BOOK II. THE ARGUMENT. THE disciples of Jesus, uneasy at his long absence, reason amongst themselves concerning it. Mary also gives vent to her maternal anxiety; in the expression of which she recapitulates many circumstances respecting the birth and early life of her Son.-Satan again meets his infernal council, reports the bad success of his first temptation of our blessed Lord, and calls upon them for counsel and assistance. Belial proposes the tempting of Jesus with women. Satan rebukes Belial for his dissoluteness, charging on him all the profligacy of that kind ascribed by the poets to the heathen gods, and rejects his proposal as in no respect likely to succeed. Satan then suggests other modes of temptation, particularly proposing to avail himself of the circumstance of our Lord's hungering; and, taking a band of chosen spirits with him, returns to resume his enterprise.-Jesus hungers in the desert.-Night comes on; the manner in which our Saviour passes the night is described.-Morning advances. Satan again appears to Jesus; and, after expressing wonder that he should be so entirely neglected in the wilderness, where others had been miraculously fed, tempts him with a sumptuous banquet of the most luxurious kind. This he rejects, and the banquet vanishes.Satan, finding our Lord not to be assailed on the ground of appetite, tempts him again by offering him riches, as the means of acquiring power: this Jesus also rejects, producing many instances of great actions performed by persons under virtuous poverty, and specifying the danger of riches, and the cares and pains inseparable from power and greatness. MEANWHILE the new-baptized, who yet remain'd At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen Him whom they heard so late expressly call'd Jesus, Messiah, Son of God declared, And on that high authority had believed, 5 And with him talk'd, and with him lodged; I mean Andrew and Simon, famous after known, With others though in Holy Writ not named; Now missing him, their joy so lately found, (So lately found, and so abruptly gone) 10 Began to doubt, and doubted many days, 16. The great Thisbite. Elijah. 17. Yet once again to come. It hath been the opinion of the church, that 15 there would be an Elias before Christ's second coming, as well as before his first. Mal. iv. 5; Matt. xvii. 11. But as it was Therefore, as those young prophets then with care The city of palms, Ænon, and Salem old, Or in Peræa; but return'd in vain. Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play, Their unexpected loss and plaints out breathed: His words, his wisdom full of grace and truth: Send thy Messiah forth; the time is come! 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence; Soon we shall see our Hope, our Joy, return. Thus they, out of their plaints, new hope resume 60 not Elias in person, but only in spirit. | over the Jordan, and going through who appeared before our Saviour's first coming, so it will also be before his second.-NEWTON. 20. Nigh to Bethabara. Our author makes the disciples seek for Jesus first at Bethabara, on the Jordan, a little north of the Dead Sea; thence, going to Enon and Salem, further north, on the west of the Jordan; thence, crossing Peræa, on the east side of it, as far down as the town and castle of Machærus, south of Mount Nebo. 44. Kings of the earth. Ps. ii. 2. 60. To his mother. A Latinism, corre sponding to the dative of the remote object, or the dative for the genitive: "within her breast," that is, the breast of Mary. Others return'd from baptism, not her Son, Nor left at Jordan, tidings of him none; Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure, Motherly cares and fears got head, and raised 70 75 Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad: 65 I look'd for some great change; to honour? no; Spoken against, that through my very soul 80 85 Of many in Israel, and to a sign 90 A sword shall pierce: this is my favour'd lot, Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest; I will not argue that, nor will repine. But where delays he now? some great intent 95 Conceals him: when twelve years he scarce had seen, I lost him, but so found, as well I saw He could not lose himself, but went about 105. Pondering. See Luke ii. 19. 100 105 110 Into himself descended, and at once All his great work to come before him set; His end of being on earth, and mission high: For Satan, with sly preface to return, 115 Had left him vacant; and with speed was gone Up to the middle region of thick air, Where all his potentates in council sat: There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy, Solicitous and blank, he thus began: 120 Princes, Heaven's ancient sons, ethereal thrones; Demonian spirits now, from the element Each of his reign allotted, rightlier call'd Powers of fire, air, water, and earth beneath! (So may we hold our place and these mild seats Without new trouble!) such an enemy 125 Is risen to invade us, who no less Threatens than our expulsion down to hell; I, as I undertook, and with a vote Consenting in full frequence was impower'd, 130 Have found him, view'd him, tasted him; but find Far other labour to be undergone Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men: Thought none my equal, now be over-match'd. So spake the old Serpent, doubting; and from all With clamour was assured their utmost aid At his command: when from amidst them rose Belial, the dissolutest spirit that fell, 150 The sensualest; and, after Asmodai, The fleshliest Incubus; and thus advised: 131. Tasted, experienced, made trial of. Ps. xxxiv. 8, "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good." 136. If he be man, &c. Newton has followed here the punctuation of Milton's own edition, with a comma after side; but I prefer that of Mr. Dunster, who places one after man, for the Tempter could have had no doubt of Christ's being a Man by his mother's side. After least | supply he is, and read by mother's side at least as a sort of parenthesis: for it is the object of Satan not to say any thing to the evil spirits that may lessen, but every thing that may raise their idea of his antagonist. 151. Asmodai, the lustful angel who loved Sarah the daughter of Raguel, and destroyed her seven husbands. See book of Tobit, chap. iv. Among daughters of men the fairest found: Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart 155 160 165 170 175 Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men, In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st, In wood or grove, by mossy fountain side, Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene, 180 185 Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa, Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more Too long; then lay'st thy scapes on names ador'd, Satyr, or Faun, or Sylvan? But these haunts 153. Let women, &c. As this temptation is not mentioned in the Gospels, it could not with any propriety have been proposed to our Saviour: it is much more fitly made the subject of debate among the wicked spirits themselves. All that can be said in praise of the power of beauty, and all that can be alleged to depreciate it, is here summed up with greater force and elegance than I ever remember to have seen in any other author.-NEWTON. 190 he seems to favour that opinion, as we may suppose, to embellish his poetry, yet he shows elsewhere that he understood the text rightly, of the sons of Seth, who were the worshippers of the true God, intermarrying with the daugh ters of wicked Cain. Paradise Lost, xi. 621, 625.-NEWTON. 189. Scapes, vicious frolics, acts of lewdness, a word common in old English poetry. 190. Apollo, &c. Calisto, Semele, and Antiopa were mistresses to Jupiter; Clymene and Daphne to Apollo, and Syrinx to Pan. Both here and elsowhere Milton considers the Gods of the heathens as Demons or Devils.-NEW 178. False titled, &c. It is to be lamented that our author has so often adopted the vulgar notion of the angels having commerce with women, founded upon that mistaken text of Scripture, Gen. vi. 2. (See Paradise Lost. iii. 463.) But though ❘ TON. |