And be thyfelf Man among men on earth, Made flesh, when time fhall be, of virgin feed, As from a fecond root, fhall be reftor'd As many as are reftor'd, without thee none. 295 So heav'nly love fhall outdo hellish hate, 300 In those who, when they may, accept not grace. God-like fruition, quitted all to fave A world from utter lofs, and haft been found 306 310 Far Far more than great or high; because in thee With thee thy manhood alfo to this throne; I give thee; reign for ever, and affume Thrones, Princedoms, Pow'rs, Dominions I reduce : Shalt notice as an inftance of Milton's orthodoxy with relation to the divinity of God the Son. All 317. all power I give thee;] Mat. XXVIII. 18. power is given unto me. 318. and affume Thy merits;] Imitated from Horace's Sume fuperbiam quæfitam meritis, Od. III. XXX. 14. but adapted to the divine Perfon to whom it is fpoken. 321. All knees to thee fhall bow, &c.] That at the name of Jefus every knee fhould bor, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth, Philip. II. 10. 334. Tie Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send 325 Shall haften, fuch a peal shall roufe their fleep. Then all thy faints affembled, thou shalt judge 330 Bad men and Angels; they arraign'd shall fink Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full, Thenceforth fhall be for ever shut. Mean while The world fhall burn, and from her afhes fpring New 334 The world fall burn, &c.] The Heavens being on fire fhall be diffolved, and the elements fhall melt avith fervent heat; nevertheless we, according to his promife, look for new Heavens, and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, 2 Pet. III. 12, 13. 335. New Heav'n and Earth,] Dr. Bentley reads Heav'ns; for (he fays) Heav'n is the feat of God, Heav'ns are the vifible ones, all not beyond the fixed ftars: but I find Milton almost always ufing the known Jewish phrafe of Heav'n and Earth to exprefs the whole creation by. See Inftances in VII. 62, 167, 232, 256, 617. VIII. 15, ;o. X. 638, 647. XI. 66, gọi. Pearce. The laft verfe cited by Dr. Peace is almoft the fame as this we are here confidering. New Heav'n and Earth, wherein the juft fhall dwell. Both Heav'n and Earth, wherein We add too, that tho' St. Pe- 337. See golden days, fruitful of Toto furget, gens aurea mundo. Virg. Ecl. IV. g. 9. Hume. 341. God fhall be all in all.] According to 1 Cor. XV 28. And when all things shall be fubdued unto him, then shall the Son alfo himfelf be fubject unto him, that put all. New Heav'n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell, And after all their tribulations long See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth. 336 Then thou thy regal scepter fhalt lay by, For regal scepter then no more shall need, God shall be all in all. But all ye Gods, No fooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all things under him, that God may be all in all. 341. But all ye Gods, Adore him,] From Pfal. XCVII. 7. Worship him, all ye Gods, that is all ye Angels; and fo it is tranflated by the Seventy, and fo it is cited by St. Paul, Heb. I. 6. And let al! the Angels of God worship him. 343 Adore the Son, and bonor him as me.] That all men Should honor the Son, even as they bonor the Father, John V. 23. 344. No fooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, &c.] The clofe of this divine colloquy, with the hymn of Angels that follows upon it, are fo wonderfully beautiful and poetical, that I fhould not forbear inferting the whole, if the bounds of my paper would give me leave. Addifon. If the reader pleafes to compare 340 345 Loud this divine dialogue with the fpeeches of the Gods in Homer and Virgil, he will find the Chriftian poet to tranfcend the Heathen, as much as the religion of the one furpaffes that of the others. Their deities talk and act like men, but Milton's divine Perfons are divine Perfons indeed, and talk in the language of God, that is in the language of Scripture. He is fo very icrupulous and exact in this particular, that perhaps there is not a fingle expreffion, which may not be juftify'd by the authority of holy Writ. We have taken notice of feveral where he feems to have copied the letter of Scripture, and the fpirit of Scripture breathes in all the reft. 345. The multitude of Angels, &c.] The conftruction is this, All the multitude of Angels uttering joy with P 2 a fhout |