Book II.—Of the Harmony of the Old and New Laws.196

After the faith was broken by the dint

Of the foe’s breathing renegades,197 and sworn

With wiles the hidden pest198 emerged; with lies

Self-prompted, scornful of the Deity

5 That underlies the sense, he did his plagues

Concoct: skilled in guile’s path, he mixed his own

Words impious with the sayings of the saints.

And on the good seed sowed his wretched tares,

Thence willing that foul ruin’s every cause

10 Should grow combined; to wit, that with more speed

His own iniquitous deeds he may assign

To God clandestinely, and may impale

On penalties such as his suasion led;

False with true veiling, turning rough with smooth,

15 And, (masking his spear’s point with rosy wreaths,)

Slaying the unwary unforeseen with death

Supreme. His supreme wickedness is this:

That men, to such a depth of madness sunk!

Off-broken boughs!199 should into parts divide

20 The endlessly-dread Deity; Christ’s deeds

Sublime should follow with false praise, and blame

The former acts,200 God’s countless miracles,

Ne’er seen before, nor heard, nor in a heart

Conceived;201 and should so rashly frame in words

25 The impermissible impiety

Of wishing by “wide dissimilitude

Of sense” to prove that the two Testaments

Sound adverse each to other, and the Lord’s

Oppose the prophets’ words; of drawing down

30 All the Law’s cause to infamy; and eke

Of reprobating holy fathers’ life

Of old, whom into friendship, and to share

His gifts, God chose. Without beginning, one

Is, for its lesser part, accepted.202 Though

35 Of one are four, of four one,203 yet to them

One part is pleasing, three they (in a word)

Reprobate: and they seize, in many ways,

On Paul as their own author; yet was he

Urged by a frenzied impulse of his own

40 To his last words:204 all whatsoe’er he spake

Of the old covenant205 seems hard to them

Because, deservedly, “made gross in heart.”206

Weight apostolic, grace of beaming word,

Dazzles their mind, nor can they possibly

45 Discern the Spirit’s drift. Dull as they are,

Seek they congenial animals!

But ye

Who have not yet, (false deity your guide,

Reprobate in your very mind,207) to death’s

Inmost caves penetrated, learn there flows

50 A stream perennial from its fount, which feeds

A tree, (twice sixfold are the fruits, its grace!)

And into earth and to the orb’s four winds

Goes out: into so many parts doth flow

The fount’s one hue and savour.208 Thus, withal,

55 From apostolic word descends the Church,

Out of Christ’s womb, with glory of His Sire

All filled, to wash off filth, and vivify

Dead fates.209 The Gospel, four in number, one

In its diffusion ’mid the Gentiles, this,

60 By faith elect accepted, Paul hands down

(Excellent doctor!) pure, without a crime;

And from it he forbade Galatian saints

To turn aside withal; whom “brethren false,”

(Urging them on to circumcise themselves,

65 And follow “elements,” leaving behind

Their novel “freedom,”) to “a shadow old

Of things to be” were teaching to be slaves.

These were the causes which Paul had to write

To the Galatians: not that they took out

70 One small part of the Gospel, and held that

For the whole bulk, leaving the greater part

Behind. And hence ’tis no words of a book,

But Christ Himself, Christ sent into the orb,

Who is the gospel, if ye will discern;

75 Who from the Father came, sole Carrier

Of tidings good; whose glory vast completes

The early testimonies; by His work

Showing how great the orb’s Creator is:

Whose deeds, conjoined at the same time with words,

80 Those faithful ones, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

Recorded unalloyed (not speaking words

External), sanctioned by God’s Spirit, ’neath

So great a Master’s eye!

This paschal Lamb

Is hung, a victim, on the tree: Him Paul,

85 Writing decrees to Corinth, with his torch,210

Hands down as slain, the future life and God

Promised to the fathers, whom before

He had attracted.

