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Tine the slant lightning, whose thwart flame driv❜n

down

Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine,

And sends a comfortable heat from far,
Which might supply the sun: such fire to use,
And what may else be remedy or cure

To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,
He will instruct us praying, and of grace
Beseeching him, so as we need not fear
To pass commodiously this life, sustain'd
By him with many comforts, till we end
In dust, our final rest and native home.
What better can we do, than to the place
Repairing where he judg'd us, prostrate falt
Before him reverent, and there confess
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek?
Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn

From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
When angry most he seem'd, and most severe,
What else but favour, grace, and mercy shone?
So spake our father penitent; nor Eve
Felt less remorse: they forthwith to the place
Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell
Before him reverent, ahd both confess'd

Humbly their faults, and pardon begg'd, with tears
Watering the ground and with their sighs the air
Frequenting sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek.

Book the Eleventh.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents, now repenting, and intercedes for them: God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them i bat first to reveal to Adam future things: Michael's coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs; he discerns Michael's approach, goes out to meet him: the Angel denounces their departure. Eve's lamentation. Adam pleads, but suðmits: the Angel leads him up to a high hill, sets before him in vision what shall happen till the flood.

HUS they in lowliest plight repentant stood

TH

Praying; for from the mercy-seat above
Prevenient grace descending had remov'd
The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh
Regenerate grow instead, that sighs.now breath'd
Unutterable, which the sp'rit of pray'r

Inspir'd, and wing'd for Heav'n with speedier flight
Than loudest oratory: yet their port

Not of mean suitors, nor important less
Seem'd their petition, than when th' ancient pair
In fables old, less ancient yet than these,

Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore

The race of mankind drown'd, before the shrine
Of Themis stood devout. To Heav'n their pray'rs
Flew up, nor miss'd the way, by envious winds
Blown vagabond or frustrate: in they pass'd
Dimensionless thro' heav'nly doors; then clad
With incense, where the golden altar fum'd,
By their great Intercessor, came in sight
Before the Father's throne: them the glad Son
Presenting, thus to intercede began:

See, Father, what first fruits on earth are sprung From thy implanted grace in man, these sighs And pray'rs, which in this golden censer mix'd With incense, I thy Priest before thee bring; Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed Sown with contrition in his heart, than those Which his own hand manuring all the trees Of Paradise could have produc'd, ere fall'n From innocence. Now, therefore, bend thine ear To supplication; here his sighs tho' nute; Unskilful with what words to pray, let me Interpret for him, me his advocate And propitiation: all his works on me, Good or not good, ingraft; my merit those Shall perfect; and for these my death shall pay, Accept me, and in me from these receive The smell of peace toward mankind; let him live Before thee reconcil'd, at least his days

Number'd, though sad, till death, his doom, (which I
To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse,)
To better life shall yield him, where with me
All my redeem'd may dwell in joy and bliss,
Made one with me, as I with thee am one.
To whom the Father, without cloud, serene:
All the request for Man, accepted Son,
Obtain; all thy request was my decree.
But longer in that Paradise to dwell,
The law I gave to Nature him forbids:
Those pure immortal elements, that know
No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul,
Eject him tainted now, and purge him off
As a distemper gross; to air as gross,

And mortal food, as may dispose him best
For dissolution wrought by sin, that first
Distemper'd all things, and of incorrupt
Corrupted. I at first with two fair gifts
Created him endow'd, with happiness
And immortality that fondly lost,
This other serv'd but to eternize woe;
Till I provided death; so death becomes
His final remedy, and after life

L6

Try'd in sharp tribulation, and refin'd

By faith and faithful works to second life,
Wak'd in the renovation of the just,

Resigns him up with heav'n and earth renew’d.
But let us call to synod all the bless'd

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Through Heav'n's wide bounds; from them I will not My judgments, how with mankind I proceed,

As how with peccant angels late they saw,

And in their state, though firm, stood more confirm'd.
He ended, and the Son gave signal high

To the bright minister that watch'd; he blew
His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps
When God descended, and perhaps once more
To sound at general doom. Th'angelic blast
Fill'd all the regions; from their blissful bowers
Of amaranthine shade, fountain or spring,
By the waters of life, where'er they sat
In fellowships of joy, the sons of light
Hasted, resorting to the summons high,

And took their seats; till from his throne supreme
Th' Almighty thus pronounc'd his sov❜reign will:
O sons, like one of us, man is become

To know both good and evil, since his taste
Of that defended fruit: but let him boast
His knowledge of good lost, and evil got;
Happier, had it suffic'd him to have known
Good by itself, and evil not all.

He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite;
My motions in him: longer than they move,
His heart I know, how variable and vain
Self-left. Lest, therefore, his now bolder hand
Reach also of the tree of life and eat,
And live for ever, dream at least to live
For ever, to remove him I decree,
And send him from the garden forth to till
The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.
Michael, this my behest have thou in charge;
Take to thee some among the Cherubin -
Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the fiend,
Or in behalf of man, or to invade

Vacant possession, some new trouble raiser

Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God,
Without remorse drive out the sinful pair
From hallow'd ground th' unholy, and denounce
To them and to their progeny from thence
Perpetual banishment. Yet lest they faint
At the sad sentence rigorously urg'd,
For I behold them soften'd, and with tears
Bewailing their excess, all terror hide.
If patiently thy bidding they obey,
Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal
To Adam what shall come in future days,
As I shall thee enlighten; intermix

My covenant in the woman's seed renew'd;
So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace:
And on the east side of the garden place,
Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,
Cherubic watch, and of a sword the flame
Wide waving, all approach far off to fright,
And guard all passage to the tree of life;
Lest Paradise a receptacle prove

To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey,
With whose stol'n fruit man once more to delude.
He ceas'd; and the archangelic pow'r prepar'd
For swift descent; with him the cohort bright
Of watchful Cherubim; four faces each
Had, like a double Janus, all their shape
Spangled with eyes, more numerous than those
Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drouse
Charm'd with Arcadian pipe, the past'ral reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. Meanwhile,
To re-salute the world with sacred light,
Leucothea wak'd, and with fresh dews imbalm'd
The earth; when Adam, and first matron Eve,
Had ended now their orisons, and found
Strength added from above, new hope to spring
Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet link'd;
Which thus to Eve his welcome words renew'd:
Eve, easily my faith admits, that all

The good which we enjoy from Heav'n descends;
But that from us ought should ascend to Heav'n,
So prevalent as to concern the mind

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