Their vast appointments reach it not; they see
On earth a bounty not indulged on high,
And downward look for Heaven's superior praise ! 440) Firstborn of Ether! high in fields of Light!
View man, to see the glory of
your God! Could angels envy, they had envied here : And some did envy; and the rest, though gods, Yet still gods unredeem'd (there triumphs man, Tempted to weigh the dust against the skies,) They less would feel, though more adorn my theme. They sung Creation (for in that they shared ;) How rose in melody that child of love! Creation's great superior, man! is thine; Thine is Redemption! they just gave the key; "Tis thine to raise and eternize the song, Though human, yet divine; for should not this Raise man o'er man, and kindle seraphs here? Redemption! 'twas Creation more sublime; Redemption! 'twas the labour of the skies; Far more than labour-it was death in Heaven! A truth so strange, 'twere bold to think it true, If not far bolder still to disbelieve.
Here pause and ponder. Was there death in Heaven? What then on earth on earth, which struck the blow? Who struck it? Who-O how is man enlarged, Seen through this medium! How the pigmy towers! How counterpoised his origin from dust! How counterpoised, to dust his sad return! How voided his vast distance from the skies!
How near he presses on the seraph's wing!
Which is the seraph? which the born of clay ?
How this demonstrates, through the thickest cloud
Of guilt and clay condensed, the Son of Heaven' 470
The double Son: the made, and the remade!
And shall Heaven's double property be lost ———
Man's double madness only can destroy.
To man the bleeding Cross has promised all;
The bleeding Cross has sworn eternal grace.
Who gave his life, what grace shall He deny?
O ye! who from this rock of ages leap
Apostates, plunging headlong in the deep!
What cordial joy, what consolation strong,
Whatever winds arise, or billows roll,
Our interest in the Master of the storm!
Cling there, and in wreck'd Nature's ruins smile;
While vile apostates tremble in a calm.
Man! know thyself: all wisdom centres there
To none man seems ignoble, but to man.
Angels that grandeur, men o'erlook, admire.
How long shall human nature be their book,
Degenerate mortal! and unread by thee?
The beam dim Reason sheds shows wonders there;
What high contents! illustrious faculties!
But the grand comment, which displays at full
Our human height, scarce sever'd from divine,
By Heaven composed, was publish'd on the Cross.
Who looks on that, and sees not in himself
An awful stranger, a terrestrial god?
A glorious partner with the Deity
In that high attribute, immortal life?
If a God bleeds, le bleeds not for a worm.
I gaze, and, as I gaze, my mounting soul
Catches strange fire, Eternity at thee,
And drops the world-or, rather, more enjoys.
How changed the face of Nature! how improved!
What seem'd a chaos, shines a glorious world;
Or what a world, an Eden; heighten'd all'
In boundless walks of raptured thought! where gods Encounter and embrace me What new birth
Of strange adventure, foreign to the sun,
Where what now charms, perhaps, whate'er exists
Old Time and fair Creation, are forgot.
Is this extravagant? of man we form
Extravagant conception, to be just :
Conception unconfined wants wings to reach him;
Beyond its reach the Godhead only more.
He, the great Father! kindled at one flame
The world of rationals: one spirit pour'd
From spirits' awful Fountain; pour'd Himself
Through all their souls, but not in equal stream,
Profuse, or frugal, of the' inspiring God,
As his wise plan demanded; and when pass'd
Their various trials, in their various spheres,
If they continue rational, as made,
Resorbs them all into Himself again,
His throne their centre, and his smile their crown. 530
Why doubt we, then, the glorious truth to sing,
Though yet unsung, as deem'd, perhaps, too bold?
Angels are men of a superior kind;
Angels are men in lighter habit clad,
High o'er celestial mountains wing'd in flight;
And men are angels, loaded for an hour,
Who wade this miry vale, and climb with pain,
And slippery step, the bottom of the steep.
Angels their failings, mortals have their praise:
While here, of corps ethereal, such enroll'd,
And summon'd to the glorious standard soon,
Which flames eternal crimson through the skies.
Nor are our brothers thoughtless of their kin,
Yet absent; but not absent from their love.
Michael has fought our battles; Raphael sung
Our triumphs; Gabriel on our errands flown,
Sent by the Sovereign: and are these, O man!
Thy friends, thy warm allies? and thou (slame burn
The cheek to cinder!) rival to the brute?
Religion's all. Descending from the skies
To wretched man, the goddess in her left
Holds out this world, and in her right the next
Religion! the sole voucher man is man ;
Supporter sole of man above himself;
E'en in this night of frailty, change, and death,
She gives the soul a soul that acts a god.
Religion Providence! an after state!
Here is firm footing; here is solid rock;
This can support us; all is sea besides;
Sinks under us; bestorms, and then devours.
His hand the good man fastens on the skies,
And bids earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl.
As when a wretch, from thick polluted air,
Darkness and stench, and suffocating damps,
And dungeon horrors, by kind Fate discharged,
Climbs some fair eminence, where ether pure
Surrounds him, and Elysian prospects rise;
His heart exults, his spirits cast their load,
As if newborn he triumphs in the change:
So joys the soul, when from inglorious aims
And sordid sweets, from feculence and froth
Of ties terrestrial set at large, she mounts
To Reason's region, her own element,
Breathes hopes immortal, and affects the skies
Religion! thou the soul of happiness,
And, groaning Calvary of thee: there shine
The noblest truths; there strongest motives sting;
There sacred violence assaults the soul;
There nothing but compulsion is forborne.
Can love allure us! or can terror awe?
He weeps '—the falling drop puts out the Sun :
He sighs!-the sigh earth's deep foundation shakes.
If in his love so terrible, what then
His wrath inflamed? his tenderness on fire?
Like soft, smooth oil, outblazing other fires?
Can prayer, can praise, avert it ?--Thou, my ali!
My theme! my inspiration! and my crown?
My strength in age! my rise in low estate!
My soul's ambition, pleasure, wealth!-mv world'
My light in darkness! and my life in death!
My boast through time! bliss through eternity!
Eternity, too short to speak thy praise,
Or fathom thy profound of love to man!
To man of men the meanest, e'en to me;
My sacrifice my God!-what things are these! 595 What then art Thou? by what name shall I call thee? Knew I the name devout archangels use,
Devout archangels should the name enjoy,
By me unrival'd; thousands more sublime,
None half so dear as that which, though unspoke, 600
Still glows at heart. O how Omnipotence
Is lost in love! thou great Philanthropist !
Father of angels! but the friend of man!
Like Jacob, fondest of the younger born!
Thou who didst save him, snatch the smoking brand
From out the flames, and quench it in thy blood! 606
How art thou pleased by bounty to distress!
To make us groan beneath our gratitude,
Too big for birth! to favour and confound;
'To challenge and to distance all return!
Of lavish love stupendous heights to soar,
And leave Praise panting in the distant vale!
Thy right, too great, defrauds thee of thy due;
And sacrilegious our sublimest song!
But since the naked will obtains thy smile,
Beneath this monument of praise unpaid,
And future life symphonious to my strain,
(That noblest hymn to Heaven!) for ever lie
Entomb'd my fear of death! and every fear,
The dread of every evil, but thy frown.
Whom see I yonder so demurely smile?
Laughter a labour, and might break their rest.
Ye Quietists! in homage to the skies!
Serene of soft address! who mildly make
An unobtrusive tender of your hearts,
Abhorring violence! who halt indeed,
But, for the blessing wrestle not with Heaven'
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