ye everlasting gates!
And give the King of glory to come in.
Who is the King of glory? He who slew 280
The ravenous foe, that gorged all human race!
The King of glory, he whose glory fill'd
Heaven with amazement at his love to man;
And with divine complacency beheld
Powers most illumined, wilder'd in the theme.
The theme, the joy, how then shall man sustain?
O the burst gates! crush'd sting! demolish'd throne!
Last gasp of vanquish'd Death! Shout earth and heaven!
This sum of good to man. Whose nature then
Took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb! 290
Then, then, I rose; then first humanity 291
Triumphant pass'd the crystal ports of light
(Stupendous guest!), and seized eternal youth,
Seized in our name. E'er since, 'tis blasphemous
To call man mortal. Man's mortality
Was then transferr'd to death; and heaven's duration
Unalienably seal'd to this frail frame,
This child of dust--Man, all-immortal! hail;
Hail, Heaven! all lavish of strange gifts to man!
Thine all the glory; man's the boundless bliss. 300
Where am I rapt by this triumphant theme?
On Christian joy's exulting wing, above
Th' Aonian mount?--Alas! small cause for joy!
What if to pain immortal? if extent
Of being, to preclude a close of woe?
Where, then, my boast of immortality?
I boast it still, though cover'd o'er with guilt;
For guilt, not innocence, his life he pour'd;
'Tis guilt alone can justify his death;
Nor that, unless his death can justify 310
Relenting guilt in Heaven's indulgent sight.
If, sick of folly, I relent; he writes
My name in heaven with that inverted spear
(A spear deep-dipp'd in blood!) which pierced his side,
And open'd there a font for all mankind,
Who strive, who combat crimes, to drink, and live:
This, only this, subdues the fear of death.
And what is this?--Survey the wondrous cure:
And at each step, let higher wonder rise!
"Pardon for infinite offence! and pardon 320
Through means that speak its value infinite!
A pardon bought with blood! with blood divine!
With blood divine of Him I made my foe!
Persisted to provoke! though woo'd and awed,
Bless'd and chastised, a flagrant rebel still! 325
A rebel, 'midst the thunders of his throne!
Nor I alone