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17 - Paradise Lost - John Milton · Sacred Texts Archive

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Book three, Part one. Hail Holy Light, offspring of Heaven's first born,
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or of the eternal co eternal beam. May I express the unblamed,
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since God is light and never but in unapproached light dwelt from eternity dwelt then
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in thee bright affluence of bright essence in create or hearest thou rather pure ethereal
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stream whose fountain, who shall tell before the sun, before the heavens?
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Thou wert and at the voice of God, as with a mantle, didst
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invest the rising world of waters, dark and deep, one from the void
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and formless, infinite. THEE I revisit now with bolder wing, escaped the
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stigen pool, though long detained in that obscure sojourn, While in my flight
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through utter and through middle darkness, born with other notes than to the orphean
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lyre I sung of careaos and eternal night, taught by the heavenly muse to
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venture down the dark descent and up to reascend, Though hard and rare,
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THEE I revisit safe and feel thy sovereign vital lamp. But thou revisit'st not
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these eyes that roll in vain to find thy piercing ray, and find no
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dawn, so thick a drop, serene, hath quenched their orbs, or
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dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more cease I to wander where the muses
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haunt clear spring or shady grove or sunny hill, smit with the love of
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sacred song. But chief these Ion and the flowery brooks beneath that wash thy
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hallowed feet and warbling flow nightly I visit, nor sometimes forget those other two
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equall'd with me in fate, So were I equalled with them in renown,
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blind Thamarice and blind Meonides and Tyresius and phineas prophets old then feed on thoughts
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that voluntary move harmonious numbers, as the wakeful bird sings darkling, and in
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shadiest covert hid tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year season's return,
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but not to me returns day or the sweet approach of even or morn,
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or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose, or flocks or herds or human
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face divine, But cloud instead, and ever during dark surrounds me from the
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cheerful ways of men, cut off and for the book of knowledge fair presented
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with a universal blank of nature's works to me, expunged and raised, and
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wisdom at one entrance, quite shut out so much the rather thou celestial light
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shone inward, and the mind, through all her powers, irradiate their plant
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eyes all missed. From thence purge and disperse, that I may see and
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tell of things invisible to mortal sight. Now had the Almighty Father from above,
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from the pure Empyrean, where he sits high, throned above all height,
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bent down his eye his own works and their works at once to view
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about him all the sanctities of heaven stood thick as stars, and from his
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sight received beatitude past utterance. On his right, the radiant image of his
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glory sat his only son on earth. He first beheld our two first parents,
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yet the only two of mankind, in the happy garden, placed reaping
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immortal fruits of joy and love, uninterrupted joy, unrivaled love, in blissful
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solitude. He then surveyed Hell and the gulf tween and Satan, there,
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coasting the wall of Heaven on this side, night in the dun air sublime,
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and ready now to stoop with wearied wings and willing feet on the bare
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outside of this world that seemed firm, land embosomed without firmament, uncertain,
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which in ocean or in air him God beholding from his prospect high, wherein
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past present future he beholds thus to his only son, for seeing spake only
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begotten Sun, seest thou what rage transports our adversary, whom no bounds prescribed,
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no bars of hell, nor all the chains heaped on him there,
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nor yet the main abby's wide interrupt can hold. So bent he seems on
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desperate revenge that shall redound upon his own rebellious head. And now through all
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restraint broke loose, he wings his way, not far off heaven, in
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the precincts of light, directly towards the new created world, and man there
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placed with purpose to say, if him by force he can destroy, or
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worse by some false guile, pervert, and shall pervert. For man will
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hearken to his closing lies and easily transgress the sole command, sole pledge of
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his obedience, So will fall he and his faithless progeny, whose fault,
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whose but his own? In great he had of me all he could have.
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I made him jest and right sufficient to have stood, though free to
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fall, such I created all the ethereal powers and spirits, both them who
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stood and them who failed freely they stood, who stood, and fell?
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Who fell? Not free? What proof could they have given sincere of true
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allegiance, constant faith, or love? Where only what they needs must do
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appeared, not what they would? What pray could they receive? What pleasure
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I from such obedience paid? When will and reason? Reason? Also is
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choice useless and vain of freedom. Both despoiled, made passive, both had
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served necessity, not me. They therefore, as to right belonged, so
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were created. Nor can justly accuse their maker, or their making, or
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their fate, as if predestination over ruled their will, disposed by absolute decree
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or high foreknowledge, they themselves decreed their own revolt, not I if I
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foreknew. Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault, which had no less proved
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certain unforreknown. So without least impulse or shadow of fate, or aught by
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me immutably foreseen, they trespass authors to themselves in all, both what they
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judge and what they choose. For so I formed them free and free.
