PARADISE REGAINED

BOOK I.

THE ARGUMENT.

The subject proposed. Invocation of the Holy Spirit. John baptizing at the river Jordan. Jesus coming there, is baptized ; and is attested by the descent of the Holy Ghost, and by a voice from Heaven, to be the Son of God. Satan, who is present, flies up into the regions of the air ; where, summoning his infernal council, he acquaints them with his apprehensions that Jesus is that seed of the woman destined to destroy all their power, and points out to them the necessity of bringing the matter to proof, and of attempting to counteract and defeat the person from whom they have so much to dread. This office he undertakes, and sets out on his enterprise. In the meantime, God, in the assembly of holy angels, declares that He has given up His Son to be tempted by Satan; but foretells that the tempter shall be completely defeated by Him: upon which the angels sing a hymn of triumph. Jesus is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, while He is meditating on the commencement of His great office of Saviour of niankind. He narrates, in a soliloquy, what divine and philanthropic impulses He had felt from His early youth, and how His mother, Mary, had acquainted Him with the circumstances of His birth, and informed Him that He was no less a person than the Son of God; to which He adds what His own reflections and inquiries had supplied, in confirmation of this great truth, and particularly dwells on the recent attestation of it at the river Jordan. Our Lord passes forty days, fasting, in the wilderness; where the wild beasts become harmless in His presence. Satan now appears under the form of ar old peasant, and enters into discourse with our Lord. "Jesus replies. Satan rejoins with a description of the difficulty of supporting life in the wilderness; and cntrcats Jesus, if He be really the Son of God, to manifest His divine power by changing some of the stones into bread. Jesus reproves him, and, at the same time, tells him that lie knows who he is. Satan avows himself, and offers an artful apology':. Our blessed Lord severely reprimands him, and confutes every part of his justification. Satan still endeavours to justify himself; and, professing his admiration of Jesus, and his regard for virtue, requests to be permitted at a future timc to hcar more of his conversation ; but is answered, that this must be as hc shall since permission from above. Satan then disappears, and the book closes with a short description of night coming on in the desert.

I, who crewhile the happy garden sung
By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
By one Man's firm obedience fully tried
Through all temptation, and the tempter foiled

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In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,
And Eden raised in the waste wilderness.

Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite
Into the desert, His victorious field
Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st Him thence
By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,
As Thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute,
And bear through height or depth of nature's bounds.
With prosperous wing full summed, to tell of deeds
Above heroic, though in secret done,
And unrecorded left through many an age :
Worthy to have not remained so long unsung.

Now had the great proclaimer, with a voice
More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried
Repentance, and Heaven's kingdom nigh at hand
To all baptized. To his great baptism flocked
With awe the regions round, and with them came
From Nazareth the son of Joseph deemed
To the flood Jordan—came as then obscure,
Unmarked, unknown. But Him the Baptist soon
Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore
As to his worthier, and would have resigned
To Him his heavenly office. Nor was long
His witness unconfirmed : on Him baptized
Heaven opened, and in likeness of a dove

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30 The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice From Heaven pronounced Him His beloved Son. That heard the adversary, who, roving still About the world, at that assembly famed Would not be last, and, with the voice divi Nigh thunder-struck, the exalted Man to whom Such high attest was given, while surveyed With wonder; then, with envy fraught and rage, Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air To council summons all his mighty peers,

40 Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved, A gloomy consistory; and then amidst,

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With looks aghast and sad, he thus bespake

“O ancient powers of air and this wide world
(For much more willingly I mention air,
This our old conquest, than remember Hell,
Our hated habitation), well ye know
How many ages, as the years of men,

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This universe we have possessed, and ruled
In manner at our will the affairs of earth,
Since Adam and his facile consort, Eve,
Lost Paradise, deceived by me, though since
With dread attending when that fatal wound
Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve
Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven
Delay, for longest time to Him is short;
And now, too soon for us, the circling hours
This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we
Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound
(At least, if so we can, and by the head
Broken be not intended all our power
To be infringed, our freedom and our being
In this fair empire won of earth and air)-
For this ill news I bring : the woman's seed,
Destined to this, is late of woman born.
His birth to our just fear gave no small cause ;
But His growth now to youth's full flower, displaying
All virtue, grace and wisdom to achieve
Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.
Before Him a great prophet, to proclaim
His coming, is sent harbinger, who all
Invites, and in the consecrated stream
Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so
Purified to receive Him pure, or rather
To do Him honour as their King. All come,
And He Himself among them was baptized-
Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
The testimony of Heaven, that who He is
Thenceforth the nations may not doubt. I saw

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The prophet do Him reverence; on Him, rising

80 Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds Unfold her crystal doors; thence on His head A perfect dove descend (whate'er it meant); And out of Heaven the Sovereign Voice I heard, “This is My Son beloved,-in Him am pleased.' His mother, then, is mortal, but His sire He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven; And what will He not do to advance His Son ? His First-begot we know, and sore have felt, When His fierce thunder drove us to the deep;

9C Who this is we must learn, for man He seems In all His lineaments, though in His face The glimpses of His Father's glory shine. Ye see our danger on the utmost edge Of hazard, which admits no long debate, But must with something sudden be opposed (Not force, but well-couched fraud, well-woven snares), Ere in the head of nations He appear, Their king, their leader, and supreme on earth. I, when no other durst, sole undertook

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The dismal expedition to find out
And ruin Adam, and the exploit performed
Successfully : a calmer voyage now
Will waft me ; and the way found prosperous once
Induces best to hope of like success.'

He ended, and his words impression left
Of much amazement to the infernal crew,
Distracted and surprised with deep dismay
At these sad tidings. But no time was then
For long indulgence to their fears or grief:
Unanimous they all commit the care
And management of this main enterprise
To him, their great dictator, whose attempt
At first against mankind so well had thrived
In Adam's overthrow, and led their march
From Hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light,

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