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 laftly die
Well pleas'd; on me let Death wreck all his rage;
Under his gloomy pow'r I thall not long
Lie vanquish'd; thou haft giv'n. me to poffefs
Life in myself for ev'r; by thee I live,
Though now to Death I yield, and am his due
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 rise 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 show
The Pow'rs of darkness bound. Thou at the fight
Pleas'd, out of Heaven fhalt look down and fmile, a
While by thee rais'd I ruin all my foes,
Death last, and with his carcafs. glut the grave:
Then with the multitude of my redeem'd
Shall enter Heav'n long abfent, and return,
Father, to fee thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace affur'd
And reconcilement; wrath fhall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence 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 soon 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'ft how dear
To me are all my works, nor Man the least,
Though laft created; that for him I spare
Thee from my bosom and right hand, to fave,
By lofing thee a while, the whole race loft.
Thou therefore, whom thou only canst redeem,
Their nature alfo to thy nature join;
And be thyfelf 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 restor'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 just,
Shall fatisfy for Man, be judg'd and die,
And dying rife, and rifing with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
So eafily deftroy'd, and ftill deftroys
In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Nor fhalt thou, by descending to affume
Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own.
Because thou haft, though thron'd in highest bliss
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 fhall exalt
With thee thy manhood also to this throne;
Here fhalt thou fit incarnate, here shalt reign
Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed univerfal king; all power
I give thee; reign for ever, and affume
Thy merits; under thee as head fupreme
Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions I reduce;
All knees to thee fhall bow, of them that bide
In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou attended gloriously from Heaven
Shalt in the sky 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 paft ages, to the general doom
Shall haften, fuch 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 fhall 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 fcepter then no more fhall need,
God fhall be all in all. But all ye Gods,
Adore him, who to compafs 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, fweet
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 first it grew, there grows, And flow'rs aloft shading the fount of life,
And where the riv'er of blifs through midst of Heaven
Rolls o'er Elyfian flow'rs her amber stream;
With these that never fade the Spi'rits elect
Bind their refplendent locks inwreath'd with beams,
Now in locfe garlands thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement, that like a fea of jafper fhone,
Impurpled with celestial 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, first they sung Omnipotent,
Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,
Eternal King; thee Author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyself invisible
Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit'st
Thron'd inacceffible, but when thou fhad'st
The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud
Drawn round about thee like a radiant fhrine,
Dark with excelsive bright thy skirts appear,
Yet dazle Heav'n, that brightest Seraphim
Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.
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