Nor lightens ought each man's peculiar load. This wounds me most (what can it less?) that man, Man fall'n, shall be restored, I never more. To whom our Saviour sternly thus reply'd: Deservedly thou griev'st, composed of lies From the beginning, and in lies wilt end; 405 Who boast'st release from Hell, and leave to come Comes to the place where he before had sat To all the host of Heav'n: the happy place 415 420 425 For lying is thy sustenance, thy food. 430 By thee are given, and what confess'd more true 402. The word man here, is not employed by Satan in connexion with his own person, but so as to make the passage bear the following meaning: I now know by experience, that men by suffering in multitudes have not the less sense of suffering, and therefore that if joined with me, they could not alleviate mine. 417. Imports, in several editions. 434. The ambiguity of the ancient oracles in the answers they gave is well known, and it is most probable that Satan worked the destruction of his votarics as often as their success. It is supposed by several writers on the subject that when true answers were returned, a good angel was sent by God to preside: so line 447. Which they who ask'd have seldom understood, 440 Among them to declare his providence 445 To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth, But from him or his Angels president In every province; who themselves disdaining To approach thy temples, give thee in command 450 455 At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute. God hath now sent his Living Oracle 460 Into the world to teach his final will, And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell In pious hearts, an inward oracle To all truth requisite for men to know. So spake our Saviour, but the subtle Fiend, Though inly stung with anger and disdain Dissembled, and this answer smooth return'd: Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke, 465 And urged me hard with doings, which not will 170 475 458. Delphos was the seat of the most celebrated oracle Check or reproof, and glad to 'scape so quit. Hard are the ways of Truth, and rough to walk, Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to th' ear, And tuneable as sylvan pipe or song; 480 What wonder then if I delight to hear Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire To hear thee when I come (since no man comes), And talk at least, though I despair to' attain. 485 To tread his sacred courts, and minister 490 To whom our Saviour with unalter'd brow: Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope, I bid not or forbid; do as thou find'st 495 He added not; and Satan bowing low His grey dissimulation, disappear'd Into thin air diffused: for now began Night with her sullen wings to double shade 500 The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couch'd; And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam). BOOK 11. THE ARGUMENT. The disciples of Jesus, uneasy at his long absence, reason amongst themselves concerning ít. Mary also gives vent to her maternal anxiety; in the expression of which she recapitulates many circumstances respecting the birth and early life of her son. Satan again meets his infernal council, reports the bad success of his first temptation of our blessed Lord, and calls upon them for council and assistance. Belial proposes the tempting of Jesus with women. Satan rebukes Belial for his dissoluteness, charging on him all the profligacy of that kind ascribed by the poets to the heathen gods, and rejects his proposal as in no respect likely to succeed. Satan then suggests other modes of temptation, particularly proposing to avail himself of the circumstance of our Lord's hungering; and, taking a band of chosen spirits with him, returns to resunie his enterprise. Jesus hungers in the desert. Night comes on; the manner in which our Saviour passes the night is described. Morning advances. Satan again appears to Jesus, and, after expressing wonder that he should be so entirely neglected in the wilderness, where others had been miraculously fed, tempts him with a sumptuous banquet of the most luxurious kind. This he rejects, and the banquet vanishes. Satan, finding our Lord not to be assailed on the ground of appetite, tempts him again by offering him riches, as the means of acquiring power: this Jesus also rejects, producing many instances of great actions performed by persons under virtuous poverty, and specifying the danger of riches, and the cares and pains inseparable from power and greatness. MEAN while the new-baptized, who yet remain'd At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen Him whom they heard so late expressly call'd And with him talk'd, and with him lodged, I mean And on that high authority had believed, Andrew and Simon, famous after known, With others, though in Holy Writ not named, 5 10 1. The almost only variety in the work is in the commencement of this book, but it is very slight, and can hardly save the poem from the charge of being too uniform in its narrative and in the unornamented style of its language 4. Warburton has observed, that Muton is under error here, as the people could only have learnt from what John had said, that Jesus was a great prophet. And for a time caught up to God, as once The city of Palms, Ænom, and Salem old, Or in Peræa; but return'd in vain. 15 20 25 Where winds with reeds and osiers whisp'ring play, Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreath'd. 30 Expected of our fathers; we have heard His words, his wisdom, full of grace and truth; Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand, 35 The kingdom shall to Israel be restored; Thus we rejoiced, but soon our joy is turn'd For whither is he gone, what accident Hath wrapt him from us? will he now retire 40 Our expectation? God of Israel, Send thy Messiah forth the time is come; Behold the kings of th' earth how they oppress Thy chosen, to what height their power unjust 16. 1 Kings xvii. 1. 18. 2 Kings ii. 17. 22. Macherus, a castle in the country beyond Jordan, named 23. Genezaret; the same as the sea of Tiberias, or the Perua. 45 50 sea of Galilee. |