Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious eremite Into the desert, his victorious field,
Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence By proof th' undoubted Son of God, inspire,
As thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute,
And bear thro' highth or depth of Nature's bounds,
With prosp'rous wing full summ'd, to tell of deeds
Above aeroic, though in secret done,
And unrecorded left through many an age,
Worthy t' have not remain'd so long unsung.
Now had the great Proclaimer with a voice
More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried
Repentance, and Heav'n's kingdom nigh at hand 20
To all baptized to his great baptism flock'd
With awe the regions round, and with them came
From Nazareth the son of Joseph deem'd
To the flood Jordan, came as then obscure,
Unmark'd, unknown; but him the Baptist soon 25
Descried, divinely warn'd, and witness bore
As to his worthier, and would have resign'd
To him this heav'nly office, nor was long
His witness unconfirm'd; on him baptized
Heav'n open'd, and in likeness of a dove
The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice
From Heav'n pronounced him his beloved Son.
That heard the Adversary, who roving still
About the world, at that assembly famed
Would not be last, and with the voice divine
Nigh thunder-struck, th' exalted Man, to whom
Such high attest was given, awhile survey'd
With wonder, then with envy fraught and rage
Flies to his place, nor rests but in mid air;
To council summons all his mighty peers,
Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involved
A gloomy consistory; and them amidst
With looks aghast and sad he thus bespake:
O ancient Pow'rs of air, and this wide world
For much more willingly I mention air,
This our old conquest, than remember Hell,
Our hated habitation; well ye know
8. Divinely; like the Latin divinitus, from heaven.
44. Eph. i. 2. vi, 12.
How many ages, as the years of men,
This universe we have possess'd, and ruled,
In manner at our will th' affairs of Earth,
Since Adam and his facile consort Eve
Lost Paradise deceived by me, though since
With dread attending when that fatal wound
Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve
Upon my head: long the decrees of Heav'n
Delay, for longest time to him is short;
And now too soon for us the circling hours
This dreaded time hath compass'd, wherein we
Must bide the stroke of that long threaten'd wound,
At least if so we can, and by the head
Broken be not intended all our power
To be infringed, our freedom and our being,
In this fair empire won of Earth and Air;
For this ill news I bring, the woman's seed
Destined to this, is late of woman born:
His birth to our just fear gave no small cause,
But his growth now to youth's full flow'r displaying
All virtue, grace, and wisdom to achieve
Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.
Before him a great prophet, to proclaim
His coming, is sent Harbinger, who all
Invites, and in the consecrated stream,
Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so
Purified to receive him pure, or rather
To do him honour as their king; all come,
And he himself among them was baptized,
Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
The testimony' of Heav'n, that who he is
Thenceforth the nations may not doubt; I saw
The prophet do him reverence, on him rising
Out of the water, Heav'n above the clouds
Unfold her crystal doors, thence on his head
A perfect dove descend, whate'er it meant,
And out of Heav'n the Sovereign voice I heard,
This is my Son beloved, in him am pleased.
His mother then is mortal, but his Sire
83. Matt. iii. 16. It is supposed by most of the best commen tators, that the Holy Spirit descended not in the shape but in the manner of a dove upon our Saviour. Milton seems to have interpreted it in a contrary way.
He who obtains the monarchy of Heav'n,
And what will he not do to' advance his Son?
His first-begot we know, and sore have felt,
When his first thunder drove us to the deep;
Who this is we must learn, for man he seems
In all his lineaments, though in his face
The glimpses of his Father's glory shine.
Ye see our danger on the utmost edge
Of hazard, which admits no long debate,
But must with something sudden be opposed,
Not force, but well couch'd fraud, well woven snares,
Ere in the head of nations he appear
Their king, their leader, and supreme on Earth.
I, when no other durst, sole undertook
The dismal expedition to find out
And ruin Adam, and th' exploit perform'd
Successfully; a calmer voyage now
Will waft me; and the way found prosp❜rous once Induces best to hope of like success.
