And lovers of their country, as may seem;

But herein to our prophets far beneath,

As men divinely taught, and better teaching
The folid rules of civil government

In their majestic unaffected ftile

355

Than all the' oratory of Greece and Rome.
In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,
What makes a nation happy', and keeps it so,
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat;

360

These only with our law best form a king.

So fpake the Son of God; but Satan now

365

Quite at a lofs, for all his darts were spent,

Thus to our Saviour with stern brow reply'd.

Since neither wealth, nor honor, arms nor arts, Kingdom nor empire pleases thee, nor ought By me propos'd in life contemplative,

370

Or active, tended on by glory', or fame,

What doft thou in this world? the wilderness

For thee is fitteft place; I found thee there,

And thither will return thee; yet remember
What I foretel thee, foon thou fhalt have cause 375
To wish thou never hadst rejected thus

Nicely or cautiously my offer'd aid,

Which would have fet thee in short time with ease

On David's throne, or throne of all the world,

Now at full age, fulness of time, thy season,
When prophecies of thee are best fulfill'd.
Now contrary, if I read ought in Heaven,

380

Or

Or Heav'n write ought of fate, by what the stars
Voluminous, or fingle characters,

In their conjunction met, give me to spell,
Sorrows, and labors, oppofition, hate
Attends thee, fcorns, reproaches, injuries,
Violence and stripes, and lastly cruel death;

385

A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom, Real or allegoric I difcern not,

Nor when, eternal fure, as without end,

Without beginning; for no date prefix'd
Directs me in the starry rubric fet.

395

So faying he took (for still he knew his power Not yet expir'd) and to the wilderness 395 Brought back the Son of God, and left him there, Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose, As day-light funk, and brought in louring night Her fhadowy ofspring, unsubstantial both, Privation mere of light and absent day.

400

Our Saviour meek and with untroubled mind
After his aery jaunt, though hurried sore,
Hungry and cold betook him to his reft,

Wherever, under fome concourse of fhades,

404

Whose branching arms thick interwin'd might shield

From dews and damps of night his shelter'd head,
But shelter'd flept in vain, for at his head
The Tempter watch'd, and foon with ugly dreams
Disturb'd his sleep; and either tropic now
'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heav'n, the clouds

409

From

415

From many a horrid rift abortive pour'd
Fierce rain with lightning mix'd, water with fire
In ruin reconcil'd: nor slept the winds
Within their ftony caves, but rush'd abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vex'd wilderness, whose tallest pines,
Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks
Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with ftormy blasts,
Or torn up sheer: ill waft thou shrouded then,
O patient Son of God, yet only flood'st
Unshaken; nor yet stay'd the terror there,
Infernal ghosts, and Hellish furies, round
Environ'd thee, fome howl'd, fome yell'd, fome fhriek'd,
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
Satft unappall'd in calm and finless
Thus pass'd the night so foul, till morning fair
Came forth with pilgrim fteps in amice gray
Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar

peace.

420

425

Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, and laid the winds,
And grifly spectres, which the Fiend had rais'd 430
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.

And now the fun with more effectual beams
Had chear'd the face of earth, and dry'd the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now behold more fresh and green, 435
After a night of storm so ruinous,

Clear'd up their choiceft notes in bush and spray
To gratulate the sweet return of morn;

Nor

Nor yet amidst this joy and brightest morn
Was abfent, after all his mischief done,

The prince of darkness, glad would also seem
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came,
Yet with no new device, they all were spent,
Rather by this his last affront resolv'd,
Defp'rate of better course, to vent his rage,
And mad despite to be so oft repell'd.
Him walking on a funny hill he found,
Back'd on the north and west by a thick wood;
Out of the wood he ftarts in wonted shape,

440

445

And in a careless mood thus to him faid.

Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,

After a dismal night; I heard the wrack

As earth and sky would mingle; but myself

450

(them

Was diftant; and these flaws, though mortals fear

As dang'rous to the pillar'd frame of Heaven, 455 Or to the earth's dark bafis underneath,

Are to the main as inconfiderable,

And harmless, if not wholsome, as a sneeze
To man's less universe, and soon are gone;

Yet as being oft times noxious where they light 460
On man, beast, plant, wastful and turbulent,
Like turbulencies in th' affairs of men,

Over whofe heads they roar, and seem to point,
They oft fore-fignify and threaten ill:

This tempeft at this desert most was bent;
Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'st.

465

Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject
The perfect season offer'd with my aid
To win thy deftin'd seat, but wilt prolong
All to the push of fate, pursue thy way

470

Of gaining David's throne no man knows when,
For both the when and how is no where told,
Thou shalt be what thou art ordain'd, no doubt;
For Angels have proclam'd it, but concealing
The time and means: each act is rightlieft done, 475
Not when it must, but when it may be best.

If thou obferve not this, be sure to find,
What I foretold thee, many a hard assay
Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,
Ere thou of Ifrael's fcepter get fast hold;
Whereof this ominous night that clos'd thee round,
So many terrors, voices, prodigies

May warn thee, as a fure fore-going fign.

480

So talk'd he, while the Son of God went on And stay'd not, but in brief him answer'd thus. 485 Me worse than wet thou find'st not; other harm Those terrors which thou speak'st of, did me none; I never fear'd they could, though noising loud And threatning nigh; what they can do as signs Betokening, or ill boding, I contemn As false portents, not sent from God, but thee; Who knowing I shall reign past thy preventing, Obtrud'ft thy offer'd aid, that I accepting At least might seem to hold all pow'r of thee,

490

Am