They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience try'd,

159

And Earth be chang'd to Heav'n, and Heav'n to Earth,
One kingdom, joy and union without end.
Mean while inhabit lax, ye Pow'rs of Heaven,
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform, fpeak thou, and be it done:
My overshadowing Spi'rit and might with thee 165
I fend along; ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be Heav'n and Earth,
Boundless the deep, because I am who fill

Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.
Though I uncircumfcrib'd myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness which is free

the Angels frequently visiting Earth, and Men being tranflated to Heaven

162, Mean while inhabit lax,] Dwell more at large, there being

more room now than there was be

fore the rebel Angels were expell'd,

or than there will be after Men are tranflated to Heaven. If this be the meaning, we cannot much commend the beauty of the fentiment, as it intimates that the Angels might be straiten'd for room in Heaven.

165. My overshadowing Spirit] As God's Spirit is faid to do, Luke I 35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest

170

To act or not, neceffity and chance

Approach not me, and what I will is fate.

effect.

So fpake th' Almighty, and to what he spake
His Word, the filial Godhead, gave
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without procéfs of fpeech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.

Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,

When fuch was heard declar'd th' Almighty's will
Glory they fung to the most High, good will
To future men, and in their dwellings peace:

175

180

;

Glory

182. Glory they fung to the moft

High, &c] The Angels are very properly made to fing the fame divine fong to ufher in the creation, that they did to usher in the second creation by Jefus Chrift, Luke II. 14. And we cannot but approve Dr. Bentley's emendation, Glory they fung to God moft High, inftead of to the most High, as it improves the measure of the verfe, is more oppos'd to men immediately following, and agrees better with the words of St. Luke, Glory to God in the bigbeft, and on earth peace, good will towards

Glory to him, whofe juft avenging ire
Had driven out th' ungodly from his fight
And th' habitations of the juft; to him
Glory and praife, whose wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create, inftead

Of Spirits malign a better race to bring

Into their vacant room, and thence diffufe

His good to worlds and

ages infinite.

185

So fang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son
On his great expedition now appear'd,

Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of majesty divine; fapience and love

190

195

and I know not whether the English verfe has not in this refpect the advantage of the Greek and Latin. Mean while the Son &c] The Meffiah, by whom, as we are told in Scripture, the worlds were made, comes forth in the power of his Father, furrounded with an hoft

Immense, and all his Father in him fhone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,
And Virtues, winged Spi'rits, and chariots wing'd
From th' armoury of God, where ftand of old 200
Myriads between two brazen mountains lodg'd
Against a folemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them Spirit liv'd,

of Angels, and clothed with fuch a majesty as becomes his entring upon a work, which according to our conceptions appears the utmost exertion of omnipotence. What a beautiful defcription has our author raised upon that hint in one of the Prophets! And behold there came four chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of brass. (Zech. VI. 1.) I have before taken notice of thefe chariots of God, and of the gates of Hea ven; and shall here only add, that Homer gives us the fame idea of the latter, as opening of themselves; though he afterwards takes off from it by telling us, that the Hours firft of all removed those prodigious heaps of clouds which lay as a barrier before them. Addifon.

Attendent on their Lord: Heav'n open'd wide 205 Her ever during gates, harmonious found

On golden hinges moving, to let forth

The King of Glory in his pow'rful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.

On heav'nly ground they ftood, and from the fhore
They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss

Outrageous as a fea, dark, wafteful, wild,

Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds ,, ཾ

211

And

Horace expreffes it in the fame man- Hic fuperum fator informem specuner, Ep. II. II. 86.

210. On beavenly ground they food,

&c.] I do not know any thing in the whole poem more fublime than the defcription which follows, where the Meffiah is reprefented at the head of his Angels, as looking down into the Chaos, calm ing its confufion, riding into the midst of it, and drawing the firft out-line of the creation, Addifon.

211. They view'd &c.] Milton's defcription of God the Son and his attendent Angels viewing the vaft unmeasurable abyfs & has a great refemblance to the following paffage in Vida. Chrift. Lib. 1.

latus acervum, Eternam noctemque, indigeftumque profundum,

Prima videbatur moliri exordia re