But yet all is not done; Man difobeying,
Disloyal breaks his feälty, and fins
Against the high supremacy of Heaven,
Affecting God-head, and so losing all,
To expiate his treason hath nought left,
But to deftruction facred and devote,
He with his whole pofterity muft die,
Die he or justice muft; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid fatisfaction, death for death.

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210

Say heav'nly Pow'rs, where fhall we find fuch love? Which of ye will be mortal to redeem

Man's mortal crime, and juft th' unjuft to fave? 215 Dwells in all Heaven charity fo dear?

He afk'd, but all the heav'nly quire ftood mute,
And filence was in Heav'n: on Man's behalf
Patron or interceffor none appear'd,

Much less that durft upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransome set.
And now without redemption all mankind
Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell
By doom severe, had not the Son of God,

In whom the fulnefs dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renew'd.

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225

Father, thy word is past, Man fhall find grace; And shall grace not find means, that finds her way, The speediest of thy winged meffengers,

To vifit all thy creatures, and to all

230

Comes unprevented, unimplar'd, unfought?

Happy for Man, fo coming; he her aid

Can never feek, once dead in fins and loft;
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
Account me Man; I for his fake will leave

fall;

Thy bofom, and this glory next to thee.

Freely put off, and for him laftly die

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240

Well pleas'd; on me let Death wreck all his rage;
Under his gloomy pow'r I shall not long

Lie vanquish'd; thou haft giv'n me to poffefs
Life in myself for ev'r; 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
His prey, nor fuffer my unfpotted foul

For ever with corruption there to dwell;
But I fhall rife victorious, and fubdue

My vanquisher, spoil'd of his vaunted spoil;

245.

250

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

Inglorious, of his mortal fting difarm'd.

I through the ample air in triumph high

Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show

255

The Pow'rs of darkness bound. Thou at the fight
Pleas'd, out of Heaven fhalt look down and smile,
While by thee rais'd I ruin all my foes,

Death laft, and with his carcass glut the grave:
Then with the multitude of my redeem'd
Shall enter Heav'n long absent, and return,
Father, to fee thy face, wherein no cloud

260

Of

Of anger shall remain, but peace affur'd
And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.

His words here ended, but his meek aspéct
Silent yet fpake, and breath'd immortal love
To mortal men, above which only fhone
Filial obedience: as a facrifice

Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will

Of his great Father. Admiration feis'd

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270

All Heav'n, what this might mean, and whither tend Wond'ring; but soon th' Almighty thus reply'd.

275

O thou in Heav'n and Earth the only peace Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou My fole complacence! well thou know'ft how dear To me are all my works, nor Man the least, Though laft created; that for him I spare Thee from my bofom and right hand, to save, By lofing thee a while, the whole race loft. Thou therefore, whom thou only canft redeem, Their nature alfo to thy nature join;

280

And be thyfelf Man among men on earth,

Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin feed,

By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam's room
The head of all mankind, though Adam's fon..
As in him perish all men, fo in thee,

285

As from a fecond root, fhall be reftor'd

As many as are reftor'd, without thee none.

His crime makes guilty all his fons; thy merit

290

Imputed shall abfolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,

And

And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,

Shall fatisfy for Man, be judg'd and die,

295

And dying rife, and rifing with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heav'nly love fhall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
So easily destroy'd, and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Nor fhalt thou, by descending to affume

Man's nature, leffen or degrade thine own.

300

Because thou haft, though thron'd in highest blifs 305 Equal to God, and equally enjoying

God-like fruition, quitted all to fave

A world from utter loss, and hast been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God,
Found worthieft to be fo by being good,
Far more than great or high; because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory' abounds,
Therefore thy humiliation fhall exalt

310

With thee thy manhood also to this throne;

Here fhalt thou fit incarnate, here shalt reign

315

Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed univerfal king; all power

I give thee; reign for ever, and affume
Thy merits; under thee as head fupreme
Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions I reduce;
All knees to thee fhall bow, of them that bide
In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.

When thou attended gloriously from Heaven
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The fummoning Arch-Angels to proclame
Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds
The living, and forthwith the cited dead
Of all paft ages, to the general doom

325

Shall haften, fuch a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then all thy faints affembled, thou shalt judge 33@
Bad men and Angels; they arraign'd shall fink
Beneath thy fentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth fhall be for ever fhut. Mean while
The world fhall 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 fceptre shalt lay by,

For regal fceptre then no more fhall need,

340

God fhall be all in all. But all ye Gods,

Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honor him as me.

No fooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all

The multitude of Angels, with a fhout

345

Loud as from numbers without number, sweet

As from bleft voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung

With jubilee, and loud Hofanna's fill'd

Th' eternal regions: lowly reverent

Tow'ards either throne they bow, and to the ground` With folemn adoration down they caft

Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold; ·

Immortal