PARAPHRASE

On Joh. 3.16 — For God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, &c.

I.

Yes; so God loved the World; But where
Are this Great Loves Dimensions?
Even Angels stop; for, baffled here
Are their vast Apprehensions.
In vain they strive to Grasp the boundless thing;
Not all their Comments can explain the mighty Truth I sing.

II.

Yet still they pause on the Contents
Of this Amazing Story;
How he that fill'd the wide extents
Of Uncreated Glory?
He whom the Heaven of Heavens cou'd not contain;
Shou'd yet within the Sacred Maids contracted Womb remain.

III.

They see him Born, and hear him Weep,
To aggravate their Wonder;
Whose Awful Voice had shook the Deep,
And Breath'd his Will in Thunder:
That Awful Voice, chang'd to an Infant's Cry;
Whilst in a Feeble Woman's Arms he seems constrain'd to lye.

IV.

A God (Ah! Where are Humane boasts?)
Extended in a Manger?
The Lord of all the Heavenly Hosts
Expos'd to Scorn and Danger?
The Onely Blest, the All-sufficient Weeps:
But Oh, who Guides the Staggering World, while its Protector Sleeps?

V.

And canst thou Man ungrateful prove
When 'twas for thy Salvation,
He left those Splendid Seats above,
His late bright Habitation?
Where all his Deity Shone, without the Allay
Of a Seraphick Vehicle, or desicated Clay.

VI.

Where he Transcendently possest
The Fullness of Perfection:
Tho here benighted and opprest,
The Type of all Dejection.
He asks for Food, that gave the Ravens Bread;
And the Great Founder of the World wants where to lay his Head.

VII.

But Oh what Dark Catastrophe
Does Hell at last Conspire!
Behond! upon a Cursed Tree
The Lord of Life Expire:
From this, Amaz'd, the Sun withdraws his Eye,
Afraid to see his Maker Bleed, and the Eternal Dye.

VIII.

The Seraphims that throng'd about,
'Twixt Hope and Consternation;
Now Blaze the Wondrous News throughout
The Radiant Corporation:
Who vainly strive the Mistery to scan,
And Fathom the Stupendious Depths of this Great Love to Man.