POETICAL FRAGMENTS: CONTAINING THE PSYCHOLOGIST, OR WHENCE IS A KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOUL DERIVABLE? AND THE DELUGE, A MIDNIGHT REVERIE. BY FREDERICK SAMSON THOMAS. LONDON : PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY JAMES TURNER, STAR PRESS, 20, CROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN. 1836, ?R PREFACE. Tiir subject which the former of the accom- panying Poems proposes to open, is of such in imentous interest, and embraces so many appa- rent difficulties, that although it has engaged the attention of the thoughtful of all ages, it yet remains the one point sought, the one point to be fully found; and it will ever exist as the attractive centre around which the thoughts of man, cheered by its light, gladden'd by its rays, and supported by its influence will continue to revolve. It is universally felt, and generally acknowledged a- the foundation of all Theological enquiries, and thence we may reasonably suppose there remains no untrodden ground where the foot oi originality may gain outselling p!>int, or find a vacancy wherein it may expand; and that nc one drop of argument need be added to the flood which his so frequently overwhelmed the opponents of its truth. iv. PREFACE. But, as we daily find new disputants arise astonishing the world with shades of apparent originality; and that new drops of error are silently and cautiously filtered through the word of life ; which, if permitted to accumulate, may ultimately sap the foundations of religion, and, to the timid believer present the aspect of an overwhelming sea: it behoves us at least to intimate that we are ready, if called on, to give a reason for the hope that is within us; and it justifies any attempt, either poetic or argumenta- tive, which manifests a desire to lead the minds of others to the contemplation of God's most holy Word. Influenced by a desire to induce a more extend- ed biblical research in my own family circle, I, the junior member, about five years since, employed my leisure hours in giving some of the most important passages of the Old and New Testa- ments a poetic garb. The work was widely circulated in manuscript, but being both juvenile and voluminous, it was withheld from the public from a supposition, on my part, of its dearth of metrical interest, and also from motives [of pecu- niary calculation. Circumstances have since transpired which appear to render its publication desirable, if con- densed in mutter, and divided into separate portions. PREFACE V. Two Fragments of thai Work, which was entitled " Creation and Redemption," are there- fore offered to the consideration of the public. Shorn indeed of their argumentative and to me important quality, but embracing points which may serve as hints for future definition. Goads to those who desire to have their minds stirred up to the examination of so important a subject ; and " pegs debateable" whereon my avowed opponents may hang their threatened arguments. It may be asked, why I select the narrow path of poetry for the exhibition of a subject requiring the unencumbered field of logical argument ; I reply, those ideas were first suggested in meter, partaking of the rapid and somewhat wandering form they still retain ; — that it is the natural effect produced upon the meditative mind when thought journies amidst the diversities of the heavenly host : — and that I intentional!) reserve the full development of the subject until the points of debate are openly acknowledged by those who profess to differ, and who threaten to refute. The subject of the origin, the existence, and the interests of the Soul is merely hinted here. Sketched, I may say, in the faintest outline, lint capable of that argumentative definition which would strengthen and relieve each componenl VI. PREFACE. part. Much to be added, and much intention- ally withheld : but nought which I at present desire to abstract, and no feature given which a re-perusal, after a lapse of five years, urges me to expunge. I have, I confess, exhibited fancies that flit across the imagination in its hour of excite- ment, but I think I have made it evident that I regard these as vain, and I trust poetic licence has not urged me to invade any point of established doctrine, or to darken one single ray of truth. But, making God's written word the Umpire of all Faith, I use these visionary flights as vehicles whereby I may exhibit the grandeur of his works, and as proofs of the endless vagaries of the undirected mind. It has been assumed that I hereby throw down the gauntlet to disputants, and open the arena of controversy. But whilst I disclaim any desire to emerge from my accustomed retirement ; or to blend the imaginative writer with the profes- sion of a would-be artist ; I would not, being threatened, attempt to screen myself in ignomi- nious shelterage. I am not ignorant of the literary powers of my opponents, and I have no boastful confidence in my own strength, but I feel my position (that of the immortality and immateriality of the Soul), PREFACE. vii. is so fortified that a child in intellect, with the simple weapon of faith may hold it against a Most, whilst its paramount interest to all earthly objectSj presents a sufficient apologj for obtruding m\ thoughts upon the attention of (hose who make its welfare llieir chief concern. I C8U - Hi i are vult." Pentonville, May 2&h, 183G. POSTS CB fPT. Hi him. the printing of (lie last pages of the " Psychologist, 1 ' several questions have been proposed to the Author, relative to opinions therein expressed, of so important a Nature, that he considers it incumbent upon him at least iii acknowledge their receipt. These communications were received too late to be ooticed in ilir body of the work; and as the character thereof is, or was intended to be, a mere Poetical Effusion or Essay, the Author does not deem it expedient to engraft thereon ought that is purely argumentative ; but retains the original design of a prelude, and reserves, for a future opportunity, the privilege of a reply. In the meantime he begs to offer the following epitome of views intended to be therein embodied, and which, he trusts, he will hereafter be enabled to support, should a defensive explanation appear to be required. In the few words which occur relative to Phrenology, the Author begs to disclaim the slightest intention of combatting a Science to which he confesses himself a Convert; but merely objects to, and protests against the fatal error of those (lie hopes comparatively few) who mistaking the. intention of its founder, and the definition of its present supporters, deny, or overlook the existence of a Soul, and build thereon the dangerous superstructure of Materiality. On the more important subject of Divinity, he begs to slate, that his conceptions are: — \ perfect Unity in the Being of God.— This I nity, POSTSCRIPT. consistent with the same perfect Divinity, animating, and sanctifying, the perfect manhood of Christ. — And the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, as the sanctifying agent of Almighty God, withheld, imparted, apportioned, or with- drawn, according to his will. These — one Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent Q oc l l — Infusing a form, for the purpose of Redemption in the body of Christ, and assuming the semblance* of a Dove, and cloven tongues (in compassion to the limited perceptions of man) for the purpose of manifesting its existence independant of Physical life, and its sanctifying, instructive, and subjugating influence, as a quality super- added to the mental powers. On the subject of Man, his ideas are — A state of pu- rity at birth — A progressive expansion of Intellect, and growth of Natural feeling, with a corresponding inability, to comprehend the righteousness of the gospel, to fulfil its requirements, or to violate its laws. — A state of account- ability, and consequently, a freedom of choice; connected with an incapacity for a life of Holiness, which is opposed to Nature, inasmuch as it demands the subjugation of fleshly desires, and acquired habits ; and is alone exhibited when the reasoning faculties give man to comprehend the declarations of God in his Holy Word, and when the teachings of the Holy Spirit induce earnest and continual prayer for that promised Grace, whereby he is empower'd to contronl the feelings of Nature, and make all his energies of body or of mind " Servants to Righteousness unto Holiness, the end thereof being Everlasting Life." These views, thus briefly stated, he conceives to be in perfect harmony with each other ; and he trusts they will not be found to militate the unerring Word of God. August, 2bth 1836. TH E PSYCOLOGIST. INTRODUCTION Spirit of Nature! — Spirit f the Night! Thou art opening now thy splendours on my sight! Ye Spirits; — Hail! — Before ye I am bending; Your influence give ; — Tis on my mind descending ! Spirit of Nature ! — Israels' shepherd King Thou foretime taught'st Creation's works to sing : W hat thou didst give, when his bright mind was soaring ; To me extend, — for I am Light imploring ! Spirit of Nature! — There is no Land, or Tongue, Where thou art silent, or thy praise unsung ! Day unto Day, to listening Globes, appealing; Night unto Night, thy mysteries revealing ! Spirit of Darkness ! Genius of the Night ! Darkness of this our world, but Nature's light ' 'Tis thou that openest all that Heaven possesseth ; And all my Soul thy Magnitude confesseth ! 12 INTRODUCTION. Spirit of Darkness ! — But for Night and Thee, The Stars were curtain'd in obscurity ; Nought could Man know of worlds that do surround him ; Research would end where Matter-tie hath bound him ! Spirit of Nature ! — Can'st thou tell or give, The little somewhat that makes Matter live ? Not now, am T, for thy wide grandeur grasping ; But seek the Soul my bosom seems enclasping ! Spirit of Nature ! — Art thou deaf to me ? Wilt thou no answer give thy votary ! Surely the tenant in my body dwelling Is not unknown, its power beyond thy telling ? Spirit of Nature ! — To thy place again What I desire thou can'st not e'en explain ! 1 seek, in thee, the Soul ! Thou art dark before me ! I'm lost in doubt ; — a dense veil is thrown o'er me ! Spirit of God! — In revelation shown; This vital knowledge thine, and thine alone ! Knowledge — of all that time or nature hideth ! Knowledge — that substa?ice from the soul divideth ! Spirit of God ! — Thine is the Light divine, That on the darkness of the soul doth shine' Far more than Nature's light thy dear Word givetli ; When matter dies, it l ells how spirit liveth ! [NTROD1 CTION. 13 Spirit op God! — What aearness unto Thee Man feels, when Reason bends submissively, Ami he doth love the lore thy Word provideth; The Wisdom-voice ungodlj man derideth! Spirit of God! — Without thy vital spark, How dead our souls arc; and our minds how dark! Delusion, in man's brain, the fiend begetteth; When man iii Thee the fount of Truth forgetteth! Spirit of God! — Within this soul of mine Shed thou, oh! shed, one ray of light divine! Give to my spirit — Thought ,• to Thought enquiring, Grant thou the knowledge that my soul's desiring? SPIRIT ok God ! — Thou art promised unto all. That, unto thee, do for its fulness call ; For wand'ring weak ones, thou hast said, thou seekesl ! \nd t have uuvder'd, and am vet thy weakest! Spirit of God! — Thy fulness then impart, (rive thoughl its strength, and vigour to my heart ; Give me to mount, until m\ faith hath found thee: Then to rejoice, with angels that surround thee! Si'irit ok God! — Direct my wandering pen, Whilst I, this night, disclose to fellow men, How T did try, the soul to weave in storj ; And Thine the praise, the honor, and the glon, ! THE PSYCHOLOGIST. CANTO I. EVENING. It was evening's hour; and down the gilded West, The bright Sun hasted to his bed of rest. The hill, the vale, the ocean, and the sky, Glowed with the love-beams of the Deity, And the soft melody of Nature's prayer Was heaven-ward wafted on the balmy air. There breathed a solemn, mystic eloquence, Like our own heart's, when Prayer, deep and intense, Disdains the help of language, and a dearth Rests on the brightest numbers of the Earth. Full, but unutter'd Prayer ! — Which ruffles not The pin-drop-broken silence of the spot; Yet is that breathing heard in courts above, And God repays its spirit with his Love ! II. Such was the hour. — With meditative tread, We from the haunts of man had wandered ; 16 THE SEA. Wrapt in contemplation. Deep converse too Was ours, when ought of interest, or new, Did urge me to impart unto a friend, (Whose aged voice did oft instruction lend, And bring a long experience to controul) The imaginative wand'rings of my soul. Far in the distance lay the glittering sea; Resting in peace and in profundity. How rich, I said, in glowing images, To contemplation's eye that ocean is ! How many a thought, how many a similie, It doth present of that eternity Which awes the infidel; when on his mind, It bursts at last, declared, possessed, denned ! Eternity ! despised, and denied, Till God in death his word hath verified ! How like the Spirit is that boundless sea ! So changeless in sublime perpetuity ! So much diversified; so multiform; So soft in peace ; so awful in its storm ! And how it steals upon me ; seems entwined, With such absorbing influence round mv mind, That ought of anger, agitation, fear, Would grate as discord, jarring on the ear! I've walked its shore on such an eve as this, And all my thoughts have outrun into bliss ; For love, and peace, seemed bosomed on the sea, And every ripple rolled in harmony. ITS (II W.i B. Then, as the flood stole shoreward from the main. Upon the lonely beach unclad I've Lain, And let the soft wave round me gentlv press, In full endearmeai si its playfulness ; Jusl I ill my form, with liquid force uphold me, And in its health-infusing arms enfold me. I hi) — more I love it, when the tempest-blast, His war-cry sounds. When — furious, and fast, The roaring floods, with many a thundering shock, O'er loosening craigs, and o'er each jutting rock. Come leaping wild; whilst sparkling spray is tosi \-~ banner, floating 'bove the battle's-hosi ; \ i it 1 far, and wide, the sounding shore along, The taunting wave my backward footsteps throng: Then — then — it is, the feelings of the soul ( >'erleap the barrier of discreet controul ; And in the midst of the tumultuous tide, W ith arm of strength, and breast of stubborn pride, I've boldly plunged. — Beneath its foaming crest I've dared to seek congenial bed of rest ; Or ride upon ils wave, exultinglv, The conqueror of the tempest and the sea ! III. It seems, my friend, thai mind, and body too, Somewhat thai is mercurial doth imbue ; 18 REFLECTION THEREON. Or whence this change ? Or canst thou state Why Feeling thus with Winds should fluctuate? Is there a sympathetic unity, Which binds Creations great community In one eternal link? That filleth all, And is the great constraining principle? Doth Nature so in breast of man compound, Or so insinuate the elements around ; And so attune his mind with one full note, That when the corresponding chord is smote, The soul's-leap doth her master-key confess, And Matter trembles with vibrativeness ? — Most interesting would the subject be To trace how far our frame's vitality, (Which differs little from things below, The beast which moves, the trees, the plants which grow, And senseless are) may be derivable From Matter's mass. What is survivable, When Man, with some capacity denied, Some duct destroyed where pulp is purified ; Doth languish, — lessen, — and at length expends The ephem'ral strength on which his life depends. Or, by what chemistry the change is wrought, When Matter dense engenders subtle thought. And farther still (for there's a step beyond, Which to attain my spirit doth despond) See bow 'tis bred, and trace throughout the whoFe, That great constrainer — rni; Immortal Soil ! ! Ill P.i III \|. GROl r D ' 19 IV \niis the Great Omnipotent alone ! \h ! How unlike the hideous idol thing, Their hands had formed for human worshipping ! This is not Nature's-path ! "Tis not the line Where Mind would run without some discipline! Seine most mischievous Influence had he Wrought <>n their darkness, magnified their fear. They were as tutor'd then, and more intent, To make themselves the most profi< ient In horrid tenets, horn in hell, as we Can e'er heroin*' in i-liri«1 iaiiity ! Nature will be her own preservative, And doth implant such full desire to live, That where man i^ not falsely wrought upon, With some such fatal fascination As doth o'ertake the fabled dove; when she, Overwrought by fear, unconsciously doth flee Into destruction's fangs ; lie will avoid Death's loathsome grasp, nor seek to be destroyed. '•20 KRVOLTS AT DEATH. IX. Ah Death ! Stern Death ! Such terror lights thine eye, That man will shun thee, and thy presence fly ! 'Tis not thy pain, or fancied, or possessed ; For to the afflicted Death doth offer rest; 'Tis not reluctancy to part from all, Ay, every thing that we enjoyment call ; For there are those who find none, none can give, Dejected souls ! They suffer, — yet they live ! Death in their reach to ease them of their pain. Yet, if self-sought, they are truly termed insane ! When we have walked adown the steps of years, As we advance, progressive in our fears ; It is the last step ventured in the gloom ; We reach, and feel, and know not if the tomb Hath power to hold our weight, or whether we, Shall sink — and sink — throughout eternity ! It quells the bravest as he treads earth's brink, And cannot feel how far his Soul shall sink ! How dreadful ! Yel how simple ! It is nought But UNFE.LT DEPTH, and UNSUPPORTED THOUGHT! Ah ! Well the Deity when he did frame The human mind, knew how its Will to lame ! I ill. BR \l\ -(ii «.HI . 27 •■ Lei leath be an uncertainty," He Baid; " Give man his Embers, bul lei Soul <■■■ " His wisdom ami ii ; tin- one earth-tie "Shall outweigh \\ "■, o'erbalai misery; •• \nd hold liim in the station lie must fill " Till he hath wrought my purpose and my will ! " \ But, let us seek where Christian men do say The soul dulli harbour; and the brain survey. I trow that we -hall find the heathen are With some such men at least upon a par. But mark ! — of those philosophers I speak, .///'/ only those, who do its Matter seek, Ami tumble it about familiarly, I ntil they fancy that they know and see All that it ere contained. Therein they find Such just arrangement and such laws for Mind, That they desire to see no more ; and 1, Consent to their deductions, readily ; With but this one reserve; " That soul is not Mingled with thought, nor by the brain begot 11 The faculties (which are derived) remain One step behind the soul our frames contain. That which come- lower in the scale, submits I nto the pidgmenl of the power that sit> d -1 28 DOTH IT Pre-eminent ; link joining link ; thus, then, The spirit which is given unto men, May judge of matter's power, and furnish thence A data for the origin of Sense ; Beginning there, may see, how sense combined, Doth make a feeble or a vig'rous mind ; May from experience too, conclusion bring, Where dwells our feeling; where our reasoning; The Brain's the first that manifests controul ; An instrument that's handled by the Soul. The Brain, soul-stirred, produces Thought ; that Thought, Is by some answering muscle action-wrought; But these shall not the rule reverse, and find The mover of the organs of the mind. All things iu order due ; — First comes the Cause ; Then somewhat tangible to feel its laws. Soul is the first ; then Brain ; and Thought the third Result of two precedents when they're stirred : This pulp, and this its emanating ray, Have not the power the Spirit to survey ; As well may Spirit burst its line decreed, And grasp the Cause from which it did proceed. All things below are subject to our view, Spirit weighs Matter ; God looks Spirits through ! * 1 Cor. ii, 9, What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit which is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. com \i\ i in. soi i 29 li' Brain were paramount 'twould heaven reverse) Withdraw the blessing, and annul the curse! Break down a science, in itself bo g I. That, joined to faith, it cannot be withstood; \ikI makes us feel " [f madman doth exist, " li is the undevout Phrenologist ! " I like a figure, and an image may The scope and end of theories convey. XI. See! Here's a brainless skull! *Tis scalpless now, But 'tis a noble head ! That spacious brow Betokens that a brilliant mind was meant To be the master of that tenement. So we pronounce, who separate works assign, And, with acknowledge action, can define lis place of residence. But what a change ! Is that the depot where our thoughts arrange Long stores of memory; passive until Thence brought by Chance, or summon'd by our Will? And that frail arch, which crumbles 'neath our hand, Think ye its brittle base could e'er withstand The movements of the Mind ? Hath it controul'd The germe of pride within its ruined hold I Did it subdue ; could it confine indeed Ambition's swelling and destructive seed? 30 if so— Was that the Delphic Cave from which was sent, Oracles of wisdom, lines of sentiment ? The cell, in which such knowledge was contained, 'Twould lift a world — were other footing gained? " Yes ! It was even so ! — This vaulted bone, Was once Thought's palace ! Wisdom's spacious throne !" Furnish'd with Mind, and garnished with state, And witli attendant ministers that wait, The mandates of its Will, it was a sight That Angels even witness'd with delight ! But dire the change which thou hast wrought, Oh tomb ! Brainless that skull ! Dark that dismantled room ! And Vacancy, and Emptiness declare A ruin wrought which Time can ne'er repair ! Yet, man of intellect and powerful mind, Will tell you that the Soul is there con6ned ; And all that we have fondly looked upon, As emanation from the Eternal One, Is but the Brain. That Brain hath no controul, But that its convolutions make the Soul ! Ah ! say ye so ? — Then hope there is for those Whose pride it is all virtue to oppose ! If Matter think, and sin, of own accord, Then Matter too must reap the sure reward. And Matter may be hid ; il shall decay ; mi; WORM n All ) EATEN IT ! ; l \ihI thus perhaps, escaping judgment day Evade the wrath of God', Thou worm ! Brain-fed ! Withhold the matter thou hasl pilfered ' Thou hast unsouTd the -kull! Devour'd the brain! What thou liast stolen 'twere mercy to retain! Thou hast devour'd man's immortality! Doth it enlighten or enliven thee? And thou hasl made a banquet on his spirit! Dost thou his feeling or his thought inherit I Thou art too wise that, substance to retain; Twas won from earth, and to the earth again Thou didst restore it, lest at last to thee Should cleave the wrath of the Divinity! Earth holds it then, and thus descends at. last The curse on her which at the fall was passed! Oh, doctrine false! Full of confusion! Soon wilt, thou urge to this conclusion, " There is no spot hv rausoni'd spirits trod, " No Heaven — no Hell — no Sutil — and thence — • m> Gon !" XII. Whilst thus 1 mused the sun's retiring raj Had sunk beneath the. ocean, and the day Was rounding into night. Resplendent night' Which, veiling this, doth open to our sight 32 NIGHT. Innumerable worlds. And as, intent. I gazed on globes so bright, so permanent , Oh ! can it be, T sorrowing cried, That all this universe, wonderously wide, Shall be dissolved ? and whilst the earth is grasped In fiercest flame, and worlds in ruin clasped. The soul of man, the irreducible, Shall from the overheated crucible Come forth as purest ore, by flame refined, Renewed,- — restampt, — re-modellM to God's mind ? Ts that, and that alone, immortal made j With strength endow'd, and fullest power arrayed To shake its spirit from its mortal free And rise unbound in immortality? From Reason's earliest dawn around my mind, Mingled with hope and fear, there was entwined. An innate consciousness, assuring me Of my soul's indestructibility! — But if not found in matter what can give A full conviction thai the soul doth live? Ye brightsome globes ! ye seem to beckon me And seem to whisper, fainl and cautiously. That hidden high, those wheeling worlds among, The ripen'd secret, long-suspended hung. Shall T, presumptuously essaj to stand in Heaven's high arch, and with advent'rous hand I UJC1 rOURNIES. :i'J Approach the fully-laden Knowledge-tree, And grasp and gain tha pendant mysterj ' XIII. Anxious I gazed ; intently listening ; Hopeful some voice-celestial would bring The truth desired. And then, as star on star In Heavens pure blue embedded, deep and far r As gems of glory on the breast of night Came twinkling, glittering, bursting on the sight; Away — away — with eagle-wing unl'uiTd, My spirit flew, beyond this loathed world. Its ven'trous wing, bij fancy urged, soon won The foremost globe that circumscribes our sun Then onward bounded in its swift career, Through planet-belt and pathway of each sphere. Far, far, it flew, beyond our little ken And gazed on stars unknown, unseen till then ; New worlds it saw ; strange tongues o'erheard ; And quickly glanced on galaxies that gird Systems and spheres, in riher-space outspun, W here sin ne'er dwelt, and death was not begun; With ardent thought, and urged by Fancy's view Onward, and upward, still the spirit flew, In active dreaminess. Yet seemed she nought More nigh to the eternal home she sought; Found not the habitation of the soul ; Nor read more clear, writ on Creation's scroll 34 THROUGH THE HEAVENS. The glittering b/iss-word or the darkening ban That tokened the futurity of man! XIV. Here Fancy paused awhile, and pondered ; But, buoyant still, with lusty wing outspread, Hung thoughtful o'er the regions bright and pure, That it e'en now so rapidly and sure Had passed. Its world, devoid of matter-taint, Was dwindled to a star, beauteous and faint ; No stain bedimm'd the brightness of its lustre As round it swung the queen-globe of the clustre. Far off it lav; nor track nor pathway nigh, Outmarked its union with the azure sky ; But round about its circle, clear, defined, A halo, bright and beauteous was entwined. And other globes there were with circlets bright, Triple were some, and luminous, and light ; But when, or wherefore these bright bands were given, Or why thus marked amidst the Host of Heaven Knew not the soul. Nor shall man even guess Till through the portal of the grave he press ; And Reason find, made pure, and perfected, When light shall dawn upon the slumbering dead 1 ?