In central night; takes it the lightning's wing, And flies for ever on, beyond the bounds Of all; drinks it the maddest cup of sin; Dives it beneath the ocean of despair; It dives, it drinks, it flies, it hides in vain. For still the eternal beauty, image fair, Once stamped upon the soul, before the eye All lovely stands, nor will depart; so God Ordains; and lovely to the worst she seems, And ever seems; and as they look, and still Must ever look, upon her loveliness, Remembrance dire of what they were, of what They might have been, and bitter sense of what They are, polluted, ruined, hopeless, lost, With most repenting torment rend their hearts. So God ordains, their punishment severe, Eternally inflicted by themselves. 'Tis this, this Virtue hovering evermore Before the vision of the damned, and in Upon their monstrous moral nakedness Casting unwelcome light, that makes their wo, That makes the essence of the endless flame. Where this is, there is hell, darker than aught. That he, the bard three-visioned, darkest saw. The place thou sawst was hell; the groans thou heardst
The wailings of the damned, of those who would Not be redeemed, and at the judgment day, Long past, for unrepented sins were damned. The seven loud thunders which thou heardst, de- clare
The eternal wrath of the Almighty God.
But whence, or why they came to dwell in wo, Why they curse God, what means the glorious
Of resurrection, these a longer tale Demand, and lead the mournful lyre far back Through memory of sin and mortal man. Yet haply not rewardless we shall trace The dark disastrous years of finished Time. Sorrows remembered sweeten present joy. Nor yet shall all be sad; for God gave peace, Much peace, on earth, to all who feared his name.
But first it needs to say, that other style And other language than thy ear is wont, Thou must expect to hear, the dialect Of man. For each in heaven a relish holds Of former speech, that points to whence he came. But whether I of person speak, or place, Event or action, moral or divine;
Or things unknown compare to things unknown; Allude, imply, suggest, apostrophize;
Or touch, when wandering through the past, on moods
Of mind thou never feltst; the meaning still, With easy apprehension, thou shalt take. So perfect here is knowledge, and the strings Of sympathy so tuned, that every word That each to other speaks, though never heard
THIS said, he waked the golden harp, and thus, While on him inspiration breathed, began. As from yon everlasting hills that gird Heaven northward, I thy course espied, I judge Thou from the arctic regions came? Perhaps Thou noticed on thy way a little orb, Attended by one moon, her lamp by night, With her fair sisterhood of planets seven, Revolving round their central sun; she third In place, in magnitude the fourth. That orb, New made, new named, inhabited anew,- Though whiles we sons of Adam visit still, Our native place, not changed so far but we Can trace our ancient walks, the scenery Of childhood, youth, and prime, and hoary age But scenery most of suffering and wo,- That little orb, in days remote of old, When angels yet were young, was made for man, And titled Earth, her primal virgin name;— Created first so lovely, so adorned
With hill, and dale, and lawn, and winding vale, Woodland, and stream, and lake, and rolling seas, Green mead, and fruitful tree, and fertile grain, And herb and flower; so lovely, so adorned With numerous beasts of every kind, with fowl Of every wing and every tuneful note, And with all fish that in the multitude Of waters swam; so lovely, so adorned, So fit a dwelling place for man, that, as She rose, complete, at the creating word, The morning stars, the sons of God, aloud Shouted for joy; and God, beholding, saw The fair design, that from eternity His mind conceived, accomplished, and, well pleased,
His six days finished work most good pronounced, And man declared the sovereign prince of all.
All else was prone, irrational, and mute, And unaccountable, by instinct led. But man he made of angel form erect, To hold communion with the heavens above; And on his soul impressed his image fair, His own similitude of holiness,
Of virtue, truth, and love; with reason high To balance right and wrong, and conscience quick To choose or to reject; with knowledge great, Prudence and wisdom, vigilance and strength,
To guard all force or guile; and, last of all, The highest gift of God's abundant grace, With perfect, free, unbiased will. Thus man Was made upright, immortal made, and crowned The king of all; to eat, to drink, to do Freely and sovereignly his will entire. By one command alone restrained, to prove, As was most just, his filial love sincere, His loyalty, obedience due, and faith. And thus the prohibition ran, expressed, As God is wont, in terms of plainest truth.
