Good reason then, if I before-hand seek 530 for honors, riches, kingdoms, glory Have been before contemn’d, and may again : Therefore Not more; 538. than man, what more thou art “ of Adam the Son of God as well " as Seth the Son of Adam: Luke Worth naming Son of God by voice “ III. 38. and furely the framing from Heaven, ) See Bishop 66 Christ out of a woman cannot Pearson on the Creed. P: 106. « so far transcend the making “ We must find yet a more pe " Adam out of the earth, as to « culiar ground of our Saviour's “ cause so great a distance, as we “ filiation, totally distinct from “ must believe, between the first any which belongs unto the rest " and second Adam.” Calton. " of the fons of God, that he may 541. and without wing “ be clearly and fully acknow Of hippogrif &c] Here Milton ledged the only begotten Son. design'd a reflection upon the Itaoc For altho' to be born of a vir- lian poets, and particularly upon gin be in itself miraculous, yet Ariosto. An hippogrif is an ima" is it not so far above the pro- ginary creature, part like an horse "duction of all mankind, as and part like a gryphon. See place him in that fingular emi- Orlando Furioso Cant. 4. St. 18. “ nence, which must be attributed or 13th Stanza of Harrington's " to the only-begotten. We read translation. Only to Therefore to know what more thou art than man, Worth naming Son of God by voice from Heaven, Another method I must now begin. 540 So say’ing he caught him up, and without wing Of hippogrif bore through the air sublime Over the wilderness and o'er the plain ; Till underneath them fair Jerusalem, The holy city lifted high her towers, 545 And higher yet the glorious temple rear'd Her pile, far off appearing like a mount Of alabaster, topt with golden spires : There on the highest pinnacle he set The of art, he set Only the beast he rode was not hither and thither ; but Milton would insinuate that he employ'd But gotten of a griffeth and a no such machinery. mare, 549. Tbere on the big best pinnacle And like a griffeth had the former part, The Son of God,] He has chosen As wings and head, and claws to follow the order observed by that hideous are, St. Lnke in placing this temptation And passing strength and force, , laft, because if he had with Sc. and ventrous heart, Matthew introduc'd it in the midBut all the rest may with a horse dle, it would have broke that fine compare. thred of moral reasoning, which Such beasts as these the hills of is observed in the course of the Ryfee yield, other temptations. Thyer. Though in these parts they have In the Gospel account of the been seen but seeld. temptation no discovery is made of the incarnation ; and this grand Ariosto frequently makes use of myftery is as little known to the this creature to convey his heroes Tempter at the end, as at the beVol. I. o ginning The Son of God, and added thus in scorn. 550 There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright Will ask thee skill; I to thy Father's house Have brought thee', and highest plac'd, highest is best, Now show thy progeny ; if not to stand, Cast thyself down ; fafely, if Son of God: 555 For ginning. But now, according to most not throw himself down from Milton's scheme, the poem was to the top of the temple, because this be clos’d with a full discovery of would have been tempting God. But it: there are three circumstances in the poem it is applied to the Detherefore, in which the poet, to mon, and his attempt upon Chrift; serve his plan, hath varied from who is thereby declared to be the the accounts in the Gospels. 1. The Lora his God. Calton. critics have not been able to ascer 561. Tempt not the Lord thy God: tain what the aligurnov or pinnacle he said and food :] Here is (as we translate it) was, on which what we may call after Aristotle Christ was set by the Demon : but the avatuwgrois, or the discovery. whatever it was, the Evangelists Chrift declares himself to be the make no difficulty of his standing God and Lord of the Tempter ; there. This the poet (following and to prove it, stands upon the the common use of the word pine pinnacle. This was evidently the nacle in our own language) sup- poet's meaning. 