XII-1. As one who in his journey bates at Noone, / Though bent on speed, so heer the Archangel paus'd / Betwixt the world destroy'd and world restor'd,

XII-4. If Adam aught perhaps might interpose; / Then with transition sweet new Speech resumes.

XII-6. Thus thou hast seen one World begin and end; / And Man as from a second stock proceed.

XII-8. Much thou hast yet to see, but I perceave / Thy mortal sight to faile; objects divine / Must needs impaire and wearie human sense:

XII-11. Henceforth what is to com I will relate, / Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.

XII-13. This second sours of Men, while yet but few; / And while the dread of judgement past remains / Fresh in thir mindes, fearing the Deitie, / With some regard to what is just and right

XII-17. Shall lead thir lives and multiplie apace, / Labouring the soile, and reaping plenteous crop, / Corn wine and oyle; and from the herd or flock, / Oft sacrificing Bullock, Lamb, or Kid, / With large Wine-offerings pour'd, and sacred Feast, / Shal spend thir dayes in joy unblam'd, and dwell / Long time in peace by Families and Tribes

XII-24. Under paternal rule; till one shall rise / Of proud ambitious heart, who not content / With fair equalitie, fraternal state, / Will arrogate Dominion undeserv'd / Over his brethren, and quite dispossess

XII-29. Concord and law of Nature from the Earth, / Hunting (and Men not Beasts shall be his game) / With Warr and hostile snare such as refuse / Subjection to his Empire tyrannous: / A mightie Hunter thence he shall be styl'd / Before the Lord, as in despite of Heav'n, / Or from Heav'n claming second Sovrantie; / And from Rebellion shall derive his name, / Though of Rebellion others he accuse.

XII-38. Hee with a crew, whom like Ambition joyns / With him or under him to tyrannize, / Marching from Eden towards the West, shall finde / The Plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge / Boiles out from under ground, the mouth of Hell; / Of Brick, and of that stuff they cast to build

XII-44. A Citie and Towre, whose top may reach to Heav'n; / And get themselves a name, least far disperst / In foraign Lands thir memorie be lost, / Regardless whether good or evil fame.

XII-48. But God who oft descends to visit men / Unseen, and through thir habitations walks

XII-50. To mark thir doings, them beholding soon, / Comes down to see thir Citie, ere the Tower / Obstruct Heav'n Towrs, and in derision sets / Upon thir Tongues a various Spirit to rase / Quite out thir Native Language, and instead / To sow a jangling noise of words unknown:

XII-56. Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud / Among the Builders; each to other calls / Not understood, till hoarse, and all in rage, / As mockt they storm; great laughter was in Heav'n / And looking down, to see the hubbub strange / And hear the din; thus was the building left / Ridiculous, and the work Confusion nam'd.

XII-63. Whereto thus Adam fatherly displeas'd. / O execrable Son so to aspire / Above his Brethren, to himself assuming

XII-66. Authoritie usurpt, from God not giv'n: / He gave us onely over Beast, Fish, Fowl / Dominion absolute; that right we hold / By his donation; but Man over men / He made not Lord; such title to himself / Reserving, human left from human free.

XII-72. But this Usurper his encroachment proud / Stayes not on Man; to God his Tower intends

XII-74. Siege and defiance: Wretched man! what food / Will he convey up thither to sustain / Himself and his rash Armie, where thin Aire / Above the Clouds will pine his entrails gross, / And famish him of Breath, if not of Bread?

XII-79. To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorr'st / That Son, who on the quiet state of men / Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue / Rational Libertie; yet know withall,

XII-83. Since thy original lapse, true Libertie

XII-84. Is lost, which alwayes with right Reason dwells / Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being: / Reason in man obscur'd, or not obeyd, / Immediately inordinate desires / And upstart Passions catch the Government / From Reason, and to servitude reduce

XII-90. Man till then free. Therefore since hee permits / Within himself unworthie Powers to reign

XII-92. Over free Reason, God in Judgement just / Subjects him from without to violent Lords; / Who oft as undeservedly enthrall / His outward freedom: Tyrannie must be,

XII-96. Though to the Tyrant thereby no excuse.

