For in the inn was left no better room: A star, not seen before, in heav'n appearing To honour thee with incense, myrrh, and gold, By whose bright course led on they found the place, By which they knew the King of Israel born. Known partly, and soon found of whom they spake 255. Just Simeon and prophetic Anna,] It may not be improper to remark how strictly our author adheres to the Scripture history, not only in the particulars which he relates, but also in the very epithets which he affixes to the persons; as here Just Simeon, because it is said Luke ii. 25. and the same man was just and prophetic Anna, because it is said Luke ii. 36. and there was one Anna a prophetess. The like accuracy may be observed in all the rest. : 262. —and soon found of whom they spake I am ;] The Jews thought that the Messiah, when he came, would be without all power and distinction, 250 255 260 and unknown even to himself, till Elias had anointed and declared him. Χριστος δε ει και γεγενηται, και εστι που, αγνωστος εστί, και ουδέ αυτός πω έαυτον επίσταται, ουδε εχει δυναμιν τινα, μέχρις αν ελθων Ηλιας χριση autov, και φανερον πασι ποιηση. Just. Mart. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 226. Ed. Col. Calton. 264. Through many a hard assay ev'n to the death,] Thus in the Comus, 972. And sent them here, through hard assays. And Spenser, Faery Queen, b. vi. c. vi. st. 3. And pass'd through many perilous assays. Unto the death is a Scriptural expression. See Acts xxii. 4. Judges v. 18. &c. Dunster. Ere I the promis'd kingdom can attain, I as all others to his baptism came, Which I believ'd was from above; but he 265 270 Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaim'd 275 Refus'd on me his baptism to confer, As much his greater, and was hardly won: Full weight must be transferr'd upon my head.] Isaiah liii. 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 271. Not knew by sight] Though Jesus and John the Baptist were related, yet they were brought up in different countries, and had no manner of intimacy or acquaintance with each other. John the Baptist says expressly, John i. 31, 33. And I knew him not; and he did not so much as know him by sight, till our Saviour came to his baptism; and afterwards it doth not appear that they ever conversed together. And it was wisely ordered so by Providence, that the testimony of John might have the greater weight, and be freer from all suspicion of any compact or collusion between them. But as I rose out of the laving stream, He was well pleas'd; by which I knew the time I learn not yet, perhaps I need not know; 280. out of the laving stream,] Alluding, I fancy, to the phrase laver of regeneration so frequently applied to baptism. It may be observed in general of this soliloquy of our Saviour, that it is not only excellently well adapted to the present condition of the divine speaker, but also very artfully introduced by the poet to give us a history of his hero from his birth to the very scene with which the poem is opened. Thyer. 281. -eternal doors] So in Psalm xxiv. 7, 9. everlasting doors. 286. the time Now full,] 280 285 290 an opinion, which hath authorities enough to give it credit, viz. that Christ was not, by virtue of the personal union of the two natures, and from the first moment of that union, possessed of all the knowledge of the Aoгož, as far as the capacity of a human mind would admit. [See Le Blanc's Elucidatio Status Controversiarum &c. cap. 3.] In his early years he increased in wisdom, and in stature. St. Luke ii. 52. And Beza observes upon this place, that, ipsa OTTOS plenitudo sese, prout et quatenus ipsi libuit, humanitati assumtæ insinuavit: quicquid garriant matæologi, et novi Ubiquitarii Alluding to the Scripture phrase, Eutychiani. Gerhard, a Luthe the fulness of time. When the fulness of time was come &c. Gal. iv. 4. 