288 PARADISE LOST. BaoiX. Made thee without thy leave, what if thy fon 760 Prove difobedient, and reprov'd, retort, Wherefore didit thou beget me ? I fought it not! Woultift thou admit, for his contempt of thee, That proud excute ? ,Yet him, not thy eletion, But natural nectility, .begot 765 God made thee of choice His own, and of His own To ferve Hun ; thy reward was of his grace ; Thy puoiftiment then juftly is at His Will. Be it fo ! for I fubmit ; His doom is fair, That dull lam, and (hall to duff return : 770 0 welcome hour whenever! Why delays His hand to execute, what His decree Fix'd on this day ? Why do I over-live ? Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out To deathlefs pain ? How gladly would I meet 775 Mortality my fentence, and be earth Infenfible ! How glad would lay me doh, As in my mother's lap ! There I fbould reft, And fleep fecure : His dreadful voice no more Would thunder in my ears : no fear of worfe 780 To me, and to my off-fpring, would torment me With cruel expedation.-Yet one doubt Purfues me 11111, left All I cannot die; Left that pure breath of life, the fpirit of man, Which God infpir'd, cannot together perifh 785 With this corporeal clod : then, in the grave, Or in fine other difrnal place, who knows But I !ball die a living death ? 0 thought Horrid, if true ! Yet why ? It was but breath Of life that finn'd: what dies, but what had life, 790 And fin ? The body properly bath neither. All of me then (hall die ; let this appeafe The doubt, fince human reach no further knows. For though the Lord of All be infinite,
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