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A50931
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Paradise regain'd a poem in IV books : to which is added Samson Agonistes / the author John Milton.
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Milton, John, 1608-1674.; Milton, John, 1608-1674. Samson Agonistes.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing M2152; ESTC R299
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60,088
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218
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unsay feign flatter or abjure But thou art plac't above me thou art Lord From thee I can and must submiss endure Check or reproof and glad to scape so quit Hard are the ways of truth and rough to walk Smooth on the tongue discourst pleasing to th' ear And tuneable as Silvan Pipe or Song What wonder then if I delight to hear Her dictates from thy mouth most men admire Vertue who follow not her lore permit me To hear thee when I come since no man comes And talk at least though I despair to attain Thy Father who is holy wise and pure Suffers the Hypocrite or Atheous Priest To tread his Sacred Courts and minister About his Altar handling holy things Praying or vowing and vouchsaf'd his voice To Balaam Reprobate a Prophet yet Inspir'd disdain not such access to me 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 Permission from above thou canst not more He added not and Satan bowing low His gray dissimulation disappear'd Into thin Air diffus'd for now began Night with her sullen wing to double-shade The Desert Fowls in thir clay nests were couch't And now wild Beasts came forth the woods to roam The End of the First Book PARADISE REGAIN'D The Second BOOK MEan while the new-baptiz'd who yet remain'd At Jordan with the Baptist and had seen Him whom they heard so late expresly call'd Jesus Messiah Son of God declar'd And on that high Authority had believ'd And with him talkt and with him lodg'd I mean Andrew and Simon famous after known With others though in Holy Writ not nam'd Now missing him thir joy so lately found So lately found and so abruptly gone Began to doubt and doubted many days And as the days increas'd increas'd thir doubt Sometimes they thought he might be only shewn And for a time caught up to God as once Moses was in the Mount and missing long And the great Thisbite who onfiery wheels Rode up to Heaven yet once again to come Therefore as those young Prophets then with care Sought lost Eliah so in each place these Night to Bethabara in Jerico The City of Palms Aenon and Salem Old Machaerus and each Town or City wall'd On this side the broad lake Genezaret Or in Perea but return'd in vain Then on the bank of Jordan by a Creek Where winds with Reeds and Osiers whisp'ring play Plain Fishermen no greater men them call Close in a Cottage low together got Thir unexpected loss and plaints out breath'd Alas from what high hope to what relapse Unlook'd for are we fall'n our eyes beheld Messiah certainly now come so long Expected of our Fathers we have heard His words his wisdom full of grace and truth Now now for sure deliverance is at hand The Kingdom shall to Israel be restor'd Thus we rejoyc'd but soon our joy is turn'd Into perplexity and new amaze For whither is he gone what accident Hath rapt him from us will he now retire After appearance and again prolong Our expectation God of Israel Send thy Messiah forth the time is come Behold the Kings of the Earth how they oppress Thy chosen to what highth thir pow'r unjust They have exalted and behind them cast All fear of thee arise and vindicate Thy Glory freethy people from thir 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 publick 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 Nor will withdraw him now nor will recall Mock us with his blest sight 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 unsought But to his Mother Mary when she saw Others return'd from Baptism not her Son Nor left at Jordan tydings of him none Within her brest though calm her brest though pure Motherly cares and fears got head and rais'd Some troubl'd thoughts which she in sighs thus clad O what avails me now that honour high To have conceiv'd of God or that salute Hale highly favour'd among women blest While I to sorrows am no less advanc't And fears as eminent above the lot Of other women by the birth I bore In such a season born when scarce a Shed Could be obtain'd to shelter him or me From the bleak air a Stable was our warmth A Manger his yet soon enforc't to flye Thence into Egypt till the Murd'rous King Were dead who sought his life and missing 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 suspicious to any King but now Full grown to Man acknowledg'd as I hear By John the Baptist and in publick shown Son own'd from Heaven by his Father's voice I look't for some great change to Honour no But trouble as old Simeon plain fore-told That to the fall and rising he should be Of many in Israel and to a sign Spoken against that through my very Soul A sword shall pierce this is my favour'd lot My Exaltation to Afflictions high Afflicted I may be it seems and blest I will not argue that nor will repine But where delays he now some great intent Conceals him when twelve years he scarce had seen I lost him but so found as well I saw He could not lose himself but went about His Father's business what he meant I mus'd Since understand much more his absence now Thus long to some great purpose he obscures But I to wait with patience am inur'd My heart hath been a store-house long of things And sayings laid up portending strange events Thus Mary pondering oft and oft to mind Recalling what remarkably had pass'd Since first her Salutation heard with thoughts Meekly compos'd awaited the fulfilling The while her Son tracing the Desert wild Sole but with holiest Meditations fed Into himself descended and at once All his great work to come before him set How to begin how to accomplish best His end of being on Earth and mission high For Satan with slye preface to return Had left him vacant and with speed was gon Up to the middle Region of thick Air Where all his Potentates in Council sate There without sign of boast or sign of joy Sollicitous and blank he thus began Princes Heavens antient Sons Aethereal Thrones Demonian Spirits now from the Element Each of his reign allotted rightlier call'd Powers of Fire Air Water and Earth beneath So may we hold our place and these mild seats Without new trouble such an Enemy Is ris'n to invade us who no less Threat'ns our expulsion down to Hell I as I undertook and with the vote Consenting in full frequence was impowr'd Have found him view'd him tasted him but
