With incense, I thy priest before thee bring: Fruits of more pleasing savour, from thy seed Sown with contrition in his heart, than those Which, his own hand manuring, all the trees Of Paradise could have produced, ere fallen From innocence. Now, therefore, bend thine ear To supplication; hear his sighs, though mute; Unskilful with what words to pray, let me Interpret for him; me, his advocate
And propitiation; all his works on me, Good or not good, ingraft; my merit those Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay. Accept me; and, in me, from these receive The smell of peace toward mankind: let him live Before thee reconciled, at least his days Number'd, though sad; till death, his doom (which I To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse), To better life shall yield him: where with me All my redeem'd may dwell in joy and bliss; Made one with me, as I with thee am one. To whom the Father, without cloud, serene : All thy request for man, accepted Son, Obtain; all thy request was my decree : But, longer in that Paradise to dwell, The law I gave to nature him forbids: Those pure immortal elements, that know No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul, Eject him, tainted now; and purge him off, As a distemper, gross, to air as gross, And mortal food; as may dispose him best For dissolution wrought by sin, that first Distemper'd all things, and of incorrupt Corrupted. I, at first, with two fair gifts Created him endow'd; with happiness And immortality: that fondly lost, This other served but to eternize woe; Till I provided death: so death becomes His final remedy; and, after life, Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined
By faith and faithful works, to second life, Waked in the renovation of the just,
Resigns him up with Heaven and Earth renew'd. But let us call to synod all the Bless'd
Through Heaven's wide bounds: from them I will not My judgments; how with mankind I proceed, As how with peccant Angels late they saw,
And in their state, though firm, stood more confirm'd. He ended, and the Son gave signal high To the bright minister that watch'd; he blew His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps When God descended; and perhaps once more To sound at general doom. The angelic blast Fill'd all the regions: from their blissful bowers Of amarantine shade, fountain or spring, By the waters of life, where'er they sat In fellowships of joy, the sons of light Hasted, resorting to the summons high; And took their seats: till from his throne supreme The Almighty thus pronounced his sovran will: O Sons, like one of us man is become
To know both good and evil, since his taste Of that defended fruit; but let him boast His knowledge of good lost, and evil got; Happier, had it sufficed him to have known Good by itself, and evil not at all.
He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite, My motions in him; longer than they move, His heart I know, how variable and vain, Self-left. Lest therefore his now bolder hand Reach also of the tree of life, and eat, And live for ever, dream at least to live For ever, to remove him I decree,
And send him from the garden forth to till The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil. Michael, this my behest have thou in charge; Take to thee from among the Cherubim Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the Fiend, Or in behalf of man, or to invade
Vacant possession, some new trouble raise : Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God Without remorse drive out the sinful pair; From hallow'd ground the unholy; and denounce To them, and to their progeny, from thence Perpetual banishment. Yet, lest they faint At the sad sentence rigorously urged (For I behold them soften'd, and with tears Bewailing their excess), all terror hide. If patiently thy bidding they obey, Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal To Adam what shall come in future days, As I shall thee enlighten; intermix
My covenant in the woman's seed renew'd; So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace : And on the east side of the garden place, Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs, Cherubic watch; and of a sword the flame Wide-waving; all approach far off to fright, And guard all passage to the tree of life: Lest Paradise a receptacle prove
To Spirits foul, and all my trees their prey: With whose stolen fruit man once more to delude. He ceased; and the archangelic Power prepared For swift descent; with him the cohort bright Of watchful Cherubim: four faces each Had, like a double Janus; all their shape Spangled with eyes more numerous than those Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowse, Charm'd with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. Meanwhile, To resalute the world with sacred light,
Leucothea waked; and with fresh dews embalm'd The earth; when Adam and first matron Eve Had ended now their orisons, and found Strength added from above; new hope to spring Out of despair; joy, but with fear yet link'd; Which thus to Eve his welcome words renew'd: Eve, easily may faith admit, that all
The good which we enjoy from Heaven descends; But, that from us aught should ascend to Heaven So prevalent as to concern the mind
Of God high-bless'd, or to incline his will, Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer Or one short sigh of human breath, upborne Even to the seat of God. For since I sought By prayer the offended Deity to appease; Kneel'd, and before him humbled all my heart; Methought I saw him placable and mild, Bending his ear; persuasion in me grew That I was heard with favour; peace return'd Home to my breast, and to my memory His promise, that thy seed shall bruise our foe; Which, then not minded in dismay, yet now Assures me that the bitterness of death
Is pass'd, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee, Eve rightly call'd, mother of all mankind, Mother of all things living, since by thee Man is to live; and all things live for man.
To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek: Ill worthy I such title should belong
To me transgressor; who, for thee ordain'd A help, became thy snare; to me reproach Rather belongs, distrust, and all dispraise : But infinite in pardon was my Judge,
That I, who first brought death on all, am graced The source of life; next favourable thou, Who highly thus to entitle me vouchsafest, Far other name deserving. But the field To labour calls us, now with sweat imposed, Though after sleepless night; for see! the morn, All unconcern'd with our unrest, begins Her rosy progress smiling: let us forth; I never from thy side henceforth to stray, Where'er our day's work lies, though now enjoin'd Laborious, till day droop; while here we dwell, What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks? Here let us live, though in fallen state, content.
So spake, so wish'd much bumbled Eve; but Fate Subscribed not: Nature first gave signs, impress'd On bird, beast, air; air suddenly eclipsed, After short blush of morn; nigh in her sight The bird of Jove, stood from his aery tour, Two birds of gayest plume before him drove; Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods, First hunter then, pursued a gentle brace, Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind; Direct to the eastern gate was bent their flight. Adam observed, and with his eye the chase Pursuing, not unmoved, to Eve thus spake:
O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh, Which Heaven, by these mute signs in Nature, shows Forerunners of his purpose; or to warn
Us, haply too secure of our discharge
From penalty, because from death released
Some days: how long, and what till then our life, Who knows? or more than this, that we are dust, And thither must return, and be no more? Why else this double object in our sight Of flight pursued in the air, and o'er the ground, One way the selfsame hour? why in the east Darkness ere day's mid-course, and morning-light More orient in yon western cloud, that draws O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,
And slow descends with something heavenly fraught? He err'd not; for by this the heavenly bands Down from a sky of jasper lighted now
In Paradise, and on a hill made halt; A glorious apparition, had not doubt And carnal fear that day dimm'd Adam's eye. Not that more glorious, when the Angels met Jacob in Mahanaïm, where he saw
The field pavilion'd with his guardians bright: Nor that, which on the flaming mount appear'd In Dothan, cover'd with a camp of fire, Against the Syrian king, who to surprise One man, assassinlike, had levied war,
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