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Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven To their own vile advantages shall turn, Of lucre and ambition, and the truth With superstitions and traditions taint, Left only in those written records pure, Though not but by the Spirit understood.1 Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names, Places, and titles, and with these to join Secular power, though feigning still to act By spiritual, to themselves appropriating The Spirit of God, promised alike, and given To all believers; and from that pretence, Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force On every conscience; laws which none shall find Left them enrolled,2 or what the spirit within Shall on the heart engrave. What will they, then, But force the Spirit of Grace itself, and bind His consort Liberty? What but unbuild His living temples, built by faith to stand, Their own faith, not another's? For, on earth, Who against faith and conscience can be heard Infallible? Yet many will presume: Whence heavy persecution shall arise On all who in the worship persevere Of spirit and truth; the rest, far greater part, Will deem in outward rites and specious forms Religion satisfied; truth shall retire Bestuck with slanderous darts, and works of faith Rarely be found. So shall the world go on, To good malignant, to bad men benign, Under her own weight groaning, till the day Appear of respiration to the just, And vengeance to the wicked, at return

Of Him so lately promised to thy aid,

The woman's Seed; obscurely then foretold,

Now ampler known thy Saviour and thy Lord;

Last, in the clouds, from Heaven, to be revealed,

In glory of the Father, to dissolve

Satan with his perverted world; then raise

From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined,

New Heavens, new Earth, ages of endless date,

Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love,

To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss.

He ended; and thus Adam last replied: How soon hath thy prediction, Seer blest, Measured this transient world, the race of time, Till time stand fixed! Beyond is all abyss, Eternity, whose end no eye can reach. Greatly instructed I shall hence depart; Greatly in peace of thought; and have my fill Of knowledge, what this vessel can contain; Beyond which was my folly to aspire. Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best, And love, with fear, the only God; to walk As in His presence, ever to observe His providence, and on him sole depend, Merciful over all his works, with good Still overcoming evil, and by small Accomplishing great things; by things deemed weak Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise By simply meek; that suffering for truth's sake Is fortitude to highest victory; And, to the faithful, death the gate of life; Taught this by His example, whom I now Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest.

To whom thus also the Angel last replied:

This having learned, thou hast attained the sum

Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the stars

Thou knewest by name, and all the ethereal powers,

All secrets of the Deep, all Nature's works,

Though not but by the Spirit understood.—One of many passages which showed that Milton believed in Divine influence as a teaching power in man. Not an influence to render one man infallible against another, but tending to general enlightenment when rationally understood.

Left them enrolled.—Left written, written in the Scriptures.