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They must remain till they enthrall themselves. I else must change their nature and
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revoke the high decree, unchangeable eternal, which ordained their freedom. They themselves
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ordained their fall. The first sort, by their own suggestion, fell self
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tempted, self depraved. Man falls deceived by the other. First man therefore
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shall find grace, the other none. In mercy and justice, both through
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heaven and earth. So shall my glory exceel, but mercy first and last
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shall brightest shine. Thus, while God spake, ambrosial fragrance filled all heaven,
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and in the blessed spirits elect sense of new joy, ineffable, diffused
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beyond compare, the Son of God was seen most glorious. In him all
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his father shone substantially expressed, and in his face divine compassion visibly appeared,
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love without end and without measure, grace which uttering thus he to his father
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spake, O Father, gracious was that word which closed Thy sovereign sentence,
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that man should find grace, for which both heaven and earth shall high extol
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Thy praises with the innumerable sound of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith Thy throne
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encompassed shall resound thee ever blest. For should man finally be lost, should
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man thy creature late, so loved thy youngest son, fall circumvented thus by
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fraud, though join'd with his own folly, that be from thee far,
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that far be from thee Father, who art judge of all things made,
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and judgest only right. Or shall the adversary thus obtain his end and frustrate
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thine, shall he fulfill his malice and thy goodness bring to naught or proud
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return though to his heavier doom, yet with revenge accomplished, and to hell
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draw after him the whole race of mankind by him corrupted. Or wilt thou
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thyself abolish thy creation and unmake for him what for thy glory thou'st made.
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So should thy goodness and thy greatness both be questioned and blasphemed without defense to
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whom the great Creator thus replied, O, son, in whom my soul
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hath chief delight, son of my bosom, son, who art alone my
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word, my wisdom and effectual might. All hast thou spoken as my thoughts
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are, all as my eternal purpose hath decreed. Man shall not quite be
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lost but saved, who will yet not of will in him, but grace
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in me freely vouchsafed. Once more, I will renew his lapsed powers,
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though forfeit and enthralled by sin, to foul exorbitant desires, upheld by me,
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Yet once more he shall stand on even ground against his mortal foe,
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by me, upheld, that he may know how frail his fallen condition is,
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and to me owe all his deliverance. And to none but me.
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Some I have chosen of peculiar grace elect above the rest, So is my
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will. The rest shall hear me call and oft be warned their sinful state,
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and to appease betimes the insensed deity, while offered grace, invites,
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for I will clear their senses dark what may suffice and soften stony hearts,
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to pray, repent, and bring obedience. Due to prayer, repentance and
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obedience, do though but endeavored, with sincere intent. Mine ear shall not
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be slow, mine eye not shut. And I will place within them as
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a guide my umpire conscience, whom if they will hear light after light well
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used, they shall attain, and to the end, persisting safe, arrive
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this my long sufferance and my day of grace. They who neglect and scorn
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shall never taste but hard, be hardened, blind, be blinded, more
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that they may stumble on in deeper fall. And none but such from mercy
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I exclude. But yet all is not done. Man disobeying, disloyal,
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breaks his fealty and sins against the high supremacy of Heaven, affecting Godhead,
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and so losing all to expiate his treason, hath not left but to destruction,
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sacred and devote He with his whole posterity, must die, die,
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he or justice must, unless for him some other able, and as willing
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pay the rigid satisfaction death for death, Say, heavenly powers, where shall
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we find such love, which of ye will be mortal to redeem man's mortal
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crime? And just the unjustice save dwells in all heaven charity, so dear
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he asked. But all the heavenly choir stood mute, and silence was in
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heaven on man's behalf patron or intercessor, none appeared much less that Durst upon
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his own head draw the deadly forfeiture and ransom set. And now without redemption,
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all mankind must have been lost, adjudged to death, and hell by
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doom severe had not the Son of God in whom the fullness dwells of love
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divine his dearest mediation. Thus renewed, Father, thy word is past.
