
Thou drov'st of warring Angeis disarray'd.

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Back from pursuit thy Pow'rs with loud acclaim
Thee only' extoll'd, Son of thy Father's might,
To execute fierce vengeance on his foes,

399

Not so on Man: him through their malice fall'n,
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,
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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 Heav'n, 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 inclos'd
From Chaos and th' inroad of Darkness old,

Satan alighted walks: a globe far off

It seem'd, now seems a boundless continent

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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 walk'd the Fiend at large in spacious field. 430
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 toward 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 waggons light:
So on this windy sea of land, the Fiend
Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey;
Alone, for other creature 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

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440

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;

450
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 the unaccomplish'd works of Nature's hand, Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd, Dissoly'd on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,

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