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What words or tongue of Seraph can fuffice,
Or heart of man fuffice to comprehend?
Yet what thou canst attain, which best may
To glorify the maker, and infer

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Thee also happier, fhall not be withheld
Thy hearing, fuch commiffion from above
I have receiv'd, to answer thy desire
Of knowledge within bounds; beyond abftain
To afk, nor let thine own invention hope
Things not reveal'd, which th' invisible King,
Only omniscient, hath fupprefs'd in night,
To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:
Enough is left befides to fearch and know.
But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temp'rance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain;
Oppreffes elfe with furfeit, and foon turns
Wisdom to folly', as nourishment to wind.

Know then, that after Lucifer from Heaven
(So call him, brighter once amidst the host
Of Angels, than that star the stars among)
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son return'd
Victorious with his Saints, th' omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld

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Their multitude, and to his Son thus fpake.

At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who thought

All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

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This inacceffible high strength, the feat

Of deity fupreme, us difpoffefs'd,

He trusted to have feiz'd, and into fraud

Drew many, whom their place knows here no more; Yet far the greater part have kept, I fee

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Already done, to have difpeopled Heav'n,
My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair
That detriment, if fuch it be to lose
Self-loft, and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here, till by degrees of merit rais'd
They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience try'd,

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And Earth be chang'd to Heav'n, and Heav'n to Earth,
One kingdom, joy and union without end.

Mean while inhabit lax, ye Pow'rs of Heaven.
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform, fpeak thou, and be it done:
My overshadowing Spi'rit and might with thee.
I send along; ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be Heav'n and Earth,
Boundless the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.

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Approach not me, and what I will is fate.

So fpake th' Almighty, and to what he spake
His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without procéfs of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.

Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,

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When fuch was heard declar'd th' Almighty's will;

Glory they fung to the most High, good-will

To future men, and in their dwellings peace:
Glory to him, whofe juft avenging ire

Had driven out th' ungodly from his fight
And th' habitations of the just; to him
Glory and praife, whofe wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create, instead

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Of Spirits malign a better race to bring

Into their vacant room, and thence diffufe

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His good to worlds and ages infinite.

So fang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son On his great expedition now appear'd,

Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of majesty divine; fapience and love

Immenfe, and all his Father in him fhone.
About his chariot numberlefs were pour'd
Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,
And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots wing'd
From th' armoury of God, where stand of old
Myriads between two brazen mountains lodg'd
Against a folemn day, harness'd at hand,
P 3

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Celestial

Celestial equipage; and now came forth

Spontaneous, for within them Spirit liv'd,
Attendant on their Lord: Heav'n open'd wide
Her ever during gates, harmonious found
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory in his pow'rful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.

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On heav'nly ground they stood, and from the shore 210
They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And furging waves, as mountains, to affault
Heav'n's highth, and with the center mix the pole.
Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then th' omnific Word, your discord end:
Nor ftay'd, but on the wings of Cherubim

Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;

For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train
Follow'd in bright proceffion to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
'Then ftay'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compaffes, prepar'd

In God's eternal ftore, to circumfcribe
This univerfe, and all created things:
One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vaft profundity obfcure,

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And faid, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 230 This be thy juft circumference, O world.

Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth,

Matter

Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss: but on the watry calm

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His brooding wings the Spirit of God outfpread, 235
And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Difparted, and between spun out the air,
And Earth felf-balanc'd on her center hung.
Let there be light, faid God, and forthwith light
Ethereal, firft of things, quinteffence pure
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east
To journey through the acry gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the fun
Was not; fhe in a cloudy tabernacle

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Sojourn'd the while. God faw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemifphere
Divided: light the day, and darkness night

He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor paft uncelebrated, nor unfung

By the celestial quires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;

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Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth; with joy and fhout The hollow univerfal orb they fill'd,

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd God and his works, Creator him they fung,

Both when first evening was, and when first morn, 260 Again, God faid, let there be firmament

Amid the waters, and let it divide

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