Of every tree that in the garden grows Thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree That knowledge hath of good and ill, eat not, Nor touch; for in the day thou eatest, thou Shalt die. Go, and this one command obey, Adam, live and be happy, and, with thy Eve, Fit consort, multiply and fill the earth.
Thus they, the representatives of men, Were placed in Eden, choicest spot of earth. With royal honour and with glory crowned, Adam, the Lord of all, majestic walked, With godlike countenance sublime, and form Of lofty towering strength; and by his side Eve, fair as morning star, with modesty Arrayed, with virtue, grace, and perfect love: In holy marriage wed, and eloquent Of thought and comely words, to worship God And sing his praise, the Giver of all good: Glad, in each other glad, and glad in hope; Rejoicing in their future happy race.
O lovely, happy, blest, immortal pair! Pleased with the present, full of glorious hope. But short, alas, the song that sings their bliss! Henceforth the history of man grows dark! Shade after shade of deepening gloom descends; And Innocence laments her robes defiled. Who farther sings, must change the pleasant lyre To heavy notes of wo. Why! dost thou ask, Surprised? The answer will surprise thee more. Man sinned; tempted, he ate the guarded tree ;Tempted of whom thou afterwards shalt hear; Audacious, unbelieving, proud, ungrateful, He ate the interdicted fruit, and fell; And in his fall, his universal race; For they in him by delegation were, In him to stand or fall, to live or die.
Man most ingrate! so full of grace, to sin, Here interposed the new arrived, so full Of bliss, to sin against the Gracious One! The holy, just, and good! the Eternal Love! Unseen, unheard, unthought of wickedness! Why slumbered vengeance? No, it slumbered not. The ever just and righteous God would let His fury loose, and satisfy his threat.
And purified even at the fount of light. Exert them now, call all their vigour out; Take room, think vastly, meditate intensely, Reason profoundly; send conjecture forth, Let fancy fly, stoop down, ascend; all length, All breadth explore, all moral, all divine; Ask prudence, justice, mercy ask, and might; Weigh good with evil, balance right with wrong; With virtue vice compare, hatred with love; God's holiness, God's justice, and God's truth, Deliberately and cautiously compare With sinful, wicked, vile, rebellious man; And see if thou canst punish sin, and let Mankind go free. Thou failst; be not surprised. I bade thee search in vain. Eternal love, Harp, lift thy voice on high! eternal love, Eternal, sovereign love, and sovereign grace, Wisdom, and power, and mercy infinite, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God, Devised the wondrous plan, devised, achieved, And in achieving made the marvel more. Attend, ye heavens! ye heaven of heavens! attend, Attend and wonder, wonder evermore! When man had fallen, rebelled, insulted God; Was most polluted, yet most madly proud; Indebted infinitely, yet most poor; Captive to sin, yet willing to be bound: To God's incensed justice and hot wrath Exposed, due victim of eternal death
And utter wo-Harp, lift thy voice on high! Ye everlasting hills! ye angels! bow, Bow, ye redeemed of men !-God was made flesh, And dwelt with man on earth! the Son of God, Only begotten, and well beloved, between Men and his Father's justice interposed; Put human nature on; His wrath sustained; And in their name suffered, obeyed, and died, Making his soul an offering for sin; Just for unjust, and innocence for guilt, By doing, suffering, dying, unconstrained, Save by omnipotence of boundless grace, Complete atonement made to God appeased; Made honourable his insulted law,
Turning the wrath aside from pardoned man. Thus Truth and Mercy met, and Righteousness, Stooping from highest heaven, embraced fair Peace, That walked the earth in fellowship with Love.
O love divine! O mercy infinite! The audience here in glowing rapture broke, O love, all height above, all depth below, Surpassing far all knowledge, all desire, All thought! The Holy One for sinners dies! The Lord of life for guilty rebels bleeds, Quenches eternal fire with blood divine! Abundant mercy! overflowing grace!
Their name had reached us, and report did speak Of some abominable horrid thing,
That had been just, replied the reverend bard,There, whence I came, I something heard of men But done, fair youth, thou ne'er hadst met me here; I ne'er had seen yon glorious throne in peace. Thy powers are great, originally great,
Of desperate offence they had committed.