See what virtue, see

What power, the paschal image211 has; ye thus

90 Will able be to see what power there is

In the true Passover.

Lest well-earned love

Should tempt the faithful sire and seer,212 to whom

His pledge and heir213 was dear, whom God by chance214

Had given him, to offer him to God

95 (A mighty execution!), there is shown

To him a lamb entangled by the head

In thorns; a holy victim—holy blood

For blood—to God. From whose piacular death,

That to the wasted race215 it might be sign

100 And pledge of safety, signed are with blood

Their posts and thresholds many:216—aid immense!

The flesh (a witness credible) is given

For food. The Jordan crossed, the land possessed,

Joshua by law kept Passover with joy,

105 And immolates a lamb; and the great kings

And holy prophets that were after him,

Not ignorant of the good promises

Of sure salvation; full of godly fear

The great Law to transgress, (that mass of types

110 In image of the Supreme Virtue once

To come,) did celebrate in order due

The mirrorly-inspected passover.217

In short, if thou recur with rapid mind

To times primordial, thou wilt find results

115 Too fatal following impious words. That man

Easily credulous, alas! and stripped

Of life’s own covering, might covered be

With skins, a lamb is hung: the wound slays sins,

Or death by blood effaces or enshrouds

120 Or cherishes the naked with its fleece.

Is sheep’s blood of more worth than human blood,

That, offered up for sins, it should quench wrath?

Or is a lamb (as if he were more dear!)

Of more worth than much people’s? aid immense!

125 As safeguard of so great salvation, could

A lamb, if offered, have been price enough

For the redeemed? Nay: but Almighty God,

The heaven’s and earth’s Creator, infinite,218

Living, and perfect, and perennially

130 Dwelling in light, is not appeased by these,

Nor joys in cattle’s blood. Slain be all flocks;

Be every herd upburned into smoke;

That expiatively ’t may pardon win

Of but one sin: in vain at so vile price;

135 Will the stained figure of the Lord—foul flesh—

Prepare, if wise, such honours:219 but the hope

And faith to mortals promised of old—

Great Reason’s counterpart220—hath wrought to bring

These boons premeditated and prepared

140 Erst by the Father’s passing parent-love;

That Christ should come to earth, and be a man!

Whom when John saw, baptism’s first opener, John,

Comrade of seers, apostle great, and sent

As sure forerunner, witness faithful; John,

145 August in life, and marked with praise sublime,221

He shows, to such as sought of olden time

God’s very Paschal Lamb, that He is come

At last, the expiation of misdeed,

To undo many’s sins by His own blood,

150 In place of reprobates the Proven One,

In place of vile the dear; in body, man;

And, in life, God: that He, as the slain Lamb,

Might us accept,222 and for us might outpour

Himself Thus hath it pleased the Lord to spoil

155 Proud death: thus wretched man will able be

To hope salvation. This slain paschal Lamb

Paul preaches: nor does a phantasmal shape

Of the sublime Lord (one consimilar

To Isaac’s silly sheep223) the passion bear,

160 Wherefore He is called Lamb: but ’tis because,

As wool, He these renewed bodies clothes,

Giving to many covering, yet Himself

Never deficient. Thus does the Lord shroud

In His Sire’s virtue, those whom, disarrayed

165 Of their own light, He by His death redeemed,

Virtue which ever is in Him. So, then,

The Shepherd who hath lost the sheep Himself

Re-seeks it. He, prepared to tread the strength

Of the vine, and its thorns, or to o’ercome

170 The wolf’s rage, and regain the cattle lost,

And brave to snatch them out, the Lion He

In sheepskin-guise, unasked presents Himself

To the contemned224 teeth, baffling by His garb

The robber’s bloody jaws.

