default Whom have I to complain of but my self Who this high gift of strength committed to me In what part lodg'd how easily berest me Under the Seal of silence could not keep But weakly to a woman must reveal it O'recome with importunity and tears O impotence of mind in body strong But what is strength without a double share Of wisdom vast unwieldy burdensom Proudly secure yet liable to fall By weakest suttleties not made to rule But to subserve where wisdom bears command God when he gave me strength to shew withal How slight the gift was hung it in my Hair But peace I must not quarrel with the will Of highest dispensation which herein Happ'ly had ends above my reach to know Suffices that to me strength is my bane And proves the sourse of all my miseries So many and so huge that each apart Would ask a life to wail but chief of all O loss of sight of thee I most complain Blind among enemies O worse then chains Dungeon or beggery or decrepit age Light the prime work of God to me is extinct And all her various objects of delight Annull'd which might in part my grief have eas'd Inferiour to the vilest now become Of man or worm the vilest here excel me They creep yet see I dark in light expos'd To daily fraud contempt abuse and wrong Within doors or without still as a fool In power of others never in my own Scarce half I seem to live dead more then half O dark dark dark amid the blaze of noon Irrecoverably dark total Eclipse Without all hope of day O first created Beam and thou great Word Let there be light and light was over all Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree The Sun to me is dark And silent as the Moon When she deserts the night Hid in her vacant interlunar cave Since light so necessary is to life And almost life it self if it be true That light is in the Soul She all in every part why was the sight To such a tender ball as th' eye confin'd So obvious and so easie to be quench't And not as feeling through all parts diffus'd That she might look at will through every pore Then had I not been thus exil'd from light As in the land of darkness yet in light To live a life half dead a living death And buried but O yet more miserable My self my Sepulcher a moving Grave Buried yet not exempt By priviledge of death and burial From worst of other evils pains and wrongs But made hereby obnoxious more To all the miseries of life Life in captivity Among inhuman foes But who are these for with joint pace I hear The tread of many feet stearing this way Perhaps my enemies who come to stare At my affliction and perhaps to insult Thir daily practice to afflict me more Chor. This this is he softly a while Let us not break in upon him O change beyond report thought or belief See how he lies at random carelesly diffus'd With languish't head unpropt As one past hope abandon'd And by himself given over In slavish habit ill-fitted weeds O're worn and soild Or do my eyes misrepresent Can this be hee That Heroic that Renown'd Irresistable Samson whom unarm'd withstand No strength of man or fiercest wild beast could Who tore the Lion as the Lion tears the Kid Ran on embattelld Armies clad in Iron And weaponless himself Made Arms ridiculous useless the forgery Of brazen shield and spear the hammer'd Cuirass Chalybean temper'd steel and frock of mail Adamantean Proof But safest he who stood aloof When insupportably his foot advanc't In scorn of thir proud arms and warlike tools Spurn'd them to death by Troops The bold Ascalonite Fled from his Lion ramp old Warriors turn'd Thir plated backs under his heel Or grovling soild thir crested helmets in the dust Then with what trivial weapon came to hand The Jaw of a dead Ass his sword of bone A thousand fore-skins fell the flower of Palestin In Ramath-lechi famous to this day Then by main force pull'd up and on his shoulders bore The Gates of Azza Post and massie Bar Up to the Hill by Hebron seat of Giants old No journey of a Sabbath day and loaded so Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heav'n Which shall I first bewail Thy Bondage or lost Sight Prison within Prison Inseparably dark Thou art become O worst imprisonment The Dungeon of thy self thy Soul Which Men enjoying sight oft without cause com plain'd Imprison'd now indeed In real darkness of the body dwells Shut up from outward light To incorporate with gloomy night For inward light alas Puts sorth no visual beam O mirror of our fickle state Since man on earth unparallel'd The rarer thy example stands By how much from the top of wondrous glory Strongest of mortal men To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n For him I reckon not in high estate Whom long descent of birth Or the sphear of fortune raises But thee whose strength while vertue was her mate Might have subdu'd the Earth Universally crown'd with highest praises Sam. I hear the sound of words thir sense the air