Paradise Regain'd

Who ere while the happy garden sung,
By one man's disobedience loft, now sing
Recover'd Paradise to all mankind,
By one man's firm obedience fully try'd
Through all temptation, and the tempter foil'd
In all his wiles, defeated and repuls'd,
And Eden rais'd in the waste wilderness.

Thou Spirit who ledst this glorious eremite Into the defert, his victorious field, Against the spiritual foe, and brought'ft him thence ro By proof th' undoubted Son of God, inspire, As thou art wont, my prompted fong elfe mute, And bear through highth or depth of nature's bounds With profp'rous wing full fumm'd, to tell of deeds Above heroic, though in fecret done, And unrecorded left through many an age, Worthy t' have not remain'd fo long unfung. Now had the great Proclamer, with a voice

More awful than the found of trumpet, cry'd
Repentance, and Heav'n's kingdom nigh at hand 20
To all baptiz'd: to his great baptism flock'd
With awe the regions round, and with them came
From Nazareth the son of Joseph deem'd
To the flood Jordan, came as then obfcure,
Unmark'd, unknown; but him the Baptist soon 25
Defcry'd, divinely warn'd, and witnefs bore
As to his worthier, and would have resign'd
To him his heav'nly office, nor was long
His witness unconfirm'd: on him baptiz'd
Heav'n open'd, and in likeness of a dove
The Spirit defcended, while the Father's voice
From Heav'n pronounc'd him his beloved Son.
That heard the Adverfary, who roving still
About the world, at that affembly fam'd
Would not be last, and with the voice divine
Nigh thunder-ftruck, th' exalted man, to whom
Such high atteft was giv'n, a while furvey'd
With wonder, then with envy fraught and rage
Flies to his place, nor refts, but in mid air
To council fummons all his mighty peers,
Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involv'd,
A gloomy confiftory; and them amidst
With looks aghaft and fad he thus bespake.

O ancient Pow'rs of air and this wide world, For much more willingly I mention air, This our old conqueft, than remember Hell,

Our

Our hated habitation; well ye know
How many ages, as the years
of men,
This universe we have poffefs'd, and rul'd
In manner at our will th' affairs of earth,
Since Adam and his facil confort Eve
Loft Paradise deceiv'd by me, though since
With dread attending when that fatal wound
Shall be inflicted by the feed of Eve
Upon my head: long the decrees of Heav'n
Delay, for longest time to him is fhort;
And now too foon for us the circling hours
This dreaded time have compass'd, wherein we
Must bide the stroke of that long threaten'd wound,
At least if so we can, and by the head
Broken be not intended all our power
To be infring'd, our freedom and our being,
In this fair empire won of earth and air;
For this ill news I bring, the woman's feed
Deftin'd to this, is late of woman born:
His birth to our just fear gave no small cause,
But his growth now to youth's full flow'r, difplaying.
All virtue, grace, and wisdom to achieve
Things higheft, greateft, multiplies my fear.
Before him a great prophet, to proclame
His coming, is fent harbinger, who all
Invites, and in the confecrated stream
Pretends to wash off fin, and fit them fo
Purified to receive him pure, or rather

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Paradise Regain'd: A Poem, in Four Books. To which is Added, Samson ...