The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (143 page)

With all inflictions? But his patience won.

The other service was thy chosen task,

To be a liar in four hundred mouths,

For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.

Yet thou pretend’st to truth! All oracles

By thee are giv’n, and what confessed more true

Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,

By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.

But what have been thy answers? What but dark,

Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,

Which they who asked have seldom understood,

And not well understood, as good not known?
⁶⁶⁴⁹

Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,

Returned the wiser, or the more instruct

To fly
⁶⁶⁵⁰
or follow what concerned him most,

And run not sooner to his fatal snare?

For God hath justly giv’n the nations up

To thy delusions—justly, since they fell

Idolatrous.

“But when His purpose is

Among them to declare His providence,

To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,

But from Him, or his Angels president
⁶⁶⁵¹

In every province, who themselves disdaining

T’ approach thy temples, give thee in command

What, to the smallest tittle,
⁶⁶⁵²
thou shalt say

To thy adorers? Thou, with trembling fear,

Or like a fawning
⁶⁶⁵³
parasite, obey’st,

Then to thyself ascrib’st the truth foretold.

But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched.
⁶⁶⁵⁴

No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
⁶⁶⁵⁵

The gentiles:
⁶⁶⁵⁶
henceforth oracles are ceased,

And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice

Shalt be inquired at Delphos or elsewhere—

At least
⁶⁶⁵⁷
in vain, for they shall find thee mute.

God hath now sent His living oracle

Into the world to teach His final will,

And sends His Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell

In pious hearts, an inward oracle

To all truth requisite for men to know.”

So spoke our Savior. But the subtle fiend,

Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
⁶⁶⁵⁸

Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned:

“Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,

And urged me hard with doings which not will
⁶⁶⁵⁹

But misery hath wrested
⁶⁶⁶⁰
from me. Where

Easily canst thou find one
⁶⁶⁶¹
miserable,

And not enforced oft-times to part from truth,

If it may stand him more in stead
⁶⁶⁶²
to lie,

Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?
⁶⁶⁶³

But thou art placed above me, thou art Lord.

From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure

Check
⁶⁶⁶⁴
or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.
⁶⁶⁶⁵

Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,

Smooth on the tongue discoursed,
⁶⁶⁶⁶
pleasing to th’ ear,

And tunable
⁶⁶⁶⁷
as sylvan
⁶⁶⁶⁸
pipe
⁶⁶⁶⁹
or song.

What wonder, then, if I delight to hear

Her dictates
⁶⁶⁷⁰
from thy mouth? Most men admire
⁶⁶⁷¹

Virtue who follow not her lore. Permit me

To hear thee when I come (since no man comes),

And talk at least, though I despair t’ attain.

Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,

Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest

To tread His sacred courts,
⁶⁶⁷²
and minister
⁶⁶⁷³

About His altar, handling holy things,

Praying or vowing, and vouchsafed His voice

To Balaam,
⁶⁶⁷⁴
reprobate,
⁶⁶⁷⁵
a prophet yet
⁶⁶⁷⁶

Inspired. Disdain
⁶⁶⁷⁷
not such access to me.”

To whom our Savior, with unaltered brow:

“Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,
⁶⁶⁷⁸

I bid not, or forbid. Do as thou find’st

Permission from above. Thou canst not more.”

He added not, and Satan, bowing low

His gray dissimulation,
⁶⁶⁷⁹
disappeared,

Into thin air diffused. For now began

Night with her sullen wing to double-shade

The desert. Fowls in their clay
⁶⁶⁸⁰
nests were couched,
⁶⁶⁸¹

And now wild beasts came forth, the woods to roam.

BOOK II

Meanwhile the new-baptized, who yet remained

At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen

Him whom they heard so late
⁶⁶⁸²
expressly
⁶⁶⁸³
called

Jesus Messiah, Son of God declared,

And on that high authority had believed,

And with him talked, and with him lodged
⁶⁶⁸⁴
—I mean

Andrew
⁶⁶⁸⁵
and Simon,
⁶⁶⁸⁶
famous after
⁶⁶⁸⁷
known,

With others, though in Holy Writ not named—

Now missing him, their joy so lately found,

So lately found and so abruptly gone,

Began to doubt, and doubted many days,

And as the days increased, increased their doubt.

Sometimes they thought he might be only shown
⁶⁶⁸⁸

And for a time caught up
⁶⁶⁸⁹
to God, as once

Moses was in the mount and missing long,

And the great Thisbite,
⁶⁶⁹⁰
who on fiery wheels

Rode up to Heav’n, yet once again to come.

Therefore, as those young prophets then with care

Sought lost Elijah, so in each place these

Nigh to Bethabara
⁶⁶⁹¹
—in Jericho
⁶⁶⁹²

The city of palms, Aenon,
⁶⁶⁹³
and Salem
⁶⁶⁹⁴
old,

Machaerus,
⁶⁶⁹⁵
and each town or city walled

On this side the broad lake Genezaret,
⁶⁶⁹⁶

Or in Peraea
⁶⁶⁹⁷
—but returned in vain.

Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,

Where winds with reeds and osiers
⁶⁶⁹⁸
whispering play,

Plain fishermen (no greater, men them call),

Close in a cottage low together got,

Their unexpected loss and plaints
⁶⁶⁹⁹
outbreathed:

“Alas, from what high hope to what relapse

Unlooked for are we fall’n! 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
⁶⁷⁰⁰
him from us? Will he now retire
⁶⁷⁰¹

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 height their pow’r unjust

They have exalted, and behind them cast

All fear of Thee. Arise, and vindicate
⁶⁷⁰²

Thy glory, free Thy people from their yoke!

“But let us wait. Thus far He hath performed,
⁶⁷⁰³

Sent His anointed,
⁶⁷⁰⁴
and to us revealed him

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.
⁶⁷⁰⁵
He will not fail,

Nor will withdraw him
⁶⁷⁰⁶
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

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,
⁶⁷⁰⁷
and raised

Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad:

“Oh what avails me now, that honor high,

To have conceived of God, or that salute,
⁶⁷⁰⁸

‘Hail, highly favored, among women blest’?

While I to sorrows am no less advanced,
⁶⁷⁰⁹

And fears as eminent
⁶⁷¹⁰
above the lot