Aaron
Holinesse on the head,
Light and perfections on the breast,
Harmonious bells below, raising the dead
To lead them unto life and rest:
Thus are true Aarons drest.
Profanenesse in my head,
Defects and darknesse in my breast,
A noise of passions ringing me for dead
Unto a place where is no rest:
Poore priest thus am I drest.
Only another head
I have, another heart and breast,
Another musick, making live not dead,
Without whom I could have no rest:
In him I am well drest.
Christ is my onely head,
My alone onely heart and breast,
My only musick, striking me ev'n dead;
That to the old man I may rest,
And be in him new drest.
So holy in my head,
Perfect and light in my deare breast,
My doctrine tun'd by Christ, (who is not dead,
But lives in me while I do rest).
Come, people; Aaron's drest.
From the Footnotes to 'Paradise Lost', book 3, Newton's 2nd edition, 1750:--(line 598: In Aaron's breast-plate,....): Aaron's breast-plate was a piece of cloth doubled, of a span square, in which were set in sockets of gold twelve precious stones bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel ingraven on them, which being fixed to the ephod, or upper vestment of the high-priest's robes, was worn by him on his breast on all solemn occasions. See the Notes for Milton's "Paradise Regain'd," Book III., line 13.1. Aaron is the type of the ideal priest, whose vestments and consecration are described in Exodus ch. 28. v. 30 &c : And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually. 31. And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. 32. And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent. 33. And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about: 34. A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about. 35. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, tha he die not. 36. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. 37. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. &c &c &c
