LITMIR.BIZ

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When coming towards them so dread they saw

       The bottom of the Mountains upward turn’d,

       Till on those cursed Engins triple-row

       They saw them whelmd, and all thir confidence

       Under the weight of Mountains buried deep,

       Themselves invaded next, and on thir heads

       Main Promontories flung, which in the Air

       Came shadowing, and opprest whole Legions arm’d,

       Thir armor help’d thir harm, crush’t in and brus’d

       Into thir substance pent, which wrought them pain

       Implacable, and many a dolorous groan,

       Long strugling underneath, ere they could wind

       Out of such prison, though Spirits of purest light,

       Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown.

       The rest in imitation to like Armes

       Betook them, and the neighbouring Hills uptore;

       So Hills amid the Air encounterd Hills

       Hurl’d to and fro with jaculation dire,

       That under ground they fought in dismal shade;

       Infernal noise; Warr seem’d a civil Game

       To this uproar; horrid confusion heapt

       Upon confusion rose: and now all Heav’n

       Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspred,

       Had not th’ Almightie Father where he sits

       Shrin’d in his Sanctuarie of Heav’n secure,

       Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen

       This tumult, and permitted all, advis’d:

       That his great purpose he might so fulfill,

       To honour his Anointed Son aveng’d

       Upon his enemies, and to declare

       All power on him transferr’d: whence to his Son

       Th’ Assessor of his Throne he thus began.

      Effulgence of my Glorie, Son belov’d,

       Son in whose face invisible is beheld

       Visibly, what by Deitie I am,

       And in whose hand what by Decree I doe,

       Second Omnipotence, two dayes are past,

       Two dayes, as we compute the dayes of Heav’n,

       Since Michael and his Powers went forth to tame These disobedient; sore hath been thir fight, As likeliest was, when two such Foes met arm’d; For to themselves I left them, and thou knowst, Equal in their Creation they were form’d, Save what sin hath impaird, which yet hath wrought Insensibly, for I suspend thir doom; Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last Endless, and no solution will be found: Warr wearied hath perform’d what Warr can do, And to disorder’d rage let loose the reines, With Mountains as with Weapons arm’d, which makes Wild work in Heav’n, and dangerous to the maine. Two dayes are therefore past, the third is thine; For thee I have ordain’d it, and thus farr Have sufferd, that the Glorie may be thine Of ending this great Warr, since none but Thou Can end it. Into thee such Vertue and Grace Immense I have transfus’d, that all may know In Heav’n and Hell thy Power above compare, And this perverse Commotion governd thus, To manifest thee worthiest to be Heir Of all things, to be Heir and to be King By Sacred Unction, thy deserved right. Go then thou Mightiest in thy Fathers might, Ascend my Chariot, guide the rapid Wheeles That shake Heav’ns basis, bring forth all my Warr, My Bow and Thunder, my Almightie Arms Gird on, and Sword upon thy puissant Thigh; Pursue these sons of Darkness, drive them out From all Heav’ns bounds into the utter Deep: There let them learn, as likes them, to despise God and Messiah his anointed King.

      He said, and on his Son with Rayes direct

       Shon full, he all his Father full exprest

       Ineffably into his face receiv’d,

       And thus the filial Godhead answering spake.

      O Father, O Supream of heav’nly Thrones,

       First, Highest, Holiest, Best, thou alwayes seekst

       To glorifie thy Son, I alwayes thee,

       As is most just; this I my Glorie account,

       My exaltation, and my whole delight,

       That thou in me well pleas’d, declarst thy will

       Fulfill’d, which to fulfil is all my bliss.

       Scepter and Power, thy giving, I assume,

       And gladlier shall resign, when in the end

       Thou shalt be All in All, and I in thee

       For ever, and in mee all whom thou lov’st:

       But whom thou hat’st, I hate, and can put on

       Thy terrors, as I put thy mildness on,

       Image of thee in all things; and shall soon,

       Armd with thy might, rid heav’n of these rebell’d,

       To thir prepar’d ill Mansion driven down

       To chains of Darkness, and th’ undying Worm,

       That from thy just obedience could revolt,

       Whom to obey is happiness entire.

       Then shall thy Saints unmixt, and from th’ impure

       Farr separate, circling thy holy Mount

       Unfained Halleluiahs to thee sing, Hymns of high praise, and I among them chief. So said, he o’re his Scepter bowing, rose From the right hand of Glorie where he sate, And the third sacred Morn began to shine Dawning through Heav’n: forth rush’d with whirlwind sound The Chariot of Paternal Deitie, Flashing thick flames, Wheele within Wheele undrawn, It self instinct with Spirit, but convoyd By four Cherubic shapes, four Faces each Had wondrous, as with Starrs thir bodies all And Wings were set with Eyes, with Eyes the Wheels Of Beril, and careering Fires between; Over thir heads a chrystal Firmament, Whereon a Saphir Throne, inlaid with pure Amber, and colours of the showrie Arch. Hee in Celestial Panoplie all armd Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought, Ascended, at his right hand Victorie Sate Eagle-wing’d, beside him hung his Bow And Quiver with three-bolted Thunder stor’d, And from about him fierce Effusion rowld Of smoak and bickering flame, and sparkles dire; Attended with ten thousand thousand Saints, He onward came, farr off his coming shon, And twentie thousand (I thir number heard) Chariots of God, half on each hand were seen: Hee on the wings of Cherub rode sublime On the Crystallin Skie, in Saphir Thron’d. Illustrious farr and wide, but by his own First seen, them unexpected joy surpriz’d, When the great Ensign of Messiah blaz’d Aloft by Angels born, his Sign in Heav’n: Under whose Conduct Michael soon reduc’d His Armie, circumfus’d on either Wing, Under thir Head imbodied all in one. Before him Power Divine his way prepar’d; At his command the uprooted Hills retir’d Each to his place, they heard his voice and went Obsequious, Heav’n his wonted face renewd, And with fresh Flourets Hill and Valley smil’d. This saw his hapless Foes, but stood obdur’d, And to rebellious fight rallied thir Powers Insensate, hope conceiving from despair. In heav’nly Spirits could such perverseness dwell? But to convince the proud what Signs availe, Or Wonders move th’ obdurate to relent? They hard’nd more by what might most reclame, Grieving to see his Glorie, at the sight Took envie, and aspiring to his highth, Stood reimbattell’d fierce, by force or fraud Weening to prosper, and at length prevaile Against God and Messiah, or to fall In universal ruin last, and now To final Battel drew, disdaining flight, Or faint retreat; when the great Son of God To all his Host on either hand thus spake.

      Stand still in bright array ye Saints, here stand

       Ye Angels arm’d, this day from Battel rest;

       Faithful hath been your Warfare, and of God

      

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