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And tuneable as sylvan pipe or fong;

What wonder then if 1 delight to hear

Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire
Virtue, who follow not her lore: permit me
To hear thee when I come (fince no man comes)
And talk at leaft, though I defpair to' attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wife and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
To tread his facred courts and minifter
About his altar, handling holy things,
Praying or vowing, and vouchfaf'd his voice
To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet
Infpir'd; difdain not fuch accefs to me.

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To whom our Saviour with unalter'd brow.

Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,
I bid not or forbid; do as thou find'st

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The defert: fowls in their clay nefts were couch'd;

And now wild beafts came forth the woods to roam.

The End of the First Book.

Paradife

M

Regain'd.

BOOK II.

EAN while the new baptiz'd, who yet remain'd
At Jordan with the Baptift, and had feen

Him whom they heard fo late expressly call'd Jefus Meffiah Son of God declar'd,

And on that high authority had believ'd,

And with him talk'd, and with him lodg'd, I mean
Andrew and Simon, famous after known,
With others though in holy writ not nam'd,
Now miffing him their joy fo lately found,
So lately found, and fo abruptly gone,
Began to doubt, and doubted many days,
And as the days increas'd, increas'd their doubt:
Sometimes they thought he might be only shown,
And for a time caught up to God, as once
Mofes was in the mount, and miffing long;
And the great Thifbite, who on fiery wheels
Rode up to Heav'n, yet once again to come.
Therefore as thofe young prophets then with care
Sought loft Elijah, so in each place these
Nigh to Bethabara; in Jericho

The city' of palms, Enon, and Salem old,
Machærus, and each town or city wall'd

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Ver. 16. And the great Thifbite,] Elijah, a native of Thisbe, a city of the country of Gilead, beyond Jordan.

On this fide the broad lake Genezaret,

Or in Peræa; but return'd in vain.

Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,
Where winds with reeds and offers whifp'ring play,
Plain fishermen, no greater men them call,
Close in a cottage low together got,

Their unexpected lofs and plaints out breath'd.

Alas, from what high hope to what relapse

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Unlook'd for are we fall'n! our eyes beheld
Meffiah certainly now come, fo long

Expected of our fathers; we have heard

His words, his wifdom full of grace and truth;
Now, now, for fure, deliverance is at hand,
The kingdom fhall to Ifrael be reftor'd:
Thus we rejoic'd, but foon our joy is turn'd
Into perplexity and new amaze :

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For whither is he gone, what accident

Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire
After appearance, and again prolong

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Our expectation? God of Ifrael,

Send thy Meffiah forth, the time is come;

Behold the Kings of th' earth how they opprefs

Thy chofen, to what heighth their power unjust 45
They have exalted, and behind them caft

All fear of thee; arife and vindicate
Thy glory, free thy people from their yoke.
But let us wait; thus far he hath perform'd,
Sent his Anointed, and to us reveal'd him,
By his great Prophet, pointed at and shown
In public, and with him we have convers'd;
Let us be glad of this, and all our fears
Lay on his providence; he will not fail,

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Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall,

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Mock us with his bleft fight, then snatch him hence ;
Soon we shall see our hope, our joy return.

Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume
To find whom at the first they found unfought:
But to his mother Mary, when she saw
Others return'd from baptifm, not her fon,
Nor left at Jordan, tidings of him none,

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Within her breaft though calm, her breast though pure,

Motherly cares and fears got head, and rais'd

Some troubled thoughts, which she in fighs thus clad.

O what avails me now that honor high
To have conceiv'd of God, or that falute
Hail highly favor'd, among women bleft!
While I to forrows am no lefs advanc'd,
And fears as eminent, above the lot
Of other women, by the birth I bore,
In fuch a feafon born when scarce a fhed

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Could be obtain'd to fhelter him or me

From the bleak air; a ftable was our warmth,

A manger his; yet foon enforc'd to fly

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Thence into Egypt, till the murd'rous king

Were dead, who fought his life, and miffing fill'd
With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem ;
From Egypt home return'd, in Nazareth
Hath been our dwelling many years; his life
Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,
Little fufpicious to any king, but now
Full grown to man, acknowledg'd as I hear,
By John the Baptift, and in public shown.
Son own'd from Heav'n by his Father's voice;
I look'd for fome great change; to honor? no,
But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretold,
That to the fall and rifing he should be

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Of many in Ifraël, and to a fign

Spoken againft, that through my very foul
A sword shall pierce; this is my favour'd lot,
My exaltation to afflictions high;
Afflicted I may be, it feems, and bleft;

intent

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I will not argue that, nor will repine.
But where delays he now ? fome great
Conceals him when twelve years he scarce had seen
I loft him, but fo found, as well I faw
He could not lofe himself; but went about
His Father's business; what he meant I mus'd,
Since understand; much more his abfence now
Thus long to fome great purpose he obscures.
But I to wait with patience am inur'd ;
My heart hath been a store-house long of things
And fay'ings laid up, portending strange events.

Thus Mary pond'ring oft, and oft to mind
Recalling what remarkably had pass'd
Since firft her falutation heard, with thoughts
Meekly compos'd awaited the fulfilling ;
The while her fon tracing the defert wild,
Sole but with holiest meditations fed,
Into himself descended, and at once
All his great work to come before him fet;
How to begin how to accomplish best
His end of being on earth, and miffion high:
For Satan with fly preface to return

Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone
Up to the middle region of thick air,
Where all his potentates in council fat;
There without fign of boaft, or fign of joy,
Solicitous and blank he thus began.

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