242
��PARADISE LOST
��Of God Most High; so God with Man
unites. Needs must the Serpent now his capital
bruise Expect with mortal pain. Say where and
when Their fight, what stroke shall bruise the
Victor's heel." To whom thus Michael: "Dream not
of their fight
As of a duel, or the local wounds Of head or heel. Not therefore joins the
Son Manhood to Godhead, with more strength
to foil
Thy enemy; nor so is overcome 390
Satan, whose fall from Heaven, a deadlier
bruise,
Disabled not to give thee thy death's wound; Which he who comes thy Saviour shall re- cure,
Not by destroying Satan, but his works In thee and in thy seed. Nor can this be, But by fulfilling that which thou didst
want,
Obedience to the law of God, imposed On penalty of death, and suffering death, The penalty to thy transgression due, And due to theirs which out of thine will
grow: 400
So only can high justice rest appaid. The Law of God exact he shall fulfil Both by obedience and by love, though
love
Alone fulfil the Law; thy punishment He shall endure, by coming in the flesh To a reproachful life and cursed death, Proclaiming life to all who shall believe In his redemption, and that his obedience Imputed becomes theirs by faith his
merits To save them, not their own, though legal,
works. 410
For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed, Seized on by force, judged, and to death
condemned A shameful and accursed, nailed to the
Cross
By his own nation, slain for bringing life; But to the cross he nails thy enemies The Law that is against thee, and the sins Of all mankind, with him there crucified, Never to hurt them more who rightly trust In this his satisfaction. So he dies, But soon revives ; Death over him no power
��Shall long usurp. Ere the third dawning
light 42I
Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise
Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning
light, Thy ransom paid, which Man from Death
redeems
His death for Man, as many as offered life Neglect not, and the benefit iinbrace By faith not void of works. This godlike
act Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldst
have died,
In sin for ever lost from life ; this act Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, 43 o
Defeating Sin and Death, his two main
arms,
And fix far deeper in his head their stings Than temporal death shall bruise the Vic- tor's heel, Or theirs whom he redeems a death like
sleep,
A gentle wafting to immortal life. Nor after resurrection shall he stay Longer on Earth than certain times to ap- pear
To his disciples men who in his life Still followed him; to them shall leave in
charge
To teach all nations what of him they learned 440
And his salvation, them who shall believe Baptizing in the profluent stream the
sign
Of washing them from guilt of sin to life Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall, For death like that which the Redeemer
died. All nations they shall teach; for from that
day
Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins Salvation shall be preached, but to the sons Of Abraham's faith wherever through the
world;
So in his seed all nations shall be blest. 450 Then to the Heaven of Heavens he shall
ascend
With victory, triumphing through the air Over his foes and thine; there shall sur- prise The Serpent, Prince of Air, and drag in
chains
Through all his realm, and there con- founded leave;
�� �
