Paradise Regained comes, perhaps, closer to us than Paradise Lost
because its temptations are more nearly our own, and every amplification
which Milton introduces is designed to make them more completely ours
than they seem to be in the New Testament. It has often been urged
against Paradise Regained that Jesus recovered Paradise for man by the
Atonement and not merely by resistance to the devil's wiles, but
inasmuch as Paradise was lost by the devil's triumph through human
weakness it is natural that Paradise Regained should present the triumph
of the Redeemer's strength. It is this victory which proves Jesus to be
the Son of God and consequently able to save us.

He who has now become incarnated for our redemption is that same Messiah
who, when He rode forth against the angelic rebels,


"into terror chang'd
His count'nance too severe to be beheld,
And full of wrath bent on his enemies."


It is He who


"on his impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as night:"


whose right hand grasped