Epistle To A Friend, On The Divinity Of Our Saviour Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFGGHHCCBIEE JJKKLLMMJJNNOOLLCCJJ CCPPQQRRSSTTJJUUVVWW NNXXCCYYZZCCZZFFJJA2 A2B2B2CCC2C2JJD2D2LL KKE2E2LLZZF2G2LLH2H2 I2I2J2K2JJL2YKKM2M2J JN2N2LLO2O2JJJJTTYYJ JZZMMH2H2K2J2WWP2P2C CQ2Q2EEQQJJYYFFWWLLJ JR2R2FFJJCCVVJJCCS2S 2JJT2T2TTJJJJU2U2EEC CV2V2CCA2A2WWJJN2N2Z ZFFJJNNJJJJLLJJMMYYC CH2H2LLN2N2TTMMJJW2W 2CCLLA2A2CCJJV2V2LLX 2X2CCJJY2Y2WZ2LLEEV2 V2LLMMJJJJJJFFA3A3TT JJInconcussa tenens dubio vestigia mundo | A |
- | |
- | |
Dear Disputant whose mind would boldly soar | B |
And all theology's domain explore | B |
I love the candid fervency of soul | C |
That scorns a dogmatist's austere controul | C |
Let liberal scholars as they surely ought | D |
Claim and allow a latitude of thought | D |
As friends I honour with a love benign | E |
Many whose creeds may vary far from mine | E |
Secure from error I no mortal deem | F |
But all who truly seek for truth esteem | F |
Yet with a mild regret and kind concern | G |
I see temerity's ambition burn | G |
When zeal self blinded in a mental mist | H |
Denies that hallow'd mysteries exist | H |
And deems that reason which no fears appall | C |
Has self sufficiency to clear them all | C |
Tis reas'ning pride not reason just and sore | B |
Which in religion finds no point obscure | I |
Which measuring Godhead with an earthly line | E |
Would rob the Saviour of his rights divine | E |
There are who call Him by their dreams beguil'd | J |
Mere man of mortal geniture the child | J |
Tho' sanction'd by his Sire's almighty breath | K |
His Son a sovereign o'er life and death | K |
'Tis not for mortals in their transient hour | L |
To pierce the secrets of primordial power | L |
Or guess how God on his eternal throne | M |
To filial spirit could impart his own | M |
But how can earth deny by truth unblam'd | J |
Divinity that Heaven itself proclaim'd | J |
Reason opposes pride's degrading plan | N |
To sink the Saviour to a simple man | N |
Were He no more could He so born presume | O |
With Heaven to mediate for all nature's doom | O |
No for so born Himself must then require | L |
A mediator with th' eternal Sire | L |
Disclaim his Godhead you at once imply | C |
His deeds are doubtful and his word a lie | C |
If not a God most guilty of mankind | J |
His doctrine tends the human race to blind | J |
Surpassing e'en the fiend who caus'd our fall | C |
By sharing worship with the Sire of all | C |
O ye whose reas'ning pride can so mistake | P |
The truths He meekly spoke for mercy's sake | P |
More humbly grateful learn ye to rejoice | Q |
In all the dictates of his cheering voice | Q |
Who to console his grief dejected flock | R |
Show'd how their faith is built upon a rock | R |
And in the closing of his earthly strife | S |
Made manifest Himself as Lord of Life | S |
And tho' to death the most disgraceful driven | T |
Possessing all the powers of earth and Heaven | T |
Pure source of light and safety to the lost | J |
Without Thee on a sea of darkness tost | J |
Sovereign of grace and kindness so sublime | U |
Thou view'st with pity their ungrateful crime | U |
Who while they load Thee with degrading praise | V |
Would darken in thy crown its heavenly rays | V |
And O how truly pitiable are those | W |
By nature mild nor truth's intended foes | W |
Whose strange illusion yet miscalls Thee man | N |
Tho' chosen to fulfil redemption's plan | N |
Who of Thy Godhead want that sacred sense | X |
That cordial glow of gratitude intense | X |
Which forms the bliss of their enlighten'd zeal | C |
Who all the merits of thy mercy feel | C |
Who hail Thee quitting thy bright throne above | Y |
Sublime example of celestial love | Y |
To clear for them a debt they could not pay | Z |
And change their darkness to eternal day | Z |
How passing sweet to pure devotion's soul | C |
Are proofs of thy unlimited controul | C |
While the true Christian's mental eyes survey | Z |
Thy heavenly origin and healing sway | Z |
Only begotten Son of Sire supreme | F |
Whose quickening bounty was thy vital beam | F |
Ere nature lived when with thy filial aid | J |
The vast foundation of all worlds was laid | J |
When the paternal God was pleas'd to see | A2 |
A blight reflection of Himself in Thee | A2 |
The splendour of his glory form'd to share | B2 |
His purest power his providential care | B2 |
And in consummating his gracious will | C |
At length annihilate all cureless ill | C |
To faith's pure eyes how ravishingly clear | C2 |
Signs of her Lord's Divinity appear | C2 |
While earth and Heaven invite her to behold | J |
How the fair series of those signs unfold | J |
A blest Redeemer and without a trace | D2 |
Of man's corruption in his ruin'd race | D2 |
Announc'd by mercy to our fallen sire | L |
Soon made that contrite criminal respire | L |
Age after age of prophecy the breath | K |
