PARADISE REGAINED. BOOK I. THE ARGUMENT. The subject proposed. Invocation of the Holy Spirit. John baptizing at the river Jordan. Jesus coming there, is baptized; and is attested by the descent of the Holy Ghost, and by a voice from Heaven, to be the Son of God. Satan, who is present, flies up into the regions of the air; where, summoning his infernal council, he acquaints them with his apprehensions that Jesus is that seed of the woman destined to destroy all their power, and points out to them the necessity of bringing the matter to proof, and of attempting to counteract and defeat the person from whom they have so much to dread. This office he undertakes, and sets out on his enterprise. In the meantime, God, in the assembly of holy angels, declares that He has given up His Son to be tempted by Satan; but foretells that the tempter shall be completely defeated by Him: upon which the angels sing a hymn of triumph. Jesus is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, while He is meditating on the commencement of His great office of Saviour of mankind. He narrates, in a soliloquy, what divine and philanthropic impulses He had felt from His early youth, and how His mother, Mary, had acquainted Him with the circumstances of His birth, and informed Him that He was no less a person than the Son of God; to which He adds what His own reflections and inquiries had supplied, in confirmation of this great truth, and particularly dwells on the recent attestation of it at the river Jordan. Our Lord passes forty days, fasting, in the wilderness; where the wild beasts become harmless in His presence. Satan now appears under the form of ar old peasant, and enters into discourse with our Lord. Jesus replies. Satan rejoins with a description of the difficulty of supporting life in the wilderness; and cntreats Jesus, if He be really the Son of God, to manifest His divine power by changing some of the stones into bread. Jesus reproves him, and, at the same time, tells him that He knows who he is. Satan avows himself, and offers an artful apology. Our blessed Lord severely reprimands him, and confutes every part of his justification. Satan still endeavours to justify himself; and, professing his admiration of Jesus, and his regard for virtue, requests to be permitted at a future time to hear more of his conversation; but is answered, that this must be as he shall find permission from above. Satan then disappears, and the book closes with a short description of night coming on in the desert. I, WHO crewhile the happy garden sung In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed, And Eden raised in the waste wilderness. Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st Him thence And unrecorded left through many an age: 10 20 30 40 With looks aghast and sad, he thus bespake :— 50 This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we Must bide the stroke of that long-threatened wound (At least, if so we can, and by the head Broken be not intended all our power 60 To be infringed, our freedom and our being His birth to our just fear gave no small cause; But His growth now to youth's full flower, displaying 70 Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear. All come, The prophet do Him reverence; on Him, rising Of hazard, which admits no long debate, But must with something sudden be opposed 80 (Not force, but well-couched fraud, well-woven snares), Ere in the head of nations He appear, Their king, their leader, and supreme on earth. I, when no other durst, sole undertook The dismal expedition to find out And ruin Adam, and the exploit performed Successfully: a calmer voyage now Will waft me; and the way found prosperous once He ended, and his words impression left 9c 100 ΠΙΟ |