Wak'd in the renovation of the just,

Resigns him up with heav'n and earth renew'd.

But let us call to synod all the blest

65

Through heav'n's wide bounds; from them I will not hide

My judgments, how with mankind I proceed,

As how with peccant angels late they saw,

70

And in their state, though firm, stood more confirm'd.

He ended, and the Son gave signal high
To the bright minister that watch'd; he blew
His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps
When God descended, and perhaps once more
To sound at general doom. Th' angelic blast
Fill'd all the regions: from their blissful bowers
Of amarantine shade, fountain or spring,

By the waters of life, where'er they sat
In fellowships of joy, the sons of light
Hasted, resorting to the summons high,

And took their seats; till from his throne supreme

74. His trumpet heard in Oreb since perhaps &c.] For the law was given on mount Oreb with the noise of the trumpet, Exod. xx. 18. and at the general judgment, according to St. Paul, 1 Thess. iv. 16. the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.

78. Of amarantine shade,] See iii. 353. and the note there.

82. And took their seats;] In Rev. iv. 4. and xi. 16. the four and twenty elders are described as sitting on seats round about the throne. Pearce.

The angels are generally re

75

80

presented to be standing, or falling down before the throne of God; because they are generally employed there in acts of praise and adoration. But here they are introduced in another character, called to synod, like a grand council, or to be as it were assessors with the Almighty, when he was to pronounce his decree on fallen man: and therefore the poet very properly says, they took their seats. And thus our Saviour tells the Apostles, they shall sit upon twelve thrones as his assessors, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matt. xix. 28. Greenwood.

Th' Almighty thus pronounc'd his sovran will.
O sons, like one of us Man is become

To know both good and evil, since his taste
Of that defended fruit; but let him boast
His knowledge of good lost, and evil got,
Happier, had it suffic'd him to have known
Good by itself, and evil not at all.

He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite,
My motions in him; longer than they move,
His heart I know, how variable and vain
Self-left. Lest therefore his now bolder hand
Reach also of the tree of life, and eat,
And live for ever, dream at least to live
For ever, to remove him I decree,

And send him from the garden forth to till
The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.
Michael, this my behest have thou in charge,

84. O sons, &c.] The assembling of all the angels of heaven, to hear the solemn decree passed upon Man, is represented in very lively ideas. The Almighty is here described as remembering mercy in the midst of judgment, and commanding Michael to deliver his message in the mildest terms, lest the spirit of Man, which was already broken with the sense of his guilt and misery, should fail before him. Addison.

This whole speech is founded upon the following passage in Genesis iii. 22, 23, 24. And the Lord God said, Behold the Man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the

tree of life, and eat and live for ever; Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the Man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

86. Of that defended fruit;] Forbidden fruit, from defendre (French) to forbid; so used by Chaucer,

Where can you say in any manner

age

That ever God defended marriage?

Hume and Richardson.

99. Michael, this my behest have thou in charge,] Our au

Take to thee from among the Cherubim

Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the Fiend,
Or in behalf of Man, or to invade

Vacant possession, some new trouble raise:
Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God
Without remorse drive out the sinful pair,
From hallow'd groud th' unholy, and denounce
To them and to their progeny from thence
Perpetual banishment. Yet lest they faint
At the sad sentence rigorously urg'd,

For I behold them soften'd and with tears
Bewailing their excess, all terror hide.
If patiently thy bidding they obey,
Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal

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105

110

To Adam what shall come in future days,

As I shall thee inlighten; intermix

My covenant in the Woman's seed renew'd;

So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace :
And on the east side of the garden place,

Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,
Cherubic watch, and of a sword the flame
Wide-waving, all approach far off to fright,

thor has with great judgment
singled out Michael to receive
this charge. It would not have
been so proper for the sociable
spirit Raphael to have executed
this order: but as Michael was
the principal angel employed in
driving the rebel angels out of
heaven, so he was the most pro-
per to expel our first parents too
out of Paradise.

111. Bewailing their excess,] God is here represented as pity

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120

ing our first parents, and even while he is ordering Michael to drive them out of Paradise, orders him at the same time to hide all terror; and for the same reason he chooses to speak of their offence in the softest manner, calling it only an excess, a going beyond the bounds of their duty, by the same metaphor as sin is often called transgression.

And guard all passage to the tree of life:
Lest Paradise a receptacle prove

To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey,

With whose stol'n fruit Man once more to delude. 125
He ceas'd; and th' archangelic pow'r prepar'd
For swift descent, with him the cohort bright
Of watchful Cherubim; four faces each
Had, like a double Janus, all their shape
Spangled with eyes, more numerous than those
Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowse,
Charm'd with Arcadian pipe, the past'ral reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. Mean while
To resalute the world with sacred light

130

and their hands, and their wings,
were full of eyes round about:
the poet expresses it by a de-
lightful metaphor, all their shape
spangled with eyes, and then adds
by way of comparison, more nu-
merous than those of Argus, a
shepherd who had an hundred
eyes, and more wakeful than to
drowse, as his did, charmed with
Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed,
that is, the pastoral pipe made of
reeds, as was that of Hermes or
Mercury, who was employed by
Jupiter to lull Argus asleep and
kill him, or his opiate rod, the
caduceus of Mercury, with which
he could give sleep to whom-
soever he pleased. With this
pipe and this rod he lulled Ar-
gus asleep, and cut off his head.
It is an allusion to a celebrated
story in Ovid, Met i. 625, &c.

Centum luminibus cinctum caput
Argus habebat &c.

Leucothea wak'd, and with fresh dews imbalm'd The earth, when Adam and first matron Eve