John Byrom: Verses about Passion

Whereas, this Reprobation Doctrine, here,
Not only Sense and Reason would cashier;
But take, by its pretext of sov'reign sway,
All goodness from the Deity away;
Both heav'n and hell confounding with the cant,
Virtue and Vice, the Sinner and the Saint;
Leaving (by irresistible decree,
And purpose absolute what man shall be),
Nothing in Sinners to detest so much
As God's contrivance how to make them such.

That ever Christians blest with Revelation,
Should think of his decreeing men's damnation!
The God of Love! the Fountain of all good!

Who made
, says Paul,
all Nations of one blood,


To dwell on earth; appointed time
and
place,

And for what end this pre-ordaining grace?
That they might seek, and feel, and surely find,
The life in God, which God for man design'd.

We are his offspring - for in that Decree,
The pagan Poet and St. Paul agree:
We are his offspring - now, Sir, put the case
Of some great man, and his descending race;
Conceive this common Parent of them all,
As willing some to stand, and some to fall:
Master, suppose of all their future lot,
Decreeing some to happiness, some not;
In some to bring his kindness into view,
To shew in others what his wrath can do;
To lead the chosen children by the hand,
And leave the rest to fall - who cannot stand.

I might proceed, but that the smallest sketch
Shows an absurd, and arbitrary wretch;
Treating his offspring so, as to forbid
To think that ever God Almighty did;
To think that creatures, who are said to be
His offspring, should be hurt by his decree;
Which had they always minded, Good alone,
And not a spark of Evil, had been known:
For his Decree, Appointment, Order, Will,
Predestinating Goodness, Pow'r and Skill,
Is, of itself, the unbeginning Good,
The pouring forth of an un-ending flood:
Of ever-flowing bliss, which only rolls,
To fill his vessels, his created souls.

Happy Himself the true divine desire,
The love that flames through that eternal fire;
Which generates in him th' eternal light,
Source of all blessing to created light,
Longs with a holy earnestness to spread,
The boundless glories of its Fountain-head?
To raise the possibilities of life,
Which rest, in him, into a joyful strive;
Into a feeling sense of him, from whom
The various gifts of various blessings come.

’TIS Man’s own Nature, which in its own Life,
Or Centre, stands in Enmity and Strife,
And anxious, selfish, doing what it lists,
(Without God’s Love) that tempts him, and resists;
The Devil also shoots his fiery Dart,
From Grace and Love to turn away the Heart.

This is the greatest Trial; ’tis the Fight
Which Christ, with His internal Love and Light,
Maintains within Man’s Nature, to dispel
God’s Anger, Satan, Sin, and Death, and Hell;
The human Self, or Serpent, to devour,
And raise an Angel from it by His Pow’r.

Now if God’s Love in Christ did not subdue
In some Degree this Selfishness in you,
You would have no such Combat to endure;
The Serpent, then, triumphantly secure,
Would unoppos’d exert its native Right,
And no such Conflict in your Soul excite.

For all the huge Temptation and Distress
Rises in Nature, tho’ God seeks to bless;
The Serpent feeling its tormenting State,
(Which of itself is a mere anxious Hate,)
When God’s amazing Love comes in, to fill
And change the selfish to a God-like Will.

Here Christ, the Serpent-bruiser, stands in Man,
Storming the Devil’s hellish, self-built Plan;
And hence the Strife within the human Soul,—
Satan’s to kill, and Christ’s to make it whole;
As by Experience, in so great Degree,
God in His Goodness causes you to see.…

The next Temptation, which befalls of Course
From Satan and from Nature’s selfish Force,
Is, when the Soul has tasted of the Love
And been illuminated from above;
Still in its Self-hood it would seek to shine,
And as its own possess the Light Divine.

That is, the soulish Nature,—take it right,
As much a Serpent, if without God’s Light,
As Lucifer,—this Nature still would claim
For own Propriety the Heav’nly Flame,
And elevate its Fire to a Degree
Above the Light’s Good Pow’r, which cannot be.

This domineering Self, this Nature-Fire,
Must be transmuted to a Love-Desire.
Now, when this Change is to be undergone,
It looks for some own Pow’r, and, finding none,
Begins to doubt of Grace, unwilling quite
To yield up its self-willing Nature’s Right.

It never quakes for Fear, and will not die
In Light Divine, tho’ to be blest thereby:
The Light of Grace it thinks to be Deceit,
Because it worketh gently without Heat;
Mov’d too by outward Reason, which is blind,
And of itself sees nothing of this Kind.

Who knows, it thinketh, whether it be true
That God is in thee, and enlightens too?
Is it not Fancy? For thou dost not see
Like other People, who as well as thee
Hope for Salvation by the Grace of God,
Without such Fear and Trembling at his Rod.…

The own Self-will must die away, and shine,
Rising thro’ Death, in Saving Will Divine;
And from the Opposition which it tries
Against God’s Will such great Temptations rise;
The Devil too is loth to lose his Prey,
And see his Fort cast down, if it obey.

For, if the Life of Christ within arise,
Self-Lust and false Imagination dies,—
Wholly, it cannot in this present Life,
But by the Flesh maintains the daily Strife,—
Dies, and yet lives; as they alone can tell
In whom Christ fights against the Pow’rs of Hell.

The third Temptation is in Mind and Will,
And Flesh and Blood, if Satan enter still;
Where the false Centres lie in Man, the Springs
Of Pride and Lust, and Love of earthly Things,
And all the Curses wish’d by other Men,
Which are occasion’d by this Devil’s Den.

These in the Astral Spirit make a Fort,
Which all the Sins concentre to support;
And human Will, esteeming for its Joy
What Christ, to save it, combats to destroy,
Will not resign the Pride-erected Tow’r,
Nor live obedient to the Saviour’s Pow’r.…

Let go all earthly Will, and be resign’d
Wholly to Him with all your Heart and Mind!
Be Joy or Sorrow, Comfort or Distress,
Receiv’d alike, for He alike can bless,
To gain the Victory of Christian Faith
Over the World and all Satanic Wrath!