380 The throne hereditary, and bound his reign 370 With earth’s wide bounds, his glory with the heavens. He ceas’d, discerning Adam with such joy Surcharg'd, as had like grief been dew'd in tears, Without the vent of words, which these he breath’d. O prophet of glad tidings, finisher 375 Of utmost hope ! now clear I understand What oft my steadiest thoughts have search'd in vain; Why our great expectation should be call's The Seed of Woman: Virgin Mother, hail, High in the love of heav'n, yet from my loins Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son 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. 385 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 heav'n, a deadlier bruise, Disabled not to give thee thy death's wound: Which he, who comes thy Saviour, shall recure, Not by destroying Satan, but his works In thee and in thy seed : nor can this be, 395 a 370. -and bounds his reign 394. his works With earth's wide bounds, his In thee and in thy seed :) glory with the heavens.) 1 John ïï. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, Imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris. that he might destroy the works of Virg. Æn. i. 287. the devil. 400 But by fulfilling that which thou didst want, 405 a 410 4:00. And due to theirs which them, and not their own works, out of thine will grow :] Punish- though legal ones, and strictly ment is due to men's actual conformable to the law. Pearce. transgressions, though the ori- I rather understand the pasginal depravity, the transgres- sage thus. I apprehend that sion of Adam, was the root of the verb believe governs the rest them. Richardson. of the sentence, Proclaiming life 403. -though love to all who shall believe in his Alone fulfil the law ;] redemption, and shall believe Rom. xiii. 10. Love is the fulfile that his obedience imputed beling of the law. comes theirs by faith, and shall 409. -his merits believe his merits to sare them, To save them, &c.] not their own, though legal works. Dr. Bentley says, that the con- 409. Dr. Newton writes as if struction demands Do save them, the verb believe governed his and so he supposes that Milton merits, and consequently their gave it. And indeed though I works. The last clause would dislike the Doctor's alteration, be clearer perhaps thus : and I confess that there is a difficulty shall believe that his merits are in the common reading. The to save them, not their own, though only sense that I can make of legal works. That his merits it is this, Which redemption and alone are to be the means of obedience are his merits to sare saving them. E. 415 420 For this he shall live hated, be blasphem’d, 425 413. A shameful and accurs'd] nailing it to his cross. For it is written, Cursed is every 424. Thy ransom paid,] The one that hangeth on a tree. Gal. two first editions have Thy (the iii. 13. Deut. xxi. 23. later ones The): and Milton's 415. But to the cross he nails word may be defended, if we thy enemies,] The enemies of suppose that Adam is here Adam were the law that was spoken of not as a single peragainst him, and the sins of all son, but as one in whose loins mankind, as springing originally all mankind was contained, or from him, and therefore in some as one who was representative sense chargeable upon him. The of the whole human species. author in this passage alludes to And so the poet speaks again Col. ij. 14. Blotting out the hand in ver. 427. wriling of ordinances that was this God-like act against us, which wus contrary Annuls thy doom, &c. to us, and took it out of the way, Pearce. 435 440 Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms, appear 445 450 432. And fir far deeper in his and confusion. Their too he head their stings commonly writes thir, but this Than temp’ral death shall bruise greatly offends the eye, we are the victor's heel,] so much habituated to the other; Before we come to a conclusion, and at the same time he freit may be proper to remark quently uses theirs, and there here, once for all, that Milton seems to be no reason why the makes no distinction between one should be written differently then and than, but spells both from the other. It is hoped alike then, which must neces- therefore that these things have sarily occasion some obscurity been altered for the better. The Serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains · 465 O Goodness infinite, Goodness immense ! 457. --exalted high 469. O Goodness infinite, GoodAbove all names in heav'n ;] ness immense ! &c.] The poet Phil. ii. 9. Wherefore God also has very finely represented the hath highly exalted him, and joy and gladness of heart, which given him a name which is above rises in Adam upon his discoevery name. Or, as it is ex- very of the Messiah. As he sees pressed Eph. i. 20, 21. Hath his day at a distance through set him at his own right hand in types and shadows, he rejoices the heavenly places, above every in it; but when he finds the name that is named, not only in redemption of man completed, this world, but also in that which and Paradise again renewed, he is to come. breaks forth in rapture and 459. When this world's disso- transport. I have hinted belution shall be ripe,] In the later fore, that an heroic poem, aceditions we have the world's: cording to the opinion of the but I prefer this, which is found best critics, ought to end hapin the two first: because this pily, and leave the mind of the reading admits the ictus on the reader, after having conducted second syllable of the verse, it through many doubts and (where it ought to be,) whereas fears, sorrows and disquietudes, the other reading throws it off in a state of tranquillity and saupon the third. Pearce. tisfaction. Milton's fable, which VOL. II. Bb |