And something too of wondrous grace we heard. Refuse, when autumn came, and famine threatAnd oft of our celestial visitants
What man, what God had done, inquired; but To reap the golden field that charity
Forbid, our asking never met directly, Exhorting still to persevere upright,
Bestowed; nay, more obdurate, proud, and blind, And stupid still, refused, though much beseeched, And long entreated, even with Mercy's tears,
Cooked temptingly,-he certainly, at least,
And we should hear in heaven, though greatly To eat what to his very lips was held, blest Ourselves, new wonders of God's wondrous love. Deserved to die of hunger, unbemoaned. This hinting, keener appetite to know Awaked; and as we talked, and much admired What new we there should learn, we hasted each To nourish virtue to perfection up, That we might have our wondering resolved And leave of louder praise to greater deeds Of loving kindness due. Mysterious love! God was made flesh, and dwelt with men on earth! Blood holy, blood divine for sinners shed! My asking ends, but makes my wonder more. Saviour of men! henceforth be thou my theme; Redeeming love, my study day and night. Mankind were lost, all lost, and all redeemed!
So did the wicked spurn the grace of God; And so were punished with the second death. The first, no doubt, punition less severe Intended; death, belike, of all entire. But this incurred, by God discharged, and life Freely presented, and again despised, Despised, though bought with Mercy's proper blood,
Thou errst again, but innocently errst,
Not knowing sin's depravity, nor man's Sincere and persevering wickedness.
'Twas this dug hell, and kindled all its bounds With wrath and inextinguishable fire.
Free was the offer, free to all, of life And of salvation; but the proud of heart, Because 'twas free, would not accept; and still To merit wished; and choosing, thus unshipped, Uncompassed, unprovisioned, and bestormed, To swim a sea of breadth immeasurable,
All were redeemed? Not all, or thou hadst heard They scorned the goodly bark, whose wings the
No human voice in hell. Many refused, Although beseeched, refused to be redeemed, Redeemed from death to life, from wo to bliss! Canst thou believe my song when thus I sing? When man had fallen, was ruined, hopeless, lost- Ye choral harps! ye angels that excel In strength! and loudest, ye redeemed of men! To God, to Him that sits upon the throne On high, and to the Lamb, sing honour, sing Dominion, glory, blessing sing, and praise !— When man had fallen, was ruined, hopeless, lost, Messiah, Prince of Peace, Eternal King, Died, that the dead might live, the lost be saved. Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, earth! Thou ancient, thou forgotten earth! ye worlds ad- mire!
Admire and be confounded! and thou hell, Deepen thy eternal groan!-men would not be Redeemed,-I speak of many, not of all,- Would not be saved for lost, have life for death! Mysterious song! the new arrived exclaimed, Mysterious mercy! most mysterious hate! To disobey was mad, this madder far, Incurable insanity of will!
What now but wrath could guilty men expect? What more could love, what more could mercy do? No more, resumed the bard, no more they could. Thou hast seen hell. The wicked there lament: And why? for love and mercy twice despised. The husbandman, who sluggishly forgot In spring to plough and sow, could censure none, Though winter clamoured round his empty barns. But he who, having thus neglected, did
Of God's eternal Spirit filled for heaven, That stopped to take them in, and so were lost. What wonders dost thou tell? To merit, how! Of creature meriting in sight of God, As right of service done, I never heard Till now. We never fell; in virtue stood Upright, and persevered in holiness; But stood by grace, by grace we persevered. Ourselves, our deeds, our holiest, highest deeds Unworthy aught; grace worthy endless praise. If we fly swift, obedient to his will, He gives us wings to fly; if we resist Temptation, and ne'er fall, it is his shield Omnipotent that wards it off; if we, With love unquenchable, before him burn, 'Tis he that lights and keeps alive the flame. Men surely lost their reason in their fall, And did not understand the offer made.
