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Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
Improv'd by tract of time, and wing'd ascend
Ethereal, as we, or may at choice
Here or in heavenly paradises dwell;
If ye be found obedient, and retain
Unalterably firm his love entire,

Mean while enjoy

Whose progeny you are.
Your fill what happiness this happy state
Can comprehend, incapable of more.

To whom the patriarch of mankind reply'd.
O favourable spirit, propitious guest,

Well hast thou taught the way that might direct
Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set
From centre to circumference, whereon
In contemplation of created things
By steps we may ascend to GOD. But
What meant that caution join'd, if ye be found
Obedient? Can we want obedience then
To him, or possibly his love desert,

But say,

Who form'd us from the dust and plac'd us here
Full to the utmost measure of what bliss
Human desires can seek or apprehend?

500

To whom the angel. Son of heav'n and earth Attend that thou art happy, owe to God; That thou continu'st such, owe to thy self, That is, to thy obedience; therein stand. This was that caution giv'n thee; be advis'd. GOD made thee perfect, not immutable; And good he made thee, but to persevere He left it in thy power, ordain'd thy will

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520

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By nature free, not over-rul'd by fate
Inextricable, or strict necessity:
Our voluntary service he requires,
Not our necessitated; such with him

Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how

Can hearts, not free, be try'd whether they serve
Willing or no, who will but what they must
By destiny, and can no other choose?
My self and all th' angelic host, that stand
In sight of GOD enthron'd, our happy state
Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds;
On other surety none; freely we serve,
Because we freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in this we stand or fall.
And some are fall'n, to disobedience fall'n,
And so from heaven to deepest hell: O fall
From what high state of bliss into what woe!
To whom our great progenitor. Thy words
Attentive, and with more delighted ear,
Divine instructor, I have heard, than when
Cherubic songs by night from neighbouring hills
Aereal music send: nor knew I not

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To be both will and deed created free;
Yet that we never shall forget to love
Our maker, and obey him whose command
Single is yet so just, my constant thoughts
Assur'd me, and still assure: though what thou tell'st
Hath past in heav'n, some doubt within me move,
But more desire to hear, if thou consent,
The full relation, which must needs be strange,

555

Worthy of sacred silence to be heard;

And we have yet large day, for scarce the sun Hath finish'd half his journey, and scarce begins His other half in the great zone of heaven.

Thus Adam made request, and Raphael, After short pause, assenting thus began.

560

High matter thou enjoin'st me, O prime of men,
Sad task and hard; for how shall I relate
To human sense th' invisible exploits
Of warring spirits? how without remorse
The ruin of so many, glorious once

And perfect while they stood? how last unfold
The secrets of another world, perhaps

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570

Not lawful to reveal? yet for thy good,
This is dispens'd, and what surmounts the reach
Of human sense I shall delineate so,
By likening spiritual to corporal forms,
As may express them best; though what if earth
Be but the shadow of heaven; and things therein
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?
As yet this world was not, and Chaos wild
Reign'd where these heaven's now roll, where earth

now rests

Upon her centre pois'd; when on a day,
(For time, though in eternity, apply'd
To motion, measures all things durable
By present, past, and future ;) on such day

557 sacred] Hor. Od. ii. 13. 29.

'Utrumque sacro digna silentio.' Richardson.

579 pois'd] Ov. Met. i. 13. 'Ponderibus librata suis.' Newton.

580

As heav'n's great year brings forth, th' empyreal host
Of angels, by imperial summons call'd,

Innumerable before th' Almighty's throne
Forthwith from all the ends of heaven appear'd;
Under their hierarchs in orders bright;
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanc'd,
Standards and gonfalons twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees:
Or in their glittering tissues bear imblaz'd
Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love
Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs
Of circuit inexpressible they stood,
Orb within orb, the Father infinite,

By whom in bliss imbosom'd sat the Son,
Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top
Brightness had made invisible, thus spake.
Hear all ye angels, progeny of light,

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590

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Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,
Hear my decree, which unrevok'd shall stand.
This day I have begot whom I declare

My only Son, and on this holy hill

Him have anointed, whom ye now behold

At my right hand; your head I him appoint;
And by my Self have sworn to him shall bow
All knees in heaven, and shall confess him Lord.

605

601 Thrones] By all the Thrones, and Dominations, Virtues, and Powers, and mighty hierarchies.' See Stafford's Niobe dissolv'd into a Nilus, 1611, p. 17. See also Greene's Hist. of Friar Bacon, p. 36; and Sir. Lindsay's Works, ed. Chalmers, vol. i. p. 215-6.

Under his great vice-gerent reign abide
United, as one individual soul,
For ever happy: him who disobeys,

Me disobeys, breaks union, and, that day
Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls
Into utter darkness, deep ingulf'd, his place
Ordain'd without redemption, without end.

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So spake th' Omnipotent, and with his words
All seem'd well pleas'd; all seem'd, but were not all.
That day, as other solemn days, they spent

In song and dance about the sacred hill,
Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere
Of planets and of fix'd in all her wheels
Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
Eccentric, intervolv'd, yet regular

Then most, when most irregular they seem;
And in their motions harmony divine

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So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear

Listens delighted. Evening now approach'd,

(For we have also our ev'ning and our morn,

We ours for change delectable, not need,)

Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they turn 630

Desirous; all in circles as they stood,

Tables are set, and on a sudden pil'd
With angels food, and rubied nectar flows,

In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold;

Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of heaven.

635

On flowers repos'd and with fresh flowrets crown'd,

633 rubied] Nectar of the colour of rubies. Hom. Il. xix. 38, νέκταρ ἐρυθρόν. Newton.

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