* I \\" APPROACHES. \\ 35 And now tlio Spirit's soft, inquiring song, (Which sought the soul to know) did run along The chords of Heaven. When, faint in distant spare, Far as her eye could reach, her mind could trace, Kindling, bright'ning, dilating as it neared, A gleamv, bul increasing spot, appear'd ! Formless, and indistinct, and undefined, It -tole at first upon the musing mind; Rapid as meteor-flash, when clouds are riven, And lightning-gleams across the heavens are driven, It onward rolled ; a form at last it won, Bright as the last blush of the evening sun, As from its disk waved far and wide The beamy pinion of arch-angel's pride. Awe-struck, and motionless with growing fear, The spirit gazed ! No shelterage was near ; No spot for safe retreat, or backward flight, No space to hide beneath the gloom of night ! The comet's widest course beyond afar. It gleamed at first, as new-born glory star; But, e're the spirit's swiftest thought, outsent, Knowledge to gain of purpose or intent, Its source could reach; the vacancy he strode; Bright, but no spirit from the blest abode ; No seraph pure ; but demon, fierce and fell. Heaven's outcast angel, and the Lord of Hell ! 36 HIS ADDRESS — XVI. His towering form before the spirit quailed ; Trembled, and fear'd ; but worshipped not, nor hailed ; Sought not, nor shun'd the unexpected meeting; Nor before him with a holy greeting Bowed ! Godlike in shape, in shining vesture clad, In aspect beautiful ; yet stern, and sad, And dignified he stood ; But, as with eye Of anxious and prevailing scrutiny, The spirit scand each lineament, a scar, Furrow'd, and deep, his spacious brow did mar; Showed on its brightness the imprinted trail Of heaven's deep-scorching wrath, and told the tale Of conflict held in regions high and pure, Disgrace, defeat, and sad discomfiture ! XVII. " Child of earths dust ! — What I Fear'st not ? — Dost not. bow ? " Amid'st these realms of light what seekest thou ? ' The realms of air are these, my right resigned, " And I, their prince, in answer to thy mind, TO THE 3PIRIT. M " Thy wish, known, though breathed not, nor uttered, " Have hither ;it thy call, thy bidding sped ; " That wish I heard as midst my peers I sate, " Their spirits awed, and ruled their stern debate ; u Tvvas scarcely formed, had not attained its birth, " Ere I, for thee, had circumvolved the earth. " Not earth alone, but. earths, most numberless, " Which crowd Creation's pathway, and do press " Upon thine eye astonishment ! Say now, " Once more I ask ; what seekest ? What wouldest thou \ " Knowledge, you say, and truth, and light more pure " Than all your spirit's glimmerings, obscure, " And indistinct. Back to your world, I yonder see, " And there death's hour await; when He " Who framed thee from the senseless valley-clod, " Warmed thee with life, and told thee ' He was Goo. " Fooled thee with hopes, as yet unanswered; " Desires unsatisfied; and hath thee led " With fond aspirings, cherished and prized ; " But such as never shall be realized ; " With mother-dust again shall blend thy frame, « For dust thou art, as from the dust you came I « Trace you Death's deeds, so marked, so manifold, " Within vour own world done; witnessed and told 38 satan's address. " By man from the first dawn of opening time, " Confined not to tongue, or land, or clime. " Death's name, distinct and full, and explicit, " In characters most legible, is writ " Upon the brow of man. 'Tis stampt distinct " Upon each outward form, and closely linked " Through Nature's chain, from man to brute, from brute " To senseless things, inanimate and mute. " Far back, full early in creation's hour, " E'en in vour fabled paradise's bower, " The power was given ; whether for good or ill " Ask not of me — 'twas His — your Maker's will ! " Your Maker f — Your Desroyer say ! — This power " To death He gave, and till this very hour " Pity, nor love, death's arm hath ne'er restrained, " But well hath he accorded right maintained. " In man's young days, in your world's infant-tide, " People were thin, and few, and scatter'd wide ; " Death's arm moved slowly o'er the vacant earth, " His richest harvest was but scanty dearth. " Mankind despised him as a feeble foe, " Whom strength or numbers soon might overthrow ; " They lived, they multiplied, till at a birth " With daily thousands they replenish'd earth. " If haply one, by strength or wit alert, " Had braved his power, unstricken or unhurt ; " Or through (he press, unnoticed or unseen, " Had passed him by ; such oversight had been B VI A\V ADDRI SS 39 •' \ victory, which time or deeper ^kill ■ Might more mature, and Chance at length fulfil ; " Whilst from Death's hand, the sceptre the] should wrest, " And man should live eternally and bless'd. " But — ye Billy, and ye most confiding fools ! " ^ e brutes in comprehension, and ve tools " Of power insatiate ! Ye did not know " Man was Death's slave, your Earth his throne below ! " Centuries have passed since his first regal hour; " Millions have Cursed, and some have blessed, his power; " But, cursing, blessing, fearing, each and all, " Or battling, or resigned, alike they fall, " U willing Subject, or reluctant Slave, •' Hi- power confess, and perish in Hie grave! " Thus, in wasteful wantonness, / say, doth God, "Create a world; and to the valley clod " Give life and feeling. — Thus he flatters man, " (Whose vapoury life scarce reaches to a span) ■' To live, desire, exult, and multiply, " Then lay him down to languish and to . 1 1 . - " In bitterness? — He bids them upwards rise, "Towards a home long-promised in the >kies; ■ \ud as upon Hope's pinnacle they stand, "Grasps them within Destruction's mighty hand; " The vital essence oi the mind he d ith compress "From out its pulp. The jnice of life express; " Then hurls the worthless and despised day, "Far out — into deep Emptiness away; 40 A CHORUS ENSUES. " An emptiness soul-peopled unto thee ; " But emptiness of man's eternity !" XVIII. And Satan paused ! But ere vibrations chord Had ceased to pulsate with his voice abhor' d ; A chorus, full and deep, seemed to arise From unseen spirits, peopling the skies ! Above, beneath, around ; — far off, and near ; — Distant in Space ; — close in the spirit's ear ; Each Atom found a voice ! Deep Vacancy a tongue ! As thus, in measured unison they sung An unsought evidence of hosts of hell, Confirming words which from their leader fell ; Contemptuous words; defaming Deity; And stamping on Creation cruelty ! XIX. " Ay, thus 'twill be, till for the sickle thrust " Your earth is ripe ; and till oblivion's dust " Is strewed upon the unenlightened page " Of your time-serving and inglorious age ! " Till heaven hath number'd her appointed years ; " And Fate hath sum'd the reckoning of the spheres ! " Till loudest winds have breathed their parting sigh ; " And their puff'd clicks have outblown their supply THE CH0R1 -. 41 'Of vengeful vapours o'er the fainting Lea, •■ \nil urged the lasl leap of the bounding sea! ■• I ntil yon sun, so gloriously shining now, "Hath dashed the glittering chaplet from his brow; \nd glanced his latest love-beam on the child, " \V hose youth he nourished, on whose age lie " smiled ! " Until a last farewell the moon hath told " To all her sky companions of old ; " And shining stars wept down, as floods of tears, " At the departure of her sister-spheres, •• Throughout time loved, with seraph love alone, " And nightly decked with her own silvery zone; " Till heaven's last lightnings, with expiring ray, "Shall otitbeam all the lustre of the day; " And scorch, with heat, no ocean-fount can tame, " Your earth's dry stubble into fiercest flame ! " Till latest thunders shall thine lungs inflate, " To bellow forth the last roar of their hate ; " And He, who earth bestrides, and air, and sea, "Whose brow's resplendent with divinity; " His hand shalt lift towards all Nature's head, " And swear by him who farthest space outspread ; - Who gave each globe first impetus to run ; " Who, in heaven's blue-vault magnetized the sun; " And, through its pores, ignitable with lightness, •• Did deeply dash a beam of his own brightm " By him, who bade the mountain swell mi high, "The sea to roll, and mingle with the skv; r, 42 THE ECHO. " Who to fierce lightning lent its rapid wing ; " To thunders gave deep voice of threatening ! " Till he, the Angel from the courts of God, " Shall spread the everlasting gates abroad, " And, with a voice of seven-fold thunder's power, " To man proclaim Eternity's first hour ! " Shall swear, that Time its last wide round hath rolled ; " Shall as a curtain all these heavens upfold ; " And as a bark first cleaves the liquid sea, " Shall launch your earth into Eternity V XX. The chorus ceased ! The Demon darkly frowned ? His arm he waved exulting around ; As, from nearest globe, with voice of wonder, An echo, loud as the deepest thunder, Took up the closing couplet of the strain. And passed it on! Reverb'rated again. From globe to globe il rolled; from link (o link : Eacli voice less loud, less long, and less distinct : Pving in space, as billow of the sea ; Until the last globe sighed — Eternity ! XXI. 'Twas thus, with all the rapid eloquence, Malicious design, :mrl fair pretence; illv DESIGN DIS< 0V1 r'd. 43 And with the flowing- minstrelsy of Hell, The foe of heaven, and of man, did tell A worthless life bestowed. Willi libelous rage, He did misprint Creation's title-page. He promised unto man a mental light ; With it, the blessedness of full insight Into futurity. Withholding this, He gave the apple in its bitterness; Masked the plain truth, and fraud fully entwined A rayless darkness on the spirit's mind ! Of worlds decayed he told; of stars outburned ; Of nations lost ; dominions o'erturned ; He told of man, at first created free, Wrapt in the web of death's putridity ! Of life subdued ; the tongue of friendship hush'd ; Of love-ties sever'd ; heart's-affections crushed ; Of noble minds, and ardent spirits gone ; And lost in regions of oblivion ! Of budding flowers he told, wither' d and past, And strewed, as sere-leaves, by the untimely blast That made their loveliness a fabled story, And quenched their hopes of everlasting glory ! He told how time, and death, and deep distress, Should make this thronged world a wilderness ! And for its confirmation did refer To man's, and nature's yawning sepulchre ! Bui spoke not he of peace, nor prospect gave Beyond the tomb ; lit not death's gloomy wave ; Nor beacon-light upheld to guide man o'er ; \nd pointed not I -n's eternal shore! 44 HIS REPROOF. XXII. Peace, Tempter, peace ! Peace all ye host unseen ! Peace ye, who dare to thrust yourself between My Spirit and its God ! Would ye separate A soul from him who did that soul create? I seek the soul, would learn its destiny; Seek it in Nature's volume ; but from thee, Who well-head art to all the fount of lies, Asked no revealment ! These heavens, and these skies, They are God's workmanship, and do evince Creative wisdom, speak Omnipotence ! And cannot man attempt each truth to know, But thou shalt ever ready be to sow The seed of infidelity; or press His wavering soul with thoughts of doubtfulness ? Shall reason and research alone imply Injurious thoughts of the Divinity ? — XXIII. Satan away ! — Nature, and nought beside, Men often say should be our spirit's guide. How full her stores of ample matter, whence Our mind's shall draw the wanted evidence ! It wants but learning, doctrines to deduce, From data she hath scatter'd for our use ; Till SOU] 301 I M I. I ' On these, as steps, our intellects should rise, And trace the Spiril to the farthest skies! XX 1\ Inward I look ! My troubled soul ! Reply ! Shall each fond thought, each mental energy With this, my frame, expire? — All I possess Of knowledge, feeling, sink in forgetfulness, And be absorbed? — Or shall they waste away, And moulder in the tomb, progressively I Art thou a gift, justly dispensed and free I — Or art thou but the veriest mockery ? An ignis-fatuus, and a vapoury thing, That tempts but doth elude our reasoning? A loan, indefinite, unsought by me, And oft by God recalled, capriciously? Amidst the Mind's mass, which seems fecundate With imagination, dost thou vegetate, As plant zoophistic ? Nourished, and fed, Rv tepid blood-drops, softly filtered Through matter's-pores '. And, when thy root is worn, Shalt thou, from life's bleak rock be rudely torn By death's last wave ; and weed-like strewed upon The gloomy shore of mans oblivion? — Say! Dost thou lmk within each secret cell Of this my throbbing hea Dosl thou there dwell.' 46 IN MENTAL POWERS. Making the seat of life thy throne ; and thence, Throughout the branching veins dost thou dispense The mandates of thy will? Dost thou present, Or dost thou ask a nourishment? Art thou a breath ? Suspend it — thon art sped ! The blood ? Withdraw it — avid our life is fled ! Each seems a life, yet neither can be thee, Or where, my soul, that immortality For which thou yearnest oft ? If Thought ; why then At birtli so feebly given unto men ? Or, if improvable the Spirit be ; Wrought out, and perfected progressively ; Controulable, subduable by man ; How short this life, (e'en in its lengthened span,) For Science of such awful magnitude, It our eternal welfare doth include. And if Soul be Vitality and Breath, Why threaten'd with accountability in death I Shall I, with dark Arabia's sons suppose, That in the breast of all mankind there flows, One common Soid? — Distributed "midst men, And subdivided o'er and o'er again ? Or, with the Red Egyptian shall I think, That many souls, confessing common link, Pervade the breast of One ? Bach thought — one Soul ; Bach passion with one Deity's controul? THEIR REM J 17 [a Druth Annihilation! ts it a deep, A dark, a dreamless, an Eternal sleep ? Or, shall the careless soul, devoid of fear, That wastes Probation's day and slumbers hi Sink in the lap of Death, then wake to see Heavf.n is do Fable — Hell Reality ' XXV, \ml what said these f My Sense, my brightest Thought And what the light Imagination brought I " We feel within us, piercing Matter through, " Somewhat we cannot bring to Reason's view ; " We feel, but fail to comprehend ; we see, " Though Soul exist, defined it cannot be ; " Useless it were for things that emanate " To seek their origin to penetrate ; " Useless it is to seek our founts among, " Or break our rest by your appealing song, '• We speak in separate powers, in daily use, " \nd from that fact, if thou art wise, deduce " This one great truth, ' That all things hate one " HEAD, " ' And man by soul alone is governed.' "All complex movements must to one revert; " This primal influence cannot we exert ; " Mayhap within the Soul movement's begun : "That soul, pre-moved by the Eternal One! " No more we know ' 48 THE SOUL. " Though Reason beam in man " No thought of his eternity shall scan ; " Fancy is mute ; the feeling hath no speech ; " No delegated power the soul can teach ; " We would, but cannot send the truth to thee, " The secret rests with the Divinity !" XXVI. Here fancy drooped, dejected and depressed ; Her heavy wing by disappointment pressed, And truth defend. Heaven beamed upon her sight, Chiding her stay, and seeming to invite Her lagging wing, and to the spirit's-eye Baring its bosom for her scrutiny. How wide my spirit wander'd then, doth show, How far the Fancy will, unguided, go ; And what necessity there is, that we, Should be restricted by the Deity ! Others have wander'd, and perhaps as wild ; Some to despise, but others as the child Of some imagination, which doth seem A reason-light, but proves delusions dream ! But these wide wanderings may serve to teach, To what confusion all our minds would reach, Were we permitted thus, by vagaries, To snatch a fond religion from the skies ! sol <.ii r. r.i XX VII Whilst Fancy thus did travel round each sphere ; Bursting attraction's hounds, there did appear A comet in its flight ; with holy awe Its swift approach the waiting spirit saw ; It came — it passed; but as it passed it sent One gracious ray of fond encouragement. And as its glorious form, lessening apace, The Spirit watched, melting in Ether-space Her voice again inquisitive did seem, Guidance to ask from its retiring beam. Ah ! whither — whither — is thy way '. Or where Thy path, thou fleet, thou glorious messenger ? Is it amidst those far-off spots of light, Which faintly glimmer on my aching sight, And seem so far beyond Creation's bounds to rise, They must o'erlook the outworks of the skies ; And glimpse that land, if land indeed there be, Where we have out-mapped an Eternity I Are they some favoured and selected few, To whom 'tis given to take a distant view Of endless realms of Joy? Knowledge forbidden To Mortal's mind; Land from his eve-balls hidden ! And thou, bright band! Zoning Immensity! Effulgent with bespangled density ! 50 AMIDST Stars ! as the Ocean-sand for multitude ! Do ye enclose Creation ? Are ye strewed So thickly round these Matter-balls, that we, Must first attain a Spirit's subtlety, Ere we can pierce your web ? Dispel my doubt ! Though Earth within, is it all Heaven without? Here nestle worlds ! Here beauteous globes are strewed ! Is all without — one vast Infinitude ? XXVIII. How lovely are ye, untold Stars ! all ye That light the dwelling of the Deity ! Lovely as unrobed Beauty, sunk in sleep, Around whose form admiring Angels keep Their vigils pure. In the deep hush of night, How oft have I, with rapturous delight, Your twinkling faces gazed on, till a part Of ye I seemed to grow, and my fond heart, As it the tokens of your love believed, Some portion of your purity received. And I, that holy and mysterious creed, Creation's sacred truth, have tried to read, Which on your leaves, as Reason's evidence, Is writ by finger of Omnipotence. Then have I with a race, untaint witli vice, Peopled your globes, and built a paradise THE STARS. 5 I Within iln' circle of each shining star, Where we, though now from happiness afar, Bj gradual approach absorbed may In-, Ami fiftcci fur i hless'd Eternity ! Or .1^ night's fleeting whisper fainter grew, \nil fear-like fell the softest midnight " We have nol life, and cannot soul supply : " Rut lend a portion to m rrtality ; ■■ Thai portion doth retdrn, exact in weight, •• So that our balance doth tint fluctuate; " If there 1"' more in man than Bprings from dust, " It is infused; and such infusion must, " Proceed from fountain worthy to supply, " \\ hat lives in dust, lnii cannot dust-like die! ■• /' e are uot in creation's-boolc more prized ; " Nor is your globe less glorious, more despised; •■ We roll around thee in the space called ^kv : •' Are tioi more lofty, or to God more nigh ; •• Thou can'sl nol hold the thought, t'would but astound " To tell thee that creation hath no bound; " If thou could'st fly for ever, thou would'st find "New stars before tl , untold stars behind; '• Thou seemest now to stand on central sphere, "Fly on again till fifty-thousandth year; " Tis centre yet, if centre there can be, •' Where there's no end, no line, no boundary! " We are hut matter, and we cannot teach •■ Where globes do end; immensity doth reach; " We know not if (he voice which did create, " Again shall sound, and we evaporate ; •• Vnd all the space which we now till, shall be, •• Adapted to your soul's eternity! " (Jo back, and be content! — This one thing learn, " W hat God hath hid, thou never shall discern ; ■ Thai which lie shows, is for your guidance plain ; 56 ACKNOWLEDGES " That he withholds 'tis mercy doth retain ; " Did God to thy request an answer give, " Thou would'st be cruslid — thou could'st not see and live ! XXXIII. / thought so ! Back, ye say, and lie content To live in doubt, and be as ignorant As plant that withers, animals that bleed, Or all of matter, which unto my need Is made to minister. If heaven be nought ; If it evades our search, defies our thought ; If bliss, and punishment, be but supposed ; "Twere better that your evidence were closed ! Ye open fields where our fond thoughts may stray, And fancy flies your wonders to survey ; And then ye close them, and pretend that fate Permits us but in death to penetrate The veil that is around ; Thus ye refuse Knowledge of life whilst we are free to choose ; And on the eye of stricken man arrange His ultimate, when 'tis too late to change! MAI II RS IN VBII ITV. 57 XXXIV But ye are matter all. Lifeless, and dense ; Ye have not, cannot give an evidence Of what ye ne'ei contain'd. Rashness it were To seek the soul from such ; or to refer To things substantial ; or to analize Ought that is brought from earth, or air, or skies ; Or view deposits with an eye intent, The soul is not in essence or in sediment. Yet, many say, that hovering all around, Are spirits freed ; that ether doth abound With angels good, their office, ministrant ; To kindle love, and holy thoughts implant. Mayhap amidst these spirits there is one, That is outmarked for my communion ; Some former friend, who, though withdrawn, yet tries, By all the infusive influence of skies, To lead me from this world. And I would joy In such research my reason to employ. XXXV. There must be spirits ! \nd, if spirits are Doomed to assemble a( tlie judgment bar, r 5$ SPIRITS IN There must, e'en now. be intermediate state Where they the resurrection-trump await ! Ther roam not at their will ! Indulgence 'twere, Too great for guilt, all semblance to defer Of that restraint, and that fire-bound controul, "Which doth await the sin-seduced soul ; And leave them an almost eternity, Which they may pass so fetterless and free, That it, in so much good immediate, May seem for far-off heaven to compensate. If there are souls, and these souls are detained, Till, by the risen flesh, they are regained, Then there's a depot, and a souVs-home too ! Without such spot this doctrine must fall through ! XXXVI. These spirits in their home I would beseech ; If yet my voice their habitation reach ! Departed spirits ! Whether good or bad ! Ye spirits joyous, or ye spirits sad ! Spirits mournful by anticipation If vengenance or if approbation Be your lot ! Pending earth and heaven betwixt ; With life unjudged ! eternal doom unfix'd ! Ye sentence-waiting souls, who for a time Escape the awful punishment of crime ! Unbless'd ; uncursed ; unheaven'd ; and unhell'd ! Uncheer'd by angel's welcome; and unquell'd THEIR IN I I.KMKDI \n. BTATJ .59 Bv demon's shoot! Some spot \i there; adnM ground ; Some neutral province where our souls are found? Where they, timeVterm, anoonscious sleep away. Oblivious, waiting for the judgment da\ ' Herded and huddled ; an admixture sad ; In heterogeneous heaps : the good; tin- bad, Commingled in firm mass, yet separate still. As are the liquid water-drops which fill Our oceans here. W hen we the ocean ej e, Rolling in pride of its immensity . The heart, the brain is filled ; and Otfteent thought Homewards impressed with majesty and fraught With awe! Yet, though sublime that ocean Tis but the palm-drop of the Deity ' And man hath rode upon its raging breast ; Hath laid his hand upon its foaming eresl ; Hath driven his prow-keel to its farthest bound ; And circumscribed it, length and breadth around ! But — thought so dread, if in the mind instill'd, As boundless seas with human souls upfill'd, Close-press'd as water-drops, must waft us wide Beyond the limits of conception's tide! Deep, plumless seas ! Roaring tri restlessness . Willi essence filled, and mind, but matterless ! Filling — spreading — Encreasing hour by hour; In depth augmented by an incessant shower v 2 60 ARE THEN* Of human souls ! Silent — continual — Into the gulf of death they ever fall, As fast, as numerous, and as frigidly. As plenteous rain-drops pattering on the sea ! A mass of souls ! Condensing as they fall ! And yet distinct, and so divisible, That in this mingled and immortal sea Each soul preserves its individuality ! Is this young thought — a fancy ? A conceit ? Or truth, which in eternity shall meet Its parallel ? Speak out ! Ye spirits speak ! And truth impart. For little now I reek Whether it be hope, or joy, or sadness, Your silence tortureth me to madness And despair ! In love or else in pity tell ! There is a torture indescribable ; A madness of the enquiring soul, when she O'erhangs the gulf of deep uncertainty, More agonizing far than woe that's brought By full conviction though 'tis horror-frauglit ! Think not I will endure the mockery, Or be the sport of shouting friends, like lie, Who now beside me stands, and loudly jeers, As my imagination's hopes and fears Alternately prevail ? Light may distress ; But, though ye truths most wonderfully express, 61 M'l'l \l ED TO. Ami speak i" me in words thai wake surprise, Of tiling-- more strange than fancy can devise; 1 will receive all ye unfold to me, E'en as ;i little Child, implicitly ! XXXVII. I would that I could hold disclosure's-fee ; Or could induce ye, by my urgencj . To speak one word of knowledge ; so that I Might weave it into faith, and satisfj My soul ! — It" ye are moved by woe or weal: — If ye a sympathy with man can feel: — [f ye survey Futurity's abyss; — Or if ye grasp infinitude of bliss ! — If ye have trod Eterne's immensity ; — Or have withstood all pain's intensity ! — If ye can mete th' unfathomable deep ; — Or break th' interminable bonds of sleep ! — If ye've eternal principles surveyed; — Or if ye can Destruction's hand evade ! — [f ye know ought would save — Why that withhold ! Or ought would urge — W by not that truth unfold > 62 THEIR REPLY. XXXVIII. And what said spirits ? " Mortal " Could we tell " What we now know, or whereabouts we dwell, " It would be with a voice so strangely new " "Twould still remain a mystery to you ; " 'Twould not present itself through any Sense " That man now hath, and he receives but thence " Ought that's definitive. Man hears some word, " And instantly its meaning is transfer'd " To somewhat that is handled, or is seen ; " Somewhat that is ; or somewhat that hath been ; " But make a word — 'Tis an incongruous sound " Till somewhat corresponding can be found ! " And new thoughts must be found, new words be made, " When ought that is eternal is conveyed ! " All things are new : our faculties are changed : " New sights are ours, where mortal eye ne'er ranged. " Strange pictures thou hast drawn ! They are earth-won; " Thou hast but made a transposition " Of atoms placed within thy reach ; Tliey rise, " And are, I may i nation's exercise! — nn: .