There hangs all human hope; that nail supports
The falling universe: that gone, we drop;
Horror receives us, and the dismal wish

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Creation had been smother'd in her birth-
Darkness his curtain, and his bed the dust,
When stars and sun are dust beneath his throne;
In Heaven itself can such indulgence dwell?
O what a groan was there! a groan not his :
He seized our dreadful right, the load sustain'd,
And heaved the mountain from a guilty world.

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A thousand worlds, so bought, were bought too dear;
Sensations new in angels' bosoms rise,
Suspend their song, and make a pause in bliss.
O for their song to reach my lefty theme!
Inspire me, Night! with all thy tuneful spheres:
Whilst I with seraphs share seraphic themes,
And show to men the dignity of man;
Lest I blaspheme my subject with my song.
Shall Pagan pages glow celestial flame,

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And Christian languish? On our hearts, not heads,
Falls the foul infamy. My heart! a,ake:
What can awake thee, unawaked by this,

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'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 fired;
And to believe, Lorenzo! is to feel.

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Thou most indulgent, most tremendous Power!
Still more tremendous for thy wonderous love!
That arms with awe more awful thy commands,
And foul transgression dips in sevenfold guilt;
How our hearts tremble at thy love immerse !
In love immense, inviolably just!

Thou, rather than thy justice should be strain'd,
Didst stain the Cross; and, work of wonders far
The greatest, that thy dearest far might bleed.

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Bord thought! shall I dare speak it or repress? 210 Should man more execrate or boast the guilt

Which roused such vengeance? which such love in

flamed?

O'er guilt (how mountainous!) with outstretch'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 labour such expedient from despair,
And rescue both? Both rescue! both exalt !
O how are both exalted by the deed!
The wondrous deed! or shali I call it more?
A wonder in Omnipotence itself!

A mystery no less to gods than men !

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Not thus our infidels the' Eternal draw,

A God all o'er consummate, absolute,

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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, 230
Bid mercy triumph over-God himself,
Undeified by their opprobrious praise :

A God all mercy is a God unjust.

Ye brainless wits! ye baptized infidels!

Ye worse for mending! wash'd to fouler stains! 235 The ransom was paid down; the fund of Heaven,

Heaven's inexhaustible, exhausted fund,

Amazing and amazed, pour'd forth the price,

All price beyond: though curious to compute,
Archangels fail'd to cast the mighty sum:
Its value vast, ungrasp'd by minds create,
For ever hides and glows in the Supreme.

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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;

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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

250

Which bow'd his blessed head, o'erwhelm'd his cross, Made groan the centre, burst earth's marble womb With pangs, strange pangs! deliver'd of her dead? 255 Hell howl'd; and Heaven that hour let fall a tear: Heaven wept, that men might smile! Heaven bled. that man

Might never die !

And is devotion virtue? 'tis compell'd.

What heart of stone but glows at thoughts like these? Such contemplations mount us, and should mount 261 The mind still higher, nor ever glance on man Unraptured, uninflamed.-Where roll'd my thoughts To rest from wonders? other wonders rise,

And strike where'er they roll: my soul is caught: 265 Heaven's sovereign blessings, clustering from the cross, Rush on her, in a throng, and close her round,

The prisoner of amaze !--In his bless'd 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!

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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.

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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

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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. 290
Then, then I rose; then first Humanity

Triumphant pass'd the crystal ports of light,
(Stupendous guest!) and seized eternal youth,
Seized in our name. E'er since 'tis blasphemous
To call man mortal. Man's mortality

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Was then transferr'd to death; and Heaven's duratior 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 rapp'd by this triumphant theme,

On Christian joy's exulting wing, above
The' Acnian 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

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305

310

My name in Heaven with that inverted spear (A spear deep dipped in blood) which pierced his side, And open'd there a font for all mankind,

315

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 wonder 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;

320

Persisted to provoke! though wooed, and awed;
Bless'd, and chastised; 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!

325

Yet for the foulest of the foul he dies,

Most joy'd for the redeem'd from deepest guilt!

330

As if our race were held of highest rank;

And Godhead dearer, as more kind to man!'

Bound, every heart; and, every bosom, burn!

O what a scale of miracles is here!

Its lowest round high planted on the skies,

335

Its towering summit lost beyond the thought
Of man or angel! O that I could climb

The wonderful ascent, with equal praise!
Praise! flow for ever, (if astonishment

Will give thee leave) my praise! for ever flow; 340
Praise ardent, cordial, constant, to high Heaven
More fragrant than Arabia sacrificed,

And all her spicy mountains in a flame.

So dear, so due to Heaven, shall Praise descend
With her soft plume (from plausive angels' wing 345
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 odours 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 poste,

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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,

360