And the great Light of Day yet wants to run
  Much of his Race, though steep, suspense in Heavn
  Held by thy Voice; thy potent Voice he hears,
  And longer will delay, to hear thee tell
  His Generation, &c.

The Angels encouraging our first Parent[s] in a modest pursuit after Knowledge, with the Causes which he assigns for the Creation of the World, are very just and beautiful.  The Messiah, by whom, as we are told in Scripture, the Worlds were made, comes forth in the Power of his Father, surrounded with an Host of Angels, and cloathed with such a Majesty as becomes his entring upon a Work, which, according to our Conceptions, [appears [5]] the utmost Exertion of Omnipotence.  What a beautiful Description has our Author raised upon that Hint in one of the Prophets.  And behold there came four Chariots out from between two Mountains, and the Mountains were Mountains of Brass. [6]

  About his Chariot numberless were pour
  Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,
  And Virtues, winged Spirits, and Chariots wing’d,
  From th’ Armoury of Gold, where stand of old
  Myriads between two brazen Mountains lodg’d
  Against a solemn Day, harness’d at hand;
  Celestial Equipage! and now came forth
  Spontaneous, for within them Spirit liv’d,
  Attendant on their Lord:  Heavn open’d wide
  Her ever-during Gates, Harmonious Sound! 
  On golden Hinges moving—­

I have before taken notice of these Chariots of God, and of these Gates of Heaven; and shall here only add, that Homer gives us the same Idea of the latter, as opening of themselves; tho he afterwards takes off from it, by telling us, that the Hours first of all removed those prodigious Heaps of Clouds which lay as a Barrier before them.

I do not know any thing in the whole Poem more sublime than the Description which follows, where the Messiah is represented at the head of his Angels, as looking down into the Chaos, calming its Confusion, riding into the midst of it, and drawing the first Out-Line of the Creation.

  On Heavenly Ground they stood, and from the Shore
  They view’d the vast immeasurable Abyss,
  Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wild;
  Up from the bottom turned by furious Winds
  And surging Waves, as Mountains to assault
  Heavens height, and with the Center mix the Pole.

  Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, Peace! 
  Said then th’ Omnific Word, your Discord end: 

  Nor staid; but, on the Wings of Cherubim
  Up-lifted, in Paternal Glory rode
  Far into Chaos, and the World unborn;
  For Chaos heard his Voice.  Him all His Train
  Follow’d in bright Procession, to behold
  Creation, and the Wonders, of his Might. 
  Then staid the fervid Wheels, and in his Hand
  He took the Golden Compasses, prepar’d
  In Gods eternal Store, to circumscribe
  This Universe, and all created Things: 
  One Foot he center’d, and the other turn’d
  Round, through the vast Profundity obscure;
  And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
  This be thy just Circumference, O World!