-on ,,:$ " Ami, if thou wik indulge, there's latitude ; "For all around thee there's material strewed; " Place tliein within mind's tube, and various views "Shall at each turn thy wondering eye amuse; " But all these visions will be false and poor, "To what thou'lt win, or what thou wilt endure; " And bark we say ! We would, but dare vot tell ; " Death seals our lips — " And mortal ! •• Pake Thee Wei l !" XXXIX Farewell! Farewell! — And have 1 called in vain? Then Farewell Heaven! Unto my earth again T turn, and tremble as I seek from thee Revealment of this awful mvsterv ! XI, Oft have I heard thy dwellers speak of hell; Ash-where ? The simple creatures cannot tell ; Bui downward point, significant, as though Earth were a crust, and Sin had dug below Its desolating pit ! — Deep argument I hold not now, but would be most content, That one, darkly arising from the dead, Should ope the grave, and tell how lie hath sped; 6-i NEXT SOUGHT And bv his mournful voice give me to know The death-bound secret of the realms below! Death hath a veil ! Hell hath a covering ! But are their depths beyond discovering? Oh ! for a power, more than Herculean, To roll from off the sepulchre of man, And from the cave-mouth of his deepest woe The mountain-rock that to the realms below Imprisoneth his soul ! Oh ! for a power To live in that Eternity one hour, And yet, my footing on this world regain, And with prophetic voice, each scene explain ! I would, I had authority to bid. My spirit lift the adamantine lid From off the seathing-pot of inmost hell, And view its terrors indescribable ! Or would, this Globe, submitting unto me, Should burst the womb of its solidity. And to its centre yawn ! Its covering Of earth to burst, with an explosive din ! The stratas then (which as firm ribs do bind Fermenting fires within its breast confined) Swiftly to open their successive bands, Until reveal'd. Hell's flaming centre stands! Then would I down that crater-pathway wend, And through the fire-encrusted throat descend, Of that volcanic gap ; and, pressing thus, Essay to reach that throne sulphureous, Where sits the King of Terrors, and doth hold His sway supreme o'er legions fierce and bold. in hi 65 Id hurl him th< ind from his lips controul rhe loi il ! Would tread through hell -heated halls my way; Through all her caves and calcined caverns stray, And tortured spirits seek ! \ spirit found, ( M quenchless fire-flakes, ami of flames around, Would -it regardless, and attentive hear All that could wake my wonder or my fear Excite ' ./ tale, in depths of Top he t sung! By mortal heard .' Expressed by lip and tongue 'Hint once were human } but which now are dot med To BURN I \MKI.TED KlMM.I. I NCON81 MED ! I would conjure e'en Satan, by that word, That awful name, which, whispered, and heard, Subdues the dis if their blasphemy, And awes to silence hell's tempestuous se / would '■' mmand — Ay — Demons would invoke — But here, upon my speech with mirth inbroke, The tempter self! With most contemptuous glee, He laughed full long, and loud, and lustily; Till from beneath the ocean's-bed there rung Ten thousand echoes, thousand times o'ersuxg ! '• Hark! Hark r He cried. I nbend thy threatening brow " For b\ the Demons thou art an now! 66 satan's " List to their scorn, their hatred, discontent, " Mino-led with voice of boisterous merriment. « As they upon their fire-couch roll below, « Drunk with damnation ! Ebriate with woe ! « Madden'd and stung w-ith cruel flames of HELL ! " With endless agony irascible ! " Through ages incomputable hath He, " The vengeful, soul-destroying Deity, " Bound them in darkness, and hell's table spread « With food of torture daily varied « And mixed in quality ! Tempting to cloy ; "Feeding to waste: sustaining to destroy! " Supplying spirits that in Tophet dwell, " With aliment that is combustible ; « Yet from destruction such preservative, " It tempers souls in TormentVrealm to live. " There too, most inexorable, God hath, « Plied spirits with the wine-cup of his wrath : " Whose fumes, phosphoric, doth their veins ignite, « And kindle in their seeming frames the light " That manifests hell's gloom ! — With fiendish glee, " And ere the cup hath passed rotatively, " In his eternal face, with dreadless look, " Their molten fists they fearlessly have shook ; " And with fallacious and disguised pretence, " Have dared him add some suffering more intense, RKRC KF. 07 " Hopeful tli.it God, Gorget&d in his irv, " Might over-charge tin- pungency of fire ; " And in a stemless tide of mis. '' O'erwhelm tlieir hated immortality ! '•' But, for a moment, I would bid you pause " Young Spirit, all too ardent in the cause, " Too eager, and too pressing in the chase, " Of that which shall outrun thee in a race " The fleetest and most fanciful. " And I, " That gulf would bid thee view most steadilv, " Ere thou attempt a plunge, so desperate, " Thou would'st withdraw, but find, indeed, too late, " That downward rush, most heedless and insane. " Hath footing lost thou never can'st regain ! " Too soon the painful path which thither leads " Unsought, unwish'd, you'll find ; no skill it needs " To thread the labyrinth to death and me, " Thou art led by fate, guided by destiny ! " Thus far the truth. Though rarely told by me; " But say ? Of God, or of eternity ; " Of devils, or of hell ; of spirits cursed ; "Who gave the notion, and who told thee first? " Seduction fables ! — False as mist-bom sea ; " By fear begot, and nursed by knavery ! " Mayhap the Jewish Talmud thou hast read, " By learned rabbins strangely figured ? " Or darker, deeper, deadly, and less true, " Within the blood-s(uin'd gospel's pages you 68 THE GOSPEL " Have fancied you could find " What I have sought So errinyly, I cried, and icould have bought With twice ten-thousand worlds, had worlds been mine, And could worlds purchase secret so divine ! Demon or fiend ! Deep thanks I owe to thee For that one word, though named deridingly ! That Gospel's name, with magic wand hath burst My spirit's spell, which, by thy voice accursed, With error's deepest folds was close entwin'd ; And hath dispel'd each vapour of the mind ! Away ! Away ! Back to your halls of night ! There tell your fiends, with infinite delight, How long you thrall' d my soul ! And tell there too, How it at last did burst your meshes through ; For now away the clouds of darkness roll, And through the deepest dwelling of my soul, A gleam of truth and joy is shed, And each delusive vision — vanished ! XLI. 1 1 is an error, dangerous, and deep ; Doctrine evincing Reason's darkest sleep ; Of pride and vanity the cradled child ; The abortion of philosophy run wild ; To think, that we, from 'midst the mingled grains Of matter which the universe contains. C0NP1 SSED T<> in 69 Can separate the bouI. Painful, and vain, The search would he ; as o'er Wabia'fl plain, Panting, and scorched, and faintly wandering, To seek for cooling and refreshing spring. Fancy may take a long and lofty flight ; Soar through creation ; revel in its light; And rise above our Nature's dreariness ; But her young wing must droop in weariness Ere she can reach that awful summit, whence, Her eye, unsmitten by the light intense, I adazzled, and unqelTd by mercy's rays, [nto the presence-court of God can gaze; Out-run slow time; eternity possess; And see a human soul in blessedness! Reason may delve through Matter's heavy field ; May seek what evideuce the skies can yield ; May, with the plough-share of its thought, intense, Furrow the pathway of Omnipotence; V.'t Reason cannot find the hand divine Which sprinkled planets in the skies to shine; Nor grasp the soul for which these >kies were spread, And shall exist when skies are wide-red! \LI1. All ! How my soul did struggle to run free, And gain a knowledge of her destiny! 70 THE ONLY SOURCE. I borrowed fancy's wing ; and soaring high, I sought her in the regions of the sky : But there's a distant heaven, they seemed to say, Where night ne'er falls, where all is endless day; There is a path, were planet ne'er hath been ; A land, which eye of comet ne'er hath seen ; No system-star hath ever passed it bye ; No globe hath rolled within its boundary. Go, seek each system ; view suns far and near ; Survey each orb, and visit every sphere ; And as you rest your footing on each star, You've won a world — but still the soul's afar ! XLIII. Methought in winds the spirit whispered ; I rode the breeze, and followed as she fled ; I traced her in the stormy element, Above each cloud the tempest-tooth had rent : There is a land, it said, of endless rest, No storm disturbs the slumbers of its breast ; Blissful its paths ; and in its peaceful sky ; The tempest rends not ; lightning doth not fly ; Where then the voice of thunder doth not roll, There seek ye God I There search ye for the Soul ! XLIV. 'Tis vanity, "tis stubbornness, 'tis pride, To seek in Nature, or in aught beside \ \ li RE WORTHY. 7 I The Suul of Man : whose interesl to define God condescends to n'i\'- as Line on line. \ secret hid in Ilim, which, if 'twere i"l(i, He must his i \m i,\ Deity DNFOLD ! Withheld from curiosity, when vain; Yet to the eye of simple Faith made plain. Declared to those who love the inspired leaf, And honour God by unreserved belief, fn that revealment by Ids written word, which II Hath Btampt with his immutability! What were the Bible's value, what its use, If we, from things around us could deduce li- every truth? Ay, what a waste of miracle, W ere all its precepts destined but. to tell, \\ hal we may run and read upon the -k\ Or, lurking in our physioli May find ! Nature in each and every state. We may with utmost safety contemplate; \inl profitably read the evidence that she Doth give of a presiding Deity. Read Nature rightly; to her voice attend; Tis the first! step bj which thou shalt asc To Nature*-. God ! Remember .' — "1'is the pirst ! For when the soul for knowledge i- athirst, (Knowledge thai spiritual is and heavenly,) There is no fount in Nature can supply The \\ isdom-drop ii asks ! In < irth below The spring of Living W atei - doth nol flow 12 OUR ESTEEM. Shall I aught profit, though I daily strive, Within the womb of Nature's laws to dive; With comprehensive mind seek to define The quality of heat which first did shine Within the glorious sun; when forth he roll'd, And this material Universe was souVd ; And yet. my soul neglect, more precious still, And no one precept of my God fulfil I What, though my pen the Wisdom-hand reveal'd That strewed the Globes in yon pure ether-field ; That poised each sphere ; its gravity assigned ; And hurling it abroad in path designed, Did give an impetus so justly needed, It rolls — and rolls — ever unimpeded And unurged ? All this, would it aught profit mo '. Or change my Fate ? — Or brighten Destiny ? Did I not ask that all-protection hand To hold me when in danger's gap I stand; And guide me in the path which I should tread, Till death is past, and heaven is entered ? XLV. The earth, the air, the heavens, and the sky, \m' glorious works of the Divinity. An ample and a most abundant page, When they excite our interest, and engage Our reasoning powers D TO i .Ml Their principles we ^'■• , < >rder, arrangement, and stability ! Each World sustained; harmonized in action; Propelled; and yet by soft attraction All system-bound. Such daily change in all As renders time and things perpetual. All moving onward, to Oblivion fast, Yet God from out the ashes of the past, From the decayed, decrepit, and the worn, Bringing new flowers his kingdom to adorn. Filling Earth's gap ; re-forming parts thai die, i continual, equipoised supply, From particles minute. — There do we view How dying Substance, Substance doth renew; But .Matter must by Ma ir be begot! \\ here dwelt these Globes when Space contained not Commencing grain i What shall sustain their weight When all that's vital shall evaporate ; \nl, all attractive influence destroyed, The spheres shall sink or stagnate in the void I Here Nature's volume is for ever sealed ! No evidence of this doth all creation yield! 0\' Earth's original, and of things to conn, Nature bats nought, the heavens themselves are Dl MB ! 74 AS A GLIDE XLVL Nature hath laws, fixed, and immutable ; Secret, and deep, but not inscrutable By Mind alone ; if Mind be trained to see The framing finger of the Deity! Laws which refer to Matter and to Man, Open to Reason, placed within its scan ; Writ on the sky ; engraved on earth below ; And manifest in happiness and woe ; By each result, unvarying, they're learned ; And by expansive intellect discerned ; These laws, in wisdom and in love ordained, And by implanted principles sustained, Nature obeys ; but Man, by sloth inert, Or wilfully, or blind, doth oft convert Its richest blessings to a source of woe ; Nature will not one single rule forego, Or step aside from her appointed path, That man may err, and yet evade her wrath ; Escape the punishment, which doth attend Those who neglect, or "gainst her laws offend. In laws, thus made, the Matter-tie we see Impressed on earth by the Divinity. And, as the Man, in structure and in frame Is Matter too, he must submit to claim, i\ fEHPORAl am am;-. 75 (As Reason guides hint to perceive their cause) Protection and support from Matter's law- ! If he doth violate one single rule, She doth the truant to obedience school By some inflicted woe ! Yet, even then. She is the tnost compassionate to men. The pains which do her chastisements attend, Are instantaneous efforts to amend t Some loss sustained, some adverse atom held Within the frame, and thence alone expel'd By agonies; which, whilst they heal, do give Experience sure, and teach man how to live A moral life on earth ! A power employ Which e'en one spot of matter will destroy, And that which doth dead Matter violate, If proved on Man shall flesh annihilate ! XL VII. Nature then is good ! And its evidence, Appealing as it doth to every Sense, Is ample and abundant as our guide In all things temporal, if we decide On principles which God ordained to be Each creature's comfort and security. But here she ends ! For through this splendid whole There's nought which tells us clearly of the Soul ; G 2 76 BUT THE Tis the great boon imparted unto us, And earth and sky have nought synonimous !- XLVIII. Thus God for all Material doth provide Somewhat to regulate, somewhat that may guide. Suppose a Soul ! Which I anon will prove ; Can you suppose that soul destined to move Along the line of time, untaught, unled, Uninstructed and unadmonished ? So much design for Matter to provide, And yet the Spirit of a man denied, Either by instinct, or experience, The sure deduction of an evidence Of wherefrom it did spring ; whither it must tend ; Wherefore it was made ; and whereat it must end ! Why this would make it secondary to Things that we know are subject to our view ; And make this Dust such valuable thing, That God for it made laws for reasoning, And did neglect the Soul ! Left it to Fate, With nought to guide, no rule to regulate ! It is not so ! Then show us, you will say, Where stand the laws our Spirits must obey? Just where they should. Proceeding from a source Which laws can give, obedience can enforce. WORD <»l GOD / / Given in the most consistent way. (I trust I speak as it becometh me, a child of >/nst,j 'Tin •, the only way, God could devise Man's spirit to instruct, or to apprize, Of its eternal state! — We do no! see Sonic objecl in our physiology, Which may Bubmit itself in those who are learned, Unt by the simple cannot be discerned; Bui He reveals, by His own mind to ours, The tiling to come, nol subject to our powers Of Sense, or untaught Reasoning, or Thought, Nor from Imagination's chambers brought, Bui yel declared to all who will refer, Need I say how .' Or need I tell you where - XLIX. Within the word of God ! It is the key That opes the portal of man's destiny ! li is the true criterion of all That we may Faith or true Religion call. It is the clue, by which, with confidence, We tread the labyrinth of Providence; And Order and Arrangement find where we, Had darkly wander'd in perplexity Or lost ourselves in Doubt. It doth unfold, Secrets, by nature hinted, but untold ; It grasps man as he sinks in shoreless Fate, And holds him whilst it doth elucidate 78 THE INSTRUCTOR Eternity ! The future and the past, Man's greatest interest as it is his last ! Would you, if you instruction did require In science-walk, whereto you may aspire, Seek that instruction, and request that aid, From men less leanfd, or things of lower grade ? I doubt not you would rather take your seat As young disciple, thoughtful at the feet Of some confessed Sage : whose voice profound, Each truth may tell, each problem may propound. And, is the science that the Soul makes known, To be perverted from this rule alone ; And things of lower class all magnified To be our spirits' teachers and our guide ? Surely such transposition could but. be A folly, and an inconsistency ! One Guide there is for man, more high than Soul; The Word of God, the Deity's controul ! LI. Thus have we gain'd at length the source my friend Of knowledge sought, and here must Fancy end. Suffice it to have told how far it. strayed Urged by the wond'rous works mine eye surveyed IN SPIRIT! Al. Ill l . 7'.» Within iln 1 firmament - Fhe e are bul par' Of tin' wild whims that li :i rl >• hi r in f li< • heart, Or in the mind, or tin- distemper'd brain, When there is nought t<> lead or to restrain. Well di'l the inspired psalmist say, when he, Looked through these winks unto (he Deity, That in tin 1 tilings which God had shown, and made, His wisdom and his power are so displayed, That man imi-t stand without excuse, it' he, Wanting move proof, disclaim Divinity.* Nature may be confessed, as volume true, " The devils do so, ami they tremble too!" Yet God may be unloved, the Soul unknown, For there, I do repeat, it is unshown ! To manifest the Soul, and guide Man's thought To those blessed regions, which are never sought In full sincerity, and never found, until. The voice of mercy dotli in man instil, A wisdom which by Nature' 1 ' or by Mind, He cannot have, and Reason cannot find ; * Romans i, I'.t. Thai which is known of d may be marif &c. the invisible things of Him, being understood by the things tint are made, even his Eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, &c. f 1 Cor. ii, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know thorn, &c. bul <-"il hath revealed them to us b) bis Spirit. 80 WHAT GUIDE God doth unto the seeking mind impart, And by his Spirit fix upon the heart, His written word ! Now, what is there doth make This word so loved, that man will, for its sake, When he can comprehend, most freely part With all he hath to bind it to his heart? His joy, his wealth, and every comfort here ; Ay, e'en his life, nor count the purchase dear? Why it is this: the knowledge it doth give Of what is Death ; and how his Soul might live I LII. I fancy I can hear the Sceptic say, " If this the only guide to point the way " To an eternity we all must share, " And for the which we are caution'd to prepare ; " Why hath this way been unproclaimed so long ? " And why hath ignorance so spread among " The heathen lands ? If God desires to bless, " Why this unmerited exclusiveness ?" The Heathen never were without God's word ! * There's not a creature but his voice hath heard!'!* * Romans ii, 14, The work of the law (was) written in their hearts. f Deut. xxx, 14, The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart. — Romans x, 8. HAD HEATHENS, s l The conscience* of each unregenerate man Shall witness bear ! Denj it if ye can ! God's written word bj them was not possessed; Hut in the secrel chamber of each breast, A slill small voice, as monitor was near. To guide his soul ; and noughl he had to fear Did lie in all tilings, \\ < requirements fill, And frame thereby his actions and Ids will ! God made man upright, and would keep him so ; But, by invention, lie did seek to know, Things thai the spirit did reserve to teach \s ii was asked for, and was sought by each, From the Divinity (called by what name Diversity of language or of tongue might frame) Who may be seen by all ; and did impress, By that, still voice, his power and willingness, To teach to heathens, in their early state, As much as we e'en now can penetrate Of what the soul may be ; and thence did give Knowledge enough to seek their God and live ! But Heathens wander'd then ; and proud as thou, (If humbled not in reason) would not bow To God's authority, nor wisdom ask ; But set their minds unto the arduous task Of finding out the soul I * Romans ii, 15, Their conscience bearing witness, etc. and accusing or else excusing. 82 IN THEIR DAY ? Seemed to suppose, A problem 'twas, which God did then propose ; And Satan met them as alone they strayed ; And on their minds Delusion so displayed, That they became a spectacle to show What Sense could learn, where Reasoning would go ! And Reason is not better' d in the present day, But Mercy hath proclaimed a surer way. Many there be who are Heathens in this land, As far as carelessness to understand, Or to appreciate God's written word ; But yet they are govern'd by the truths they've heard. And are so much encompassed, and o'er-awed, By good its influence hath shed abroad, (E'en though 'tis moral only) that its sway They feel as copyists, and must obey ! Love not the truth; obedience pay in part; Whilst they despise the Gospel in their heart! The heathen were not left without a guide to stray; They left their God, and turned their ear away; They looked not unto Him who would impart Wisdom to those who sought him with their heart, And thus despised their God ! And then we see How far they wander'd in absurdity ! man's ignorance. 83 Mil. Lefl i" himself what knows i li<- wises! man? Nothing! — He knows not, ami he never can, Fully seek out the principle of life With which one vegetable blade ia rife. This God ordained, and thus he ilid confront, The wave of mind, and marked its destined roll ! God did foresee, and did design, that this Perversity of man should be a goad to bliss. Most strange it may appear thai man must be Urged to exchange for bliss his misery ! Yet it is so ; and had not error brought Misery unbearable, man had not sought; Nor would he now so fully estimate, The value of his truth-enlighten d state. Tims God in Wisdom doth awhile permit Error to be ; but ne'er enforces it. And in his Mercy so o'erweighs with good, The wilfulness thai for a time withstood The light I"' never did refuse, th.it we declare Evil is born our feelings to Brenaxe, For bliss we could not estimate or know, Had we ne'er fell the bitterness of woe, The painfullness of sin ! 84 AND ITS EFFECTS LIV. This js Wisdom's plan ; And 'tis methinks so clearly shown to man, That much I wonder I should ever hear This question asked, when answer is so clear. " If God in Providence can regulate " The actions of mankind in every state, " Why cloth he then permit so much of sin, " And oe, and wretchedness, to mingle in " The creatures he hath framed ?" The answer's plain. When God's own evidence will not detain ; And when the mind will all restraint break through, To make a God, and its own cistern hew ; God winks awhile at ignorance,* and knows, That when 'tis followed by its certain woes, They'll be the school-master, whose scourging rod, Will bring the truant reasoner to God, And happiness restore ! Each man hath sense, And Mercy grants him fullest evidence That God would rather lead ; but, if Love fail, He leaves a sure affliction to prevail. So wraps man round with his unvarying laws, Ready to hold and to avenge their cause ; * Acts 17, 30, And the times of this ignorance God winked at. give v u i k ro 85 That when his footstep wanders from God's path, They seize him; and chastise him 'til he hath His safety-fold regained ! And woe hath pared Tin- path of those whom heaven receives; — tlie saved ! Some spot of pain, some rankling wound must be, Ere man will seek God with that urgency Which he requires. No beggar would implore, Felt he no want, or had he ample store ' If from this rule there ran exception l»e, And man doth prosper in iniquity,* Tis where God's spirit hath been quenched with hate, And He hath left them to delusive Fate; And they have gather'd here some fancied weal, A condemnation, ah ! how deep to feel Throughout eternity ! — My friend can you Bless God for joy ? Bless him for sorrow too ! But in the yiiing of God's word, ;i plan, Which could not enter in tin; mind of man; His love and mercy were displayed in this, He waited not to be implored for l>li-> ! He saw the needy soul, and freely gave The bread of life to nourish and to save ! * Psalm lxxxxii, 7, When all the workers of iniquity do flouriuh, it is that they may he destroyed for ever. 86 THE WORD OF LIFE, For Light ascends no universal cry ; Yet light and truth are given from on high No heathen man there is, that seeks God first, But on his ear some scripture-note doth burst,; And if he doth respond, and but enquires " What wilt thou Lord ?" — Tis all his God desires ! LV. I will not now the question agitate, Of what had been God's plan, or what our state, Had man ne'er fallen ; or, having wrought one sin, Had lie but. listen'd to the voice within ; Which must have been sufficient as a guide To our Progenitors, and all beside Who lived e'er yet the Sinai-stones received Laws which were then soul-heard, altho' man grieved Their God, as they now do, by each pretence That warred against this inward evidence ; But, having this His word, would bless the power, That moved Ins prophets in their brightest hour, To speak beyond their thoughts,* and mouth-piece be To that revealment of Divinity Whose power, Omniscient, in the most minute, Doth place its author far beyond dispute. * 2 Peter i, 21, The prophecy came not in old times by the will of man, but holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. U HICK l< All III NIK \ I I l>. The Bible claims our Faith; and in return Dotli offer knowledge w lt.