XII-97. Yet somtimes Nations will decline so low / From vertue, which is reason, that no wrong, / But Justice, and some fatal curse annext / Deprives them of thir outward libertie,

XII-101. Thir inward lost: Witness th' irreverent Son / Of him who built the Ark, who for the shame / Don to his Father, heard this heavie curse, / Servant of Servants, on his vitious Race.

XII-105. Thus will this latter, as the former World, / Still tend from bad to worse, till God at last / Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw / His presence from among them, and avert / His holy Eyes; resolving from thenceforth / To leave them to thir own polluted wayes;

XII-111. And one peculiar Nation to select / From all the rest, of whom to be invok'd, / A Nation from one faithful man to spring: / Him on this side Euphrates yet residing, / Bred up in Idol-worship; O that men

XII-116. (Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown, / While yet the Patriark liv'd, who scap'd the Flood, / As to forsake the living God, and fall / To worship thir own work in Wood and Stone

XII-120. For Gods! yet him God the most High voutsafes / To call by Vision from his Fathers house, / His kindred and false Gods, into a Land / Which he will shew him, and from him will raise

XII-124. A mightie Nation, and upon him showre / His benediction so, that in his Seed / All Nations shall be blest; he straight obeys / Not knowing to what Land, yet firm believes:

XII-128. I see him, but thou canst not, with what Faith

XII-129. He leaves his Gods, his Friends, and native Soile / Ur of Chaldĉa, passing now the Ford / To Haran, after a cumbrous Train / Of Herds and Flocks, and numerous servitude; / Not wandring poor, but trusting all his wealth / With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.

XII-135. Canaan he now attains, I see his Tents

XII-136. Pitcht about Sechem, and the neighbouring Plaine / Of Moreh; there by promise he receaves / Gift to his Progenie of all that Land; / From Hamath Northward to the Desert South / (Things by thir names I call, though yet unnam'd) / From Hermon East to the great Western Sea, / Mount Hermon, yonder Sea, each place behold / In prospect, as I point them; on the shoare / Mount Carmel; here the double-founted stream / Jordan, true limit Eastward; but his Sons / Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of Hills.

XII-147. This ponder, that all Nations of the Earth / Shall in his Seed be blessed; by that Seed / Is meant thy great deliverer, who shall bruise / The Serpents head; whereof to thee anon

XII-151. Plainlier shall be reveald. This Patriarch blest, / Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,

XII-153. A Son, and of his Son a Grand-childe leaves, / Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;

XII-155. The Grandchilde with twelve Sons increast, departs / From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd / Egypt, divided by the River Nile; / See where it flows, disgorging at seaven mouthes / Into the Sea: to sojourn in that Land

XII-160. He comes invited by a yonger Son / In time of dearth, a Son whose worthy deeds

XII-162. Raise him to be the second in that Realme / Of Pharao: there he dies, and leaves his Race / Growing into a Nation, and now grown

XII-165. Suspected to a sequent King, who seeks / To stop thir overgrowth, as inmate guests / Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves / Inhospitably, and kills thir infant Males:

XII-169. Till by two brethren (those two brethren call / Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claime / His people from enthralment, they return / With glory and spoile back to thir promis'd Land.

XII-173. But first the lawless Tyrant, who denies / To know thir God, or message to regard, / Must be compelld by Signes and Judgements dire;

XII-176. To blood unshed the Rivers must be turnd, / Frogs, Lice and Flies must all his Palace fill / With loath'd intrusion, and fill all the land; / His Cattel must of Rot and Murren die, / Botches and blaines must all his flesh imboss, / And all his people; Thunder mixt with Haile, / Haile mixt with fire must rend th' Egyptian Skie / And wheel on th' Earth, devouring where it rouls; / What it devours not, Herb, or Fruit, or Graine, / A darksom Cloud of Locusts swarming down / Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green: / Darkness must overshadow all his bounds, / Palpable darkness, and blot out three dayes; / Last with one midnight stroke all the first-born

