| ’TIS Man’s own Nature, which in its own Life, | |
| Or Centre, stands in Enmity and Strife, | |
| And anxious, selfish, doing what it lists, | |
| (Without God’s Love) that tempts him, and resists; | |
| The Devil also shoots his fiery Dart, | 5 |
| From Grace and Love to turn away the Heart. | |
| |
| This is the greatest Trial; ’tis the Fight | |
| Which Christ, with His internal Love and Light, | |
| Maintains within Man’s Nature, to dispel | |
| God’s Anger, Satan, Sin, and Death, and Hell; | 10 |
| The human Self, or Serpent, to devour, | |
| And raise an Angel from it by His Pow’r. | |
| |
| Now if God’s Love in Christ did not subdue | |
| In some Degree this Selfishness in you, | |
| You would have no such Combat to endure; | 15 |
| The Serpent, then, triumphantly secure, | |
| Would unoppos’d exert its native Right, | |
| And no such Conflict in your Soul excite. | |
| |
| For all the huge Temptation and Distress | |
| Rises in Nature, tho’ God seeks to bless; | 20 |
| The Serpent feeling its tormenting State, | |
| (Which of itself is a mere anxious Hate,) | |
| When God’s amazing Love comes in, to fill | |
| And change the selfish to a God-like Will. | |
| |
| Here Christ, the Serpent-bruiser, stands in Man, | 25 |
| Storming the Devil’s hellish, self-built Plan; | |
| And hence the Strife within the human Soul,— | |
| Satan’s to kill, and Christ’s to make it whole; | |
| As by Experience, in so great Degree, | |
| God in His Goodness causes you to see.… | 30 |
| |
| The next Temptation, which befalls of Course | |
| From Satan and from Nature’s selfish Force, | |
| Is, when the Soul has tasted of the Love | |
| And been illuminated from above; | |
| Still in its Self-hood it would seek to shine, | 35 |
| And as its own possess the Light Divine. | |
| |
| That is, the soulish Nature,—take it right, | |
| As much a Serpent, if without God’s Light, | |
| As Lucifer,—this Nature still would claim | |
| For own Propriety the Heav’nly Flame, | 40 |
| And elevate its Fire to a Degree | |
| Above the Light’s Good Pow’r, which cannot be. | |
| |
| This domineering Self, this Nature-Fire, | |
| Must be transmuted to a Love-Desire. | |
| Now, when this Change is to be undergone, | 45 |
| It looks for some own Pow’r, and, finding none, | |
| Begins to doubt of Grace, unwilling quite | |
| To yield up its self-willing Nature’s Right. | |
| |
| It never quakes for Fear, and will not die | |
| In Light Divine, tho’ to be blest thereby: | 50 |
| The Light of Grace it thinks to be Deceit, | |
| Because it worketh gently without Heat; | |
| Mov’d too by outward Reason, which is blind, | |
| And of itself sees nothing of this Kind. | |
| |
| Who knows, it thinketh, whether it be true | 55 |
| That God is in thee, and enlightens too? | |
| Is it not Fancy? For thou dost not see | |
| Like other People, who as well as thee | |
| Hope for Salvation by the Grace of God, | |
| Without such Fear and Trembling at his Rod.… | 60 |
| |
| The own Self-will must die away, and shine, | |
| Rising thro’ Death, in Saving Will Divine; | |
| And from the Opposition which it tries | |
| Against God’s Will such great Temptations rise; | |
| The Devil too is loth to lose his Prey, | 65 |
| And see his Fort cast down, if it obey. | |
| |
| For, if the Life of Christ within arise, | |
| Self-Lust and false Imagination dies,— | |
| Wholly, it cannot in this present Life, | |
| But by the Flesh maintains the daily Strife,— | 70 |
| Dies, and yet lives; as they alone can tell | |
| In whom Christ fights against the Pow’rs of Hell. | |
| |
| The third Temptation is in Mind and Will, | |
| And Flesh and Blood, if Satan enter still; | |
| Where the false Centres lie in Man, the Springs | 75 |
| Of Pride and Lust, and Love of earthly Things, | |
| And all the Curses wish’d by other Men, | |
| Which are occasion’d by this Devil’s Den. | |
| |
| These in the Astral Spirit make a Fort, | |
| Which all the Sins concentre to support; | 80 |
| And human Will, esteeming for its Joy | |
| What Christ, to save it, combats to destroy, | |
| Will not resign the Pride-erected Tow’r, | |
| Nor live obedient to the Saviour’s Pow’r.… | |
| |
| Let go all earthly Will, and be resign’d | 85 |
| Wholly to Him with all your Heart and Mind! | |
| Be Joy or Sorrow, Comfort or Distress, | |
| Receiv’d alike, for He alike can bless, | |
| To gain the Victory of Christian Faith | |
| Over the World and all Satanic Wrath! | 90 |
