Now had the great Proclamer, with a voice More awful than the found of trumpet, cry'd Repentance, and Heav'n's kingdom nigh at hand 20 To all baptiz'd: 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 obfcure, Unmark'd, unknown; but him the Baptist foon 25 Defcry'd, divinely warn'd, and witness bore As to his worthier, and would have refign'd The Spi'rit defcended, while the Father's voice 30 35 Nigh the Baptift had notice given him before, that he might certainly know the Meffiah by the Holy Ghoft defcending and abiding upon him. And I knew him not, but he that fent me to baptize with water, the fame faid unto me, Upon whom thou shalt fee the Spirit defcending and remaining on him, the fame is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghoft John I. 33. But it appears from St. Matthew, that the Baptist knew he was baptized and before the him and acknowledged him, before Holy Ghost defcended upon him. Mat. III. 14. I have need to be bap tized of thee, and comeft thou to me? To account for which we must admit with Milton, that another divine revelation was made to him at this very time, fignifying that this was the perfon, of whom hơ had had fuch notice before. 26. divinely warn'd] To comprehend the propriety of this word divinely the reader must have B 4 his. Nigh thunder-ftruck, th' èxalted man, to whom O ancient Pow'rs of air and this wide world, his eye upon the Latin divinitus, She heard me thus, and though 41. Within thick clouds &c] Milton in making Satan's refidence to be in mid air, within thick clouds and dark, feems to have St. Auftin in his eye, who speaking of the region of clouds, ftorms, thunder &c jays ad ista caliginofa, id eft, ad hunc aerem, tanquam ad carcerem, damnatus eft diabolus &c. Enarr. in Pf. 148. S. 9. Tom. 5. p. 1677. Edit. Bened. Thyer. ye know 40 45 How 5° How many ages, as the years of men, 55 At least if so we can, and by the head To be infring'd, our freedom and our being, His birth to our just fear gave no small cause, But his growth now to youth's full flow'r, displaying Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear. fpeeches in his former council, and 74. Purified to receive him pure,] 83. A perfect dove defeend,] He had expreffed it before ver. 30. in Likeness of a dove, agreeably to 70 75 And St. Matthew, the Spirit of God defcending like a dove, III. 16. and to St. Mark, the Spirit like a dove defcending upon him, I. 10. But as Luke fays, that the Holy Ghoft defcended in a bodily shape, III. 22. the poet fuppofes with Tertullian, Auftin, and others of the fathers, that it was a real dove, as the painters always represent it. 91. Who this is we must learn,] Our author favors the opinion of those |