When he became unfit to be alone,

Woman was form'd out of his Flesh and Bone.
When both had sinn'd, then Penitential Grief
And sweating Labour was the Law Relief.

III.

When all the World had sinn'd, save one good Sire,
Flood was the Law that sav'd its Orb from Fire;

When Fire itself upon a Sodom fell,

It was the Law to stop a growing Hell;

So on, the Law with Riches or with Rods,
Come as it will, is Good; for it is God's.

IV.

Men who observe a Law, or who abuse
For selfish Pow'r, are blind as any Jews;
On Sabbath, constru'd by rabbinic Will,
God must not save, and Men must seek to kill.
Such Zeal for Law has pharisaic Faith,
Not as 'tis good, but as it worketh Wrath.

V.

JESUS, the Perfect Law-fulfiller, gave
The Victory that taught the Law to save;
Pluck'd out its Sting, revers'd the cruel Cry:
"We have a Law by which He ought to die."

ΙΟ

20

Jesus had healed on the sabbath day," &c.

Ib. Men must seek to kill. Perhaps in allusion to "the burnt offering of every sabbath." (Numbers, xxviii. 9-10.)

28. "We have a Law by which he ought to die." "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." (St. John, xix. 7.)

Dying for Man, this Conquest He could give :
“I have a Law by which he ought to live."

VI.

Whilst in the Flesh, how oft did He reveal
His Saving Will, and God-like Pow'r to heal!
They whom Defect, Disease or Fiend possess'd,
And pardon'd Sinners, by his Word had Rest;
He, on the Sabbath, chose to heal and teach,
And Law-proud Jews to slay him for its Breach.

VII.

The Sabbath, never so well kept before,
May justify one Observation more.
Our Saviour heal'd, as pious Authors say,
So many Sick upon the Sabbath-Day,

To shew that Rest and Quietness of Soul

Is best for one who wants to be made whole ;—

VIII.

Not to indulge an Eagerness too great
Of outward Hurry or of inward Heat;
But, with an humble Temper and resign'd,
To keep a Sabbath in a hopeful Mind,

In Peace and Patience meekly to endure,

Till the Good Saviour's Hour is come,-to cure.

35. He, on the Sabbath, &c. Cf. St. Mark, ii. 23-8.

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40

DIVINE LOVE, THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTIC OF TRUE RELIGION.

[Among the works in Byrom's Library on the subject of the Divine Love are Duns Scotus' Contemplationes Idiota de Amore Divino, &c., both in a Latin copy and in an English Translation (1662); St. Francis

de Sales' Traicté de l'Amour de Dieu (1647); Sir George Strode's English Translation (1652) of Christopher de Fonseca's Discourse of Holy Love; and not less than four editions (1685, &c.) of Bishop Ken's Exposition on the Church Catechism, or the Practice of Divine Love; one of which copies contains at the end MS. prayers and quotations, partly in the handwriting of Byrom, from Jacob Böhme and other mystical writers.

The leading thought of the following stanzas is thus expressed by Law in his Humble Address to the Clergy, p. 5 (Works, vol. ix.): "The one Relation, which is the Ground of all true Religion, and is one and the same between God and all intelligent Creatures, is this, it is a total unalterable Dependence upon God, an immediate continual receiving of every Kind and Degree of Goodness, Blessing and Happiness that ever was or can be found in them, from God alone." In this doctrine of acquiescence in the Will of God as the essence of true religion there is much that recalls the teaching of Molinos.]

I.

ELIGION'S Meaning when I would recall,

RE

Love is to me the plainest Word of all.
Plainest, because that what I love, or hate,

Shews me directly my internal State;

By its own Consciousness is best defin'd
Which way the Heart within me stands inclin'd.

II.

On what it lets its Inclination rest,

To that its real Worship is address'd ;
Whatever Forms or Ceremonies spring
From Custom's Force, there lies the real Thing;
Few, Turk or Christian be the Lover's Name,
If same the Love, Religion is the same.

III.

Of all Religions if we take a View,
There is but one that ever can be true,-

One God, One Christ, One Spirit, none but He.
All else is Idol, whatsoe'er it be,—

A Good that our Imaginations make,

Unless we love it purely for His Sake.

IV.

Nothing but gross Idolatry alone Can ever love it merely for its own.

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It may be good, that is, may make appear

So much of God's One Goodness to be clear;
Thereby to raise a true, religious Soul
To Love of Him, the One Eternal Whole ;-

V.

The One Unbounded, Undivided Good,
By all His Creatures partly understood.
If therefore Sense of its apparent Parts
Raise not His Love or Worship in our Hearts,
Our selfish Wills or Notions we may feast,
And have no more Religion than a Beast.

VI.

For brutal Instinct can a Good embrace
That leaves behind it no reflecting Trace;
But thinking Man, whatever be his Theme,
Should worship Goodness in the Great Supreme;
By inward Faith, more sure than outward Sight,
Should eye the Source of all that's Good and Right.

VII.

Religion, then, is Love's Celestial Force That penetrates thro' all to Its True Source;

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Loves all along, but with proportion'd Bent,
As Creatures further the Divine Ascent,
Not to the Skies or Stars, but to the part
That will be always uppermost, the Heart,

VIII.

There is the Seat, as Holy Writings tell,
Where the Most High Himself delights to dwell;
Whither attracting the desirous Will

To its true Rest, He saves it from all Ill,

Gives it to find in His Abyssal Love

An Heav'n within,-in other Words, Above.

40

40. As Creatures further. As created darkness, truth shined in our hearts.” beings follow.

(2nd Corinthians, iv. 6.)

[These stanzas appear to have been suggested by Law's Dialogue between a Methodist and a Churchman of Justification by Faith and Works, pp. 16 seqq. (Works, vol. ix.), where the "Churchman" invites his interlocutor, would he "see the Truth of Justification, and the Truth of Condemnation, free from all Possibility of Mistake," to "look how the righteous Judge of all the World will proceed at the last day." He then comments on our Saviour's picture of the Last Judgment (see St. Matthew, xxv. 31-46), and adds, in words which Byrom's last stanza in some measure recalls: "What occasion then for so many laboured critical Volumes about Faith and Works in order to Justification?... Christ is the one great infallible Teacher about Justification, and what He has said in two or three Words about it can no more have any