525

"Working through love, upon their hearts shall write,
"To guide them in all truth; and also arm
"With spiritual armour, able to resist
"Satan's assaults, and quench his fiery darts;
"What man can do against them, not afraid,

66

1
Though to the death; against such cruelties
"With inward consolations recompens'd,
"And oft supported so as shall amaze
"Their proudest persecutors; for the Spirit,
"Pour'd first on his apostles,1 whom he sends
"To evangelize the nations, then on all
"Baptiz'd, shall them with wondrous gifts endue
"To speak all tongues, and do all miracles,

"As did their Lord before them.

"Great numbers of each nation to

Thus they win receive

"With joy the tidings brought from heaven: at length,
"Their ministry perform'd, and race well run,

66 Their doctrine and their story written left,

66

They die but in their room, as they forewarn,

"Wolves shall succeed for teachers - grievous wolves!
"Who all the sacred mysteries of heaven
66 To their own vile advantages shall turn
"Of lucre and ambition; and the truth
"With superstitions and traditions taint,
"Left only in those written records pure,
"Thought not but by the Spirit understood.
"Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names,
"Places, and titles, and with these to join
"Secular power; though feigning still to act
"By spiritual; to themselves appropriating
"The Spirit of God, promis'd alike, and given
"To'all believers; and, from that pretence,
"Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force
"On every conscience—laws which none shall find
"Left them enroll'd, or what the Spirit within
"Shall on the heart engrave. What will they then,
"But force the Spirit of Grace itself, and bind

mode of expression. "Who shall dwell in spirit," or as to his spirit; Xxtk, or secundum, the spirit; or who, i. e. the spirit, shall dwell. Some commentators, however, say "dwell" here means, cause to dwell.

i /. e. Not afraid of man even though he persecute them to death. See Psalm Ivi. 11. -(N.)

t See Acts ii. 4; Mark xvi. 17.—(H.)

See Acts xx. a».—(N.)

I. e. Laws which are not conformable to the records of revealed religion, or the emotions of natural religion.-(H.)

564

"His consort Liberty? what, but unbuild
"His living temples,1 built by faith to stand,
"Their own faith, not another's? for, on earth,
"Who against faith and conscience can be heard
"Infallible? Yet many will presume:
"Whence heavy persecution shall arise
"On all, who in the worship persevere
"Of spirit and truth: the rest (far greater part)
"Will deem in outward rites and specious forms

66

Religion satisfied; truth shall retire

"Bestruck with sland'rous darts, and works of faith
Rarely be found. So shall the world go on,
"To good malignant, to bad men benign;
"Under her own weight groaning; till the day
"Appear of respiration to the just,

"And vengeance to the wicked, at return
"Of him so lately promis'd to thy aid,

"The woman's Seed; obscurely then foretold;
"Now amplier known thy Saviour and thy Lord;
"Last, in the clouds, from heaven to be reveal'd
"In glory of the Father, to dissolve

"Satan, with his perverted world; then raise
"From the conflagrant mass, purg'd and refin'd,
"New heavens, new earth,4 ages of endless date,
"Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love;
"To bring forth fruits, joy, and eternal bliss!"
He ended; and thus Adam last replied:
"How soon hath thy prediction, seer blest,
"Measur'd this transient world the race of time,
"Till time stand fix'd! Beyond is all abyss—
"Eternity, whose end no eye can reach.

66

"Greatly instructed I shall hence depart;

66

"Greatly in peace of thought; and have my fill
"Of knowledge—what this vessel can contain ;
Beyond which was my folly to aspire.
"Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best,
"And love with fear the only God—to walk
As in his presence—ever to observe
"His providence; and on him sole depend,

66

1 So 2 Cor. iii. 17.—(N.)

« Christians are called the temples of God, 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17.—(N.)

"Respiration." avaus, Acts iii. 19.—(D.)

» The notion of a new heaven and earth springing from the rains of this world at its dissolution, Milton has often broached in this poem, iii. 333; x. 638; xi. 65, 900. It ii also the opinion of some of the most orthodox divines, and of the most contemplative and learned. (See N.)

606

"Merciful over all his works, with good
"Still overcoming evil, and by small

"Accomplishing great things—by things deem'd weak
"Subverting worldly strong,1 and worldly wise
"By simply meek; that suff ring for truth's sake
"Is fortitude to highest victory;

"And, to the faithful, death the gate of life;
"Taught this by his example, whom I now
"Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest!"