-n. .■ «o may discern What its pretensions are, thai we should weigh Our pre-conceptions, and its laws obey. Ft takes all moans, and doth appeal we see, Not. only to man's sensibility, Mul takes him in liis proud prerogative. And reasons* with him, thai Ids goul may live God first doth stamp his signet on eacli line. And thus declares its origin divine. Many the instances of proof, but none More simple or more easy than this one. Nought but Omniscience could dictate the scroll, That future generations should unroll ; No human foresight and no power of man, Hath open'd Fate ; no wisdom ever can. Most wonderful and great, must be the Mind That Hist in such Creation love designed This Universe! And awful was the word By which the Will was into spheres transfer'd! Yi't 'tis not in creative power alone. That God's all-comprehensiveness is shown ; Or man can estimate his depths profound ; Wisdom exhaustless; Knowledge without bound. * Isaiah i, 18, Come, lei as reason together, Baith the Lord. 88 BY INWARD EVIDENCE. Throughout ten thousand worlds, told o'er and o'er, Untired he roams, to guide and to explore ; Then marks the secret path of each and all, Smiles when man stands, and pities if he fall. E'en from creation's hour their paths saw He, And could divest them of intricacy ; Which in such mingled multitudes must blend Change and diversity, until no end Can be conceivable. But though men stray, And do diverge in each eccentric way, They but in all their wanderings fulfil, His law, his plan, his purpose, and his will. This was not fixed alone, or it had been To us discernless, and by man unseen ; But these, his laws unalterable, we find Writ on the sacred pages He designed Mankind should contemplate. Clothed it i-; (rue; And in mysterious language hidden from our view ; Until, the time of its emvombment past, The veil of doubt recedes, and then at last, The type's fulfilment is complete, and we, Can but confess the hand of Deity ; Which there could write, upon its lasting page, The unborn secrets of each unborn age ! And say; doth not the thought, when fixed in thee, Subdue the risings of thy vanitj .' INSTANCE. \m'I make thee feel thyself, if rightly seen, An atom only of that great machine Now wielded by thy God? Ah ! there is nought Which more doth awe my spirit, than the thought, That countless years before my birth each word Was known tn God; unspoken and yet heard! Ay, every wish foreknown ; made to work out Eternal purposes, and bring about Designs so merciful, that I'm content, Tn these to be the humble instrument Of God ! Predestined unto Good alone ;* And if I Evil add, it is mine own !+ God framed the Good ; foresaw the Evil too ; And grasping all in comprehensive view, Made all subservient to his will ; but thence, Acquits me not, of this, mine own offence. $ God urges good ; will many a crime prevent ; Or, if committed, circumducts the intent, And Evil tends to Good. The greatest sin I know Brought to its perpetrator death and woe; But issued in Salvation, as designed ; And Murder wrought God's blessing to mankind ! * 1 Thes. v, 9, God hath not appointed us to wrath, etc. •)■ Gen. ii, 7, If thou doeal not well, sin lieth at thy door. % Matt, xviii, 7, It needs must be that offences come, but woe to that man by whom the offenee H 90 PREDEST1NY. Before I pass along I would demand Is this the truth ? — and canst thou understand ? When thou art urged unto some good, be sure, The feeling springeth for a source most pure. When evil tempts thee, 'tis some power within, Adverse to God, for He tempts not to sin!* He can, and will, soon nullify each deed That threatens to destroy ought he decreed; And thus will leave free agency to man, Freedom to act, but not destroy his plan. The sovereignty of God is here displayed; Persuasive Gracet where'er the calls" obeyed; And sovereign power each rebel act to sway; They forfeit life, but yet his plan obey ! God's spirit strives, and would prevail with all, None stand self-held, and none uncautiond fall, Or ignorantly err ! The righteous soul But yields obedience to God's soft controul ; The sinner, as he burns, hath not this plea, " God never sought, God never counsel'd me !" * James i, 13, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, etc. f Jer. xxxi. 3, I have loved thee with an everlasting lore, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. mi BIBLE '.»l TAIL These things the bible tells ; and who can hear, " Thus saith the Lord," and listen not, nor fear To disobey ? The bible stands alone ; Amid'st a world of books there's nothing can be shown That bears the least similitude thereto ; Read it for ever, 'tis for ever new ; If thou art simple — it thy powers doth meet ; If thou hast sat on Learning's highest seat — There dwells more wisdom in one page, or line, Than thou can'st in a studious life define. I never heard a speech that's truly wise, Which did not with its precepts harmonize ; If that indeed it owed not origin To that pure source where wisdom must begin ; Where Wisdom must advance. Faith must depend ; Where Knowledge and where Learning both must end ! It is the only book that could withstand The ruthless wear of Time, whose iron hand Doth rend the frame of man, and nature too, And with Oblivion's finger, blotteth from our view His puny works. 'Twas the first book of mundane birth ; It is the last that shall be read on earth ; a 2 92 MIRACULOUSLY Believed and loved when all of earthly frame Is wrapt in darkness, or enclasped in flame; It is the only book whose words shall be, Transfefr'd from Time into Eternity ; And echoed, as salvations voice, above, E'en at the throne of everlasting love. LVIII. What hath preserved this volume? — Did man see It was his passport to eternity, And cherish it with care ? This had been well ; But history the sad reverse doth tell. For nations have been banded in the war To sweep this little book from earth afar ; Whose every line, did they but look therein, Spoke to their conscience and condemned each sin. How oft indeed the long and furious roar Of Reasons law hath swept from shore to shore; And wave on wave hath rushed, as troubled sea, To drown it neath its infidelity. The clarion voice of Wit hath screamed most shrill, Through brazen tubes which Ridicule did fill, With blasphemy. Invention hath been rife To famish weapons tor the deadly strife; All man could frame, when most lie did despise; Or Satan on his hell-bed could devise: PRI -I l.\ EDS and Pride, vaunting of station won, Have piled their storea of strong combustion W iiliin the magazine, thai Learning's hate, neatli the throne of Truth did excavate; And. with Confusion's matter would expl< Tlii 1 God of Matter in his blessed abode; \ml Wisdom's ladder hath been lifted high I'- reach heaven's battlements and scale the skj ; Bui yet, above the tumult and the din, The voice of God, that's register*d therein, Hath risen in melody, so soft, yet so profound, Thai it hath deadened every earthly sound ; And spread upon the steady breeze of time, I" combal sin, evangalize each clime! Mini's ingenuity, and Satan's ragi Could not efface one line, destroy one page! But still they stand, Faith's weapon, and its shield, To vanquish Hell, and make the Tempter yield ' LIX. It there's a book which God doth thus preserve, 1 1 surely musl from all mankind deserve The utmost care; and claim perusal mos! minute; Neglect 1 Bethink ye then-, whose word do ye despise Winn thus ye argue, and philosophize ' Review pour words; you maj perchance be found Denying God, and treading holy ground I I, XT. Yet we may Thought indulge ; and Fancy too May roam abroad, so we" but keep in view The Bible's evidence. What may be kin Of God in heaven and earth are clearly shown, i to instruct, and to < ■ thai they Sprang from His band, and still his will obey. And these, combined with His own word, mnsl be The minor, where his reasoning creatures see ( >MNIPOTENCE ! If we an evidence Desire to gain of his Omniscience, The sources are the same; but we must 1.1L The suited pans, and no confusion make. His Providence; in promises made good ; If rightly sought, and humbly understood ; I ntil we en. " Lord, I have heard of tl "In spoken words, !>m now mine eye doth see "Thy mercy and thy love; and I confess " E'en my afflictions are thy faithfulness) Psalms cxix, 75, In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me, ect 102 NATURAL AND Nature and revelation, as they stand, Are both complete, and travel hand-in-hand. Begin with Nature, if you will, but ere One single atom from its mass you clear, You must consent to humble thought and sense, And ask the Bible for its evidence. Or Revelation take ; it is theory Till in experience you can fully see, That all the promises therein conveyed, " Yea, and Amen, in Jesus Christ" are made ! God doth not give an evidence but He, Gives corresponding powers in man to see ; Reason and Faith, in combined strength can find, Ay e'en the secrets of their Maker's mind.* LXII. Each man, that's given to prayer ; Within his heart Can tell how much the spirit doth impart ; And how it doth, with wisdom from on high, Our earth-bound mind's deficiency supply ; And makes the child who doth confess, " God sways," To be more wise than he, " the ancient of days " t * Matt. xiii. 11, It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. f Psalms cxix. 99, I have more understanding than my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation, I understand more than the Ancients, because I keep thy precepts. SPIRl n \i. REASON. L03 \\ i i . > w ill divorc • the heai enly union, And resl his hopes upon the weaker one. on extends as far as it can find The smallest particle from which the mind Can abstract principles. Bui Faith doth more, It grasps af truths which Reason can't explore. It is brought out by words, which are conveyed By Him who all the tilings unseen hath mule. These are to Faith, by his own voice made known,* But to the eye of Reason never shown. Reason doth emanate; exists through Sei l)raw> its supply and its material thence. Faith is a gift/v in answer to our prayer, And bids us live when Reason says — despair! Tt is a new life given unto men, Emphatically called, being " born again." No power destroyed, which Mind before possessed, But understanding J given, whereby it may digest Religion's wholesome truths; which then present Its only hope, its only aliment. Spiritual discerner of each spiritual word ; Given by (bid's grace and not -to be transfer'd, * Heb. xi. I, Faith is the substance of (or giveth subsi thin:;- hoped I be evidence of th en. f Eph. ii. 8, !>• red, ;h faith, and that not lives ii is the id I Job xxxii, 8, There is a Bpirif in man, bul the inspii tin' Almighl j giveth it unders i ding !<)4 FAlTH. As Reason or as Science oft may be, But earnest, to that soul, exclusively, That wisdom being asked, the prayer hath won The promised answer from the Eternal One ; And Faith is given ; sown as a seed to bring A better crop of ripen' d reasoning. Another lens the Spirit doth supply To open heaven to man's believing e>/e ; And those who once have felt how near it draws. The things invisible by optic's laws, Will ne'er in their unaided sense delight, And search heaven's mysteries with the natural sight ? * L XI II. With Faith thus given and aided, I would try To look awhile into the mystery Of man's creation. Not with Learning's pride: Wisdom I have none, 'tis love alone doth guide. I would not draw you from the Bible's view, But borrow thence; direct you thereunto. It. may appear a thing most strange to say, But if you liive your soul, turn not away * 1 Cor. ii. I 1, The natural man rcccivcth (or perceiveth) not the things of the Spirit of God, for the) are foolishness unto him Neither can he Know them, because thej are spiritualh tlis • i ned. ] ( I."; From that pure source whence Wisdom is con« veyed, Whence Faith proceeds, where Glory is displayed ! One st iji without it, mark the bitter co You walk in error, and your soul is lost! LXIV. Oh! How Though! aches when it essays to run Where Time was born, and Mailer was begun : How then, my God, shall I unbosom Thee? One respiration is — Eternity I Can I a picture draw? — Suppose a Soul, With all its present powers, but no controul Which now is exercised by matter's-tie To fix its station or confine its Unto this world. Suppose that Soul to be Fixed in a wide — Unformed Infinity! ('Tis not the word, but nearest \ ran find To give a state that overpowers the mind) What would its feeling be, when high — and low — Above — beneath — around — where sighl could go — It could no atom feel, no spot descry, To hold its thought, or ease the agony, Which seems to make our mind elastic thread, That's drawn — and drawn — until 'tis fasten'd Unto some far-off spot ? — Nought ! All is nought ! No end for Sight ! — No harbourage for Thought ! i 106 GOD SELF-EXISTENT. How would that Soul rejoice, did Mercy place A spot — though it were sunk so far in Space, That Thought (whose rapid wing outrunning air We cannot time) should take in travelling there Unnumber'd years ! Hope would that soul sustain ! 'Twould speed — and hope ; and hope — and speed again ! And such a state as this there ranst have been ; E'en such a state the Angels may have seen ; But — that they saw — and worshipped as they viewed — "The Lord! — The Lord! — throughout Infinitude!" LXV. There jnust have been a time — when Deity — Existed in a lonely Majesty ! Sourceless — Self-formed — Incomprehensible ! Eternal — changeless — uncommenceable ! Lord of a universe immeasureably outspread ! Formless — unfiird — vast — and untenanted ! No voice as yet, before his throne to sing No world to bow ; no creature worshipping ! Himself the scource of light and life, which He Did meditate to give, when Vacancy Should hear, and in the vacuum should raise A Universe of happiness and praise ! ( i;l \ rES Wt.l I -. 101 TA\ I. rhere must have been a time, ere Time was made, When Grod did Will, and Willing was obeyed; Thai \ngels, and Intelligences bright, Should he create to revel in his sight And furnish Heaven. Those pure and spotless things Who fill his courts with endless worshippings; All chosen vessels, titled to enfold His blissful beams, which yei were uncontrouTd; \nd seemed (oh pardon Lord the impious thought) Wasteful —worthless I Whilst there- as yet was nought In Heaven, of all its hierarchies so great, The value of such boon to estimate ! LXVIT. There was again, a most eventful time When God did meditate a work sublime I To call from Nothing, Matter so diverse, Thai it should comprehend a Universe. He will'd — and Matter in the birth appears — And Nature's womb was filled with formless spheres ! The dust of mountains, and the brine of sea, Together lay in dark feculency. A pulpy mass, crude, lifeless, and unformed ; Without vitality ; its pulp unwanned ; i 2 108 THE LIGHT. Or yet unstirred by fecundation's ray; But mixed in gloom, disorder, disarray ! That time, predestined and prefixed to be, Before the glimmerings of Eternity; That moment was arrived, " Let there be light ! " Was God's command, and dissipate was night! No time, no lengthen' d process, such as we Must make to meet our mind's capacity ; He spake ! — 'Twas done ere yet the word had passed Commanded Light '.—And through the gloom was cast Flashing — beaming — bursting far away — A light — effulgent as Celestial day! — A beam of love from God's exhaustless eye Expands through Space and fills Infinity ; O'erpowers deep Chaos, and doth penetrate The deepest matter that is uncreate ! Not light as on our little globe now shed Where scarce one ray is fully gathered; But beams, proportion'd to that boundless space Where God designed with wisdom's laws to place Unnumber'd suns ! Unorb'd that light, but bound The finger of the Deity around ; Which, with a well-timed motion, once did trace The utmost cycle of that destined space Wliich comprehends creation. Light, thus was made ; Which God, as He its purity surveyed, THE GLOBES. 109 Pronoun i'i 'i I (<> In- good ; and m atter'd free The spreading essence of vitality. LXVIIL Then, as the gloom of Chaos did disperse, Tlie mingled Atoms of the Universe Collected are within Creating Hand, And moulded into spheres of harden' d land; His radian! finger broadly now defines The Ocean's limit, marks its passless lines ; Weighs seas within his palm, to gently drop The crystal pearl within its destined cup. Then rolled young Ocean, and in silence spread 1 1- level waters o'er each concave bed ; It traced each strand, with liquid clasp it bent The twining outline of each continent. Then rose ye up majestic mountains high, 5 e granite giants that invade the sky ! Ye master-spirits thai o'erlook the deep, And frown its restless waters into sleep ! Tow'ring, at beck of (rod, ve hurst the sea, The boldest pictures of sublimity, The monarchs of the land ! The Earth thus made, li next with garments beauteous was arrayed; With fruit and (lowers, and tree and clustering vine, Which, sung by sightless l>ard, almost divine, 110 THE SUNS Needs not from my weak hand a touch to break The beauteous harmony his song did make. LXIX. Then next the Suns were made. All Globes immense, Porous, and of absorbing influence. Made to receive, and to condense, then spread The particles of Light engendered Within the breast of God. Then rays, erst still, Did rush at His command each sun to fill, And bid them burn with bright, unvarying flame, Their form, their vital influence the same. Self-unconsumable ; their fires self-fed ; Self-supported, and self-balanced ; Spun out afar by God's creating hand ; Rolling when He did motion them to stand, Suspended and sustained. Revolving free, Untired, undimVl, throughout Eternity. LXX. The Suns thus fixed, with axis all their own, The frost-bound Planets next are downward strown In cluster' d rings. Dropped from the Hand Divine ; Sun-supported ; formed by his light to shine. Around each Sun a stated number sown, Whose influence, first attractive, they must own, WD &TMOSPH&R] . Ill And common centre find. Another swaj These now must feel, in every solar ray ; Which then emerged, with force centrifugal, And caused each lessef and each lighter ball, Their yearly circle and their daily roll, To dance through Space, confessing his oontroul. Bedded in rays, these Horns gravitate, \- their components give their bodies weight: These rays repulse, and their obliquity Motion vertiginous to the spheres supph ; Provide an impulse, till the World's destroyed, \nd (iliilics on sun-beams travel through the Void. LXXI. These Worlds are frigid orbs. They find their seat W ithin the spreading range of vital heat , And instantly the vapours that are near Condense into that robe called atmosphere. < Offspring of earth and sun. Mingled and blent, Of cithers principle recipient. Within its wide and mediatorial state Taughl to embrace and to amalgamate Death and vitality, deep union, Earth mixed with essence of the Eternal One. What Earth exudes ooiastrueted to contain, Refine and pass into its pore" again. 112 WHEREFORE MADE. LXXII. But I digress, and bend to Fancy's sway, Which for a moment bore my thoughts away, E'en let them pass, as they transgress no rules Of scripture truth, and nought know I of Schools. I leave to greater and to wiser men to say The constant law the planets do obey. I did but roam, as truant school-boy will, And danced my bubble ; you may laugh your fill. This world is nothing ! To my soul 'tis nought ; Scarce worth Reflection or one anxious thought ; If taken in comparison, I mean with state, For loss of which it cannot compensate. God framed the Worlds, and beauteous are they ; Alas ! so fair, they draw our thoughts away From what is fairer; and from what we know With all its splendour mingles not a woe ! God made them but for Mankind's standing place ; A spot where he his various deeds may trace ; And, by their exhibition, register Thoughts and desires which in his heart occur ; But which, if not in action verified, Would in existence often be denied. As such we'll take them, and proceed to find What is man's Soul dis-sever'd from the Mind. mi miii. I 13 LXXIFT. Our births and deaths — these seem the Epochs wlience We may obtain the fullest evidence. And yet there's nothing which then meets the eye, Which shows infused spark ; and nought whereby We can proclaim the Ins- sustained; the breath, The blood recedes; we wonder — is it Death! The wonder is — we wonder'd nol before What is the lite; nor sought the living more. We see so much of life 'tis no surprise; Death comes ; — we shrink — and hide it from our eyes ; We take a creature's life; 'twas made to die; We shudder at man's fall : yet know not why We should not from each creature's blood refrain ; All spring from dust, and all to dust again Must soon return. — The brute entirely dies ! Who told thee thai I \\ h;il made mankind so wise? Who knoweth thai the Spirit of a man* Doth upward mount, where creature's never can? By natural Reason none ! The I Mines do grow Within the Womb, but who can ever know, • Eccles. iii.21. 114 AGAIN SOUGHT When the deep union of the soul is made ; How it is wrought ; or how it is conveyed. It seemeth as the wind ; thou canst not know Whence it doth come, or whither it. doth go ! Here Revelation steps in to provide Matter for thought, and bids our Faith decide. The prophet, aided by inspiring ray, Seems e'en to labour when he would convey Man — as he stood beneath his Maker's hand, Twice told his tale, that we may understand. Created last of all God's works ; designed To be the monarch of the creatine kind ; « And if I read aright, the link to be Connecting Matter with Divinity '. We see him at Creation's hour receive More than the common faculty to live. Oh! what perplexing thought; what mental food! " Let us make man in our similitude !"- " Our Image ; Likeness ;" let him represent The Maker of the starry firmament ! \\ here dwells the likeness now? In form '. In powers ? Nay! — But in this immortal soul of ours! \ vegetable life to plants was given, And creature-life conveyed, when clods were riven; \T man's CREATION. I 15 Ami plants ami animals at God's command Burst into life thej ne'er sliall understand Altho' thej can enjoy. When Man was framed Omnipotence its greatest work proclaimed! The dust, 'lis true, material supplied, \n I formed the link of earth by which we're tied ; Dusl formed the brain, and Wisdom there confined The Intellect, the Reason, and the Mind. The great Creator touched the Eden-sod, It sti ict — no semblance yet of God; — He breathed upon that form, !>\ dusl begot, A something thai all else received not; Tin- semblance and the gift pervade the whole \ml clay-dothed man becomes "a living Soul!" I AX IV. In then that Soul, and each capacitj Which thence arises, must resemblance be. The Soul with Thought and Reason oft its linked, But to in/ mind 'tis separate and distinct. Distinct from body's mass! By Death untouched! A feeling universal paints it such. But Peeling here should not mislead or guide, Tis Revelation's voice that should deride. It doth, methinks, thai point declare, nor wait : mun to fancy, or to speculate. 116 DEATH DENOUNCED. E'en the same chapters which explain his birth Do separate his spirit from its earth. When to our great progenitors God said " Eat not that Fruit, - ' 1 and warned if disobeyed, That in such time of disobedience they Should surely die ; what turned the threat away ? They disobeyed, and lived ! Some error then Is here ; or God is false ; and unto men Hath shown discrepance or in word or will, A threat pronounced that he would not fulfil. It is not so. We fight with terms, and spend Our breath in controversies which ne'er end. The scriptural life, and death there named refer To that which hath a deathless character ; And must be viewed alone with scriptural eye, Death means SouVs-woe ; and Life doth Bliss imply. God spends no useless breath, the term excuse, He gives to Nature laws, and doth not choose To give in Revelation e'en one single line ; Nature must teach us Natural discipline. The soul becomes therein his only care, How it may thrive, and how it may prepare For that great change, and that important day, When Dust no more shall answer to the sway Of spirit or of mind! Adam was formed to die; I -i'f iin promise made which may imply U ll\ I IMI'I IKH ? 