Dissolves unjointed e're it reach my ear Chor. Hee speaks let us draw nigh Matchless in might The glory late of Israel now the grief We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful Vale To visit or bewail thee or if better Counsel or Consolation we may bring Salve to thy Sores apt words have power to swage The tumors of a troubl'd mind And are as Balm to fester'd wounds Sam. Your coming Friends revives me for I learn Now of my own experience not by talk How counterfeit a coin they are who friends Bear in their Superscription of the most I would be understood in prosperous days They swarm but in adverse withdraw their head Not to be found though sought Yee see O friends How many evils have enclos'd me round Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me Blindness for had I sight confus'd with shame How could I once look up or heave the head Who like a foolish Pilot have shipwrack't My Vessel trusted to me from above Gloriously rigg'd and for a word a tear Fool have divulg'd the secret gift of God To a deceitful Woman tell me Friends Am I not sung and proverbd for a Fool In every street do they not say how well Are come upon him his deserts yet why Immeasurable strength they might behold In me of wisdom nothing more then mean This with the other should at least have paird These two proportiond ill drove me transverse Chor. Tax not divine disposal wisest Men Have err'd and by bad Women been deceiv'd And shall again pretend they ne're so wise Deject not then so overmuch thy self Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides Yet truth to say I oft have heard men wonder Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather Then of thine own Tribe fairer
yet not for that a Crown Golden in shew is but a wreath of thorns Brings dangers troubles cares and sleepless nights To him who wears the Regal Diadem When on his shoulders each mans burden lies For therein stands the office of a King His Honour Vertue Merit and chief Praise That for the Publick all this weight he bears Yet he who reigns within himself and rules Passions Desires and Fears is more a King Which every wise and vertuous man attains And who attains not ill aspires to rule Cities of men or head-strong Multitudes Subject himself to Anarchy within Or lawless passions in him which he serves But to guide Nations in the way of truth By saving Doctrine and from errour lead To know and knowing worship God aright Is yet more Kingly this attracts the Soul Governs the inner man the nobler part That other o're the body only reigns And oft by force which to a generous mind So reigning can be no sincere delight Besides to give a Kingdom hath been thought Greater and nobler done and to lay down Far more magnanimous then to assume Riches are needless then both for themselves And for thy reason why they should be sought To gain a Scepter oftest better miss't The End of the Second Book PARADISE REGAIN'D The Third BOOK SO spake the Son of God and Satan stood A while as mute confounded what to say What to reply confuted and convinc't Of his weak arguing and fallacious drift At length collecting all his Serpent wiles With soothing words renew'd him thus accosts I see thou know'st what is of use to know What best to say canst say to do canst do Thy actions to thy words accord thy words To thy large heart give utterance due thy heart Conteins of good wise just the perfect shape Should Kings and Nations from thy mouth consult Thy Counsel would be as the Oracle Urim and Thummim those oraculous gems On Aaron's breast or tongue of Seers old Infallible or wert thou sought to deeds That might requireth ' array of war thy skill Of conduct would be such that all the world Could not sustain thy Prowess or subsist In battel though against thy few in arms These God-like Vertues wherefore dost thou hide Affecting private life or more obscure In savage Wilderness wherefore deprive All Earth her wonder at thy acts thy self The fame and glory glory the reward That sole excites to high attempts the flame Of most erected Spirits most temper'd pure Aetherial who all pleasures else despise All treasures and all gain esteem as dross And dignities and powers all but the highest Thy years are ripe and over-ripe the Son Of Macedonian Philip had e're these Won Asia and the Throne of Cyrus held At his dispose young Scipio had brought down The Carthaginian pride young Pompey quell'd The Pontic King and in triumph had rode Yet years and to ripe years judgment mature Quench not the thirst of glory but augment Great Julius whom now all the world admires The more he grew in years the more inflam'd With glory wept that he had liv'd so long Inglorious but thou yet art not too late To whom our Saviour calmly thus reply'd Thou neither dost perswade me to seek wealth For Empires sake nor Empire to affect For glories sake by all thy argument For what is glory