Whilst I with seraphs share seraphic themes,
And shew to men the dignity of man;
Lest I blaspheme my subject with my song.
Shall Pagan pages glow celestial flame,
And Christian languish? On our hearts, not heads,
Falls the foul infamy: my heart! awake.
What can awake thee, unawak'd by this,
"Expended DEITY on human weal?"
Feel the great truths, which burst the tenfold night
Of Heathen error, with a golden flood
Of endless day: to feel, is to be fir'd;
And to believe, Lorenzo! is to feel.
Thou most indulgent, most tremendous Power!
Still more tremendous, for thy wondrous love!
That arms, with awe more awful, thy commands;
And foul transgression dips in sevenfold night;
How our hearts tremble at thy love immense !
In love immense, inviolably just!
Thou, rather than thy justice should be stain'd,
Didst stain the cross; and work of wonders far
The greatest, that thy dearest far might bleed.
Bold thought! shall I dare speak it, or repress!
Should man more execrate or boast, the guilt
Which rous'd such vengeance? which such love in-
flam'd?
O'er guilt how mountainous!) with out-stretch'd arms,
Stern justice, and soft-smiling love, embrace,
Supporting, in full majesty thy throne,
When seem'd its majesty to need support,
Or that, or man, inevitably lost.
What, but the fathomless of thought divine,
Could labor such expedient from despair,
And rescue both? both rescue! both exalt!
O how are both exalted by the deed!
The wond'rous deed! or shall I call it more?
A wonder in omnipotence itself!
A mystery! no less to gods than men !
Not thus, our infidels the Eternal draw,`
A God all o'er, consummate, absolute,
Full orb'd, in his whole round of rays complete :
They set at odds heaven's jarring attributes;
And, with one excellence, another wound;
Maim heaven's perfection, break its equal beams,
Bid mercy triumph over-God himself,
Undeify'd by their opprobrious praise:
A God all mercy, is a God unjust.
Ye brainless wits! ye baptiz'd infidels !
Ye worse for mending, wash'd to fouler stains!
The ransom was paid down; the fund of heav'n,
Heaven's inexhaustible exhausted fund,
Amazing, and amaz'd, pour'd forth the price,
All price beyond: tho' curious to compute,
Archangels fail'd to cast the mighty sum:
Its value vast ungraspt my minds create,
For ever hides, and glows in, the Supreme.
And was the ransom paid? It was: and paid
(What can exalt the bounty more?) for you.
The sun beheld it-No, the shocking scene
Drove back his chariot: midnight veil'd his face;
Not such as this; not such as nature makes:
A midnight, nature shudder'd to behold;
A midnight new, a dread eclipse (without
Opposing spheres) from her Creator's frown.
Sun! didst thou fly thy Maker's pain? or start
At that enormous load of human guilt,
Which bow'd his bless'd head; o'erwhelm'd his cross; Made groan the centre; burst earth's marble womb, With pangs, strange pangs! deliver'd of her dead? Hell howl'd; and heaven that hour let fall a tear; Heaven wept, that man might smile! heaven bled, that
And is devotion virtue? 'Tis compell❜d:
What heart of stone, but glows at thoughts like these!
Such contemplations mount us; and should mount
The mind still higher; nor ever glance on man,
Unraptur'd, uninflam'd.-Where roll my thoughts
To rest from wonders? other wonders rise;
And strike where'er they roll: my soul is caught:
Heaven's sov'reign blessings, clust'ring from the cross,
Rush on her, in a throng, and close her round,
The pris'ner of amaze.-In his blest life,
I see the path, and, in his death, the price,
And in his great ascent, the proof supreme
Of immortality. And did he rise?
Hear, O ye nations! hear it, O ye dead!
He rose! He rose! He burst the bars of death.
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates!
And give the King of Glory to come in.
Who is the King of Glory? he who left
His throne of glory for the pang of death.
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates!
And give the King of Glory to come in.
Who is the King of Glory? he who slew
The ravenous foe, that gorg'd all human race!
The King of Glory, he, whose glory fill'd
Heaven with amazement at his love to man;
And with divine complacency beheld
Powers most illumin'd, wilder'd in the theme.
The theme, the joy, how then shall man sustain ?
Oh the burst gates! crush'd sting! demolish'd throne! Last gasp of vanquish'd death. Shout earth and heaven!
This sum of good to man. Whose nature, then,
Took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb!
Then, then I rose; then first humanity
Triumphant past the crystal ports of light!
