Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/173

 BOOK THIRD

��Happy for Man, so coming ! He her aid Can never seek, once dead in sins and

lost

Atonement for himself, or offering meet, Indebted and undone, hath none to bring. Behold me, then: me for him, life for life, I offer; on me let thine anger fall; Account me Man: I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee Freely put off, and for him lastly die 240 Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all

his rage.

Under his gloomy power I shall not long Lie vanquished. Thou hast given me to

possess

Life in myself for ever ; by thee I live ; Though now to Death I yield, and am his

due,

All that of me can die, yet, that debt paid, Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome

grave

His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul For ever with corruption there to dwell; But I shall rise victorious, and subdue 23 My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil. Death his death's wound shall then receive,

and stoop

Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed; I through the ample air in triumph high Shall lead Hell captive rnaugre Hell, and

show The powers of Darkness bound. Thou, at

the sight Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and

smile,

While, by thee raised, I ruin all my foes Death last, and with his carcase glut the grave; 259

Then, with the multitude of my redeemed, Shall enter Heaven, long absent, and re- turn,

Father, to see thy face, wherein no cloud Of anger shall remain, but peace assured And reconcilement: wrauth shall be no

more

Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy en- tire."

His words here ended; but his meek as- pect' Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal

love

To mortal men, above which only shon Filial obedience: as a sacrifice Glad to be offered, he attends the will 270 Of his great Father. Admiration seized

��All Heaven, what this might mean, and

whither tend, Wondering; but soon the Almighty thus

replied: " O thou in Heaven and Earth the only

peace Found out for mankind under wrauth, O

thou My sole complacence ! well thou know'st

how dear

To me are all my works ; nor Man the least, Though last created, that for him I spare Thee from my bosom and right hand, to

save, 279

By losing thee a while, the whole race lost ! Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst re- deem,

Their nature also to thy nature join; And be thyself Man among men on Earth, Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin

seed, By wondrous birth; be thou in Adam's

room The head of all mankind, though Adam's

son.

As in him perish all men, so in thee, As from a second root, shall be restored As many as are restored; without thee,

none. His crime makes guilty all his sous; thy

merit, 290

Imputed, shall absolve them who renounce Their own both righteous and unrighteous

deeds, And live in thee transplanted, and from

thee

Receive new life. So Man, as is most just, Shall satisfy for Man, be judged and die, And dying rise, and, rising, with him raise His brethren, ransomed with his own dear

life.

So Heavenly love shall outdo Hellish hate, Giving to death, and dying to redeem, So dearly to redeem what Hellish hate 300 So easily destroyed, and still destroys In those who, when they may, accept not

grace.

Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own. Because thou hast, though throned in high- est bliss

Equal to God, and equally enjoying God-like fruition, quitted all to save A world from utter loss, and hast been

found

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