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FH

THE

THIRD BOOK

O F

PARADISE LOST.

G

The ARGUMENT.

OD fitting on his Throne fees Satan flying towards this World, then newly created; fhews him to the SON who fat at bis Right Hand; foretells the Success of Satan in perverting Mankind; clears his own Juftice and Wisdom from all Imputation having created Man free and able enough to have withstood bis Tempter; yet declares his Purpofe of Grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own Malice, as Satan did, but by him feduc'd. The SON of GOD renders Praifes to his Father for the Manifeftation of his gracious Purpofe towards Man ; but GOD again declares that Grace cannot be extended towards Man, without the Satisfaction of Divine Juftice, Man bath offended the Majefty of

GOD

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GOD by afpiring to Godhead; and therefore with all his Progeny devoted to Death, muft die, unless fome one can be found fufficient to answer for his "Offence, and undergo his Punishment. The SON of GOD freely offers himself a Ranfom for Man: The Father accepts him, ordains his Incarnation, pronounces bis Exaltation above all Names in Heaven and Earth commands all the Angels to adore him; they obey and finging to their Harps in full Choir celebrate the FATHER and the SON. Satan lights upon the bare Convex of the World's outermoft Orb, where he first finds a Place fince call'd the Limbo of Vanity; what Perfons and Things fly up thither. Satan comes to the Gates of Heaven, defcrib'd afcending by Stairs, and the Waters above the Firmament that flow about it: His Paffage thence to the Orb of the Sun: He finds there Uriel the Regent of that Orb; but first changes himself into the Shape of a meaner Angel, inquires after the Habitation of Man and is directed; alights firft on the Mount Niphates,

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GOD fees Satan flying towards this World, foretells his Success in perverting Mankind; and declares bis Purpofe of Grace thereupon.

AIL holy Light! (who if not from Everlafting with the Deity, art the first Offfpring of Heaven), may I express thee without Blame? fince GOD himfelf is Light, and dwelling in Light from Eternity has always been unapproachable, always dwelt in Thee, Thou bright Effluence

Effluence of the bright uncreated Being; or fhall I rather call Thee a pure heavenly Stream, whofe Fountain is GOD. Thou wert before the Sun and the Heavens, and at the Voice of GOD didft adorn the rifing World, which before was dark, and but just rifen from the CHAOS, without Form and infinitely void. Now I vifit Thee again with fresh Courage, having long been treating of Darknefs, and Hell, and the Shades of Obfcurity; having been taught by the heavenly Spirit to venture down the dark Defcent, and to afcend up again to speak of Thee. Thee I now fafely revifit, and feel thy fovereign quickning Lamp; but Thou revifit'ft not these Eyes, that in vain rowl to find Thy piercing Ray; fo thick a Darknefs and Suffufion hath veil'd them and extinguish'd, that they never find a Dawn! Yet do I not for that Reafon cease to wander among clear Springs, or fhady Groves, or funny Hills, where the Mules haunt; the Love of facred Song always delighting me. But chiefly SION, Thee I vifit nightly, and the flowry Brooks that wash thy hallow'd Foot, flowing fweetly; nor do I forget fometimes those other two infpired Writers, whom Fate made equal with me, and to whom I wish I were equal in Fame, blind THAMYRIS, (a) and blind MAONIDES, (b) and TIRE

(a) Thamyris, Lat. Gr. i. e. Wonderful. A Poet of Thrace, who had the Vanity to contend with the Mufes in Singing, but loft it; therefore they put out his Eyes, and took away his Harp. This Fable teaches us the Danger and Vanity of mocking God, of Self-fufficiency and Pride.

(b) Moonides; Lat. Gr. i. e. The Son of Maon, for Homer, Gr. i. e. One that doth not fee:

SIAS,

because he defpis'd the Vanities of the World, not that he was really depriv'd of his Eyefight; others fay, that his Blindness came by an Accident. But his proper Name was Melifegenes, from the River Meles, where he was born. He was fo poor, that he begg'd his Bread; yet when he was dead, feven Cities contended for the Honour of his Nativity; Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos,

