Hymn: The Exultation of Heaven, at the Descent of the New Jerusalem

BLEST state of Innocence,
When out of his just Makers Hand,
The first Man came, with sacred influence,
If what he might, he' had kept the' unhard Command!
But happier far that state,
To which he is restored, tho late,
By him, who, (made Man) Man did first Create!

A greater Work this was,
(As to redeem it more did cost,
Than barely make;) the one by a Word did pass,
His Life, the WORD to' effect the other lost;
But there-with did provide,
What none could hope, or do beside,
That they should th' happiest be, for whom he Died.

Happy were both, but these
By this the more, that when God went
To Paradise, himself in' his Works to please,
And pleas'd to Heav'n strait took his great Asecnt;
A longer stay below,
To make with his Redeemed now,
Heav'ns richest Grace he does on Earth bestow:

For now (behold!) his Tent
With Man is pitcht, and there Hee 'l dwell,
Late to , and I'm his Herald sent,
News to the whole World to tell;
God to Man comes down,
Man to dwell, as Man be known,
Whose Form assum'd, he keeps still joyn'd to' his own.

With them Hee 'l dwell, and they
His People, he their God will be;
Not as of Old alone, but in a way
Unthought, and of exalted Dignity:
Where each Relations Band,
By various Titles on each hand,
Made Indissoluble, fast knit does stand.

God from their Eyes all Tears
Away shall wipe, they in his Praise
Endless Eternity shall spend: No fears,
No fighs more tempests in their Brests shall raise:
Eve'n Death shall be no more,
Nor Sin, that to it op'd the Door,
Nor pain: for former things are all past or'e.

Past o're they are, and gone,
So says the Faithful and the True,
The High, the Holy God, who from his Throne
Pronounces thus, (Lo!) I make all things New!
And thou to whom it's made known,
O Man belov'd, The words write down,
Nor doubt; for he who does it, says, 'Tis done.