(William Law, &c., p. 255) in juxta-position with another, where Law describes man's free will as "a spark of the Divine Omnipotence:"

"The very Possibility of his " [Adam's] "having so great a Fall gives great Glory to the Goodness and Love of God towards him. He was created an Angel, and therefore had the highest Perfection of an Angel, which is Freedom of Willing. Had he not had an angelic Freedom of Will, he could not have had a false Will.

Much of the remaining thought and phraseology of this poem has I think been already incidentally illustrated from Law's writings.]

I.

Els, but the

VIL, if rightly understood,

Is but the Skeleton of Good,

Divested of its Flesh and Blood.

II.

While it remains without Divorce

Within its hidden, secret Source,

It is the Good's own Strength and Force.

III.

As Bone has the supporting Share

In human Form Divinely fair,

Altho' an Evil when laid bare;

IV.

As Light and Air are fed by Fire,
A shining Good, while all conspire,
But, separate,- -dark, raging Ire;

V.

As Hope and Love arise from Faith,
Which then admits no Ill, nor hath ;
But, if alone, it would be Wrath;

16. Or any Instance thought upon. Or as any other instance which may be thought of will show.

VI.

Or any Instance thought upon,
In which the Evil can be none,

Till Unity of Good is gone ;

VII.

So, by Abuse of Thought and Skill
The greatest Good, to wit, Free-will,
Becomes the Origin of Ill.

VIII.

Thus, when rebellious Angels fell,
The very Heav'n where good ones dwell
Became th' apostate Spirits' Hell.

IX.

Seeking, against Eternal Right,
A Force without a Love and Light,
They found and felt its evil Might.

X.

Thus Adam, biting at their Bait
Of Good and Evil when he ate,
Died to his first thrice-happy State;

XI.

Fell to the Evils of this Ball,

Which in harmonious Union all

Were Paradise before his Fall;

XII.

And, when the Life of Christ in Men

Revives its faded Image, then

Will all be Paradise again.

28. Their bait. The bait or temptation set or prepared by the spirits of evil.

20

30

A FRIENDLY EXPOSTULATION WITH A CLERGYMAN, CONCERNING A PASSAGE IN HIS

SERMON RELATING TO THE RE

DEMPTION OF MANKIND.

[In reading this and the following piece, it should be borne in mind that Byrom's objection to the pious thought uttered, possibly without a full consideration of all its bearings, by his friend in the pulpit, was to himself one of the utmost gravity. Inasmuch as we are without precise information as to the conception of the Atonement put forward by the preacher in question, we cannot decide whether his theory of possible "other means" of salvation was incompatible with this conception, and accordingly in his mouth illogical.

In Law's system, accepted by Byrom, the Atonement is by the nature of things the only possible cure for the Fall. In each individual man this process must be individually accomplished, and for each individual it is indispensable, if he is to be saved. I have met with no passage in Law's writings expressing this more distinctly than that cited by Canon Overton from The Spirit of Love, Part ii. p. 99 (Law's Works, vol. viii.) : "The whole Truth therefore of the Matter is plainly this, Christ given for us, is neither more nor less, than Christ given into us. And he is in no other Sense our

full, perfect, and sufficient Atonement, than as his Nature and Spirit are born, and formed in us, which so purge us from our Sins, that we are thereby in Him, and by Him dwelling in us, become new Creatures, having our Conversation in Heaven.

"As Adam is truly our Defilement and Impurity, by his Birth in us, so Christ is our Atonement and Purification, by our being born again of Him, and having thereby quickened and revived in us that first divine Life, which was extinguished in Adam. And therefore, as Adam purchased Death for us, just so in the same Manner, in the same Degree, and in the same Sense, Christ purchases Life for us. And each of them solely by their own inward Life within us."

Such a view of the Atonement is absolutely irreconcileable with the supposition combated by Byrom. To comment on it from any other point of view would be superfluous.

Of the two ensuing poems the earlier is in my judgment unusually involved and obscure in the construction of several of its sentences; while the second, without adding any fresh point, is generally more forcible in style.]

WAS a good Sermon ; but a close Review

'TWA

Would bear one Passage to be alter'd, too;
Because it did not in the least agree

With the plain Text (as it appear'd to me),
Nor with your Comment on what God had done
To save Mankind by His Redeeming Son.

You did, if I remember right, admit
That other Means, if He had so thought fit,
Might have obtain'd the salutary Views

As well as those which He was pleas'd to choose;
That it was too presumptuous to confine
To those alone th' Omnipotence Divine, -
As if a Wisdom Infinite could find

No other Method how to save Mankind;
Tho' that, indeed, which had been fix'd upon,
Was in effect become the only one!

Now, this, however well design'd to raise
An awful Sense by its respectful Phrase,-
An Adoration of the Boundless Pow'rs

Of the ALMIGHTY, when compar'd with ours;
To sink in humble Rev'rence and profound
All human Thoughts of fixing any Bound
To an Unerring Wisdom, Which extends.
Beyond what finite Reason comprehends;
Yet, if examin'd by severer Test,

It is at least incautiously express'd,
And leaves the subtlest of the Gospel's Foes,
The Deists, this Objection to propose,-
To which they have, and will have, a Recourse,
And still keep urging its unanswer'd Force.

9. Might have obtain'd the salutary Views. Might have brought man in full view of salvation.

20. To sink. To make to sink; to prostrate. (This transitive use of the verb has, probably because of its expletive force, become almost a vulgarism.)

"If there was no Necessity," they say,
"For saving Men in this mysterious Way,
"What Proof can the Divines pretend to bring-
"While they confess the Nature of the Thing
"Does not forbid,—that the Celestial Scenes
"Will not be open'd by some other Means?
"What else but Book-authority at best
"Asserts this Way exclusive of the rest,-
"Of equal Force, if the Almighty's Will
"Had but appointed them to save from Ill;-
"This Way, in which the Son of the Most High
"Is by His Father's Pleasure doom'd to die
"For Satisfaction of Paternal Ire;

"Which when they make Religion to require,
"Confounds all Sense of Justice by a Scheme
"The most unworthy of the Great Supreme?
"As other Ways might have obtain❜d the End,
"Nature and Reason force us to attend
"To huge Absurdities which follow this,
"And, since it was not needful, to dismiss."

This is the Bourdon of deistic Song,
Which rising Volumes labour to prolong.
Take this away, the rest would all remain

37. Book-Authority. The authority of the Bible. (Cf. 11. 78-9, infra.) See Acts, iv. 12; Romans, v. 15, 18-19; 1st Timothy, ii. 5-6, &c.

40

50

(refrain) from the French word for a dronebee, or for the humming sound produced by it. (Low Latin burdo, a drone.) Skeat considers the origin of the word to be pro

39. Of equal force. Which would be of bably imitative, and compares the Lowland equal force.

45. Confounds. This confounds.

Scotch "birr" English "buzz."-The form "burthen," so appropriately used by

48. To attend. To give attention, di- Tennyson (The Daisy) in the compound

rect notice.

50. To dismiss. To reject it.

51. The BOUrdon. I have retained Byrom's spelling, which suggests the actual derivation of the English burden

"ballad-burthen," may, as is pointed out by Mr. George Milner in an essay cited ante, vol. I. p. 266, represent an older pronunciation, such as in other instances is still preserved in the Lancashire dialect.