While to their native land with joy they hasle,
As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,
When to the promis'd land their Fathers pass'd;
To his due time and providence I leave them. 440
So fpake Ifrael's true King; and to the Fiend Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles. So fares it when with truth falfhood contends.
The End of the Third Book.
Erplex'd and troubled at his bad fuccefs
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply, Discover'd in his fraud, thrown from his hope, So oft, and the perfwafive Rhetoric
That fleek'd his tongue, and won fo much on Eve, 5
So little here, nay loft; but Eve was Eve,
This far his over-match, who felf deceiv'd
And rafh, before-hand had no better weigh'd
The ftrength he was to cope with, or his own:
But as a man who had been matchlefs held
In cunning, over-reach'd where least he thought,
To fave his credit, and for very spight
Still will be tempting him who foyls him ftill,
And never cease, though to his shame the more;
Or as a swarm of flies in vintage time,
About the wine prefs where fweet mouft is powr'd,
Beat off, returns as oft with humming found;
Or furging waves against a solid rock,
Though all to fhivers dash'd, th' assault renew,
Vain batt'sy, and in froth or bubbles end;
So Satan, whom repulse upon repulfe
Met ever; and to fhameful filence brought,
Yet gives not o'er though desp’rate of fuccess,
And his vain importunity pursues.
He brought our Saviour to the Western fide
Of that high mountain, whence he might behold
Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,
Wash'd by the Southern Sea, and on the North
To equal length back'd with a ridge of hills
That fcreen'd the fruits of th' earth and feats of men
From cold Septentrion blasts, thence in the midst 31
Divided by a river, of whose banks
On each fide an Imperial City stood,
With Tow'rs and Temples proudly elevate
On fev'n fmall Hills, with Palaces adorn'd,
Porches and Theatres, Baths, Aqueducts,
Statues and Trophies, and Triumphal Arcs,
Gardens and Groves prefented to his eyes,
Above the heighth of Mountains interpos'd."
By what ftrange Parallax or Optick skill
Of vifion multiply'd through Air, or Glafs
Of Telescope, were curious to enquire:
And now the Tempter thus his filence broke.
The City which thou feeft no other deem
Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth
So far renown'd, and with the spoils enricht
Of Nations; there the Capitol thou seeft
Above the reft lifting his ftately head
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