So in his seed all nations shall be blest.
Then to the Heaven of Heavens he shall ascend With victory, triumphing through the air Over his foes and thine; there shall surprise The serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains Through all his realin, and there confounded leave; Then enter into glory, and resume
His seat at God's right hand, exalted high
Above all names in Heaven; and thence shall come, When this world's dissolution shall be ripe,
With glory and power to judge both quick and dead; To judge the unfaithful dead, but to reward His faithful, and receive them into bliss, Whether in Heaven or earth; for then the earth Shall all be Paradise, far happier place Than this of Eden, and far happier days."
So spake the archangel Michaël; then paused, As at the world's great period; and our sire, Replete with joy and wonder, thus replied:
Oh, goodness infinite! goodness immense ! That all this good of evil shall produce,
And evil turn to good; more wonderful Than that which by creation first brought forth Light out of darkness; full of doubt I stand, Whether I should repent me now of sin
By me done and occasioned, or rejoice
Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring;
To God more glory, more good-will to men
From God, and over wrath grace shall abound. But say, if our Deliverer up to Heaven
Must reascend, what will betide the few
His faithful, left among the unfaithful herd, The enemies of truth? Who then shall guide
His people? who defend? Will they not deal
Worse with his followers than with him they dealt?" "Be sure they will," said the angel; "but from Heaven He to his own a Comforter will send,
The promise of the Father, who shall dwell
His Spirit within them, and the law of faith 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,
Though to the death; against such cruelties With inward consolations recompensed, And oft supported so as shall amaze Their proudest persecutors; for the Spirit, Poured first on his apostles, whom he sends To evangelize the nations, then on all Baptized, shall them with wondrous gifts endue To speak all tongues, and do all miracles, As did their Lord before them. Thus they win Great numbers of each nation to receive
With joy the tidings brought from Heaven: at length Their ministry performed, and race well run, Their doctrine and their story written left, They die; but in their room, as they forewarn, Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves, Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven 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, Though 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, promised 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 enrolled, or what the Spirit within Shall on the heart engrave. What will they then But force the Spirit of grace itself, and bind His consort liberty? what, but unbuild His living temples, 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 Religion satisfied; truth shall retire
Bestruck with slanderous 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 promised 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 revealed In glory of the Father, to dissolve
Satan with his perverted world, then raise From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined, New heavens, new earth,' 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, Measured this transient world, the race of time, Till time stand fixed! Beyond is all abyss, Eternity, whose end no eye can reach. Greatly instructed, I shall hence depart, 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, Merciful over all his works, with good Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things; by things deemed weak Subverting worldly strong; and worldly wise By simply meek: that suffering 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.”
1 The very words of St. Peter, 2 Peter, iii. 13:-" Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." This notion of the heavens and earth being renewed after the conflagration, and made the habitation of angels and just men made perfect, was very pleasing to our author, as it was to Dr. Burnet, and must be to every one of a fine and exalted imagination; and Milton has enlarged upon it in several parts of his works, and particularly in this poem, iii. 333, &c., x. 638, xi. 65, 900, xii. 462.-Newton.
To whom thus also the angel last replied: "This having learned, thou hast attained 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 enjoyedst, 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 called charity, 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;1 for the hour precise Exacts our parting hence; and see, the guards, By me encamped 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 calmed Portending good, and all her spirits composed To meek submission: thou at season fit
Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard, Chiefly what may concern her faith to know, The great deliverance by her seed to come (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 cheered With meditation on the happy end."
He ended, and they both descend the hill; Descended, Adam to the bower where Eve Lay sleeping ran before, but found her waked; And thus with words not sad she him received:
1 i. e. this height of vision, this hill of prophecy and prediction. 2 Milton's poem ends very nobly. The last speeches of Adam and the archangel are full of moral and instructive sentiments. The sleep that fell upon Eve, and the effects it had in quieting the disorders of her mind, produce the same kind of consolation in the reader, who cannot peruse the last beautiful speech which is ascribed to the mother of mankind, without a secret pleasure and satisfaction. The following lines, which conclude the poem, rise in a most glorious blaze of poetical images and expressions.-Addison.
"Whence thou return'st, and whither went'st, I know; For God is also in sleep; and dreams advise, Which he hath sent propitious, some great good Presaging, since, with sorrow and heart's distress, Wearied I fell asleep: but now lead on; In me is no delay; with thee to go, 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 banished hence. This further consolation, yet secure, I carry hence; though all by me is lost, Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed, By me the promised Seed shall all restore!"
So spake our mother Eve, and Adam heard, Well pleased, but answered not; for now too nigh The archangel stood, and from the other hill To their fixed station, all in bright array, The cherubim descended; on the ground, Gliding metéorous,1 as evening mist, Risen from a river, o'er the marish2 glides, And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel, Homeward returning. High in front advanced, The brandished sword of God before them blazed, Fierce as a comet, which with torrid heat, And vapour as the Lybian air adust,
Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat, In either hand the hastening angel caught Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast To the subjected plain; then disappeared. They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate, With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms:
1 Heliodorus, in his Ethiopics, acquaints us that the motion of the gods differs from that of mortals, as the former do not stir their feet, nor proceed step by step, but slide o'er the surface of the earth by an uniform swimming of the whole body. The reader may observe with how poetical a description Milton has attributed the same kind of motion to the angels who were to take possession of Paradise.Addison.
2 An old word for marsh, of the French marais, and of the Latin mariscus, rushes commonly growing there. The word occurs in 1 Maccab. ix. 42.
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