Encumber'd him with ruin. Hell at last, Yawning, received them whole, and on them closed; Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain. To meet him, all his saints, who silent stood "Thus measuring things in heaven by things on earth, At thy request, and that thou may'st beware By what is past, to thee I have reveal'd What might have else to human race been hid: Which would be all his solace and revenge, But listen not to his temptations, warn Of disobedience; firm they might have stood, THE ARGUMENT. Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this world was first created; that God, after the expelling of Satan and his angels out of heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein; sends his Son with glory, and attendance of angels, to perform the work of creation in six days: the angels celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reascension into heaven. |