The Story of Paradise Regained

After the expulsion from Paradise of Adam and Eve, Satan and his followers did not return to Hell, but
remained on earth, the fallen angels becoming the evil gods of various idolatrous nations and Satan
engaging in every kind of evildoing which he knew would vex the Powers of Heaven. All the time he was
troubled by the thought of the heavenly foe who he had been told would one day appear on earth to
crush him and his rebel angels.

Now John had come out of the wilderness, proclaiming his mission, and among those who came to him
to be baptized was one who was deemed the son of Joseph of Nazareth. John recognized in the obscure
carpenter’s son the one “mightier than he” whose coming he was to proclaim, and this fact was further
made clear to the multitude and the observant Satan by the opening of the Heavens and the descent
therefrom on Christ’s head of the Dove, while a voice was heard declaring, “This is my beloved Son.”

Satan, enraged, fled to the council of the fiends to announce to them the presence on earth of their
long-dreaded enemy. He was empowered by them to attempt his overthrow, and they were the more
confident because of his success with Adam and Eve.

Satan’s purpose was known to the Eternal Father, who smiled to see him unwittingly fulfilling the plan
so long foreordained for his destruction.

After his baptism, the Father had sent his Son into the wilderness to gain strength for his struggle with
Sin and Death, and there Satan, in the guise of an old, poorly clad rustic, found him. Although the Son of
God had wandered through the rock-bound, pathless desert, among wild beasts, without food for forty
days, he had no fear, believing that some impulse from above had guided him thither before he should
go out among men to do his divinely appointed task.

Then, when hunger came upon him as he wandered, thinking of past events and those to come, he met
the aged man and was addressed by him.

“Sir, how came you hither, where none who ventures alone escapes alive? I ask because you look not
unlike the man I lately saw baptized by John and declared the Son of God.”

“I need no guide,” replied the Son. “The Power who brought me here will bring me forth.”

“Not otherwise than by miracle. Here we subsist only upon dry roots and must often endure parching
thirst. If thou art indeed the Son of God, save thyself and relieve us wretched people by changing these
stones to bread.”

“Men live not by bread alone,” replied the Son, “but by the word of God. Moses in the Mount was
without food and drink for forty days. Elijah also wandered fasting in the wilderness. Thou knowest who
I am as I know who thou art; why shouldest thou suggest distrust to me?”

“’Tis true that I am that unfortunate spirit who fell from Heaven, but I have been permitted to roam
around the earth and have not been altogether excluded from Heaven. God allowed me to test Job and
prove his worth and to draw Ahab into fraud. Though I have lost much of my original brightness I can
still admire all that is illustrious and good. The sons of men should not regard me as an enemy, for I have
oft given them aid by oracles, dreams, and portents. My loss was not through them, so their restoration
does not grieve me; only that fallen man will be restored and not I.”
“Thou deservest to grieve, tissue of lies that thou art!” exclaimed our Savior. “Thou boastest of being
released from Hell and permitted to come into Heaven. No joy hast thou there! Thy own malice moved
thee to torture Job. Brag not of thy lies, thy oracles for men. Henceforth oracles are dumb, since God
has sent his living oracle into the world to teach the truth.”

Satan, though angry, still dissembled.

“Accuse me, reprove me, if thou wilt. Fallen as I am, I still love to hear the truth fall from thy lips.”

Unmoved by his false words the Savior of men declared that he neither forbade nor invited his presence,
and Satan, bowing low, disappeared as night fell over the desert.

In the mean time, those at Bethabara who had rejoiced at the declaration of John and had talked with
the Messiah, were deeply grieved to find him gone and with him their hope of deliverance. His mother,
too, was troubled at his absence, but comforted herself with the thought of his former absences,
afterwards explained.

Satan, hastening from the desert, sought his troop of evil spirits to warn them that his undertaking was
no easy one, and to summon them to his assistance.

Night fell on the Son of God, still fasting, wondering what would be the end. In sleep he was visited by
dreams of Elijah, raven-fed, and of the same prophet fed by the angel in the desert, and as he dreamed
that he ate with them, the lark’s song awoke him and he wandered into a pleasant grove. As he viewed
it, charmed by its beauty, a man appeared before him, no rustic this time, but one attired in the apparel
of city or court.

