quote · Legacy record
Not thou mistrust, but tender love enjoins, That I should mind thee oft, and mind thou me Firm we subsist yet possibly to swerve, Since reason not impossibly may meet Some specious object by the foe suborned, And fall into deception unaware, Not keeping strictest watch as she was warned. Seek not temptation then; which to avoid Were better! * * * trial will come unsought. Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve First thy obedience: th’ other who can know, Not seeing thee attempted, who attest? But if thou think, trial unsought may find Us both securer that thus warned thou seem’st, Go, for thy stay not free absents thee more, Go, in thy native innocence, rely On what thou hast of virtue, summon all, For God towards thee hath done his part; do thine.
Not thou mistrust, but tender love enjoins, That I should mind thee oft, and mind thou me Firm we subsist yet possibly to swerve, Since reason not impossibly may meet Some specious object by the foe suborned, And fall into deception unaware, Not keeping strictest watch as she was warned. Seek not temptation then; which to avoid Were better! * * * trial will come unsought. Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve First thy obedience: th’ other who can know, Not seeing thee attempted, who attest? But if thou think, trial unsought may find Us both securer that thus warned thou seem’st, Go, for thy stay not free absents thee more, Go, in thy native innocence, rely On what thou hast of virtue, summon all, For God towards thee hath done his part; do thine.
Approximate author period: c. 1641 AD · renaissance
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- John Milton
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1641 AD · renaissance
author lifetime midpoint (1608–1674)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 596 · printed citation: Milton · subject: TEMPTATION
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