Paradise Regained | Page 7

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.
THE SECOND BOOK
MEANWHILE the new-baptized, who yet remained?At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen?Him whom they heard so late expressly called?Jesus Messiah, Son of God, declared,?And on that high authority had believed,?And with him talked, and with him lodged--I mean?Andrew and Simon, famous after known,?With others, though in Holy Writ not named--?Now missing him, their joy so lately found,?So lately found and so abruptly gone, 10 Began to doubt, and doubted many days,?And, as the days increased, increased their doubt.?Sometimes they thought he might be only shewn,?And for a time caught up to God, as once?Moses was in the Mount and missing long,?And the great Thisbite, who on fiery wheels?Rode up to Heaven, yet once again to come.?Therefore, as those young prophets then with care?Sought lost Eliah, so in each place these?Nigh to Bethabara--in Jericho 20 The city of palms, AEnon, and Salem old,?Machaerus, and each town or city walled?On this side the broad lake Genezaret,?Or in Peraea--but returned in vain.?Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,?Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play,?Plain fishermen (no greater men them call),?Close in a cottage low together got,?Their unexpected loss and plaints outbreathed:--?"Alas, from what high hope to what relapse 30 Unlooked for are we fallen! Our eyes beheld?Messiah certainly now come, so long?Expected of our fathers; we have heard?His words, his wisdom full of grace and truth.?'Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand;?The kingdom shall to Israel be restored:'?Thus we rejoiced, but soon our joy is turned?Into perplexity and new amaze.?For whither is he gone? what accident?Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire 40 After appearance, and again prolong?Our expectation? God of Israel,?Send thy Messiah forth; the time is come.?Behold the kings of the earth, how they oppress?Thy Chosen, to what highth their power unjust?They have exalted, and behind them cast?All fear of Thee; arise, and vindicate?Thy glory; free thy people from their yoke!?But let us wait; thus far He hath performed--?Sent his Anointed, and to us revealed him 50 By his great Prophet pointed at and shown?In public, and with him we have conversed.?Let us be glad of this, and all our fears?Lay on his providence; He will not fail,?Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall--?Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence:?Soon we shall see our hope, our joy, return."?Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume?To find whom at the first they found unsought.?But to his mother Mary, when she saw 60 Others returned from baptism, not her Son,?Nor left at Jordan tidings of him none,?Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure,?Motherly cares and fears got head, and raised?Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad:--?"Oh, what avails me now that honour high,?To have conceived of God, or that salute,?'Hail, highly favoured, among women blest!'?While I to sorrows am no less advanced,?And fears as eminent above the lot 70 Of other women, by the birth I bore:?In such a season born, when scarce a shed?Could be obtained to shelter him or me?From the bleak air? A stable was our warmth,?A manger his; yet soon enforced to fly?Thence into Egypt, till the murderous king?Were dead, who sought his life, and, missing, filled?With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.?From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth?Hath been our dwelling many years; his life 80 Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,?Little suspicious to any king. But now,?Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear,?By John the Baptist, and in public shewn,?Son owned from Heaven by his Father's voice,?I looked for some great change. To honour? no;?But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretold,?That to the fall and rising he should be?Of many in Israel, and to a sign?Spoken against--that through my very soul 90 A sword shall pierce. This is my favoured lot,?My exaltation to afflictions high!?Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest!?I will not argue that, nor will repine.?But where delays he now? Some great intent?Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen,?I lost him, but so found as well I saw?He could not lose himself, but went about?His Father's business. What he meant I mused--?Since understand; much more his absence now 100 Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.?But I to wait with patience am inured;?My heart hath been a storehouse long of things?And sayings laid up, pretending strange events."?Thus Mary, pondering oft, and oft to mind?Recalling what remarkably had passed?Since first her Salutation heard, with thoughts?Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling:?The while