Page:Paradise Lost (1667).djvu/52

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Book 2.
Paradiſe Loſt.
Mee though juſt right, and the fixt Laws of Heav’n Did firſt create your Leader, next, free choice, With what beſides, in Counſel or in Fight, 20Hath bin achievd of merit, yet this loſs Thus farr at leaſt recover’d, hath much more Eſtabliſht in a ſafe unenvied Throne Yeilded with full conſent. The happier ſtate In Heav’n, which follows dignity, might draw Envy from each inferior; but who here Will envy whom the higheſt place expoſes Foremoſt to ſtand against the Thunderers aime Your bulwark, and condemns to greateſt ſhare Of endleſs pain? where there is then no good 30For which to ſtrive, no ſtrife can grow up there From Faction: for none ſure will claim in hell Precedence, none, whoſe portion is ſo ſmall Of preſent pain, that with ambitious mind Will covet more. With this advantage then To union, and firm Faith, and firm accord, More than can be in Heavn, we now return To claim our juſt inheritance of old, Surer to proſper than proſperity Could have aſſur’d us; and by what beſt way, 40Whether of open Warr or covert guile, We now debate; who can adviſe may ſpeak.   He ceas’d, and next him Moloc, Scepter’d King Stood up, the ſtrongeſt and the fierceſt Spirit That fought in Heav’n; now fiercer by deſpair: His truſt was with th’ Eternal to be deem’d Equal in ſtrength, and rather than be leſs Car’d not to be at all; with that care loſt Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worſe,

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