XII-190. Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds / The River-dragon tam'd at length submits / To let his sojourners depart, and oft

XII-193. Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as Ice / More hard'nd after thaw, till in his rage / Pursuing whom he late dismissd, the Sea

XII-196. Swallows him with his Host, but them lets pass / As on drie land between two christal walls, / Aw'd by the rod of Moses so to stand / Divided, till his rescu'd gain thir shoar:

XII-200. Such wondrous power God to his Saint will lend, / Though present in his Angel, who shall goe / Before them in a Cloud, and Pillar of Fire, / By day a Cloud, by night a Pillar of Fire, / To guide them in thir journey, and remove

XII-205. Behinde them, while th' obdurat King pursues: / All night he will pursue, but his approach / Darkness defends between till morning Watch;

XII-208. Then through the Firey Pillar and the Cloud / God looking forth will trouble all his Host / And craze thir Chariot wheels: when by command / Moses once more his potent Rod extends

XII-211. Over the Sea; the Sea his Rod obeys; / On thir imbattelld ranks the Waves return, / And overwhelm thir Warr: the Race elect

XII-215. Safe towards Canaan from the shoar advance / Through the wilde Desert, not the readiest way, / Least entring on the Canaanite allarmd / Warr terrifie them inexpert, and feare / Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather / Inglorious life with servitude; for life / To noble and ignoble is more sweet / Untraind in Armes, where rashness leads not on.

XII-223. This also shall they gain by thir delay / In the wide Wilderness, there they shall found / Thir government, and thir great Senate choose / Through the twelve Tribes, to rule by Laws ordaind:

XII-227. God from the Mount of Sinai, whose gray top / Shall tremble, he descending, will himself / In Thunder Lightning and loud Trumpets sound / Ordaine them Lawes; part such as appertaine / To civil Justice, part religious Rites / Of sacrifice, informing them, by types / And shadowes, of that destind Seed to bruise / The Serpent, by what meanes he shall achieve

XII-235. Mankinds deliverance. But the voice of God / To mortal eare is dreadful; they beseech / That Moses might report to them his will, / And terror cease; he grants what they besaught

XII-239. Instructed that to God is no access / Without Mediator, whose high Office now / Moses in figure beares, to introduce / One greater, of whose day he shall foretell, / And all the Prophets in thir Age the times

XII-244. Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus Laws and Rites / Establisht, such delight hath God in Men / Obedient to his will, that he voutsafes / Among them to set up his Tabernacle, / The holy One with mortal Men to dwell:

XII-249. By his prescript a Sanctuary is fram'd / Of Cedar, overlaid with Gold, therein

XII-251. An Ark, and in the Ark his Testimony, / The Records of his Cov'nant, over these

XII-253. A Mercie-seat of Gold between the wings / Of two bright Cherubim, before him burn / Seaven Lamps as in a Zodiac representing

XII-256. The Heav'nly fires; over the Tent a Cloud / Shall rest by Day, a fiery gleame by Night,

XII-258. Save when they journie, and at length they come, / Conducted by his Angel to the Land / Promisd to Abraham and his Seed: the rest

XII-261. Were long to tell, how many Battels fought, / How many Kings destroyd, and Kingdoms won,

XII-263. Or how the Sun shall in mid Heav'n stand still / A day entire, and Nights due course adjourne, / Mans voice commanding, Sun in Gibeon stand, / And thou Moon in the vale of Aialon,

XII-267. Till Israel overcome; so call the third / From Abraham, Son of Isaac, and from him / His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.

XII-270. Here Adam interpos'd. O sent from Heav'n, / Enlightner of my darkness, gracious things / Thou hast reveald, those chiefly which concerne / Just Abraham and his Seed: now first I finde / Mine eyes true op'ning, and my heart much eas'd,

XII-275. Erwhile perplext with thoughts what would becom / Of mee and all Mankind; but now I see

XII-277. His day, in whom all Nations shall be blest, / Favour unmerited by me, who sought / Forbidd'n knowledge by forbidd'n means.

