Without wrath or reviling. We expected Immediate dissolution, which we thought Was meant by death that day; when, lo! to thee Pains only in child-bearing 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 benumbed-ere this diurnal star Leave cold the night, how we his gathered 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 pushed with winds, rude in their shock, Tine the slant lightning, whose thwart flame, driven down 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 Το pass commodiously this life, sustained 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 unfeigned and humiliation meek? Undoubtedly He will relent, and turn From His displeasure, in whose look serene, When angry most He seemed 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 confessed
Humbly their faults, and pardon begged, with tears Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign Of sorrow unfeigned 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 prayer
Inspired, and winged for Heaven with speedier flight Than loudest oratory. Yet their port Not of mean suitors; nor important less
Seemed 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 drowned, before the shrine Of Themis stood devout. To Heaven their prayers Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds Blown vagabond or frustrate in they passed 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, mixed 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
Numbered, 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 redeemed 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 Distempered all things, and of incorrupt Corrupted. I, at first, with two fair gifts Created him endowed with happiness And immortality; that fondly lost,
This other served but to eternise 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 renewed.
But let Us call to synod all the blessed
Through Heaven's wide bounds; from them I will not hide My judgments—how with mankind I proceed,
As how with peccant angels late they saw,
And in their state, though firm, stood more confirmed." He ended, and the Son gave signal high
To the bright minister that watched. He blew His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps When God descended, and perhaps once more To sound at general doom. The angelic blast Filled 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 sovereign 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,
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