will hear, Light after light well used they shall attain, And to the end persisting safe arrive. This my long sufferance and my day of grace They who neglect and scorn shall never taste; But hard be hardened, blind be blinded more, That they may stumble on, and deeper fall; And none but such from mercy I exclude. But yet all is not done. Man, disobeying, Disloyal breaks his fealty, and sins Against the high supremacy of Heaven, Affecting Godhead, and so, losing all, To expiate his treason hath naught left, But, to destruction sacred and devote, He with his whole posterity must die— Die he or justice must; unless for him Some other, able and as willing, pay The rigid satisfaction, death for death. Say, Heavenly powers, where shall we find such love? Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem Man’s mortal crime, and just the unjust to save? Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?”
He asked, but all the Heavenly choir stood mute, And silence was in Heaven: on Man’s behalf Patron or intercessor none appeared— Much less that durst upon his own head draw The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set. And now without redemption all mankind Must have been lost, adjudged to Death and Hell By doom severe, had not the Son of God, In whom the fulness dwells of love divine, His dearest mediation thus renewed:
“Father, thy word is passed, Man shall find grace; And shall grace not find means, that finds her way, The speediest of thy winged messengers, To visit all thy creatures, and to all Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought? Happy for Man, so coming! He her aid Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost; Atonement for himself, or offering meet, Indebted and undone, hath none to bring. Behold me, then: me for him, life for life, I offer; on me let thine anger fall; Account me Man: I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee Freely put off, and for him lastly die Well pleased; on me let Death wreak all his rage: Under his gloomy power I shall not long Lie vanquished: thou hast given me to possess Life in myself for ever; by thee I live; Though now to Death I