[apt The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare; more To him who wears the regal diadem, When on his shoulders each man's burden lies; PARADISE REGAINED. BOOK III. THE ARGUMENT. Satan, in a speech of much flattering commendation, endeavours to awaken in Jesus a passion for glory, by particularising various instances of conquests achieved, and great actions performed, by persons at an early period of life. Our Lord replics, by showing the vanity of worldly fame, and the improper means by which it is generally attained; and contrasts with it the true glory of religious patience and virtuous wisdom, as exemplified in the character of Job. Satan justifies the love of glory from the example of God himself, who requires it from all his creatures. Jesus detects the fallacy of this argument, by showing that, as goodness is the true ground on which glory is due to the great Creator of all things, sinful man can have no right whatever to it.-Satan then urges our Lord respecting his claim to the throne of David; he tells him that the kingdom of Judea, being at that time a province of Rome, cannot be got possession of without much personal exertion on his part, and presses him to lose no time in beginning to reign. Jesus refers him to the time allotted for this, as for all other things; and, after intimating somewhat respecting his own pre vious sufferings, asks Satan, why he should be so solicitous for the exaltation of one, whose rising was destined to be his fall. Satan replies, that his own desperate state, by excluding all hope, leaves little room for fear; and that, as his own punishment was equally doomed, he is not interested in preventing the reign of one, from whose apparent benevolence he might rather hope for some interference in his favour.-Satan still pursues his former incitements; and, supposing that the seeming reluctance of Jesus to be thus advanced might arise from his being unacquainted with the world and its glories, conveys him to the summit of a high mountain, and from thence shows him most of the kingdoms of Asia, particularly pointing out to his notice some extraordinary military preparations of the Parthians to resist the incursions of the Scythians. He then informs our Lord, that he showed him this purposely that he might see how necessary military exertions are to retain the possession of kingdoms, as well as to subdue them at first, and advises him to consider how impossible it was to maintain Judea against two such powerful neighbours as the Romans and Parthians, and how necessary it would be to form an alliance with one or other of them. At the same time he recommends, and engages to secure to him, that of the Parthians; and tells him that by this means his power will be defended from any thing that Rome or Cæsar might attempt against it, and that he will be able to extend his glory wide, and especially to accomplish, what was particularly necessary to make the throne of Judea really the throne of David, the deliverance and restoration of the ten tribes, still in a state of captivity. Jesus, having briefly noticed the vanity of military efforts and the weakness of the arm of flesh, says, that when the time comes for his ascending his allotted throne he shall not be slack: he remarks on Satan's extraordinary zeal for the deliverance of the Israelites, to whom he had always showed himself an enemy, and declares their servitude to be the consequence of their idolatry; but adds, that at a future time it may perhaps please God to recall them, and restore them to their liberty and native land. So spake the Son of God; and Satan stood "I see thou know'st what is of use to know, That night require the array of war, thy skill To whom our Saviour calmly thus replied. Things vulgar, and, well weigh'd, scarce worth the praise? [what, They praise, and they admire, they know not And know not whom, but as one leads the other; And what delight to be by such extoll'd, To live upon their tongues, and be their talk, Of whom to be disprais'd were no small praise? His lot who dares be singularly good. The intelligent among them and the wise Are few, and glory scarce of few is rais'd. This is true glory and renown, when God, Looking on the Earth, with approbation marks The just man, and divulges him through Heaven To all his angels, who with true applause Recount his praises: thus he did to Job, When to extend his fame through Heaven and Earth, As thou to thy reproach may'st well remember, Famous he was in Heaven, on Earth less known; Worshipt with temple, priest, and sacrifice? Made famous in a land and times obscure; now Equal in fame to proudest conquerors. Yet if for fame and glory aught be done, Aught suffer'd; if young African for fame His wasted country freed from Punic rage; The deed becomes unprais'd, the