| |
THUS they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood | |
| Praying; for from the mercy-seat above | |
| Prevenient grace descending had removed | |
| The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh | |
| Regenerate grow instead; that sighs now breathed | 5 |
| Unutterable; which the spirit of prayer | |
| Inspired, and winged for Heaven with speedier flight | |
| Than loudest oratory: yet their port | |
| Not of mean suitors; nor important less | |
| Seemed their petition, than when the ancient pair | 10 |
| In fables old, less ancient yet than these, | |
| Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha, to restore | |
| The race of mankind drowned, before the shrine | |
| Of Themis stood devout. To Heaven their prayers | |
| Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds | 15 |
| Blown vagabond or frustrate: in they passed | |
| Dimensionless through heavenly doors; then clad | |
| With incense, where the golden altar fumed, | |
| By their great Intercessor, came in sight | |
| Before the Father’s throne: them the glad Son | 20 |
| Presenting, thus to intercede began. | |
| “See, Father, what first-fruits on Earth are sprung | |
| From thy implanted grace in Man; these sighs | |
| And prayers, which in this golden censer, mixed | |
| With incense, I thy priest before thee bring; | 25 |
| Fruits of more pleasing savor, from thy seed | |
| Sown with contrition in his heart, than those | |
| Which, his own hand manuring, all the trees | |
| Of Paradise could have produced ere fallen | |
| From innocence. Now, therefore, bend thine ear | 30 |
| To supplication; hear his sighs, though mute; | |
| Unskilful with what words to pray, let me | |
| Interpret for him; me, his advocate | |
| And propitiation; all his works on me, | |
| Good, or not good, ingraft; my merit those | 35 |
| Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay. | |
| Accept me; and, in me, from these receive | |
| The smell of peace toward mankind: let him live | |
| Before thee reconciled, at least his days | |
| Numbered though sad; till death his doom (which I | 40 |
| To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse,) | |
| To better life shall yield him: where with me | |
| All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss; | |
| Made one with me, as I with thee am one.” | |
| To whom the Father, without cloud, serene, | 45 |
| “All thy request for Man, accepted Son, | |
| Obtain; all thy request was my decree: | |
| But, longer in that Paradise to dwell, | |
| The law I gave to Nature him forbids: | |
| Those pure immortal elements, that know | 50 |
| No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul, | |
| Eject him, tainted now; and purge him off, | |
| As a distemper, gross, to air as gross, | |
| And mortal food; as may dispose him best | |
| For dissolution wrought by sin, that first | 55 |
| Distempered all things, and of incorrupt | |
| Corrupted. I, at first, with two fair gifts | |
| Created him endowed; with happiness, | |
| And immortality: that fondly lost, | |
| This other served but to eternize woe; | 60 |
| Till I provided death: so death becomes | |
| His final remedy; and, after life, | |
| Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined | |
| By faith and faithful works, to second life, | |
| Waked in the renovation of the just, | 65 |
| Resigns him up with Heaven and Earth renewed.” | |
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