XII-280. This yet I apprehend not, why to those / Among whom God will deigne to dwell on Earth / So many and so various Laws are giv'n;

XII-283. So many Laws argue so many sins

XII-284. Among them; how can God with such reside?

XII-285. To whom thus Michael. Doubt not but that sin / Will reign among them, as of thee begot;

XII-287. And therefore was Law given them to evince / Thir natural pravitie, by stirring up / Sin against Law to fight; that when they see / Law can discover sin, but not remove, / Save by those shadowie expiations weak, / The bloud of Bulls and Goats, they may conclude

XII-293. Some bloud more precious must be paid for Man,

XII-294. Just for unjust, that in such righteousness / To them by Faith imputed, they may finde / Justification towards God, and peace

XII-297. Of Conscience, which the Law by Ceremonies / Cannot appease, nor Man the moral part / Perform, and not performing cannot live.

XII-300. So Law appears imperfet, and but giv'n / With purpose to resign them in full time / Up to a better Cov'nant, disciplin'd / From shadowie Types to Truth, from Flesh to Spirit, / From imposition of strict Laws, to free / Acceptance of large Grace, from servil fear / To filial, works of Law to works of Faith.

XII-307. And therefore shall not Moses, though of God / Highly belov'd, being but the Minister / Of Law, his people into Canaan lead; / But Joshua whom the Gentiles Jesus call, / His Name and Office bearing, who shall quell / The adversarie Serpent, and bring back

XII-313. Through the worlds wilderness long wanderd man / Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.

XII-315. Meanwhile they in thir earthly Canaan plac't

XII-316. Long time shall dwell and prosper, but when sins / National interrupt thir public peace,

XII-318. Provoking God to raise them enemies: / From whom as oft he saves them penitent / By Judges first, then under Kings; of whom

XII-321. The second, both for pietie renownd / And puissant deeds, a promise shall receive / Irrevocable, that his Regal Throne / For ever shall endure; the like shall sing / All Prophecie, That of the Royal Stock / Of David (so I name this King) shall rise / A Son, the Womans Seed to thee foretold, / Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust / All Nations, and to Kings foretold, of Kings

XII-330. The last, for of his Reign shall be no end.

XII-331. But first a long succession must ensue, / And his next Son for Wealth and Wisdom fam'd, / The clouded Ark of God till then in Tents / Wandring, shall in a glorious Temple enshrine.

XII-335. Such follow him, as shall be registerd / Part good, part bad, of bad the longer scrowle, / Whose foul Idolatries, and other faults

XII-338. Heapt to the popular summe, will so incense / God, as to leave them, and expose thir Land, / Thir Citie, his Temple, and his holy Ark / With all his sacred things, a scorn and prey / To that proud Citie, whose high Walls thou saw'st / Left in confusion, Babylon thence call'd. / There in captivitie he lets them dwell

XII-345. The space of seventie years, then brings them back, / Remembring mercie, and his Cov'nant sworn / To David, stablisht as the dayes of Heav'n.

XII-348. Returnd from Babylon by leave of Kings / Thir Lords, whom God dispos'd, the house of God / They first re-edifie, and for a while / In mean estate live moderate, till grown

XII-352. In wealth and multitude, factious they grow; / But first among the Priests dissension springs, / Men who attend the Altar, and should most

XII-355. Endeavour Peace: thir strife pollution brings / Upon the Temple it self: at last they seise / The Scepter, and regard not Davids Sons, / Then loose it to a stranger, that the true

XII-359. Anointed King Messiah might be born

XII-360. Barr'd of his right; yet at his Birth a Starr / Unseen before in Heav'n proclaims him com, / And guides the Eastern Sages, who enquire

XII-364. His place, to offer Incense, Myrrh, and Gold; / His place of birth a solemn Angel tells / To simple Shepherds, keeping watch by night; / They gladly thither haste, and by a Quire / Of squadrond Angels hear his Carol sung.

XII-368. A Virgin is his Mother, but his Sire / The Power of the most High; he shall ascend

XII-370. The Throne hereditarie, and bound his Reign / With earths wide bounds, his glory with the Heav'ns.

