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Or proud return, though to his heavier doom,

Yet with revenge accomplished, and to Hell

Draw after him the whole race of mankind,

By him corrupted? Or wilt thou thyself

Abolish thy creation, and unmake,

For him, what for thy glory thou hast made?

So should thy goodness and thy greatness both

Be questioned and blasphemed without defence.

To whom the great Creator thus replied: O Son, in whom my soul hath chief delight, Son of my bosom, Son who art alone My word, my wisdom, and effectual might, All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all As my eternal purpose hath decreed. Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will; Yet not of will in him, but grace in me Freely vouchsafed. Once more I will renew His lapsed powers, though forfeit, and enthralled By sin to foul exorbitant desires; Upheld by me, yet once more he shall stand On even ground against his mortal foe; By me upheld, that he may know how frail His fallen condition is, and to me owe All his deliverance, and to none but me. Some I have chosen of peculiar grace, Elect above the rest; so is my will: The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warned Their sinful state, and to appease betimes The incensed Deity, while offered grace Invites; for I will clear their senses dark, What may suffice, and soften stony hearts To pray, repent, and bring obedience due, To prayer, repentance, and obedience due, Though but endeavoured with sincere intent, Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut. And I will place within them as a guide

Воок 111.—195-227] My umpire, Conscience; whom if they will hear, Light after light, well used, they shall attain, And to the end persisting, safe arrive. This my long sufferance, and my day of grace, They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste; But hard be hardened, blind be blinded more, That they may stumble on, and deeper fall; And none but such from mercy I exclude. But yet all is not done; man disobeying, Disloyal, breaks his fealty, and sins Against the high supremacy of Heaven, Affecting Godhead, and, so losing all, To expiate his treason hath nought left, But to destruction sacred and devote,1 He, with his whole posterity, must die. Die he or Justice must; unless for him Some other able, and as willing, pay The rigid satisfaction, death for death. Say, heavenly Powers, where shall we find such love? Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem Man's mortal crime, and just the unjust to save?

He asked, but all the heavenly quire stood mute,

And silence was in Heaven. On man's behalf

Patron or intercessor none appeared,

Much less than durst upon his own head draw

The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.

And now without redemption all mankind

Must have been lost, adjudged to Death and Hell

By doom severe, had not the Son of God,

In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,

His dearest mediation thus renewed:

Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?

Father, thy word is passed, man shall find grace;

Sacred and devote.—A phrase from the Roman law, denoting one justly exposed to death.

\\All mankind must have been lost.—This assumes that the human race must have been perpetuated notwithstanding the entrance of sin. But was that necessary? Was it probable?