The Poems of John Byrom :: :: University of Virginia Library

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever-lasting life.” —St. John, iii. 16.

I

“ God 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.

406

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 incúlcate 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.
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,

407

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 lovèd 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;”

408

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,

409

Be insisted upon, why not also the rest,
Where God in the Language of Men is exprest
In a Manner which all are oblig'd to confess,
No Defect in His Nature can mean to express?
With a God Who is Love ev'ry Word should agree,—
With a God Who hath said, “Fury is not in Me.”

XI

The Disorders in Nature,—for none are in God,—
Are entitled “His Vengeance,” “His Wrath,” or “His Rod;”
Like “His Ice,” or “His Frost,” “His Plague, Famine, or Sword,”
That the Love Which directs them may still be ador'd;—
Directs them, till Justice, call'd His or call'd ours,
Shall regain, to our Comfort, Its Primitive Pow'rs,—
The True, Saving Justice, that bids us endure
What Love shall prescribe for effecting our Cure.

XII

By a Process of Love from the Crib to the Cross
Did the Only-Begotten recover our Loss,
And show in us Men how the Father is pleas'd,
When the Wrath in our Nature by Love is appeas'd;—

410

When the Birth of His Christ, being formèd within,
Dissolves the dark Death of all Self-hood and Sin;
Till the Love That so lov'd us becomes once again,
From the Father and Son, a Life-Spirit in Men.