THE

THIRD BOOK

OF

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

his 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 feduced. The SoN of GOD renders Praises to his Father for the Manifeftation of his gracious Purpose towards Man; but GOD again declares that Grace cannot be extended towards Man, without the Satisfaction of Divine Juftice, Man hath offended the Majefty of

M

GoF

GOD by afpiring to Godhead; and therefore with all his Progeny devoted to Death, muft die, unless Some one can be found fufficient to answer for bis Offence, and undergo his Punishment. The SON of GOD freely offers himself a Ranfom for Man : The Father accepts him, ordains his Incarnation, pronounces his 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 outermost Orb, where he first finds a Place fince called the Limbo of Vanity; what Perfons and Things fly up thither. Satan comes to the Gates of Heaven, defcribed 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.

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

H

AIL holy Light! (who if not from Everlafting with the Deity, art the firft Offspring of Heaven), may I exprefs thee without Blame ? fince GoD himself is Light, and dwelling in Light from Eternity has always been unapproachable, always dwelt in Thee, Thou bright Effluence

Efluence 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 of the Voice of GOD didit 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 Darkness, 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 fpeak of Thee. Thee I now fafely revifit, and feel thy fovereign quickning Lamp; but Thou revifit'ft not thefe Eyes, that in vain rowl to find Thy piercing Ray; fo thick a Darknefs and Suffufion hath veiled them and extinguished, that they never find a Dawn! Yet do I not for that Reafon ceafe to wander among clear Springs, or fhady Groves, or funny Hills, where the Mufes haunt; the Love of facred Song always delighting me. But chiefly SION, Thee I vifit nightly, and the flowry Brooks that wash thy hallowed Foot, flowing fweetly; nor do I forget fometimes thofe 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) Mæonides; Lat. Gr. i. e. The Son of Mæon, for Homer, Gr. i. e. One that doth not fee:

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 thickeft 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 MEN, and for the Book of fair Knowledge prefented with a univerfal Blot of Nature's Works, which are to me all expunged and erazed, and Wifdom at the great Entrance of Sight quite fhut out: So much the rather

gos, Athens. He was born according to the best Account, M.A. 3120, three-hundred and forty Years after the Destruction of Troy, and eight hundred and eighty-four before the Incarnation. An antient and most celebrated Poet among the Greeks, the wit tiest Man that ever lived, who had none to imitate, (except Mofes, from whom he took his beit 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 Tray in twenty-four Books, called the Iliads, and the dangerous Voyages of Ules, in the Odiffes, 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 in many Respects he hath excceded Homer himself, and Vir

gil alfo in Epic Poem, both in the Grandeur of his Subject, in his Learning, Characters, and every Thing else.

(c) Tirefias; Lat. Gr. i. e. A Star; becaufe he foretold fome Things by the Knowledge of Aftrology. A blind Poet and Soothsayer of Thebes; long before Homer: the Son of Eve trus and Charich. He was ftruck blind either for peeping too curiously upon Minerva in the Fountain Hypocrene; or for deciding the Caule between Jupiter and June to her Diffatiffaction 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 punifhed with Blindnefs.

do

do Thou celeftial Light fhine inward, and enlighten my Mind through 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 invifible.

Now the ALMIGHTY Father had bent down his Eye from above, from the pure Heaven, where he fits high throned above all Height, to view at once his own Works and their Works; about him the most pure and holy Angels of Heaven ftood as thick as Stars, and from his Sight received unfpeakable Happiness: On his Right Hand fat his only Son, the bright Image of his Glory. He firft beheld on Earth our two firit Parents, ADAM and Eve, as yet the only two of Mankind, placed in the happy Garden of EDEN (e), reaping immortal Fruits of unrivalled 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 the Side of NIGHT, ready to stoop with willing Feet and tired Wings upon the bare Outfide of this World, that seemed like Land encompaffed without Firmament; nor could SATAN, at that Distance, tell whether it was furrounded with Air or Water. GOD faw him from his high Prospect,

(e) Eden; An Hebrew Word. It fignifies Pleasure and Delight: because it was the moft pleafant Place upon Earth, and Paradise 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 thefe and other Rivers, and moft fruitful. But the learned Huetius proves, that Eden lay on the South of Babylon, and the Terreftrial Paradife on

the Eaft Side of Eden, between the first joining of the Euphrates and the Tygris, and there parting again, when they make the Pylon and the Gihon, which run into the Perfian Gulph at different Mouths; as Mofes has defcribed these four Rivers, Gen. ii. 8-16. De Situ Parad. Terreftris. For thefe Properties it is highly commended in Holy Scripture, Gen. ii. 8. Ifa. ii. 3. Ezek. xxxi. 8, 9, &c.

wherein