(Stupendous guest!) and seiz'd eternal youth,
Seiz❜d in our name. E'er since, 'tis blasphemous
To call man mortal. Man's mortality
Was then.transferr'd to death; and heaven's duration
Unalienably seal'd to this frail frame,
This child of dust.-Man all-immortal! hail;
Hail, heaven! all-lavish of strange gifts to man!
Thine all the glory; man's the boundless bliss.
Where am I wrapt by this triumphant theme,
On christian joys exulting wing? Above
The Aonian mount !-alas, small cause for joy!
What if to pain immortal? if extent
Of being, to preclude a close of woe?
Where, then, my boast of immortality?
I boast it still, though cover'd o'er with guilt.
For guilt, not innocence his life he pour'd!
'Tis guilt alone can justify his death;
Nor that, unless his death can justify
Relenting guilt in heaven's indulgent sight.
If, sick of folly, I relent; he writes
My name in heaven, with that inverted spear
A spear deep-dipt in blood! which pierc'd his side, And open'd there a font for all mankind,
Who strive, who combat crimes, to drink, and live! This, only this, subdues the fear of death.
And what is this?-Survey the wondrous cure; And at each step, let higher wonders rise! "Pardon for infinite offence! and pardon "Through means, that speak its value infinite! "A pardon bought with blood! with blood divine! "With blood divine of him, I made my foe! "Persisted to provoke ! though woo'd and aw'd, "Blest, and chastis'd, a flagrant rebel still! "A rebel, 'midst the thunders of his throne! "Nor I alone, a rebel universe!
"My species up in arms! not one exempt! "Yet for the foulest of the foul, he dies; "Most joy'd, for the redeem'd from deepest guilt! "As if our race were held of highest rank; "And Godhead dearer, as more kind to man!" Bound every heart! and every bosom, burn!
Oh what a scale of miracles is here!
Its lowest round, high planted on the skies;
Its towering summit lost beyond the thought
Of man or angel! O that I could clime
The wonderful ascent with equal praise!
Praise flow for ever, (if astonishment
Will give thee leave) my praise! for ever flow;
Praise ardent, cordial, constant, to high Heaven
More fragrant, than Arabia sacrific'd;
And all her spicy mountains in a flame.
So dear, so due to Heaven, shall praise descend,
With her soft plume (from plausive angel's wing
First pluck'd by man) to tickle mortal ears,
Thus diving in the pockets of the great?
Is praise the perquisite of every paw,
Though black as hell, that grapples well for gold?
O love of gold, thou meanest of amours!
Shall praise her odors waste on virtues dead?
Embalm the base, perfume the stench of guilt,
Earn dirty bread by washing Ethiops fair,
Removing filth, or sinking it from sight,
A scavenger in scenes, where vacant posts,
Like gibbets yet untenanted, expect
Their future ornaments? From courts and thrones,
Return, apostate praise, thou vagabond!
Thou prostitute! to thy first love return,
Thy first, thy greatest, once unrival'd theme.
There flow redundant; like Meander flow,
Back to thy fountain; to that parent power,
Who gives the tongue to sound, the thought to soar,
The soul to be. Men homage pay to men,
Thoughtless beneath whose dreadful eye they bow
In mutual awe profound, of clay to clay,
Of guilt to guilt; and turn their backs on thee,
Great Sire! whom thrones celestial ceaseless sing;'
To prostrate angels an amazing scene!
O the presumption of man's awe for man!
Man's author, end, restorer, law, and judge!
Thine, all; day thine, and thine this gloom of night,
With all her wealth, with all her radiant worlds.
What, night eternal, but a frown from thee?
What, Heaven's meridian glory, but thy smile?
And shall not praise be thine? Not human praise?
While Heaven's high host on hallelujahs live?
O may I breathe no longer, than I breathe
My soul in praise to HIM, who gave my soul,
And all her infinite of prospect fair,
Cut through the shades of hell, great love! by thee, Oh most adorable! most unador'd!
Where shall that praise begin, which ne'er should end? Where'er I turn, what claim on all applause!
How is Night's sable mantle labor'd o'er,
How richly wrought, with attributes divine !
What wisdom shines! what love! this midnight pomp,
This gorgeous arch, with golden worlds inlay'd!
Built with divine ambition! nought to thee;
For others this profusion. Thou, apart,
Above! beyond! Oh tell me, mighty Mind!
Where art thou? shall I dive into the deep?
Call to the sun, or ask the roaring winds,
For their Creator? Shall I question loud
The thunder, if in that the Almighty dwells?
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