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Cannot appease: nor man the moral part
Perform; and not performing, cannot live.
So law appears imperfect; and but given
With purpose to resign them, in full time,
Up to a better covenant; disciplined

From shadowy types to truth; from flesh to spirit;
From imposition of strict laws, to free

Acceptance of large grace; from servile fear
To filial; works of law to works of faith.
And therefore shall not Moses, though of God
Highly beloved, being but the minister
Of law, his people into Canaan lead;
But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call,
His name and office bearing, who shall quell
The adversary-serpent, and bring back

Through the world's wilderness long-wandered man
Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.

Meanwhile they, in their earthly Canaan placed,
Long time shall dwell and prosper, but when sins
National interrupt their public peace,

Provoking God to raise them enemies;
From whom as oft he saves them penitent
By judges first, then under kings; of whom
The second, both for piety renowned
And puissant deeds, a promise shall receive
Irrevocable, that his regal throne
For ever shall endure; the like shall sing
All prophecy, that of the royal stock
Of David (so I name this king) shall rise
A Son, the woman's seed to thee foretold,
Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust
All nations; and to kings foretold, of kings
The last; for of his reign shall be no end.
But first, a long suceession must ensue;
And his next son, for wealth and wisdom famed,
The clouded ark of God, till then in tents
Wandering, shall in a glorious temple enshrine.
Such follow him as shall be registered,

Part good, part bad; of bad the longer scroll:
Whose foul idolatries, and other faults
Heaped to the popular sum, will so incense
God, as to leave them, and expose their land,
Their city, his temple, and his holy ark,
With all his sacred things, a scorn and prey
To that proud city, whose high walls thou sawest

Left in confusion; Babylon thence called.

There in captivity he lets them dwell

The space of seventy years; then brings them back,

Remembering manAW

To whom thus Michael: "Dream not of their ugu

As of a duel, or the local wounds

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His place of birth a solemn angel tells

To simple shepherds, keeping watch by night; They gladly thither haste

Paradise Lost P 242

Left in confusion; Babylon thence called.

There in captivity he lets them dwell

The space of seventy years; then brings them back,
Remembering mercy, and his covenant sworn
To David, stablished as the days of heaven.
Returned from Babylon by leave of kings
Their lords, whom God disposed, the house of God
They first re-edify: and for a while

In mean estate live moderate; till grown
In wealth and multitude, factious they grow:
But first among the priests dissension springs,
Men who attend the altar, and should most
Endeavour peace: their strife pollution brings
Upon the temple itself: at last they seize
The sceptre, and regard not David's sons;
Then lose it to a stranger, that the true
Anointed king Messiah might be born
Barred of his right; yet at his birth a star,
Unseen before in heaven, proclaims him come;
And guides the eastern sages, who inquire
His place, to offer incense, myrrh, and gold;
His place of birth a solemn angel tells
To simple shepherds, keeping watch by night;
They gladly thither haste, and by a choir
Of squadroned angels hear his carol sung.

A virgin is his mother, but his sire

The power of the Most High: he shall ascend

The throne hereditary, and bound his reign

With earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heavens." He ceased, discerning Adam with such joy Surcharged, as had like grief been dewed in tears, Without the vent of words; which these he breathed: "O prophet of glad tidings, finisher

Of utmost hope! now clear I understand

What oft my steadiest thoughts have searched in vain ; Why our great Expectation should be called

The seed of woman; virgin mother, hail,

High in the love of heaven; 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?"
To whom thus Michael: " Dream not of their fight,
As of a duel, or the local wounds

[graphic]
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