Can never feek, once dead in fins and loft;
Atonement for himself or offering meet,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring:
Behold me then; me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall;
Account me Man; I for his fake will leave
Thy bofom, and this glory next to thee
Freely put off, and for him lastly die
Well pleas'd; on me let Death wreck all his rage;
Under his gloomy pow'r I shall not long
Lie vanquish'd; thou haft giv'n me to possess
Life in myself for ev'r; by thee I live,..
Though now to Death I yield, and am his due 245
All that of me can die; yet that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathfome grave. =
His prey, nor fuffer my unfpotted foul
For ever with corruption there to dwell;
But I shall rife victorious, and fubdue
My vanquisher, spoil'd of his vaunted spoil; :
Death his death's wound fhall then receive, and stoop
Inglorious, of his mortal fting difarm'd.
I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and fhow
The Pow'rs of darkness bound. Thou at the fight
Pleas'd, out of Heaven fhalt look down and smile,
While by thee rais'd ́ I ruin all my foės,
Death last, and with his carcafs glut the grave:
Then with the multitude of my redeem'd
Shall enter Heav'n long absent, and return,
Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud.
Of anger shall remain, but peace affur'd
And reconcilement; wrath fhall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy prefence joy entire.
His words here ended, but his meek afpéct
Silent yet fpake, and breath'd immortal love
To mortal men, above which only fhone
Filial obedience: as a facrifice
Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will
Of his great Father. Admiration feis'd
All Heav'n, what this might mean, and whither tend
Wond'ring; but foon th' Almighty thus reply'd.
O thou in Heav'n and Earth the only peace
Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou
My fole complacence! well thou know't how dear
To me are all my works, nor Man the least,
Though last created; that for him I spare
Thee from my bofom and right hand, to fave,
By lofing thee a while, the whole race loft.
Thou therefore, whom thou only canft redeem,
Their nature alfo to thy nature join;
And be thyself Man among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time fhall be, of virgin feed,
By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam's room
The head of all mankind, though Adam's fon.
As in him perish all men, fo in thee,
As from a fecond root, fhall be reftor'd
As many as are reftor'd, without thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his fons; thy merit
Imputed shall abfolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So Man, as is most juft,
Shall fatisfy for Man, be judg'd and die,
And dying rise, and rising with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heav'nly love fhall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
So eafily destroy'd, and still destroys
In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume
Man's nature, leffen or degrade thine own.
Because thou haft, though thron'd in highest blife
Equal to God, and equally enjoying
God-like fruition, quitted all to fave
A world from utter lofs, and haft been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God,
Found worthieft to be fo by being good,
Far more than great or high; because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory' abounds,
Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
With thee thy manhood also to this throne;
Here fhalt thou fit incarnate, here fhalt reign
Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed universal king; all power
I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits; under thee as head supreme
Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions I reduce;
All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou attended gloriously from Heaven
Shalt in the fky appear, and from thee fend
The fummoning Arch-Angels to proclame
Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds
The living, and forthwith the cited dead
Of all past ages, to the general doom
Shall haften, such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then all thy faints affembled, thou shalt judge
Bad men and Angels; they arraign'd shall sink
Beneath thy fentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth fhall be for ever fhut. Mean while
The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
New Heav'n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,
And after all their tribulations long
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth.
Then thou thy regal scepter fhalt lay by,
For regal scepter then no more fall need,.
God fhall be all in all. But all ye Gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honor him as me.
No fooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all
The multitude of Angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from bleft voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung
With jubilee, and loud Hofanna's fill'd
Th' eternal regions: lowly reverent
Tow'ards either throne they bow, and to the ground With folemn adoration down they caft
Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;
Immortal amarant, a flow'r which once
In Paradise, faft by the tree of life,
Began to bloom; but foon for man's offenfe
To Heav'n remov'd, where firft it grew, there grows, And flow'rs aloft fhading the fount of life,
And where the riv'er of blifs through midst of Heaven
Rolls o'er Elysian flow'rs her amber stream;
With thefe that never fade the Spirits elect
Bind their refplendent locks inwreath'd with beams,
Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement, that like a fea of jafper fhone,
Impurpled with celeftial rofes fmil'd.
Then crown'd again, their golden harps they took,
Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their fide
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming fymphony they introduce
Their facred fong, and waken raptures high;
No voice exempt, no voice but well could join
Melodious part, fuch concord is in Heaven.
Thee, Father, firft they fung Omnipotent,
Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,
Eternal King; thee Author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyfelf invifible
Amidst the glorious brightnefs where thou fit'st
Thron'd inacceffible, but when thou fhad'ft
The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud
Drawn round about thee like a radiant fhrine,
Dark with exceffive bright thy fkirts appear,
Yet dazle Heav'n, that brightest Seraphim
Approach not, but with both wings veil their
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