254
��PARADISE REGAINED
��Great in renown, and called the Son of
God. Then told'st her, doubting how these things
could be
To her a virgin, that on her should come The Holy Ghost, and the power of the
Highest O'ershadow her. This Man, born and now
upgrown, 140
To shew him worthy of his birth divine And high prediction, henceforth I expose To Satan; let him tempt, and now assay His utmost subtlety, because he boasts And vaunts of his great cunning to the
throng
Of his Apostasy. He might have learnt Less overweening, since he failed in Job, Whose constant perseverance overcame Whate'er his cruel malice could invent. He now shall know I can produce a man, 150 Of female seed, far abler to resist All his solicitations, and at length All his vast force, and drive him back to
Hell Winning by conquest what the first man
lost
By fallacy surprised. But first I mean To exercise him in the Wilderness; There he shall first lay down the rudiments Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth To conquer Sin and Death, the two grand
foes.
By humiliation and strong sufferance 160 His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic
strength,
And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh ; That all the Angels and aethereal Powers They now, and men hereafter may dis- cern From what consummate virtue I have
chose
This perfet man, by merit called my Son, To earn salvation for the sons of men." So spake the Eternal Father, and all
Heaven
Admiring stood a space; then into hymns Burst forth, and in celestial measures
moved, 170
Circling the throne and singing, while the
hand
Sung with the voice, and this the argu- ment:
" Victory and triumph to the Son of God, Now entering his great duel, not of arms, But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles !
��The Father knows the Son; therefore se- cure
Ventures his filial virtue, though untried, Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er se- duce,
Allure, or terrify, or undermine. Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, 180 And, devilish machinations, come to
nought ! " So they in Heaven their odes and vigils
tuned. Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some
days
Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized, Musing and much revolving in his breast How best the mighty work he might be- gin Of Saviour to mankind, and which way
first
Publish his godlike office now mature, One day forth walked alone, the Spirit
leading
And his deep thoughts, the better to con- verse 190 With solitude, till, far from track of men, Thought following thought, and step by
step led on,
He entered now the bordering Desert wild, And, with dark shades and rocks environed
round,
His holy meditations thus pursued: "O what a multitude of thoughts at
once
Awakened in me swarm, while I consider What from within I feel myself, and hear What from without comes often to my ears, 111 sorting with my present state com- pared ! 200
When I was yet a child, no childish play To me was pleasing; all my mind was set Serious to learn and know, and thence to
do, What might be public good; myself I
thought
Born to that end, born to promote all truth, All righteous things. Therefore, above my
years, The Law of God I read, and found it
sweet;
Made it my whole delight, and in it grew To such perfection that, ere yet my age Had measured twice six years, at our great
Feast 210
I went into the Temple, there to hear The teachers of our Law, and to propose
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