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Yale Center for British Art Edward Young's Night Thoughts Night IV, page 12, Object 121 |
Larry Clayton's Blake Primer - God
iv
But the fourth feature of Jesus came into Blake's consciousness as a new experience. It came from Beyond. That is to say it was not an inward expression of Blake's psyche; it came like the Son of God who had joined the three friends in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. It wasn't something he thought of; it was something that happened to him.
It was the experience of forgiveness and self-annihilation, which are two sides of the same coin. No one forgives until he has found the grace to annihilate at least momentarily the law bound accusing spectre which is his Selfhood. And this is only possible as an act of the Imagination, which is eternal, which is Christ. Whenever you successfully annihilate your old self to the point of truly forgiving another, the eternal Christ is alive and at work in your soul. In fact it is he who does it. He is in you, and you are in him; that's eternal life.
Reduced to its barest essential that's what Jesus finally came to mean for Blake. The only unique thing about the man of Nazareth was that he taught forgiveness of one's enemies. In this sense he incarnated God. God is love, is forgiveness. "If Morality was Christianity, Socrates was the Saviour." Unlike Socrates Jesus was a man in whom God dwelt through his vision and his acts of forgiveness.
The significance of the resurrection lies in the coming to life of Forgiveness: Jesus, in you and me. In this way we defeat death.
The Everlasting Gospel, (E 874)
"Nine widely scattered entries in Blake's Notebook (in the British Library) and three sections in a separate scrap of paper (in the Rosenbach Foundation library) have long been recognized as parts of a single but unfinished (or perhaps only unedited) poem."
Textural notes for Everlasting Gospel; (E 875)
"There is not one Moral Virtue that Jesus Inculcated but Plato &
Cicero did Inculcate before him what then did Christ Inculcate.
Forgiveness of Sins This alone is the Gospel & this is the Life &
Immortality brought to light by Jesus. Even the Covenant of
Jehovah, which is This If you forgive one another your Trespasses
so shall Jehovah forgive you That he himself may dwell among you
but if you Avenge you Murder the Divine Image & he cannot dwell
among you because you Murder him he arises
Again & you deny that he is Arisen & are blind to Spirit
PAGE 2
What can this Gospel of Jesus be
What Life Immortality
What was it that he brought to Light
That Plato & Cicero did not write
The Heathen Deities wrote them all
These Moral Virtues great & small
What is the Accusation of Sin
But Moral Virtues deadly Gin"
PAGE 3 It was when Jesus said to Me Thy Sins are all forgiven thee The Christian trumpets loud proclaim Thro all the World in Jesus name Mutual forgiveness of each Vice And oped the Gates of Paradise The Moral Virtues in Great fear Formed the Cross & Nails & Spear And the Accuser standing by Cried out Crucify Crucify Our Moral Virtues neer can be Nor Warlike pomp & Majesty For Moral Virtues all begin In the Accusations of Sin"
Auguries of Innocence, (E 495)
"God appears, and God is lightTo those poor souls who dwell in night,
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day."
2 comments:
So in what way did Blake actually have "the experience of forgiveness and self-annihilation"? Was it an intellectual/emotional abstraction, of "seeing" the idea of forgiving and self-annihilation? Or did he have an actual real-life enemy or enemy whom he actually forgave and felt his actual self annihilated? Or even, was he some actual person's enemy, and the person forgave him, and he and/or the person who forgave had their self annihilated? I'm trying to imagine what this would be like if it happened. For example, many people experience President Trump as the enemy - and I can well imagine that forgiving him might feel like self-annihilation, which would keep folks from even wanting to forgive him....
There is no evidence that Blake forgave everyone who took advantage of him or who tried to destroy his reputation, nor did he attempt to take vengeance against them. I think that he tried to overcome evil with good as we are instructed to do in the book of Romans.
I think that there were those who sought to prevent him from spreading the truth he discerned in the way that he was capable of doing. Hayley attempted to divert him away from his spiritual pursuits so that he could earn a better living. Blake moved back to London to escape the pressure of the well intended but material-minded Hayley.
The battles which Blake fought were within his own psyche and the accounts of them are portrayed in Milton and Jerusalem.
Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 142)
"There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary
The Negation must be destroyd to redeem the Contraries
The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination.
PLATE 41 [48]
To bathe in the Waters of Life; to wash off the Not Human
I come in Self-annihilation & the grandeur of Inspiration
To cast off Rational Demonstration by Faith in the Saviour
To cast off the rotten rags of Memory by Inspiration
To cast off Bacon, Locke & Newton from Albions covering
To take off his filthy garments, & clothe him with Imagination
To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration"
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