![]() ![]() So much the rather thou Celestial light Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight. Thus with the Year Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the chearful waies of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledg fair Presented with a Universal blanc Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd, And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out. Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move Harmonious numbers as the wakeful Bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid Tunes her nocturnal Note. Yet not the more Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill, Smit with the love of sacred song but chief Thee SION and the flowrie Brooks beneath That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I visit: nor somtimes forget Those other two equal'd with me in Fate, So were I equal'd with them in renown, Blind THAMYRIS and blind MAEONIDES, And TIRESIAS and PHINEUS Prophets old. Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing, Escap't the STYGIAN Pool, though long detain'd In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight Through utter and through middle darkness borne With other notes then to th' ORPHEAN Lyre I sung of CHAOS and ETERNAL NIGHT, Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to reascend, Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe, And feel thy sovran vital Lamp but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that rowle in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn So thick a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs, Or dim suffusion veild. Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal stream, Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun, Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Hail holy light, ofspring of Heav'n first-born, Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare Convex of this Worlds outermost Orb where wandring he first finds a place since call'd The Lymbo of Vanity what persons and things fly up thither thence comes to the Gate of Heaven, describ'd ascending by staires, 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 plac't here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed alights first on Mount Niphates. ![]() ![]() The Son of God freely offers himself a Ransome 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 thir Harps in full Quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. ![]() 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 God-head, and therefore with all his Progeny devoted to death must dye, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his Punishment. THE ARGUMENT God sitting on his Throne sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created shews him to the Son who sat at his right hand foretells 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 Tempter yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduc't. ![]()
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