So fpake this oracle, then verifi'd
When JESUS fon of Mary second Eve,
Saw Satan fall like lightning down from heav'n,
Prince of the aire; then rifing from his grave
Spoil'd principalities and powers, triumpht
In open shew, and with ascension bright
Captivity led captive through the aire,
The realm itself of Satan long ufurpt,
Whom he shall tread at last under our feet &
Even he who now foretold his fatal bruise,
And to the woman thus his fentence turn'd.
Thy forrow I will greatly multiply
By thy conception; children thou shalt bring
In forrow forth, and to thy husband's will
Thine fhall fubmit, he over thee fhall rule.
On Adam laft thus judgment he pronounc'd
Because thou haft heark'n'd to the voice of thy wife,
And eaten of the tree concerning which
I charg'd thee, faying, Thou shalt not eat thereof,
Curs'd is the ground for thy fake, thou in forrow
Shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life;
Thornes alfo and thistles it shall bring thee forth
Unbid, and thou shalt eat th’herb of th’field,
In the fweat of thy face fhalt thou eat bread,
Till thou return into the ground, for thou!
Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth,
For duft thou art, and shalt to duft return.
So judg'd he man, both judge and faviour fent, And th'instant stroke of death denounc't that day Remov'd far off; then pitying how they stood Before him naked to the air, that now
Muft fuffer change, difdain'd not to begin
Thenceforth the form of fervant to affume,
As when he wash'd his fervants feet, fo now
As father of his familie he clad
Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or flain,
Or as the fnake with youthful coat repaid;
And thought not much to cloath his enemies :
Nor he their outward only with the skins
Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more
. Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness,
Arraying cover'd from his father's fight.
To him with fwift afcent he up return'd,
Into his blifsful bofom reaffum'd
In glory as of old, to him appeas'd
All, though all-knowing, what had past with man Recounted, mixing interceffion sweet.
Meanwhile ere thus was finn'd and judg'd on earth,
Within the gates of hell fat, Sin and Death,
In counterview within the gates, that now
Stood open wide, belching outragious flame
Far into Chaos, fince the fiend pass'd through,
Sin opening, who thus now to death began.
O fon, why fit we here each other viewing
Idly, while Satan our great author thrives
In other worlds, and happier feat provides,
For us his offspring deare? it cannot be
But that fuccefs attends him; if mishap,
Ere this he had return'd, with fury driv'n
By his avengers, fince no place like this
Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.
Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,
Wings growing, and dominion giv'n me large
Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
Or fympathie, or fome connatural force
Powerful at greatest distance to unite
With fecret amity things of like kind
By fecreteft conveyance. Thou my shade
Infeparable must with me along:
For death from fin no power can separate.
But least the difficulty of paffing back
Stay his return perhaps over this gulfe
Impaffable, impervious, let us try
Adventrous work, yet to thy power and mine
Not unagreeable, to found a path
Over this main from hell to that new world
Where Satan now prevails, a monument
Of merit high to all th'infernal hoft,
Eafing their paffage hence, for intercourse,
Or tranfmigration, as their lot shall lead.
Nor can I mifs the way, fo ftrongly drawn
By this new felt attraction and instinct.
Whom thus the meagre shadow answer'd foon.
Goe whither fate and inclination strong
Leads thee, I fhall not lag behind, nor err
The way, thou leading, fuch a fent I draw
Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste
The favour of death from all things there that live: Nor fhall I to the work thou enterprisest
Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.
So faying, with delight he fnuff'd the smell Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,
Against the day of battle, to a field,
Where armies lie encampt, come flying, lur'd
With fent of living carcaffes defign'd
For death, the following day, in bloodie fight.
Só fented the grim feature, and upturn'd
His noftril wide into the murkie air,
Sagacious of his quarry from fo far.
Then both from out hell gates into the waste
Wide anarchie of Chaos damp and dark
Flew divers, and with power (their power was great) Hovering upon the waters; what they met
Solid or flimie, as in raging fea
and down, together crowded drove
From a fide fhoaling towards the mouth of hell.
As when two polar we Llowing adverfe
Upon the Cronian fea, together drive
Mountains of ice, that stop th'imagin'd way
Beyond Petfora eastward, to the rich
Cathaian coaft. The aggregated foyle
Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry,
As with a trident smote, and fixt as firm
As Delos floating once; the rest his look
Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move,
And with Asphaltic flime; broad as the gate,
Deep to the roots of hell the gather'd beach
They faften'd, and the mole immense wraught on
Over the foaming deep high archt, a bridge
Of length prodigious joining to the wall
Immoveable of this new fenceless world
Forfeit to death; from hence a passage broad,
Smooth, eafie, inoffenfive down to hell,
So, if great things to small may be compar'd,
Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,
From Sufa his Memnonian palace high
Came to the fea, and over Hellefpont
Bridging his way, Europe with Afia join'd,
And scourg'd with many a stroak th’indignant waves,
Now had they brought the work by wondrous art
Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock
Over the vext abyfs, following the track
Of Satan, to the self fame place where he
Firft lighted from his wing, and landed safe
From out of Chaos to the outfide bare
Of this round world: with pinns of adamant
And chains they made all faft, too faft they made
And durable; and now in little grunt
this world, and on the left hand hell
With long reach interpos'd; three several wayes
In fight to each of these three places led.
And now their way to earth they had defcri'd,
To Paradise first tending when behold
Satan in likeness of an angel bright
Betwixt the Centaure and the Scorpion stearing
His Zenith, while the fun in Aries rofe:
Difguis'd he came, but those his children dear
Their parent foon difcern'd, though in disguise,
He, after Eve feduc't, unminded flunk
Into the wood fast by, and changing shape
To observe the sequel, faw his guileful act
By Eve, though all unweeting, feconded
Upon her husband, saw their shame that fought
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