Matthew Prior. Dialogues of the Dead and Other Works ::

Apostles teach, and Holy books declare,
That 'tis in God we move, and live, and are:
In him we all begin, continue, end,
And all our Actions on his help depend.
I therefore must eternally have laid
In Nothings bosom, and Oblivions shade,
Among existing Beings not confest,
(For nothing by no words can be exprest)
Unless obedient to his High command,
Call'd by his word, and Plastor'd by his hand,
And from his breath receiving Vital flame,
I had begun to be the thing I am.

Then the same pow'rfull, constant, heav'nly Aid
Must stil prese[r]ve the Creature it had made.
For shou'd that Aid one Moment be deny'd;
Dissolv'd and lost, I shou'd again subside
Into the sad Negation where I lay,
Before I swell'd the Womb, or saw the Day.

Form'd by his Will, assisted by his Powr,
From the great period of my Native hour
Forward I hasten thro this path of life,
Nor with false pleasure smooth no violent Strife
Why was I then of my sole guide bereft?
And why to errour and amazement left?

346

Collected to my self I sadly find
Ten thousand doubts divide my anxious mind.
The potent bias of my crooked will
I found averse to good, and prone to ill;

Whence rises this depravity of thought
Was it from mine or my forefathers fault?
Shal I descend and say that Death and Sin
Did from ill judging Adams crime begin
Or tracing them from springs perhaps too high
To good and Ill give Coeternity?

Say did the Godhead infinitely wise
Create all good? then whence did ill arise?
Do two great Pow'rs their adverse strength employ
This to preserve, and t'other to Destroy?

Wou'd God set free what Deemon cou'd enslave?
Cou'd Sin annoy what Sanctity wou'd save?
Of this no further Mortal man can know,
Than as from Scripture God has deign'd to show.
Here too we find the mighty Probleme laid
In Mystic darkness, and Prophetic shade:
Pen'd by the Poets rage and breast enlarg'd,
Adorn'd with Emblems, and with figures charg'd;
Form'd to the Lyre, and fitted to be Sung
To proper measures of the Hebrew Tongue;
By time corrupt, at first however pure;
And by Translation render'd more obscure;
By Sects eluded, and by Scholes perplext,
Till in the Comment we involve the Text.

E'er Time was bid his measures to begin,
E'er Angels knew to praise, or man to sin,
(Say Austin's words transfer'd to Calvins school,)
God fix'd one firm unalterable rule.
The word was fated which th' Almighty spoke
Nor can his future Will that will revoke.
All things determin'd by this Solemn Doom,
And settled in the order they must come.

347

Select to pleasures, or condemn'd to pains;
Man only Executes what God ordains.
Is God subservient to his own Decree?
Is that Omnipotent which is not free?
Providence then in her continual course
Must stil be stopt by some superior force:
Then upon strict enquiry will be found,
That God himself by his own Act is bound;
That in a like dependence, he and Man
Must own a Pow'r which neither can restrain?
Then those Elect by this eternal doom
Must have been Sav'd, thô it had never come;
And the reprov'd in vain for Mercy call
To him who came to free and save us All.
Vain therefore prudent thought, and previous care
Useless our Alms, and foolish is our Pray'r:
And with superfluous babling we have said,
“Give us this day our Father! dayly bread”;
If what we ask by fixt decree of Heav'n
Was giv'n before, or never can be giv'n.

Now what is Man? a reas'nable Machine,
A puppet danc'd upon this Earthly Scene,
An instrument in Gods o'erbearing hand,
Mov'd by his Pow'r and forc'd by his command.
Cou'd destin'd Judas long before he fell
Avoid the terrors of a future Hell?
Cou'd Paul deny, resist, or not embrace
Obtruded Heav'n, and efficacious Grace?

Yet is the great Apostle heard to say,
“Does not the Potters hand dispose the Clay?
“And shal the Vase his makers Art upbraid,
“If or to honour or Destruction made?”
'Tis true; but view we then the different State
Of beings living and inanimate:
Incapable of Sense and void of mind,
The passive Vessel cou'd no pleasure find,
Thô plac'd above where Saints and Angels reign;
And damn'd to Hell beneath, cou'd feel no Pain.
Nor in his action is that Agent free

348

Who must fulfill immutable decree.
Allow we freedom to the whirling Stone,
Which in the Battel from the sling is thrown?
Allow we freedom to the flying reed,
From the drawn Bow elanc'd with violent speed?
If these attain, or if they lose their Aim,
Their rectitude or Error is the same:
Who blames their fault, or celebrates their fame?
Now scale our Deeds and let the Plummet fall
Betwixt the senseless and the rational.
If Both alike by primitive decree
Are bound to Act, and if what is must be;
For Slain Goliah to young Davids praise
Can we in justice greater triumph raise,
Than to the chosen Pebble, which he took
Among the thousand from the Neighb'ring brook?
Or greater Crime impute to furious Saul,
Than to his Jav'elin struck against the Wall?

