Jerusalem. The Emanation of the Giant Albion/To the Deists

by William Blake

Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion, copy E, object 52 (Bentley 52, Erdman 52, Keynes 52) "To the Deists"

Rahab is an Eternal State

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To the Deists.

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The Spiritual States of the Soul are all Eternal Distinguish between the Man, & his present State

He never can be a Friend to the Human Race who is the Preacher of Natural Morality or Natural Religion. he is a flatterer who means to betray, to perpetuate Tyrant Pride & the Laws of that Babylon which he foresees shall shortly be destroyed, with the Spiritual and not the Natural Sword: He is in the State named Rahab: which State must be put off before he can be the Friend of Man.

You O Deists profess yourselves the Enemies of Christianity: and you are so: you are also the Enemies of the Human Race & of Universal Nature. Man is born a Spectre or Satan & is altogether an Evil, & requires a New Selfhood continually & must continually be changed into his direct Contrary. But your Greek Philosophy (which is a remnant of Druidism) teaches that Man is Righteous in his Vegetated Spectre: an Opinion of fatal & accursed consequence to Man, as the Ancients saw plainly by Revelation to the intire abrogation of Experimental Theory. and many believed what they saw, and Prophecied of Jesus.

Man must & will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, & will erect the Synagogue of Satan. calling the Prince of this World, God; and destroying all who do not worship Satan under the Name of God. Will any one say: Where are those who worship Satan under the Name of God! Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that Preaches Vengeance for Sins the Religion of the Enemy & Avenger; and not the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, Named by the Divine Name Your Religion O Deists: Deism, is the Worship of the God of this World by the means of what you call Natural Religion and Natural Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart. This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murderd Jesus. Deism is the same & ends in the same.

Voltaire Rousseau Gibbon Hume. charge the Spiritually Religious with Hypocrisy! but how a Monk or a Methodist either, can be a Hypocrite: I cannot concieve. We are Men of like passions with others & pretend not to be holier than others: therefore, when a Religious Man falls into Sin, he ought not to be calld a Hypocrite: this title is more properly to be given to a Player who falls into Sin; whose profession is Virtue & Morality & the making Men Self-Righteous. Foote in calling Whitefield, Hypocrite: was himself one: for Whitefield pretended not to be holier than others: but confessed his Sins before all the World; Voltaire! Rousseau! You cannot escape my charge that you are Pharisees & Hypocrites, for you are constantly talking of the Virtues of the Human Heart, and particularly of your own, that you may accuse others & especially the Religious, whose errors, you by this display of pretended Virtue, chiefly design to expose. Rousseau thought Men Good by Nature; he found them Evil & found no friend. Friendship cannot exist without Forgiveness of Sins continually. The Book written by Rousseau calld his Confessions is an apology & cloke for his sin & not a confession.

But you also charge the poor Monks & Religious with being the causes of War: while you acquit & flatter the Alexanders & Caesars, the Lewis's & Fredericks: who alone are its causes & its actors. But the Religion of Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, can never be the cause of a War nor of a single Martyrdom.

Those who Martyr others or who cause War are Deists, but never can be Forgivers of Sin. The Glory of Christianity is, To Conquer by Forgiveness. All the Destruction therefore, Christian Europe has arisen from Deism, which is Natural Religion.

 I saw a Monk of Charlemaine t
Arise before my sight
 I talkd with the Grey Monk as we stood t
In beams of infernal light

 Gibbon arose with a lash of steel t 5
And Voltaire with a wracking wheel
 The Schools in clouds of learning rolld t
Arose with War in iron & gold.

 Thou lazy Monk they sound afar t
In vain condemning glorious War t 10
 And in your Cell you shall ever dwell t
Rise War & bind him in his Cell.

 The blood. red ran from the Grey Monks side
His hands & feet were wounded wide
 His body bent, his arms & knees 15
Like to the roots of ancient trees

 When Satan first the black bow bent t
And the Moral Law from the Gospel rent
 He forgd the Law into a Sword
And spilld the blood of mercys Lord. 20

 Titus! Constantine! Charlemaine! t
O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain
 Your Grecian Mocks & Roman Sword t
Against this image of his Lord!

 For a Tear is an Intellectual thing; t 25
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King
 And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe t
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow!