How quick they wheel'd, and flying behind him shot The city of Gallapbrone, from whence to win His daughter, sought by many prowest knights, That thou mayst know I seek not to engage On no slight grounds thy safety; hear and mark, By Prophet or by Angel, unless thou Endeavour, as thy father David did, Between two such enclosing enemies, Roman and Parthian? Therefore one of these By my advice, as nearer, and of late Thy country, and captive lead away her kings, Maugre the Roman: it shall be my task To render thee the Parthian at dispose, Choose which thou wilt, by conquest or by league; Thou on the throne of David in full glory, And fragile arms, much instrument of war, David's true heir, and his full sceptre sway To just extent over all Israel's sons. Where was it then For Israel, or for David, or his throne, When thou stoodst up his tempter to the pride As for those captive tribes, themselves were they Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes; Humbled themselves, or penitent besought Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce Who, freed, as to their ancient patrimony, Headlong would follow; and to their Gods perhaps So spake Israel's true king, and to the Fiend Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles. So fares it, when with truth falsehood contends. PARADISE REGAINED. BOOK IV. Satan, persisting in the temptation of our Lord, shows him Imperial Rome in its greatest pomp and splendour, as a power which he probably would prefer before that of the Parthians; and tells him that he might with the greatest ease expel Tiberius, restore the Romans to their liberty, and make himself master not only of the Roman Empire, but by so doing of the whole world, and inclusively of the throne of David. Our Lord, in reply, expresses his contempt of grandeur and worldly power; notices the luxury, vanity, and profligacy of the Romans, declaring how little they merited to be restored to that liberty, which they had lost by their misconduct, and briefly refers to the greatness of his own future kingdom. Satan, now desperate, to enhance the value of his proffer'd gifts, professes that the only terms on which he will bestow them are our Saviour's falling down and worshiping him. Our Lord expresses a firm but temperate indignation at such a proposition, and rebukes the Tempter by the title of "Satan for ever damned." Satan, abashed, attempts to justify himself: he then assumes a new ground of temptation, and, proposing to Jesus the intellectual gratifications of wisdom and knowledge, points out to him the cele brated seat of ancient learning, Athens, its schools, and other various resorts of learned teachers and their disciples; accompanying the view with a highly finished panegyric on the Grecian musicians, poets, orators, and philosophers of the different sects. Jesus replies, by showing the vanity and insufficiency of the boasted Heathen philosophy and prefers to the music, poetry, eloquence, and didactic policy of the Greeks, those of the inspired Hebrew writers. Satan, irritated at the failure of all his attempts, upbraids the indiscretion of our Saviour in rejecting his offers; and, having, in ridicule of his expected kingdom, foretold the sufferings that our Lord was to undergo, carries him back into the wilderness, and leaves him there. Night comes on: Satan raises a tremendous storm, and attempts further to alarm Jesus with frightful dreams, and terrific threatening spectres; which however have no effect upon him. A calm, bright, beautiful morning succeeds to the horrors of the night. Satan again presents himself to our blessed Lord, and from noticing the storm of the preceding night as pointed chiefly at him, takes occasion once more to insult him with an account of the sufferings which he was certainly to undergo. This only draws from our Lord a brief rebuke. Satan, now at the height of his desperation, |