—But the Sword
Of Michael from the Armory of God
Was given him tempered so, that neither keen
Nor solid might resist that Edge: It met
The Sword of Satan, with steep Force to smite
Descending, and in half cut sheer—
This Passage is a Copy of that in
Virgil
, wherein the Poet tells us, that the Sword of
Æneas
, which was given him by a Deity, broke into Pieces the Sword of
Turnus
, which came from a mortal Forge. As the Moral in this Place is divine, so by the way we may observe, that the bestowing on a Man who is favoured by Heaven such an allegorical Weapon, is very conformable to the old
Eastern
way of Thinking. Not only Homer has made use of it, but we find the