William Blake - The Everlasting Gospel lyrics

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William Blake - The Everlasting Gospel lyrics

The vision of Christ that thou dost see Is my vision's greatest enemy Thine has a great hook nose like thine Mine has a snub nose like to mine Thine is the Friend of all Mankind Mine speaks in parables to the blind Thine loves the same world that mine hates Thy heaven doors are my hell gates Socrates taught what Meletus Loath'd as a nation's bitterest curse And Caiaphas was in his own mind A benefactor to mankind Both read the Bible day and night But thou read'st black where I read white 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 and 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 and 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, and be Obedient, fall down, worship me.' Thunders and 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 and God to seize Is God a smiter with disease?' The God of this world rag'd 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 trac'd diseases to their source He curs'd the Scribe and Pharisee Trampling down hypocrisy Where'er His chariot took its way There Gates of d**h let in the Day Broke down from every chain and bar And Satan in His spiritual war Dragg'd at His chariot-wheels: loud howl'd The God of this world: louder roll'd The chariot-wheels, and 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 and 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 and tomb To be worshipp'd by the Church of Rome 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 learnèd 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 and lowly of heart As that is the only way to escape The miser's net and 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' and Pharisees' virtuous rules For He acts with honest, triumphant pride And this is the cause that Jesus dies 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 and Bacon and Newton Poor spiritual knowledge is not worth a bu*ton 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 and His Father, it's all a boast And pride, and vanity of the imagination That disdains to follow this world's fashion.' To teach doubt and 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 His wisdom held in scorn Before His wrath began to burn In miracles throughout the land That quite unnerv'd the Seraph band? If He had been Antichrist, Creeping Jesus He'd have done anything to please us Gone sneaking into synagogues And not us'd the Elders and Priests like dogs But humble as a lamb or a** Obey'd Himself to Caiaphas God wants not man to humble himself That 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 Judgement Day God's mercy and long suffering Is but the sinner to judgement to bring Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray And take revenge at the Last Day.' Jesus replied, and 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 born 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 and moon blot out Rooting over with thorns and stems The buried soul and all its gems This life's five 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 Did Jesus teach doubt? or did He Give any lessons of philosophy Charge Visionaries with deceiving Or call men wise for not believing?… Was Jesus born of a Virgin pure With narrow soul and 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 curs'd And more s**ing devils nurs'd? 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 pa**ions that with sinners deal? Yes, but they say He never fell Ask Caiaphas; for he can tell ‘He mock'd the Sabbath, and He mock'd The Sabbath's God, and He unlock'd The evil spirits from their shrines And turn'd fishermen to divines O'erturn'd the tent of secret sins And its golden cords and pins In the bloody shrine of war Pour'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 and the other's rod His seventy Disciples sent Against Religion and 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 control The publicans and harlots He Selected for His company And from the adulteress turn'd away God's righteous law, that lost its prey.' Was Jesus chaste? or did He Give any lessons of chastity? The Morning blushèd fiery red Mary was found in adulterous bed Earth groan'd beneath, and Heaven above Trembled at discovery of Love Jesus was sitting in Moses' chair They brought the trembling woman there Moses commands she be ston'd to d**h 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 and naked lay In secret bed of mortal clay On Sinai felt the Hand Divine Pulling back the bloody shrine And she heard the breath of God As she heard by Eden's flood ‘Good and 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, and 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 and 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 may'st win Has no man condemnèd thee?' ‘No man, Lord.' ‘Then what is he Who shall accuse thee? Come ye forth Fallen fiends of heavenly 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 and 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, O 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 and 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! The mental powers by diseases we bind But He heals the deaf, the dumb, and the blind Whom God has afflicted for secret ends He comforts and heals and calls them friends.' But, when Jesus was crucified Then was perfected His galling pride In three nights He devour'd His prey And still He devours the body of clay For dust and clay is the Serpent's meat Which never was made for Man to eat Seeing this False Christ, in fury and pa**ion I made my voice heard all over the nation What are those… I am sure this Jesus will not do Either for Englishman or Jew