Thus everywhere

175 Christ seeks force-captured Adam; treads the path

Himself where death wrought ruin; permeates

All the old heroes’ monuments;225 inspects

Each one; the One of whom all types were full;

Begins e’en from the womb to expel the death

180 Conceived simultaneously with seed

Of flesh within the bosom; purging all

Life’s stages with a silent wisdom; debts

Assuming;226 ready to cleanse all, and give

Their Maker back the many whom the one227

185 Had scattered. And, because one direful man

Down-sunk in pit iniquitous did fall,

By dragon-subdued virgin’s228 suasion led;

Because he pleased her wittingly;229 because

He left his heavenly covering230 behind:

190 Because the “tree” their nakedness did prove;

Because dark death coerced them: in like wise

Out of the self-same mass231 re-made returns

Renewed now,—the flower of flesh, and host

Of peace,—a flesh from espoused virgin born,

195 Not of man’s seed; conjoined to its own

Artificer; without the debt of death.

These mandates of the Father through bright stars

An angel carries down, that angel-fame

The tidings may accredit; telling how

200 “A virgin’s debts a virgin, flesh’s flesh,

Should pay.” Thus introduced, the Giant-Babe,

The Elder-Boy, the Stripling-Man, pursues

Death’s trail. Thereafter, when completed was

The ripe age of man’s strength, when man is wont

205 To see the lives that were his fellows drop

By slow degrees away, and to be changed

In mien to wrinkles foul and limbs inert,

While blood forsakes his veins, his course he stayed,

And suffered not his fleshly garb to age.

210 Upon what day or in what place did fall

Most famous Adam, or outstretched his hand

Rashly to touch the tree, on that same day,

Returning as the years revolve, within

The stadium of the “tree” the brave Athlete,

215 ’Countering, outstretched His hands, and, penalty

For praise pursuing,232 quite did vanquish death,

Because He left death of His own accord

Behind, disrobing Him of fleshly slough,

And of death’s dues; and to the “tree” affixed

220 The serpent’s spoil—“the world’s233 prince” vanquisht quite!

Grand trophy of the renegades: for sign

Whereof had Moses hung the snake, that all,

Who had by many serpents stricken been,

Might gaze upon the dragon’s self, and see

225 Him vanquisht and transfixt.

When, afterwards,

He reached the infernal region’s secret waves,

And, as a victor, by the light which aye

Attended Him, revealed His captive thrall,

And by His virtue thoroughly fulfilled

230 The Father’s bidding, He Himself re-took

The body which, spontaneous, He had left:

This was the cause of death: this same was made

Salvation’s path: a messenger of guile

The former was; the latter messenger

235 Of peace: a spouse her man234 did slay; a spouse

Did bear a lion:235 hurtful to her man236

A virgin237 proved; a man238 from virgin born

Proved victor: for a type whereof, while sleep

His239 body wrapped, out of his side is ta’en

240 A woman,240 who is her lord’s241 rib; whom, he,

Awaking, called “flesh from his flesh, and bones

From his own bones;” with a presaging mind

Speaking. Faith wondrous! Paul deservedly,

(Most certain author!) teaches Christ to be

245 “The Second Adam from the heavens.”242 Truth,

Using her own examples, doth refulge;

Nor covets out of alien source to show

Her paces keen:243 this is a pauper’s work,

Needy of virtue of his own! Great Paul

250 These mysteries—taught to him—did teach; to wit,

Discerning that in Christ thy glory is,

O Church! from His side, hanging on high “tree,”

His lifeless body’s “blood and humour” flowed.

The blood the woman244 was; the waters were

255 The new gifts of the font:245 this is the Church,

True mother of a living people; flesh

New from Christ’s flesh, and from His bones a bone.

A spot there is called Golgotha,—of old

The fathers’ earlier tongue thus called its name,—

260 “The skull-pan of a head:” here is earth’s midst;

Here victory’s sign; here, have our elders taught,

There was a great head246 found; here the first man,

We have been taught, was buried; here the Christ

Suffers; with sacred blood the earth247 grows moist.

