And to the end persisting, safe arrive.
This my long sufferance and my day of grace
They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste:
But hard be hard'nd, blind be blinded more,
That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;
And none but such from mercy I exclude.
But yet all is not done; Man disobeying,
Disloyal breaks his fealty, and sins
Against the high supremacy of Heav'n,
Affecting Godhead; and so losing all,
To expiate his treason hath nought left,
But to destruction sacred and devote,
He with his whole posterity must die;
Die he or Justice must; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid satisfaction, death for death.

Say, Heav'nly powers, where shall we find such love?
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem

Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save ?
Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?'

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He ask'd; but all the Heav'nly quire stood mute
And silence was in Heav'n: on Man's behalf
Patron or intercessor none appear'd,

Much less that durst upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
And now without redemption all mankind

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Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell
By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renew'd:

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'Father, thy word is past, Man shall find grace; And shall grace not find means, that finds her way, The speediest of thy winged messengers,

To visit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unsought?
Happy for Man, so coming; he her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost;
Atonement for himself or offering meet,

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Indebted and undone, hath none to bring:
Behold me then, me for him, life for life

I offer, on me let thine anger fall:

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Account me Man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee

Freely put off, and for him lastly die

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Well pleas'd, on me let Death wreak all his rage;
Under his gloomy power I shall not long

Lie vanquish't; thou hast given me to possess

Life in myself for ever, by thee I live,

Though now to Death I yield, and am his due
All that of me can die, yet that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave

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His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul

For ever with corruption there to dwell.

But I shall rise victorious, and subdue

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My vanquisher, spoil'd of his vaunted spoil;

Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoop
Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarm'd.

I through the ample air in triumph high,

Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show

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The Powers of darkness bound. Thou at the sight

Pleas'd, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,
While by thee rais'd I ruin all my foes,
Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave:
Then, with the multitude of my redeem'd,
Shall enter Heav'n long absent, and return,
Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace assur'd,
And reconcilement: wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.’

His words here ended; but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love
To mortal men, above which only shon

Filial obedience: as a sacrifice

Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will

Of his great Father. Admiration seiz'd

All Heav'n, what this might mean and whither tend

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Wondring; but soon th' Almighty thus repli'd.

'O thou, in Heav'n and Earth the only peace
Found out for mankind under wrath! O thou
My sole complacence! well thou know'st how dear
To me are all my works, nor Man the least
Though last created, that for him I spare
Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,
By losing thee a while, the whole race lost.
Thou therefore whom thou only canst redeem,
Their nature also to thy nature join;
And be thyself Man among men on earth,

Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,
By wondrous birth: be thou in Adam's room
The Head of all mankind, though Adam's son.
As in him perish all men, so in thee
As from a second root shall be restor'd
As many as are restor'd, without thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons, thy merit
Imputed shall absolve them, who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So Man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for Man, be judg'd and die;
And dying rise, and rising with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate

So easily destroy'd, and still destroys

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In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume

Man's nature, less'n or degrade thine own.

Because thou hast, though thron'd in highest bliss
Equal to God, and equally enjoying

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Godlike fruition, quitted all, to save

A world from utter loss; and hast been found

By merit more than birthright Son of God,
Found worthiest to be so by being good,

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Far more than great or high; because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory abounds,
Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt

With thee thy manhood also to this throne.
Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign
Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed universal King; all power

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I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits; under thee as Head supreme

Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions I reduce:
All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou attended gloriously from Heav'n
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The summoning archangels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal: forthwith from all winds
The living, and forthwith the cited dead
Of all past ages to the general doom
Shall hast'n; such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then all thy saints assembl'd, thou shalt judge
Bad men and angels, they arraign'd shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; Hell her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile
The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring

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New Heav'n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell, 335 And after all their tribulations long

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,

With Joy and Love triumphing, and fair Truth.
Then thou thy regal sceptre shalt lay by,

For regal sceptre then no more shall need,
God shall be all in all. But all ye gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honour him as me.'

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No sooner had th' Almighty ceast, but all

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The multitude of angels with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heav'n rung
With jubilee, and loud hosannas fill'd

Th' eternal regions: lowly reverent

Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground

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To Heav'n remov'd where first it grew, there grows,

And flowrs aloft shading the fount of Life,

And where the river of Bliss through midst of Heav'n
Rolls o'er Elysian flowrs her amber stream;
With these that never fade the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks inwreath'd with beams.

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Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement that like a sea of jasper shon
Impurpl'd with celestial roses smil'd.

Then crown'd again their gold'n harps they took,
Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their side
Like quivers hung; and with preamble sweet
Of charming symphony they introduce
Their sacred song, and waken raptures high:

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No voice exempt, no voice but well could join

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Melodious part, such concord is in Heav'n.
Thee Father first they sung omnipotent,

Immutable, immortal, infinite,

Eternal King; thee Author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyself invisible

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Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit'st
Thron'd inaccessible; but when thou shad'st

The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud
Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine,
Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,
Yet dazzle Heav'n; that brightest seraphim

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Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.
Thee next they sang of all creation first,
Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,

In whose conspicuous count'nance, without cloud,
Made visible th' Almighty Father shines,

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