III.

If we consult the Reasons that appear
To make the seeming Difficulty clear,
We must acknowledge, when we look Above,
That God, as God, is Overflowing Love;

And wilful Sinners, when we look below,

Make what is call'd the Wrath of God to flow.

"

IV.

Wrath," as St. Paul saith, "is the treasur'd Part
Of an impenitently harden'd Heart."

When Love reveals Its Own Eternal Life,

Then Wrath and Anguish fall on evil Strife,

Then Lovely Justice, in Itself all Bright,

Is Burning Fire to such as hate the Light.

V.

If Wrath and Justice be indeed the same,

No Wrath in God is liable to blame.

If not, if righteous Judges may, and must,

Be free Themselves from Wrath, if they be just,-
Such Kind of Blaming may with equal Sense

Lay on a Judge the Criminal's Offence.

VI.

God, in Himself Unchangeable, in fine
Is One Eternal Light of Love Divine.

19 seqq. "Wrath," as St. Paul saith, &c. "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." (Romans, ii. 5.)

20

309

33. "In Him there is no Darkness, saith ST. JOHN. "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." (1st Epistle of St. John, i. 5.)

"In Him there is no Darkness," saith St. John;
In Him no Wrath,-the Meaning is all one.
'Tis our own Darkness, Wrath, Sin, Death and Hell,
Not to love Him Who first lov'd us so well.

35 seqq. 'Tis our own Darkness, &c. See The Spirit of Love, Part I. p. 13: "Wherever Christ is not, there is the Wrath of Nature, or Nature left to itself and its own tormenting Strength of Life, to feel nothing in itself but the vain rest

less Contrariety of its own working Properties. This is the one only Origin of Hell, and every Kind of Curse and Misery in the Creature. It is Nature without the Christ of God, or the Spirit of Love, ruling over it."

THE FOREGOING SUBJECT MORE FULLY ILLUSTRATED, IN A COMMENT ON THE

FOLLOWING SCRIPTURE:

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."-ST. JOHN, iii. 16.

[See the Introductory Note to the previous piece. Inasmuch as the versification of these stanzas is, for Byrom, unusually deficient in smoothness, it was not perhaps quite fair in Canon Overton (William Law, p. 361) to single them out as illustrating Byrom's use (or misuse) of a particular metre for sacred subjects.]

"GOD

I.

OD so loved the World."-By how tender a Phrase
The Design of His Father our Saviour displays!
Love, according to Him, when the World was undone,
Was the Father's sole Reason for giving His Son.
No Wrath in the Giver had Christ to atone,
But to save a poor perishing World from its own.

A Belief in the Son carries with it a Faith,

That the Motive Paternal was Love, and not Wrath.

II.

"Ev'ry good, perfect Gift cometh down from above,
From the Father of Lights," thro' the Son of His Love.
As in Him there is "no Variation or Change,"
Neither "Shadow of turning," it well may seem strange
That, when Scripture assures us so plainly that He,
His Will, Grace, or Gift, is so perfectly Free,
Any Word should be strain'd to inculcate a Thought
Of a Wrath in His Mind, or a Change to be wrought.

III.

All Wrath is the Product of creaturely Sin. In Immutable Love it could never begin ;

Nor, indeed, in a Creature, till opposite Will

To the Love of its GOD had brought forth such an Ill,—

To the Love That was pleas'd to communicate Bliss

In such endless Degrees thro' all Nature's Abyss.

ΙΟ

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Nor could Wrath have been known, had not Man left the State In which Nature's GOD was pleas'd Man to create.

IV.

He saw, when this World in its Purity stood,

Ev'ry Thing He had made, and, "behold, it was good;"
And the Man, its one Ruler, before his sad Fall,
As the Image of GOD had the Goodness of All.
When he fell, and awaken'd Wrath, Evil and Curse
In himself and the World, was GOD become worse,

30

whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (St. James, i. 17.)

26. "Behold it was good." See Genesis, i. 31.

Who so lov'd the World still that, when Wrath was begun,
To redeem the lost Creature, He gave His own Son?—

V.

Freely gave Him,-not mov'd or incited thereto

By a previous "appeasing," or payment of Due

To his "Wrath," or His "Vengeance," or any such Cause
As should satisfy Him for the Breach of His Laws.

This Language the Jew Nicodemus might use,

But our Saviour's to him had more Excellent Views :
"GOD so loved the World," (are His Words) "that He gave
"His Only-Begotten" in order to save.

VI.

Love's prior, unpurchas'd, unpaid-for Intent

Was the Cause why the Only-Begotten was sent,

That thro' Him we might live; and the Cause why He came
Was to manifest Love, ever One and the Same,-
Full Conquest of Wrath ever striving to make,
And blotting Transgressions out for Its own sake;
Wanting no Satisfaction itself but to give
Itself, that the World might receive It and live ;—

VII.

Might believe on the Son, and receive a new Birth
From the Love That in Christ was Incarnate on Earth,
When a Virgin brought forth, without help of a Man,
The Restorer of GOD'S True, Original Plan,-
The One Quencher of Wrath, the Atoner of Sin,
And the "Bringer of Justice and Righteousness in ;"

37. This Language the Jew NICODEMUS might use. Nicodemus, before he was instructed by Jesus, had not perceived the necessity of regeneration as the process of redemption in the individual human soul.

40

50

49. Might believe on the Son. Cf. St. John, ix. 35: (Jesus) "said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?"

54. The "Bringer of Justice and Righteousness in.” "To make an end of

The Renewer in Man of a Pow'r and a Will

To satisfy Justice,—that is, to fulfil.

VIII.

There is nothing that Justice and Righteousness hath

More opposite to it than Anger and Wrath,—

As repugnant to all that is equal and right,

As Falsehood to Truth, or as Darkness to Light.

Of GOD in Himself what the Scripture affirms

Is "Truth," "Light," and "Love,"-plain significant Terms.

In His Deity, therefore, there cannot befall

Any Falsehood, or Darkness, or Hatred at all.

IX.

Such Defect can be found in that Creature alone
Which against His Good Will seeks to set up its own.
Then, to GOD and His Justice it giveth the Lie,
And its Darkness and Wrath are discover'd thereby.
What before was subservient to Life in due Place,
Then usurps the Dominion, and Death is the Case;
Which the Son of GOD only could ever subdue
By doing all that which Love gave Him to do.

X.

If "the Anger of GOD," "Fury," "Wrath, waxing hot," And the like human Phrases that Scripture has got,

sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. (Daniel, ix. 24.)

62. Is "Truth." "And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." (1st Epistle of St. John, v. 6.) The expression "God of Truth occurs Deuteronomy, xxxii. 4; Psalm, xxxi. 5.

60

70

65 seqq. Such Defect can be found in that Creature alone, &c. "And now, Gentlemen, what think you of a supposed Wrath or Rage in God? Will you have such Things to be in the Deity itself as cannot have Place or Existence even in any Creature, till it is became disordered and impure, and has lost its proper state of Goodness?"

Ib. "Light." "I am the light of the (The Spirit of Love, Part II. pp. 15-16.) world." (St. John, viii. 12.)

73. If "the anger of GOD," &c.

See

Ib. "Love." "God is love." (1st Epis- the notes to l. 9 of the previous piece; and add (inter alia) Exodus, xxxii, II: "And

tle of St. John, iv. 8.)