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To whom our
Saviour sternly thus replied:--
"Deservedly thou griev'st, composed of
lies
From the beginning, and in lies
wilt end,
Who boast'st release from
hell, and leave to come
Into the
Heaven of
Heavens. Thou com'st, indeed, 410
As a poor miserable captive
thrall
Comes to the place where he before had sat
Among the prime in
splendour, now
deposed,
Ejected,
emptied,
gazed,
unpitied,
shunned,
A spectacle of
ruin, or of
scorn,
To all the host of
Heaven. The
happy place
Imparts to thee no
happiness, no
joy--
Rather inflames thy
torment,
representing
Lost bliss, to thee no more
communicable;
So never more in
hell than when in
Heaven. 420
But thou art serviceable to
Heaven's
king!
Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear
Extorts, or
pleasure to do
ill excites?
What but thy
malice moved thee to
misdeem
Of
righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
With all inflictions? but his
patience won.
The other service was thy chosen task,
To be a
liar in
four hundred mouths;
For lying is thy
sustenance, thy
food.
Yet thou pretend'st to truth! all
oracles 430
By thee are given, and what
confessed more true
Among the nations? That hath been thy
craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more
lies.
But what have been thy
answers? what but dark,
Ambiguous, and with
double sense deluding,
Which they who asked have
seldom understood,
And,
not well understood, as good
not known?
Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,
Returned the wiser, or the more
instruct
To fly or follow what concerned him most, 440
And run not sooner to his
fatal snare?
For
God hath justly given the nations up
To thy
delusions; justly, since they fell
Idolatrous. But, when his purpose is
Among them to
declare his
providence,
To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy
truth,
But from him, or his
Angels president
In every province, who, themselves
disdaining
To approach thy
temples, give thee in command
What, to the smallest
tittle, thou shalt say 450
To thy adorers? Thou, with
trembling fear,
Or like a
fawning parasite, obey'st;
Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon
retrenched;
No more shalt thou by
oracling abuse
The
Gentiles; henceforth oracles are
ceased,
And thou no more with
pomp and
sacrifice
Shalt be enquired at
Delphos or elsewhere--
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent his living
Oracle 460
Into the world to teach his
final will,
And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle
To all truth requisite for men to know."
So spake our
Saviour; but the subtle
Fiend,
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
Dissembled, and this
answer smooth returned:--
"Sharply thou hast insisted on
rebuke,
And urged me hard with doings which not will,
But misery, hath wrested from me. Where 470
Easily canst thou find one
miserable,
And not inforced oft-times to part from truth,
If it may stand him more in stead to
lie,
Say and
unsay,
feign,
flatter, or
abjure?
But thou art placed above me;
thou art Lord;
From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure
Cheek or
reproof, and glad to scape so quit.
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,
Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to the ear,
And
tunable as
sylvan pipe or
song; 480
What wonder, then, if I delight to hear
Her
dictates from thy mouth? most men admire
Virtue who
follow not her
lore. Permit me
To hear thee when I come (since no man comes),
And talk at least, though I despair to attain.
Thy
Father, who is
holy,
wise, and
pure,
Suffers the
hypocrite or
atheous priest
To tread his
sacred courts, and
minister
About his
altar, handling
holy things,
Praying or
vowing, and
voutsafed his
voice 490
To
Balaam reprobate, a
prophet yet
Inspired: disdain not such access to me."
To whom our
Saviour, with unaltered brow:--
"Thy coming hither, though I know thy
scope,
I bid not, or
forbid. Do as thou find'st
Permission from above; thou canst not more."
He added not; and
Satan, bowling low
His
gray dissimulation,
disappeared,
Into thin
air diffused: for now began
Night with her
sullen wing to
double-shade 500
The
desert;
fowls in their clay nests were
couched;
And now
wild beasts came forth the woods to
roam.
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