Over the Caspian; then stand front to front So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell Grew darker at their frown, so match'd they stood: 720 For never but once more was either like To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung, Fast by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key, 725 Ris'n, and with hideous outery rush'd between. O Father, what intends thy hand, she cry'd, Against thy only Son? What fury, O Son, Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart Against thy Father's head? and know'st for whom? 730 She spake, and at her words the hellish pest Forbore; then these to her Satan return'd. 735 So strange thy outery, and thy words so strange Thou interposest, that my sudden hand Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds What it intends, till first I know of thee, 740 716. The Caspian is said to be subject to violent storms. Hor. Ode. ii. 9 : 2. 721. Once more: In the person of Jesus Christ (734). Heb. ii. 14. 758. Out of thy head I sprung: An allusion to the heathen fable of the goddess Minerva springing out of the head of Jupiter. Her appearance is represented as producing, among the heavenly beings, at first, amazement and terror; but afterwards securing the approbation and favour of a multitude of them. This representation exhibits the horror in which the idea of sinning against God was first regarded, and the change of views among the sinning angels, upon becoming accustomed to acts of transgression. The same thing is true among men, particularly among the young when led astray from a moral course. In the seventh and eighth chapters of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and in the first chapter of the Epistle of James, may be found, also, a vivid personification of sin. |