BIBLIOTHECA

RECTA

MONACENSIS

PARADISE REGAIN D.

I

BOOK I

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