Softening the horrors in the doom of death | K |
While nature strove with sin's dark woes to cope | E2 |
Shed thro' her lighten'd heart religious hope | E2 |
Thro' patriarchal times in vision clear | L |
Types of the great Deliverer appear | L |
At length when centuries have roll'd away | Z |
And faith stands watching for her promis'd day | Z |
She sees her Saviour from a virgin sprung | F2 |
His advent by attending angels song | G2 |
And wisdom usher'd by the guiding Star | L |
Hails Him with gifts of homage from afar | L |
The voice of Heaven proclaims his promis'd birth | H2 |
And conscious nature feels her friend on earth | H2 |
His uninstructed youth divinely sage | I2 |
Transcends the knowledge of experienc'd age | I2 |
The weak receive the strength his will can give | J2 |
The dead obedient to his mandate live | K2 |
In power as mighty as in mercy kind | J |
He dies the ransom of redeem'd mankind | J |
Lord of Existence He expires to prove | L2 |
His matchless effort of celestial love | Y |
And ratify while He resigns his breath | K |
His glorious conquest o'er the gates of death | K |
A massive tomb receives his sacred corse | M2 |
And foes would guard it with a watchful force | M2 |
Vain boast of folly's disbelieving rout | J |
Who thus confirm the Deity they doubt | J |
The grave beholds the heavenly victor rise | N2 |
And soar triumphant to his native skies | N2 |
His troubled servants still to calm and cheer | L |
See Him in human tenderness appear | L |
And while the slow of faith He mildly blames | O2 |
My Lord my God his doubt freed saint exclaims | O2 |
Were He not God and worthy of our trust | J |
Could He admit such worship from the just | J |
And bless the conscious of his heavenly right | J |
Whose faith demands no evidence of sight | J |
Yet grace divine full evidence has given | T |
Witness Thou earth by his dread sufferings riven | T |
Witness Thou speaking firmament above | Y |
When God proclaim'd Him offspring of his love | Y |
Pleas'd to that blessed offspring to impart | J |
Prerogative divine dominion of the heart | J |
Exulting angels hail his sovereign sway | Z |
Attest his glory his commands obey | Z |
And usher Him whom e'en the demons own | M |
As Earth's Redeemer to his heavenly throne | M |
Thence while mankind receive a second birth | H2 |
He ratifies the word He spoke on earth | H2 |
And pleas'd to see his rescued servants live | K2 |
He gives them what the world had not to give | J2 |
Internal peace the duteous mind's repose | W |
With powers to foil the most malignant foes | W |
This vital sunshine of enlighten'd hearts | P2 |
This to his firm adherents He imparts | P2 |
When duly grateful for his kind controul | C |
They bless his empire o'er the willing soul | C |
For in his own as in his Father's name | Q2 |
He claims their boundless love a righteous claim | Q2 |
A claim in which the proofs of Godhead shine | E |
Celestial attributes and grace divine | E |
Hear how beyond the scope of mortal voice | Q |
He bids his servants in his word rejoice | Q |
Bids them for every good on Him depend | J |
As dearer far than every earthly friend | J |
Regard Him parents children far above | Y |
And die with transport to secure his love | Y |
Were He mere man must not such orders seem | F |
Distracted arrogance an impious dream | F |
So of men's lives He only might dispose | W |
From whose divinity their safety flows | W |
Who left the bosom of His heavenly Sire | L |
To merit what none other might acquire | L |
A sacred right with that dread Sire to plead | J |
To change the doom his justice had decreed | J |
And save the guilty from perdition's storm | R2 |
Celestial victim in a human form | R2 |
Whose mediation soft'ning wrath supreme | F |
Taught nature to revive in mercy's beam | F |
Gracious Restorer of a race condemn'd | J |
Tho' by the thankless tribes revil'd contemn'd | J |
Yet gratitude and truth who round Thee fly | C |
With all thy menial angels of the sky | C |
Viewing thy gifts with rapturous amaze | V |
Hail thy beneficence with heavenly praise | V |
All bear eternal witness that Thou art | J |
Justly a Sovereign in the human heart | J |
Man cannot yield too much when at thy call | C |
To Thee his grateful zeal resigns his all | C |
Whate'er be may resign yet more he gains | S2 |
While in his heart his blest Redeemer reigns | S2 |
By thy kind words he is inform'd aright | J |
And Thee exulting owns his path his light | J |
Whether we ponder with a mind serene | T2 |
The gracious marvels of thy earthly scene | T2 |
Or the firm promise to thy servants given | T |
Just ere they saw Thee re ascend to Heaven | T |
Or the fulfilment of thy grand bequest | J |
The promis'd Comforter of man distrest | J |
That spirit which as man's unfailing friend | J |
'Twas thine from thy celestial throne to send | J |
The Spirit of thy Sire of truth and peace | U2 |
By whose blest influence base passions cease | U2 |
