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(Jerusalem, f. 61, ll. 1–52.)
BEHOLD! in the Visions of Elohim Jehovah, behold Joseph and Mary! | |
| And be comforted, O Jerusalem! in the Visions of Jehovah Elohim. | |
| She lookèd and saw Joseph the Carpenter in Nazareth, and Mary, | |
| His espousèd Wife. And Mary said: ‘If thou put me away from thee | |
| Dost thou not murder me?’ Joseph spoke in anger and fury: ‘Should I | 5 |
| Marry a harlot and an adulteress?’ Mary answer’d: ‘Art thou more pure | |
| Than thy Maker, Who forgiveth Sins and calls again her that is lost? | |
| Tho’ she hates, He calls her again in love. I love my dear Joseph, | |
| But he driveth me away from his presence; yet I hear the voice of God | |
| In the voice of my husband: tho’ he is angry for a moment he will not | 10 |
| Utterly cast me away: if I were pure, never could I taste the sweets | |
| Of the Forgiveness of Sins; if I were holy, I never could behold the tears | |
| Of love, of him who loves me in the midst of his anger in furnace of fire. | |
| ‘Ah, my Mary,’ said Joseph, weeping over and embracing her closely in | |
| His arms, ‘doth He forgive Jerusalem and not exact Purity from her who is | 15 |
| Polluted? I heard His voice in my sleep and His Angel in my dream, | |
| Saying: “Doth Jehovah forgive a Debt only on condition that it shall | |
| Be payèd? Doth He forgive Pollution only on conditions of Purity? | |
| That Debt is not forgiven! That Pollution is not forgiven! | |
| Such is the Forgiveness of the Gods, the Moral Virtues of the | 20 |
| Heathen, whose tender Mercies are Cruelty. But Jehovah’s Salvation | |
| Is without Money and without Price, in the Continual Forgiveness of Sins, | |
| In the Perpetual Mutual Sacrifice in Great Eternity. For behold! | |
| There is none that liveth and sinneth not! And this is the Covenant | |
| Of Jehovah: ‘If you forgive one another, so shall Jehovah forgive you; | 25 |
| That He Himself may dwell among you.’ Fear not then to take | |
| To thee Mary, thy Wife, for she is with Child by the Holy Ghost.”’ | |
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| Then Mary burst forth into a song! she flowèd like a river of | |
| Many streams in the arms of Joseph, and gave forth her tears of joy | |
| Like many waters, and emanating into gardens and palaces upon | 30 |
| Euphrates, and to forests and floods and animals, wild and tame, from | |
| Gihon to Hiddekel, and to corn-fields and villages, and inhabitants | |
| Upon Pison and Arnon and Jordan. And I heard the voice among | |
| The Reapers, saying: ‘Am I Jerusalem, the lost Adulteress? or am I | |
| Babylon come up to Jerusalem?’ And another voice answer’d, saying: | 35 |
| ‘Does the voice of my Lord call me again? am I pure thro’ his Mercy | |
| And Pity? Am I become lovely as a Virgin in his sight, who am | |
| Indeed a Harlot drunken with the Sacrifice of Idols? Does He | |
| Call her pure, as he did in the days of her Infancy, when she | |
| Was cast out to the loathing of her person? The Chaldean took | 40 |
| Me from my cradle; the Amalekite stole me away upon his camels | |
| Before I had ever beheld with love the face of Jehovah, or known | |
| That there was a God of Mercy. O Mercy! O Divine Humanity! | |
| O Forgiveness and Pity and Compassion! If I were pure I should never | |
| Have known Thee: if I were unpolluted I should never have | 45 |
| Glorifièd Thy Holiness, or rejoicèd in thy great Salvation.’ | |
| Mary leanèd her side against Jerusalem: Jerusalem receivèd | |
| The Infant into her hands in the Visions of Jehovah. Times passèd on. | |
| Jerusalem fainted over the Cross and Sepulchre. She heard the voice:— | |
| ‘Wilt thou make Rome thy Patriarch Druid, and the Kings of Europe his | 50 |
| Horsemen? Man in the Resurrection changes his Sexual Garments at will: | |
| Every Harlot was once a Virgin, every Criminal an infant Love.’ | |
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