Ye worse for mending! wash'd to fouler stains! The ransom was paid down; the fund of heaven, Heaven's inexhaustible, exhausted fund, Amazing, and amazed, pour'd forth the price, All price beyond: though curious to compute, Archangels fail'd to cast the mighty sum: 240 Its value vast, ungrasp'd by minds create, For ever hides, and glows, in the Supreme. And was the ransom paid? It was: and paid (What can exalt the bounty more?) for you. The sun beheld it--No! the shocking scene, Drove back his chariot: midnight veil'd his face; Not such as this; not such as nature makes; A midnight nature shudder'd to behold; A midnight new! a dread eclipse (without Opposing spheres) from her Creator's frown! 250 Sun! didst thou fly thy Maker's pain? or start At that enormous load of human guilt, Which bow'd His blessed head; o'erwhelm'd His cross; Made groan the centre; burst earth's marble womb, With pangs, strange pangs! deliver'd of her dead? Hell howl'd; and heaven that hour let fall a tear; Heaven wept, that men might smile! Heaven bled, that man Might never die!---- And is devotion virtue? 'Tis compell'd. 259 What heart of stone but glows at thoughts like these? Such contemplations mount us; and should mount The mind still higher; nor ever glance on man, Unraptured, uninflamed.--Where roll my thoughts To rest from wonders? Other wonders rise; And strike where'er they roll: my soul is caught: Heaven's sovereign blessings, clustering from the cross, Rush on her, in a throng, and close her round, The prisoner of amaze!--In his bless'd life, I see the path, and, in his death, the price, And in his great ascent, the proof supreme 270 Of immortality.--And did he rise?[14] Hear, O ye nations! hear it, O ye dead! He rose! he rose! he burst the bars of death. Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates! And give the King of glory to come in. Who is the King of glory? He who left His throne of glory, for the pang of death: Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates! And give the King of glory to come in. Who is the King of glory? He who slew 280 The ravenous foe, that gorged all human race! The King of glory, he whose glory fill'd Heaven with amazement at his love to man; And with divine complacency beheld Powers most illumined, wilder'd in the theme. The theme, the joy, how then shall man sustain? O the burst gates! crush'd sting! demolish'd throne! Last gasp of vanquish'd Death! Shout earth and heaven! This sum of good to man. Whose nature then Took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb! 290 Then, then, I rose; then first humanity 291 Triumphant pass'd the crystal ports of light (Stupendous guest!), and seized eternal youth, Seized in our name. E'er since, 'tis blasphemous