Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarm'd. I through the ample air in triumph high Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show 255 The Pow'rs of darknefs bound. Thou at the fight Pleas'd, out of Heaven fhalt look down and fmile, While by thee rais'd I ruin all my foes, grave: Death last, and with his carcass glut the peace affur'd Of His words here ended, but his meek afpéct 260 265 To To mortal men, above which only fhone Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will Of his great Father. Admiration feis'd 270 All Heav'n, what this might mean, and whither 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 awhile, the whole race loft. Thou therefore, whom thou only canft redeem, Their nature also to thy nature join; ror, taking vengeance of his enemies Before he reprefents him fpeaking, he makes divine compaffion, love without end, and grace without measure vifibly to appear in his face: ver. 140. and carrying on the fame amiable picture, makes him end it with a countenance breathing immortal love to mortal men. Nothing could be better contriv'd to leave a deep impreffion upon the reader's mind, and I believe one may venture to affert, that no art or words could lift the imagination to a stronger idea of a 280 And be thyfelf Man among men on earth, As many as are reftor'd, without thee none. 285 His crime makes guilty all his fons; thy merit 290 And dying rife, and rifing with him raise 295 So So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate, So dearly to redeem what hellish hate 300 So eafily deftroy'd, and still deftroys In those who, when they may, accept not grace. Nor fhalt thou, by defcending to affume Man's nature, leffen or degrade thine own. Because thou haft, though thron'd in highest blifs Equal to God, and equally enjoying 306 God-like fruition, quitted all to save A world from utter lofs, and haft been found By merit more than birthright Son of God, 299. Giving to death, and dying to redeem,] The love of the Father in giving the Son to death, and the love of the Son in fubmitting to it and dying to redeem mankind. Mr. Warburton thus explains it. "Milton's fyftem of “divinity taught, fays he, not "only that Man was redeemed, but likewife that a real price "was paid for his redemption; dying to redeem therefore fignify"ing only redemption in a vague "uncertain fenfe, but imperfectly "reprefents his fyftem; fo im ་་ perfectly that it may as well be "called the Socinian; the price "paid (which implies a proper re 310 Far Far more than great or high; because in thee With thee thy manhood also to this throne; Here shalt thou fit incarnate, here fhalt reign Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man, 315 I give thee; reign for ever, and affume where the fall is fpoken of as a thing paft; perhaps because all things, even future ones, are prefent to the divine Mind. Thus we read in ver. 151. Thy creature late fo lov'd: and ver. 181. that he may know how frail His fall'n condition is: And yet these two paffages, with 321 Shalt notice as an instance of Milton's Thy merits;] Imitated from Horace's Sume fuperbiam quæfitam meritis, Od. III. XXX. 14. but adapted to the divine Perfon to whom it is spoken. 321. All knees to thee fhall bow,&c.] That at the name of Jefus every knee Should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth, Philip. II. 10. 334. The |