Far other sure with Human Mind it fares
Now raised to pleasures now deprest with Cares.

Possess we not free liberty of Will
How are our Acts imbu'd with good or ill
Allow Gods promises and threatnings made
E'er the foundations of the World were laid;
They were contingent, and conditional;
From Adams Choice proceeded Adams fall.
By Cains free action Abells blood was spilt,
His Punishment must presuppose his Guilt.
And Abra'ms faith on Isaac doom'd to dye
Was founded on the Patriarchs piety.
When Judah breaks Jehovahs great command,
He turns his wrathful Viols on the land:
When of her Sins in Ashes she repents,
The weeping Priest attones and God relents.
Our Deed is form'd and guided by our thought,
And equal to our Duty or our fault.
By means however hid from human eyes
Gods future threatnings and his Mercy rise.
While yet we reconcile free Will to fates
To solve this doubt we greater doubts create:

349

That God regards the simple Act alone,
Making Omnipotence by Prescience known;
And leaves to Us by Impulse from within,
To Cloath that Act with Duty, or with Sin.

But does he then his previous will suspend,
And does his Science on our Deed attend?
If this way acting, we the sequel draw,
We act as God permitted and foresaw:
But if our Act be otherways employ'd,
Is his permission and prevision voy'd?
Has he, as human means may change the Scene,
In other guise permitted or foreseen;
And left the Slacken'd Reins of Providence
To the mad guidance of our feeble sense?

Say rather, that he Will'd what he foresaw;
That his volition is his Creatures law:
For God (excuse the saying) cou'd not see
Contingences which never were to be.
And if they were to be, that very sight
Brought them from Nothing into future light
Permitting their Existence, fix'd their fate;
And to forsee, was to Predestinate.

Well then Man Wills and from that Will proceed
The stains and Colours of his sinfull deed
The Son whom he destroy'd he might have sav'd
And freed the Captive whom his hand enslav'd.

As rolling down the Rocks the waters bring
The last and hue of their original spring;
So from our Will, that fountain of our Deed,
The stains and Colours of our Acts proceed.

Against Gods Spirit here we fight
Had leave to cho[o]se but wou'd not use it right
Our ill produc'd and we must suffer Woe
But had we merit or Perfection, No.
In vain You cite this Liberty of Will
Free to do good, but more inclin'd to ill.

350

Almighty Lord the way, the door, [the] light,
O let me stil find favor in thy sight
Excuse my going wrong or set me right.

O Soveraign! great Three in One! O God and Man!
Who set those Measures which I dare not Scan;
If I have leave to chuse, I beg that choice
Guided at least by thy Assistant Voice.
If I must pursue a Destin'd way
Direct my Footsteps for thou can'st not stray
From dang'rous doubts my wandering Soul retrieve
I cannot Argue, grant me to believe!
Lifeless I lay, thou wak'st me into Sense;
Frailty is mine, and Thine Omnipotence.

Dare we reply or frighted stand we Mute
Shall Man, assertion dire! to God impute
Or Ignorance, or Mutability,
Or want of Pow'r to finish his Decree?

While God does in his hand Sustain
This last great Link of this eternal Chain.

So run the close Meanders of our mind
By this first Cause stil secretly inclin'd
This guidance of our thought
To this high power be brought
[OMITTED] and backward we must run
To that high Origin where all begun.

Nor can we justly say that we Possess
A Will which we can Govern as we please.

Who reasons thus his sense in terms confounds
Speaks one Idea in two different sounds.

Before we grant or Answer let us bring
Our pow'r of thinking to its pristin spring.

Trace we this Thought to its Original
Let Heav'n be justify'd in Adams fall.

351

All was settl'd by Gods primeval Will.

Nor do I ask whence Sin came, but it was such that to Save the World from it the Son of God must Dye.

Could the Heathen by the dictates of Nature obtain Salvation, where was the necessity of Christs coming, and if they could not, how happens it that they were not called to pertake the benefit of His passion.

Nor matters it that God gave a free Will to Man since by his Prescience he had ordered that Man could not employ that free will otherwise then he had forseen Man should employ it.

If we had not freedom of Will there would be neither Good or ill in our Actions. There would be no occasion for a Judgement, nor Punishment, nor reward.

Now if we have not Liberty of Will
How are our Deeds imbu'd with good or ill.

[OMITTED] is it in Our Choice
To love or hate to weep or to rejoice?
Are not the Texture of our Actions wrought
By something inward that directs our thought
And we perceive delight and suffer pain
Which we can neither quicken nor restrain?

Now change the Scene my friends & let us see
How are our Actions & our Motions free.

Whence else a Dying Saviors grief & fame
And dire Convulsion of this general frame
That shook the Earth, made frighted Nature groan.
And the great Fathers will that must be done.

[OMITTED] some middle means
Which Man but hardly comprehends
[OMITTED] and let us see
How destin'd Sentence and free Will agree.

That with spontaneous Liberty we move
In vain the adverse Sect desires to prove
From inward Power and Nature of the Soul
Which Natures God can alter or controll.

