XXI.

MESSIAH.

He spake. Right royally, serenely bright,
High in his wingèd Chariot, paved with love,
Life its foundation, and its pillars light,
Peace for its canopy o'er arched above,

Messiah patient heard the insensate plea

Wherewith the Arch-apostate wrathful strove.

"Satan,"-thus spake the Judge,-" ere asked of

thee,

On the thick bosses of my buckler thou
Hurlest thy defence of ire, impetuously.
Thou knowest not the Father, but I know.
Thou hast not been His Counsellor. To thee,
Say, when to thee did He his secrets show?

Where wert thou when He spake, begetting me,
His Word, and breathed His Spirit infinite.
Through the far echoes of Eternity?

Life, from His Love derived, rejoiced in Light,
Unfathomable Love, exceeding Grace,
Eternal, equitable, just and right.

Heard'st thou, when, in our everlasting place,
We sware we would in covenant combine,

That Heaven and Earth should be, and Time and
Space?-

Saw'st thou the being that gave birth to thine, Heard'st thou the voice that called thee, ere thou

wert,

And thou becamest..a God! with power divine?
Thou wert decreed to be..for thy desert?
Ere thou hadst being merit could be none;
Only the Father's Bounty, ne'er inert,
Willed thine existence. Arch-angelick One,
Thou stood'st before us, image of our mind,
How beautiful, an uneclipsed Sun;
Rejoicing in thy being, well-combined

Of glorious energies, to love, to will;

Action and Thought, for blessedness designed.

Then said'st thou, that thou wert created ill? Made out of hate, wrath's subject, and God's foe? Nay, but his law exulted'st to fulfil—

Only perceived, not heard nor seen.
Within the bosom of the Father, I

Remained invisible, and thou wert so
The Son of Morn, Image of Deity,

For lo,

Prime of Heaven's Commonwealth, yet unrevealed Her monarchy, and His supremacy—

Only the Spirit each celestial field

Pervaded yet, a moving presence, felt

Throughout all being,.. homage wont to yield,

That your wide range of freedom nought might belt Within Eternity, and each might rear

The individual Being, freely dealt.

Thus ordered the Paternal Love, for ne'er
Might one have seen His Glory, and remained
With Life within himself, but mingled there,
In His perfection lost, absorbed, constrained.
Such was His Will, that Will might grow in you
To perfect growth, and Difference be maintained.
And
ye were gods, capacious spirits, who

Waxed strong in excellence, and stood alone,
And your desires in independence grew,

P

And loving what they made and well-beloved-pƐ Till to the height of Self-perfection grown.

Gods were ye, each one to himself approved,

Divinest, swayed by no intelligence

Superior, wisest, mightiest, self-emoved.
Each rested in his own magnificence
Incapable of brighter, till the Sire

Made manifest a higher excellence

T

Whose Glory had outblazed resistless fire,
That had extinguished arch-angelic Thrones,
And Love Almighty more consumed, than Ire,
But that His Goodness veiled it with His Son's, i
In visible dominion, suddenly

Revealed, in presence of the heavenly Ones.
I will declare again the true decree-
'To me hath said Jehovah; Lo-thou art
My Son-this day have I begotten thee'—
Heaven gazed upon the Glory; its great heart
Burst forth in hallelujahs; and, with song
Vocal, each harp in Jubilee bore part.

And virtuous Spirits, with admiration strong,
Adored, and, in devout humility,

The Eternal Father blest, who, them among,

Had graciously His Glory set on high
Before His Creatures; that they might improve
Their natures to the standard, endlessly,
Of infinite perfection, throned above-

And such their aim, within whose spirit Law
Discovered no repugnance. Such his Love.
Thou standest self-condemned whom no awe
Checked, but Ambition prompted to aspire
Beyond all glory that all Creatures saw;
Whom imperfection stung with envious ire
Of that perfection which deserved esteem;
(Of glory without goodness vain desire;
Pride self-sufficient, Vanity extreme!)

Law proved thy Love defective-Faith, unsound

Will, rebel to the voice of the Supreme.

I

Thou hast set God's Word at nought, and Vengeance found

And Wrath, not in the Father but in thee,

Consumed of thine own Fury. Look around!
Thy Place is of thy Spirit!"-

"Let it be!

Impatient of reproof, thus Satan said

"It is as I-but who created me?