The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn'd 185 Their sinful state, and to appease betimes Th' incensed Deity, while offer'd grace Invites; for I will clear their senses dark, What may suffice, and soften stony hearts To pray, repent, and bring obedience due. To pray'r, repentance, and obedience due, Though but endeavor'd with sincere intent, Mine car shall not be slow, mine eye not shut. And I will place within them as a guide My umpire Conscience, whom if they will hear, 195 Light after light well us'd they shall attain, And to the end persisting, safe arrive. This my long suff'rance and my day of grace They who neglect and scorn shall never taste; But hard be harden'd, blind be blinded more, 200 That they may stumble on, and deeper fall; And none but such from mercy I exclude. But yet all is not done; Man disobeying, Disloyal breaks his feälty, and sins Against the high supremacy of Heav'n, Affecting Godhead, and so losing all, To expiate his treason hath naught left, But to destruction sacred and devote, He with his whole posterity must die,
Die he or Justice must; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid satisfaction, death for death.
Say heav'nly Pow'rs! where shall we find such love? Which of ye will be mortal to redeem
Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save? 215 Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?
He ask'd, but all the heav'nly quire stood mute, And silence was in Heav'n: on Man's behalf Patron or intercessor none appear'd,
Much less that durst upon his own head draw 220 The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
And now without redemption all mankind Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
In whom the fulness dwells of love divine, 225 His dearest mediation thus renew'd:
Father! thy word is past, Man shall find grace; And shall Grace not find means, that finds her way, The speediest of thy winged messengers, To visit all thy creatures, and to all Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unsought? Happy for Man, so coming; he her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost; Atonement for himself or offering meet, Indebted and undone, hath none to bring: Behold me then; me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall;
Account me Man; I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee Freely put off, and for him lastly die
Well pleas'd; on me let Death wreck all his rage; Under his gloomy power I shall not long Lie vanquish'd; thou hast giv'n me to possess Life in myself for ev'er; by thee I live,
Though now to Death I yield, and am his due 245 All that of me can die; yet that debt paid, Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul For ever with Corruption there to dwell; But I shall rise victorious, and subdue My vanquisher, spoil'd of his vaunted spoil; Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoop 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 darkness bound. Thou at the sight Pleas'd, out of Heav'n shalt look down and smile, While by thee rais'd I ruin all my foes, Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave: Then with the multitude of my redeem'd Shall enter Heav'n long absent, and return, Father! to see thy face, wherein no cloud Of anger shall remain, but peace assur'd And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire. 265 His words here ended, but his meek aspect Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love To mortal men, above which only shone Filial obedience: as a sacrifice
Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will
Of his great Father. Admiration seiz'd
All Heav'n what this might mean, and whether tend Wond'ring, but soon th' Almighty thus reply'd: O thou in Heav'n and Earth the only peace
Found out for Mankind under wrath, O thou 275 My sole complacence ! well thou know'st how dear To me are all my works, nor Man the least, Though last created; that for him I spare Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, By losing thee a while, the whole race lost. 280 Thou therefore, whom thou only canst redeem, Their nature also to thy nature join;
And be thyself Man among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time shall be, of Virgin seed, By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam's room 285 The head of all Mankind, though Adam's son. As in him perish all men, so in thee,
As from a second root, shall be restor❜d As many as are restor'd, without thee none. His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy me'rit 290 Imputed shall absolve them who renounce Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds, And live in thee transplanted, and from thee Receive new life. So Man, as is most just, Shall satisfy for Man, be judg'd and die, And dying rise, and rising with him raise His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life. So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate, Giving to death, and dying to redeem, So dearly to redeem what hellish hate So easily destroy'd, and still destroys
In those who, when they may, accept not grace. Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own.
Because thou hast, though thron'd in highest bliss Equal to God, and equally enjoying
God-like fruition, quitted all to save
A world from utter loss, and hast been found By merit more than birthright Son of God, Found worthiest to be so by being good, Far more than great or high; because in thee Love hath abounded more than glory' abounds, Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
With thee thy manhood also to this throne; Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign 315 Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man, Anointed Universal King; all power
I give thee; reign for ever, and assume Thy merits: under thee as head supreme
Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions, I reduce; All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide 321 In Heav'n, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell. When thou attended gloriously from Heav'n Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send The summoning ach-angels to proclaim Thy dread tribunal; forthwith from all winds The living, and forthwith the cited dead Of all past ages, to the general doom Shall hasten, such a peal shall rouse their sleep. Then all thy saints assembled, thou shall judge 330 Bad men and angels; they arraign'd shall sink Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full, Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Mean while The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
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