XII-372. He ceas'd, discerning Adam with such joy / Surcharg'd, as had like grief bin dew'd in tears, / Without the vent of words, which these he breathd.

XII-375. O Prophet of glad tidings, finisher / Of utmost hope! now clear I understand

XII-377. What oft my steddiest thoughts have searcht in vain, / Why our great expectation should be call'd / The seed of Woman: Virgin Mother, Haile,

XII-380. High in the love of Heav'n, yet from my Loynes / Thou shalt proceed, and from thy Womb the Son / Of God most High; So God with man unites.

XII-383. Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise

XII-384. Expect with mortal paine: say where and when / Thir fight, what stroke shall bruise the Victors heel.

XII-386. To whom thus Michael. Dream not of thir fight, / As of a Duel, or the local wounds / Of head or heel: not therefore joynes the Son / Manhood to God-head, with more strength to foil

XII-390. Thy enemie; nor so is overcome / Satan, whose fall from Heav'n, a deadlier bruise, / Disabl'd not to give thee thy deaths wound: / Which hee, who comes thy Saviour, shall recure,

XII-394. Not by destroying Satan, but his works / In thee and in thy Seed: nor can this be,

XII-396. But by fulfilling that which thou didst want, / Obedience to the Law of God, impos'd / On penaltie of death, and suffering death, / The penaltie to thy transgression due, / And due to theirs which out of thine will grow:

XII-401. So onely can high Justice rest appaid.

XII-402. The Law of God exact he shall fulfill / Both by obedience and by love, though love

XII-404. Alone fulfill the Law; thy punishment

XII-405. He shall endure by coming in the Flesh / To a reproachful life and cursed death,

XII-407. Proclaiming Life to all who shall believe / In his redemption, and that his obedience / Imputed becomes theirs by Faith, his merits / To save them, not thir own, though legal works.

XII-411. For this he shall live hated, be blasphem'd,

XII-412. Seis'd on by force, judg'd, and to death condemnd

XII-413. A shameful and accurst, naild to the Cross / By his own Nation, slaine for bringing Life;

XII-415. But to the Cross he nailes thy Enemies,

XII-416. The Law that is against thee, and the sins / Of all mankinde, with him there crucifi'd, / Never to hurt them more who rightly trust

XII-419. In this his satisfaction; so he dies, / But soon revives, Death over him no power

XII-421. Shall long usurp; ere the third dawning light / Returne, the Starres of Morn shall see him rise / Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light,

XII-424. Thy ransom paid, which Man from death redeems, / His death for Man, as many as offerd Life / Neglect not, and the benefit imbrace

XII-427. By Faith not void of workes: this God-like act / Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldst have dy'd, / In sin for ever lost from life; this act

XII-430. Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength

XII-431. Defeating Sin and Death, his two maine armes,

XII-432. And fix farr deeper in his head thir stings / Then temporal death shall bruise the Victors heel,

XII-434. Or theirs whom he redeems, a death like sleep, / A gentle wafting to immortal Life.

XII-436. Nor after resurrection shall he stay / Longer on Earth then certaine times to appeer / To his Disciples, Men who in his Life / Still follow'd him; to them shall leave in charge / To teach all nations what of him they learn'd / And his Salvation, them who shall beleeve / Baptizing in the profluent streame, the signe

XII-443. Of washing them from guilt of sin to Life / Pure, and in mind prepar'd, if so befall, / For death, like that which the redeemer dy'd.

XII-446. All Nations they shall teach; for from that day / Not onely to the Sons of Abrahams Loines / Salvation shall be Preacht, but to the Sons / Of Abrahams Faith wherever through the world; / So in his seed all Nations shall be blest.

XII-451. Then to the Heav'n of Heav'ns he shall ascend / With victory, triumphing through the aire / Over his foes and thine; there shall surprise

XII-454. The Serpent, Prince of aire, and drag in Chaines / Through all his Realme, and there confounded leave;

XII-456. Then enter into glory, and resume / His Seat at Gods right hand, exalted high

XII-458. Above all names in Heav'n; and thence shall come, / When this worlds dissolution shall be ripe, / With glory and power to judge both quick and dead / To judge th' unfaithful dead, but to reward / His faithful, and receave them into bliss,

XII-463. Whether in Heav'n or Earth, for then the Earth / Shall all be Paradise, far happier place / Then this of Eden, and far happier daies.

