The Portable William Blake (59 page)

Was Jesus gentle, or did he
Give any marks of Gentility?
When twelve years old he ran away
And left his Parents in dismay.
When after three days’ sorrow found,
Loud as Sinai’s trumpet sound:
“No Earthly Parents I confess—
My Heavenly Father’s business!
Ye understand not what I say,
And, angry, force me to obey.”
Obedience is a duty then,
And favour gains with God & Men.
John from the Wilderness loud cried;
Satan gloried in his Pride.
“Come,” said Satan, “come away,
I’ll soon see if you’ll obey!
John for disobedience bled,
But you can turn the stones to bread.
God’s high king & God’s high Priest
Shall Plant their Glories in your breast
If Caiaphas you will obey,
If Herod you with bloody Prey
Feed with the sacrifice, & be
Obedient, fall down, worship me.”
Thunders & lightnings broke around,
And Jesus’ voice in thunders’ sound:
“Thus I seize the Spiritual Prey.
Ye smiters with disease, make way.
I come your King & God to sieze.
Is God a smiter with disease?”
The God of this World raged in vain:
He bound Old Satan in his Chain,
And bursting forth, his furious ire
Became a Chariot of fire.
Throughout the land he took his course,
And traced diseases to their source:
He curs’d the Scribe & Pharisee,
Trampling down Hipocrisy:
Where’er his Chariot took its way,
There Gates of death let in the day,
Broke down from every Chain & Bar;
And Satan in his Spiritual War
Drag’d at his Chariot wheels: loud howl’d
The God of this World: louder roll’d
The Chariot Wheels, & louder still
His voice was heard from Zion’s hill,
And in his hand the Scourge shone bright;
He scourg’d the Merchant Canaanite
From out the Temple of his Mind,
And in his Body tight does bind
Satan & all his Hellish Crew;
And thus with wrath he did subdue
The Serpent Bulk of Nature’s dross,
Till He had nail’d it to the Cross.
He took on Sin in the Virgin’s Womb,
And put it off on the Cross & Tomb
To be Worship’d by the Church of Rome.

Was Jesus Humble? or did he
Give any proofs of Humility?
When but a Child he ran away
And left his Parents in dismay.
When they had wonder’d three days long
These were the words upon his Tongue:
“No Earthly Parents I confess:
I am doing my Father’s business.”
When the rich learned Pharisee
Came to consult him secretly,
Upon his heart with Iron pen
He wrote, “Ye must be born again.”
He was too Proud to take a bribe;
He spoke with authority, not like a Scribe.
He says with most consummate Art,
“Follow me, I am meek & lowly of heart,”
As that is the only way to Escape
The Miser’s net & the Glutton’s trap.
He who loves his Enemies, hates his Friends;
This is surely not what Jesus intends;
He must mean the meer love of Civility,
And so he must mean concerning Humility;
But he acts with triumphant, honest pride,
And this is the Reason Jesus died.
If he had been Antichrist, Creeping Jesus,
He’d have done anything to please us:
Gone sneaking into the Synagogues
And not used the Elders & Priests like Dogs,
But humble as a Lamb or an Ass,
Obey himself to Caiaphas.
God wants not Man to humble himself:
This is the Trick of the Ancient Elf.
Humble toward God, Haughty toward Man,
This is the Race that Jesus ran,
And when he humbled himself to God,
Then descended the cruel rod.
“If thou humblest thyself, thou humblest me;
Thou also dwelst in Eternity.
Thou art a Man, God is no more,
Thine own Humanity learn to Adore
And thy Revenge Abroad display
In terrors at the Last Judgment day.
God’s Mercy & Long Suffering
Are but the Sinner to Judgment to bring.
Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray
And take Revenge at the last Day.

 

“Do what you will, this Life’s a Fiction
And is made up of Contradiction.”

