The Poems of John Byrom Edited by Adolphus William Ward |
 | I. |
 | II. |
| I. |
| II. |
UNIVERSAL GOOD THE OBJECT OF THE DIVINE
WILL, AND EVIL THE NECESSARY EFFECT
OF THE CREATURE'S OPPOSITION TO IT. |
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 | The Poems of John Byrom |  |
UNIVERSAL GOOD THE OBJECT OF THE DIVINE WILL, AND EVIL THE NECESSARY EFFECT OF THE CREATURE'S OPPOSITION TO IT.
I
The God of Love, delighting to bestow,Sends down His Blessing to the World below;
A grateful Mind receives it, and above
Sends up Thanksgiving to the God of Love.
This happy Intercourse could never fail,
Did not a false, perverted Will prevail.
393
II
For Love Divine, as rightly understood,Is an Unalterable Will to Good,—
Good in the Object of His Blessèd Will,
Who never can concur to real Ill;
Much less “decree, predestinate, ordain,”—
Words oft employ'd to take His Name in vain.
III
“But He permits it to be done,” say you;—Plain, then, I answer, that He does not do;
That, having will'd created Angels free,
He still permits or wills them so to be.
Were his Permission ask'd before they did
An evil Action, He would soon forbid.
IV
Before the Doing He forbids indeed,But disobedient Creatures take no heed.
If He, according to your present Plea,
Withdraws his Grace, and so they disobey,
The Fault is laid on Him, not them at all;
For who can stand whom He shall thus let fall?
V
Our own Neglect must be the previous Cause,When it is said, “the Grace of God withdraws;”—
In the same Sense as when the brightest Dawn,
If we will shut our Windows, is withdrawn;
Not that the Sun is ever the less bright,
But that our Choice is not to see the Light.
394
VI
Free to receive the Grace, or to reject,Receivers only can be God's elect;
Rejecters of it reprobate alone
Not by Divine Decree, but by their own.
His Love to all, His Willing none to sin,
Is a Decree that never could begin.
VII
It is the Order, the Eternal Law,The True Free Grace, that never can withdraw.
Observance of it will of course be blest,
And Opposition to it self-distrest;
“To them who love its gracious Author, all
Will work for Good,” according to St. Paul.
VIII
An easy Key to each abstruser TextThat modern Disputants have so perplext
With arbitrary Fancies on each Side,
From God's Pure Love or Man's Freewill denied;
Which in the Breast of Saints, and Sinners too,
May both be found self-evidently true!
| The Poems of John Byrom | |