Shall scape his punishment ordain'd, and we Instead shall double ours upon our heads. No more be mention'd then of violence Against ourselves; and wilful barrenness, That cuts us off from hope; and savours only Rancour and pride, impatience and despite, Reluctance against God and his just yoke Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild And gracious temper he both heard, and judged, Without wrath or reviling; we expected Immediate dissolution, which we thought Was meant by death that day: when lo! to thee Pains only in childbearing were foretold,
And bringing forth; soon recompensed with joy, Fruit of thy womb on me the curse aslope Glanced on the ground; with labour I must earn My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse. My labour will sustain me; and, lest cold Or heat should injure us, his timely care Hath, unbesought, provided; and his hands Clothed us unworthy, pitying while he judged; How much more, if we pray him, will his ear Be open, and his heart to pity incline,
And teach us further by what means to shun The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow! Which now the sky, with various face, begins To show us in this mountain; while the winds Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks Of these fair spreading trees; which bids us seek Some better shroud, some better warmth to cherish Our limbs benumb'd, ere this diurnal star Leave cold the night, how we his gather'd beams Reflected may with matter sere foment; Or, by collision of two bodies, grind
The air attrite to fire; as late the clouds
Justling, or push'd with winds, rude in their shock, Tine the slant lightning; whose thwart flame, driven Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine;
And sends a comfortable heat from far, Which might supply the sun: such fire to use, And what may else be remedy or cure
To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought, He will instruct us praying, and of grace Beseeching him; so as we need not fear To pass commodiously this life, sustain'd By him with many comforts, till we end In dust, our final rest and native home. What better can we do than, to the place Repairing where he judged us, prostrate fall Before him reverent; and there confess Humbly our faults, and pardon beg; with tears Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek? Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn From his displeasure; in whose look serene, When angry most he seem'd and most severe, What else but favour, grace, and mercy, shone? So spake our father penitent; nor Eve Felt less remorse: they, forthwith to the place Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell Before him reverent; and both confess'd
Humbly their faults, and pardon begg'd: with tears Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign Of sorrow unfeign'd and humiliation meek.
The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them: God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them but first to reveal to Adam future things: Michael's coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs; he discerns Michael's approach; goes out to meet him; the Angel denounces their departure. Eve's Lamentation. Adam pleads, but submits: The Angel leads him up to a high hill; sets before him in vision what shall happen till the Flood.
THUS they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood Praying; for from the mercy-seat above Prevenient grace descending had removed The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh Regenerate grow instead; that sighs now breathed Unutterable; which the Spirit of
Inspired, and wing'd for Heaven with speedier flight Than loudest oratory: yet their port
Not of mean suitors; nor important less Seem'd their petition, than when the ancient pair In fables old, less ancient yet than these, Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore
The race of mankind drown'd, before the shrine Of Themis stood devout. To Heaven their prayers Flew up, nor miss'd the way, by envious winds Blown vagabond or frustrate in they pass'd Dimensionless through heavenly doors; then clad With incense, where the golden altar fumed By their great Intercessor, came in sight Before the Father's throne: them the glad Son Presenting, thus to intercede began:
See, Father, what first-fruits on earth are sprung From thy implanted grace in Man; these sighs And prayers, which in this golden censer, mix'd
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
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