DIVINE LOVE; THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTIC OF TRUE RELIGION by JOHN BYROM

RELIGION's meaning when I would recal,
@3Love@1 is to me the plainest word of all;
Plainest: because that what I @3love@1 or @3hate@1
Shews me directly my internal state:
By its own consciousness is best defin'd,
Which way the heart within me stands inclin'd.

On what it lets its inclination rest,
To that its real worship is address'd:
Whatever forms or ceremonies spring
From custom's force, @3there@1 lies the real thing:
@3Jew, Turk@1, or @3Christian@1, be the lover's name,
If same the love, religion is the same.

Of all religions if we take a view,
There is but one that ever can be true;
One @3God, one Christ, one Spirit@1, none but He;
All else is @3Idol@1, whatsoe'er it be;
A good that our imaginations make,
Unless we love it purely for His sake.

Nothing but gross idolatry alone
Can ever love it, merely, for its own:
It may be good, that is, may make appear
So much of God's @3one@1 goodness to be clear;
Thereby to raise a true, religious soul,
To love of @3Him@1, the One Eternal Whole;

The one Unbounded, Undivided Good,
By all his creatures partly understood:
If therefore sense of its apparent parts
Raise not his love or worship in our hearts,
Our selfish wills or notions we may feast,
And have no more religion than a beast.

For brutal instinct can a good embrace,
That leaves behind it no reflecting trace;
But thinking man, whatever be his theme,
Should worship Goodness in the Great Supreme;
By inward faith, more sure than outward sight,
Should eye the Source of all that's good and right.

@3Religion@1 then is @3Love's@1 celestial force,
That penetrates thro' all to its true source;
Loves all along, but with proportion'd bent,
As creatures further the divine ascent;
Not to the skies or stars; but to the part
That will be always uppermost—the @3Heart.@1

There is the seat, as holy writings tell,
Where the Most High Himself delights to dwell:
Whither attracting the desirous will
To its true rest, He saves it from all ill;
Gives it to find, in his abyssal love,
A Heav'n within, in other words, above.

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