The Saviour offering Himself to his Heavenly Father.
"SAY, heavenly powers, where shall we find
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem
Man's mortal crime, and just, the unjust to save? Dwells in all heaven charity so dear ?"
He asked, but all the heavenly quire stood mute, And silence was in heaven: on man's behalf Patron or intercessor none appeared,
Much less that durst upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
And now without redemption all mankind
Must have been lost, adjudged to death and hell
By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
In whom the fulness dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renewed:
"Father, thy word is past, man shall find grace;
And shall grace not find means, that finds her
The speediest of thy winged messengers,
To visit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought?
Happy for man, so coming! he her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost;
Atonement for himself, or offering meet,
Indebted and undone! hath none to bring:
Behold me then! me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall ;
Account me man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to Thee,
Freely put off, and for him lastly die
Well pleased; on me let death wreak all his rage;
Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquished; Thou hast given me to possess
Life in myself for ever; by Thee I live,
Though now to death I yield, and am his due,
All that of me can die; yet, that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave
His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul
For ever with corruption there to dwell;
But I shall rise victorious, and subdue
My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil;
Death his death's-wound shall then receive, and
stoop
Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed.
I through the ample air in triumph high,
Shall lead hell captive, maugre hell! and show
The powers of darkness bound. Thou at the sight
Pleased, out of heaven shalt look down and smile;
While by Thee raised I ruin all my foes,
Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave:
Then with the multitude of my redeemed,
Shall enter heaven, long absent, and return,
Father! to see thy face, wherein no cloud
Of anger shall remain; but peace assured,
And reconcilement: wrath shall be no more
Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire."
His words here ended, but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love
To mortal men, above which only shone
Filial obedience: as a sacrifice,
Glad to be offered, he attends the will
Of his great Father. Admiration seized
All heaven, what this might mean, and whither tend,
Wondering; but soon the Almighty thus replied: "O Thou, in heaven and earth, the only peace Found out for mankind under wrath! O Thou, My sole complacence! well Thou know'st how dear
To me are all my works, nor man the least, Though last created: that for Him I spare Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, By losing Thee awhile, the whole race lost. Thou therefore, whom Thou only canst redeem, Their nature also to thy nature join,
And be Thyself man among men on earth,
Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed,
By wondrous birth: be Thou in Adam's room,
The head of all mankind, though Adam's son.
As in him perish all men, so in Thee,
As from a second root, shall be restored
As many as are restored; without Thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons; thy merit
Imputed shall absolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in Thee transplanted, and from Thee
Receive new life. So man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for man, be judged, and die.
And dying rise, and rising with him raise
His brethren, ransomed with his own dear life.
So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what hellish hate
So easily destroyed, and still destroys,
In those who, when they may, accept not grace. Nor shalt Thou, by descending to assume
Man's nature, lessen or degrade thine own. Because Thou hast, though throned in highest bliss
Equal to God, and equally enjoying
Godlike fruition, quitted all to save
A world from utter loss, and hast been found,
By merit more than birthright, Son of God,
Found worthiest to be so by being good,
Far more than great or high; because in Thee
Love hath abounded more than glory abounds;
Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt
With Thee thy manhood also to this throne:
Here shalt Thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign
Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man,
Anointed universal King; all power
I give Thee; reign for ever, and assume
Thy merits: under Thee, as head supreme,
Thrones, princedoms, powers, dominions, I re-
duce;
All knees to Thee shall bow, of them that bide
In heaven, or earth, or under earth in hell.
When Thou, attended gloriously from heaven,
Shalt in the sky appear, and from Thee send
The summoning archangels to proclaim
Thy dread tribunal, forthwith from all winds
The living and forthwith the cited dead
Of all past ages, to the general doom
Shall hasten; such a peal shall rouse their sleep:
Then all thy saints assembled, Thou shalt judge
Bad men and angels; they arraigned, shall sink Beneath thy sentence; hell, her numbers full, Thenceforth shall be for ever shut; meanwhile The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring New heaven and earth, wherein the just shall dwell;
And, after all their tribulations long,
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth:
Then Thou thy regal sceptre shalt lay by,
For regal sceptre then no more shalt need:
God shall be all in all. But all ye Gods
Adore Him, who to compass all this dies:
Adore the Son, and honour Him as Me."
No sooner had th' Almighty ceased, but all The multitude of angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from blest voices, uttering joy, heaven rung With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled
The eternal regions; lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground
With solemn adoration down they cast
Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold; Immortal amaranth! a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life;
And where the river of bliss through midst of
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