117 Aii Immortal it \ for man on earth, Where Death is sure concomitant of birth. And Death did pass upon man's Soul that day When lie this only law did disobey And lived! — Lived with a death-taint on Ids Soul! A spreading spot that may pervade the whole ! That threat fnlfil'd whilst life was still enjoyed Doth mark the Soul; how separate; how destroyed! Distinct in death, though blended in this life; O'ercoming pain, and dissolution's strife To seek a bliss or rush into a woe, Far too intense e'er to he borne below In this our earthly state ! To find the Soul, 'Tis necessary to survey the whole Of man's compounding parts ; and then 'twill be (Like every other heavenly mystery) Described by negatives ; not by " I know," Rut by " It is not," rather than " 'tis so." This is wo finding, it is evident; But with such finding we must lie content ; Unless we are disposed to take God's word ; Then Reason is the cry, and Logic is prefer'd. Men give you work, with sinister intent, A Spiritual work, with Carnal instrument. LXW We find then linked within this frame of ours, Some Physical, some Intellectual powers; US THE SOUL Or Organs I should say, with powers immense For Labour, Reason, or Intelligence. These Instruments are all arranged for use In spot most suited, whence they may produce The Work desired ; if handled they may be By higher power, that Wills exclusively ! This Power must be the Soul ! Men often say The Mind consents and Members do obey. But Mind, and Sense, and Reason, and our Thought, Are finisKd Works, each separate and Soul-wrought. For each of these an Instrument, is made ; A Tool most, fitting in the Brain is laid ; But all these powers are passive and inert, Have not. volition, cannot self exert ; The Soul selects the Organ as it. Wills, Then gives the impetus, and Brain fulfils, (If all its powers are kept, in perfect state) Desires that from the Spirit emanate. Soul moves the Brain, and 'neath its powerful sway The Will is formed, and waiting Powers obey. Imagination take — 'tis not the Soul ; It doth excite its fancies and controul Its wanderings? Our Reason and our Thought Are not the Soul ; without it they are nought ! They do but yield obedience to its laws, Are sure Effect, but not the stirring Cause ! DISTINi I l r » It is a Guest; Secret; Invisible; Distinct from Thought, yet indivisible As streamlet from its source. Tin- Mind must be A Fountain oalyj Soul the exhaustless Sea! The Soul is then by Though! and Mind unheld ; By Matter's deatb uuscatter'd, undispeVd ; It is the Spring of life; the Well of Thought; Sustaining, feeding all; itself by nought Supported, or supplied! Inborn; unbred; \t birth implanted, not engendered ! It can exist without their aid ; we've seen All these destroyed, and yet the Soul hath been As full of Life and all therein possessed, As when by them its fruits were manifest. Tis independent of them, each and all, Rut they without its sure support must fall Inert and paralized ! Unsold' d they die, For they alone do germinate thereby ; They are but vapours which do emanate From Matter which the Soul doth penetrate \ud thus we argue. If all Matter li\rv Bj the Infusion which the Spirit gives, It can, and mu>i exist without the ball Of earthy Matter where its beams do fall; It kindles powers to life, whose one intent Is but to make the Soul Sense-evident ! The death of these, when rightly viewed, must be, Cessation of the frame's capacity 120 FROM ORGANS. To harbour longer or obey the Soul ; It quits the Dust it can no more controul. The powers of Soul do not submit to Time ; Feeble in youth, lusty in manhood's prime, And withering in our age. Organs decay, Matter is weaken'd ; pulp doth wear away. Soul may be there, with Brain to think too weak ; Eye may not see ; the Tongue refuse to speak ; Its instruments too new may be for use ; Destroyed by Time, or Sickness, or Abuse ; And thus is Soul-sense shorn ! Defects prevent Its outward Action, frustrate its Intent. So subtle is the Soul in its supply None can explain, whilst few will dare deny That it exists. 'Tis Power that's more intense Than Reason, or the Thought, or outward Sense; The Power that stamps volition on the whole ; Free to exert, constructed to controul ; Thus Action must revert unto one source, All else are Agents only, and of course Unblameable ! Thus shall the body be As passive agent screened from misery. 'Tis a mis-nomer now to say, mcthinks, The sinful flesh. It sins but through some links, So closely interwoven through the whole, And so connected secretly with Soul, YET YIELDS TO I 2 That we can ue'ei b) search detect the spot Where it is Dust, and where the Soul is not. I've thought a moment, and I cannot find E'en i-ne effect of body or of mind, Pleasure, or pain, all that we here can tell <)|' good, or bad, but is revertible To Soul. 'Tis a deep thought, and humbling too, To look upon one's body in such view; \nd hold it as the vehicle alone Pleasure to receive, or Spirit to make known; Yet 'tis the truth ! And human reasoning here Approaches Revelation somewhat near. We wonder not at that; but oft have said That Nature, purely and correctly read, As far as she proceeds, may safely stand As horn-book often doth in Infant's hand, To teach the young Idea to aspire, And give it hold on earth, ere it enquire The Road to Heaven. Ay, and it should be known, Correctly too, and all its wonders shown ; Or else they will obtrude to draw away Our eye from God at some more distant day. LXXVI. But there's a deeper point ! This Soul, though free, Must be sustain'd by higher Agenc] K 122 AN UNSEEN SWAY. Two Powers contend for Man ; the Power of God ; — 'Tis the first sway — Hell trembles at His nod! Guidance He gives, when it is sought by Prayer, And then Faith's beauteous structure can declare How bright a temple these weak tools can raise ; How strong Man's love ; how full his Voice of Praise ! But as the Earth ne'er lies in fallow state, But genders Weeds unless men cultivate ; So are these Instruments by One employed, Refuse thy God, Satan fills up the Void, Grasps all thy powers of 'Reason, Mind, and Soul ; Works in disguise, nor whispers his controul ; Makes thee blaspheme ; and bids thee God defy ; You vent the curse — then wonder — " Was it I ? " LXXVII. Now as regards the Soul. Can it surprise That Nature and God's Word should harmonize ? They both proclaim a Soul ; point its abode ; Tell the same Truth ; but differ in the mode Whereby they teach. The Word of God defends What Nature hints ; begins where Nature ends. Nature exhibits works of Mind, or Thought, Then shows the Implement by which they're wrought; We weigh it, feel it ; and are brought to state The Instrument alone inadequate; Because it doth itself require to be Moved by some power, urged by some agency i iik WORD I 23 Which jret evades our >ight ; Research is spent: The Soul is named — Enquiry says — content ! Not so proceeds the word of God! We see No reasoning there, but full authority, Which says — " I am the Lord!* — All Soul's are mine ; " Behold your Soul in spiritual discipline!" W hicli is the better way? — Could reasoning, Proof upon proof of its existence bring; Would man be bettered ? Nay ! It seems to me ll would involve him in perplexity ! A Soul made known and left without a Guide W ould he a curse ! It cannot be denied. Herein behold God's mercy infinite, The very words that bring the soul to light Send all the comfort that his voice can give, Thus saith the Lord, " Hear and your Soul shall live."t " Your Soul is deathless!) Ceaseless life enjoy ! $ " Tis sin alone your Spirit can destroy ! || * Ezok. xviii. 4. f Israel lv. 3. I John iii. 16, Shall not perish but have everlasting life. § 1 John ii. He hath promised us even Eternal life. || Prov. vi. 3"2, He that sinneth dostrnveth his own Soul. K 2 124 OP GOD. " I am your God, and have a Father's eye ; " Why will ye sin ? And wherefore will ye die ?"* LXXVIII. Let us pass on the word of God to trace, Night wears away, and in the Heavens apace The day-light dawns. 'Ere beams that morrow's sun My tale must end ; my sonnet must be done. Let us suppose it granted, that when sought By wiser heads, Nature ne'er hath brought Conviction of the Soul. Be it supposed That its elucidation is proposed Within the Word of God ; we must submit to be Instructed as doth please the Deity. Example is his mode.'r The failings of mankind. Drawn with Truth's hand, are clearly there defined; These numerous failings, and these works we see, Are ever noticed by the Deity ; And none escape his view. I have often heard Contempt and ridicule thrown on that word, * Ezekiol xviii. 31, Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, &c. Cast away your transgressions, etc. for why will ye die. f 2 Tim. iii. 16, All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, etc. PlSED \Z.) Because, they say, " It opens to our eye " Scenes of such deep and dark depravity, " Thai crime it must on tender minds impress, •• Rather than sow the seeds of Righteousness" How [gnorant wore those Men! Could they not see, The exhibition of Iniquity, Was first to show that God's Omniscient eye The very thoughts and secrets could descry Of man's perverted heart ? Written that they, If only brought his judgments to survey, May see how righteous, yet how just is He, How full of mercy and of equity ■\:v all his ways. They hate the book, because, iscience proclaims they have despised its laws; For there are none who read this book with care, But must confess — " My sins are painted there." Ay, you may laugh, and shake conviction off; May line; your changes on each witty scoff; But there's a time when both of these shall end ! God's spirit will enforce, God's voice defend The justice of his word! And, if for thee Mercy designs bliss in Eternity. That book will open BEAUTIES to thy view; Thou'lt read, thou'lt search it, and thou'lt love it too ! Thou fanciest thyself perhaps so pure The Bible shocks, and thou can'sl not endure 126 ITS EFFORTS. Truths to be spoken in an honest way ; Clothe them in language of. the present day, And though they do most monstrous sins disguise, You'll read, and quote, and almost Idolize Works of obscenity. — Works whose intent Is Truth to hide in pamper'd sentiment ; And make thee love (when wrapped in this disguise) Sins, that unclad, e'en thou could'st but despise ! Poets have been, I speak it to their shame, Who thus clothe vice, to earn a deathless name. Flatter'd, courted, and Idolized, and sought, 'Till their wild Brains to wilder songs were wrought. Lifted, and made to sit on Thrones ideal, Until they fancied, and almost coidd feel, They were a Nation's God. These worms have died ! (The voice of song could never turn aside The shaft of Death !) What, told their dying day ? What was their song ? And what their parting lay ? 'Twas bitterness ! Or Thought perhaps could bring Nought but a dark, a dreamy wandering ! But stay ! It ends not here ! That man could sing ; His Harp cleaves to him in Death's journeying. All Hell is moved the Prince of song to meet ; They quole his verse, whilst they with " Welcome" greel ; IT SHOULD BE RJ \l> | J7 lud then tbe fiends with obscene shout do tell, Hi' brightly sings before tin- Throne of Hell ! LXXTX. Read (lien God's word, nor place it irn>ic(\*nmc\\mcs hath regained the Soul ! — It sees a power all pain to palliate, And staggering at a shield that wards oft' Fate, * Luke x\i, 31. If they lirar not Moses and the Prophets, nci the? will they believe though one rose from the dead. 130 FAITH It asks — Can human interference be, Held or explain' d with God's predestiny ? Doth God expect the Soul ; and summon it away ? Shall science interfere, and bid the spirit stay I Forbid it, oh my God ! that one so weak With Reason's strength should its solution seek ! Men run into extremes, and feel at ease, But when they seem to reach the Antipodes. And either have no Faith, and cannot see The least protection from the Deity ; Or else, in Sloth, which cannot title claim To God's protection, or deserve the name Of Faith ; seem to suppose, that if they say, " I trust in God," his fixed Laws must give way ; And Ills, which must destruction bring to some, By those few Words are fully overcome ! Now each of these seem to suppose a flaw In Revelation's voice, or Nature's law. I hold them both ; and fancy that I find Their separate truth, their harmony combined. The Laws of Nature were not made in vain ; They show how force, or want, disease, or pain, Must in their separate ways, alike destroy ; The truth results; and these results employ The faculties of Thought ; which God design'd To bo Man's Guide t lie Kile of Life to find. AND SCIENC1 131 The Voice op God* appears h> me to show He can, and will, avert tln> impending blow If Prayer be made ; and if averted ill Would add unto His Glory, or fulfil A higher Mercy, which we could not see, .But which could work a brighter destiny. These two extremes must in our practice meet, Ere we can hope our Tenets are complete. Faith, that depends on Guidance, full and sure; Provides the FlG,+ yet asks the promised cure ! No natural wisdom ever had the power The Spirit to detain beyond its destined hour, Or stay its flight.} No doctrine can the fact disprove, That God supports ; and that we live, and move, And have our being here, guided as He, Dotli in his Wisdom and his Love decree. * Psalm 1, 15, Call upon mo in the time of trouble, and I will deliver thee. Matt, xxi, 22, All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, ye shall receive. James v, 15, The prayer of Faith shall save the sick. f Isaiah xxxviii. 1, The Lord said to Hezekiah— " Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live," etc. Hezekiah wept sore and prayed. Then came the Word of the Lord, saying " I have seen th\ tears, behold I will add unto thy days fifteen years," etc. Yet Isaiah said, " Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister over the boil, and he shall recover." J Job xv, 5, His days are determined, and the number of his months are with thee (God); thou bast appointed his bounds that he cannot |mv- 132 COMBINED. Yet God, who ne'er misleads, would never say " Seek ye my Face," then turn that face away ;* Nor would proclaim, " When the afflicted cry *' To me in Faith, then is their Maker nigh ;"t If Prayer could not avail ! LXXXI. And what is Prayer? Unmov'd by Love and Faith 'tis but the air That's ruffled by the tongue ! Its form must be, A solemn and a dangerous mockery, Of that all-seeing God, whose eye detects Our wandering minds, and knows our Soul's defects ; Who looks through each Intent, and must behold Its vital dearth, when insincere and cold? Yet Prayer, if prayer it can be named, must be, So intern- eating Thought with Deity, That when we rise from off our knees we find We've held communion with the Eternal mind, And harbour all its peace ! Heaven's peace although The World presents its bitter Cup of Woe ; * Isaiah xlv, 19, I said not unto the seed of Jacob — Seek ye me in vain. f Psalm cxlv, The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of thorn that fear him ; he will hear their cry, and will save them. AN VlTKMI'l [33 Peace thai we feel, and fully understand, Earth's angry billows rushed at God's command! Faith comes by Prayer. It seems a simple thing When 'tis compared with arduous Reasoning ; And all the up-hill labourings of mmd « By which the Soul of Man is wn-defined, And lost! Yet simple as it is, we know When Christ revisits this dark. World below It scarcely will exist. So high will ride The power of Mind, so boundless Wisdom's tide, That e'en the Righteous scarce a proof will bring, But hold it with an anxious wavering, Which doth imply a doubt of its intent; If it indeed were literally meant. To be the Gift of God ! It hath been much abused ; Improperly, and most unscripturally used ! Some call their Fancies Faith ; no rule to guide ; Therefore Wits scoff, and Sceptics may deride. It hath its premises, which it can bring As full and dear as doth our Reasoning. If Faith cannot a Scripture promise claim, Tis falsely called ; Presumption is its name ! LAW II. When Faith beholds a Soul 'tis not content "Till it obtains its power of government 134 TO ASCERTAIN It anxiously enquires — If it be free, As 'tis possessed by Man in Infancy? If it is bound by Sin? — Or if the Soul Hath in itself a freedom of controul ? It were Presumption, would be Pride in me, To teach a lesson in divinity. I read but for myself; and what I write Is not intended to explain the light Of God's own Word, but to direct the Weak Where they may strength and spiritual guidance seek. To point them to that God who promise made Wisdom to give, and will not Faith upbraid.* First view the Infant's Soul ! I do believe, (But take thy Bible, lest I should deceive ( And words of idle reasoning should draw Your wavering minds from God's established Law) To me it seems that God creates it pure ; That the uncleanness of progeniture Cannot affect the Soul ! "All Souls are Mine! ,, + Removes parental stain, and doth define * James i, 5, If any of you lack wisdom let him ask it of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraidcth not, and it shall b« given him. f Ezek. i, 18. THE \ \ M RE OJ 135 Wlieuce it receives its tincturage at birth; Goi) gives Tin: Son,;* cntlkannkss cleaves n Earth. LXXXIII. We find no rule for Infancy, because Kaeh sense is feeble, and requires no laws To bind, ere it can trespass ; no decree, Ere it hath power to act offensively. Chris! calls all children pure ; t He stoops to bless ; Then tells the Glory which they shall possess. When to their disembodied Spirits it is given, His Father's Mansion to behold in Heaven. J LXXXIV. A Proverb went abroad in Israel, (Drawn from what source the Scriptures do not tell,) That if the Parent sinned, the stain did spread, * John iii, fi, " That which in horn of the flesh is fle9h, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. — Query. May it not also be read, That which is flesh is born of (lie flesh, and that which is spirit is horn of the spirit. f Matt, xviii, 3, Except ye he converted, and become as little children, etc. I Matt, xviii, Id, In Heaven, their Angels (or Spirits), do always behold the face of my Father whi.-h N in Heaven 136 ORIGINAL SIN. And all his seed in trespasses were dead Beneath the eye of law.* This to disclaim, The word of Truth and Inspiration came ; And fixed the spot where chastisement should lie, " The soul that sinneth it shall surely die ! " " No longer, as I live, shall ye declare " My works unequal, my decrees unfair; " Men shall be judged, the Father and the Son, " By deeds of Faith, or sins which they have done *' In their Probation's day ! " " Why will ye die !'"+ These are God's words ; and what can they imply ? A power to live, methinks, and Faith employ Without a Sin which shall perforce destroy The prospect of our bliss. Surely if then, Such power be vested in the Souls of Men, The source of Soul, and each Soul from its source, Must be immaculate ; or innate force * Ezek. xviii, 2, What mean ye that ye use this proverb con- corning the land of Israel, saying, Their Fathers have eaten some grapes, and the Children's teeth arc on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all Souls are mine, as the Soul of the Father, so also the Soul of the Son is mine, the Soul that sinneth it shall die f Ezek. xviii. 13. ORIGIN A 1 -iv 137 W oul I r-power the mercy-call, and we Could col respond, because we are not free. The voice of God; how powerless musl it prove; If natural sin, denying power to move, Places impediments upon the soul, Ami spiritual bondage fasten-, to controul The minds of unborn Babes.* I am content Tii give to human sinfulness consent; And to acknowledge, thai excepting He Who was the fulness of the Deitv, None live a holy life ; or do obey The laws of God, or walk in Wisdom's way; Yet all that I ean find, all I can see, Is but a perfect incapacity For Evil or for Good. Alike inert, It cannot sin, and cann >t Faith exert. The Soul at birth appears a fallow ground; No seed of Sin or Righteousness is found. It is as much a new gifl from its God As Adam's was when it infused the clod; * Kzpk. viii. 19, Vet ye say, Why ? Doth not the Son beat the iniquitj of the Father ! When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, etc. he shall surely live. The Soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father, neither shall the Father bear the iniquity of the Son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be \ipon himself, etc 1 138 ORIGINAL SIN. It is a new creation ; and must be, The same pure breathing of Divinity. In virtue, unrelaxable and stern; Without the power from Wisdom's laws to turn, Strict Justice could not model her ; nor yet Would Mercy all its attributes forget, And in the yielding and prolific Soul Implant one Vice inherent, to controul Its feeble faculties ; or induce sin From stirring of an innate germe within. LXXXV. 1 will not now attempt, and cannot say, When first the Sonl may sin ; or when obey The dictates of its God. I do not know When first the heavenly husbandman doth sow The good seed of his grace* I cannot tell, Nor can explain the agency of Hell, t Which sows the tares ; then steels away content, That he a deed hath done which shall prevent * The sower soweth the Word. — He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. •)• Matt. xiii. , The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man who sewed good seed in his field. But whilst men slept (or whilst it lay unproductive), his enemy came, and sowed tares among the Wheat, and went his way, etc. And when the blade was sprung up, etc. then appeared the tares also. And the servants, etc. said didst thou not sow good seed in thy field, from whence then hath i* tares? And he said unto them, an Enemy hath done this, M.IN u -i.\. 139 The first design of Grod. But this I know, Grod doth himself declare it to !>'• LXXXV1 To Reason on this point, we may suppose A Soul just breaking from the firs! repose Of Infancy. Anxious ii looks around ; Where'er it rests its eye, objects are found, Which some inherent sense may soon employ ; Somewhal the eye desires; the lip may soon enjoy. E'en when 'lis born it hath its appetite; And soon the senses manifest delight. How soon, indeed, the little child doth show The warmth of joy, which bids its features glow With pleasure or surprise. How soon again IK piteous voice denotes or want or pain ? My little child! Thou openest thine eye On things of life, but deatli is lurking nigh! The very things we place within thine hand ; The very things which bid thy mind expand ; Tlic very things which God ordains for thee, If loved too much in after-life may be The ruin of thy Soul I* ■ Tli. cares of this world, its riches, and its pleasures entii us and becoming lusts, choke the Word, and it becometh un- fruitful. I 2 140 9 ORIGINAL SIN. The very tilings, A Father's love ; a Mother's fondness brings ; And to thine eye, and reaching hand expose, To see how fast thy budding Reason grows, If loved too well, these very things may be The goad to Sin, and Death, and Misery. My little Child! could Parents fully see The depth of their responsibility ; How would they strive to walk, as those who know. That every word they say, may tend to sow. Within thy Infant breast, pernicious seed; Which may break forth in such unrighteous deed That it will harden thy young heart, until, The Grace of God may fail at length to fill Thy bosom with its love! Thy little eve. Views all our actions with a scrutiny ; Intended to impress upon thy mind, Motions, or sounds, thy limbs or tongue may find Power to effect; or with a new-bom grace, Extend the action to another race; Perpetual copyists ! Well may we say, We stand as finger-posts on God's highway; One duty ours, and this alone, to tell, The path to Heaven, or point the road to Hell ! 'Tis hard for human Thought to dive within The Mind of God, or say when Souls can sin! A fallow time appears, when nought is sown; A time of opening sense: when mind alone. ORIGIM \l. 3IN. i II I. i-i'i li\ its God where Matter doth abound, May gather Wisdom from the things around, \inl strengthen all its powers. j knowledge gain, What I (. and wherefrom to refrain; Tims, early thought, in things of lesser weight, \ lesson, which shall fit them for that stal •, When God shall bid them choose in higher flu That which may Life, and what Destruction brings ; I offer by his Grac -. M l's choice being ii \ Life 'i Death throughout Eternity! I XXXVII. Do I in this the Truth of God oppose ' Or do I differ in my Faith from those Who an' his servants, strengthen^ by hfe Grace The blessings of Kfernity t" pla Before their fellow-men? God doth not bind The freedom of the prayer-instructed mind! He who did frame, did also fully see The little shade of Thought's diversitj When each is anxious for himself to learn The blessed truths which are the firs! concern Of his Immortal Soul Kill, lest my pen < oni'iisedU should trace. I w ill again 142 ORIGINAL SIN. Recount what I suppose the Soul to be; W hat its own strength, what its capacitv To glorify its God ; or how posses- One single claim to Righteousness. LXXXVIII. Bear with me then one moment, my dear Friend, W hilst I, this seeming error, venture to defend. I said the Soul is fetterless and pure ; Immortal j* Changeless ;t Fitted to endure Unfading glory in the realms above, Mingled with God, a bright beam of his love. I make that Soul accountable ; and weep For those who in the death of nature sleep, To wake in regions of despair below And drain the cup of never-ending woe ! % From sight of God the Spirit cannot fly ; § Nor can Corruption hide her from His eye ! Death cannot shield ! The Grave cannot dissolve ! E'en could it hold whilst centuries revolve. * Prov. vi. 9, I saw under the Altar the Soul's of them that were slain for the Word of God. f Excl. ix. 10, Whatsoever the hand findeth to do, do it with might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, etc. J John v. 23, The hour is coming, on which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the Resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of Damnation. § Psalms cxxxix. 