To his destruction, as I had in charge;
or what he bids I do; though I have lost
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost
To be belov'd of God, I have not lost
To love, at least contemplate and admire
What I see excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.
What can be then less in me than desire
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
Declar'd the Son of God, to hear attest
Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?
Men generally think me much a foe
To all mankind; why should I? They to me
Never did wrong or violence: by them
I lost not what I lost; rather by them
I gain'd what I have gain'd, and with them dwell
Copartner in these regions of the world,
If not disposer; lend them oft my aid,
Oft my advice, by presages and signs,
And answers, oracles, portents and dreams,
Whereby they may direct their future life.
Envy they say excites me thus to gain
Companions of my misery and wo.
At first it may be; but long since with wo
Nearer acquainted, now I feel, by proof,
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load.
Smail consolation then, were man adjoin'd:
This wounds me most, (what can it less?) that mar
Man fallen shall be restor'd, I never more.
To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied.
Deservedly thou griev'st, compos'd of lies
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end;
Who boasts release from hell, and leave to come
Into the heaven of heavens: thou com'st indeed
As a poor miserable captive-thral.
Comes to the place where he before had sa.
Among the prime in splendour, now depos'd,
Ejected, en iptied, gaz'd unpitied, shunn'd,
A spectacle of ruin or of scorn
To all the host of heaven; the happy place
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy
Lather inflames thy torment representing
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable,
So never more in hell than when in heaven.
But thou art serviceable to heaven's King.
Wilt thou impute t' obedience what thy fear
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?
What but thy malice mov'd thee to misdeem
Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
With all inflictions? but his patience won.
The other service was thy chosen task
To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
Yet thou pretend'st to truth; all oracles
By thee are given, and what confess'd more true
Among the nations? that hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers, what but dark.
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding;
Which they who ask'd have seldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Whoever by consulting at thy shrine
Return'd the wiser, or the more instruct
To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
For God hath justly given the nations up
To thy delusions: justly, since they fell
idolatrous but when his purpose is
Among them to declare his providence
To thee not known. whence hast thou then thy truth
But from him. or his angels president
In every province? who themselves disdaining
T'approach thy temples, give thee in command
What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say
To thy adorers; thou, with trembling fear.
Or, like a fawning parasite obey'st;
Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench'd;
No more shalt thou by oracle abuse
The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceas'd,
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
Shalt be inquir'd at Delphos or else where ;
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent his Living Oracle
Into the world to teach his final will,
And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle
To all truth requisite for men to know.
So spake our Saviour; but the subtle fiend,
Though inly stung with anger and disdain.
Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned:
Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,
And urg'd me hard with doings, which not will,
But misery, hath wrested from me; where
Easily canst thou find one miserable,
And not enforc'd oft-times to part from truth;
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and
unsay, feign, fiatter. or abiure? But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord. · From thee I can and must submiss endure Check or reproof, and glad to scape so quit. Hard are the ways of Truth, and rough to walk: Smooth on the tongue discours'd, pleasing to th' er And tunable as sylvan pipe or song;
What wonder then if I delight to hear
Her dictates from thy mouth? Most men admire
Virtue, who follow not her lore: permit me
To hear thee when I come (since no man comes)
And talk at least, though I despair t' attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
To tread his sacred courts, and minister
About his altar, handling holy things,
Praying, or vowing, and vouchsaf'd his voice
To Baalam reprobate, a prophet yet
Inspir'd: disdain not such access to me
To whom our Saviour with unalter'd brow:
Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope
I bid not or forbid; do as thou find'st
Permission from above; thou canst not more.
He added not; and Satan, bowing low
His grey dissimulation, disappeared
Into thin air diffus'd: for now began
Night with her sullen wings to-double shade
The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couched And now wild beasts came forth the woods to
MEANWHILE the new baptiz'd, who yet remain'd
At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen
Him whom they heard so late expressly call'd
Jesus, Messiah, Son of God declar'd ;
And on that high authority had believed,
And with him talk'd, and with him lodg'd, (I mear
Andrew and Simon. famous after known,
With others, thougn in noly writ not nam'd,)
Now missing him, their joy so lately found,
So lately found, and so abruptly gone,
Began to doubt, and doubted many days,
And as the days increas'd, increas'd their doubt:
Sometimes they thought he might be only shown
And for a time caught up to God, as once
Moses was in the mount, and missing long;
And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels
Rode up to heaven, yet once again to come.
Therefore as those young prophets then with care
Sought lost Elijah, so in each place these
Nigh to Bethabara; in Jericho,
The city of Palms, Enon and Salem old,
Machærus, and each town or city wall'd
On this side the broad lake Genezaret,
Or in Perea; but returned in vain.
Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek.
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