“on his impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as night:”
whose right hand grasped
“ten thousand thunders, which he sent
Before him, such as in their souls infix’d
Plagues.”
(_P. L._ vi. 824–38.)
Now as Son of Man he is confronted with that same Archangel, and he
conquers by “strong sufferance.” He comes with no fourfold visage of a
charioteer flashing thick flames, no eye which glares lightning, no
victory eagle-winged and quiver near her with three-bolted thunder
stored, but in “weakness,” and with this he is to “overcome satanic
strength.”
Milton sees in the temptation to turn the stones into bread a devilish
incitement to use miraculous powers and not to trust the Heavenly Father.
“Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?”
(_P. R._ i. 355–6.)
Finding his enemy steadfast, Satan disappears,
“bowing low
His gray dissimulation,”
(_P. R._ i. 497–8.)
and calls to council his peers. He disregards the proposal of Belial to
attempt the seduction of Jesus with women. If he is vulnerable it will
be to objects
“such as have more shew
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise,
Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck’d;
Or that which only seems to satisfy
Lawful desires of Nature, not beyond.”
(_P. R._ ii. 226–30.)
The former appeal is first of all renewed. “Tell me,” says Satan,
“‘if food were now before thee set
Would’st thou not eat?’ ‘Thereafter as I like
The giver,’ answered Jesus.”
(_P. R._ ii. 320–22.)
A banquet is laid, and Satan invites Jesus to partake of it.
“What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?
These are not fruits forbidd’n.”
(_P. R._ ii. 368–9.)