STRANGER, I know thee, who thou art, that migh ty leading Angel, who lately made Oppofition against the King of Heaven, though overthrown; I faw and heard, for fuch a numerous Army did not fly in Silence through the affrighted Deep, with Ruin upon Ruin, and Rout upon Rout, Confufion worfe confounded; and the Gates of Heaven poured her victori ous Bands in Purfuit, out by Millions. I upon my Borders here keep Refidence, if all I can do can ferve, I shall not be wanting to defend that Little which is yet left me, being continually encroached on through our inteftine Wars, which weaken the Power of old. NIGHT: First was Hell, your Dungeon, stretched far and wide below; and now lately Heaven and Earth, another World, hung over my Kingdom, linked in a golden Chain, and is on that Side of Heaven from whence your Legions fell: If that be the Way you would go, you have not very far: (fo much the nearer you are to Danger) Go, and Succefs be with you, for all Havock, Spoil, and Ruin are my Gain. HE faid no more, and SATAN did not flay to make him a Reply, but glad that he was like to find a Shore to his Sea, with fresh Chearfulnefs and renewed Force, he fprings upwards like a Pyramid (0) of Fire into the wide Firmament, and forces his Way through the Shock of Elements, fighting on all Sides round him, in more Danger, and harder befet, than when (0) Pyramid: Gr. i. e. A Fire, a Geometrical Term. A Pyramid is a Heap of fquare Stones, riting up like a Flame of Fire in four Squares. There are about eighty Pyramids near Grand Cairo in Egypt, the Wonder of the World to this Day, though they have food four thousand Years, and may continue as long again; the the ARGO (p) paffed through the BOSPHORUS (q), betwixt the crowded Rocks; or when ULYSSES (r) fhunned CHARYBDIS(S)on the Larboard Side, and fteered by the Whirlpool of SCYLLA: So did SATAN move on, and pafs with great Difficulty and very hard Labour; but he having once paffed, foon after when MAN fell, was a ftrange Alteration; for SIN and DEATH quickly followed his Path, (fuch was the Will of Heaven) paved after him a very broad and ·(4) Argo; Lat. Gr.i.e. Swift; because of her twift failing; being rowed with fifty Oars, which was a new Invention of Jajon; or from the Builder of it; and Cicero derives it from the Argives, or Greeks, who failed in it. The Ship wherein Jason and other valiant Greeks made a famous Expedition to Colchos, now Mingrelia, Georgia and Iberia, upon the Pontus, to bring from thence the golden Fleece into Greece. The Expedition of the Argonauts, celebrated in antient History, was in the Reign of Egeus King of Athens, about A. M. 2714. Before Chrift 1284. It was no more than a bold and new Voy. age to bring home fine Wool, the valuable Commodity of that Country, as the British Wool is now; or carry off the Treafure of the King of Colchis, which confifted of Gold, gathered out of the Rivers, by the Help of a Ram's Fleece; because Gaza, Heb. fignifies a Treasure and a Fleece: The two Bulls and a Dragon were the two Walls round the Cafile, and a Brafs Gate. For Sour, Heh. fignifies both a Bull and a Gate; Brafs and a Dragon. (q) Bofphorus, Bafparus, or Bof Lat. from the Gr. i. e. perus 3 The Paffage of an Ox, as we fay (r) Ulyffes; Lat. Gr. i. e, All Strength, robuft; or contracted from his original Name, Odafeus, Gr. i.e. The publich Road: becaufe his Mother, overtaken in a violent Rain, was delivered of him on the Highway. The Son of Laertes, Prince of Ithaca and Dulichia, Ilands in the Egean Sea, an eloquent, cunning Greek, celebrated by Homer, Virgil, Ovid, &c. After the Siege of Troy, he is faid to have fuffered divers Hardships for tenYears more in his Return Home, particularly paffing by Sicily. (s) Charybdis; Heb. i. e. A Gulph of Perdition; Lat. from the Gr. i.e. Gaping and fucking in. A very dangerous Part of the Sca of Sicily, between Messina and I-· taly, where divers Ships have been fucked in; and Ulyffes had much ado to escape Drowning. beaten beaten Way over the dark Gulph, and built thereon a Bridge of wondrous Length, continued from Hell, and reaching to the outmoit Orb of this frail World; over which the perverse and fallen Spirits pass and repass with an eafy Intercourfe, to punish Mortals, or lead them into Temptation, excepting fuch, who by more efpecial Grace, are guarded by GoD and good Angels. BUT now at last appears the facred Influence of Light, and far into the Bofom of dim Night fhoots a glimmering Dawn from the Walls of Heaven; NA-* TURE first begins here her farthest Bounds, and CHAos retires from her outmoft Works like a broken Foe, with lefs Tumult and lefs hoftile Noife; so that SATAN with little Toil, (and prefently with Eafe) paffes on calm Waves, affifted by fome fmall Degree of Light; and like a weather-beaten Veffel is glad to find Harbour, though her Shrouds and Tackling be all damaged and torn; or elfe in the emptier Waste fomething resembling the Air, lies on his spread Wings to behold at Leisure the diftant empyreal Heaven, in Circuit extended wide, but its Form and Limits not determined; with Towers of precious Stones and Battlements of living Saphires (t), once the native Seat of SATAN; and juft by was this pendent World, hanging in a golden Chain, in Bignefs about the Size of one of the imalleft Stars, and close by the Moon. Thither accurfed, and in an accurfed Hour, he haftens, quite filled with Malice and mifchievous Revenge. (t) Saphir; Lat. Gr. from the Heb. i. e. Numbered; because one muft pay down very dear for it. A very clear, hard, and precious Stone, of the Colour of the Sky, with Sparkles of Gold, and the hardest next to a Diamond: It was put into the Breast-plate of the High-Priest, Exod. xxxix. 11. Rev. xxi. 19. The End of the SECOND BOOK. |