but the blaze of fame The peoples praise if always praise unmixt And what the people but a herd confus'd A miscellaneous rabble who extol praise Things vulgar well weigh'd scarce worth the They praise and they admire they know not what And know not whom but as one leads the other And what delight to be by such extoll'd To live upon thir tongues and be thir talk Of whom to be disprais'd were no small praise His lot who dares be singularly good Th' 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 Earth As thou to thy reproach mayst well remember He ask'd thee hast thou seen my servant Job Famous he was in Heaven on Earth less known Where glory is false glory attributed To things not glorious men not worthy of fame They err who count it glorious to subdue By Conquest far and wide to over-run Large Countries and in field great Battels win Great Cities by assault what do these Worthies But rob and spoil burn flaughter and enslave Peaceable Nations neighbouring or remote Made Captive yet deserving freedom more Then those thir Conquerours who leave behind Nothing but ruin wheresoe're they rove And all the flourishing works of peace destroy Then swell with pride and must be titl'd Gods Great Benefactors of mankind Deliverers Worship't with Temple Priest and Sacrifice One is the Son of Jove of Mars the other Till Conquerour Death discover them scarce men Rowling in brutish vices and deform'd Violent or shameful death thir due reward But if there be in glory aught of good It may by means far different be attain'd Without ambition war or violence By deeds of peace by wisdom eminent By patience temperance I mention still Him whom thy wrongs with Saintly patience born Made famous in a Land and times obscure Who names not now with honour patient Job Poor Socrates who next more memorable By what he taught and suffer'd for so doing For truths sake suffering death unjust lives now Equal in fame to proudest Conquerours Yet if for fame and glory aught be done Aught suffer'd if young African for fame His wasted Country freed from Punâ—â— rage The deed becomes unprais'd the ma◠〈◊〉 least And loses though but verbal his 〈◊〉 Shall I seek glory then as vain me◠〈◊〉 Oft not deserv'd I seek not mine 〈◊〉 Who sent me and thereby witness whence I am To whom the Tempter murmuring thus reply'd 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 glorifi'd requires Glory from men from all men good or bad Wise or unwise no difference no exemption Above all Sacrifice 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't glory he exacts To whom our Saviour fervently reply'd And reason since his word all things produc'd Though chiefly not for glory as prime end But to shew forth his goodness and impart His good communicable to every soul Freely of whom what could he less expect Then glory and benediction that is thanks The slightest easiest readiest recompence From them who could return him nothing else And not returning that would likeliest render Contempt instead dishonour obloquy Hard recompence unsutable
Mess. O whither shall I run or which way flie The sight of this so horrid spectacle Which earst my eyes beheld and yet behold For dire imagination still persues me But providence or instinct of nature seems Or reason though disturb'd and scarse consulted To have guided me aright I know not how To thee first reverend Manoa and to these My Countreymen whom here I knew remaining As at some distance from the place of horrour So in the sad event too much concern'd Man The accident was loud heard before thee With rueful cry yet what it was we hear not No Preface needs thou seest we long to know Mess. It would burst forth but I recover breath And sense distract to know well what I utter Man Tell us the sum the circumstance defer Mess. Gaza yet stands but all her Sons are fall'n All in a moment overwhelm'd and fall'n Man Sad but thou knowst to Israelites not saddest The desolation of a Hostile City Mess. Feed on that first there may in grief be surfet Man Relate by whom Mess. By Samson Man That still lessens The sorrow and converts it nigh to joy Mess. Ah Manoa I refrain too suddenly To utter what will come at lasttoosoon Lest evil tidings with too rude irruption Hitting thy aged ear should pierce too deep Man Suspense in news is torture speak them out Mess. Then take the worst in brief Samson is dead Man The worst indeed O all my hope 's defeated To free him hence but death who sets all free Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge What windy joy this day had I conceiv'd Hopeful of his Delivery which now proves Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring Nipt with the lagging rear of winters frost Yet e're I give the rains to grief say first How dy'd he death to life is crown or shame All by him fell thou say'st by whom fell he What glorious hand gave Samson his deaths wound Mess. Unwounded of his