man at least, And loses, though but verbal, his reward. Shall I seek glory then, as vain men seek, Oft not deserv'd? I seek not mine, but his Who sent me; and thereby witness whence I am." [plied. To whom the tempter murmuring thus re"Think not so slight of glory; therein least Resembling thy great Father: he seeks glory, And for his glory all things made, all things Orders and governs; nor content in Heaven By all his angels glorified, requires Glory from men, from all men, good or bad, Wise or unwise, no difference, no exemption; Above all sacritice, or hallow'd gift, Glory he requires, and glory he receives, Promiscuous from all nations, Jew or Greek, Or barbarous, nor exception hath declar'd; From us, his foes pronounc'd, glory he exacts." To whom our Saviour fervently replied. "And reason; since his word all things produc'd Though chiefly not for glory as prime end, But to show forth his goodness, and impart His good communicable to every soul Freely; of whom what could he less expect Than glory and benediction, that is, thanks, The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense From them who could return him nothing else, And, not returning that, would likeliest render Contempt instead, dishonour, obloquy? Hard recompense, unsuitable return For so much good, so much beneficence! But why should man seek glory, who of his own Hath nothing, and to whom nothing belongs, But condemnation, ignominy, and shame? Who for so many benefits receiv'd, Turn'd recreant to God, ingrate and false, And so of all true good himself despoil'd; Yet, sacrilegious, to himself would take That which to God alone of right belongs: Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace, That who advance his glory, not their own, Them he himself to glory will advance." So spake the Son of God; and here again Satan had not to answer, but stood struck With guilt of his own sin; for he himself, Insatiable of glory, had lost all; Yet of another plea bethought him soon. 46 Of glory, as thou wilt," said he, "so deem; By mother's side thy father; though thy right With temperate sway; oft have they violated With Modin and her suburbs once content. The prophets old, who sung thy endless reign; while?" To whom our Saviour answer thus return'd. All things are best fulfill'd in their due time; And time there is for all things, Truth hath said. If of my reign prophetic writ hath told, That it shall never end, so, when begin, The Father in his purpose hath decreed; He in whose hand all times and scasons roll, What if he hath decreed that I shall first Be tried in humble state, and things adverse, By tribulations, injuries, insults, Cntempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence, Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting, Without distrust or doubt, that he may know What I can suffer, how obey? Who best Can suffer, best can do; best reigu, who first Well hath obey'd; just trial, ere I merit My exaltation without change or end. But what concerns it thee, when I begin My everlasting kingdom? Why art thou Solicitous? What moves thy inquisition? Know'st thou not that my rising is thy fall, And my promotion will be thy destruction?" To whom the tempter, inly rack'd, replied. "Let that come when it comes; all hope is lost Of my reception into grace: what worse? For where no hope is left, is left no fear : If there be worse, the expectation more Of worse torments me than the feeling can. I would be at the worst: worst is my port, My harbour, and my ultimate repose; The end I would attain, my final good. My errour was my errour, and my crime My crime; whatever, for itself condemn'd; And will alike be punish'd, whether thou Reign, or reign not; though to that gentle brow Willingly could I fly, and nope thy reign, If I then to the worst that can be haste, Perhaps thou linger'st, in deep thoughts detain'd Empires, and monarchs, and their radiant courts, Sufficient introduction to inform he took The Son of God up to a mountain high. between Fair champaign wita less rivers intervein'd, room For barren desert, fountainless and dry. "Well have we speeded, and o'er hill and dale, Forest and field and flood, temples and towers, And seat of Salmanassar, whose success His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there; Turning with easy eye, thou may'st behold. He marches now in haste; see, though from far, Of equal dread in flight, or in pursuit ; In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings." He look'd, and saw what numbers numberless The city gates out-pour'd, light-armed troops, In coats of mail and military pride; In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong, He saw them in their forms of battle rang'd, shot Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face His daughter, sought by many