And Christians worthy of their Lord combine | E |
In the pure bond of charity divine | E |
Conscious from whom their new sensations flow | C |
To whom their renovated hearts they owe | C |
And conscious while their heavenly guide they bless | V2 |
Their gratitude is safe from all excess | V2 |
In sentient beings if their love and zeal | C |
Should rise proportion'd to the aid they feel | C |
Unbounded as thy benefits should be | A2 |
The thankful homage of our hearts to Thee | A2 |
Divine Deliverer whose grace bestows | W |
Exemption from unutterable woes | W |
Such gifts on men as they can ne'er requite | J |
Made from the slaves of darkness sons of light | J |
Thou filial Deity whose merits rise | N2 |
To such amazing height in human eyes | N2 |
A justly humble mind that feels their sway | Z |
Too great for earthly language to display | Z |
Conceives e'en seraphs tho' in glory's beam | F |
May find their voice unequal to the theme | F |
And seems to view them in their heavenly seat | J |
Mute from pure adoration at thy feet | J |
Thou blest Restorer of corrupted man | N |
From all the snares of Satan's dark divan | N |
Thou who with true compassion hast survey'd | J |
Lost wanderers perishing without thy aid | J |
To whose pure eyes all wonders are reveal'd | J |
That live in mortals from themselves conceal'd | J |
Who view'st with favor when they most aspire | L |
Their narrow faculties and vast desire | L |
O prosper and sustain my anxious thought | J |
Pondering thy attributes as mortals ought | J |
That while I strive to make thy nature known | M |
My zeal may tend to purify my own | M |
Pardon the daring aim of grateful love | Y |
If in research man's intellect above | Y |
I vainly seek such heavenly things to know | C |
As Thou to mortals hast not deign'd to show | C |
Veiling the mode of thy celestial birth | H2 |
From beings blind to mysteries of earth | H2 |
Thy geniture and thy redeeming power | L |
Transcend the known extent of nature's dower | L |
But pity weak mortality that tries | N2 |
To reach what may elude all human eyes | N2 |
The knowledge man desires is found by none | T |
The Eternal Sire He only knows the Son | T |
Taught by this truth be it our wish alone | M |
To know Him only as he would be known | M |
By grace divine his bounty's blest effect | J |
On those who hail Him with devout respect | J |
Thou filial Deity in manly shape | W2 |
Whose eye no deeds no thoughts of man escape | W2 |
Thy servants have no wound Thou dost not feel | C |
No sorrow that thy aid can fail to heal | C |
In all the trials I was born to bear | L |
Many and sharp have fallen to my share | L |
I bless them leading me to feel and see | A2 |
Our sweetest comfort is our trust in Thee | A2 |
Calm acquiescence in thy sacred will | C |
Becomes an antidote to every ill | C |
As tasks ensuring favour in thy sight | J |
Grief turns to joy and anguish to delight | J |
Till all the chasten'd heart exults to bless | V2 |
A Martyr's triumph o'er subdued distress | V2 |
Saviour whose image pure maternal prayer | L |
Fix'd in my heart with just dominion there | L |
Thou never banish'd thence tho' in my youth | X2 |
I heard rash sceptics scoffing at thy truth | X2 |
Deride thy Gospel and thy deeds revile | C |
As the false tales of an impostor's guile | C |
Blest that no impious wit had power to blind | J |
Thy dawn of favour in my opening mind | J |
There in maturer seasons grief and pain | Y2 |
As heavenly agents have confirmed thy reign | Y2 |
My spirit's guardian soother of my woes | W |
Still of my chequer'd days illume the close | Z2 |
All mortals feel their trespasses require | L |
An Intercessor with th' eternal Sire | L |
And on their minds thy cheering favours shine | E |
Who feel thou art an arbiter divine | E |
Who thy dominion o'er the soul confess | V2 |
And as their final Judge thy Godhead bless | V2 |
Deign to befriend me in my dying hour | L |
Thou clear Vicegerent of thy Father's power | L |
And while within a grateful heart I own | M |
My hopes to view Thee on thy heavenly throne | M |
With all thy merits on my soul imprest | J |
May faith's firm wings convey me to thy breast | J |
Such friendly disputant of studious mind | J |
Ever to good in active life inclind | J |
Such are my thoughts my views my hopes my creed | J |
Adverse I own to those for which you plead | J |
And which to speak without reserve I deem | F |
A rash surmise a dark Socinian dream | F |
Tho' tenets diversely our fancy strike | A3 |
May both in purity of heart alike | A3 |
Still trust the hope to that endowment given | T |
To reach the glorious certainty of Heaven | T |
Where when the pardon'd round their Lord unite | J |
Their errors will be lost in beatific light | J |
William Hayley
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Epistle To A Friend, On The Divinity Of Our Saviour poem by William Hayley
Best Poems of William Hayley