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The throne hereditary, and bound his reign

370

With earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heavens.

He ceas'd, discerning Adam with such joy

Surcharg'd, as had like grief been dew'd in tears, Without the vent of words, which these he breath'd.

O prophet of glad tidings, finisher

Of utmost hope! now clear I understand

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380

What oft my steadiest thoughts have search'd in vain;
Why our great expectation should be call'd
The Seed of Woman: Virgin Mother, hail,
High in the love of heav'n, yet from my loins
Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son
Of God most high; so God with Man unites.
Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise
Expect with mortal pain: say where and when
Their fight, what stroke shall bruise the victor's heel. 385
To whom thus Michael. Dream not of their fight,
As of a duel, or the local wounds

Of head or heel: not therefore joins the Son
Manhood to Godhead, with more strength to foil
Thy enemy; nor so is overcome

Satan, whose fall from heav'n, a deadlier bruise,
Disabled not to give thee thy death's wound:
Which he, who comes thy Saviour, shall recure,
Not by destroying Satan, but his works
In thee and in thy seed: nor can this be,

370. —and bounds his reign With earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heavens.] Imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris.

Virg. Æn. i. 287.

394.

-his works

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In thee and in thy seed :] 1 John iii. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

But by fulfilling that which thou didst want,
Obedience to the law of God, impos'd
On penalty of death, and suffering death,
The penalty to thy transgression due,

And due to theirs which out of thine will grow :
So only can high justice rest appaid.

The law of God exact he shall fulfil

Both by obedience and by love, though love
Alone fulfil the law; thy punishment

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He shall endure by coming in the flesh
To a reproachful life and cursed death,
Proclaiming life to all who shall believe
In his redemption, and that his obedience
Imputed becomes theirs by faith, his merits
To save them, not their own, though legal works. 410

400. And due to theirs which out of thine will grow :] Punishment is due to men's actual transgressions, though the original depravity, the transgression of Adam, was the root of them. Richardson.

403. -though love Alone fulfil the law;] Rom. xiii. 10. Love is the fulfil ling of the law.

409. his merits To save them, &c.] Dr. Bentley says, that the construction demands Do save them, and so he supposes that Milton gave it. And indeed though I dislike the Doctor's alteration, I confess that there is a difficulty in the common reading. The only sense that I can make of it is this, Which redemption and obedience are his merits to save

them, and not their own works, though legal ones, and strictly conformable to the law. Pearce.

I rather understand the passage thus. I apprehend that the verb believe governs the rest of the sentence, Proclaiming life to all who shall believe in his redemption, and shall believe that his obedience imputed becomes theirs by faith, and shall believe his merits to save them, not their own, though legal works.

409. Dr. Newton writes as if the verb believe governed his merits, and consequently their works. The last clause would be clearer perhaps thus: and shall believe that his merits are to save them, not their own, though legal works. That his merits alone are to be the means of saving them. E.

For this he shall live hated, be blasphem'd,

Seiz'd on by force, judg'd, and to death condemn'd
A shameful and accurs'd, nail'd to the cross
By his own nation, slain for bringing life;
But to the cross he nails thy enemies,
The law that is against thee, and the sins
Of all mankind, with him there crucified,
Never to hurt them more who rightly trust
In this his satisfaction; so he dies,
But soon revives; death over him no power
Shall long usurp; ere the third dawning light
Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise
Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light,
Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems,
His death for man, as many as offer'd life

Neglect not, and the benefit embrace

By faith not void of works: this God-like act

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Annuls thy doom, the death thou should'st have died, In sin for ever lost from life; this act

Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, 430

413. A shameful and accurs'd] For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Gal. iii. 13. Deut. xxi. 23.

415. But to the cross he nails thy enemies,] The enemies of Adam were the law that was against him, and the sins of all mankind, as springing originally from him, and therefore in some sense chargeable upon him. The author in this passage alludes to Col. ii. 14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary

to us, and took it out of the way,

nailing it to his cross.

424. Thy ransom paid,] The two first editions have Thy (the later ones The): and Milton's word may be defended, if we suppose that Adam is here spoken of not as a single person, but as one in whose loins all mankind was contained, or as one who was representative of the whole human species. And so the poet speaks again in ver. 427.

- -this God-like act Annuls thy doom, &c.

Pearce.

Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms,
And fix far deeper in his head their stings
Than temp❜ral death shall bruise the victor's heel,
Or theirs whom he redeems, a death like sleep,
A gentle wafting to immortal life.
Nor after resurrection shall he stay

Longer on earth than certain times to' appear
To his disciples, men who in his life

Still follow'd him; to them shall leave in charge
To teach all nations what of him they learn'd
And his salvation, them who shall believe
Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign
Of washing them from guilt of sin to life
Pure, and in mind prepar'd, if so befal,
For death, like that which the Redeemer died.
All nations they shall teach; for from that day
Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins
Salvation shall be preach'd, but to the sons
Of Abraham's faith wherever through the world ;
So in his seed all nations shall be blest.
Then to the heav'n of heav'ns he shall ascend
With victory, triumphing through the air
Over his foes and thine; there shall surprise

432. And fix far deeper in his

head their stings Than temp❜ral death shall bruise

the victor's heel,] Before we come to a conclusion, it may be proper to remark here, once for all, that Milton makes no distinction between then and than, but spells both alike then, which must necessarily occasion some obscurity

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and confusion. Their too he commonly writes thir, but this greatly offends the eye, we are so much habituated to the other; and at the same time he frequently uses theirs, and there seems to be no reason why the one should be written differently from the other. It is hoped therefore that these things have been altered for the better.

The Serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains

Through all his realm, and there confounded leave; 455 Then enter into glory, and resume

His seat at God's right hand, exalted high

Above all names in heav'n; and thence shall come,

When this world's dissolution shall be ripe,

With glory' and pow'r to judge both quick and dead, 460
To judge th' unfaithful dead, but to reward

His faithful, and receive them into bliss,
Whether in heav'n or earth, for then the earth
Shall all be Paradise, far happier place
Than this of Eden, and far happier days.

So spake th' archangel Michaël, then paus'd,
As at the world's great period; and our sire
Replete with joy and wonder thus replied.
O Goodness infinite, Goodness immense !

457. exalted high Above all names in heav'n ;] Phil. ii. 9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. Or, as it is expressed Eph. i. 20, 21. Hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which

is to come.

459. When this world's dissolution shall be ripe,] In the later editions we have the world's: but I prefer this, which is found in the two first: because this reading admits the ictus on the second syllable of the verse, (where it ought to be,) whereas the other reading throws it off upon the third. Pearce.

VOL. II.

4.65

469. O Goodness infinite, Goodness immense! &c.] The poet has very finely represented the joy and gladness of heart, which rises in Adam upon his discovery of the Messiah. As he sees his day at a distance through types and shadows, he rejoices in it; but when he finds the redemption of man completed, and Paradise again renewed, he breaks forth in rapture and transport. I have hinted before, that an heroic poem, according to the opinion of the best critics, ought to end happily, and leave the mind of the reader, after having conducted it through many doubts and fears, sorrows and disquietudes, in a state of tranquillity and satisfaction. Milton's fable, which B b

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