E'er with such majesty of portraiture Imaged the supreme beauty uncreate,
As thou, meek Saviour! at the fearful hour When thy insulted anguish winged the prayer Harped by Archangels, when they sing of mercy! Which when the Almighty heard from forth his throne Diviner light filled Heaven with ecstasy!
Heaven's hymnings paused and Hell her yawning mouth Closed a brief moment.
Of Him whose life was Love! Holy with power He on the thought-benighted Skeptic beamed Manifest Godhead, melting into day
What floating mists of dark idolatry
Broke and misshaped the omnipresent Sire: And first by Fear uncharmed the drowsed Soul. Till of its nobler nature it 'gan feel Dim recollections; and thence soared to Hope, Strong to believe whate'er of mystic good The Eternal dooms for his immortal sons. From Hope and firmer Faith to perfect Love Attracted and absorbed; and centered there God only to behold, and know, and feel, Till by exclusive consciousness of God All self-annihilated it shall make God its identity; God all in all !
Who in this fleshly World, the elect of Heaven,
Their strong eye darting through the deeds of men, Adore with steadfast unpresuming gaze Him Nature's essence, mind, and energy! And gazing, trembling, patiently ascend Treading beneath their feet all visible things As steps, that upward to their Father's throne Lead gradual-else nor glorified nor loved. They nor contempt embosom nor revenge : For they dare know of what may seem deform The Supreme Fair sole operant in whose sight
All things are pure, his strong controlling Love Alike from all educing perfect good.
Their's too celestial courage, inly armed—
Dwarfing Earth's giant brood, what time they muse On their great Father, great beyond compare! And marching onwards view high o'er their heads His waving banners of Omnipotence.
Who the Creator love, created might
Dread not within their tents no terrors walk. For they are holy things before the Lord
Aye unprofaned, though Earth should league with Hell; God's altar grasping with an eager hand Fear, the wild-visaged, pale, eye-starting wretch, Sure-refuged hears his hot pursuing fiends
Yell at vain distance. Soon refreshed from Heaven He calms the throb and tempest of his heart. His countenance settles; a soft solemn bliss Swims in his eye-his swimming eye upraised; And Faith's whole armor glitters on his limbs! And thus transfigured with a dreadless awe, A solemn hush of soul, meek he beholds All things of terrible seeming: yea, unmoved Views e'en the immitigable ministers
That shower down vengeance on these latter days.
For kindling with intenser Deity
From the celestial Mercy-seat they come,
And at the renovating wells of Love
Have filled their vials with salutary wrath,
To sickly Nature more medicinal
Than what soft balm the weeping good man pours Into the lone despoiled traveller's wounds!
Thus from the Elect, regenerate through faith, Pass the dark Passions and what thirsty Cares Drink up the Spirit, and the dim regards Self-centre. Lo they vanish! or acquire New names, new features-by supernal grace Enrobed with Light, and naturalized in Heaven. As when a shepherd on a vernal morn
Through some thick fog creeps timorous with slow foot, Darkling he fixes on the immediate road
But lo! the bursting Sun!
Touched by the enchantment of that sudden beam Straight the black vapor melteth, and in globes Of dewy glitter gems each plant and tree; On every leaf, on every blade it hangs! Dance glad the new-born intermingling rays, And wide around the landscape streams with glory!
There is one Mind, one omnipresent Mind, Omnific. His most holy name is Love. Truth of subliming import! with the which Who feeds and saturates his constant soul, He from his small particular orbit flies With blest outstarting! From Himself he flies, Stands in the sun, and with no partial gaze Views all creation; and he loves it all, And blesses it, and calls it very good! This is indeed to dwell with the most High! Cherubs and rapture-trembling Seraphim Can press no nearer to the Almighty's Throne. But that we roam unconscious, or with hearts Unfeeling of our universal Sire,
And that in his vast family no Cain Injures uninjured (in her best-aimed blow Victorious murder a blind suicide)
Haply for this some younger Angel now
Looks down on human nature
A sea of blood bestrewed with wrecks, where mad Embattling interests on each other rush
Our noontide majesty, to know ourselves
Parts and proportions of one wondrous whole!
This fraternizes man, this constitutes
Our charities and bearings. But 'tis God
Diffused through all, that doth make all one whole :
This the worst superstition, him except Aught to desire, Supreme Reality! The plenitude and permanence of bliss! O Fiends of Superstition! not that oft
The erring priest hath stained with brother's blood Your grisly idols, not for this may wrath Thunder against you from the Holy One! But o'er some plain that steameth to the sun, Peopled with death; or where more hideous Trade Loud-laughing packs his bales of human anguish ; I will raise up a mourning, O ye Fiends!
And curse your spells, that film the eye of Faith, Hiding the present God! whose presence lost, The moral world's cohesion, we become An anarchy of Spirits! Toy-bewitched, Made blind by lusts, disherited of soul, No common centre Man, no common sire Knoweth A sordid solitary thing,
Mid countless brethren with a lonely heart Through courts and cities the smooth savage roams Feeling himself, his own low self the whole; When he by sacred sympathy might make The whole one self! self, that no alien knows! Self, far diffused as Fancy's wing can travel! Self, spreading still! Oblivious of its own, Yet all of all possessing! This is Faith! This the Messiah's destined victory!
But first offences needs must come! Even now*
(Black Hell laughs horrible-to hear the scoff!)
January 21st, 1794, in the debate on the address to his Majesty, on the speech from the Throne, the Earl of Guildford moved an amendment to the following effect:-"That the House hoped his Majesty would seize the earliest opportunity to conclude a peace with France," &c. This motion was opposed by the Duke of Portland, who "considered the war to be merely grounded on one principle-the preservation of the Christian Religion." May 30th, 1794, the Duke of Bedford moved a number of resolutions, with a view to the establishment of a peace with France. He was opposed (among others) by Lord Abingdon in these remarkable words: "The best road to Peace, my Lords, is War! and War carried on in the same manner in which we are taught to worship our Creator, namely, with all our souls, and with all our minds, and with all our hearts, and with all our strength."
Thee to defend, meek Galilean! Thee And thy mild laws of Love unutterable, Mistrust and enmity have burst the bands Of social peace; and listening treachery lurks With pious fraud to snare a brother's life; And childless widows o'er the groaning land Wail numberless; and orphans weep for bread Thee to defend, dear Saviour of mankind!
Thee, Lamb of God! Thee, blameless Prince of Peace. From all sides rush the thirsty brood of War,— Austria, and that foul Woman of the North, The lustful murderess of her wedded lord! And he, connatural mind! whom (in their songs So bards of elder time had haply feigned) Some Fury fondled in her hate to man, Bidding her serpent hair in mazy surge Lick his young face, and at his mouth imbreathe Horrible sympathy! And leagued with these Each petty German princeling, nursed in gore! Soul-hardened barterers of human blood!
Death's prime slave-merchants! Scorpion-whips of Fate! Nor least in savagery of holy zeal,
Apt for the yoke, the race degenerate,
Whom Britain erst had blushed to call her sons!
Thee to defend the Moloch priest prefers
The prayer of hate, and bellows to the herd That Deity, accomplice Deity
In the fierce jealousy of wakened wrath Will go forth with our armies and our fleets To scatter the red ruin on their foes! O blasphemy! to mingle fiendish deeds With blessedness!
Lord of unsleeping Love,* From everlasting Thou! We shall not die. These, even these, in mercy didst thou form, Teachers of Good through Evil, by brief wrong Making Truth lovely, and her future might
* Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, mine Holy One? shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment, &c. Habak!
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