If he create, it is a world he makes; If he be angry, the creation shakes:
From bis just wrath our guilty parents fled;
He curs'd the earth, but bruis'd the serpent's head.
Amidst the storm his bounty did exceed,
In the rich promise of the Virgin's seed:
Though justice death, as satisfaction, craves,
Love finds a way to pluck us from our graves.
Nor willing terror should his image move;
He gives a pattern of eternal love;
His Son descends to treat a peace with those
Which were, and must have ever been, his foes.
Poor he became, and left his glorious seat
To make us humble, and to make us great :
His business here was happiness to give
To those whose malice could not let him live.
Legions of angels, which he might have us'd,
(For us resolv'd to perish) he refus'd:
While they stood ready to prevent his loss,
Love took him up, and nail'd him to the cross.
Immortal love! which in his bowels reign'd,
That we might be by such great love constrain'd
To make return of love. Upon this pole
Our duty does, and our religion, roll.
To love is to believe, to hope, to know;
'Tis an essay, a taste of Heav'n below!
He to proud potentates would not be known; Of those that lov'd him he was hid from none. Till love appear we live in anxious doubt;
But smoke will vanish when that flame breaks out
This is the fire that would consume our dross,
Refine, and make us richer by the loss.
Could we forbear dispute, and practise love,
We should agree as angels do above.
Where love presides, not vice alone does find
No entrance there, but virtues stay behind:
Both faith, and hope, and all the meaner train
Of mortal virtues, at the door remain.
Love only enters as a native there,
For born in Heav'n, it does but sojourn here..
He that alone would wise and mighty be,
Commands that others love as well as he.
Love as he lov'd!-How can we soar so high?-
He can add wings when he commands to fly.
Nor should we be with this command dismay'd;
He that examples gives will give his aid:
For he took flesh, that where his precepts fail,
His practice, as a pattern, may prevail.
His love at once, and dread, instruct our thought;
As man he suffer'd, and as God he taught.
Will for the deed he takes: we may with ease
Obedient be, for if we love we please.
Weak though we are, to love is no hard task,
And love for love is all that Heav'n does ask.
Love! that would all men just and temperate make,
Kind to themselves and others for his sake.
"Tis with our minds as with a fertile ground, Wanting this love they must with weeds abound, (Unruly passions) whose effects are worse
Than thorns and thistles springing from the curse.
To glory man, or misery, is born,
Of his proud foe the envy, or the scorn:
Wretched he is, or happy, in extreme;
Base in himself, but great in Heaven's esteem:
With love, of all created things the best;
Without it, more pernicious than the rest;
For greedy wolves unguarded sheep devour
But while their hunger lasts, and then give o'er:
Man's boundless avarice his want exceeds,
And on his neighbours round about him feeds.
His pride and vain ambition are so vast,
That, deluge-like, they lay whole nations waste.
Debauches and excess (though with less noise)
As great a portion of mankind destroys.
The beasts and monsters Hercules opprest,
Might in that age some provinces infest;
These more destructive monsters are the bane
Of every age, and in all nations reign;
But soon would vanish, if the world were bless'd
With sacred love, by which they are repress'd.
Impendent death and guilt that threatens hell, Are dreadful guests, which here with mortals dwell; And a vex'd conscience, mingling with their joy Thoughts of despair, does their whole life annoy; But love appearing, all those terrors fly;
We live contented, and contented die.
They in whose breast this sacred love has place, Death as a passage to their joy embrace.
Clouds and thick vapours, which obscure the day, The sun's victorious beams may chase away:
Those which our life corrupt and darken, love
(The nobler star!) must from the soul remove.
Spots are observ'd in that which bounds the year;
This brighter sun moves in a boundless sphere,
Of Heav'n the joy, the glory, and the light;
Shines among angels, and admits no night.
THIS Iron Age (so fraudulent and bold!)
Touch'd with this love, would be an Age of Gold:
Not as they feign'd, that oaks should honey drop,
Or land neglected bear an unsown crop;
Love would make all things easy, safe, and cheap;
None for himself would either sow or reap:
Our ready help and mutual love would yield
A nobler harvest than the richest field.
Famine and death, confin'd to certain parts,
Extended are by barrenness of hearts.
Some pine for want where others surfeit now;
But then we should the use of plenty know.
Love would betwixt the rich and needy stand,
And spread Heaven's bounty with an equal hand:
At once the givers and receivers bless,
Increase their joy, and make their sufferings less.
Who for himself no miracle would make,
Dispens'd with several for the people's sake:
He that long fasting, would no wonder show,
Made loaves and fishes, as they ate them, grow.
Of all his pow'r, which boundless was above,
Here he us'd none but to express his love;
And such a love would make our joy exceed,
Not when our own, but other mouths we feed.
Laws would be useless which rude nature awe; Love, changing nature, would prevent the law: Tigers and lions into dens we thrust,
But milder creatures with their freedom trust.
Devils are chain'd, and tremble; but the Spouse
No force but love, nor bond but bounty, knows.
Men (whom we now so fierce and dangerous see)
Would guardian angels to each other be:
Such wonders can this mighty love perform,
Vultures to doves, wolves into lambs transform!
Love what Isaiah prophesied can do,
Exalt the vallies, lay the mountains low,
Humble the lofty, the dejected raise,
[ways.
Smooth and make straight our rough and crooked
Love, strong as death, and like it, levels all;
With that possest, the great in title fall:
Themselves esteem but equal to the least,
Whom Heav'n with that high character has blest.
This love, the centre of our union, can
Alone bestow complete repose on man;
Tame his wild appetite, make inward peace,
And foreign strife among the nations cease.
No martial trumpet should disturb our rest,
Nor princes arm, though to subdue the East,
Where for the tomb so many heroes (taught
By these that guided their devotion) fought.
Thrice happy we, could we like ardour have
To gain his love, as they to win his grave!
Love as he lov'd! A love so unconfin'd,
With arms extended, would embrace mankind.
Self-love would cease, or be dilated, when
We should behold as many selfs as men;
All of one family, in blood allied,
His precious blood, that for our ransom died !
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