They might have understood, the bard replied; They had the Bible. Hast thou ever heard Of such a book? The author, God himself; The subject, God and man, salvation, life And death-eternal life, eternal death- Dread words! whose meaning has no end, no bounds-
Most wondrous book! bright candle of the Lord! Star of eternity! the only star
By which the bark of man could navigate The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss Securely! only star which rose on Time, And on its dark and troubled billows, still, As generation, drifting swiftly by,
Succeeded generation, threw a ray
Of heaven's own light, and to the hills of God, The eternal hills, pointed the sinner's eye. By prophets, seers, and priests, and sacred bards, Evangelists, apostles, men inspired, And by the Holy Ghost anointed, set Apart and consecrated to declare
To Earth the counsels of the Eternal One, This book, this holiest, this sublimest book, Was sent. Heaven's will, Heaven's code of laws entire,
To man, this book contained; defined the bounds Of vice and virtue, and of life and death; And what was shadow, what was substance taught. Much it revealed; important all; the least Worth more than what else seemed of highest worth,
But this of plainest, most essential truth: That God is one, eternal, holy, just, Omnipotent, omniscient, infinite;
Most wise, most good, most merciful and true; In all perfection most unchangeable: That man, that every man of every clime And hue, of every age and every rank, Was bad, by nature and by practice bad; In understanding blind, in will perverse, In heart corrupt; in every thought, and word, Imagination, passion, and desire,
Most utterly depraved throughout, and ill, In sight of Heaven, though less in sight of man; At enmity with God his maker born, And by his very life an heir of death:
That man, that every man was, farther, most Unable to redeem himself, or pay
One mite of his vast debt to God; nay, more, Was most reluctant and averse to be Redeemed, and sin's most voluntary slave: That Jesus, Son of God, of Mary born In Bethlehem, and by Pilate crucified On Calvary, for man thus fallen and lost, Died; and, by death, life and salvation bought, And perfect righteousness, for all who should In his great name believe: That He, the third In the eternal Essence, to the prayer Sincere should come, should come as soon as asked, Proceeding from the Father and the Son, To give faith and repentance, such as God Accepts; to open the intellectual eyes, Blinded by sin; to bend the stubborn will, Perversely to the side of wrong, inclined, To God and his commandments, just and good; The wild, rebellious passions to subdue, And bring them back to harmony with heaven; To purify the conscience, and to lead The mind into all truth, and to adorn With every holy ornament of grace, And sanctify the whole renewed soul, Which henceforth might no more fall totally, But persevere, though erring oft, amidst
The mists of Time, in piety to God, And sacred works of charity to men: That he who thus believed, and practised thus, Should have his sins forgiven, however vile; Should be sustained at mid-day, morn, and even By God's omnipotent, eternal grace: And in the evil hour of sore disease, Temptation, persecution, war, and death,— For temporal death, although unstinged, remain- ed,-
Beneath the shadow of the Almighty's wings Should sit unhurt, and at the judgment-day, Should share the resurrection of the just, And reign with Christ in bliss for evermore: That all, however named, however great, Who would not thus believe, nor practise thus, But in their sins impenitent remained, Should in perpetual fear and terror live; Should die unpardoned, unredeemed, unsaved; And, at the hour of doom, should be cast out To utter darkness in the night of hell, By mercy and by God abandoned there To reap the harvests of eternal wo.
This did the book declare in obvious phrase, In most sincere and honest phrase, by God Himself selected and arranged, so clear, So plain, so perfectly distinct, that none, Who read with humble wish to understand, And asked the Spirit, given to all who asked, Could miss their meaning, blazed in heavenly light. This book, this holy book, on every line Marked with the seal of high divinity, On every leaf bedewed with drops of love Divine, and with the eternal heraldry And signature of God Almighty stamped From first to last, this ray of sacred light, This lamp, from off the everlasting throne, Mercy took down, and in the night of Time Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow; And evermore beseeching men, with tears And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live. And many to her voice gave ear, and read, Believed, obeyed; and now, as the Amen, True, Faithful Witness swore, with snowy robes And branchy palms, surround the fount of life, And drink the streams of immortality, For ever happy, and for ever young.
