As to his worthier, and would have refign'd' 30 35 Nigh the Baptift had notice given him before, that he might certainly know the Meffiah by the Holy Ghoft defcending and abiding upon him. And I knew him not, but he that fent me to baptize with water, the fame faid unto me, Upon whom thou shalt fee the Spirit defcending and remaining on him, the fame is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. John I. 33. But it appears from St. Matthew, that the Baptift knew him and acknowledged him, before, he was baptized vand before the Holy Ghoft defcended upon him. Mat. III. 14. I have need to be baptized of thee, and comeft thou to me? To account for which we must admit with Milton, that another divine revelation was made to him. at this very time, fignifying that this was the perfon, of whom he had had fuch notice before. 26. divinely warn'd] To comprehend the propriety of this word divinely the reader must have B 4 his Nigh thunder-ftruck, th' exalted man, to whom rage Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involv'd, A gloomy confiftory; and them amidst With looks aghaft and fad he thus befpake. O ancient Pow'rs of air and this wide world, For much more willingly I mention air, This our old conqueft, than remember Hell, Our hated habitation; well his eye upon the Latin divinitus, from Heaven, fince the word divinely in our language scarce ever comes up to this meaning. Milton ufes it in much the fame sense in Paradise Loft. VII. 500. She heard me thus, and though divinely brought. Thyer. 41. Within thick clouds &c] Milton in making Satan's refidence to be in mid air, within thick clouds and dark, feems to have St. Auftin in his eye, who speaking of the region of clouds, ftorms, thunder &c. fays--ad ifta caliginosa, id eft, ad hunc aerem, tanquam ad carcerem, damnatus eft diabolus &c. Enarr. in Pf. 148. S. 9. Tom. 5. p. 1677. Edit. Bened. Thyer. ye know 40 45 How 42. A gloomy confiftery;] This in imitation of Virgil En. III.677. Cernimus aftantes nequicquam lumine torvo Etneos fratres, cœlo capita alta ferentes, Concilium horrendum. By the word confiftory I fuppofe Milton intends to glance at the meeting of the Pope and Cardi- ; nals fo nam'd, or perhaps at the epifcopal tribunal, to all which fort of courts or affemblies he was an avow'd enemy. The phrafe concilium horrendum Vida makes ufe of upon a like occafion of affembling the infernal Powers. : Chrift. Lib. I. Protinus How many ages, as the years of men, 59 This universe we have poffefs'd, and rul'd 55 At Protinus acciri diros ad regia copiousness and variety which is in At least if so we can, and by the head To be infring'd, our freedom and our being, 60% 65 70 His birth to our juft fear gave no fmall caufe, fpeeches in his former council, and therefore has affign'd the beft reafon he could for not making any in this. 74. Purified to receive him pure,] alluding to the Scripture expreffion 1 John III. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himSelf even as he is pure. 83. A perfect dove defcend,] He had expreffed it before ver. 30. in likeness of a dove, agreeably to 75 And And he himself among them was baptiz'd, This is my 85 He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven, those writers, Ignatius and others among the Ancients, and Beza and others among the Moderns, who believed that the Devil, tho' he might know Jefus to be fome extraordinary perfon, yet knew him not to be the Meffiah, the Son of God: and the words of the Devil If thou be the Son of God feem to exprefs his uncertainty concerning that matter. The Devils indeed afterwards knew him and pro In claimed him to be the Son of God, but they might not know him to be fo at this time, before this temptation, or before he had enter'd upon his public miniftry, and manifefted himself by his miracles. And our author, who makes the Devil to hear the voice from Heaven This is my beloved Son, fill makes him doubt in what fenfe Jefus was fo called. See IV. 514 Thence |