293. For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.] The whole soliloquy is formed upon VOL. III. ran professor of divinity, has the same meaning, or none at all, in what I am going to transcribe. Anima Christi, juxta naturalem, et habitualem scientiam vere profecit, eye omniscio gyv D So spake our Morning Star then in his rise, And looking round on every side beheld suam, quæ est actu omnia scire et cognoscere, per assumtam humanitatem non semper exerente. [Joh. Gerhardi Loci Theol. tom. i. loc. iv. cap. 12.] Grotius employs the same principle, to explain St. Mark xiii. 82. Videtur mihi, ni meliora docear, hic locus non impie posse exponi hunc in modum, ut dicamus divinam Sapientiam, menti humanæ Christi effectus suos impressisse pro temporum ratione. Nam quid aliud est, si verba non torquemus, προέκοπτε σοφία, Luc. ii. 52? And our Tillotson approved the opinion. "It is not "unreasonable to suppose, that "the Divine Wisdom, which "dwelt in our Saviour, did com"municate itself to his human "soul according to his pleasure, " and so his human Nature might "at some times not know some "things. And if this be not ad"mitted, how can we understand "that passage concerning our "Saviour, Luke ii. 52. that "Jesus grew in wisdom and "stature ?" [Sermons, vol. ix. p. 273.] Grotius could find scarce any thing in antiquity to support his explication: but there is something in Theodoret very much to his purpose, which I owe to Whitby's Stricture Patrum, p. 190.—ins [dovλev pogons, ut videtur,] τοιαυτα κατ' εκείνο του καιρού γινωσκουσης, ὅσα ἡ ενοικουσα θεοτης arxaλv.-Non est Dei Verbi ignorantia, sed Formæ servi, quæ tanti per illud tempus sciebat, quanta Deitas inhabitans revelabat. Repreh. Anath. quarti Cyrilli, tom. iv. p. 713. If some 295 things might be supposed unknown to Christ, without prejudice to the union, being not revealed to him by the united Word, it will follow that, till some certain time, even the union itself might be unknown to him. This time seems to have been, in Milton's scheme, after the soliloquy, but before the forty days of fasting were ended, and the Demon entered upon the scene of action: and then was a fit occasion to give him a feeling of his own strength, when he was just upon the point of being attacked by such an adversary. Calton. In the Paradise Lost, where the divine persons are speakers, Milton has so chastened his pen, that we meet with few poetical images, and chiefly scriptural sentiments, delivered, as nearly as may be, in scriptural, and almost always in unornamented, language. But the Poet seems to consider this circumstance of the Temptation (if I may venture so to express myself) as the last, perfect, completion of the initiation of the man Jesus in the mystery of his own divine nature and office; at least he feels himself entitled to make our Saviour while on earth, and "inshrined in fleshly tabernacle," speak in a certain degree ανθρωπίνως, or, after the manner of men. Accordingly all the speeches of our blessed Lord, in this poem, are far more elevated than any language that is put into the mouth of the divine speakers in any part of the Paradise Lost. Dunster. A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades; 294. So spake our Morning Star] So our Saviour is called in the Revelation, xxii. 16. the bright and morning star: and it is properly applied to him here at his first rising. 294. And thus Spenser, in his Hymn of heavenly love. 300 For solitude some times is best society. Such solitude before choicest so! ciety. Or we must allow that an Alexandrine verse (as it is called) may be admitted into blank verse as well as into rhyme. 302. Mr. Dunster cannot ac O blessed well of love! O flower of cede to Bishop Newton's manner grace! O glorious Morning Star! &c. Dunster. He of scanning these lines. would read choicèst accented on the last syllable, (like vanquish in v. 175.) and says, "the only irregularity of the lines is their having two hypercatalectic syllables, which Shakespeare and the Dramatic Poets frequently use. Thus in Macbeth, Come take my milk for gall, ye murd'ring ministers !" Mr. Warburton remarks, (in a note on Comus, 633.) "that innumerable instances of roughness and redundancy of verse. standing his singular skill in occur in Milton; who, notwithmusic, appears to have had a very bad ear; so that it is hard to say, on what principle he modulated his lines." But Milton (he adds) "says in the Apolog. Smectymn. sect. vi. 'This good hap I had from a careful education, to be inured and seasoned betimes with the best |