XII-466. So spake th' Archangel Michael, then paus'd, / As at the Worlds great period; and our Sire / Replete with joy and wonder thus repli'd.

XII-469. O goodness infinite, goodness immense! / That all this good of evil shall produce, / And evil turn to good; more wonderful / Then that which by creation first brought forth

XII-473. Light out of darkness! full of doubt I stand, / Whether I should repent me now of sin / By mee done and occasiond, or rejoyce / Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring, / To God more glory, more good will to Men / From God, and over wrauth grace shall abound. / But say, if our deliverer up to Heav'n

XII-480. Must reascend, what will betide the few / His faithful, left among th' unfaithful herd, / The enemies of truth; who then shall guide / His people, who defend? will they not deale / Wors with his followers then with him they dealt?

XII-485. Be sure they will, said th' Angel; but from Heav'n / Hee to his own a Comforter will send, / The promise of the Father, who shall dwell / His Spirit within them, and the Law of Faith / Working through love, upon thir hearts shall write, / To guide them in all truth, and also arme

XII-491. With spiritual Armour, able to resist / Satans assaults, and quench his fierie darts, / What Man can do against them, not affraid,

XII-494. Though to the death, against such cruelties / With inward consolations recompenc't, / And oft supported so as shall amaze / Thir proudest persecuters: for the Spirit

XII-498. Powrd first on his Apostles, whom he sends / To evangelize the Nations, then on all / Baptiz'd, shall them with wondrous gifts endue / To speak all Tongues, and do all Miracles, / As did thir Lord before them. Thus they win

XII-503. Great numbers of each Nation to receave / With joy the tidings brought from Heav'n: at length / Thir Ministry perform'd, and race well run, / Thir doctrine and thir story written left,

XII-507. They die; but in thir room, as they forewarne, / Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous Wolves, / Who all the sacred mysteries of Heav'n / To thir own vile advantages shall turne / Of lucre and ambition, and the truth / With superstitions and traditions taint, / Left onely in those written Records pure, / Though not but by the Spirit understood.

XII-515. Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names, / Places and titles, and with these to joine / Secular power, though feigning still to act / By spiritual, to themselves appropriating / The Spirit of God, promisd alike and giv'n / To all Beleevers; and from that pretense,

XII-521. Spiritual Lawes by carnal power shall force / On every conscience; Laws which none shall finde / Left them inrould, or what the Spirit within / Shall on the heart engrave. What will they then / But force the Spirit of Grace it self, and binde / His consort Libertie; what, but unbuild / His living Temples, built by Faith to stand, / Thir own Faith not anothers: for on Earth / Who against Faith and Conscience can be heard / Infallible? yet many will presume: / Whence heavie persecution shall arise / On all who in the worship persevere / Of Spirit and Truth; the rest, farr greater part, / Well deem in outward Rites and specious formes

XII-535. Religion satisfi'd; Truth shall retire / Bestuck with slandrous darts, and works of Faith / Rarely be found: so shall the World goe on, / To good malignant, to bad men benigne,

XII-539. Under her own waight groaning till the day / Appeer of respiration to the just, / And vengeance to the wicked, at return / Of him so lately promiss'd to thy aid / The Womans seed, obscurely then foretold, / Now amplier known thy Saviour and thy Lord, / Last in the Clouds from Heav'n to be reveald

XII-546. In glory of the Father, to dissolve / Satan with his perverted World, then raise

XII-548. From the conflagrant mass, purg'd and refin'd, / New Heav'ns, new Earth, Ages of endless date / Founded in righteousness and peace and love / To bring forth fruits Joy and eternal Bliss.

XII-552. He ended; and thus Adam last reply'd. / How soon hath thy prediction, Seer blest, / Measur'd this transient World, the Race of time, / Till time stand fixt: beyond is all abyss, / Eternitie, whose end no eye can reach.

XII-557. Greatly instructed I shall hence depart. / Greatly in peace of thought, and have my fill / Of knowledge, what this Vessel can containe; / Beyond which was my folly to aspire.

XII-561. Henceforth I learne, that to obey is best,

XII-562. And love with feare the onely God, to walk

XII-563. As in his presence, ever to observe

XII-564. His providence, and on him sole depend, / Merciful over all his works, with good / Still overcoming evil, and by small

XII-567. Accomplishing great things, by things deemd weak / Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise

XII-569. By simply meek; that suffering for Truths sake / Is fortitude to highest victorie,

XII-571. And to the faithful Death the Gate of Life;

XII-572. Taught this by his example whom I now / Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest.

XII-574. To whom thus also th' Angel last repli'd: / This having learnt, thou hast attained the summe / Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the Starrs

XII-577. Thou knewst by name, and all th' ethereal Powers, / All secrets of the deep, all Natures works, / Or works of God in Heav'n, Aire, Earth, or Sea, / And all the riches of this World enjoydst, / And all the rule, one Empire; onely add

XII-582. Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add Faith, / Add vertue, Patience, Temperance, add Love, / By name to come call'd Charitie, the soul / Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath

XII-586. To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess / A Paradise within thee, happier farr.

XII-588. Let us descend now therefore from this top / Of Speculation; for the hour precise

XII-590. Exacts our parting hence; and see the Guards, / By mee encampt on yonder Hill, expect / Thir motion, at whose Front a flaming Sword, / In signal of remove, waves fiercely round;

XII-594. We may no longer stay: go, waken Eve; / Her also I with gentle Dreams have calm'd / Portending good, and all her spirits compos'd

XII-597. To meek submission: thou at season fit / Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard, / Chiefly what may concern her Faith to know, / The great deliverance by her Seed to come / (For by the Womans Seed) on all Mankind.

XII-602. That ye may live, which will be many dayes, / Both in one Faith unanimous though sad, / With cause for evils past, yet much more cheer'd / With meditation on the happie end.

XII-606. He ended, and they both descend the Hill; / Descended, Adam to the Bowre where Eve / Lay sleeping ran before, but found her wak't; / And thus with words not sad she him receav'd.

XII-610. Whence thou returnst, and whither wentst, I know; / For God is also in sleep, and Dreams advise, / Which he hath sent propitious, some great good / Presaging, since with sorrow and hearts distress

XII-614. Wearied I fell asleep: but now lead on; / In mee is no delay; with thee to goe, / Is to stay here; without thee here to stay, / Is to go hence unwilling; thou to mee

XII-618. Art all things under Heav'n, all places thou,

XII-619. Who for my wilful crime art banisht hence. / This further consolation yet secure / I carry hence; though all by mee is lost, / Such favour I unworthie am voutsaft, / By mee the Promis'd Seed shall all restore.

XII-624. So spake our Mother Eve, and Adam heard / Well pleas'd, but answer'd not; for now too nigh / Th' Archangel stood, and from the other Hill

XII-627. To thir fixt Station, all in bright array / The Cherubim descended; on the ground / Gliding meteorous, as Ev'ning Mist / Ris'n from a River o're the marish glides, / And gathers ground fast at the Labourers heel

XII-632. Homeward returning. High in Front advanc't, / The brandisht Sword of God before them blaz'd / Fierce as a Comet; which with torrid heat,

XII-635. And vapour as the Libyan Air adust, / Began to parch that temperate Clime; whereat / In either hand the hastning Angel caught / Our lingring Parents, and to th' Eastern Gate / Led them direct, and down the Cliff as fast

XII-640. To the subjected Plaine; then disappeer'd. / They looking back, all th' Eastern side beheld

XII-642. Of Paradise, so late thir happie seat, / Wav'd over by that flaming Brand, the Gate

XII-644. With dreadful Faces throng'd and fierie Armes:

XII-645. Som natural tears they drop'd, but wip'd them soon; / The World was all before them, where to choose

XII-647. Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide: / They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow, / Through Eden took thir solitarie way.