They open to themselves at length the way 159 And Earth be chang'd to Heav'n, and Heav'n to Earth, Infinitude, nor vacuous the space. the Angels frequently visiting Earth, and Men being tranflated to Heaven 162, Mean while inhabit lax,] Dwell more at large, there being more room now than there was be fore the rebel Angels were expell'd, or than there will be after Men are tranflated to Heaven. If this be the meaning, we cannot much commend the beauty of the fentiment, as it intimates that the Angels might be straiten'd for room in Heaven. 165. My overshadowing Spirit] As God's Spirit is faid to do, Luke I 35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest 170 To act or not, neceffity and chance Approach not me, and what I will is fate. effect. So fpake th' Almighty, and to what he spake Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven, When fuch was heard declar'd th' Almighty's will 175 180 ; Glory 182. Glory they fung to the moft High, &c] The Angels are very properly made to fing the fame divine fong to ufher in the creation, that they did to usher in the second creation by Jefus Chrift, Luke II. 14. And we cannot but approve Dr. Bentley's emendation, Glory they fung to God moft High, inftead of to the most High, as it improves the measure of the verfe, is more oppos'd to men immediately following, and agrees better with the words of St. Luke, Glory to God in the bigbeft, and on earth peace, good will towards Glory to him, whofe juft avenging ire Of Spirits malign a better race to bring Into their vacant room, and thence diffufe His good to worlds and ages infinite. 185 So fang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd 190 195 and I know not whether the English verfe has not in this refpect the advantage of the Greek and Latin. Mean while the Son &c] The Meffiah, by whom, as we are told in Scripture, the worlds were made, comes forth in the power of his Father, furrounded with an hoft Immense, and all his Father in him fhone. of Angels, and clothed with fuch a majesty as becomes his entring upon a work, which according to our conceptions appears the utmost exertion of omnipotence. What a beautiful defcription has our author raised upon that hint in one of the Prophets! And behold there came four chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of brass. (Zech. VI. 1.) I have before taken notice of thefe chariots of God, and of the gates of Hea ven; and shall here only add, that Homer gives us the fame idea of the latter, as opening of themselves; though he afterwards takes off from it by telling us, that the Hours firft of all removed those prodigious heaps of clouds which lay as a barrier before them. Addifon. Attendent on their Lord: Heav'n open'd wide 205 Her ever during gates, harmonious found On golden hinges moving, to let forth The King of Glory in his pow'rful Word On heav'nly ground they ftood, and from the fhore Outrageous as a fea, dark, wafteful, wild, Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds ,, ཾ 211 And Horace expreffes it in the fame man- Hic fuperum fator informem specuner, Ep. II. II. 86. 210. On beavenly ground they food, &c.] I do not know any thing in the whole poem more fublime than the defcription which follows, where the Meffiah is reprefented at the head of his Angels, as looking down into the Chaos, calm ing its confufion, riding into the midst of it, and drawing the firft out-line of the creation, Addifon. 211. They view'd &c.] Milton's defcription of God the Son and his attendent Angels viewing the vaft unmeasurable abyfs & has a great refemblance to the following paffage in Vida. Chrift. Lib. 1. latus acervum, Eternam noctemque, indigeftumque profundum, Prima videbatur moliri exordia re |