352

If God does Universal Vows reject
Or only justifys his own Elect
Or those in Climes remote who never heard
His Word reveal'd are from his Anger Spar'd.

By time and Age its Notions are disrang'd
By passions short and by distemper chang'd
Nor let us vaunting fancy we are free
That we can mend or alter Heavn's decree.

Or with our little Arms go up to fight
With Omnipresence & with Infinite
Our Operations by his Will were wrought
And when he gave he fixt the Pow'r of thought.

All matters particles, all Motions laws,
Cou'd not produce so great a Second cause.
Attoms, how ever sep'rate or combin'd,
Cou'd not compose or animate the mind.
That with spontaneous Liberty we move,
In vain the adverse sect desires to prove,
From inward Pow'r and Nature of the Soul
Which Natures God can alter or controll.
Earth cou'd not form it then from heav'n it came
A part it self of the Celestial flame
Let Christians sanctify the Heathen chain
And that Prometheus which their Poets feign
Was Gods great Spirit enlight'ning passive Earth
And kindling Human action into birth
If then its vigor from Heav'n proceed
By Heav'n its force and measure is decreed
That First who did this Second cause produce
Proportions it to each recipients use
Tis Sisyphus' Stone returning stil
If God who gave the freedom form'd the Will
To form it and incline it was the same
You grant the thing while you dispute the Name.

As running Streams their parted Waters spread
Adown the hill or thrô the flow'ry Mead
Here rising bold and Turbulent in waves
There sunk in Sand or sunk in Rocky Caves

353

The human Eye may still collect and bring
To their first Murmur and Original spring:
So from the various action of our mind
To pleasure better or to grief enclin'd
Glitt'ring in Courts and shining bright in Arms
Fond of Mans praises & of Womans charms
Or flying Crowds desiring more to dwel
In the thick Woods or Melancholy Cell.

Pursue this Search to its Original:
Allowing Heav'ns Decree and Adams fall
A new Alliance and firm Covenant made
By God to be requir'd, by Man Obey'd:
Faith and Repentance on the Mortal side
The two great knots by which the Bond is ty'd
And on the part of God the human race
Assisting Mercy and preventing Grace.
Yet how can we believe or how repent
Unless the influence first from Heav'n is sent?
Strong the Condition to our bounded view
Contracted seemingly and sign'd by Two
To perfect which unable one attends
While t'other furnishes the Total means.

Again whilst Grace is Gods immediate Gift
To Heav'n in vain my Voice and heart I lift
To ask th' Almighty's Tutelary Care
Except this Grace prevents my very Prayer.
Now of this Gift if once I stand posses't
Yee Angels am I not for ever blest?
Tell me can Satan take what God has giv'n
Or all Hells darkness quench the light of Heav'n?
What after this do I implore or Crave
And need I ask what I already have?
What light of Comment can these Clouds remove
Backward and forward I uncertain rove
Thrô Labyrinths wander and in Circles prove
If the Creator call'd me forth to birth
Wou'd he, I ask, his helpless Creature leave
Thus wand'ring dark, thus groveling low on Earth
That I might Sin, he punish or forgive.

354

Before we Grant or Answer let us bring
Our pow'r of Thought to its primæval spring. [OMITTED]

The deep decrees the fatalist replyes
Of an eternal God supremely Wise
As firmly fixt are permanently sure
Thro endless chains of Ages shal endure.
Made before heav'n and Earth the word shal last
Unchangeable when heav'n and Earth are past.
Allow free will that Sentence is destroy'd
A Covenant Seal'd which after Acts may void
A Casual Fabric built upon the sand
Which can nor winds nor falling rains withstand
But yields inflex'd and sapp'd by human pray'rs
Blown down with Sighs and wash'd away by tears.

Or trace your steps thro the determin'd way
Or from the Christian Principles You stray
The Godhead thô with all perfection crown'd
Inclin'd to Mercy is by justice bound
Else whence the wond'rous kind necessity
That to Absolve poor Adam Christ must Dye
Whence the old stains imprest on human race
The heav'nly means that must those stains efface
And Nature lost redeem'd by saving Grace. [OMITTED]

Hence the long Series of Events to come
And four Monarchic Empires stated doom
Else future knowledge of Three thousand Years
The Psalmists raptures and the Prophets tears
The unveil'd Mysteries to a world restor'd
Forseen by Angels and by Men ador'd;
Hence the great Object of our future hope
And blessings following in that bitter Cup
Which God incarnate loving and belov'd
How'ever yielding beg'd might be remov'd
When prest with Agonies the suffering Son
Said Father not my will but Thine be done.

University of Virginia Library

[_] Brouillon of a Poem Begun at Wimpole in August 1721. Transcribed from the Authors Papers since his Death. PREDESTINATION.

A POEM.

[_]

Brouillon of a Poem Begun at Wimpole in August 1721. Transcribed from the Authors Papers since his Death.

PREDESTINATION.