by John Milton
That Moses might report to them his will,
And terror cease; he grants what they besought
Instructed that to God is no access
Without mediator, whose high office now
Moses in figure bears241, to introduce
One greater, of whose day he shall foretell,
And all the prophets in their age the times
Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus laws and rites
Established, such delight hath God in men
Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes
Among them to set up his tabernacle247,
The Holy One with mortal men to dwell:
By his prescript a sanctuary is framed
Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein
An ark, and in the ark his testimony,
The records of his cov’nant, over these
A mercy-seat of gold between the wings
Of two bright Cherubim; before him burn
255 Seven lamps as in a zodiac255 representing
The heav’nly fires; over the tent a cloud
Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night,
Save when they journey, and at length they come,
Conducted by his angel to the land
Promised to Abraham and his seed: the rest
Were long to tell, how many battles fought,
How many kings destroyed, and kingdoms won,
Or how the sun shall in mid-heav’n stand still
A day entire, and night’s due course adjourn,
Man’s voice commanding, ‘Sun265 in Gibeon stand,
And thou moon in the vale of Aialon,
Till Israel overcome’; so call the third267
From Abraham, son of Isaac, and from him
His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.”
Here Adam interposed. “O sent from Heav’n,
Enlight’ner of my darkness, gracious things
Thou hast revealed, those chiefly which concern
Just Abraham and his seed: now first I find
Mine eyes true op’ning274, and my heart much eased,
Erewhile perplexed with thoughts what would become
Of me and all mankind; but now I see
His277 day, in whom all nations shall be blest,
Favor unmerited by me, who sought
Forbidden knowledge by forbidden means.
This yet I apprehend not, why to those
Among whom God will deign to dwell on Earth
So many and so various laws are giv’n;
So many laws argue so many sins
Among them; how can God with such reside?”
To whom thus Michael. “Doubt not but that sin
Will reign among them, as of thee begot;
And therefore was law given them287 to evince
Their natural pravity288, by stirring up
Sin against law to fight; that when they see
Law can discover sin, but not remove,
Save by those shadowy expiations weak,
The blood of bulls and goats292, they may conclude
Some blood more precious293 must be paid for man,
Just for unjust, that in such righteousness
To them by faith imputed295, they may find
Justification296 towards God, and peace
Of conscience, which the law by ceremonies
Cannot appease, nor man the moral part
Perform, and not performing cannot live.
So law appears imperfect, and but giv’n
With purpose to resign them in full time
Up to a better cov’nant, disciplined
From shadowy types to truth, from flesh to spirit,
From imposition of strict laws to free
Acceptance of large grace, from servile fear
To filial, works of law to works of faith.
And therefore shall not Moses, though of God
Highly beloved, being but the minister
Of law, his people into Canaan lead;
But Joshua whom the Gentiles Jesus call310,
His name and office bearing, who shall quell
The adversary serpent, and bring back
Through the world’s wilderness long wandered man
Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.
Meanwhile they in their earthly Canaan placed
Long time shall dwell and prosper, but316 when sins
National interrupt their public peace,
Provoking God to raise them enemies:
From whom as oft he saves them penitent
By judges first, then under kings; of whom
The second, both for piety renowned
And puissant deeds, a promise322 shall receive
Irrevocable, that his regal throne
Forever shall endure; the like shall sing
All prophecy, that of the royal stock
Of David (so I name this king) shall rise
A son, the woman’s seed to thee foretold,
Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust
All nations, and to kings foretold, of kings
The last, for of his reign shall be no end.
But first a long succession must ensue,
And his next son332 for wealth and wisdom famed,
The clouded ark of God till then in tents
Wand’ring, shall in a glorious temple enshrine.
Such follow him, as shall be registered
Part good, part bad, of bad the longer scroll,
Whose foul idolatries and other faults
Heaped to the popular sum338, will so incense
God, as to leave them, and expose their land,
Their city, his temple, and his holy ark
With all his sacred things, a scorn and prey
To that proud city, whose high walls thou saw’st
Left in confusion, Babylon thence called.343
There in captivity he lets them dwell
The space of seventy years, then brings them back,
Rememb’ring mercy, and his cov’nant sworn
To David, ‘stablished as the days of Heav’n.
Returned from Babylon by leave of kings348
Their Lords, whom God disposed349, the house of God
They first re-edify350, and for a while
In mean estate live moderate, till grown
In wealth and multitude, factious they grow;
But first among the priests dissension springs,
Men who attend the altar, and should most
Endeavor peace: their strife pollution brings
Upon the temple itself: at last they seize
The scepter, and regard not David’s sons,
Then lose it to a stranger358, that the true
Anointed King Messiah might be born
Barred of360 his right; yet at his birth a star
Unseen before in Heav’n proclaims him come,
And guides the eastern sages, who inquire
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 choir
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 Heav’ns.”
