A handsome treat, a piece of gold, or so, And compliments will every friend bestow; Rarely a Virgil, a Cirine we meet,
Who lays his laurels at inferior feet,
And yields the tenderest point of honour, wit.
FRATRI SUO DILECTO R. W. I. W. S. P. D.
RURSUM tuas, amande frater, accepi literas, eodem fortasse momento, quo meæ ad te pervenerunt; idemque qui te scribentem vidit dies, meum ad epistolare munus excitavit calamuin; non inane est inter nos fraternum nomen, unicus enim spiritus nos intùs animat, agitque, et concordes in ambobus efficit motus; O utinam crescat indiès, et vigescat mutua charitas; faxit Deus, ut amor sui nostra incendat et defæcet pectora; tunc etenim et alternis puræ amicitiæ flammis erga nos invicem divinum in modum ardebimus; contemplemur Jesum nostrum, cœleste illud et adorandum exemplar charitatis, Ille est,
Qui quondam æterno delapsus ab æthere vultus
Induit humanos, ut posset corpore nostras
(Heu miseras) sufferre vices; sponsoris obivit
Munia, et in sese Tabulæ maledicta minacis
Transtulit, et sceleris pœnas hominisque reatum.
Ecce jacet desertus humi, diffusus in herbam
Integer, innocuas versus sua sidera palmas
Et placidum attolens vultum, nec ad oscula Patris
Amplexus solitosve; artus nudatus amictu
Sidereos, et sponte sinum patefactus ad iras
Numinis armati. 'Pater, hic infige' sagittas,
Hæc, (ait) iratum sorbebunt pectora ferrum,
Abluat æthereus mortalia crimina sanguis.'
Dixit, et horrendùm fremuêre tonitrua cœli
Infensusque Deus ; (quem jam posuisse paternum
Musa queri vellet nomen, sed et ipsa fragores
Ad tantos pevefacta silet,) Jam dissilit æther,
Pandunturque fores, ubi duro carcere regnat,
Ira, et pœnarum thesauros mille coercet,
Inde ruunt gravidi vesano sulphere nimbi,
Contuplicisque volant contorta volumina flammæ
In caput immeritum ; diro hic sub pondere pressus
Restat, compressos dumque ardens explicat artus
Purpureo vestes tinctæ sudore madescunt
Nec tamen infando Vindex Regina labori
Segniùs incumbit, sed lassos increpat ignes
Acriter, et somno languentem suscitat 3 ensem:
'Surge, age, divinum pete pectus, et imbue sacro
Flumine mucronem ; vos hinc, mea spicula, latè
Ferrea per totum dispergite tormina Christum,
Immensum tolerare valet; ad pondera pœnæ
Sustentanda hominem suffulciet incola Numen.
Et tu sacra Decas legum, violata tabella,
Ebibe vindictam; vastà satiabere cæde,
Mortalis culpæ pensabit dedecus ingens
Permistus Deitate cruor."
Sic fata, immiti contorquet vulnera dextrâ Dilaniatque sinus; sancti penetralia cordis Panduntur, sævis avidas dolor involat alis, Atque audax mentem scrutator, et ilia mordet ;
Intereà servator 4 ovat, victorque doloris
Eminet, illustri 5 perfusus membra cruore,
Exultatque miser fieri; nam fortiùs illum
Urget patris honos, et non vincenda voluptas
Servandi miseros sontes; O nobilis ardor
Pœnarum! O quid non mortalia pectora cogis
Durus amor? Quid non cœlestia?
At subsidat phantasia, vanescant imagines; nescio quo me proripuit amens Musa: volui quatuor linias pedibus astringere, et ecce! numeri crescunt in immensum; dumque concitato genio laxavi fræna, vereor ne juvenilis impetus theologium læserit, et audax nimis imaginatio. Heri adlata est ad me epistola indicans matrem meliuscule se habere, licet ignis febrilis non prorsus deseriut mortale ejus domicilium. Plura volui, sed turgidi et crescentes versus noluere plura, et coarctarunt scriptionis limites. Vale, amice frater, et in studio pietatis et artis medicæ strenuus decurre.
Datum a Museo meo Londini xvto Kalend. Febr.
Anno Salutis 1693.
LETTER FROM ISAAC WATTS,
TO HIS BROTHER RICHARD WATTS, WISHING HIM PEACE AND SAFETY IN GOD.
I HAD a second receipt of a letter from you prehaps in the very moment in which mine came to
hand; and the very day in which you was writing to me was the same which awakened my pen to the discharge of its epistolary duty to you. We bear not the fraternal name in vain, for the same spirit possesses, inspires, and produces the most harmonious movements in us. May our mutual esteem every day increase and flourish! God grant his love may purify and kindle our souls! thus shall we in a divine manner burn with reciprocal flames of friendship. Let us contemplate our Saviour, that celestial and adorable example of love.
THE Son of God, descending from the skies,
Assum'd an human form, that in our flesh
He might endure the agonizing pains
Due to our crimes: our surety he became
Transferring to himself each baleful curse
Of Heaven's vindictive, death-denouncing law,
And made our guilt and punishment his own.
See him deserted on the naked ground,
And kneeling on the sod extend his hands,
And lift his placid countenance to the skies
With conscious innocence, but not to' enjoy,
As he was wont, his heavenly Father's smiles,
And kind embraces. See his godlike form
Expos'd to night's cold blast, and see his breast
By his own hands expanded to the stroke
Of Deity in arins. Here, here, (he cries)
O Father, plant thy darts, here plunge thy sword
Flaming and edg'd for slaughter: blood divine
Has power to expiate the crimes of men.'
He said: the' Omnipotent in terror rose,
And launch'd the rattling thunders from his hand.
(Now might the Muse in melting lays bemoan The Father's tender name extinct and lost, But the unsufferable noise affrights,
Confounds ber, and in silence seals her tongue.)
The skies asunder rend, the doors expand,
Where Vengeance in its iron prison dwells,
And in a thousand penal terrors reigns.
Swift issue huge conglomerated clouds
Fraught with outrageous sulphur : lightnings thence,
All arm'd with tortures exquisitely keen,
Voluminous, uninterrupted rush
Down on his guiltless head. The wrath immense
He firmly suffers, though beneath his pangs
The blood reluctant quits its well-known roads,
And bathes his limbs in gore, the purple sweat
In big round drops descending to the ground.
Still, still the' avenging Queen' her direful work
Plies with redoubled fury, loudly chides
The lagging fire, and wakes her lingering sword
To more than sevenfold rage. 'Arise, (she cries)
And in Immanuel's bosom sheath thy blade
And drink his sacred blood: my keenest shafts
With all your iron torments wound his heart:
He can endure them all, the' indwelling God
Supports the weak humanity to bear
The weight of sorrows due to human guilt:
And thou, most holy law of stamp divine,
Broken, insulted by the sins of men,
Here take full recompense for all thy wrongs.
See the full expiation! See the blood,
Ordain'd thine injur'd honours to restore,
Merit unknown from Deity acquire.'
Thus Vengeance spoke, and with remorseless rage 1 Divine Justice, or Vengeance.
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