Poems on Various Subjects (Coleridge)/Notes on Religious Musings

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

NOTES

ON

RELIGIOUS MUSINGS.

Line 8.

And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace.

Luke II. 13.

Line 27.

Philip saith unto him, Lord! shew us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.

John XIV. 9.

Line 91.

And I heard a great voice out of the Temple saying to the seven Angels, pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

Revelation XVI. 1.

Line 193.

That Despot who received the wages of an hireling that he might act the part of a swindler, and who skulked from his impotent attacks on the liberties of France to perpetrate more successful iniquity in the plains of Poland.

Line 200.

The Father of the present Prince of Hesse Cassell supported himself and his strumpets at Paris by the vast sums which he received from the British Government during the American war for the flesh of his subjects.

Line 212.

Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord! thou hast ordained them for judgment, &c.

Habakkuk. I. 12.

Line 235.

I deem that the teaching of the gospel for hire is wrong; because it gives the teacher an improper bias in favor of particular opinions on a subject where it is of the last importance that the mind should be perfectly unbiassed. Such is my private opinion; but I mean not to censure all hired teachers, many among whom I know, and venerate as the best and wisest of men—God forbid that I should think of these, when I use the word Priest, a name, after which any other term of abhorrence would appear an anti-climax. By a Priest I mean a man who holding the scourge of power in his right hand and a bible (translated by authority) in his left, doth necessarily cause the bible and the scourge to be associated ideas, and so produces that temper of mind that leads to Infidelity—Infidelity which judging of Revelation by the doctrines and practices of established Churches honors God by rejecting Christ. See "Address to the People," Page 57, sold by Parsons, Paternoster-Row.

Line 253.

Dr. Franklin.

Line 288.

At eleven o'clock, while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of Chiggre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we were to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out with a loud voice, 'Fall upon your faces, for here is the Simoom.' I saw from the S. E. an haze come on, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick.—It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground.——We all lay flat on the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze, which I saw, was indeed passed; but the light air that still blew was of heat to threaten suffocation.

Bruce's Travels, vol. 4. page 557.

Line 294.

Used poetically for a very large quadruped; but in general it designates the Elephant.

Line 324.

See the sixth chapter of the Revelation of St. John the Divine.——And I looked and beheld a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the Earth to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with pestilence, and with the beasts of the earth.——And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, the stars of Heaven fell unto the Earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind: And the Kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, &c.

Line 335.

The French Revolution.

Line 343.

And there came one of the seven Angels which had the seven vials and talked with me, saying unto me, come hither! I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great Whore, that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication, &c. Revelation of St. John the Divine, chapter the seventeenth.