The Everlasting Gospel

	Was Jesus Humble or did he
	Give any Proofs of Humility
	Boast of high Things with Humble tone
	And give with Charity a Stone
5	When but a Child he ran away
	And left his Parents in Dismay
	When they had wanderd three days long
	These were the words upon his tongue
	No Earthly Parents I confess
10	I am doing my Fathers business
	When the rich learned Pharisee
	Came to consult him secretly
	Upon his heart with Iron pen
	He wrote Ye must be born again
15	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
20	The Misers net & the Gluttons trap
	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
25	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 Caiphas would forgive
30	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
35	He had soon been bloody Caesars 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 Sr Isaac confutes
40	God can only be known by his Attributes
	And as for the Indwelling of the Holy Ghost
	Or of Christ & his Father its all a boast
	And Pride & Vanity of Imagination
	That disdains to follow this Worlds Fashion
45	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
50	About his Fathers business
	Or was his wisdom held in scorn
	Before his wrath began to burn
	In Miracles throughout the Land
	That quite unnervd Lord Caiaphas hand
55	If he had been Antichrist Creeping Jesus
	Hed have done any thing to please us
	Gone sneaking into Synagogues
	And not usd the Elders & Priests like dogs
	But Humble as a Lamb or Ass
60	Obeyd 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
65	Cursing the Rulers before the People
	Even to the temples highest Steeple
	And when he Humbled himself to God
	Then descended the Cruel Rod
	If thou humblest thyself thou humblest me
70	Thou also dwellst 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
75	And thy Revenge abroad display
	In terrors at the Last Judgment day
	Gods Mercy & Long Suffering
	Is but the Sinner to Judgment to bring
	Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray
80	And take Revenge at the Last Day
	Jesus replied & thunders hurld
	I never will Pray for the World
	Once [I] did so when I prayd in the Garden
	I wishd to take with me a Bodily Pardon
85	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
90	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
95	Rooting over with thorns & stems
	The buried Soul & all its Gems
	This Lifes dim Windows of the Soul
	Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole
	And leads you to Believe a Lie
100	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.