himself engrossed All power, and us eclipsed under the name Of King anointed; for whom all this haste Of midnight march, and hurried meeting here, This only to consult, how we may best, With what may be devised of honours new, Receive him coming to receive from us Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile! Too much to one! but double how endured— To one and to his image now proclaimed? But what if better counsels might erect Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke! Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust To know ye right, or if ye know yourselves Natives and Sons of Heaven possessed before By none, and if not equal all, yet free, Equally free; for orders and degrees Jar not with liberty, but well consist. Who can in reason, then, or right, assume Monarchy over such as live by right His equals—if in power and splendour less, In freedom equal? or can introduce Law and edict on us, who without law Err not? much less for this to be our Lord, And look for adoration, to the abuse Of those imperial titles which assert Our being ordained to govern, not to serve!’
“Thus far his bold discourse without control Had audience, when among the Seraphim Abdiel, than whom none with more zeal adored The Deity, and divine commands obeyed, Stood up, and in a flame of zeal severe The current of his fury thus opposed:
“ ‘O argument blasphemous, false, and proud! Words which no ear ever to hear in Heaven Expected, least of all from thee, ingrate, In place thyself so high above thy peers! Canst thou with impious obloquy condemn The just decree of God, pronounced and sworn, That to his only Son, by right endued With regal sceptre, every soul in Heaven Shall bend the knee, and in that honour due Confess him rightful King? Unjust, thou say’st, Flatly unjust, to bind with laws the free, And equal over equals to let reign, One over all with unsucceeded power! Shalt thou give law to God? shalt thou dispute With Him the points of liberty, who made Thee what thou art, and formed the powers of Heaven Such as he pleased, and circumscribed their being? Yet, by experience taught, we