He ended, and his words impression left
Of much amazement to th' infernal crew,
Distracted and surprised with deep dismay
At these sad tidings; but no time was then
For long indulgence to their fears or grief:
Unanimous they all commit the care
And management of this main enterprise
To him their great dictator, whose attempt
At first against mankind so well had thrived
In Adam's overthrow, and led their march
From Hell's deep vaulted den to dwell in light,
Regents and potentates, and kings, yea gods
Of many a pleasant realm and province wide.
So to the coast of Jordan he directs
His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles,
Where he might likeliest find this new declared,
This Man of Men, attested Son of God,
So to subvert whom he suspected raised
Temptation and all guile on him to try;
To end his reign on Earth so long enjoy'd:
91. There does not appear to be sufficient reason for this supposition, that Satan did not at first know Christ to be the Messiah. 122. Man of Men; this has been objected to, but without cause, as it well expresses the perfect humanity of Christ and the situa tion in which he stood as the representative of our race.
But contrary unweeting he fulfill'd
The purposed counsel pre-ordain'd and fix'd
Of the Most High, who in full frequence bright
Of angels, thus to Gabriel smiling spake:
Gabriel, this day by proof thou shalt behold,
Thou and all Angels conversant on Earth
With man or men's affairs, how I begin,
To verify that solemn message late,
On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure
In Galilee, that she should bear a son
Great in renown, and call'd the Son of God;
Then told'st her doubting how these things could be
To her a virgin, that on her should come
The Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest
O'ershadow her: this man born and now upgrown,
To shew him worthy of his birth divine
And high prediction, henceforth I expose
To Satan; let him tempt and now assay
His utmost subtlety, because he boasts
And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng
Of his apostacy; he might have learnt
Less overweening since he fail'd in Job,
All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell,
Winning by conquest what the first man lost
By fallacy surprised. But first I mean
To exercise him in the wilderness,
There he shall first lay down the rudiments
Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth
To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes,
By humiliation and long sufferance:
His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength,
And all the world, and mass of sinful flesb;
That all the Angels and ethereal Powers,
They now, and men hereafter, may discern,
From what consummate virtue I have chose
129. Gabriel is frequently mentioned in Scripture as employed in the gospel dispensation. He is called by rabbinical writers, the Minister of Mercy, as Michael is the Minister of Severity.
This perfect Man, by merit call'd my Son,
To earn salvation for the sons of men.
So spake th' eternal Father, and all Heav'n
Admiring stood a space, then into hymns
Burst forth, and in celestial measures moved,
Circling the throne and singing, while the hand
Sung with the voice, and this the argument.
Victory and triumph to the Son of God,
Now ent'ring his great duel, not of arms,
But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles.
The Father knows the Son; therefore secure
Ventures his filial virtue, though untry'd,
Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce,
Allure, or terrify, or undermine.
Be frustrate all ye stratagems of Hell,
And devilish machinations come to nought!
So they in Heav'n their odes and vigils tuned :
Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days
Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized,
Musing and much revolving in his breast,
How best the mighty work he might begin
Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first
Publish his God-like office now mature,
One day forth walk'd alone, the Spirit leading,
And his deep thought the better to converse
With Solitude, till far from track of men,
Thought following thought, and step by step led on, He enter'd now the bord'ring desert wild,
And with dark shades and rocks environ'd round, His holy meditations thus pursued:
O what a multitude of thoughts at once
Awaken'd in me swarm, while I consider
What from within I feel myself, and hear
What from without comes often to my ears,
Ill sorting with my present state compared!
When I was yet a child, no childish play
To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do
189. This is well imagined, but the same approbation cannot be given to the passage immediately following, in which our Lord is represented as a soliloquizing youth just starting on his new career of glory, rather than as the Messiah conscious not only of his office but of his Divinity.
|