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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 pray'rs, 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 produc'd, ere fall'n
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 tow'ard mankind; let him live
Before thee reconcil'd, at least his days

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Number'd, though sad, till death, his doom, (which I 40

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rious themes Before the Judge.

T. Warton.

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-me his advocate

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38. The smell of peace toward mankind;] The peace offering is frequently called an offering of a sweet savour unto the Lord. So The construction of the whole Levit. iii. 5. Heylin.

And propitiation ;]

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 serv'd but to eternize woe;
Till I provided death; so death becomes
His final remedy, and after life

Tried in sharp tribulation, and refin'd
By faith and faithful works, to second life,

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Gross is to be joined in construction with him and not with distemper; and therefore the comma after distemper should be carefully preserved, as in Milton's own editions, and not be placed after distemper gross, as in Dr. Bentley's edition.

Wak'd in the renovation of the just,

Resigns him up with heav'n and earth renew'd.

But let us call to synod all the blest

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Through heav'n's wide bounds; from them I will not hide

My judgments, how with mankind I proceed,

As how with peccant angels late they saw,

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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. Th' 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

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presented to be standing, or falling down before the throne of God; because they are generally employed there in acts of praise and adoration. But here they are introduced in another character, called to synod, like a grand council, or to be as it were assessors with the Almighty, when he was to pronounce his decree on fallen man: and therefore the poet very properly says, they took their seats. And thus our Saviour tells the Apostles, they shall sit upon twelve thrones as his assessors, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matt. xix. 28. Greenwood.

Th' Almighty thus pronounc'd 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 suffic'd 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,

84. O sons, &c.] The assembling of all the angels of heaven, to hear the solemn decree passed upon Man, is represented in very lively ideas. The AlThe Almighty is here described as remembering mercy in the midst of judgment, and commanding Michael to deliver his message in the mildest terms, lest the spirit of Man, which was already broken with the sense of his guilt and misery, should fail before him. Addison.

This whole speech is founded upon the following passage in Genesis iii. 22, 23, 24. And the Lord God said, Behold the Man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the

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tree of life, and eat and live for ever; Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the Man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

86. Of that defended fruit;] Forbidden fruit, from defendre (French) to forbid; so used by Chaucer,

Where can you say in any manner age

That ever God defended marriage?

Hume and Richardson.

99. Michael, this my behest have thou in charge,] Our au

Take to thee from among the Cherubim

Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the Fiend,
Or in behalf of Man, or to invade

Vacant possession, some new trouble raise:
Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God
Without remorse drive out the sinful pair,
From hallow'd groud th' unholy, and denounce
To them and to their progeny from thence
Perpetual banishment. Yet lest they faint
At the sad sentence rigorously urg'd,

For I behold them soften'd and with tears
Bewailing their excess, all terror hide.
If patiently thy bidding they obey,
Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal
To Adam what shall come in future days,
As I shall thee inlighten; intermix
My covenant in the Woman's seed renew'd;
So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet
And on the east side of the garden place,
Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,
Cherubic watch, and of a sword the flame
Wide-waving, all approach far off to fright,

thor has with great judgment singled out Michael to receive this charge. It would not have been so proper for the sociable spirit Raphael to have executed this order: but as Michael was the principal angel employed in driving the rebel angels out of heaven, so he was the most proper to expel our first parents too out of Paradise.

111. Bewailing their excess,] God is here represented as pity

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in peace :

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ing our first parents, and even while he is ordering Michael to drive them out of Paradise, orders him at the same time to hide all terror; and for the same reason he chooses to speak of their offence in the softest manner, calling it only an excess, a going beyond the bounds of their duty, by the same metaphor as sin is often called transgression.

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