The Creation (second poem)

FOR the merits of Thy love, then,
' Be it done/ the Father said ;
In the word the Father uttered
All created things were made.
In the everlasting wisdom
Rose the palace of the bride,
Which two substances created
In a twofold form divide.
With varieties unnumbered
Was the lower part arrayed,
While the higher glowed in beauty,
With the wondrous gems displayed.

That the bride might know the Bridegroom
Who her heavenly nuptials graced,
The Angelic hosts in order
In the higher part were placed.
Man was placed — his nature lower —
In the lower part on earth,
Being fashioned of a substance
Which was of inferior worth.

And although both place and nature
God in this way did divide,
Yet the two are, both together,
But one body of the bride.

And the two, although divided,
Are one bride in His one love,
Who, in gladness, as the Bridegroom
Is possessed by those above.

Those below in hope are living
Of the faith that He has given,
For one day He will exalt them —
He hath said so — unto heaven.

For of those of base condition
He will take .away the shame,
And exalt them, so that nothing
Shall remain to them of blame.
He in all things with their likeness
Will Himself one day invest ;
He will come and dwell among them,
As His own elected rest.

God Himself will be incarnate,
God will have a human birth ;
Eating, He will come, and drinking,
And converse with men on earth.

He will dwell Himself among them
And continually stay,
Till the final consummation —
When the ages melt away.

Then shall both rejoice together
In an endless life of bliss,
For to Him belongs the headship
Of the bride, and she is His.

He shall bring the just together —
Nought shall them from her divide —
For they are the living members
Of the body of the bride.

He will tenderly embrace her,
He will give her of His love,
And, united with Him, take her,
To His Father's home above.

Into joy shall she then enter :
God no greater joy can give ;
When absorbed in Him for ever
She the life of God shall live.

So the Father, Son, and Spirit,
Three in One and One in Three,
Live, Each living in the Other,
The most blessed Trinity