Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain

Implacable, and many a dolorous groan;

Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind

Out of such prison, though Spirits of purest light,

Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown.

The rest, in imitation, to like arms

Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore:

So hills amid the air encountered hills,

Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire;

That under ground they fought in dismal shade;

Infernal noise! war seemed a civil game

To this uproar; horrid confusion heaped

Upon confusion rose: And now all Heaven

Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread;

Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits

Shrined in his sanctuary of Heaven secure,

Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen

This tumult, and permitted all, advised:

That his great purpose he might so fulfil,

To honour his anointed Son avenged

Upon his enemies, and to declare

All power on him transferred: Whence to his Son,

The Assessour of his throne, he thus began.

‘Effulgence of my glory, Son beloved,

Son, in whose face invisible is beheld

Visibly, what by Deity I am;

And in whose hand what by decree I do,

Second Omnipotence! two days are past,

Two days, as we compute the days of Heaven,

Since Michael and his Powers went forth to tame

These disobedient: Sore hath been their fight,

As likeliest was, when two such foes met armed;

For to themselves I left them; and thou knowest,

Equal in their creation they were formed,

Save what sin hath impaired; which yet hath wrought

Insensibly, for I suspend their doom;

Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last

Endless, and no solution will be found:

War wearied hath performed what war can do,

And to disordered rage let loose the reins

With mountains, as with weapons, armed; which makes

Wild work in Heaven, and dangerous to the main.

Two days are therefore past, the third is thine;

For thee I have ordained it; and thus far

Have suffered, that the glory may be thine

Of ending this great war, since none but Thou

Can end it. Into thee such virtue and grace

Immense I have transfused, that all may know

In Heaven and Hell thy power above compare;

And, this perverse commotion governed thus,

To manifest thee worthiest to be Heir

Of all things; to be Heir, and to be King

By sacred unction, thy deserved right.

Go then, Thou Mightiest, in thy Father’s might;

Ascend my chariot, guide the rapid wheels

That shake Heaven’s basis, bring forth all my war,

My bow and thunder, my almighty arms

Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh;

Pursue these sons of darkness, drive them out

From all Heaven’s bounds into the utter deep:

There let them learn, as likes them, to despise

God, and Messiah his anointed King.’

He said, and on his Son with rays direct

Shone full; he all his Father full expressed

Ineffably into his face received;