7 — 12, Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, etc. ORIGIN U SIN. I lo The years thai ye1 must pass, and roll away, bring ns onward to that awful day, When Soul, and Deeds, shall each again appeaY, And be the solemn voice to hear, ( >f our < hnniscienl Jud I fully - Man's spiritual dearth,* liis inability, 1 ' To Holiness, or Faith ; all that can claim Service to God, or earn that deathless nain Extended by his love to all who hear The Spirit's call, and bend with holy fear Beneath it- righteous sway! My heart assents, T i all the Truths which God's own word presents, Of proueness unto Sin;§ and yet I find 'Tis not enforced, upon the opening mind ; || * 1 Cor. ii, 14, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, etc. f 2 Cor. iii, 5, We are not sufficient of ourselves, etc., but our sufficiency is of God. 1 Cor. xv, 10, Bv the grace of God I am what I am. John iv, 1 1. Xo man can come unto me except the Father draw him, e J Rev. ii, 17, To him that overcometh, etc., 1 will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name, etc. § Gen. viii, 21, The imaginations of man's heart are evil from his youth. Psalm lviii, 3, The Wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies (me- taphoric, at an early age). | 1 Cor. xii, 7. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. Ezek. xxxiii, 11, As I live saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked, etc. Turn ye. turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye die. 1 Tim. ii, 3. I our Saviour who will have all men I I. etc Rev. xxii. 17. 144 ORIGINAL SIX. But doth arise from Guilt's contagiousness ; Which so surrounds, and on each sense doth press ; That e'er the Infant Soul can fully see, What is its Duty, what its Destiny ; The love of things enticing, or the abuse, E'en of the things provided for its use, Have so incased its mind with things of Earth ; That God's own voice is stifled in its birth,* And cannot wake the Soul ! — It sleeps content, Cradled in bonds which nature doth present 1 Yet find I not a procreated sin ! It is enough that Man is left within The maze of Guilt, without God's word to guide, He wants no power no urgency beside. I do believe, no one desire for sin, Stirs from implanted principle within ; But all the agency of God doth tend, Our mind's to cleanse, our Spirit's to defend !+ Whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely. John v, 40, Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life. * Mark iv, 19, The cares of this world (and our necessary occu- pations), the deceitfulness of riches (and the false or apparently innocent pleasures they purchase), and the lust of other things (growing with our growth, and ripening with our strength), en- tering in and constituting our earthly habits (sinful only in their excess), choke the word, and it hecometh unfruitful. f 2 Tim. i, 7, and Eph. v, 9, God giveth thee not the Spirit of Fear, hut of Power and Love, and of a Sound Mind, and the fruit thereof is Goodness, Righteousness, and Truth. ORIGIN \l SIN. 145 Imparted Sin I find not, but confess, God's mercy in imputed Righteousness! T do believe il to be clear, and true, That all the unregenerate Man may do ; \s it proceeds from other source than love, Constraining, and subduing, to his God above ; Tn that if cannot faith-born source profess, Hath not a single claim to Righteousness ! There is no power of Holiness in men! To serve their God " they must be born again !" Born, by God's Spirit! Using his own Word; All ho' perhaps derided when 'twas heard, Yet did the Conscience scatter'd seed retain, Without whose aid God's spirit falls in vain, Or never is infused. Childhood may be, A beauteous state of stainless purity. But Piety so called, preceding mind, Is but Tuition's law ; blessed in its kind, And God's first means his temple to defend, Until his Spirit doth at length descend To breathe t hereon, and by its influence warm, And Life diffuse where all before was Form. The Spirit works by means. It doth not take A feeble child, and full-grown Christian make. Heb. xi, 6, Without Faith it i* impossible to please God. 146 ORIGINAL SIN. Nor doth it choose a ruined Intellect, Out-worn by sin, or natural defect, And make that mind, with splendour to attest, The new-born fire that animates the breast Of him, the slothful and the weak. Tis true, That it dotli strengthen, and our powers renew ; But always works through Reason, and the Mind ; The heart's affections ; all things it can find ; The deadly weapons of our natural day ; And makes them instruments beneath its sway To manifest God's grace. The man, we see, Retains each mark of individuality. He loses not the bright smile of his face ; His love, his friendship, nought doth it displace ; Our talents move beneath one master-hand, Confessing power they do not understand. Change but the sway, the self-same man shall paint An awful Sinner, or a vigorous Saint ! The cheerful eye, which smiled on things around, When fixed on God, with love-beams shall abound ; The voice that charmed, with Nature's notes before, When tuned by Him, shall still more brightly soar ; A smile more pure, a love that knows know stain, Bestow'd by God, shall rest on God again! THE IDKi t's I 17 I have been asked, by those who would dispute The mercy of our God, and would refute The justice of his law. " If we can bring " No Praise, or Faith but through our Reasoning, " (Which sees the wise requirements of God's will, " And doth adore, though it cannot fulfil ;) - Where sinks the Idiot's Soul ? And what will be, " (If such he hath), his Soul's Eternity '." Most few indeed the cases are, where we, No trace can find of rationality. And Lunacy hath its Organic Cause, Which we could learn, could we explore the Laws Which constitute mankind, and could we trace Man through the various acts which did displace, Or did abuse its powers ; Passions extend A mal-formation, destined to descend To Children yet unborn; the stamp to he Of Guilt's defilement, sins deformity! Disease, or accident in chronic state, Deposit seeds ; and thence plants germinate Which oft entail hereditary Haw, And do bespeak a violated law , Which more or less descends upon the child Of Guilty parents, who, in Race defiled, And ruined offspring, may deplore and see The lasting fruit of their Iniquity. But vet no proof is here of such a - U doth declare the Soul contaminate! 148 ACCOUNTABILITY. All we can say, is, that we surely find A talent lost in the extinguished mind. And we have proof that payment must be made Tn just proportion to the power conveyed ;* Which makes the soul to comprehend God's will And give us strength whereby we may fulfil His precepts and his laws. God doth a talent lend, Which man mnst cultivate; and should extend. Look up to Heaven ; e'en now, before thine eye, A beauteous figure in the midnight skv, Doth paint a soul obscured ! Yon dark'ning cloud Hath wrapt the bright moon in its rayless shroud; Yet full and pure her onward course she rides ; No eye beholds ; But yet her Maker guides ! So o'er the Idiot's dark and vacant Mind, Where all is void, or thought is undefined ; Through many a dreary hour a dense dark cloud Enfolds the senses with its deathlike shroud ! Yet, underneath that veil, the quenchless soul Her homeward course unconsciously doth roll, By God observed and loved ! And God, I know Will save that Soul, although the Mind foree-o Its hold on Reason's helm, Yet 'tis a thing, Painful to Nature, Ay, most harrowing, Matthew xxv, and Luke xix, Parable of the Talents. THE IDIOT- I |'.i To all who trace the spirit to it- end, [*o stand beside the Death-bed of a friend Deprived of Rationality's controul, And contemplate the transit of thai Soul, Vs it doth break from matter's orbit free, And roll into — Accountability ! No ray of Thought within the eye to see ; Rut languor deep, and restless vacancy! Sinking into the Grave! No mental sio- n ' No Bliss to gain! No pleasure to resign! No Faith, upon the Joys of Heaven to dwell! No Fear; no Terror; and no dread of Hell ! Sinking! Sinking! Relaxing from this life! No fond regret; And not one spiritual strife! No Wish; no Want; not one desire for Prayer! No Hope in Death! No sorrow! No Despair! \n 1 what a more than awful sight would be The ray of Sense preceding Death we see; The - lightning of the Mind!" Bursting to say, " Thy Soul is summoned from this world away !" Ali ! what a fearful glimpse the mind would cast On years in raving -pent; or Season's past Tn darkness and in gloom, if God required A spiritual life where Reason had expired ! A Soul is there; But Reason cannot choose; It cannot love ; and cannot Grace abuse ! The Sonl is circumscribed; a callous band Binds every power, and Thought cannot expand. 150 ACCOUNTABILITY. Mercy and Justice in this instance meet, They both acquit; and shouting angels greet A Soul that finds its new-born Sense above Completed in his powers by Re-creative Love ! But thou, my Friend, hast Intellect. Then bless Thy Maker for the Reason you possess ! God gives not unto all alike, but He In Wisdom destines what our course shall be, And waits a just account; and God we know Will much require, where he doth much bestow ! Each Soul receives from God the Power it hath. And humble talents find their humble Path. Screened from enticing pomp, and many a snare Which wealth, or Grandeur lend, they may prepare For greater glory than this World can give, E'en in that Kingdom where the Just shall live, Preserved thereto by Grace.* God gives to me A narrow path, a humble destiny ; And did remove the wild dreams of my youth, The void to fill with his most gracious Truth. He knew his Vessel, saw how weak it was ; And would not trust the upholding of his cause * Gal. iii, The Just shall live by Faith. Ep. ii, 8, liy grace jre red, etc. MERITORIOUS ! ~> ! i *ue unproved. He saw a mind so frail, Tlint sin's enticem snl will alas ! prevail To captivate my Soul ! \\. in the reach Of his own Word whose every line doth teach The Way of Sin is Death ! Yet what we all possess Must not be sunk in slothful uselessness ! If I, in most infectious vice mis-spend The talent here which He in love doth lend ; Or use the influence he gives to me In spreading Error or depravitv Where thitikest thou, upon that awful hour. Which, distant viewed, doth manifest a power To stay my Rebel hand with inborn awe, T shall be found ? Or how evade his Law ? \\ ill God, who is immutability, Reverse the Sentence, and extend to me A pardon undeserved? Or sav again That I some worldly sanctity attain ; And walk (as I have sorrowing heard of late Some sinners boast) a life immaculate ; Shall I, with most heart-rending hardihood, Duped and deceived with pride of moral good; Encouraged by self-righteousness, then dare Unto the Judgement-seat of God repair ; Mercy disclaim ; and every fear dismiss ; Demand admittance to the Realms of Bli — 152 MERITORIOUS DEEDS. In right or payment of some temporal use* Some work, which I have fancied duteous, And most commendable I * With Presumptuousness, Then stake my very hope of happiness Upon the merit of some act, by me, Oft contemplated with complacency ; That righteous deed selected from among A host of sins, and this the sinless one ? Ah no ! — oppressed with consciousness of sin, Of guilt without ; defilement all within ; Lord, I confess my worthlessness to Thee And do bemoan the deep depravity Of this, my Soul ! Such was not once my creed ! I, too, disclaimed a sinful word or deed ! But now, when Memory throngs the breast with Thought, And to the bar of Conscience deeds are brought, I know no hope there is of blissful end, On which a dying Christian may depend, But that of full, imputed, righteousness, To those who do belief in Christ confess;"*' Combined with penitence and charity, Such as evince the full vitality * Gal. iii, That no man is justified by the law in the sighl of God is evident. f Hob. ii, i, The Just Bhall live by Faith. By Grace pe are saved through Faith. UERIT0RI01 S DEEDS. 153 Of Faith! — 'Tis not to virtuous deeds that Heaven T- promised; or thai happiness is given;* \ i payment-coin for works is thus prefer'd, For bv tin- precepts of God's holy word \\ .■ .-ill are sinners made ! f Thus there are no Can look to Heaven and say, " Mv Mansion's won, If thai alone his moral life shall be Kis claim for bliss; service his only plea. 'Tis not in man, who walketh so to live 'There's nought to pardon, nothing to forgive ; All man coul 1 ask, all which his hope could cherish, Would be that Soil, might with the Body perish ! Christ had not come; nor on the cross had died, If by the Law man could be justified.;!; Tf then his blood no cleansing power possess, § I still am clothed in guilt and sinfulness; And all the payment T could claim would be The Wrath denounced — Eternal Misery ! I judge not other men, nor would 1 curse Men for their Faith, though it may be adverse! Titus iii, ."), Net bj works of Righteousness which we have done, but according to l>is Mercy, etc. f Gal. iii. 11. The Scripture hath concluded all men under sin. J Romans iii, 2. By tic deeds of the Law no flesh Is justified in liis si lie § Gal. ii, "21, If Righteousness (could) come by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain. M 154 MERITORIOUS DEEDS. To God I leave their souls ! The Voice of Grace (Whose sovereign power each error can efface,) I know can reach them (as the Saved can tell) E'en on the brink of Ante-cherished Hell, Their Atheistic gloom ! I would that they By Word of God should their own hearts survey ; And then declare what merit there can be, In what they call Refined Morality. Could you fulfil this one most arduuus task, What bright reward, what payment could you ask? On earth the greatest name ! Of fellow-men, Praise, and esteem; which shall return again In tenfold measure ! Reproductive Love ! But where is service to your God above?* If that can not be found, you have but lent, Talents to man ; and you must be content, (As you have man a grateful debtor made) To be by man the full amount repaid. Is God your Debtor then ?+ Shall Heaven repay A Loan to man? E'en Reason answers — Nay. * Prov. xxxv, 7, If thou be righteous, what givest thou him (God)? or what receiveth he of thine hand? * Job xxii, 2, Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise is profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous ? Or in it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect ? MRRIT0RI01 - 155 Bui if vhiiv Soul shall reach thai ble sed pla 'Tis soverei . God's i rer-powering gn Which ni.ik. s tliee add a living Faith to these knd high ive is than but to Or to befriend mankind.* — A tender He Doth mell at Grief, and freely doth imparl Its soothing balm to lighten many a care, The breach of woe to soften or repair! Sup] 11 these fulfilled, — do we possess A claim to everlasting blessedness? Or would a pure and sinless life bestow E'en an exemption from Eternal woe ? "i • we >impnse a case that ne'er is found. For Guilt and Sin doth ever so abound, That God's own Pen-man painting spiritual dearth, Declares there lives not on this thronged Earth A sinless man !+ And asks what praise we claim When Heathen friendship can produce the same It But be such state supposed; Neglect must be A sin against a bounteous Deilv, Who claims for blessings which he doth present Somewhat that may be called acknowledgment. Omitted praise, tor life each day renewed, Is mute contempt, and base ingratitude. * I. ukc mm, 10, When ye shall have done all these things, etc. say. Wo are unprofitable servants. f Romans iii. 10, There is none Righteous, no not one. I Matt. v. 46, For if ye love them which love yon. what reward have ye? Do not even publicans the same I M 2 156 MERITORIOUS DEEDS. Sloth then is passive Guilt ! No claim is made For moral feeling which our God conveyed, Altho 1 'tis loveliest of the Earthly kind, The brightest feature that the human mind Displays to human sight. Shall such then saj " I have no sin, and therefore will not pray ; Let guilty sinners bend, I have no need ; Guiltless I stand in thought, in word, in deed ! " I tell thee there is yet a better hope E'en for the wretch who gives his passions scope ; And whilst he no enormity denies, Laughs at God's mercy, and his wrath defies ! There is a better hope for him, because, He knows that he hath trampled on God's laws, And to a merit-claim makes no pretence, Laughs off his Fear, Defiance his defence ! The moral man, elate with pompous pride, This humbling doctrine hears but to deride Yet must we not, because he errs, refrain This first great truth most fully to maintain And to enforce on all. " No prayer is real Until man doth confess, and truly feel That he hath sinned ! No sinner asks for Grace Till conscious Guilt doth urge him to retrace CONTRASTED WITH I 'u Hi- wandering steps, and find thai bettei way Where God Imputes whal man can never pay — A perfect Righteousness ' To such I now propose One image more, and I lien my song I close. Tl is ;i shorl and retrospective view; My Life self-judged ; which, art thou wise, do you ! LXXXTX. Midway upon Life's hill I stand; and see — With magic wand, my faithful Memory, Unfolds the deep-bar' d portal of the past ; Dispels each lingering shadow that is cast ; % long Forgetfulness ; and, Conscience-led, Each footstep of my Life I now retread ! Now vapoury visions cross the vista glide, Of deeds forgotten, and of crimes denied; And giant Sins arise, with aspect wild; So huge, so powerful, and so sin-defiled ; My Offspring all ; disgustingly defined ; Unlike methinks, thai progeny of mind Once doated on, and loved ; Sins that I've bred, And with parental fondness cherished. Aye — there ye stand ! And whilst 1 contemplate, Each most disgusting feature doth delate I poii m\ shuddering eye ! And are ye mine ? I fear ye! Tremble! Lesl ye should entwine 158 SALVATION Your arms around my form, and far away, Should bear me from the cheerful light' of day! Where would ye lead ? Methought I stood alone ! And must I then approach the Judgment throne Attended by a host, so hateful to my sight, That I would welcome an eternal night, Could night-gloom hide ! Or Darkness, could it cover Sin's that must cleave unto my Soul for ever ! The vision changes now ! Time is for ever flown ! \iid I am summon'd to the Judgment throne! I see the Judge. On me alone his eye Methinks is fixed with awful scrutiny ! A wide, deep scroll descends ; thereon appears The faithful record of utinumber'd years ; Engraven, witli a pen thai hath enroll'd, \\ Through Christ. * 1 John ii, 2—22, Who is a liar bul he thai denieth thai Jesua is the Cliii-i ! II, i s antichrisl thai denieth the Fathci ! the Son! 164 THY MYSTERY We differ still. — But yet I see Their grand objection is " a mystery." A strange objection for wise men who know That everything which lives or moves below, Includes one most mysterious principle, Which all their wisdom cannot reach or tell. And more so, when objection doth apply To things unseen by Sense or Reason's eye ; And doth relate unto that Union Shown and declared with the Eternal One, Which e'en the Scriptures do refuse to tell Except by term — Incomprehensible ! The Nature of our God define to me, — And I will tell thee what his Son must be ! Explain the nature of Man's Soul ; — then too God in Christ Jesus I will show to you ! Establish first the great and primal cause Of spiritual substance and of vital laws : — Give me, as data, if your wisdom can, What you do call the deathless Soul of Man ; — And then I trust, e'en my obscured sense, Can bring a reasonable evidence How in Christ Jesus, the most doubtful mind, An unchanged God, and perfect Man may find! You have no right to set us to a task From which you flinch yourself; no right to Us to compound, unless you first present Each simple and confessed ingredient. OF GOD IN CHRIS 1 ] [65 But, by your learning place us in thai state* And then, if we cannot amalgamate, Hold fast your creed; boast of your schism well-tried; Call us Fanatics, and our Faith deride ! The Christian's weapon for each spiritual strife. And tor discussion is " The Word of Life." Thereby alone he would the fight commence, And put you to a Spiritual defence. Some broken portions of that word may be Warp'd till they meet each inconsistency Of doctrine or of mind. But its whole plan Is to establish that the " Son of Man" Was truly God! And that his death alone Could for a lost and fallen race atone. This word condemns you, when complete, But men do rend, and mangle it, to meet A doctrine formed on parts ; select one stone From a vast edifice ; and that is shown (Not as a fragment, which they separate From beauteous pile, which doth accomodate The Soul's of men, whate'er their state may be, Their home in Time, and in Eternity.) Bui call this part — a whole; — and are content To cast aside what they call ornament ; But see not they, or else they will own, They cast away the firm foundation stone ! They rend the rock on which their Soul's should stand And build their structure on the faithless sand ? 160 THY MYSTERY But let the Christian lay this sword aside; On Reason's ground he can the shock abide, Of those who but a pointless, weapon wield, Winch dins, but dints not, the defensive shield ; He may cast back the weapons of their might, And laugh to scorn, the fierce, but bloodless fight. Take one example, and the process see \\ hen data's given, what the result must be. I give but one faint line, and leave the rest To be completed in each thoughtful breast ; Nor do I here pretend to fix the way ; But did I so, could Reason answer Nay ? CXTT. " God is a Spirit ; and as such of course " Of all Vitality the Omnipresent source. " No Bounds there are where he doth not dilate ; " No Atom small he doth not penetrate ; " All Matter we, by Reason's eye can tell, " Is given to change and is destructible ; " Solid by Substance ever is renewed, " It changes form, but Matter is its food. " We need not here attempt to penetrate " How matter came, or did consolidate, " Enough for us that we do now confess " That of itself 'tis lifr and motionless; OF GOD IN ( IIUIST. Id? " And that, as general principle, we own " These two great powers exist in God alone? w As is (lie ina hi- accountable and destined state. •• Were he of tlii- one Essence destitute, " He would be younger brother t" the brute. "Let. God increase it to ii^ fullest -ize, •• | \nl who is there such power in God denies?) •• Judge ye by Reason — what would it proclaim ' •• ./ God in Spirit — but « Man in framt .' IT" SALVATION. XC1II. And such bath been o;» Earth ! My heart doth ?ee In Jesus Christ a full Divinity. And vet a perfect Man ! His frame as frail ; Bruised with stripes, and writhing "neath the nail ; la feature or in form no comelin Which Man may envy, but could not possess. In all things like to man ; if we except Indwelling Godhead ; which maintained and kept His manhood free from Sin ! Man's feeble Soul Ii ; and scarce can flesh controul ! Christ's was God's fulness.'* And unless we lose All sense and meaning in the words we use. Fulness, and oneness* iritli, must ever be The self-same thing — and Christ was Deity '.::: Separate in Spiritual Office for a space, As the appointed channel whence all Grace Must be conveyed to Man! Christ stands tween To wash your fee', lest, with a tread unclean, * Col. i, 19, It pleased the Father that in him should all ful- ness dwell, etc. Col. ii. IV For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godliead, fc< dily '. (- John x. 30. I and my Father are one. f John i. In the beginning (y e , e're the ('nation, see Genesis) Mas the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word »a< (,,.rl ! etc. and the Word was made tl IHIMH (.II CftRIST. 171 You should approach youi ' • esI to Hell, Uncleansed should find him unapproachable! This Office, so mysterious, yet so clear, W iii. ii bides a God, to bring him still more near, YA ill down the length of Mercy's line extend, 'Till all are saved ;* then shall each Office blend ; And Christ shall be, e'en as he was before, " God over all, blessed for evermore ! " t What ! Will ye say (when most ye would deride) " You make two Gods, or one God would divide ! " One God to sit, and view the scene on high ; " One God to bleed, to suffer, and to die ! " Oh ! weak and feeble man ! How undefined Your view of God, " who dirells in all mankind ! " You thus confuse the substance with the Soul ! Christ, on the Cross, did give to Death's controul A frame of flesh ; % which he did sanctify ;$ His Spirit suffer'd not, || nor did it die! • 1 Cor. xv, 25 — 28, He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject to him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. f Romans is, 5, Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God, blessed for ever. J Heb. x, 10. We are sanctified through the offering of the 1 of Christ. John vi, 51, The bread which I will give thee is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. § And for their sakes I sanctity myself. ; l Arts ii, 31, His soul was not left in hell, neither did hi? lee corruption. N 2 172 SALVATION In that there teas not, could not be, Ought that did break the perfect unity Of God ! His flesh, ivas flesh ; therefore could bleed ; His Spirit was— THE VERY GOD INDEED ! Ten thousand Christs, in various Globes might be, (If Globes by Sin had such necessity ;) And yet in these I fully do believe, E'en Reason could discover, or conceive, An undivided God ! * Your Soul, and mine, Are measured portions of the Flame Divine ! Our Spirits come, and strength from God obtain ! Serve our short day ; to Him return again ! Is God then weaken'd as Men multiply ? And is He strengthen' d as again they die ? Or doth He then as oft Himself divide, As there are worlds He must support and guide? And sub-divide Himself, new Souls to give, To clay that waits but this one power to live? Must Omnipresence weaken as it spreads ? And all God's powers, drawn, as elastic threads From one great point ; scarce warm, as they attain The distant object which they would sustain ? Or must God focus Self, lest Space prevent Extended powers from being Omnipotent ? * Is. xliii, 8, I am the Lord, and my Glory will I not give unto another. Yet John v, 22, God committeth all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. THR01 (ill CHRIST. 