swelling Epithetes thick laid As varnish on a Harlots cheek the rest Thin sown with aught of profit or delight Will far be found unworthy to compare With Sion's songs to all true tasts excelling Where God is prais'd aright and Godlike men The Holiest of Holies and his Saints Such are from God inspir'd not such from thee Unless where moral vertue is express't By light of Nature not in all quite lost Thir Orators thou then extoll'st as those The top of Eloquence Statists indeed And lovers of thir Country as may seem But herein to our Prophets far beneath As men divinely taught and better teaching The solid rules of Civil Government In thir majestic unaffected stile Then all the Oratory of Greece and Rome In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt What makes a Nation happy and keeps it so What ruins Kingdoms and lays Cities flat These only with our Law best form a King So spake the Son of God but Satan now Quite at a loss for all his darts were spent Thus to our Saviour with stern brow reply'd Since neither wealth nor honour arms nor arts Kingdom nor Empire pleases thee nor aught By me propos'd in life contemplative Oractive tended on by glory or fame What dost thou in this World the Wilderness For thee is fittest place I found thee there And thither will return thee yet remember What I foretell thee soon thou shalt have cause To wish thou never hadst rejected thus Nicely or cautiously my offer'd aid Which would have set thee in short time with ease On David's Throne or Throne of all the world Now at full age fulness of time thy season When Prophesies of thee are best fullfill'd Now contrary if I read aught in Heaven Or Heav'n write aught of Fate by what the Stars Voluminous or single characters In their conjunction met give me to spell Sorrows and labours opposition hate Attends thee scorns reproaches injuries Violence and stripes and lastly cruel death A Kingdom they portend thee but what Kingdom Real or Allegoric I discern not Nor when eternal sure as without end Without beginning for no date prefixt Directs me in the Starry Rubric set So saying he took for still he knew his power Not yet expir'd and to the Wilderness Brought back the Son of God and left him there Feigning to disappear Darkness now rose As day-light sunk and brought in lowring night Her shadowy off-spring unsubstantial both Privation meer of light and absent day Our Saviour meek and with untroubl'd mind After his aerie jaunt though hurried sore Hungry and cold betook him to his rest Wherever under some concourse of shades Whose branching arms thick intertwind might shield From dews and damps of night his shelter'd head But shelter'd slept in vain for at his head The Tempter watch'd and soon with ugly dreams Disturb'd his sleep and either Tropic now Can thunder and both ends of Heav'n the Clouds From many a horrid rift abortive pour'd Fierce rain with lightning mixt water with fire In ruine reconcil'd nor slept the winds Within thir stony caves but rush'd abroad From the four hinges of the world and fell On the vext Wilderness whose tallest Pines Though rooted deep as high and sturdiest Oaks Bow'd their Stiff necks loaden with stormy blasts Or torn up sheer ill wast thou shrouded then O patient Son of God yet only stoodst Unfnaken nor yet staid the terror there Infernal Ghosts and Hellish Furies round shriek'd Environ'd thee some howl'd some yell'd some Some bent at thee thir fiery darts while thou Sat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace Thus pass'd the night so foul till morning fair Came forth with Pilgrim steps in amice gray Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar Of thunder chas'd the clouds and laid the winds And grisly Spectres which the Fiend had rais'd To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire And now the Sun with more effectual beams Had chear'd the face of Earth and dry'd the wet From drooping plant or dropping tree the birds Who all things now behold more fresh and green After a night of storm so ruinous Clear'd up their choicest notes in bush and spray To gratulate the sweet return of morn Nor yet amidst this joy and brightest morn Was absent after all his mischief done The Prince of darkness glad would also seem Of this fair change and to our Saviour came Yet with no new device they all were spent Rather by this his last affront resolv'd Desperate of better course to vent his rage And mad despight to be so oft repell'd Him walking on a Sunny hill he found Back'd on the North and West by a thick wood Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape And in a careless mood thus to him said Fair morning yet betides thee Son of God After a dismal night I heard the rack As Earth and Skie would mingle but my self Was distant and these flaws though mortals fear them As dangerous to the pillard frame of Heaven Or to the Earths dark basis underneath Are to the main as inconsiderable And harmless if not wholsom as a sneeze To mans less universe and soon are gone Yet as being oft times noxious where they light On man beast plant wastful and turbulent Like turbulencies in the affairs of men Over whose heads they rore and seem to point They oft fore-signifie and threaten ill This Tempest at this Desert most was bent Of men at thee for only thou here dwell'st Did I not tell thee if thou didst reject The perfet season offer'd with my aid To win thy destin'd seat but wilt prolong All to the push of Fate persue thy way Of gaining David's Throne no man knows when For both the when and how is no where told Thou shalt be what thou art ordain'd no doubt For Angels have proclaim'd it but concealing The time and means each act is rightliest done Not when it must but when it may be best If thou observe not this be sure to find What I foretold thee many a hard assay Of dangers and adversities and pains E're thou of Israel's Scepter get fast hold Whereof this ominous night that clos'd thee round So many terrors voices prodigies May warn thee as a sure fore-going sign So talk'd he while the Son of God went on And staid not but in brief him answer'd thus Mee worse then wet thou find'st not other harrâ— Those terrors which thou speak'st of did me none I never fear'd they could though noising loud And threatning nigh what they can do as signs Betok'ning or ill boding I contemn As false portents not sent from God but thee Who knowing I shall raign past thy preventing Obtrud'st thy offer'd aid that I accepting Atleast might seem to hold all power of thee Ambitious spirit and wouldst be thought my God And storm'st refus'd thinking to terrifie Mee to thy will desist thou art discern'd And toil'st in vain nor me in vain molest To whom the Fiend now swoln with rage reply'd Then hear O Son