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Who ere while the happy garden fung, By one man's disobedience loft, now fing Recover'd Paradife to all mankind,
By one man's firm obedience fully try'd Through all temptation, and the tempter foil'd In all his wiles, defeated and repuls'd, And Eden rais'd in the wafte wilderness.
Thou Sp'rit who ledft this glorious eremite
Into the defart, his victorious field,
Against the spiritual foe, and brought'ft him thence By proof th' undoubted Son of God, inspire, As thou art wont, my prompted fong else mute, And bear through heighth or depth of nature's bounds With profp'rous wing full fumm'd to tell of deeds Above heroic, though in fecret done,
And unrecorded left through many an age, Worthy t' have not remain'd fo long unfung.
Now had the great proclaimer, with a voice More awful than the found of trumpet, cry'd Repentance, and Heav'n's kingdom nigh at hand To all baptiz'd: To his great baptifm flock'd With awe the regions round, and with them came From Nazareth the fon of Jofeph deem'd
To the flood Jordan, came as then obfcure, Unmark'd, unknown; but him the Baptift foon Descry'd, divinely warn'd, and witness bore As to his worthier, and would have refign'd To him his heav'nly office, nor was long His witnefs unconfirm'd: On him baptiz'd Heav'n open'd, and in likeness of a dove The Spirit defcended, while the Father's voice From heav'n pronounc'd him his beloved Son. That heard the adverfary, who roving still About the world, at that affembly fam'd Would not be laft, and with the voice divine Nigh thunder-ftruck, th' exalted man, to whom Such high atteft was giv'n, a while furvey'd With wonder, then with envy fraught, and rage, Flies to his place, nor refts, but in mid air To council fummons all his mighty peers, Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involv'd, A gloomy confiftory; and them amidst With looks aghaft and fad he thus befpake.
O ancient pow'rs of air and this wide world, For much more willingly I mention air, This our old conquest, than remember hell Our hated habitation; well ye know How many ages, as the years of men, This univerfe we have poffeft, and rul'd In manner at our will th' affairs of earth, Since Adam and his facile confort Eve Loft Paradise deceiv'd by me, though fince With dread attending when that fatal wound Shall be inflicted by the feed of Eve
Upon my head: Long the decrees of Heav'n
Delay, for longest time to him is fhort;
And now too foon for us the circling hours This dreaded time have compaît, wherein we Muft bide the stroke of that long threaten'd wound, At least if fo we can, and by the head Broken be not intended all our power
To be infring'd, our freedom and our being, In this fair empire won of earth and air : For this ill news I bring, the woman's feed Deftin'd to this, is late of woman born :
His birth to our juft fear gave no fmall caufe, But his growth now to youth's full flow'r, difplaying All virtue, grace, and wifdom to achieve Things higheft, greateft, multiplies my fear. Before him a great prophet, to proclaim His coming, is fent harbinger, who all Invites, and in the confecrated ftream Pretends to wash off fin, and fit them fo Purified to receive him pure, or rather To do him honour as their king; all come, And he himself among them was baptis'd, Not thence to be more pure, but to receive The teftimony of heav'n, that who he is Thenceforth the nations may not doubt; I faw The prophet do him reverence, on him rising Out of the water, heav'n above the clouds Unfold her chrystal doors, thence on his head A perfect dove defcend, whate'er it meant, And out of heav'n the fov'reign voice I heard, This is my Son belov'd, in him am pleas'd. His mother then is mortal, but his fire, He who obtains the monarchy of heav'n,
All his follicitations, and at length
All his vaft force, and drive him back to hell, Winning by conqueft what the first man lost By fallacy furpriz'd. But firfl I mean To exercife him in the wilderness,
There he shall first lay down the rudiments
Of his great warfare, ere I fend him forth To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes, By humiliation and ftrong fufferance: His weaknefs fhall o'ercome fatanic ftrength, And all the world, and mafs of finful flesh; That all the angels and ætherial powers, They now, and men hereafter may difcern, From what confummate virtue I have chofe This perfect man, by merit call'd my Son, To earn falvation for the fons of men.
So fpake th' eternal Father, and all heav'n Admiring flood a fpace, then into hymns Burft forth, and in celeftial measures mov'd Circling the throne and finging, while the hand Sung with the voice, and this the argument. Victory and triumph to the Son of God, Now entering his great duel, not of arms, But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles. The Father knows the Son; therefore fecure Ventures his filial virtue, though untry'd, Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er feduce, Allure, or terrify, or undermine.
Be fruftrate all ye ftratagems of hell,
And devilish machinations come to nought.
So they in heav'n their odes and vigils tun'd :. Mean while the Son of God, who yet fome days
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