Dimensionless through heav'nly doors; then clad
With incenfe, where the golden altar fum'd,
By their great interceffor, came in fight
Before the Father's throne: them the glad Son 20
Prefenting, thus to intercede began.

25

See, Father, what firft fruits on earth are sprung From thy implanted grace in Man, these sighs And pray'rs, which in this golden cenfer, mix'd With incenfe, I thy prieft before thee bring, Fruits of more pleafing favor from thy feed Sown with contrition in his heart, than those Which his own hand manuring all the trees Of Paradise could have produc'd, ere fall'n

He gives the death defir'd; his fafe

return,

By fouthern tempefts to the feas is borne. Dryden.

And it is in allufion to this manner of speaking, that Milton fays here of the prayers of our first parents, that they were not by envious winds blown vagabond or fruftrate. By envious winds, as in Ovid. Met. X. 642. Detulit aura preces ad me non invida blandas.

17. Dimensionless through heav'nly

doors;] As thefe prayers were of a fpiritual nature, not as matter that has dimenfions, measure and proportion, they pafs'd through

From

Heaven's gates without any obftruetion. Richardjon.

As Heaven gates are described (VII. 205, &c.) as ever-during, and moving let forth and let in the King of Glary, on golden-hinges, and opening wide to it might be wonder'd how thele prayers could pafs thro' them with out their opening, and for this reaepithet dimenfionless. And as be fon I fuppofe the poet added the glanc'd before at the Heathen manner of expreffion in faying that their prayers were not by envious winds blown vagabond or frußrate, so here he may intend a remote reflection upon that other notion of the Hea thens contained in the fable of Me

com innocence. Now therefore bend thine ear 30 o fupplication, hear his fighs though mute;

nskilful with what words to pray,

terpret for him, me his advocate

let me

nd propitiation; all his works on me
ood or not good ingraft, my merit those

all perfect, and for these my death fhall pay.
ccept me, and in me from these receive

35

he smell of peace tow'ard mankind; let him live efore thee reconcil'd, at leaft his days

Jumber'd, though fad, till death, his doom, (which I To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse)

To better life fhall yield him, where with me

ppus who was taken up into Heaen, where Jupiter is reprefented as pening a trap-door to hear the reefts of mankind, and shutting it gain when he was unwilling to atend to any more petitions.

19..

41

All

too long, we only refer the reader to the places. Thyer.

33

And propitiation;] The conftruction of the whole paffage is this, Let me interpret for him unskilful - came in fight &c.] Milton, with what words to pray for himthis allegorical defcription of the felf, me his advocate and propitiation, epentant prayers of our firft parents, the very words of St. John, 1 Ep. II. ery much exceeds the two great 1, 2. We have an advocate with the nafters of Italian poetry, Ariofto Father, Jefus Chrift the righteous, nd Taffo, who have attempted and he is the propitiation for our fins. omething in the fame way. See Carlomagno's prayer in the former, Cant. 14. St. 73 and 74. and in the atter Raimond's prayer, Cant. 7. t. 79. and Godfrey's, Cant. 13. St. 72. As the quotations would be

38. The smell of peace toward man

frequently call'd an offering of a sweet kind;] The peace offering is favor unto the Lord. So Levit. III. 5. Heylin.

44. Made

All my redeem'd may dwell in joy and bliss,
Made one with me as I with thee am one.

To whom the Father, without cloud, ferene. 45
All thy request for Man, accepted Son,
Obtain; all thy request was my decree:
But longer in that Paradife to dwell,
The law I gave to nature him forbids:
Thofe pure immortal elements that know
No grofs, no unharmonious mixture foul,
Eject him tainted now, and purge him off
As a diftemper, grofs to air as gross,
And mortal food, as may dispose him best
For diffolution wrought by fin, that first
Distemper'd all things, and of incorrupt
Corrupted. I at firft with two fair gifts
Created him endow'd, with happiness
And immortality: that fondly loft,
This other ferv'd but to eternize woe;
Till I provided death; fo death becomes

55

60

His

grofs to air as grafl Grofs is to be join'd in conftructice with him and not with diffemper and therefore the comma afr diffemper fhould be carefully pre ferved, as in Milton's own edi ons, and not be plac'd after #

His final remedy, and after life
Try'd in fharp tribulation, and refin'd

By faith and faithful works, to fecond life,
Wak'd in the renovation of the just,

Refigns him

up with Heav'n and Earth renew'd.

But let us call to fynod all the Bleft

65

[hide

Through Heav'n's wide bounds; from them I will not My judgments, how with mankind I proceed,

As how with peccant Angels late they faw,

70

And in their state, though firm, ftood more confirm'd.

He ended, and the Son gave fignal high

To the bright minister that watch'd; he blew
His trumpet, heard in Oreb fince perhaps
When God defcended, and perhaps once more
To found at general doom. Th' angelic blast
Fill'd all the regions: from their blissful bowers
Of amarantin shade, fountain or spring,
By the waters of life, where'er they fat
In fellowships of joy, the fons of light

temper grofs, as in Dr. Bentley's edition.

74. His trumpet, beard in Oreb

fince perhaps &c.] For the law was given on mount Oreb with the noife of the trumpet, Exod. XX. 18. and at the general judgment, VOL. II.

75

80

Hafted, reforting to the fummons high,

And took their feats; till from his throne fupreme
Th' Almighty thus pronounc'd his fovran will.
O Sons, like one of us Man is become
To know both good and evil, fince his taste
Of that defended fruit; but let him boaft
His knowledge of good loft, and evil got,
Happier, had it fuffic'd him to have known
Good by itself, and evil not at all.
He forrows now, repents, and prays contrite,
My motions in him; longer than they move,
His heart I know, how variable and vain
Self-left. Left therefore his now bolder hand
Reach alfo of the tree of life, and eat,

82. And took their feats;] Dr. Bentley fays that if the poet gave it thus, he had forgot himself; for he never makes the Angels to fit round the throne of God: But if he never did elsewhere, he has authority for doing fo here. I know that it is a maxim with the Schoolmen, Sola Jedet Trinitas, that only the three perfons in the Trinity fit: but this is contrary to Scripture; for in Rev. IV. 4. and XI. 16. the four and twenty elders are described as fitting on feats round about the throne. There is no occafion then to read with the Doctor and took their ftand: efpecially when it is confider'd that the