SIAS, (c) and PHINEUS, (d) who were Prophets of old. Then I feed on Thoughts, that naturally move to Harmony; as the wakeful Nightingale in the dark, and hid in the thickest Shade, fings her fweet Song by Night. Thus the Seafons return with the Year, but neither Day, nor the fweet Approach of Evening or Morning, or Sight of Bloffoms in the Spring, or Summer's Rofe, or Flocks, or Herds, or Face of MAN, the Image of his Maker, return to me; but instead of that a Cloud and ever-during Darkness furrounds me, cut off from the chearful Ways of MMEN, and for the Book of fair Knowledge prefented with a univerfal Blot of Nature's Works, which are to ine all expung'd and eraz'd, and Wisdom at the great Entrance of Sight quite fhut out: So much the rather

gos, Athena. He was born according to the best Account, A. M. 3120, 340 Years after the Destruction of Troy, and 884 before the Incarnation. An antient and most celebrated Poet among the Greeks, the wittieft Man that ever liv'd, who had none to imitate, (except Mofes, from whom he took his beft Thoughts) was never matched by any that came after him, except now by Milton, and a Pattern to all Poets, Philofophers and Hiftorians to this Day. He wrote the Wars of Troy in twenty-four Books, called the Iliads, and the dangerous Voyages of Ulyffes, in the Odyes, in as many. The greatest Veneration has been paid to his Name in all Ages: And Milton modeftly wishes he might be equalled to him therein, though n many Refpects he hath ex

Red Homer himself, and Vir

lfo in Epic Poem, both in

do

the Grandeur of his Subject, in his Learning, Characters, and every Thing else.

(c) Tirefias; Lat. Gr. i. e. A Star: because he foretold fome Things by the Knowledge of Aftrology. A blind Poet and Soothfayer of Thebes; long before Hamer: the Son of Evetrus and Chariclo. He was ftruck blind either for peeping too curiously upon Minerva in the Fountain Hypocrine; or for deciding the Caufe between Jupiter and Juno to her Diflatiffaction: for which Jupiter gave him the Faculty of Divination or Soothsaying.

(d) Phineus; Lat. Gr. i. e. Shining, illuftrious. A King and Prophet of Arcadia, who for putting out the Eyes of his Children, and for revealing the Secrets of the Gods to Men, was punished with Blind

nels.

do Thou celeftial Light fhine inward, and enlighten my Mind thro' all her Powers; there plant Eyes, purge and difperfe all Ignorance from thence, that I may fee and tell of Things which to mortal Sight are invisible.

Now the ALMIGHTY Father had bent down his Eye from above, from the pure Heaven, where he fits high thron'd above all Height, to view at once his own Works and their Works; about him the most pure and holy Angels of Heaven stood as thick as Stars, and from his Sight receiv'd unfpeakable Happiness: On his Right-Hand fate his only Son, the bright Image of his Glory He first beheld on Earth our two first Parents, ADAM and Eve, as yet the only two of Mankind, plac'd in the happy Garden of EDEN, (e) reaping immortal Fruits of unrivall'd Love and uninterrupted Joy in a happy Solitude. The eternal Father then faw Hell and the Gulph between, and SATAN there coafting the Wall of Heaven, high in the thick Air, and on this Side of NIGht, ready to ftoop with willing Feet and tired Wings upon the bare Outside of this World, that feem'd like Land encompass'd without Firmament; nor could SATAN, at that Distance, tell whether it was furrounded with Air or Water. GOD faw him from his high Profpect,

(e) Eden; an Hebrew Word. It fignifies Pleasure and Delight: because it was the moft pleafant Place upon Earth, and Paradife was in it. Eden was a Country in Chaldea, thought by fome to be the fame as Mefopotamia, near Babylon, lying between the Euphrates and the Tygris, well watered with these and other Rivers, and moft fruitful. But the learned Huetius proves, that Eden lay on the South of Babylon, and the Ter

wherein

reftrial Paradife on the East Side
of Eden, between the first join-
ing of the Euphrates and the
Tygris, and there parting again,
when they make the Pyfon and
the Gihon, which run into the
Perfian Gulph at different
Mouths; as Mofes has defcri-
bed thefe four Rivers, Gen. ii.
8-16. De Situ Parad. Terre-
ftris. For thefe Properties it is
highly commended
in Holy
Scripture, Gen. z. 8. la. ¡1.3.
Ezek. 31. 8, 9, &'.

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