To gratulate the fweet return of morn ;
Nor yet amidst this joy and brightest morn
Was abfent, after all his mischief done,
The prince of darkness, glad would also seem
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came,
Yet with no new device, they all were spent,
Rather by this his laft affront refolv'd,
Defp'rate of better course, to vent his rage,
And mad despite to be so oft repell❜d.
Him walking on a funny hill he found,
Back'd on the north and weft by a thick wood;
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,
And in a carelefs mood thus to him faid.
Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,
gil, where Neptune is reprefented
with his trident laying the ftorm
which Æolus had raised, ver. 142.
Sic ait, et dicto citius tumida
æquora placat,
Collectafque fugat nubes, folem-
que reducit.
There is the greater beauty in the
English poet, as the fcene he is
defcribing under this charming
figure is perfectly confiftent with
the courfe of nature, nothing being
more common than to fee a ftormy
night fucceeded by a pleasant fe-
rene morning, Thyer.
After a difmal night; I heard the wrack
As earth and sky would mingle; but myself
Was diftant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them
As dang'rous to the pillar'd frame of Heaven, 455
Or to the earth's dark bafis underneath,
Are to the main as inconfiderable,
And harmless, if not wholesome, as a fneeze
To man's lefs univerfe, and foon are gone;
Yet as being oft times noxious where they light 460
On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,
Like turbulencies in th' affairs of men,
Over whofe heads they roar, and feem to point,
They oft fore-fignify and threaten ill:
This tempeft at this desert most was bent;
Of men at thee, for only thou here.dwell'ft.
Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject
The perfect season offer'd with my aid
To win thy destin'd seat, but wilt prolong
All to the push of fate, purfue thy way
453. As earth and Sky would mingle] Virgil Æn. I. 137.
Jam cælum terramque, meo fine numine, venti,
Mifcere, et tantas audetis tollere moles ? Richardfon. 455. As dang'rous to the pillar'd frame of Heav'n,] So alfo in the Mafk
Of gaining David's throne no man knows when,
For both the when and how is no where told,
Thou shalt be what thou art ordain'd, no doubt;
For angels have proclam'd it, but concealing
The time and means: each act is rightliest done, 475
Not when it muft, but when it may be beft.
If thou obferve not this, be sure to find,
What I foretold thee, many a hard assay
Of dangers, and adverfities, and pains,
Ere thou of Ifrael's scepter get fast hold; 480
Whereof this ominous night that clos'd thee round,
So many terrors, voices, prodigies
May warn thee, as a fure fore-going fign.
So talk'd he while the Son of God went on And stay'd not, but in brief him anfwer'd thus. 485 Me worse than wet thou find'ft not; other harm Those terrors which thou speak'st of, did me none; I never fear'd they could, though noifing loud And threatning nigh; what they can do as figns
Betokening
490
Betokening, or ill boding, I contemn
As falfe portents, not fent from God, but thee;
Who knowing I fhall reign paft thy preventing,
Obtrud'ft thy offer'd aid, that I accepting
At least might feem to hold all pow'r of thee,
Ambitious Spirit, and wouldft be thought my God,
And storm'ft refus'd, thinking to terrify 496
Me to thy will; defift, thou art difcern'd
And toil'ft in vain, nor me in vain moleft.
To whom the Fiend now fwoln with rage reply'd. Then hear, O Son of David, Virgin-born;
500
For Son of God to me is yet in doubt:
Of the Meffiah I have heard foretold
By all the Prophets; of thy birth at length
Announc'd by Gabriel with the first I knew,
And of th' angelic fong in Bethlehem field,
On thy birth-night, that fung thee Saviour born.
From that time feldom have I ceas'd to eye
505
*501. For Son of God to me is yet
in doubt:] The Tempter had heard Chrift declar'd to be Son of God by a voice from Heaven. He allows him to be virgin-born. He hath no fcruples about the annunciation, and the truth of what Ga
Thy
briel told the bleffed woman (Luke I. 35. The Holy Ghost fhall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest fall overshadow thee; therefore allo that holy thing which shall be born of thee fhall be called the Son of God,) and yet he doubts of his being the Son
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
Thy manhood laft, though yet in private bred;
Till at the ford of Jordan whither all
Flock to the Baptift, I among the rest,
Though not to be baptiz'd, by voice from Heaven
Heard thee pronounc'd the Son of God belov❜d.
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
And narrower fcrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art call'd
The Son of God, which bears no fingle sense
The Son of God I also am, or was,
515
Son of God notwithstanding. This is eafily accounted for. On the terms of the annunciation Chrift might be the Son of God in a fenfe very particular, and yet a mere man as to his nature: but the doubt
And if I was, I am; relation stands;
All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought 520
In some respect far higher so declar'd.
Therefore I watch'd thy footsteps from that hour,
And follow'd thee still on to this waste wild;
Where by all beft conjectures I collect
Thou art to be fatal enemy.
my
relates to what he was more than
man, worth calling Son of God, that
is worthy to be called Son of God
in that high and proper fenfe, in
which his fonfhip would infer his
Calton.
divinity.
538.- what
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