prowest knights, At sight whereof the fiend yet more presum❜d, And to our Saviour thus his words renew'd. "That thou may'st know I seek not to engage Thy virtue, and not every way secure On no slight grounds thy safety; hear, and mark, To what end I have brought thee hither, and shown All this fair sight: thy kingdom, though foretold Thy country, and captive lead away her kings, league: By him thou shalt regain, without him not, To whom our Saviour answer'd thus, unmov'd To Israel then; the same that now to me! May bring them back, repentant and sincere, PARADISE REGAINED. BOOK IV. THE ARGUMENT. Satan, persisting in the temptation of our Lord, shows him imperial Rome in its greatest pomp and splendour, as a power which he probably would prefer before that of the Parthians; and tells him that he might with the greatest ease expel Tiberius, restore. the Romans to their liberty, and make himself master not only of the Roman Empire, but by so doing of the whole world, and inclusively of the throne of David. Our Lord, in reply, expresses his contempt of grandeur and worldly power, notices the luxury, vanity, and profligacy of the Romans, declaring how little they merited to be restored to that liberty, which they had lost by their misconduct, and briefly refers to the greatness of his own future kingdom. Satan, now desperate, to enhance the value of his proffered gifts, professes that the only terms, on which he will bestow them, are our Saviour's falling down and worshipping him. Our Lord expresses a firm but temperate indignation at such a proposition, and rebukes the tempter by the title of "Satan for ever damned." Satan, abashed, attempts to justify himself: he then assuines a new ground of temptation, and proposing to Jesus the intellectual gratifications of wisdom and knowledge, points out to him the celebrated seat of ancient learning, Athens, its schools, and other various resorts of learned teachers and their disciples; accompanying the view with a highly-finished panegyric on the Grecian musicians, poets, orators and philosophers of the different sects. Jesus replies, by showing the vanity and insufficiency of the boasted heathen philosophy; and refers to the music, poetry, eloquence and didactic policy of the Greeks, those of the inspired Hebrew writers. Satan, irritated at the failure of all his attempts, upbraids the indiscretion of our Saviour in rejecting his offers; and, having, in ridicule of his expected kingdom, foretold the sufferings that our Lord was to undergo, carries him back into the wilderness, and leaves him there. Night comes on: Satan raises a tremendous storm, and attempts further to alarm Jesus with frightful dreams, and terrific threatening spectres; which however have no effect upon him. A calm, bright, beautiful morning sueceeds to the horrours of the night. Satan again presents himself to our blessed Lord, and, fron noticing the storm of the preceding night as pointed chiefly at him, takes occasion once more to insult him with an account of the sufferings which he was certainly to undergo. This only draws from our Lord a brief rebuke. Satan, now at the height of his desperation, confesses that he had frequently watched Jesus from his birth, purposely to discover if he was the true Messiah; and, coliecting from what passed at the river Jordan that he most probably was so, he had from that time more assiduously followed him, in hopes of gaining some advantage over him, which would most effectually prove that he was not really that Divine Person destined to be his "fatal enemy." In this he acknowledges that he has hitherto completely failed; but still determines to make one more trial of him. Accordingly he conveys him to the Temple at Jerusalem, and, placing him on a pointed eminence, requires him to prove his divinity either by standing there, or casting himself down with safety. Our Lord reproves the tempter, and at the same time manifests his own divinity by standing on this dangerous point. Satan, amazed and terrified, instantly falls; and repairs to his infernal compeers to relate the bad suc. cess of his enterprise. Angels in the mean time convey our blessed Lord to a beautiful valley, and, while they minister to him a repast of celestial food, celebrate his victory in a triumphant hymn. PERPLEX'D and troubled at his bad success The tempter stood, nor had what to reply, Discover'd in his fraud, thrown from his hope So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric | That sleek'd his tongue, and won so much on Eve, So little here, nay lost; but Eve was Eve: This far his over-match, who, self-deceiv'd And rash, before-hand had no better weigh'd The strength he was to cope with, or his own : But as a man, who had been matchless held In cunning, over-reach'd where least he thought, |