173 Absurd ! you say ; and I admit ii so ! But 'tis your Doctrine's fallacy I show, By questions, which are truly subsequents, To premises, your argument presents, When you the possibility deny, That Christ, being God, as Man could live, and die ! Could not that God, self ^undiminished, give, E'en to thy form, when it hath ceased to live, His every attribute ? And would not you, Though not a Christ, be an Emmanuel too? And would not thy compounded form admit Of words which thus are render'd explicit? As Man, most surely, you could truly say " My fulness and my powers,* God did convey I " And when thou would'st thine higher power proclaim ; " / took upon myself this earthly frame ! " t Look to these terms; and understand them well; In Christ's own frame, as seen on Earth did dwell The fulness of Almighty God; thus he, Was GOD— his Spirit tras DIVINITY ! * John v, 19, Verily, I 8a] imto you, the Smi can do nothing of himself, etc. f Hob. ii, 1(>, Verily, he tool not on him tin- nature of Angels, etc, Phil, ii, T, But took upon him the form of a Bervant, etc, and humbled himself, etc. John x, J7, I laj <^\vn my life, etc. No ni. in taketh it from me. 1 laj it down myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again, i ti . 174 SALVATIOV XCIV. Then come ye with a " Why." You cannot see For such a Being a necessity ! That may be true ! You may be more than blind ; But would that change God's purpose or his Mind? Trace Man through life; and from his first offence All things combine in giving evidence, That where a crime exists (or be it shown By Reason's light, or in God's word made known) There is, and must be, an unvarying way Which God appoints, and which he doth convey Unto each seeking Soul ; whereby they tell Their penitence becomes acceptable, And pardon is proclaimed. Offerings, we see, Taught and accepted by the Deity,* When all his laws were orally conveyed, And future glory was in type displayed. The remnants of this Heaven-taught form did spread With all mankind, when they were scattered By speech confused. But long-forgotten praise, And crime, combined to sanguinary ways, * Genesis iv, 3, And it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel also ~ ■ r ■ > ■ i ■. ' 1 1 1 i>l tin- In Mil I hi- Hurl,, :unl nl 1 In- l;il th'Trnf. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and his offering he had not respect, (because it was not the appointed typical offering which pointed backward to some com- mitted sin, and forward to an atoning sacrifice.) THROUGH CHRIST. 175 Made worship Guilt ; and sacrifice 1" \\ rath will then deny I - ul, a hom< . < Mausion in the >kv ! Wrench, from the all-encircling chain lesigned unto Man in Christ's own form to bind) The one pure link, conjoining as we - ••• Christ and the father of Eternity; And you will wrench the only link wherebj Your Soul is held from endless agony : And. swifter that the riven rock would Your Soul will plunge into its depth of W Into the stream of his pure Mood, cast One single atom of the works' you do, And you pollute the preci e that rolls To wash the stain from off Men's guilty Soul. ' You taint the v. r their fountain-head! \ud, thus imbitter'd, cause their waves to spread W it li deep, wide roll, a dense and poisonous Sei. For which the Tophet of Idolatry Were perfect Bliss, — and Lethe would possess, \ Eull supply of dormant happine Destroy the Sacrifice which Christ hath eiven — \nd in that act you do unpeople Heaven! Into the deepest pit of Woe you cast The Souls of all the Faithful; who have passed Prom time into Eternity: decreed. To resl their hopes upon a bruised reed ! The Prophets, and the chosen men of old, Who looked in Faith to HIM so I og foretold; 184 TE1K PSYCHOLOGIST. And saw all types converging to (hat point, The Lamb, whom God's own spirit should anoint, And Mercy should provide, Man to supply With Life and Bliss throughout Eternity ! Destroy that Sacrifice — and you invite A reign of Darkness, an Egyptian Night ! The Sun of Glory you thereby deface ! Dry up the precious fountain of God"s Grace ! You taint the Atmosphere wherein alone Life can exist, Vitality is known ! You froi., the hungry take the " Bread indeed " Whereon alone the fainting Soul should feed ; And bring a Spiritual famine to destroy The feast of Love, the banquet of Faith's joy ! You unto Death, his venom'd sting restore ! The Grave resumes his victory once more ! You bar the Gates of Heaven against Mankind ; And deep Despair enforce upon the Mind ! You quench each Hope that busy Sin controuls ! And make, this Earth the Charnel-house of Souls ! XCVIII. Thus through the Star-lit night we sleepless sate, The Skies to read, the Heavens to contemplate ; And deep communion held witli Lights which we Did name the Watchers of our Destiny, The lovers of our Song! The elder friend Attentively the brow of Thought did bend, CONCLUSION. 185 Whilst I, the younger, with enraptured song, Did run, in Thought, the Vault of Heaven along, And would have grasped its Wonders; and would thence Have borne them down to Earth ; as evidence Of the transcendency of things above, And of Jehovah's mightiness and love ! Lofty the theme, with Interest-deep entwined ; But rude, and measureless, and unrefined, My hasty song ! Nor pause I made, nor tired, Until the stars first softened then expired; And passed away, their nightly duty done, Beneath the broad eve of the rising: Sun. Then, as the Earth, with Interests deep and nigh, In bold relief out-grew upon mine eye, My Spirit felt its downward influence Envelope Heaven, and call my Fancy thence ! Adieu ! I cried ; Ye loved, ye lovely things ! Bright partners of mv midnight wanderings Farewell ! For now the world that stirs around, Absorbs my spirit; and with hateful sound, Recalls my Fancy from its flight with ye, By that stern trumpet-note — necessity ! Far other Thoughts must now employ mv Mind, And other [works mi.ie hand: Yet shall I find Whate'er my Hand, whate'er my Thoughts engage, Thine is the tone, and thine the tincturage! o 186 CONCLUSION. A few short hours of needful rest, and then, With sky-mates linked, ye joyous shall again Repace the Halls of Heaven ; But ne'er may 1 Again o'erstep this Earth's short boundary ! Great was the bliss, but dangerous the attempt, Footing to hold along the Firmament! Safer it were, my Friend, for I and you, With eye of Faith, contented to pursue Salvation's simple path ! There rest your Soul ; Its light imbibe ; Embrace the wond'rous whole ; But seek not thou from ought above, below, Thy final and Eternal state to know. Seek but in Faith, and humble though it be, God shall in Mercy give thee yet to see Its import and its Truth ! Give thee His might Secure to stand upon that giddy height Where Reason totters, with its hulk immense ; And Science, grasping for an evidence, Confused falls ! Or, when with foot of Pride, And with presumptuous step, they boldly stride Their topmost pinnacle, around their brow Deep Error-mists shall weave themselves ; but thou, If in the valley-walk of Faith content, Shall send thy sight above the firmament ; Pierce Nature's darkness ; rise above, and see, The Hand of Christ unveil Divinity ! Or, when the valley-clods thy frame entomb, And earthly sorrow darkly weeps thy .doom, CONCH SIOIC. 1ST Thy Soul ih.it's ransom'd bj thj Saviour's love, Shall instantly ascend to Realms above! Or, Btumber in the grave, if such must be, Its thousand, tliousand years, unconsciously ; 'Till Heaven, and Earth, and all of form, or weight, Shall flee away,* or shall evaporate ; And Space be God! — Infinity his Throne! — Filled and infused by blessed Souls alone ! — Where none are near ; — and none can absent be ! — A icide, — a boundless Immortality ! Christian — Adieu ! In fullest sense — a Dieu — I now commend, my life, my Soul, and you ! Sceptic ! — Sinner ! — My prayer doth comprehend ye ; May God protect ; may gracious Heaven defend ye ! Farewell ! Farewell ! To all who hear or read ; Brothers in God, for whom one Christ did bleed; In Time fare well ! But midst this life ensnaring, Be thou for thine Eternity preparing ! * Rev. .\.\, 1 1, And I saw a Great White Throne ; and him that sat on it ; from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled awav. and there was found no place for them. o 2 188 CONCLUSION. Farewell ! Farewell ! The day doth brighten fast ; This moment's ours, it may too prove our last ! Ere that bright Sun doth Evening's beam shed o'er us, Time may be spent, Eternity before us ! Sceptic — one Word ! My voice you may deride ; I cannot teach ; nor can my weakness guide ; 'Tis not in strife; no hateful hand assaileth ; But love doth urge, 'tis duty that prevaileth ! Sceptic — you pause ! And I might pause as you, If Time would pause, and Death would slumber too ! Thou may'st not hear ; but on thy track they're creeping ; And they will smite thee, whilst thou'rt doubting — sleeping ! Sceptic — awake ! The Gospel-light doth shine, To send its rays through that dense creed of thine ; How dark, how deep ! The darkest and the deepest ; The Hell of Doubt, in which thou sinkest — sleepest ! Sceptic — arise ! Now Life or Death are thine ; But soon Fate's torch may spring the awful Mine ; ''Tis Pity shakes ; 'tis Mercy s voice that calleth ; " Awake — arise — Destruction on thee falleth ! " C0NCL1 5ION. 189 Sceptic — vou pause! Wha! would'sl thou see or hear? Hath not Christ died? Are no1 his precepts clear? Can God uul i thy Sense give warning deeper, To wake thy Soul, oh thou eternal sleeper? Sceptic — you feel ! Then ere that thrill subside, Search you the page you foretime could deride ; And as, intent, the Word of Truth thou rea lest, May God bestow the Spirit which thou needest. ! Sceptic — what news? Those tears, those sighs explain; None seek in Faith, and seek that book in vain; An Angel pure, those tears, that sigh conveyeth, " My God," he cries, " the stubb »rn Sinner prayeth ! " Sceptic — pray on ! The God of Love attends ! Thy Spirit mounts, the Grace of Heaven descend- ! Pour out thy Soul — no loss thou thence sustainesl ; God fills the gap, and Spiritual life thou gainest ! Sceptic! — but nay; — we call thee so no move! Hell's reign is past, thy day of Doubt is o'er! Think not 'tis strange, thy path was all assigned thee; God knew his time, the spot where Grace should find the ! ! Sceptic — that was ! And ht Against his na I this Title write? Behold, thou'rt cleansed ! — Let each then whilst he liveth, Confess His name, who thus our Sins forgiveth ! 190 CONCLUSION. Sceptic — Grace-saved ! By Faith you stand this day; And Grace e'en now must lead you on your way ! Seek God by prayer, and he will ne'er deny thee, But day by day with Spiritual food supply thee ! Christian — Grace-saved ! Thy hope may be denied ! Thy prayers, thy tears, men often will deride ! But should men scoff; say — (whilst in Love thou weepest) I should love most, because my sins were deepest ! Christian — Farewell ! No other title known ; The Avk moves on, the Silver-trump is blown ! Christian — one staff, one. shield doth God provide us ; Let not a form, let not a badge divide us ! Christian — lead on 1 One only Guide you need ; His strength shall cheer, his blessed voice shall lead ; How bright, how clear ; the brightest and the clearest ! The voice of God, unto thy Soul the dearest! Christian — lead on! The way is long and drear; Dangers beset, yet is protection near; The Cloud by day, by night God's bright eye keepeth ; Strength through man's way, and safety when he sleepeth ! C0NCL1 -l<>\. 191 Christian — -proceed ! Thy home is distant seen, Lengthen'd tlie road, for this world lies between; But when in faith, to promised bliss thou fliesl , Eartli sinks away, and Heaven becomes the nighest ! Christian — proceed ! Though long may be the way ; A clime so pure you reach not in a day, Let not thy Faith, let not Spirit fail thee ; Rut look to God when weakness doth assail thee ! Christian — proceed ! But not alone, I pray ; Lend me thine aid, reprove me if I stray ; And may the Soul which now endites this story, Meet thee in Bliss, and Welcome thee in Glory ! END OF THE PSYCHOLOGIST. THE DELUGE, MIDNIGHT REVERIE. INTRODUCTION. Dreams !— What are ye ? Spirit, or Mind, or Soul, That ye can roam without this Frame's controul ? Rambling — straying — over Kingdoms sweeping — "W hilst we are dead — or seem so Death-like sleeping. Dreams ! — Whence come ye ? — Or, whither do ye spring, V\ hen ve unto mine Eve are Visioning ? Are ye but Thoughts, which in my Mind were fleeting ? Or are ye Spirits, with my Spirit meeting ? Dreams ! — What tell ye ! What speak ye to the Heart f Is it of Truth or Fiction ye impart ? Are Visions painted for our Mind's believing ? Or are they pictured for our Soul's deceiving ' Dreams ! — Hotc speak ye ? — And how are ve impress'd ? What waking Sense, what Feeling is address'd \ When sleep with gay-thoughts ye are soothing — cheexiaf, Or 'neath your Thunder we are writhing — fearing ' 196 INTRODUCTION. Ye Dreams, of soft, and soothing influence f And are ye sent as cheering evidence That o'er our Heads a Watchful Angel's bending ; Our Soul s from 111, our Frame from Death defending ? Dreams! — Why speak ye? Whither would ye lead? Can ye tell ought for future-days decreed ! Do ye converse in slumbers to amuse me ? Can ye convince with Conscience to accuse me ? Ye Dreams, — that tell of Terror, speak of Death ! Pangs to the Bosom ; struggles to the Breath 1 Are ye a foretaste by our Foe invented, When Souls are lost and Conscience is tormented ! Dreams ! Ye are wond'rous ! Undefinable ! Your birth, your Use, are unassignable ! Something like Life on Slumber's-eye expanding, And Spirits to your Phantasma commanding ! Dreams ! all unreal ! — Too bright are some to last ; The Lover's future, the Bereaved's past ; Sweeter than Life, with Pleasure overpowering ! Deeper than Woe, the present Grief devouring ! Sleep ! — The Mind's rest ! — What makes it rest to thee ? When thou art Life and full Activity? Thou'rt resting best when Fancy floats about thee ; No rest thou need'st, no rest there is without thee ! INTRODUCTION. 197 Sleep ! — What givest thou ! — Where holdest thou thy balm ? What the Mind's opiate? — What the Spirit's calm? Flinty the Down, when Care the Couch infestetli ; Downy the Flinty, when Sleep on Eye-lid resteth ! — Sleep, thou Restorer ! Friend of the Forlorn ! Healer of Minds affliction' s-rod hath torn ! The Comfort-hand art thou from which we borrow, Rest when o'er-wrought ; Relief-time in our sorrow ! Sleep, Visions, Dreams ! Ye sisters of our Rest ! Balm to the Mind, refreshment to the Breast ! Yield ye that boon where most it is demanded ! Are ve implored, or can ye be commanded ! Sleep, Visions, Dreams ! So awful or so sweet ! In ye compounded mysteries do meet ! Art hath not learned, Man's wisdom hath not found ye ; Mind breaks not through the Shadows that surround ye ! Sleep, Visions, Dreams ! Some Ray extend to me ; Painted with Truth; Touched with Sublimity; Peopling the Dark ; The Gloom with Life displacing ; Building with Dreams; Reality effacing; Based on the Mind, and founded on the Void ; Silver'd with Moon-beams, and Solar-lit — destroyed ! THE I) E LUC* E, CANTO I. It was midnight ! Deep darkness was around ; And Silence with her stealthy hand had bound The Earth ! — Upon a sleepless couc'i I lay, And the returning: dawn awaited anxiously. Feeble the Body was, by Care outworn, And all its nerves by Sorrow's-hand were torn ; Yet, vigorous the Spirit rose, and free, And on the wide expanse of Vacancy, With all the full rapidity of Thought Nature's wild Scenes did Sketch — Rememb'rance-wrought. Fancy was busy; Rambling, swift, and wild; And on the crowded Memory it piled The Scenes of bye-gone days. First, Regions pure, My childhood's 1 aunts, defineless and obscure, Were painted there ; yet with a touch so true That I did seem to tread each path anew I loved in Infancy. My Life-time's morn, Seemed backward to eventful Manhood borne; 200 THE DELUGE. The sunshine of my Youth, when I Know not a care, and vented not a sigh. Then Realms of Travel rose ; The Dreary North Clad with her Icy Mantle stalked forth; Her barren rocks, her pines before me spread, And as looked, I felt, and shivered, Though Summer's warmth was there I Softly, and faint, The phantasma at first each scene did paint ; But soon they swell'd — then glowed with fullest pride — Then milder beam'd — then languished — then died 1 II. But now, deep Sleep, so long desired, and sought, Pressed on mine Eye, and overpower' d each Thought I slept. — But not to rest ! Dreams brought to me Pictures more powerful than Reality. A new Existence open'd, and the Soul, No longer fetter' d with the Frame's controul, Seemed to exult that it at length was free To exercise that undenied capacity It hath in what we call our Dreams. Strange Power ! Lent only to the Soul in Slumber's hour ! Each inlet closed by which we gather ought Of Form, or Sound, and pass them on to Thought; And yet, so much perceived, so much discerned, It doth perplex the wisdom of the Learned ; i ill-: DELUG1 . 2< 'I Invention — Feeling — Seme — and Memory — And e'en Prescience of the Tilings to be : An Eye to view, extended power to hear, Words in Time's-womb, Events thai shall appear! III. But to my Dream. — Glowing and warm it press'd, Of Earth's bright scenes the brightest and most bless'd ; 'Twas Earth's young days ; ore Culture's taming hand Had swept the native beauties from the land ; Or ere the deep-till'd plain, or outworn lea Had fed the offspring of Degeneracy. It was Earth's youthful and her nuptial dav ; When, in the richness of a Bride's array, Her Pleasure-round she joyously did run, Beneath the bright eye of the mid-da}- Sun. How pure her Scenes were then ! Call them not wild ! Luxuriant, and free ; but undefiled ! Unpruned ; unspoiled; her mountain-paths unworn; Her vales untrod ; her leafv* bowers unshorn. I\ And was man happy, virtuous, or good ! Nay ! — But at widest variance he stood 202 THE DELUGE. With Nature's laws; and deaden' d every sound Of her rich voice beneath the giddy round Of revelry and Sin ! Each Lust was uew ; Fresh to enjoy, and novel to pursue ; And Man did rush with youth's avidity, With Maniac's rage, age's cupidity Into the vortex of each Vice ! Was this A new-born World ? And was it framed for bliss ? Why it seems old in Guilt ! Each Sin had grown To stately height ; each Lust was overblown ! I looked upon the plains. Already there Cities were stablish'd, numerous and fair, Within their thronged halls no sight appeared That told a God was worshipped and revered ; I turned again and looked where Innocence Is wont to fix her peaceful residence ; Virtue, I sought, where Virtue oftest dwells, Amidst the bright and sheep-bespotted hills; From rural tents the song, the oath, the cry, Arose to speak the World's depravity ! In Love God spake ! Creation hearkened ! He frowned; and Mercy for Earth's children pled! But yet, amidst the riot and the din, The tide of Pleasure and the round of Sin, Man heard no Love-note in the voice of God ; No terror felt at his long-threate 1 rod! i hi-: DELI (.1 . 203 V. Tims I, in Dream, Mankind did contemplati Despising God, and at impending Fate Most seeming unconcerned. When — silently — Mcthought I could a stealing change descry ! Nature — was she with dark and sudden blight Now withering? — Or wither'd was my sight? — Or what (he change? — I doubt my power to tell ! It was a change .so indescribable ! 'Twas Silence only; but so deep, so den More painful 'twas unto the startled se Than Thunder's crash, when sky and clouds are riven, And on the Earth the Lightning-gleams are driven ! Man felt that change; suspended was his glee; And motionless the world's machinen ! A whisper'd Voice, symphonious, and deep, Along the verberating chords did sweep Of Nature's lines. To man's Guilt-cl ised cars Inaudible ; but midst the rolling spheres Twas heard --Y-. 'i — 'twas recognised to be The awful Hush-word of the DEIT\ ! v 1 204 THE DELUGE. VI. Define me Death or Silence ! — Or the Gloom That hangs around the cold corpse in the tomb ! Depict me Woe or Grief! — Or Wretchedness. So deep that Tophet-pangs were blessedness ! Pourtray me truly deep anxiety; Surprise, in all the wild variety That it assumes ! Pen cannot tell, nor Pencil trace, Nought have I seen on Man's or Nature's face, Can picture to my mind suspence so dread As then o'erhung the vision of my bed ! — Yet, I did Witness once, whilst but a Youth, A most heart-rending Scene of painful Truth, That somewhat of a faint resemblance Did bear to this wild dream, this Nature's trance ; And I will tell it, though mayhap it be, A Tale of every-day simplicity. VII. We were a kindred party who did meet A much-loved Father and his son to greet. Absence protracted oft from day to day, More painful from captivity's delay ; Would fain enrol them mid'st the fancied dead The years crept on, and Hope had well nigh fled ! THE DELUGE. 205 But, peace at length had burst the prison bar, Unbound the Captives chain, and from afar Came our Regretted Ones. The Hour drew ni And all was Hope, Expectancy, or Fear. Amid'st us sate the Wife; Lovely and fair Was she, and joyous seemed, but oft an Air Of fond distrust, and deep anxiety, Would tinge her cheek, and wander in her Eve. She starts ! — That rolling Carriage ! Do ye hear? — And now — that footfall — so distinct — so near ! 'Tis He — my Lord — his measured tread I know ! — It was — alas ! — A Messenger of Woe ! How looked she then? — Of all that company The most unmoved ! — No swelling tear her Eye Bedim' d ; No passion-burst ; No voice of wail Bespoke in that reluctant-given Tale Her Soul's deep interest ! Listless she seemed, As though the Narrator but loudly dreamed. He spoke of deeds of daring Valour done ; Of foughten fields, and sanguine Battles won; Of blows he spake, struck in our Home's defence ; Of Capture, sickness, and the Pestilence ; But, when the Chieftain's death he did explain, I could perceive, within her shrinking vein The warm-blood curdling ! — Her glossy K\ e Was far outsent into deep vacancy ; 206 THE DELUGE. Whilst Spirit-lost, devoid of Life and Soul, A Statue's coldness petrified the whole ! 'Twas living death ! Each Sense was so upbound With pause, so breathless, pulseless, and profound ; So Thought-chained in Unconsciousness, so mute; So vacant; — nerveless; — dark; — and destitute; That Thunders deep upon the ear might roll Nor wake a single echo of her Soul From its deep slumbering ! It was the slow, Deep inspiration of Despair and Woe ! Tli' ingathering, to the Heart's receptacle, Of dormant Sorrow-pangs, which lifeless fell, Soon to resuscitate, with tenfold power, For this, its passive, and its respite hour ; And in a Woe-scream, furious, and free, To vent its madness and its misery ! VIII. Such, the dire change, wrought by the hand of Grief; Such, the Mind's trance, and such its wild relief; And, like each change frail Nature underwent, So changed each aspect of the element. Silence — Darkness — succeeded by the blast, That o'er each kingdom scattered as it pas Death and Desolation ! Have words :i power To paint the recollections <>r that hour; Till D \\ hen Shadows fell upon the shadowy sight ; And Darkn 1 on f ho darkesl Nighl ; When Death was written on irth and Skies, And every object seemed to sympathize Id Gloom? Nature was mute; nor cause gue Of pause so deep, so full, so motionle The World — unnerved and paralized — stood still; Immovable in Space; nor could she fill I "ii an eccentric course ! Chaotic Gloom Did quench the System-fires, and Spheres entomb! Darkness, I saw, with fiercest Tyrant's pow The Heaven-illuminating Sun devour; If. seized him in his joyous course as It In brightest splendour rolled exultingly; O'erpowered him in his chariot as it run, And spread before his path Confusion! I looked upon the waters of the Ocean! Ii> waves were liquid, but retained no motion; For Horror's-wand had swept upon the blast, And chilled them with a Death-word as it passed ! High in the air the up-cuiTd breakei ay and white, like wave in wiliest mood; Ye\ rolled it aot, uor sunk, nor toppled o'i Nor yet, 1 Id fall; but, pausing seemed, — >'e ig, — still, The fiat waiting of Almighty Will! — The Winds were back-called.— Each suspended shower Forgol upon the waiting earth to y \\x 208 THE DELUGE. Its Water-drops ; whilst Exhalations on her breast, Clammy and cold, as latest death-sweat press'd ; Each tube upfill'd through which all sound doth ring, And choked it in its onward journeying ! The Tongue of Eloquence, erst bright and clear, Was mute with Horror ; Man bedumVd with Fear ! The Terror-cry, the Sin-bewailing Note, Deep-formed, and pent, and gurgling in the Throat, Passed not in utterance ; But inward fell With tenfold Echoes indescribable Upon the startled Soul ! The voice, well-meant, Of Consolation and Encouragement, Was sunk in stillness; or by deafening Fears Admittance found not in intended Ears ! — Silence prevailed ! A pause, — a charm, — a stress, — The Sea becalmed ; The Earth was motionless. One object only in my Trance was shown And that was — darkness ! Tyrant like, and lone, The Empress of a rifled Realm she sate, Mistress of Worlds she did dispopulate. Extinctions-blast she breathed upon the Sun; And thus destroyed the Trophies she had won. Subdued each Star, and quenched each Planet's fire ; Bade the bright Moon in solitude expire ; The Thunder quell'd ; The Lightning's ray o'erpower'd ; Drank down the Seas ; The feeble Earth devour'd ; Flung round the Sky her mantle and lier curse, And hugged •" death a doomed Universe ! THE Dl I I 01 • 200 I.V Thus far the HCSH-WORB through tlie Firmament The stagnant influence of its mandate sent. The pierceless skies were but as vaulted Tomb Where Fate and Vengeance hasted to inhume Man, and the wide Earth lie defiled ! But Thought Was busy there ; and eagerly it sought To learn the purposes of Him who now- Had blacken' d Heaven by frownings of His brow! Not Man alone seemed then to view intent The dread prognostics of the Firmament. A fearful Consciousness seemed to inflate The breast of Nature, and did circulate All Space ; Through Matter's flinty veins it oozed, Vs if by power of Eagerness infused! X But soon, another change; of import plain, And more defineable. Thai voice again ! — Distinct it roll'd the lines of Space around And all the terrors of the storm unbound ! The Lightning's-flash the Darkness did pervade And Thunder's tumult, Silence did invade; No longer God the Tempest rage suspen Is But all its Ve on the Earth descend 210 THE DELUGE. Instant that change ! — That influential word, Though scarcely breathed, from slumber's-depth had stirred The Spirits of the Elements ; And they Fresh from Repose, the Summon's-word obey ! XI. Ah! What a scene! Was it Earth's punishment? Or was it the destructive merriment Of all the active Powers, combined in glee, For one mad fling, one burst of revelry? First, from the stagnant sky, fierce Lightning flew; And from its deep electric chamber drew More bright-eyed Lightning! Thunder awoke; And as the silence of the sky it broke, Its Echoes through the firmament were spread To call each brother-Thunder from his bed; And Thunder, answering, came! — The Tempest cry Did scream most shrill, for Tempest-note more high ; His lusty Voice a Storm-note did advance, And then began Destruction's wildest Dance! Her snowy arms on high the Ocean flung, And round the rising Tempest's neck she clung, Mantled in sparkling spray; with shoreward bound They rushed, and twined their nervous anus around I III. DELUGE. 