Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest To whom our Saviour, with unaltered brow :— His gray dissimulation, disappeared 490 500 The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couched ; BOOK II. THE ARGUMENT. The disciples of Jesus, uneasy at His long absence, reason amongst themselves concerning it. Mary also gives vent to her maternal anxiety; in the expression of which she recapitulates many circumstances respecting the birth and early life of her Son. Satan again meets his infernal council, reports the bad success of his first temptation of our blessed Lord, and calls upon them for counsel and assistance. Belial proposes the tempting of Jesus with women. Satan rebukes Belial for his dissoluteness, charging on him all the profligacy of that kind ascribed by the poets to the heathen gods, and rejects his proposal as in no respect likely to succeed. Satan then suggests other modes of temptation, particularly proposing to avail himself of the circumstance of our Lord's hungering; and, taking a band of chosen spirits with him, returns to resume his enterprise. Jesus hungers in the desert. Night comes on; the manner in which our Saviour passes the night is described. Morning advances. Satan again appears to Jesus, and, after expressing wonder that He should be so entirely neglected in the wilderness, where others had been miraculously fed, tempts Him with a sumptuous banquet of the most luxurious kind. This He rejects, and the banquet vanishes. Satan, finding our Lord not to be assailed on the ground of appetite, tempts Him again by offering Him riches, as the means of acquiring power: this Jesus also rejects, producing many instances of great actions performed by persons under virtuous poverty, and specifying the danger of riches, and the cares and pains inseparable from power and greatness. MEANWHILE the new-baptized, who yet remained At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen Him whom they heard so late expressly called Jesus, Messiah, Son of God declared, And on that high authority had believed, And with Him talked, and with Him lodged-I mean With others, though in Holy Writ not named— And, as the days increased, increased their doubt. ΤΟ And for a time caught up to God, as once The city of palms, Ænon, and Salem old, Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play, Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreathed :— 20 30 For whither is He gone? what accident Hath rapt him from us? will He now retire 40 Send Thy Messiah forth; the time is come. 5C By His great prophet pointed at and shown Lay on His providence; He will not fail, Mock us with His blessed sight, then snatch Him hence: Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure, Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad :— To have conceived of God, or that salute, And fears as eminent above the lot Of other women, by the birth I bore: In such a season born, when scarce a shed Could be obtained to shelter Him or me From the bleak air? A stable was our warmth, A manger His; yet soon enforced to fly Thence into Egypt, till the murderous king Were dead, who sought His life, and, missing, filled I looked for some great change. To honour? no; 60 70 80 That to the fall and rising He should be Of many in Israel, and to a sign Spoken against-that through my very soul A sword shall pierce. This is my favoured lot, Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blessed! But where delays He now? Some great intent He scarce had seen, 90 I lost Him, but so found as well I saw 100 My heart hath been a storehouse long of things Had left Him vacant, and with speed was gone Where all his potentates in council sat. There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy, Solicitous and blank, he thus began :— 120 "Princes, Heaven's ancient sons, ethereal thrones Demonian spirits now, from the element Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called Powers of fire, air, water, and earth beneath |