To whom thus also th' angel last replied:
"This having learn'd, thou hast attain'd the sum
"Of wisdom: hope no higher, though all the stars
"Thou knew'st by name, and all the ethereal Powers,
"All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works,
"Or works of God in heaven, air, earth, or sea,
"And all the riches of this world enjoy'dst,
"And all the rule, one.empire; only add
"Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith;
"Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,
"By name to come call'd charity,8 the soul
"Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loth
"To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
"A paradise within thee, happier far.

"Let us descend now therefore from this top
"Of speculation; for the hour precise

3

"Exacts our parting hence: and see! the guards,

By me encamp'd on yonder hill, expect

"Their motion; at whose front a flaming sword,
"In signal of remove, waves fiercely round.
"We may no longer stay: go, waken Eve;
"Her also I with gentle dreams have calm'd
"Portending good, and all her spirits compos'd
"To meek submission: thou, at season fit,

"Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard ;

66

Chiefly, what may concern her faith to know,

"The great deliv'rance by her seed to come

66

(For by the woman's seed) on all mankind;

"That ye may live, which will be many days,

"Both in one faith unanimous, though sad

(With cause!} for evils past; yet much more cheer'd "With meditation on the happy end."

He ended; and they both descend the hill:

l I Cor. i. 17.—(N.)

This is taken from Si. Paul's noble description of charity, l Cor. xiii. 3 "Speculation," from tpccula, a watch-tower.

Descended, Adam to the bower, where Eve

Lay sleeping, ran before; but found her wak'd:

And thus with words not sad she him receiv'd:

66

Whence thou return'st, and whither went'st, I know; "For God is also in sleep; 1 and dreams advise,

Which he hath sent propitious, some great good
sorrow and heart's distress

Presaging, since with "Wearied I fell asleep

but now lead on:

"In me is no delay: * with thee to go,

66

Is to stay here; without thee here to stay,
"Is to go hence unwilling: thou to me

"Art all things under heaven, all places thou,
"Who for my wilful crime art banish'd hence.
"This further consolation yet secure

"I carry hence, though all by me is lost,
"(Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafe!,)—

66

By ne the promis'd seed shall all restore."

So spake our mother Eve: and Adam heard
Well pleas'd, but answer'd not: for now, too high
Th' archangel stood; and from the other hill
To their fix'd station, all in bright array,
The Cherubim descended, on the ground
Gliding meteorous; as evening mist

Ris'n from a river o'er the marish3 glides,
And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel
Homeward returning. High in front advane'd,
The brandish'd sword of God before them blaz'd,
Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat,
And vapour as the Libyan air adust,4
Began to parch that temp'rate clime: whereat
In either hand the hast'ning angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappear'd.
They; looking back, all the eastern side beheld
642 Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,

5

2 "In me mora non erit ulla." Eel. iii. 52.—(N.)

8 An old word for marsh, from mariscus, as rushes commonly grow there.

Hor. Epod. iii. 15 :—

"Nee tantas nnqeam sldernm tnsedit vapor
SaLiculosa Apulia."—(R.)

« Campum subjectum, the plain below. Subject and "subjected" are so used in (ho best old English poets.

Wav'd over by that flaming brand;' the gate
With dreadful faces throng'd, and fiery arms.

Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them scon.
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
They, hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow,
6<9 Through Eden took their solitary way.5

i "Brand" is an old word for iword. Salanus Weslmannus, in his dissertation entitled, Gladius Scythicus, pp. 6, 7, observes, that the ancients formed their swords in imitation of flaming fire; and thus from "brand," a tword, came our English phrase, to "brandish a sword," gladium strictum vibrando corruscare facere.-T., Wart.)

The passage has been the subject of much dispute. Pearce's explanation of the text is quite satisfactory. Though they were under the general guidance of Providence to keep them safe, yet their steps were "wandering," as they did not know any particular way to take; and though they obeyed the divine command, yet their steps were "slow" when they were quitting the boundaries of Paradise, on which they often looked back; and their way was now in reality "solitary," for though their walks in Paradise were solitary in some measure, yet there they had familiar and cheering objects; not so in their dismal journey to the outer world, which was strange to them, and comparatively desert. Addison thinks the poem, from the want of sufficient dignity in the last two lines, would better end with the two preceding, "the world," etc. 1 fully agree with those who would retain these last lines, as conveying a melancholy picture, quite in character with the condition of Adam and Eve, but would transpose them, and thus leave on the reader's mind the cheering persuasion that in their affliction, "Providence" vat "their guidt."