Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?

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Whom thus anfwer'd th' Arch-fiend now undisguis'd: 'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,

Who, leagu'd with millions more, in rash revolt
Kept not my happy station, but was driven

With them from blifs to the bottomless deep;
Yet to that hideous place not fo confin'd
By rigour unconniving, but that oft
Leaving my dolorous prifon, I enjoy

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Large liberty to round this globe of earth,

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Or range in th' air; nor from the heaven of heav'ns

I came among the tons of God, when he

Hath he excluded my refort fometimes.

Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job

To prove him, and illuftrate his high worth;
And when to all his angels he propos'd
To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud,
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
I undertook that office, and the tongues

379

Of all his flattering prophets glibb'd with lies
To his deftruction, as I had in charge;

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For what he bids I do: though I have loft
Much luftre of my native brightness, loft
To be belov'd of God, I have not loft
To love, at least contemplate and admire
What I lee excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous; I thould to have loft all fenfe.
What can be then leis in me than desire

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To fee thee and approach thee, whom I know
Declar'd the Son of God, to hear attent

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Thy wifdom, and behold thy Godlike deeds?

Men generally think me much a foe

1 loft not what I loft; rather by them

To all mankind: why fhould I? they to me
Never did wrong or violence; by them

390

I gain'd what I have gain'd, and with them dwell
Copartner in thefe regions of the world,
If not difpofer; lend them oft my aid,

Oft my advice, by prefages and figns,

And anfwers, oracles, portents and dreams,
Whereby they may direct their future life.
Envy they fay excites me, thus to gain
Companions of my mifery and woe.

At first it may be; but long fince with woe
Nearer acquainted, now I feel, by proof,
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens ought each man's peculiar load.
Small confolation then, were man adjoin'd:

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405

This wounds me most, (what can it less?) that man,
Man fall'n fhall be restor'd, I never more.
To whom our Saviour fernly thus reply'd :
Defervedly thou griev'ft, compos'd of lies
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end;
Who boasts release from hell, and leave to come
Into the heav'n of heav'ns: thou com'ft, indeed,
As a poor miferable captive thrall
Comes to the place where he before had fat
Among the prime in fplendor, now depos'd,
Ejected, emptied, gaz'd, unpitied, shunn'd,
A fpectacle of ruin or of fcorn

To all the host of heav'n: the happy place
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy,
Rather inflames thy torment, representing
Loft bliss, to thee no more communicable,
So never more in hell than when in heav'n.
But thou art ferviceable to heav'n's king.
Wilt thou impute t' obedience what thy fear
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites ?
What but thy malice mov'd thee to misdeem
Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
With all inflictions? but his patience won.
The other fervice was thy chosen task,
To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
For lying is thy fuftenance, thy food.
Yet thou pretend'ft to truth; alt oracles

By thee are giv'n, and what confefs'd more true
Among the nations? that hath been thy craft,
By mixing fomewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers, what but dark,

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415

420

425

430

Ambiguous, and with double fenfe deluding,
Which they who afk'd have seldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Whoever by confulting at thy fhrine
Return'd the wifer, or the more inftruct
To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not fooner to his fatal fnare?
For God hath justly giv'n the nations up

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440

To thy delufions; justly fince they fell
Idolatrous: but when his purpose is

Among them to declare his providence

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To thee not known, whence haft thou then thy truth
But from him, or his angels prefident

In every province? who themselves disdaining

To approach thy temples, give thee in command
What to the fmalleft tittle thou shalt fay
To thy adorers; thou, with trembling fear,
Or, like a fawning Parafite, obey'st;
Then to thy felf afcrib'ft the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench'd;
No more fhalt thou by oracling abuse

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455

The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceas'd,
And thou no more with pomp and facrifice

Shalt be enquir'd at Delphos, or elsewhere;

At least in vain, for they fhall find thee mute.
God hath now fent his Living Oracle

460

Into the world to teach his final will,

And fends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell

In pious hearts, an inward oracle

To all truth requifite for men to know.

So fpake our Suviour; but the fubtle Fiend,

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Though inly ftung with anger and difdain,
Diffembled, and this anfwer smooth.return'd:
Sharply thou haft infifted on rebuke,

And urged me hard with doings, which not will
But mifery hath wrefted from me: where
Eafily canft thou find one miserable,

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And not enforc'd oft-times to part from truth;
If it may ftand him more in ftead to lie,

Say and unfay, feign, flatter, or abjure?

475

But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord;
From thee I can and muft fubmifs endure
Check or reproof, and glad to 'fcape fo quit.
Hard are the ways of Truth, and rough to walk,
Smooth on the tongue difcours'd, pleasing to th' ear,
And tuneable as fylvan 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 (fince no man comes)
And talk at least, though I despair to attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wife and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
To tread his facred courts, and minister
About his altar, handling holy things,
Praying or vowing, and vouchfaf'd his voice
To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet
Infpir'd; disdain not such access to me.

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485

490

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 Permiffion from above; thou canst not more. He added not; and Satan, bowing low,

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His grey diffimulation, disappear'd,

Into thin air diffus'd: for now began

Night with her fullen wings to double-shade

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The defert; fowls in their clay nefts were couch'd;

And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.

THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK,

Με

PARADISE REGAIN'D.

BOOK II.

WEANWHILE the new baptiz'd, who yet remain'd
At Jordan with the Baptift, and had seen

Him whom they heard fo late expressly call'd

Jefus, Meffiah, Son of God declar'd,

And on that high authority had believ❜d,

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 miffing him, their joy so lately found,
So lately found, and fo 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
Mofes was in the mount, and miffing long;
And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels
Rode up to heav'n, yet once again to come.
Therefore as thofe young prophets then with care
Sought loft Elijah, fo 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 fide the broad lake Genezaret,
Or in Peræa; but return'd in vain.
Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,

Where winds with reeds and ofiers whifp'ring play,
Plain fishermen, no greater men them call,

Clofe in a cottage low together got,

15

20

25

Their unexpected lofs and plaints out breath'd.

Alas, from what high hope to what relapse

30

Unlook'd for are we fall'n! our eyes beheld
Meffiah certainly now come, fo long
Expected of our fathers; we have heard

His words, his wifdom, full of grace and truth;
for fure, deliverance is at hand,
The kingdom fhall to Ifrael be restor❜d.

Now, now,

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