“I have returned, wondering that thou still remainest here, hungering. Hagar once wandered here; the
children of Israel, and the Prophet, but all these were fed by the hand of Heaven. Thou alone art
forgotten and goest tormented by hunger.”

Though the Son of God declared that he had no need to eat, Satan invited his attention to a table, set
under a spreading tree. Upon it was heaped every known delicacy; by it waited youths handsome as
Ganymede, and among the trees tripped naiads and nymphs of Diana, with fruits and flowers. Exquisite
music was heard, and the perfumes of Araby filled the air.

“Why not sit and eat?” continued Satan. “These foods are not forbidden, and all these gentle ministers
are ready to do thee homage.”

“What hast thou to do with my hunger?” demanded Jesus. “Should I receive as a gift from thee what I
myself could command if I so desired? I too could bring a table here, and swift-winged angels to attend
me. Thy gifts are but guiles.”

“I am forever suspected,” responded Satan, as the table vanished. “Hunger cannot move thee, set on
high designs. But what canst thou, a lowly carpenter’s son, accomplish without aid? Where wilt thou
find authority, where followers? First get riches; hearken to me, for fortune is in my hand. Wealth will
win, while virtue, valor, and wisdom sit and wait in vain.”

“Yet what can wealth do without these?” replied Jesus patiently. “How can it gain dominion, and keep it
when gained? Gideon, Jephtha, David, and among the heathen (for I am not ignorant of history)
Quinctius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus, all these have risen from the depths and achieved the highest
deeds. Then, why may not I accomplish as much, even more, without wealth, which but cumbers the
wise man, and slackens virtue, rather than prompts it to worthy deeds? Suppose I reject both riches and
realms? Not because the regal diadem is a wreath of thorns and he who wears it bears each man’s
burden, for the king’s chief praise is the manner in which he bears this burden for the public. But he who
rules himself is greater than a king, and he who cannot do this should not aspire to royal power. But it is
surely more kingly to lead nations blinded by error into the light of God’s truth. This dominion is over
the nobler part of man. And it has ever been thought greater and nobler to give a kingdom and to lay
down authority than to assume it. Therefore thy riches are needless both in themselves, and to gain a
kingdom which would better be missed than gained.”

Satan, though for a moment struck dumb by this answer to his arguments, soon collected himself and
suggested that while the Savior knew so well what was best to know, say, and do, that if known he
would be regarded as an oracle, still he did wrong to despise glory and deprive earth of his great deeds,
citing as examples of more active spirits accomplishing much when younger than he, the young
Alexander, Scipio, Pompey, and Caesar. But the Savior replied that the glory which consisted of the
approval of the rabble was only to be despised. The true glory was that of the man who dared to be
truly good, who though little known on earth, was famous in Heaven. Such men did not lay waste fields,
sack, pillage, and slay, but by deeds of peace won the approval of the Father. Such was Job, oft tempted
by Satan; such was Socrates, who suffered unjust death for teaching truth. And the Son of God had
come upon earth not to win glory for himself as vain men do, but for Him who sent him.

“Thy Father does not despise glory,” sneered Satan. “He demands it from his angels, from men, even
from us, his foes.”

“With reason,” answered the Son, “since he created all things, though not for glory. And what slighter
recompense could he expect from men who could return nothing else?”

Satan, remembering his own ambition and his fall, was silent for a moment, and then spoke to remind
the Savior that he was born to the throne of David, but that it must be wrested from the Roman by force
of arms. It was his duty to do this and save his people from oppression.

“All things in due time,” replied the Savior. “If the Writ tells of my sufferings, my tribulations, of violence
done unto me, it also tells of my reign without end. I can wait. He who suffers best, can do best; he who
obeys first, reigns best; and why shouldest thou be so anxious to hasten my rule when it means thy
destruction?”

“When hope is gone, what is there left to fear? My punishment will come whether thou reign or no. I
could hope that thy reign would stand between me and the anger of thy Father. And if I haste to the
worst that can be, why shouldest thou go so slowly to the best? Perhaps thou fearest the dangerous
enterprise, thou who, pent up in Galilean towns, hast seen so little.”