enemies he fell Man Wearied with slaughter then or how explain Mess. By his own hands Man Self-violence what cause Brought him so soon at variance with himself Among his foes Mess. Inevitable cause At once both to destroy and be destroy'd The Edifice where all were met to see him Upon thir heads and on his own he pull'd Man O lastly over-strong against thy self A dreadful way thou took'st to thy revenge More then anough we know but while things yet Are in confusion give us if thou canst Eye-witness of what first or last was done Relation more particular and distinct Mess. Occasions drew me early to this City And as the gates I enter'd with Sun-rise The morning Trumpets Festival proclaim'd Through each high street little I had dispatch't When all abroad was rumour'd that this day Samson should be brought forth to shew the people Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games I sorrow'd at his captive state but minded Not to be absent at that spectacle The building was a spacious Theatre Half round on two main Pillars vaulted high With seats where all the Lords and each degree Of sort might sit in order to behold The other side was op'n where the throng On banks and scaffolds under Skie might stand I among these aloof obscurely stood The Feast and noon grew high and Sacrifice Had fill'd thir hearts with mirth high chear wine When to thir sports they turn'd Immediately Was Samson as a public servant brought In thir state Livery clad before him Pipes And Timbre's on each side went armed guards Both horse and foot before him and behind Archers and Slingers Cataphracts and Spears At sight of him the people with a shout Rifted the Air clamouring thir god with praise Who had made thir dreadful enemy thir thrall He patient but undaunted where they led him Came to the place and what was set before him Which without help of eye might be assay'd To heave pull draw or break he still perform'd All with incredible stupendious force None daring to appear Antagonist At length for intermission sake they led him Between the pillars he his guide requested For so from such as nearer stood we heard As over-tir'd to let him lean a while With both his arms on those two massie Pillars That to the arched roof gave main support He unsuspitious led him which when Samson Felt in his arms with head a while enclin'd And eyes fast fixt he stood as one who pray'd Or some great matter in his mind revolv'd At last with head erect thus cryed aloud Hitherto Lords what your commands impos'd I have perform'd as reason was obeying Not without wonder or delight beheld Now of my own accord such other tryal I mean to shew you of my strength yet greater As with amaze shall strike all who behold This utter'd straining all his nerves he bow'd As with the force of winds and waters pent When Mountains tremble those two massie Pillars With horrible convulsion to and fro He tugg'd he shook till down they came and drew The whole roof after them with burst of thunder Upon the heads of all who sate beneath Lords Ladies Captains Councellors or Priests Thir choice nobility and flower not only Of this but each Philistian City round Met from all parts to solemnize this Feast Samson with these immixt inevitably Pulld down the same destruction on himself The vulgar only scap'd who stood without Chor. O dearly-bought revenge yet glorious Living or dying thou hast fulfill'd The work for which thou wast foretold To Israel and now ly'st victorious Among thy slain self-kill'd Not willingly but tangl'd in the fold Of dire necessity whose law in death conjoin'd Thee with thy slaughter'd foes in number more Then all thy life had slain before Semichor While thir hearts were jocund and sublime Drunk with Idolatry drunk with Wine And fat regorg'd of Bulls and Goats Chaunting thir Idol and preferring Before our living Dread who dwells In Silo his bright Sanctuary Among them he a spirit of phrenzie sent Who hurt thir minds And urg'd them on with mad desire To call in hast for thir destroyer They only set on sport and play Unweetingly importun'd Thir own destruction to come speedy upon them So fond are mortal men Fall'n into wrath divine As thir own ruin on themselves to invite Insensate left or to sense reprobate And with blindness internal struck Semichor But he though blind of sight Despis'd and thought extinguish't quite With inward eyes illuminated His fierie vertue rouz'd From under ashes into sudden flame And as an ev'ning Dragon came Assailant on the perched roosts And nests in order rang'd Of tame villatic Fowl but as an Eagle His cloudless thunder bolted on thir heads So vertue giv'n for lost Deprest and overthrown as seem'd Like that self-begott'n bird In the Arabian woods embost That no second knows nor third And lay e're while a Holocaust From out her ashie womb now teem'd Revives reflourishes then vigorous most When most unactive deem'd