Many believed; but more the truth of God Turned to a lie; deceiving and deceived; Each with the accursed sorcery of sin, To his own wish and vile propensity Transforming still the meaning of the text, Hear, while I briefly tell what mortals proved, By effort vast of ingenuity,
Most wondrous, though perverse and damnable, Proved from the Bible, which, as thou hast heard, So plainly spoke that all could understand. First, and not least in number, argued some, From out this book itself, it was a lie,
A fable framed by crafty men to cheat The simple herd, and make them bow the knee To kings and priests. These in their wisdom left The light revealed, and turned to fancies wild; Maintaining loud, that ruined, helpless man, Needed no Saviour. Others proved that men Might live and die in sin, and yet be saved, For so it was decreed; binding the will, By God left free, to unconditional, Unreasonable fate. Others believed That he who was most criminal, debased, Condemned, and dead, unaided might ascend The heights of virtue; to a perfect law Giving a lame, half-way obedience, which By useless effort only served to show The impotence of him who vainly strove With finite arm to measure infinite; Most useless effort, when to justify
In sight of God it meant, as proof of faith Most acceptable and worthy of all praise, Another held, and from the Bible held, He was infallible, most fallen by such Pretence; that none the Scriptures, open to all, And most to humble-hearted, ought to read, But priests; that all who ventured to disclaim His forged authority, incurred the wrath Of Heaven; and he who, in the blood of such, Though father, mother, daughter, wife, or son, Imbrued his hands, did most religious work, Well pleasing to the heart of the Most High. Others in outward rite devotion placed,
In meats, in drinks, in robe of certain shape, In bodily abasements, bended knees;
Were proved, as foolish men were wont to prove, Would bring my word in doubt, and thy belief Stagger, though here I sit and sing, within The pale of truth, where falsehood never came. The rest, who lost the heavenly light revealed, Not wishing to retain God in their minds, In darkness wandered on. Yet could they not, Though moral night around them drew her pall Of blackness, rest in utter unbelief.
The voice within, the voice of God, that naught Could bribe to sleep, though steeped in sorceries Of hell, and much abused by whisperings Of evil spirits in the dark, announced A day of judgment and a Judge, a day Of misery or bliss: and, being.ill
At ease, for gods they chose them stocks and stones, Reptiles, and weeds, and beasts, and creeping things,
And spirits accursed, ten thousand deities! Imagined worse than he who craved their peace; And, bowing, worshipped these, as best beseemed, With midnight revelry obscene and loud, With dark, infernal, devilish ceremonies, And horrid sacrifice of human flesh,
That made the fair heavens blush. So bad was sin;
So lost, so ruined, so depraved was man, Created first in God's own image fair.
Oh, cursed, cursed Sin! traitor to God, And ruiner of man! mother of Wo, And Death, and Hell! wretched, yet seeking worse;
Polluted most, yet wallowing in the mire;
Days, numbers, places, vestments, words, and Most mad, yet drinking Frenzy's giddy cup; names;
Absurdly in their hearts imagining,
Depth ever deepening, darkness darkening still; Folly for wisdom, guilt for innocence;
That God, like men, was pleased with outward Anguish for rapture, and for hope despair; show.
Another, stranger and more wicked still, With dark and dolorous labour, ill applied, With many a gripe of conscience, and with most Unhealthy and abortive reasoning, That brought his sanity to serious doubt, 'Mong wise and honest men, maintained that He, First Wisdom, Great Messiah, Prince of Peace, The second of the uncreated Three, Was naught but man, of earthly origin: Thus making void the sacrifice divine, And leaving guilty men, God's holy law Still unatoned, to work them endless death. These are a part; but to relate thee all The monstrous, unbaptized fantasies, Imaginations fearfully absurd, Hobgoblin rites, and moon-struck reveries, Distracted creeds, and visionary dreams, More bodiless and hideously misshapen Than ever fancy, at the noon of night, Playing at will, framed in the madman's brain, That from this book of simple truth were proved,
Destroyed, destroying; in tormenting, pained; Unawed by wrath, by mercy unreclaimed; Thing most unsightly, most forlorn, most sad, Thy time on earth is passed, thy war with God And holiness. But who, oh, who shall tell, Thy unrepentable and ruinous thoughts! Thy sighs, thy groans! who reckon thy burning tears,
And damned looks of everlasting grief,
Where now, with those who took their part with thee,
Thou sitt'st in hell, gnawed by the eternal Worm, To hurt no more, on all the holy hills!
That those, deserting once the lamp of truth, Should wander ever on, from worse to worse Erroneously, thy wonder needs not ask : But that enlightened, reasonable men, Knowing themselves accountable, to whom God spoke from heaven, and by his servants warn- ed,
Both day and night, with earnest pleading voice, Of retribution equal to their works,
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