Was Jesus Humble? or did he
Give any Proofs of Humility?
Boast of high Things with Humble tone,
And give with Charity a Stone?
When but a Child he ran away
And left his Parents in dismay.
When they had wander’d three days long
These were the words upon his tongue:
“No Earthly Parents I confess:
”I am doing my Father’s business.”
When the rich learned Pharisee
Came to consult him secretly,
Upon his heart with Iron pen
He wrote, ”Ye must be born again.”
He was too proud to take a bribe;
He spoke with authority, not like a Scribe.
He says with most consummate Art,
”Follow me, I am meek & lowly of heart,”
As that is the only way to escape
The Miser’s net & the Glutton’s trap.
What can be done with such desperate Fools
Who follow after the Heathen Schools?
I was standing by when Jesus died;
What I call’d Humility, they call’d Pride.
He who loves his Enemies betrays his Friends;
This surely is not what Jesus intends,
But the sneaking Pride of Heroic Schools,
And the Scribes’ & Pharisees’ Virtuous Rules;
For he acts with honest, triumphant Pride,
And this is the cause that Jesus died.
He did not die with Christian Ease,
Asking pardon of his Enemies:
If he had, Caiaphas would forgive;
Sneaking submission can always live.
He had only to say that God was the devil,
And the devil was God, like a Christian Civil:
Mild Christian regrets to the devil confess
For affronting him thrice in the Wilderness;
He had soon been bloody Caesar’s Elf,
And at last he would have been Caesar himself.
Like dr. Priestly & Bacon & Newton—
Poor Spiritual Knowledge is not worth a button!
For thus the Gospel Sir Isaac confutes:
”God can only be known by his Attributes;
And as for the Indwelling of the Holy Ghost
Or of Christ & his Father, it’s all a boast
And Pride & Vanity of the imagination,
That disdains to follow this World’s Fashion:
To teach doubt & Experiment
Certainly was not what Christ meant
What was he doing all that time,
From twelve years old to manly prime?
Was he then Idle, or the Less
About his Father’s business?
Or was nis wisdom held in scorn
Before his wrath began to burn
In Miracles throughout the Land,
That quite unnerv’d Caiaphas’ hand?
If he had been Antichrist, Creeping Jesus,
He’d have done any thing to please us—
Gone sneaking into Synagogues
And not us’d the Elders & Priests like dogs,
But Humble as a Lamb or Ass
Obey’d himself to Caiaphas.
God wants not Man to Humble himself:
This is the trick of the ancient Elf.
This is the Race that Jesus ran:
Humble to God, Haughty to Man,
Cursing the Rulers before the People
Even to the temple’s highest Steeple;
And when he Humbled himself to God,
Then descended the Cruel Rod.
“If thou humblest thyself, thou humblest me;
Thou also dwell‘st in Eternity.
Thou art a Man, God is no more,
Thy own humanity learn to adore,
For that is my Spirit of Life.
Awake, arise to Spiritual Strife
And thy Revenge abroad display
In terrors at the Last Judgment day
God’s Mercy & Long Suffering
Is but the Sinner to Judgment to bring.
Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray
And take Revenge at the Last Day.
This Corporeal life’s a fiction
And is made up of Contradiction.”
Jesus replied & thunders hurl’d:
“I never will Pray for the World.
Once I did so when I pray’d in the Garden;
I wish’d to take with me a Bodily Pardon.”
Can that which was of woman bom
In the absence of the Morn,
When the Soul fell into Sleep
And Archangels round it weep,
Shooting out against the Light
Fibres of a deadly night,
Reasoning upon its own dark Fiction,
In doubt which is Self Contradiction?
Humility is only doubt,
And does the Sun & Moon blot out,
Rooting over with thorns & stems
The buried Soul & all its Gems.
This Life’s dim Windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with, not thro’, the Eye
That was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the Soul slept in the beams of Light.
Was Jesus Chaste? or did he, &c.

