Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/330

 324 REDEMPTION.

Whose Name, recorded in his book, stands first. Who, but the Angel, Malachias sang, The Stone, which God hath built his house upon, In whom, whoe'er believes, need not make haste, Could answer to this end, and ransom pay For infinite transgression of the law ? This Angel came, the broken law repair'd, Fulfill'd what Moses and the Prophets taught; The great High Priest, image of God express, Came, and salvation to his people brought, Merged the dim shadows of Levitic rites, Offer'd himself in place of victims slain, And full atonement made for fallen man.

" Such was Messias, as the Seers foresaw, Such He, who oped a fount in David's house, To wash the sinner, and to cleanse th' unclean; A fountain, not of water, but his blood; Streams from his head, his feet, his hands, his side. Who, when they ask, with what wounds art thou pierced ? Shall say, wounds that my brethren gave ; I these Received within the house of them I loved. Let this his anguish, now the Prophets tell; Let wisdom lift his voice ; let David sing, And all the Seers, who his sufFrings traced, Divinely taught to antedate his life, Foreshade his sorrows, and portray his death. Wisdom their rage against the Holy One Describes ' Let us oppress this poor just Man ; Let our own strength the law of justice be; The weak are nothing; he is weak and poor; Yet us upbraids, divulges all our sins, Reproves us for transgressions of the law,

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