What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say
To thy adorers; thou with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st;
Then to thy self ascrib'st the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench'd;
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceas'd,
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
Shalt be inquir'd at Delphos or elsewhere,
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent his living oracle

Into the world to teach his final will,

450

455

460

And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell In pious hearts, an inward oracle

To all truth requisite for men to know.

470

So spake our Saviour; but the subtle fiend, 465 Though inly stung with anger and disdain, Dissembled, and this answer smooth return'd. Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke, And urg'd me hard with doings, which not will, But misery, hath wrested from me; where Easily canst thou find one miserable, And not enforc'd ofttimes to part from truth; If it may stand him more in stead to lie, Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure? But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord; 475 From thee I can, and must, submiss endure Check or reproof, and glad to escape so quit.

456 ceas'd] Juv. Sat. vi. 554.

VOL. II.

'Delphis oracula cessant.' Dunster.

20

Hard are the

ways of truth, and rough to walk, Smooth on the tongue discours'd, pleasing to th' ear, And tuneable as sylvan pipe or song;

What wonder then if I 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, 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

478 Hard] Sil. Ital. iv. 605.

เ

· perque aspera duro

Nititur ad laudem virtus interrita clivo.'

Dunster.

480

485

490

495

487 atheous] Cicero, speaking of Diagoras, 'Atheos qui

dictus est.' De Nat. D. i. 23.

'Atheal' is not uncommon

in old English. Dunster. Todd.

496 gray dissimulation] See Ford's Broken Heart; ed. Weber, p. 304.

'Lay by thy whining gray dissimulation.'

500

Into thin air diffus'd: for now began
Night with her sullen wings to double-shade
The desart; fowls in their clay nests were couch'd;
And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.

499 thin] Virg. Æn. iv. 278.

'Et procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram.' Shakesp. Temp. act iv. sc. 2.

'Are melted into air, into thin air.' Dunster. 500 Night] Nonnus ends the xxvth book of his Dionysiaca thus,

Καὶ σκιερὴν ἐμέλαινεν ὅλην χθόνα σιγαλέη νυξ·
Λαοὶ δ ̓ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα χαμαιστρώτων ἐπὶ λέκτρων
Εσπερίῃ μετὰ δόρπον ὀρειάδι κάππεσον ἐννῇ.

500 double-shade] Ov. Met. xi. 548.

'Duplicataque noctis imago est.' Dunsler.

501 fowls] Beaumont's Psyche, c. xiii. st. 355, ed. 1648. 'Each gentle fair-condition'd bird and beast

Hied them unto their nests and dens

Only some ominous ravens, and screech owles prest
With beasts of prey and night, thro' the black air.'

308

PARADISE REGAINED.

BOOK II.

MEANWHILE the new-baptiz'd, who yet remain'd
At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen
Him whom they heard so late expressly call'd
Jesus, Messiah, Son of God declar'd,

And on that high authority had believ'd,

5

10

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 missing him their 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 their doubt:
Sometimes they thought he might be only shown,
And for a time caught up to GOD, as once
Moses was in the Mount, and missing long;
And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels
Rode up to heaven, yet once again to come.
Therefore as those young prophets then with care

15

6 mean] See this expression in Harington's Ariosto, xxxi. 46. 'I mean Renaldo's House of Montalbane;' and st. 55. 'I mean the cruel Pagan Rodomont.' Newton.

13 shown] Virg. Æn. vi. 870.

'Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata.'

Sought lost Elijah, so in each place these
Nigh to Bethabara; in Jericho

The city of palms, Ænon, and Salem old,
Machærus, and each town or city wall'd
On this side the broad lake Genezaret,
Or in Peræa; but return'd in vain.
Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,

20

25

Where winds with reeds and osiers whisp'ring play,
Plain fishermen, no greater men them call,
Close in a cottage low together got,

Their unexpected loss and plaints out breath'd.
Alas, from what high hope to what relapse
Unlook'd for are we fallen! 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 rejoic'd, but soon our joy is turn'd
Into perplexity and new amaze:

30

35

23 broad] Broad' is not opposed to long, but means 'large;' in this sense it is often used by the old English poets, and thus their modern imitator, 'He knew her of broad lands the heir.' Marmion, c. ii. st. xxvii. The lake of Genezaret is eighteen miles long, and only five broad.

25 Jordan] Giles Fletcher's Christ's Victorie and Triumph ed. 1632, p. 49:

'Or whistling reeds, that rutty Jordan laves.' A. Dyce. 27 no greater] Spenser in the beginning of Sheph. Cal.

'A shepherd's boy, no better do him call.' Newton. 30 what] So first edition, in most others, that.' Newton.