So saying, he took the Son up into a high mountain at the foot of which stretched a vast plain. Two rivers
watered the fertile land. The hills were covered with flocks; vast cities could be seen, and here and
there, so wide was the land, a barren desert. Then the Tempter pointed out the vast cities of Assyria,
Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Bactra, and the vast host of the Parthian king, even then marching against
the Scythians. As they watched the great host of mailed warriors, accompanied by chariots, elephants,
archers, engineers, Satan pursued his argument. Suppose the Son should take possession of his
kingdom; how should he hope to keep it in peace between two such powerful enemies as the Parthians
and the Romans? It would be better to conquer first the nearest, the Parthians, and this could be done
with Satan’s help. In doing this he would not only be able to occupy his throne but would deliver the
offspring of the Ten Tribes of Israel, who, scattered among the Medes, still served as slaves.

But the Savior, in response, only questioned Satan as to why he had suddenly become so solicitous for
the salvation of the Tribes when he himself had once tempted David to number Israel and had thus
brought pestilence upon them. And as to the Ten Tribes, they had brought their punishment upon
themselves, and must serve the enemy and their idols until the Father should see fit to release them.

Though embarrassed by the failure of his wiles, Satan could not yet yield. Turning to the western side of
the mountain, he pointed out to the Savior a long, narrow plain, bordered on the south by the sea and
protected from northern blasts by a mountain range. There, crowning the seven hills stood the imperial
city adorned with porches, theatres, baths, aqueducts, and palaces. Satan pointed out the different
objects of interest in splendid Rome, the Capitol, Mt. Palatine, crowned by the imperial palace, and the
great gates, through which issued or entered a continuous stream of praetors, proconsuls, lictors,
legions, embassies, on all the roads which led through the far-stretching empire, even to those of the
Asian kings, and remote Britain. All the glory of the world, he argued, lay in Parthia and Rome, and Rome
was greater. He who ruled her was indeed ruler of the world, and yet its present emperor was old,
weak, lascivious, without heir, and lived at Capreae, his public cares entrusted to his favorite. How easily
could the Son of God force from him the power and lift the yoke from his people!

But the splendor of the scene allured neither the eye nor the mind of the Son. The gluttonies, the
gorgeous feasts, the hollow compliments and lies of the people did not attract him. His mission, he told
his Tempter, was not yet to free that people, once just and frugal, now debased by their insatiable
ambition. When the time came for him to sit on David’s throne, this with all other kingdoms of the earth
would be shattered while his kingdom would be eternal.

“Though thou despisest my offers,” cried Satan, “thou knowest that I esteem them highly, and will not
part with them for nought. This is the condition; Wilt thou fall down and worship me as thy superior
lord?”

“It is written, thou accursed one,” responded the Savior in disdain, “that thou shouldst worship and
serve the Lord thy God alone. Who gave thee the kingdoms of the earth if He did not? And what
gratitude thou showest! Get thee behind me! Truly thou art Satan!”

Satan, abashed but not silenced, pointed southwest toward Athens. Since the Savior seemed to prefer a
contemplative life, why should he not seek that seat of learning? All wisdom was not contained in
Moses’ law and the writings of the prophets. Let him master the learning of the great Athenian teachers,
philosophers and orators, and he would be a king within himself.

But the Savior assured Satan that, having received light from above, he knew how false and fallacious
were the boasted philosophies of the Greeks. Their philosophers, ignorant of themselves and of God,
and arrogating all glory to themselves and ascribing none to Him, were unable to impart wisdom to any
one. From Hebrew psalm and hymn, and captive harps in Babylon, the Greeks derived their arts, and the
results, the odious praises of their vicious gods, could not compare with the songs of Sion in praise of
the Father. Their orators, too, were far below the Hebrew prophets. “Stay in the wilderness, then,”
thundered Satan, wroth at this failure. “Since neither riches nor arms, nor power, nor yet the
contemplative life please thee, it is for thee the fittest place! But the time will yet come when violence,
stripes, and a cruel death will make thee long for me and my proffered power. Truly the stars promise
thee a kingdom, but of what kind and when I cannot read.”

