But to destruction sacred and devote,
He, with his whole posterity, must die;
Die, he or justice must: unless for him,
Some other, able, and as willing, pay
The rigid satisfaction, death for death.
Say, Heavenly Powers, where shall we find such
Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem [love?
Man's mortal crime, and just, the unjust to save?
Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?"

He ask'd; but all the heavenly quire stood mute,
And silence was in heaven: on man's behalf,
Patron or intercessor, none appear'd;

Much less that durst upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
And now, without redemption, all mankind
Must have been lost, adjudged to death and hell
By doom severe, had not the Son of God,

In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renew'd:

Father! thy word is pass'd, man shall find grace, And shall grace not find means, that finds her way The speediest of thy winged messengers,

To visit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought?
Happy for man, so coming; he her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost:
Atonement for himself, or offering meet,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring:
Behold ME then; me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall:
Account me man; I, for his sake, will leave

Thy bosom; and this glory next to thee,
Freely put off; and for him lastly die,

Well pleased. On me let Death wreak all his rage;
Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquish'd; thou hast given me to possess
Life in myself for ever; by thee I live,

Though now to Death I yield, and am his due,
All that of me can die: yet that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave,
His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul,
For ever with corruption, there to dwell;
But I shall rise victorious, and subdue
My vanquisher, spoil'd of his vaunted spoil.
Death his death's wound shall then receive, and
Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarm'd. [stoop
I, through the ample air, in triumph high,
Shall lead Hell captive, maugre Hell, and show
The Powers of darkness bound. Thou, at the sight
Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile;
While, by thee raised, I ruin all my foes,
Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave:
Then, with the multitude of my redeem'd,
Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and return,
Father! to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain, but peace assured,
And reconcilement: wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire."

His words here ended; but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love
To mortal men; above which only shone
Filial obedience. As a sacrifice

Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will
Of his great Father. Admiration seized [tend,
All Heaven; what this might mean, and whither
Wondering: but soon the Almighty thus replied:

"O thou, in Heaven and Earth the only peace
Found out for mankind, under wrath! O thou,
My sole complacence! well thou know'st how dear
To me are all my works, nor man the least,
Though last created; that for him I spare
Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save,
By losing thee a while, the whole race lost.
Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst redeem,
Their nature also to thy nature join;

And be thyself man, among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,
By wondrous birth. Be thou, in Adam's room,
The head of all mankind, though Adam's son.
As in him perish all men, so in thee,

As from a second root, shall be restored
As many as are restored; without thee, none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit
Imputed shall absolve them, who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life. So man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for man, be judged and die;
And dying rise, and, rising, with him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.
So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem;
So dearly to redeem, what hellish hate

So easily destroyed, and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume

Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own,
Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss,
Equal to God, and equally enjoying

Godlike fruition, quitted all, to save

A world from utter loss, and hast been found,
By merit more than birthright, Son of God;
Found worthiest to be so, by being good,
Far more than great or high: because in thee
Love hath abounded more than glory abounds,
Therefore, thy humiliation shall exalt,

With thee thy manhood, also to this throne.
Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign,
Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed universal King. All power

I give thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits: under thee, as head supreme,
Thrones, princedoms, powers, dominions, I reduce:
All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
In Heaven or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.
When thou, attended gloriously, from Heaven,
Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
The summoning Arch-angels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal; forthwith, from all winds,
The living, and forthwith, the cited dead,
Of all past ages, to the general doom

Shall hasten, such a peal shall rouse their sleep.
Then all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
Bad men and Angels; they arraign'd shall sink

F

Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Meanwhile
The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
New heaven and earth; wherein the just shall
And, after all their tribulations long, [dwell,

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth.
Then thou thy regal sceptre shalt lay by,
For regal sceptre then no more shall need,
God shall be all in all. But all ye Gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies;
Adore the Son, and honour him as me.”

No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all
The multitude of Angels, with a shout,

Loud, as from numbers without number, sweet,
As from bless'd voices, uttering joy; Heaven rung
With jubilee, and loud hosannahs fill'd

The eternal regions: lowly reverent,

Towards either throne they bow, and to the With solemn adoration, down they cast [ground, Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and goldImmortal amaranth, a flower, which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but soon, for man's offence,
To Heaven removed, where first it grew; there
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life, [grows,
And where the river of bliss, through midst of
Heaven,

Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;
With these, that never fade, the Spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks, inwreathed with beams.