So never more in Hell than when in Heaven.
But thou art serviceable to Heav'n's King.
Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?

What but thy malice mov'd thee to misdeem

420

Of righteous Job, then cruelly to' afflict him 425 With all inflictions? but his patience won.

The other service was thy chofen task,

To be a liar in four hundred mouths ;

For lying is thy fuftenance, thy food.
Yet thou pretend'ft to truth; all oracles

430

By thee are giv❜n, and what confess'd more true
Among the nations? that hath been thy craft,
By mixing fomewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers, what but dark,
Ambi-

417. Imparts to thee] In all the editions it is printed Imports to thee, but in the Errata of the first edition we are defired to read Imparts to thee. It is no wonder that the errors of the first edition are continued in the fubfequent ones, when thofe errors do not much disturb the fense: but even where they make downright nonfenfe of the paffage, they are still continued; and we had a moft remarkable inftance a little before in ver. 400. Never acquainted for Nearer acquainted.

426. With all inflictions? but his

patience won. .] So Mr. Fenton points this paffage in his edition, and fo it fhould be pointed. And the verb won I think is not often used as a verb neuter, but I find it fo in Spenfer's Faery Queen. B. 1. Cant. 6. St. 39.

And he the ftouteft knight that

ever won.

434. But what have been thy anfwers, what but dark,] The oracles were often fo obfcure and dubious,

435

Ambiguous and with double sense deluding,
Which they who afk'd have feldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Who ever by consulting at thy fhrine
Return'd the wifer, or the more inftruct
To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not fooner to his fatal fnare?

440

dubious, that there was need of other oracles to explain them. Sed jam ad te venio,

San&te Apollo, qui umbilicum certum terrarum obfides, Unde fuperftitiofa primum fæva evafit vox fera,

tuis enim oraculis Chryfippus totum volumen implevit, partim falfis, ut ego opinor, partim cafu veris, ut fit in omni oratione fæpiffime; partim flexiloquis, & obfcuris, ut interpres egeat interprete,

fors ipfa ad fortes referenda fit; partim ambiguis, & qua ad dialecticum deferenda fint. Cicero De Div.

II. 56. Calton. Milton, in thefe lines about the Heathen oracles, feems to have had in view what Eufebius fays more copiously upon this fubject in the fifth book of his Præparatio Evangelica. That learned father reafons in the very fame way about them, and gives many inftances from hiftory of their delufive and double meanings. It may not perhaps be impertinent to mention

For God hath juftly giv'n the nations up
To thy delufions; juftly fince they fell

Idolatrous but when his purpofe is
Among them to declare his providence

To thee not known, whence haft thou then thy truth, But from him or his Angels prefident

In every province ? who themselves difdaining

1

T'approach thy temples, give thee in command.
What to the smallest tittle thou shalt fay
To thy adorers; thou with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning parafite obey'ft;
Then to thyself afcrib'ft the truth foretold.
But this thy glory fhall be foon retrench'd;

453. Then to thyself afcrib'ft the truth foretold. The Demons (Lanctantius fays) could certainly forefee, and truly foretel many future events, from the knowledge they had of the difpofitions of Providence before their fall. And then they affumed all the honor to themselves, pretending to be the authors, and doers of what they predicted. Nam cum difpofitiones Dei præfentiant, quippe qui miniftri ejus fuerunt, interponunt fe in his rebus; ut quæcunque à Deo vel facta funt, vel fiunt, ipfi potiffimum facere, aut feciffe videantur. Div. Inft. II. 16.

Calton..

456. henceforth oracles are ceas'd,] I would not cenfure Milton for mentioning the filence of oracles, at our Saviour's appearing in the world, both here and in his elegant hymn on Christ's nativity, because it adorns the poems, tho' it be a vulgar error. Fortin. As Milton had before adopted the

450

No

ancient opinion of oracles being
the operations of the fallen Angels,
fo here alfo again he follows the
fame authority in making them
viour. See this matter fully dif
ceafe at the coming of our Sa-
cuffed in Fontenelle's hiftory of
oracles, and father Baltus's answer
Thyer.

to him.
458. at Delphos] In the fa-
mous controversy about ancient
and modern learning, Mr. Wotton
reproves Sir William Temple for
where in his Effays, Mr. Boyle
putting Delphos for Delphi every
juftifies it, and fays that it is used
by all the fineft writers of our
tongue, and beft judges of it, par-
ticularly Waller, Dryden, Creech,
&c. If thefe authorities may
justify Sir William Temple, they
may alfo juftify Milton; but cer-
tainly the true way of writing is
not Delphos in the accufative cafe,
but Delphi in the nominative. And
though one would not condemn
thofe excellent writers, who have
unawares fallen into the common
error, yet to defend Delphos upon
this only pretence, that it has been
the custom of our English writers

to

No more fhalt thou by oracling abuse

The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceas'd,

pomp and facrifice

Shalt be inquir'd at Delphos or elsewhere,

At least in vain, for they fhall find thee mute. God hath now sent his living oracle