1. The miracle poseth to be something like those ihows it to be fo; which is otheron the battlements of our churches, wife impertinently introduc'd, and a pointed spire, on which Christ against the rule, could not stand without a miracle. Nec Deus interfit, nisi dignus 2. In the poem, the Tempter bids Christ give proof of his preten vindice nodus fions by standing on the pinnacle, Inciderit. or by casting himself down. In It proves nothing but what the the Gospels, the last only is or Tempter knew, and allow'd becould be suggested. 3. In the Gof- fore. 2. There is a connection be. pel account the prohibition Thou tween Christ's saying and ftanding, phalt not tempt the Lord thy God is which demonstrates that he food, alleged only as a reason why Chrift in proof of something he had said. (whose divinity is concealed there) Now the prohibition, Tempt not the Lord For it is written, He will give command They shall up lift thee, lest at any time To whom thus Jesus; Also it is written, 560 Tempt not the Lord thy God: he said and stood: But Lord thy God, as alleged in the Gof- citly inferring that his casting himpels from the Old Testament, was self down would be tempting of in no want of such an attestation : God. He said, he gave this reason but a miracle was wanting to jufti- for not cafting himself down, and fy the application of it to the flood. His standing properly makes Tempter's attack upon Christ; it the discovery, and is the principal was for this end therefore that he proof of his progeny that the food. Calton. Tempter requir'd: Now fhow thy I cannot entirely approve this progeny. His ftanding convinces Salearned Gentleman's , exposition, tan. His ftanding is considered as for I am for understanding the the display of his divinity, and the words, Also it is written Tempt not immediate cause of Satan's fall; the Lord thy God, in the same sense, and the grand contrast is formed in which they were spoken in the between the ftanding of the one Gospels; because I would not and the fall of the other. make the poem to differ from the He said, and stood: Gospel account, farther than re But Satan smitten with amaze. ceflity compels, or more than the poet himself has made it. The ment fell. Tempter set our Saviour on and afterwards ver. 571. pinnacle of the temple, and there Fell whence he stood to see his required of him a proof of his di victor fall. vinity, either by standing, or by cafting himself down as he might and ver. 576, safely do, if he was the Son of God, according to the quotation So struck with dread and anguish from the Pfalmift. To this our Sa fell the Fiend. viour answers, as he answers in the and ver. 581. Gospels, It is written again Thou falt not tempt the Lord thy God, ta So Satan fell. a 0 2 563. As But Satan smitten with amazement fell. 570 Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall. And as that Theban monster that propos’d Her ωχησεν TOIS εις 563. As when earth’s fon Antæus] Ad quem locum fic scribit SchoThis simile in the person of the liaftes : 'lgacou wodos Aluns, si poet is amazingly fine. Warburton. Αγίαις, εχ ο καλαισας Ηρακλει, εκεινο a in Irasa srove διαλλάσσει yaz 564. χρονοις, , Ev ανειλεν ΗραWith Jove's Alcides,] Irassa is a xans. Pindarus nomen urbis genere place in Libya, mention’d by He- fæem. protulit , quod Schol. alio fodotus, IV. 158. Eso de TW Xw2w loco numero multitudinis & geτ8τω ονομα Ιρασα, and from him by Stephanus Byzant, who says, ört ano 'Hgaxdees xatayonceus nere neut. effert: Evou yop Qadir, 'Ipaoa, Tono niluns, ον Ανλαιο», Ιρασσευς ην, απο "Πρασσων τηγαγον Βατιον οι Λιβυες, ως Ηροдото. where Berkelius notes, Ospexuonsi From whence we may εν τη Τριτωνιδι λιμνη, ως φησι Hujus urbis quoque meminit Pin. obferve, that in Herodotus and darus Pyth. IX. fed duplicis (read Stephanus, Irafa is the name of a dupliciis) scribitur : place, in Pindar and his Scholiaft, * Οιοι Λιβυσσας αλ the name of a town: that the φι γυναικών εξαν name is Irafa in Herodotus, Hirafa Γρασσαν πρG- σολιν Αναι. in Stephanus, (though perhaps it 8, μετα καλλικoμoν should be Iraja, Igata, there) Rayas nges ayaxhia kazi. Irala in Pindar and his Scholiaft: that των |