As he disappeared, darkness fell, and the Son of God, still hungry and cold, sought rest under a
sheltering tree. But Satan watched near, and forbade rest. Thunder and lightning shook the Heavens;
rain drenched the earth; the fury of the winds was loosed, and in their path the sturdiest trees were
uprooted. Ghosts, furies, raved around the holy one, but, unshaken by fear, he endured all calmly, and
came forth, as the bright sun shone upon the earth, to meet again the Prince of Darkness.

Enraged that the terrors of the night had had no effect upon his enemy, Satan cried out that he still
doubted that the wanderer in the wilderness was the Son of God in the true sense, and would therefore
try him another way.

So speaking, he caught him up and bore him through the air unto Jerusalem, and setting him on the
highest pinnacle of the glorious Temple, said scornfully:–

“Stand there, if thou canst; I have placed thee highest in thy Father’s house. Now show if thou art
indeed the Son of God. Cast thyself down, for it is written that He will command his angels concerning
thee, so that they in their hands shall uplift thee.”

“It is also written,” said Jesus, “’Tempt not the Lord thy God.’” And as he so spoke and stood, Satan,
overcome with amazement, fell whence he had expected to see his conqueror fall, and, struck with
dread and anguish at his certain defeat, fled to his rebel angels.

Straightway, a “fiery globe” of angels received the Son on their pinions, bore him from the pinnacle into
a flowery vale, and there refreshed him with ambrosial food and water from the Fount of Life, while all
around him the angelic choir sang his praises for the conquest of his enemy, and encouraged him to go
forth on his work of saving mankind. Thence, rested and refreshed, he arose, and went, unobserved,
home to his mother’s house.

Selection From Paradise Regained

THE TEMPTATION OF THE VISION OF THE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH.

Satan, meeting the Savior in the wilderness, tempted him to change the stones to bread, and then, after
endeavoring to awake in him a longing for wealth and power, appealed to his ambition by leading him to
a mountain top, and displaying to him the kingdoms of the earth.

With that (such power was given him then), he [Satan] took

The Son of God up to a mountain high.

It was a mountain at whose verdant feet

A spacious plain outstretched in circuit wide

Lay pleasant; from his side two rivers flowed,

The one winding, the other straight, and left between

Fair champaign, with less rivers interveined,

Then meeting joined their tribute to the sea.

Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine;

With herds the pasture thronged, with flocks the hills;

Huge cities and high-towered, that well might seem

The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large

The prospect was that here and there was room

For barren desert, fountainless and dry.

To this high mountain-top the Tempter brought

Our Saviour, and new train of words began:–

“Well have we speeded, and o’er hill and dale,

Forest, and field, and flood, temples and towers,

Cut shorter many a league. Here thou behold’st

Assyria, and her empire’s ancient bounds,

Araxes and the Caspian lake; thence on

As far as Indus east, Euphrates west,

And oft beyond; to south the Persian bay,

And, inaccessible, the Arabian drouth:

Here, Nineveh, of length within her wall

Several days’ journey, built by Ninus old,

Of that first golden monarchy the seat,

And seat of Salmanassar, whose success

Israel in long captivity still mourns;

There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues,

As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice

Judah and all thy father David’s house

Led captive, and Jerusalem laid waste,

Till Cyrus set them free; Persepolis,

His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there;

Ecbatana her structure vast there shows,

And Hecatompylos her hundred gates;

There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream,

The drink of none but kings; of later fame,

Built by Emathian or by Parthian hands,

The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there

Artaxata, Teredon, Ctesiphon,

Turning with easy eye, thou may’st behold.

All these the Parthian (now some ages past

By great Arsaces led, who founded first

That empire) under his dominion holds,

From the luxurious kings of Antioch won.

And just in time thou com’st to have a view

Of his great power; for now the Parthian king

In Ctesiphon hath gathered all his host

Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild

Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid

He marches now in haste. See though from far,

His thousands, in what martial equipage

They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms,

Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit–

All horsemen, in which fight they most excel;

See how in warlike muster they appear,

In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings.”