Was Jesus Chaste? or did he
Give any Lessons of Chastity?
The morning blush’d fiery red:
Mary was found in Adulterous bed;
Earth groan’d beneath, & Heaven above
Trembled at discovery of Love.
Jesus was sitting in Moses’ Chair,
They brought the trembling Woman There.
Moses commands she be stoned to death,
What was the sound of Jesus’ breath?
He laid His hand on Moses’ Law:
The Ancient Heavens, in Silent Awe
Writ with Curses from Pole to Pole,
All away began to roll:
The Earth trembling & Naked lay
In secret bed of Mortal Clay,
On Sinai felt the hand divine
Putting back the bloody shrine,
And she heard the breath of God
As she heard by Eden’s flood:
“Good & Evil are no more!
Sinai’s trumpets, cease to roar!
Cease, finger of God, to write!
The Heavens are not clean in thy Sight.
Thou art Good, & thou Alone;
Nor may the sinner cast one stone.
To be Good only, is to be
A God or else a Pharisee.
Thou Angel of the Presence Divine
That didst create this Body of Mine,
Wherefore hast thou writ these Laws
And Created Hell’s dark jaws?
My Presence I will take from thee:
A Cold Leper thou shalt be.
Tho’ thou wast so pure & bright
That Heaven was Impure in thy Sight,
Tho’ thy Oath turn’d Heaven Pale,
Tho’ thy Covenant built Hell’s Jail,
Tho’ thou didst all to Chaos roll
With the Serpent for its soul,
Still the breath Divine does move
And the breath Divine is Love.
Mary, Fear Not! Let me see
The Seven Devils that torment thee:
Hide not from my Sight thy Sin,
That forgiveness thou maist win.
Has no Man Condemned thee?”
No Man, Lord:” ”Then what is he
Who shall Accuse thee? Come Ye forth,
Fallen fiends of Heav‘nly birth
That have forgot your Ancient love
And driven away my trembling Dove.
You shall bow before her feet;
You shall lick the dust for Meat;
And tho’ you cannot Love, but Hate,
Shall be beggars at Love’s Gate.
What was thy Love? Let me see it;
Was it love or dark deceit?”
Love too long from Me has fled;
’Twas dark deceit, to Earn my bread;
‘Twas Covet, or ’twas Custom, or
Some trifle not worth caring for;
That they may call a shame & Sin
Love’s temple that God dwelleth in,
And hide in secret hidden shrine
The Naked Human form divine,
And render that a Lawless thing
On which the Soul Expands its wing.
But this, 0 Lord, this was my Sin
When first I let these devils in
In dark pretence to Chastity:
Blaspheming Love, blaspheming thee.
Thence Rose Secret Adulteries,
And thence did Covet also rise.
My sin thou hast forgiven me,
Canst thou forgive my Blasphemy?
Canst thou return to this dark Hell,
And in my burning bosom dwell?
And canst thou die that I may live?
And canst thou Pity & forgive?”
Then Roll’d the shadowy Man away
From the Limbs of Jesus, to make them his prey,
An Ever devouring appetite
Glittering with festering venoms bright,
Crying, “Crucify this cause of distress,
Who don’t keep the secrets of holiness!
All Mental Powers by Diseases we bind,
But he heals the deaf & the dumb & the Blind.
Whom God has afflicted for Secret Ends,
He Comforts & Heals & calls them Friends.”
But, when Jesus was Crucified,
Then was perfected his glitt’ring pride:
In three Nights he devour’d his prey,
And still he devours the Body of Clay;
For dust & Clay is the Serpent’s meat,
Which never was made for Man to Eat.

I am sure this Jesus will not do
Either for Englishman or Jew.

Seeing this False Christ, In fury & Passion
I made my Voice heard all over the Nation.
What are those, &c.

Did Jesus teach doubt? or did he
Give any lessons of Philosophy,
Charge Visionaries with decieving,
Or call Men wise for not Believing?

Was Jesus Born of a Virgin Pure
With narrow Soul & looks demure?
If he intended to take on Sin
The Mother should an Harlot been,
Just such a one as Magdalen
With seven devils in her Pen;
Or were Jew Virgins still more Curst,
And more sucking devils nurst?
Or what was it which he took on
That he might bring Salvation?
A Body subject to be Tempted,
From neither pain nor grief Exempted?
Or such a body as might not feel
The passions that with Sinners deal?
Yes, but they say he never fell.
Ask Caiaphas; for he can tell.

“He mock’d the Sabbath, & he mock’d
The Sabbath’s God, & he unlock’d
The Evil spirits from their Shrines,
And turn’d Fishermen to Divines;
O‘erturn’d the Tent of Secret Sins,
& its Golden cords & Pins—
’Tis the Bloody Shrine of War
Pinn’d around from Star to Star,
Halls of justice, hating Vice,
Where the devil Combs his lice.
He turn’d the devils into Swine
That he might tempt the Jews to dine;
Since which, a Pig has got a look
That for a Jew may be mistook.
‘Obey your parents.’—What says he?
‘Woman, what have I to do with thee?
No Earthly Parents I confess:
I am doing my Father’s Business.’
He scorn’d Earth’s Parents, scorn’d Earth’s God,
And mock’d the one & the other’s Rod;
His Seventy Disciples sent
Against Religion & Government:
They by the Sword of Justice fell
And him their Cruel Murderer tell.
He left his Father’s trade to roam
A wand’ring Vagrant without Home;
And thus he others’ labour stole
That he might live above Controll.
The Publicans & Harlots he
Selected for his Company,
And from the Adulteress turn’d away
God’s righteous Law, that lost its Prey.”