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Man shall find grace, and shall grace not find means that finds her way
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the speediest of thy winged messengers, to visit all thy creatures, and to
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all comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought, happy for man so coming he her
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aid can never seek. Once dead in sins and lost, atonement for himself,
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or offering meet indebted and undone, hath none to bring behold me,
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then me for him life for life. I offer on me. Let thine
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anger fall account me. Man, I, for his sake will leave thy
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bosom and this glory next to thee freely put off, and for him lastly
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die well pleased on me, let death wreck all his rage under his gloomy
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power. I shall not long lie vanquished. Thou hast given me to possess
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life in myself forever by THEE I live, Though now to death I yield
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and am his due. All that of me can die. Yet that debt
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paid, Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave his prey, nor
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suffer my unspotted soul forever with corruption there to dwell. But I shall rise
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victorious and subdue my vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil death, his death's
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wound, shall then receive and stoop inglorious of his mortal sting, disarmed,
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I through the ample air in triumph high shall lead Hell, captive malger Hell,
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and show the powers of darkness. Bound Thou at the sight pleased out
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of heaven, shalt look down and smile, while by thee raised I ruin
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all my foes, death last, and with his carcass glut the grave.
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Then, with the multitude of my redeemed, shall enter Heaven long absent,
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and return Father to see thy face, wherein no cloud of anger shall remain,
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but peace assured and reconcilement. Wrath shall be no more thenceforth, but
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in thy presence, joy and tire. His words here ended, but his
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meek aspect silent, yet spake and breathed immortal love to mortal men, above
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which only shone filial obedience. As a sacrifice, glad to be offered,
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he attends the will of his great father, admiration seized all heaven. What
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this might mean? And whither tend wondering but soon the Almighty thus replied,
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O thou, in heaven and earth the only peace found out for mankind,
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and under wrath, O thou my sole complaisance. Well thou knowest, how
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dear to me are all my works, nor man the least though last created
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that for him I spare THEE from my bosom and right hand to save by
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losing THEE, while the whole race lost. Thou. Therefore, whom thou
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only canst redeem their nature. Also to thy nature. Join and be thyself
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man among men on earth made flesh, when time shall be of virgin seed
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by wondrous birth. Be thou in Adam's room, the head of all mankind.
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Though Adam's son, as in him, perish all men. So in
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THEE as from a second root, shall be restored, as many as are
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restored. Without THEE. None his crime makes guilty all his sons. Thy
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merit imputed shall absolve them who renounce their own, both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
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and live in THEE transplanted, and from THEE receive new life. So
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man as is most just shall satisfy. For man be judged and die,
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and dying rise and rising with him raise his brethren, ransomed with his own
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dear life, so heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate, giving to death and
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dying to redeem, so dearly to redeem what hellish hate so easily destroyed and
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still destroys in those who, when they may accept not grace. Nor shalt
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thou by descending to assume man's nature lessen or degrade thine own. Because thou
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hast, though throned in highest bliss, equal to God and equally enjoying god
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like fruition, quitted all to save a world from utter loss, and hast
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been found by merit more than birthright, son of God, found worthiest to
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be so by being good, far more than great or high. Because in
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THEE love hath abounded more than glory abound. Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt with
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THEE thy manhood also to this throne. Here shalt thou sit incarnate. Here
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shalt reign both God and Man, son, both of God and Man,
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anointed universal king all power. I give THEE reign forever and assume thy merits
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under THEE as head, supreme thrones, princedoms, powers, dominions. I
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reduce all needs to THEE. Shall bow of them that bide in heaven or
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earth, or under earth in hell. When thou attendedt gloriously from heaven,
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shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send the summoning archangels to proclaim
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thy dread tribunal. Forthwith from all winds the living, and forthwith the sighted
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dead of all past ages to the general doom shall hasten. Such appeal shall
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rouse their sleep. Then all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge bad men
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and angels they arraigned, shall sink beneath thy sentence. Hell her numbers full,
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thenceforth shall be forever shed. Meanwhile the world shall burn, and from
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her ashes spring new heaven and earth, wherein the just shall dwell. And
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after all their tribulations long see golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, with
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joy and love, triumphing and fair truth. Then thou thy regal scepter,
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shalt lay by for regal scepter. Then no more shall need God shall be
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all in all, but all ye gods adore Him who to compass all this
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dies. Adore the Sun, and honor him as me. End of Book
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three, Part one