offended the majesty of God by afpiring to God-head, and therefore with all his Progeny devoted to death muft die, unlefs fome one can be found fufficient to anfwer for his offence, and undergo his Punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a Ranfome for Man: the Father accepts him, ordains his Incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all Names in Heaven and Earth; commands all the Angels to adore him; they obey, and hymning to their Harps in full Quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare Convex of this World's outermoft Orb; where wandring he first finds a place, face call'd The Lymbo of Vanity; what perfons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the Gate of Heaven, describ'd afcending by ftairs, and the waters above the Firmament that flow about it: His paffage thence to the Orb of the Sun; he finds there Uriel the Regent of that Orb, but first changes himself into the foape of a meaner Angel; and pretending a zealous defire to behold the new Creation, and Man whom God hath plac'd here, enquires of him the place of bis habitation, and is directed; alights firft on Mount Niphates:

Ail holy Light, offspring of Heav'n first-born

Hor other of Cocternal bear

May I express thee unblam'd? fince God is light, And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from Eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright effence increate.
Or hear'ft thou rather pure Ethereal ftream,
Whofe Fountain who fhall tell? before the Sun,
Before the Heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a Mantle didft invest
The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
Efcap'd the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd
In that obfcure fojourn, while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness bore
With other notes than to th' Orphean Lyre

I fung of Chaos and Eternal Night,

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Taught by the heav'nly Mufe to venture down
The dark defcent, and up to re-afcend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,
And feel thy fov'reign vital Lamp; but thou
Revifit'ft not thefe eyes, that rowle in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop ferene hath quencht their Orbs, 25
Or dim fuffufion veil'd. Yet not the more
Ceafe I to wander where the Mufes haunt
Clear Spring, or fhady Grove, or Sunny Hill,
Smit with the love of facred Song; but chief

Thee Sion and thy flowrie Brooks beneath,

That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor fometimes forget

Those other two equal'd with me in Fate,
So were I equal'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Maonides,
And Tirefias and Phineus Prophets old.

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Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird
Sings darkling, and in fhadieft Covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year 40
Seafons return, but not to me returns

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Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn,
Or fight of vernal bioom, or Summers Rofe,
Or flocks, or heards, or human face divine ;
But cloud inftead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the chearful ways of men
Cut off, and for the Book of knowledge fair
Presented with an univerfal Blanck
Of Natures works to me expung'd and ras'd,
And Wisdom at one entrance quite fhut out.
So much the rather thou Celeftial light
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and difperfe, that I may fee and tell
Of things invifible to mortal fight.

Now had the Almighty Father from above,
From the pure Empyrean where he fits

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High Thron'd above all heighth, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view:

About him all the Santities of Heav'n

Stood thick as Stars, and from his fight receiv'd
Beatitude paft utterance: on his right
The radiant image of his Glory fat,
His only Son; On Earth he first beheld
Our two firft Parents, yet the only two
Of mankind, in the happy Garden plac'd,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrival'd love

In blissful folitude; he then furvey'd

Hell and the Gulf between, and Satan there

Coafting the wall of Heav'n on this fide Night

In the dun Air fublime, and ready now

To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet
On the bare outfide of this World, that feem'd
Firm Land imbofom'd without Firmament,
Uncertain which, in Ocean or in Air.
Him God beholding from his profpe&t high,
Wherein paft, prefent, future he beholds,
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.

Only begotten Son, feeft thou what rage
Tranfports our Adverfary, whom no bounds
Prefcrib'd, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main Abyss
Wide interrupt can hold; fo bent he feems
On defperate revenge, that fhall redound
Upon his own rebellious head. And now

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Through all reftraint broke loose he wings his way Not far off Heav'n, in the Precincts of light,

Directly towards the new created World,

And