Yet neither thus difhearten'd or dismay'd, 270 Not knew by fight) now come, who was to come Before Meffiah and his way prepare. I as all others to his baptifm came, Which I believ'd was from above; but he Strait knew me, and with loudeft voice proclam'd manner of intimacy or acquaintance with each other. John the Baptift fays exprefly, John I. 31, 33. And I knew him not; and he did not fo much as know him by fight, till our Saviour came to his baptifm; and afterwards it doth not appear that they ever converfed together. And it was wifely ordered fo by Providence, that the teftimony of John might have the greater weight, and be freer from all fufpicion of any compact or collufion between them. 278. Refus'd on me his baptifm to confer, As much his greater,] Here Milton uses the word greater in the 280 Heav'n fame manner as he had done be- 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 He was well pleas'd; by which I knew the time 285 Th' authority feffed of all the knowledge of the AoroE, 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 increafed in wif dom, and in ftature. St. Luke II. 52. And Beza obferves upon this place, that ipfa OTT plenitudo fefe, prout & quatenus ipfi libuit, 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 transcribe.- Anima Chrifti, juxta naturalem, & habitualem fcientiam vere profecit, λόγω omnifcio ενέρ Year fuam, quæ eft actu omnia fcire & cognofcere, per affumtam humanitatem non femper exerente. [Joh. Gerhardi Loci Theol. tom. 1. 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. So fpake our Morning ftar then in his rife, impie poffe exponi hunc in modum, ut dicamus divinam Sapientiam, menti humanæ Chrifti effectus fuos impreffiffe pro temporum ratione. Nam quid aliud eft, fi verba non torquemus, wрosxonle σopia, Luc. II. 52? And our Tillotfon approved the opinion.— "It is "not unreasonable to fuppofe, that "the Divine Wisdom, which dwelt "in our Saviour, did communi"cate itself to his human foul according 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 our Saviour, "Luke II. 52. that Jefus grew in 66 66 66 wisdom and ftature ?" [Sermons Vol. IX. p. 273.] Grotius could find fcarce any thing in antiquity to fupport his explication: but there is fomething in Theodoret very much to his purpose, which I owe to Whitby's Stricture Patrum, p. 190. και της ίδωλο μος 290 295 The φης, ut videtur,] τοιαυτα κατ' εκείνο το καιρό γινωσχεσης, ὅσα ή ενοίκισα EOTZ TEAλube.— Non eft Dei Verbi ignorantia, fed Formæ Servi, quæ tanta per illud tempus fciebat, quanta Deitas inhabitans revelabat. Repreh. Anath. quarti Cyrilli, Tom. 4. p. 713. If fome things might be fuppofed unknown to Chrift, without prejudice to the union, being not revealed 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 been, in Milton's fcheme, after the foliloquy; but before the forty days of falling were ended, and the Demon entered upon the scene of action: and then was a fit occafion to give him a feeling of his own ftrength, when he was juft upon the point of being attacked by fuch an Adverfary. Calton. 294. So fpake our Morning Star] So our Saviour is called in the Revelation XXII, 16. the bright and morning The way And he still on was led, but with fuch thoughts Accompanied of things paft and to come 300 Lodg'd in his breaft, as well might recommend Full forty days he pafs'd, whether on hill Sometimes, anon on shady vale, each night 305 Nor tafted human food, nor hunger felt : morning far and it is properly applied to him here at his first rifing. 302. Such folitude before choiceft Society.] This verfe is of the fame measure as one in the Paradife Loft, IX. 249. and is to be fcann'd in the fame manner. Among 310.- they at his fight grew mild,] All this is very common in defcription, but here very judicioufly employed as a mark of the returning Paradisiacal state. 312. Warburton. and noxious worm] For Solitude fometimes is beft This beautiful defcription is form folciety. Such folitude before choiceft 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-some Fortin. cave. ed that fhort hint in St. Mark's upon Gofpel I. 13. and was with the wild beafts. A circumftance not mentioned by the other Evangelifts, but excellently improved by Milton to fhow how the ancient prophecies began to be fulfilled, Ifa. XI. 6-9. LXV. 25. Ezek. XXXIV. 25; and how Eden was raised in the wafte Among wild beafts; they at his fight grew mild, 310 314 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 pafs 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 falfe worm, it is a general name for the reptil kind, and a ferpent is called the mortal worm by Shakespeare. 2 Henry VI. A&III. and fo likewife by Cowley in his Davideis. Book I. 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 Vinkboon's, where the Devil is reprefented addreffing himself to our Saviour under the appearance of an old man. It is to be met with among Vifcher's cuts to the Bible, and is ingrav'd by -With that she takes One of her worst, her best beloved fnakes, Softly dear worm, foft and unfeen Landerfelt. Thyer. (faid fhe). I 323. In |