THE DIVINE IMAGE

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Songs of Innocence

Plate 12, Copy G

Songs of Innocence, Plate 18, (E 12)
"The Divine Image.                

To Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
All pray in their distress:
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy Pity Peace and Love,  
Is God our father dear:
And Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
Is Man his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face: 
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine   
Love Mercy Pity Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk or jew.
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too"

The Divine Image expresses the inclusiveness of God with humanity. Man is created in the image of God so that he may express in the flesh the nature of God who is Spirit. Humankind's nature is a implementation of God his creator. Just as God is not isolated from his creation, man is not meant to be isolated from his fellow man. We are meant to feel mercy by being touched in our hearts by another's suffering. We are meant to see with pity the face of every face revealing the underlying humanity which joins man with man. We are meant to express the bonds of love which cement us into one body which incorporates all. We are meant to distinguish the inner truth which resides in each from the outer appearances which prevent us from being at peace with others.

This poem is Blake's plea that mankind not be deceived by the outward appearances of nationality, race or creed. Within us are the same avenues for being in communication with God, 'out father dear,' and recognizing ourselves as being as he is.

THERE is NO NATURAL RELIGION, (E 3) 

"Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is"

First John 4 

[4] Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 

[5] They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 

[6] We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 

[7] Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 

[8] He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 

[9] In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 

[10] Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

[11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 

[12] No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 

Four Zoas, Page 126, (E 395) 

"Luvah & Vala henceforth you are Servants obey & live 

You shall forget your former state return O Love in peace 

Into your place the place of seed not in the brain or heart  

If Gods combine against Man Setting their Dominion above

The Human form Divine. Thrown down from their high Station 

In the Eternal heavens of Human Imagination: buried beneath

In dark Oblivion with incessant pangs ages on ages 

In Enmity & war first weakend then in stern repentance 

They must renew their brightness & their disorganizd functions  

Again reorganize till they resume the image of the human 

Cooperating in the bliss of Man obeying his Will 

Servants to the infinite & Eternal of the Human form"

Annotations to Swedenborg, (E 603) 

"Swedenborg: In all the Heavens there is no other Idea of God than that of a Man: . .

Blake: Man can have no idea of any thing greater than Man as a cup cannot contain more than its capaciousness But God is a man not because he is so percievd by man but because he is the creator of man"

The path of Innocence is not traveled by all. Blake sees that mankind is marked by his choices. In London from Songs of Experience, Blake shows us the consequence of stifling our ability to respond to the Divine Image with Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love. He sees it in the streets he walks, the faces he encounters, the cries of the helpless and in failures of human relationships.

Songs of Experience, Plate 46, (E 26)
"LONDON                                        

I wander thro' each charter'd street,          
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.     
And mark in every face I meet                  
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man, 
In every Infants cry of fear,                  
In every voice: in every ban,                  
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear                

How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,                
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear 
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse"