Seite 229 von 239

Of squadroned angels hear his carol sung.

A Virgin is his mother, but his sire

The power of the Most High. He shall ascend

The throne hereditary, and bound his reign

With earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heavens.

He ceased; discerning Adam, with such joy

Surcharged, as had, like grief, been dewed in tears,

Without the vent of words; which these he breathed:

Of utmost hope! now clear I understand

What oft my steadiest thoughts have searched in vain;

Why our great Expectation should be called

The Seed of Woman: Virgin Mother, hail!

High in the love of Heaven; yet from my loins

Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son

Of God Most High; so God with man unites.

Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise

Expect with mortal pain; say where and when

Their fight; what stroke shall bruise the Victor's heel?

To whom thus Michael: Dream not of their fight, As of duel, or the local wounds Of head or heel; not, therefore, joins the Son Manhood to Godhead, with more strength to foil Thy enemy; nor so is overcome Satan, whose fall from heaven, a deadlier bruise, Disabled not to give thee thy death's wound; Which He, who comes thy Saviour, shall re-cure, Not by destroying Satan, but his works In thee, and in thy seed: nor can this be, But by fulfilling that which thou didst want, Obedience to the law of God, imposed On penalty of death; and suffering death, The penalty to thy transgression due, And due to theirs, which out of thine will grow; So only can high justice rest appaid.

Appaid,-Paid ; appagate, Italian.

The law of God exact he shall fulfil, Both by obedience and by love, though love Alone fulfil the law; thy punishment He shall endure, by coming in the flesh To a reproachful life and cursed death; 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 their own, though legal, works. For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed, Seized on by force, judged, and to death condemned, A shameful and accursed, nailed to the cross By his own nation; slain for bringing life. But to the cross He nails thy enemies, The law that is against thee, and the sins Of all mankind with him there crucified, Never to hurt them more who rightly trust In this his satisfaction. So he dies, But soon revives; death over Him no power Shall long usurp. Ere the third dawning light Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light, Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems, His death for man, as many as offered life Neglect not, and the benefit embrace By faith not void of works. This Godlike act Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldst have died, In sin for ever lost from life; this act Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms, And fix far deeper in his head their stings Than temporal death shall bruise the Victor's heel, Or theirs whom he redeems—a death like sleep, A gentle wafting to immortal life. Nor after resurrection shall he stay Longer on earth than certain times to appear

PARADISE LOST.