211 Both rock, and tree, and oughl of substance they Could find to mingle in their boisterous way; Wrenched them from oul the place where they did staml, \ii.l in a Whirl-dance waltzed them cross the land! XII. Methought I heard Commotions, strange, and loud; The hissing Discord ; saw the wreathing cloud, When Ocean, as it onward rolled, w;is met By Fires-volcanic! Which, unquenched as yet, Did outburst fiercely ore in weakness spent, To battle with the Watery Element. Loudly and long the savage conflict, raged, As Light and Darkness all their powers engaged; I fluctuating Hope bade Fire and Sea Contend and battle for Earth's mastery. First glowed Heaven's Vault, as fiery furnace red, And then 'twas dark, as Death's most rayless bed ! But, feebly soon, with lengthen'd pause between, From Earth's subdued, Volcanic Ma{ The hissing balls into the I 1 ist, And all its water-weaken'd flames were casl ! But yet, it battled on; as Veteran tried Its Foe disdain'd, its Victor still defied ; Then, for a death-leap all its nerves it curled; In one wild (lame its dying force it hurled; - : - r. . : '/ • - ■ XZL 7. ..i . ; _„ . ^ -1 — . - ! ; " 55 '-■ WW* Hi ■ The Sea* nay be redahc The hope, the wish, were pregaaat with test mom the Flood, 'iniiiiife hi i» pace. . washed the first stoac of the Towers be. H _' 'v Bach it teeofls; Thes high — — — ewrl*—Ii fw — ?.. i - •;.-: .~~ ' '■ \~ -.. i-i :. ~ _ • -- ~ . :.- : --■ - Th' zppointed Bod 7 v-. On rolls the Sea.— Nat ■ i tfhafcd ride ■ he Ore - ars oa the The Globe had stopped. Whithia her ccurse had stood -jllingj as Hi ■ and. V 214 THE DELUGE. XIV. Man now was dwindled to a scanty train ; Myriads of Souls beneath the stormy main Were slumbering ! But still, where'er its head A Mountain reared, a few, more strong, had sped; And herding close, unawed, and seeming fond, As by the firmest and the holiest bond Of Friendship knit, lost to instinctive law, Man, and his constant Enemies I saw. Yet, came not from that human mass, a prayer! But, the loud wailings of their dark despair Rose fearfully, as they did curse the name Of Heathen Gods, stony of Heart and Frame, Who answer'd not, or could not hear their cry The taunting voice that mocked their deity ! XV. Countless the woes which then I witnessed, As on the roaring tide the pallid dead Were thickly strewed ! Mangled — ghastly — torn — They as the bruised reed, were lightly borne, And shoreward cast ! Tenacious still of Life, Midst the World's wreck, and elemental strife, Man struggled on; and many a piercing cry Above the Tempest's voice rose fearfully, mi: in I u< 21 "< \- o'er the heads of Parent, Wife, or Lover, The gurgling Wat I for ev< XVI. ' ). : i God ! E'en now, my very heart doth melt \i sights of horror, woes by Mortal fell I a this my vision! — Can such sights forego Their hold upon my memory? — -Ah no! For, forms of loveliness were sinking there, More beauteous render'd by their deep despair; loir whom, from death so woeful (lien to - ly and Soul most freely on (he W a I would have east. And tender Infant-forms, Now lasting death amidst the savage storms; Speechless with Fear; Aghast, and trembling; So much in [''ace and Form resembling Mine own sweet babes ; so innocent. ; so pure ; So frail a death of terrors to endure; That all the Father struggled in my breast, \ 1 1. 1 deep groans told that Picture truth posses- XVII. Methoughl 1 saw a Mother, young, and fair, Wifh garments dripping, and dishevelled hair; Speed in each limb, and terror in her I Outstrip die flood, and t" the Mountains fly. :21() THE DELUGE. Upon her breast, half hid by tresses wild She bore a babe ; a young and lovely child ; Whilst in her other hand, a youth she held, And, with the nervous strength of Fear propelled, Did drag him on o'er each impediment Which seemed their further progress to prevent. She spake not ; wept not ; but, sure Fancy ne'er, Would thus pourtray the lineaments of Fear ! Horror — despair — despondency — so deep, And grief — and woe — unsoothed by power to weep ; Together mixed, too strangely it should seem For ought but Image of a troubled dream ! Ah ! — then I tried to stay this scene of dread ; And shake me from the phantasm of my bed ; But no ! — On — On — amidst the foaming Sea, As I now haste my Tale — it hurried me ! XVIII. Steep now, and rugged, grows the Mountain-way, And onward toils the Child most wearily ! He stumbles — falls ! Too late it is to save, For o'er him in an instant flows the wave ! A Bubble, full-blown, to the surface floats, And thus, with frailest evidence, denotes The struggle of the Soul ! — 'Twas but a breath ! The last sigh of his Spirit, sunk in death ! But, — ere that Bubble by the blast was riven, His guiltless Soul had gained its way to Heaven ! Tin ii. i ; ■ 217 Ay, I trusl i i Heaven ' For, instant tli The Spirits of these Innocents repair \n 1 "ii this day of executed \\ rath, \n anxious Inge! hover'd o'er the path < >f i hildh ""1 pure ; and as the unchained S Rolled o'er the Infant's In-east unsnarinelv! I re clasped the deathle il ; and love, \n I straightway bore it to the Realms abovi X I A . Vengeance, unbought, let none to God impute, For God's confessed, and cherished attribute Ts Love I And on my Hear! ydu ne'er indeed Sh;;ll force the cruel and the Hell-born creed, That Tophet, midst interminable gloom, The wretched Souls of Children doth entomb ; Consigned to endless and eternal pain, Whose stature ne'er, whilst living did attain The measure of a span ! — 'Tis Blasphemy ! And Creed too false, too horrible for me ! Yet .Men there are, in this enlighten'd day, And in this Land, where now the Gospel's raj Diffuses truth and happiness j bold men, Who claim the abused title — "Christian," Who will advance, with countenance demure, \ sentiment — so fiendlik< — so impure — Q 218 THE DELUGE. That speaks it gender'd in the bed of Hell, Or spawned by Satan as he headlong fell, Spurned from the blest abode ! — Within God's word Stands not such startling text, plainly averred Or hinted at. — Justice is God's ! And Earth obeys The Sceptre which, most merciful, he sways. Tvvas well-weighed Justice brought the Deluge on, When Man was ripening for Rebellion ; But Mercy only, which the Child removed, Ere by a crime its conscience was reproved ; Took it, from Guilt and Sin's contagiousness, Spotless and pure, God's name in Heaven to bless ! Have you one hope of mercy in that hour When, rising by the Resurrection's power, Your Soul shall burst from underneath the clod, And stand a Culprit at the bar of God? « Then, rob you not, by creed so dark as this, The Mother of that hope, anchor'd on Infant bliss ! Quench not the partial ray of happiness, That doth dispel the heavy cloudiness Of her afflicted mind ! Steal not the boon Which you, if you a Parent are, too soon, Though to her grief such solace you deny, May seek upon your knees, imploringly ! When sickness, with commission from above Falls on the tender Offspring of her love ; I in DEI i I 219 \n 1 o'er a-* pale, exte mate I form The mother bends, watching with fond alarm, The gradual panting of its breast subside, Whilst o'er its lips doth softlj seem to gli The parting Soul ; ling' ring — quivering — ere — Its flight it (ukes into that region drear, Where all we know, or fancy, feel, or - ■•-. Is darkness, doubt, intense uncertainty ; What tan subdue the anguish and the pain Of such an hour, but promise sure and plain, Of instant Glory, and design to bless, Where Joy is felt from God's difFusivene XX. Oh! Ocean — Ocean! — Deep, plumless, and profound! When hoary Time its last alotted round Hath rolled ; and hath each destined centu Revolved into a vast Eternity! And when the World, the Universe around, Th" appointed Angel's trumpet-voice shall sound, With life-restoring tones reverbrated, "Ye Sims up !'ii I your animated Dead!"' Shall there, upon your broad ex] E'en footing-room, or an assembl; ind For drowned multitudes; which then shall < And walk, with anxious, Heaven-directed ej The surface of your water-drops along Vs ringing High-way, whi Souls d throng Q 2 220 THE DELUGE. To reacli the Judgment-bar ? — Earth hath, T wean, No parallel ; and Time hath not a scene Equal in Glory, could we Thought divest Of this one truth — How few of them arc blest ! XXI. But stop not we to moralize ! Such hour Lent not to me the meditative power ; But, as the surface of the rolling Ocean, My mind was rocking with its wild commotion ! The child I said had fallen. Soft be his rest ; I've told ye Parents that his Soul was blessed. His Mother, not unpitying, sees him fall ; And looks, as though she too would bury all Her fears and woes beneath the stormv wave, And seek, to soothe, within its restless grave Her Infant's soul ! But yet, another tie She has ; her babe she views, distractedly, And forward still she hastes ; the Tide, as fleet, Her path pursues ; it reaches now her feet ; More high and boisterous the waters flow; Yet will she not one ling'ring hope forego. It is not for herself indulged, for she, By inward evidence convinced must be She is foredoomed and lost. But high in air. Hopeful that Heaven ;n » ^ -~ ! Whilsl daring Manhood, Thai in cause of Virtue or of ( rood Had shone pre-eminent, -.til] stands aloof, And smiles upon these terrors — terror-proof! — And Diir there was of that unnumber'd crew W ho by his dauntless tread now mainly drew My notice and my awe! Above the storm His stature tower'd, and on his stalwart form \nd spacious brow, the deep lines of command Were stampt indelible, by Nature's haul. He lie!, 'tis true, or I would rather say Retired; For late he sought the mountain way; And onward, by the overpowering throng, Was pressed, and driven, and propelled along; Oft would he lloodward burst, with blush of shame. As though some voice had coupled with his name The taunt of cowardice; outhold his clenched hand; And with defying voice aloud demand, A FOE — on whom his fury and his scorn He then could vent; and, when the cry forlorn Of pathway missed arose, his brow did show The desp'rate joy Ins harrow'd mind did know ! Scornful lie frowned upon the shrieking new, Strode far apart, and siillenh withdrew. As though he still disdained ins NOBLES BREATH With herd 80 vile to mingle, e'en in death. Alone, upon a jutting rock, stood he And watched the onroad "I' tie' roaring Sea; 226 THE DELUGE. His dripping form the riven fern entwined ; Upon the waves he gazed ; his vacant mind The Lightning saw ; the Thunder's threat it heard ; But yet, he prayed not, and he spake no word ! The Demon of his fate, his Will profane, (For thus is Fate mis-called) held fast the chain That Sin around his struggling mind had closed ; Darken'd each hope of Heaven; each wish opposed; Till Glory, Peace, and bliss he might possess, Had passed away in deep forgetfulness ; Then, with a malice, fiendlike to torment, The full-tide rolled, the mind's embitterment, Horror, anguish, and self-criminating pain, Through every channel of his heated brain, And tortured his Soul ! Thus, fury-wrought, With sting of Conscience, and the goad of Thought; In deepest curses he his wrath did vent, When best it were he prayerfully had bent Before his God ; who still his Soul could save, And snatch his Spirit from the coming wave ! XXV. But, desp'rate now he stood; To madness stung " His clenched fist against the sky lie flung; Defiance on flic sea, and blast, he poured, \nd thus, the raging of the storm oulroarcd.' I HI. DELUGE. 227 " Mliiw cm, he cried, ye Tempests !— — Blow ! — And ye, •• \^ brittle reed, the deeply-rooted ti •• From out the Earth may wrench, and Bcattei wide " lis riven branches on the roaring tide; •■ I '.hi yet, ye cannot, from this clay ye'll Bee, •• Rend, or outroot its Immortality! " Plash nil, abhorred Lightnings! Blaze, and Hush ! " I fear ye oot, nor your deep Thunder's crash ! "These flint) rocks your bolts may rend. Your powei " My mangled Atoms on the flood may shower; " l?uf yet, ye strike no terror on mine eye, " And in my Soul your wrath I do defy ! "Strike home! Ye cannot mell my Soul! — Ye'll find "One Substance rendless — my undaunted mind! " Rage on, ye Floods! O'erflow the fertile fields] '' But all the water this wide deluge yields " Poured hissing through the channel of each sin, "Would fail to quench the uplit Hell within! " Take then, ye Waves, if covet such ye do, "This Body; which, as worthless weed, I strew "Upon your eager and expepting breast; •' And with my curse, felt, cherished, and expressed; •' Hear back to (rod (if God indeed there be) " The gift he gave, unsought, unasked, to me! " Take ye this Soul — This Soul?— Name il again ! I- that not mine, to give, 01 to retain? — 228 THE DELUGE. " Methinks I now begin to estimate " Us countless value — but — alas ! too late ! " One moment more— and then— the Sun of lite " Darkly amidst this Elemental strife " Will set ; To rise — Ah ! Crush the new-born thought ! ' Kingdoms, and Crowns, and Sceptres now are nought f " Grant me, oh Heaven (if yet my prayer hath power) " One single day, one short, one precious hour, " One moment hold thy Vengeance in controul, ' That hour, that moment, may redeem my soul ! " Had I but learned ! But wisdom beams too late! ' I fear not death, nor from my fullest fate " Would shrink ; but as a drowned Whelp to die, ' And lay me down, as Victim, passively, " Is not for me ! Ah ! put ye on a form 1 Ye Tempests wild \ ye raging Winds and Storm ' To substance be condensed can grappled be, '* And in a death-hug for the mastery "We'll strive! Satan stand forth! Willi form defined; ' Backed by your Host; or all ye Powers combined; ; " Of Earth, and Heaven, and unextinguished Hell, " / have defied ye— do >/<•/,/ ye still!" nil DELI «.i . XXVI. He paused awhile ! — Tlie Tempesl seemed subdue I ' Tlic Storm was quelled! — Deep Silence then ensued ! Creation shudder'd, as, amazed, it heard The Blasphemy ! And then, each branding word Fell bark, and on the uerve of Conscience smote, Echoed from Heaven, as its Recorder wrote; Plain — full — distinct — each tunc —each syllabli — •• / have defied ye— do defy ye still!" He heard no more ! The sharpest arrow-point Of God's still voice had hit the opened joint Of Conscience then, and, forcing through the whole, Of Heart, and Mind, had splintered his Soul \ He cursed again ; — then with Demoniac cry, (Which spoke delusive readiness to die) Forward he plunged, fierce and distractedly, \n I sunk his flaming forehead in the Sea ! XXVII. How powerful is that Voice! Mosl powerful, when, li whispers to the Consciences "i Men W ithin ( rod's hand the Elements He bath Cluster'd, and bound, as Instruments of wrath, 230 THE DELUGE. Ami uft by his appointed Will they're sent To lash the world in condign punishment. Yet he subdues not thus, with arm of power, The Heart of Man. There is a deeper hour, A time, when with a soft, resistless word, Whispering to Conscience-ear, a voice, soul-heard, Doth tell us of an Omnipresent eye That with the most unerring scrutiny Heads every thought. Convicts of dark design Where words have fairest seemed of thine and mine ! No startling miracle employed, it takes A single word, a Wish, a Thought, and makes That Thought to thunder, and induce a cry From Hearts so harden'd, they would dare defy All that is great or good ; or dare to curse, But for this power, the maker of the universe ! Iu times long past, a Mountain-cave within, Elijah sate ; he had been worshipping. There came a mighty wind ; so violent It shook the Mountain's side, ami Rocks were rent ; But yet, he sate unawed ! God was not there ; 'Twas but the swell of circumambient. Air Which onward rolled in semblance of a Storm Condensed and compressed by God's advancing form ! An Earthquake shook the surface of the land, He trembled not ; his God was not at hand ; 'Twas but the shock by His distant footfall given, As he alighted from his Throne of Heaven ! THE DEI ( Gl . There gleamed a Fire upon lii> dark ab Vet veiled he nol his eye. Fire is not God; I'ln' brightest splendour of the Western Bky Ts hut the robe of deep opacity TTe wraps around his form, as yel unseen, lis overpowering brilliancy to screen! Hut, after that, the s t ill small voice there came, Which, in her wildest mood, doth Nature tame ; And then, the Prophet rose I On bended k , With shrouded eye, and deep humility, IT.' sunk without the Cave; for then he knew, Bj that still voice, so faint, and yet so true, Jehovah was at haul! — More potent 'twas than wind \\ hicli split the. Mountain's side, and did unbind The Earthquake's-ire ! — Tis by this word that He Doth bend Man's spirit down, submissively ! ft is, the mighty of the mightiest, To awe the Mind, and sinful deed arrest; The Spirit's-voice ; to Heart and Conscience sent; 'I'h' Omnipotence of the Omnipotent! — XXVIII. There was a pause ; a momentary lull : Not in the storm, for that was at the full : But, the racked brain, overcharged, o'erburthen'd bj The scenes thai rolled in such rapidity: 232 THE DELUGE. Filled by a tracery so wild and new* Had closed each inlet and each avenue And shut the door of Thought! Somewhat the Mind Was conscious of, but it was undefined ; It saw, and heard, but took no cognoscence, No Tablet spread, found no recording Sense ! — XXIX. Short the mind's slumber was. — Too dense to stand ; And, as again the Senses did expand, I looked around, to see if ought of great, Or good, or noble I could separate From such guilt-mass as this. One act alone Of filial piety seemed to atone For such preponderating tale, such press Of guilt and most consummate selfishness. An aged Sire, led by his vigorous Son Had highest up the nigged mountain won Their way; — Fear added superhuman power To limbs that Time had sapped, and Terror's hour Had strung his nerves anew ! Thrice on that day The wave had swept him in its wrath away; And thrice the Son, by filial duty led, His Father from such grave had rescued. " Save me my Son!*' Was that sad Parent's cry, As lie did grasp his hand convulsively mi: DEI i '.i And oft-returning feebleness did date The time such fruitless race must terminate. And as oft the Son (desirous still to cheer) w Bear up awhile; beat up my Father dear; " The Tide doth slaken ; and methinks less fast " The Rain doth fall; such torrents cannot last ; " Come, lean on inc. and I will hoar thee hence " To some firm Rock, some neighbouring Eminei " Where, fixed in comfort and security, " We"ll watch the lessening billows of i\< So spake the Son; but so he thoughl nol now; He knew his Fate; and to that Fate would bow Submissively ; but, to behold, unmoved, The waters circle round the Sire he loved . Or, as a burthen, too encumbering To cast him by, whilst he his way did wing To greater heights, was selfishness so great, He could not feel, and would not imitate ' \\\ Thus toiled they up, with oft-amended pace, The mountain's side, ; ( well-contested race. lie- waters on then footsteps could not gain; Nor could their speed a breathing-space attain ; The old Man tires ; worn Nature yields at length , His race is run; and prostrate i- In- strength; B 234 THE DELUGE Upon the ground he sinks, no power to save, And as lie falls, above him rolls the wave ! The hardy Son, with filial piety, Breaks through the Foam to snatch him from the sea ! And on his brawny shoulder, with a power Possessed alone in Fear or Feeling's hour, He raises him in air; then forward still He breasts the tempest; and ascends the hill With vigorous, quick, and many a manly stride, As though he still, with nervous strength defied The Elements. He hastens on ; — Invoking Heaven ; To madness, and to desperation driven ; But full as fast the bounding waters rise, Rush o'er his course and track him as he flies ! And will not pitying Heaven, to mercy true, Its wrath suspend, and this bright effort view Relentingly ? Time was when God repentance sought, But then, upon the Earth he gather'd nought ; Drew Men with love-bonds, spake in accents mild, Bade them in mercy to be reconciled; Sent Prophets, Preachers, good and holy Men To warn them of destruction, but e'en then They hearken'd not, nor would his mercy know ; Ate, drank, and sinned, and revelled as though There was no Death or Punishment to shun, No Grace to save, no Heaven to be won ! Then Justice sate, holding the scales above. Whilst God withdrew his Spirit and his love; i ill ill i.i 81 Vengea threw in each sin of though! and d Vferoj wept; Destruction was decreed! XXXI Onward, struggling, laden with precious insight, He gains at length the mountain's topmost height, And there, supported by a branching tree In deep despair and breathless agom He clings awhile : the waters upward rise, Higher, and higher yet, to climb he tries ; Tin' branch, o'er-burthen'd, rends, The Sea — Th Tide Hath won its prey — the Flood i- satisfied! XXXII. Thus sunk iln- last, the brightest of Mankind . But, higher still, amidst tin- boughs entwined Of that wide-spreading tree ; coiling its long And slimy frame tic rustling leaves among; Bruised and maimed, with many a tortuous fold This Desolation's cause I did behold ! The crested Snake! Into whose venom'd I The Arch-fiend his essential spirit flung ; When be, with envious breath and speeches fair, and polluted Paradise a i Sel Man and God at varia and with b] Did si on li the first I I it'e. 236 THE DELUGE When, to the Ark, instinctively there came, Reptiles, and birds, and beasts ; peaceful and tame, Of each and every tribe, a fruitful pair, He sought no shelter, and he came not there ; " He would not succomb to the Deity " Though in this world his race extinct should be ; " Nor would he owe deliverance to God, " Though Men and Angels trembled at his nod." Satan's short sojourn, when on Earth he came With foul intent, had tinctured his frame With his rebellious mind, and from that day, He God disclaimed, confessed Satanic sway ! Around a branch of that same Tree entwined, Reserved by Fate, the death-wail of Mankind He had outlived ! But, fiercely round his brow Tire vengeance of his God is gathering now. The blow is struck — a sudden burst — a crash — A gleam of light — a far-sent Lightning-flash — Into his heart Heaven's fire hath smote, and lie, And root, and branch, and stubborn rock, and tree, Are, as the blasted Mine, to Atoms rent, And piecemeal strewed upon the Element ! XXXIII. Tis gone! Tis past! The World hath sunk! A Flood, P'ij>, wide, and shoreless, flows where once it stood! THE DEI I '.l 231 The dream was past; dispel'd l>y dawning day; Hut passed nut from m\ Mind its tracery So soon ! Long did the agitated Soul With its subsiding billows seem to roll ; As one, who lately rescued from the Deep First on refreshing shore-bed sinks in Bleep The rocking motion holds within Ids brain ; He sleeps, and reels, and is at Sea again. I M) OF THE DELI '.I St. ii Jpicssi : PRINTED BY J. TURNER, 20, CROS* STRE1 i. UATTON GARDEN. E R R \ V \. Page i 1'J - - V In, 67 - - 26, fol 87 - - Is. fol !I7 - - 1, for '.is - - 1. for 115 - - 17, for L20 - - 11, for 123 - - 5, for 111 - - (i. Cur •• mortal," read " Mortal ■■ rabbins," read " Rabbins.' • ( Ireations love," read " Creatix i / " \\ orld's," rend " Worlds." " Truth's." read " Truths." " off it-, linked," read " oft <» linked.' " Thus is Siiiil-sense shorn," read ' th\ S Sense-shorn." 5, for " All Soul's are mine," read " all Souls G, for " early thought," read " early taught." - 21, for " little shade," read •■lath- shadt i ' 111 - - li ' line, for " Mind's and Spirit's," read \i Spin/-..' I 16 - - 26, for " Knows know stain," read " no stain I is - - 19, for " Enfold's," read " Enfolds." I I'J - - 22, for " or Season's past," read " S L53 -- 10, after " Man," omit comma. 15 I - - 10, for " Arduuus," read " ardu hm 158 - - s, for •• Sin's," read " Sins." I.V.I - - 12, for " I stretched," read "is stretched." L65 -- 21, for " Soul's "I Men." read ••Souls." lie san 27th line liiii - - 3, alter " pointless," omit comma. |si .- last line, for " illume," read " tUumei Is; - - •>, lor " Realm's," read " Realms." 196 - - I. lor •■ our Soul's," read " Souls." 203 - - 1 1. for " en the Earth," read "o'er tht Earth." 20 1 - - II, tor •• I 1 1 ill Witness," read " r<2td uritru >v " .'III - - 1, I'm " SummOn's-WOrd," read " Sum iii. 212 - - 2o, foi Desolation*," read •• Desolation." UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-32m-8,'57(.C8680s4)444 Thomas - Poetical frag- ments UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY h.