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Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake :

At least our envions foe hath fail'd, who thought All like himself rebellious: by whose aid

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This inaccessible high strength, the seat

Of Deity supreme, us dispossess'd,

He trusted to have seized, and into fraud

Drew many, whom their place knows here no more;

Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,

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Their station; Heav'n yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms

Though wide, and this high temple to frequent

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With ministeries due and solemn rites:
But lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled Heav'n,
My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost, 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 raised,
They open to themselves at length the way

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Up hither, under long obedience try'd,

And Earth be changed to Heav'n, and Heav'n to Earth,

One kingdom, joy and union without end.

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Mean while inhabit lax, ye Pow'rs of Heav'n;

And thou, my Word, begotten Son, by thee

This I perform; speak thou and be it done.

My overshadowing Spirit and might with thee

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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.

Though I uncircumscribed myself retire

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And put not forth my goodness which is free
To act or not, necessity and chance
Approach not me; and what I will is fate.

139. At last. instead of at least, is proposed.
144. Job vii. 10.

160. In allusion probably to the new heaven and new earth before mentioned, and not, as is supposed, to any mere improvement in man.

162. Lar, free to follow their former angelic pleasures and Occupations. It has no relation, as Newton supposes, to space

or room.

165. Luke 35.

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So spake 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 process of speech be told; So told as earthly notion can receive. Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heav'n, When such was heard declared th' Almighty's will. Glory they sung to the Most High, good-will

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To future men, and in their dwellings peace:

Glory to him, whose just avenging ire

Had driven out th' ungodly from his sight
And th' habitations of the just to him

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Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create, instead

Of Spirits malign, a better race to bring

Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse

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His good to worlds and ages infinite.

So sang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son
On his great expedition now appear'd,
Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of majesty divine; sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless 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 lodged
Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage: and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them Spirit lived,
Attendant on their Lord: Heav'n open'd wide

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Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound!

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 They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds And surging waves, as mountains, to assault 182. God instead of the is proposed by Bentley. 192. Zech. vi. ).

Heavn's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then th' omnific Word; your discord end.
Nor stay'd, but on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;

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For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train

Follow'd in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.

Then stay'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared

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In God's eternal store, to circumscribe

This universe, and all created things.

One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd

Round through the vast profundity obscure,

And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 230
This be thy just circumference, O world!

Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform'd and void. Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss; but on the wat'ry calm

His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 235
And vital virtue' infused and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed
Like things to like, the rest to sev'ral place
Disparted, and between spun out the air;
And Earth. selt-balanced, on her centre hung.

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Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light Ethereal first of things, quintessence pure,

Sprung from the deep, and from her native east 245
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud; for yet the sun

225. Prov. viii. 27.

232. It is well observed, that this book is a magnificent paraphrase of the Mosaic account of the creation.

243. Gen. i. 3. I canno, but observe here that one of the most sublime, and at the same time learned of modern reasoners, in speaking to me on this passage of Scripture, remarked, that the usual way in which it is understood is not only incorrect, but greatly diminishes its sublimity. It is highly wrong, according to hi, to suppose that light was first called into being on the crea tion of this world, for Heaven nad been for ever filled with it, and God himself is compared to it: the expression, consequently, Let there be light,' is to be interpreted, Let the light flow forth, let there be light shining from its great original fountain on the commencing system.'

Was not she in a cloudy tabernacle

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Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided light the Day, and darkness Night
He named. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

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

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

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised God and his works; Creator him they sung,

Both when first ev'ning was, and when first morn.

Again, God said, Let there be firmament

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Amid the waters, and let it divide

The waters from the waters. And God made
The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffused

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In circuit to the uttermost convex

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Of this great round: partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing for as earth, so he the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:
And Heav'n he named the Firmament. So ev'n
And morning chorus sung the second day.

The earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involved,
Appear'd not. Over all the face of th' earth
Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm
Prolific humour soft'ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,
Satiate with genial moisture, when God said,
Be gather'd now, ye waters under Heav'n,
Into one place, and let dry land appear.
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave

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256. Job xxxvii. 4. 7. I might multiply references without end in this part of the poem, but it must be left to the industry or curiosity of the reader to discover the scriptural allusions where they are so numerous as in the present instance.

Into the clouds; their tops ascend the sky:
So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'd
As drops on dust conglobing from the dry;
Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,

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For haste: such flight the great command impress'd
On the swift floods. As armies at the call
Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard, so the wat'ry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found;
If steep, with torrent rapture; if through plain,
Soft-ebbing: nor withstood them rock or hill,
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With serpent error wand'ring, found their way,
And on the washy oose deep channels wore;
Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
All but within those banks, where rivers now
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land, Earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he call'd Seas:

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And saw that it was good, and said, Let th' earth Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, 310 And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,

Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.

He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd,

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Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad,
Her universal face with pleasant green;
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd
Opening their various colours, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept
The smelling gourd, upstood the corny reed
Embattled in her field, and th' humble shrub,
And bush with frizzled hair implicit. Last
Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread
Their branches, hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd

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321. Swelling has been suggested, and most probably correctly, 323. Hair, coma is the same in Latin, small leaves, twigs, &c. implicit, entangled.

325. Gemm'd, from gemmare, to put forth blossoms.

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