Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/284

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��PARADISE LOST

��Of God Most High; so God with Man

unites. Needs must the Serpent now his capital

bruise Expect with mortal pain. Say where and

when Their fight, what stroke shall bruise the

Victor's heel." To whom thus Michael: "Dream not

of their fight

As of a duel, or the local wounds Of head or heel. Not therefore joins the

Son Manhood to Godhead, with more strength

to foil

Thy enemy; nor so is overcome 390

Satan, whose fall from Heaven, a deadlier

bruise,

Disabled not to give thee thy death's wound; Which he who comes thy Saviour shall re- cure,

Not by destroying Satan, but his works In thee and in thy seed. Nor can this be, But by fulfilling that which thou didst

want,

Obedience to the law of God, imposed On penalty of death, and suffering death, The penalty to thy transgression due, And due to theirs which out of thine will

grow: 400

So only can high justice rest appaid. The Law of God exact he shall fulfil Both by obedience and by love, though

love

Alone fulfil the Law; thy punishment He shall endure, by coming in the flesh To a reproachful life and cursed death, Proclaiming life to all who shall believe In his redemption, and that his obedience Imputed becomes theirs by faith his

merits To save them, not their own, though legal,

works. 410

For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed, Seized on by force, judged, and to death

condemned A shameful and accursed, nailed to the

Cross

By his own nation, slain for bringing life; But to the cross he nails thy enemies The Law that is against thee, and the sins Of all mankind, with him there crucified, Never to hurt them more who rightly trust In this his satisfaction. So he dies, But soon revives ; Death over him no power

��Shall long usurp. Ere the third dawning

light 42I

Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise

Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning

light, Thy ransom paid, which Man from Death

redeems

His death for Man, as many as offered life Neglect not, and the benefit iinbrace By faith not void of works. This godlike

act Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldst

have died,

In sin for ever lost from life ; this act Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, 43 o

Defeating Sin and Death, his two main

arms,

And fix far deeper in his head their stings Than temporal death shall bruise the Vic- tor's heel, Or theirs whom he redeems a death like

sleep,

A gentle wafting to immortal life. Nor after resurrection shall he stay Longer on Earth than certain times to ap- pear

To his disciples men who in his life Still followed him; to them shall leave in

charge

To teach all nations what of him they learned 440

And his salvation, them who shall believe Baptizing in the profluent stream the

sign

Of washing them from guilt of sin to life Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall, For death like that which the Redeemer

died. All nations they shall teach; for from that

day

Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins Salvation shall be preached, but to the sons Of Abraham's faith wherever through the

world;

So in his seed all nations shall be blest. 450 Then to the Heaven of Heavens he shall

ascend

With victory, triumphing through the air Over his foes and thine; there shall sur- prise The Serpent, Prince of Air, and drag in

chains

Through all his realm, and there con- founded leave;

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