Following his track, such was the will of Heaven, To tempt or punish mortals, except whom Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven A glimmering dawn, he re Nature first begins F* THE ARGUMENT. God, sitting on his throne, sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son, who sat at his right hand; foretels the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created man free, and able enough to have withstood his temper; yet declares hispurpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards man. But God again declares that grace cannot be extended towards man without the satisfaction of Divine justice; Man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and, therefore with all his progeny, devoted to death must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for hisoffence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man: The Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth; commands all the angels to adore him They obey, and hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of the world's outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place since called the Limbo of Vanity; What persons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it; His passage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel: and, pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habi tation, and is directed; alights first on Mount Niphates. PARADISE LOST BOOK III. Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born, "May I express the unblamed? since God is light, Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained I sung of Chaos and eternal Night; |