Justice (II)
Justice in Terror
The speaker recalls how divine justice once appeared terrifying, distorted by sin, intimidating the proud.
O dreadful Justice, what a fright and terror you once were, when sin and error showed and shaped your looks to me, and through their glass discolored you!1 Anyone who so much as looked up was proud and bold. The pans of your scales seemed to gape open like two great pits; the beam and the pointer looked like an instrument of torture. Your hand above burned and glowed, daunting the bravest hearts and the proudest minds.✦2
Justice Transformed by Christ
Through Christ, the speaker now sees justice as gentle, providential, and a source of confident prayer.
But now that Christ's pure veil lets me see, I see no fears: your hand is white, your scales are like buckets that stand ready and take turns going down, lifting up to heaven from this well of tears.✦3 For where before you kept calling on me, now I keep touching and harping on you. God's promises have made you mine: why should I turn away from justice now? There is nothing against me, but much for me.✦
Read the original English
O Dreadfull Justice, what a fright and terrour Wast thou of old, When sinne and errour Did show and shape thy looks to me, And through their glasse discolour thee! He that did but look up, was proud and bold.
The dishes of thy ballance seem'd to gape, Like two great pits; The beam and scape Did like some tort'ring engine show: Thy hand above did burn and glow, Danting the stoutest hearts, the proudest wits.
But now that Christs pure vail presents the sight, I see no fears: Thy hand is white, Thy scales like buckets, which attend And interchangeably descend, Lifting to heaven from this well of tears.
For where before thou still didst call on me, Now I still touch And harp on thee. Gods promises have made thee mine: Why should I justice now decline? Against me there is none, but for me much.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Job.31.6;Prov.16.11;Dan.5.27 — Let God weigh me on scales of justice, and He will know my integrity. Prov.16.11 — Honest scales and balances belong to the LORD; all the weights in the bag are his handiwork. Dan.5.27 — TEKEL: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
- ↩Heb.10.19-Heb.10.20 — Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, Heb.10.20 — that he opened for us — a new and living way through the curtain, that is, through his flesh
- ↩Rom.8.31 — What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Notes
- 1 ↩Herbert's 'glass' is a lens or mirror: sin and error do not only present Justice's face but tint and distort it.
- 2 ↩Source 'scape' is the tongue/pointer of a balance; rendered as 'pointer'. Source 'Danting' is early spelling of 'daunting'.
- 3 ↩Source 'vail' modernized as 'veil' (Christ's pure covering that makes the sight of justice no longer terrifying).
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