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.
“O prophet of glad tidings, finisher
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, hail379,
High in the love of Heav’n, 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 capital383 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 a 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 Heav’n, a deadlier bruise,
Disabled not to give thee thy death’s wound:
Which he who comes thy Savior shall recure393,
Not by destroying Satan, but his works
In thee and in thy seed: nor can this be,
But by fulfilling that which thou didst want396,
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 apaid401.
The law of God exact he shall fulfill
Both by obedience and by love403, though love
Alone fulfill the law; thy punishment
He shall endure by coming in the flesh
To a406 reproachful life and cursèd death,
Proclaiming life to all who shall believe
In his redemption, and that his obedience
Imputed409 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 cross415 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 light423,
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 forever 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 head432 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
To his disciples, men who in his life
Still followed him; to them shall leave in charge
To teach all nations what of him they learned
And his salvation, them who shall believe
Baptizing in the profluent442 stream, the sign
Of washing them from guilt of sin to life
Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall,
For death, like that which the Redeemer died.
All nations they shall teach; for from that day
Not only to the sons of Abraham’s loins
Salvation shall be preached, but to the sons
Of Abraham’s faith wherever through the world;
So in his seed all nations shall be blest.
Then to the Heav’n of Heav’ns he shall ascend
With victory, triumphing through the air
Over his foes and thine; there shall surprise
The serpent, Prince of Air454, and drag in chains
Through all his realm, and there confounded leave;
Then enter into glory, and resume
His seat at God’s right hand, exalted high
Above all names in Heav’n; and thence shall come,
When this world’s dissolution shall be ripe,
With glory and power to judge both quick460 and dead,
To judge th’ unfaithful dead, but to reward
His faithful, and receive them into bliss,
Whether in Heav’n or Earth, for then the Earth
Shall all be Paradise, far happier place
Than this of Eden, and far happier days.”
So spake th’ Archangel Michael, then paused,
As at the world’s great period467; and our sire
Replete with joy and wonder thus replied.
“O goodness infinite, goodness immense!
That all this good of evil shall produce470,
And evil turn to good; more wonderful
Than that which by creation first brought forth
Light out of darkness! Full of doubt I stand,
Whether I should repent me now of sin
By me done and occasioned, or rejoice475
Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring,
To God more glory, more good will to men
From God, and over wrath grace shall abound478.
But say, if our Deliverer up to Heav’n
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 deal
Worse with his followers than with him they dealt?”
“Be sure they will,” said th’ angel. “But from Heav’n
He to his own a comforter486 will send,
The promise of the Father, who shall dwell
His Spirit within them, and the law of faith488
Working through love, upon their hearts shall write489,
To guide them in all truth, and also arm
With spiritual armor491, able to resist
Satan’s assaults, and quench his fiery darts,
What man can do against them, not afraid,
Though to the death, against such cruelties
With inward consolations recompensed,
And oft supported so as shall amaze
Their proudest persecutors: for the Spirit
Poured first on his apostles, whom he sends
To evangelize the nations, then on all
Baptized, shall them with wondrous gifts endue
To speak all tongues501, and do all miracles,
As did their Lord before them. Thus they win
Great numbers of each nation to receive
With joy the tidings brought from Heav’n: at length
Their ministry performed, and race well run,
Their doctrine and their story written left,
They die; but in their room, as they forewarn,
Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves508,
Who all the sacred mysteries of Heav’n
To their own vile advantages shall turn
Of lucre and ambition, and the truth511
With superstitions and traditions taint,
Left only in those written records pure,
Though not but by the Spirit understood.
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 giv’n
To all believers; and from that pretense,
Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force
On every conscience; laws which
none shall find
Left them enrolled523, 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 temples527, built by faith to stand,
Their own faith not another’s: for on Earth528
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 forms534
Religion satisfied; Truth shall retire
Bestuck with sland’rous 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 groaning539 till the day
Appear of respiration540 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 amplier known thy Savior and thy Lord,
Last in the clouds from Heav’n to be revealed
In glory of the Father, to dissolve546
Satan with his perverted world, then raise
From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined,
New heav’ns, new earth549, 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 fixed555: 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 vessel559 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 good564
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things567, 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 th’ angel last replied:
“This having learnt, thou hast attained the sum
