Poem 12

this be, But by fulfilling that which thou didst want, Obedience to the law of God, imposed On penalty of death, and suffering death, The penalty to thy transgression due, And due to theirs which out of thine will grow: So only can high justice rest appaid. The law of God exact he shall fulfil Both by obedience and by love, though love Alone fulfil the law; thy punishment He shall endure, by coming in the flesh To a reproachful life and cursed death, Proclaiming life to all who shall believe In his redemption, and that his obedience Imputed becomes theirs by faith⁠—his merits To save them, not their own, though legal, works. For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed, Seized on by force, judged, and to death condemned, A shameful and accursed, nailed to the cross By his own nation, slain for bringing life; But to the cross he nails thy enemies, The law that is against thee, and the sins Of all mankind, with him there crucified. Never to hurt them more who rightly trust In this his satisfaction. So he dies, But soon revives; Death over him no power Shall long usurp; ere the third dawning light Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light, Thy ransom paid, which Man from Death redeems, His death for Man⁠—as many as offered life Neglect not, and the benefit embrace By faith not void of works. This godlike act Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldst have died, In sin for ever lost from life; this act Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms, And fix far deeper in his head their stings Than temporal death shall bruise the Victor’s heel, Or theirs whom he redeems⁠—a death like sleep, A gentle wafting to immortal life. Nor after resurrection shall he stay Longer on Earth than certain times to appear To his disciples, men who in his life Still followed him; to them shall leave in charge To teach all nations what of him they learned And his salvation, them who shall believe Baptizing in the profluent stream⁠—the sign Of washing them from guilt of sin to life Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall, For death like that which the Redeemer died. All nations they shall teach; for from that day Not only to the sons of Abraham’s loins Salvation shall be preached, but to the