265 That the old Adam’s dust may able be,

Commingled with Christ’s blood, to be upraised

By dripping water’s virtue. The “one ewe”

That is, which, during Sabbath-hours, alive

The Shepherd did resolve that He would draw

270 Out of th’ infernal pit. This was the cause

Why, on the Sabbaths, He was wont to cure

The prematurely dead limbs of all flesh;

Or perfected for sight the eyes of him

Blind from his birth—eyes which He had not erst

275 Given; or, in presence of the multitude,

Called, during Sabbath-hours, one wholly dead

To life, e’en from the sepulchre.248 Himself

The new man’s Maker, the Repairer good

Of th’ old, supplying what did lack, or else

280 Restoring what was lost. About to do—

When dawns “the holy day”—these works, for such

As hope in Him, in plenitude, (to keep

His plighted word,) He taught men thus His power

To do them.

What? If flesh dies, and no hope

285 Is given of salvation, say, what grounds

Christ had to feign Himself a man, and head

Men, or have care for flesh? If He recalls249

Some few, why shall He not withal recall

All? Can corruption’s power liquefy

290 The body and undo it, and shall not

The virtue of the Lord be powerful

The undone to recall?

They, who believe

Their bodies are not loosed from death, do not

Believe the Lord, who wills to raise His own

295 Works sunken; or else say they that the Good

Wills not, and that the Potent hath not power,—

Ignorant from how great a crime they suck

Their milk, in daring to set things infirm

Above the Strong.250 In the grain lurks the tree;

300 And if this251 rot not, buried in the earth,

It yields not tree-graced fruits.252 Soon bound will be

The liquid waters: ’neath the whistling cold

They will become, and ever will be stones,

Unless a mighty power, by leading on

305 Soft-breathing warmth, undo them. The great bunch

Lurks in the tendril’s slender body: if

Thou seek it, it is not; when God doth will,

’Tis seen to be. On trees their leaves, on thorns

The rose, the seeds on plains, are dead and fail,

310 And rise again, new living. For man’s use

These things doth God before his eyes recall

And form anew—man’s, for whose sake at first253

The wealthy One made all things bounteously.

All naked fall; with its own body each

315 He clothes. Why man alone, on whom He showered

Such honours, should He not recall in all

His first perfection254 to Himself? man, whom

He set o’er all?

Flesh, then, and blood are said

To be not worthy of God’s realm, as if

320 Paul spake of flesh materially. He

Indeed taught mighty truths; but hearts inane

Think he used carnal speech: for pristine deeds

He meant beneath the name of “flesh and blood;”

Remembering, heavenly home—slave that he is,

325 His heavenly Master’s words; who gave the name

Of His own honour to men born from Him

Through water, and from His own Spirit poured

A pledge;255 that, by whose virtue men had been

Redeemed, His name of honour they withal

330 Might, when renewed, receive. Because, then, He

Refused, on the old score, the heavenly realm

To peoples not yet from His fount re-born,

Still with their ancient sordid raiment clad—

These are “the dues of death”—saying that that

335 Which human is must needs be born again,—

“What hath been born of flesh is flesh; and what

From Spirit, life;”256 and that the body, washed,

Changing with glory its old root’s new seeds,257

Is no more called “from flesh:” Paul follows this;

340 Thus did he speak of “flesh.” In fine, he said258

This frail garb with a robe must be o’erclad,

This mortal form be wholly covered;

Not that another body must be given,

But that the former one, dismantled,259 must

345 Be with God’s kingdom wholly on all sides

Surrounded: “In the moment of a glance,”

He says, “it shall be changed:” as, on the blade,

Dispreads the red corn’s260 face, and changes ’neath

The sun’s glare its own hue; so the same flesh,

350 From “the effulgent glory”261 borrowing,

Shall ever joy, and joying,262 shall lack death;

Exclaiming that “the body’s cruel foe

Is vanquisht quite; death, by the victory

Of the brave Christ, is swallowed;”263 praises high

355 Bearing to God, unto the highest stars.