The speediest of thy winged messengers,
To vifit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unfought?
Happy for Man, so coming; he her aid

Can never seek, 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

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Well pleas'd; on me let Death wreck all his rage; Under his gloomy power I fhall not long

Lie vanquish'd; thou haft giv'n me to possess
Life in myself for ev'er; 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 unspotted foul

For ever with Corruption there to dwell;

But I fhall rife victorious, and fubdue

My vanquisher, fpoil'd of his vaunted spoil;

250

Death his death's wound fhall then receive, and stoop

Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarm'd.

255

I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show
The powers of darkness bound. Thou at the fight

Pleas'd, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,
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 absent, and return,
Father, to fee thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger thall 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 aspéct
Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love
To mortal men, above which only shone
Filial obedience: as a facrifice

Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will

Of his great Father. Admiration feis'd

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All Heav'n what this might mean, and whether tend Wond'ring; but foon th' Almighty thus reply'd.

275

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 last created; that for him I spare Thee from my bofom and right hand, to fave, By lofing thee a while, the whole race lost. Thou therefore, whom thou only canft redeem, Their nature also to thy nature join; And be thyfelf Man among men on earth, Made flesh, when time shall be, of Virgin feed,

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By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam's room

The head of all Mankind, though Adam's fon.
As in him perish all men, so in thee,

As from a fecond root, shall be restor'd

As many' as are restor'd, without thee none.

285

His crime makes guilty all his fons; thy mer it 290
Imputed shall absolve 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 easily 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.

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Because thou haft, though thron'd in highest bliss
Equal to God, and equally enjoying

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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,

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Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt

With thee thy manhood also to this throne;
Here shalt thou fit incarnate, here shalt reign

Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed Universal King; all power

I give thee; reign for ever, and affume

Thy merits; under thee as head fupreme

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Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions, I reduce;
All knees to thee fhall bow, of them that bide 321
In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou attended gloriously from Heav'n
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
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

325

Shall haften, fuch a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then all thy faints affembled, thou shalt judge 330
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.

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Then thou thy regal scepter fhall lay by,

For regal scepter then no more shall need,

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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, fweet
As from bleft voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung
With jubilee, and loud hofannas fill'd

Th' eternal regions: lowly reverent

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Tow'ards either throne they bow, and to the ground

With folemn adoration down they cast

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Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;

Immortal amarant, a flow'r which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of Life,

Began to bloom; but foon for man's offence

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To Heav'n remov'd, where first it grew, there grows,

And flow'rs aloft fhading the fount of Life,

And where the riv'er of Bliss through midst of Heav'n Rolls o'er Elyfian flow'rs her amber stream;

With these that never fade the spi'rits elect

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Bind their resplendent locks inwreath'd with beams,

Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright Pavement, that like a fea of jafper shone, Impurpled with celeftial roses fmil'd.

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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