Who ere-while the happy garden fung,
I By one man's difobedience 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 5
In all his wiles, defeated and repuls'd,
And EDEN rais'd in the waste wilderness.
Thou SPIRIT who ledst this glorious Eremite Into the defart, his victorious field, Against the spiritual foe, and brought'ft him thence By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,
As thou art wont, my prompted fong, else mute,
And bear through height or depth of nature's bounds
With profperous wing full fumm'd, to tell of deeds
Above heroic, though in fecret done,
And un-recorded left through many an age,
Worthy t'have not remain'd so long un-fung.
Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice More awful than the found of trumpet, cry'd Repentance, and heaven'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 JOSEPH deem'd, To the flood JORDAN came, as then obfcure, Un-mark'd, un-known; but him the Baptift foon Defcry'd, divinely warn'd, and witness bore 26 As to his worthier, and would have refign'd To him his heavenly office; nor was long His witness un-confirm'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 35
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 aghast and sad he thus befpake.
O ancient pow'rs of air and this wide world,
(For much more willingly I mention air,
This our old conqueft, than remember hell
Our hated habitation;) well ye know
How many ages, as the years of men,
This universe we have poffefs'd, and rul'd
In manner at our will th' affairs of earth,
Since ADAM and his facil confort EVE
Loft Paradise, deceiv'd by me; though since
With dread attending when that fatal wound
Shall be inflicted by the feed of Evε
Upon my head. Long the decrees of heav'n 55
Delay; for longest time to him is short:
And now, too foon for us, the circling hours
This dreaded time have compass'd, wherein we
Muft bide the stroak of that long-threaten'd wound;
At least if so we can; and by the head
Broken, be not intended all our pow'r
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 just fear gave no fmall cause,
But his growth now to youth's full flower, displaying
All virtue, grace, and wisdom to atchieve
Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear..
Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim
His coming, is fent harbinger, who all
Invites, and in the confecrated stream
Pretends to wash off fin, and fit them fo
Purify'd to receive him pure, or rather
To do him honour as their king: all come,
And he himself among them was baptiz'd,
Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
The teftimony of heav'n, that who He is
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