Victorious with his Saints, the Omnipotent Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake :
At least our envious Foe hath fail'd, who thought All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength, the seat Of Deity supreme, us dispossess'd,
He trusted to have seized, and into fraud
Drew many, whom their place knows here no more: Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,
Their station; Heaven, yet populous, retains Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent With ministeries due and solemn rites; But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm Already done, to have dispeopled Heaven, My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair That detriment, if such it be to lose Self-lost; and in a moment will create Another world, out of one man a race, Of men innumerable, there to dwell, Not here till, by degrees of merit raised, They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried ;
And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth One kingdom, joy and union without end.
Meanwhile inhabit lax, ye Powers of Heaven; And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee This I perform; speak thou, and be it done! My overshadowing Spirit and Might with thee I send along; ride forth, and bid the Deep Within appointed bounds be Heaven and Earth, Boundless the Deep, because I Am who fill Infinitude, nor vacuous the space. Though I, uncircumscribed myself, retire, And put not forth my goodness, which is free To act or not, Necessity and Chance Approach not me, and what I will is Fate.
So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake His Word, the Filial Godhead, gave effect. Immediate are the acts of God, more swift Than time or motion, but to human ears Cannot without process of speech be told, So told as earthly notion can receive.
When such was heard declared the Almighty's will;
Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,
Glory they sung to the Most High, good will
To future men, and in their dwellings peace; Glory to Him, whose just avenging ire Had driven out the ungodly from his sight And the habitations of the just; to Him
Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd Good out of evil to create; instead
Of Spirits malign, a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.
So sang the Hierarchies: meanwhile the Son
On his great expedition now appear'd,
Girt with Omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of Majesty Divine; sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones,
And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots wing'd From the armory of God; where stand of old Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand, Celestial equipage; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them Spirit lived, Attendant on their Lord: Heaven open'd wide Her ever during gates, harmonious sound,
On golden hinges moving, to let forth The King of Glory, in his powerful Word And Spirit coming to create new worlds.
On heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds And surging waves, as mountains, to assault Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole. Silence, ye troubled Waves, and, thou Deep, peace, Said then the Omnific Word; your discord end! Nor staid; but, on the wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train Follow'd in bright procession, to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand He took the golden compasses, prepared In God's eternal store, to circumscribe This universe, and all created things: One foot he centred, and the other turn'd Round through the vast profundity obscure; And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, This be thy just circumference, O World! Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth, Matter unform'd and void: darkness profound Cover'd the abyss: but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 235 And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth Throughout the fluid mass; but downward purged The black tartareous cold infernal dregs, Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed Like things to like; the rest to several place Disparted, and between spun out the air; And Earth self-balanced on her centre hung.
Let there be Light, said God; and forthwith Light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep; and from her native east 245
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good,
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided light the Day, and darkness Night,
He named. Thus was the first day even and morn⚫ Nor pass'd uncelebrated, nor unsung
By the celestial choirs, when orient light Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;
Birthday of Heaven and Earth; with joy and shout The hollow universal orb they fill'd,
And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised God and his works; Creator him they sung,
Both when first evening was, and when first morn. 260 Again, God said, Let there be firmament
Amid the waters, and let it divide
The waters from the waters; and God made The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure, Transparent, elemental air, diffused
In circuit to the uttermost convex
Of this great round; partition firm and sure, The waters underneath from those above
Dividing for as earth, so he the world Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far removed; lest fierce extremes Contiguous might distemper the whole frame: And Heaven he named the Firmament: so even And morning chorus sung the second day.
The Earth was form'd, but, in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involved,
Appear'd not over all the face of Earth
Main ocean flow'd, not idle; but, with warm Prolific humour softening all her globe, Fermented the great mother to conceive, Satiate with genial moisture; when God said, Be gather'd now, ye waters under Heaven, Into one place, and let dry land appear. Inmediately the mountains huge appear Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave Into the clouds; their tops ascend the sky;
So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters: thither they Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'd, As drops on dust conglobing from the dry: Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,
For haste; such flight the great command impress'd On the swift floods: as armies at the call Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard) Troop to their standard; so the watery throng, Wave rolling after wave, where way they found, If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain, Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill; But they, or under ground, or circuit wide With serpent error wandering, found their way, And on the washy ooze deep channels wore ; Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry, All but within those banks, where rivers now Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train. The dry land Earth, and the great receptacle Of congregated waters he call'd Seas:
And saw that it was good; and said, Let the Earth Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind, Whose seed is in herself upon the Earth.
He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd,
Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad 315 Her universal face with pleasant green;
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd Opening their various colours, and made gay Her bosom, smelling sweet: and, these scarce blown, Forth flourish'd thick the clustering vine, forth crept The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub, And bush with frizzled hair implicit : last Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread
Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd 325
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