God's Will had been deposed: the Enemy
Our grand prerogative had lured, to be
A weapon of destruction: yea, would he
The law designed for man's perfection see
Wrested - the world to fill with anarchy.
Self-will, self-love, and self-complacency
Now take the place of Heavenly Charity.
The ladder given for reaching Heaven will be
A downward slope to Hell. Yea, verily,
Such was his end in man's delinquency.
The law of natural obedience - see -
Deformed, debased to human slavery;
And in its place, his grand free-will shall be
A coil of chains, in which man sits with glee,
Lost to the sense of its indignity.
If man shall be redeemed, not only He
Who Man's Redeemer is, the penalty
Of insubordination, wilfully
Must undertake, but also, He
Must Nature reassert and set it free.
For Human Nature, made with God to be
Immortally conjoined, should stedfastly
The purpose follow of her entity:
Her splendid will, released from vanity,
To God's High Will subordinate should be.
For earthly goods she may not pine, nor be
Enamoured of the creature: God will be
Her centre and circumference - must be
Her longing, night and day. Nor thirst may she,
For aught but Him in all to serve - to see.
Such was the Life of Jesus. Verily,
The Father's Will, His Rule of Life would be;
His meat and drink it was . . . and so hath He,
O Mother-Priestess, tutored thee to be
Obedient unto dying, willingly.
- text taken from Mary: The Perfect Woman, by Emily Mary Shapcote