Yet neither thus difhearten'd or dismay'd, The time prefix'd I waited, when behold The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard, 270 Not knew by fight) now come, who was to come Before Meffiah and his way prepare. I as all others to his baptism came, Which I believ'd was from above; but he Strait knew me, and with loudest voice proclam'd As much his greater, and was hardly won: manner of intimacy or acquain- 278. Refus'd on me his baptifm to As much his greater,] Here Milton ufes the word greater in the 280 Heav'n fame manner as he had done before, Parad. Lost. V. 172. Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and foul, Acknowledge him thy greater. And this, I think, is a proof that the prefent reading there is right, and that both Dr. Bentley's emendation and mine ought abfolutely to be rejected. Thyer. 280.-out of the laving ftream,] Alluding, I fancy, to the phrafe laver of regeneration fo frequently applied to baptifm. It may be obferved in general of this foliloquy of our Saviour, that it is not only excellently well adapted to the pre Heav'n open'd her eternal doors, from whence prefent condition of the divine fpeaker, but alfo very artfully introduc'd by the poet to give us a hiftory of his hero from his birth to the very scene with which the poem is open'd. Thyer. 281. eternal doors] Šo in Pfal. XXIV.7,9. everiafting doors. 286. -the time Now full,] Alluding to the Scripture phrafe, the fulness of time. When the fulness of time was come &c Gal. IV. 4. 293. For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.] Jesus was Jed by an inward impulfe to retire into the defert: and he obey'd the motion, without knowing the purpofe of it, for that was not reveal'd to him by God. The whole foliloquy is form'd upon an opini on, which hath authorities enough to give it credit, viz. that Chrift was not, by virtue of the perfonal union of the two natures, and from the first moment of that. union, pof Th' authority fefs'd of all the knowledge of the AOгOE, as far as the capacity of a human mind would admit. [See Le Blanc's Elucidatio Status Controverfiarum &c. Cap. 3.] In his early years he increas'd in wifdom, and in ftature. St. Luke II. And Bezaobferves upon this place, ipfa Θεότητα plenitudo fefe, prout & quatenus ipfi libuit, that 52. humanitati affumtæ infinuavit : quicquid garriant matæologi, & novi Ubiquitarii Eutychiani. Gerhard, a Lutheran profeffor of divinity, has the fame meaning, or none at all, in what I am going to tranfcribe.-Anima Chrifti, juxta naturalem, & habitualem fcientiam vere profecit, óy omnifcio ipyua fuam, quæ eft actu omnia fcire & cognofcere, per affumtam humanitatem non femper exerente, [Joh. Gerhardi Loci Theol. tom. I. Loc.4.Cap. 12.] Grotius employs the fame principle, to explain St. Mark XIII. 32.· Videtur mihi, ni meliora docear, hic locus non Th' authority which I deriv'd from Heaven. I learn not yet, perhaps I need not know; A pathlefs defert, dufk with horrid fhades; impie poffe exponi hunc in modum, ut dicamus divinam Sapientiam, menti humanæ Chrifti effectus fuos impreffiffe pro temporum ratione. Nam qui daliud eft, fi verba non torquemus, πроεnole copia, Luc. II. 52? And our Tillotson approv'd the opinion." It is not unreasonable to fuppofe, that "the Divine Wisdom, which dwelt **in our Saviour, did communi"cate itfelf to his human foul açcording to his pleasure, and fo *his human Nature might at fome "times not know fome things. And if this be not admitted, "how can we understand that paffage concerning cur Saviour, "Luke II. 52. that Jefus grew in "wisdom and ftature? [Sermons Vol. IX. P. 273.] Grotius could find scarce any thing in antiquity to fupport his explication but there is fomething in Theodoret very much to his purpofe, which I owe to Whitby's Stricture Patrum. P. 190. της [δέλες μορφ 290 295 The Pas, ut videtur,] TOIKUTA NAT" EKEIVO т8 xaps you wousons, doan X Non eft Dei orng aTenakupe. Verbi ignorantia, fed Formæ Ser vi, quæ tanta per illud tempus fciebat, quanta Deitas inhabitans revelabat. Repreh. Anath. quarti Cyrilli, Tom. 4. P. 713. If fome things might befuppos'd unknown to Chrift, without prejudice to the union, being not reveal'd to him by the united Word, it will follow that, till fome certain time, even the union itself might be unknown to him. This time feems to have heen, in Milton's scheme, after the foliloquy; but before the fortydays of fafting were ended, and the Demon enter'd upon the scene of action: and then was a fit occafion to give him a feeling of his own ftrength, when he was just upon the point of being attack'd by fuch an Adverfary. Calton. 294. So pake our Morning Star] So our Saviour is called in the Revelation XXH. 16. the bright and morning The way he came not having mark'd, return Was difficult, by human steps untrod; 300 And he still on was led, but with fuch thoughts Full forty days he pafs'd, whether on hill Or cedar, to defend him from the dew, morning far: and it is properly applied to him here at his first rifing. 302. Such folitude before choiceft fociety.] This verte is of the fame measure as one in the Paradife Loft, IX. 249. and is to be fcann'd in the fame manner. For folitude fometimes is beft I folciety. Such folitude before choifceft folciety. Or we must allow that an Alexandrine verfe (as it is called) may be admitted into blank verfe as well as into rime. 307.- -one cave] Read-fome Fortin. cave, 305 Among wild beasts: they at his fight grew mild, 310 5314 But now an aged man in rural weeds, Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place So far from path or road of men, who pass wafte wilderness. But the word worm, tho' joined with the epithet noxious, may give too low an idea to fome readers: but as we obferved upon the Paradife Loft, IX. 1068, where Satan is called false worm, it is a general name for the reptil kind, and a ferpent is called the mortal worm by Shakespear. 2 Henry VI. Act III. and fo likewife by Cowley in his Davideis. Book I. With that fhe takes loved fnakes, In 314. But now an aged man &c] As the Scripture is entirely filent about what perfonage the Tempter affum'd, the poet was at liberty to indulge his own fancy; and nothing, I think, could be better conceived for his prefent purpose, or more likely to prevent fufpicion of fraud. The poet might perhaps take the hint from a defign of David Vinkhoon's, where the Devilis reprefented addressing himself to our Saviour under the appearPance of an old man. It is to be met with among Vifcher's cuts to the Bible, and is ingrav'd by Landerfelt. Thyer. 323. In |