PERSPECTIVE

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 39

Jerusalem Plate 39, (E 181) 

"Los was the friend of Albion who most lov'd him. In Cambridgeshire
His eternal station, he is the twenty-eighth, & is four-fold.
Seeing Albion had turn'd his back against the Divine Vision,
Los said to Albion, Whither fleest thou? Albion reply'd.         

I die! I go to Eternal Death! the shades of death
Hover within me & beneath, and spreading themselves outside
Like rocky clouds, build me a gloomy monument of woe:
Will none accompany me in my death? or be a Ransom for me
In that dark Valley? I have girded round my cloke, and on my feet

Bound these black shoes of death, & on my hands, death's iron gloves:
God hath forsaken me, & my friends are become a burden
A weariness to me, & the human footstep is a terror to me.

Los answerd, troubled: and his soul was rent in twain:
Must the Wise die for an Atonement? does Mercy endure Atonement? 
No! It is Moral Severity, & destroys Mercy in its Victim.
So speaking, not yet infected with the Error & Illusion,"

Blake was not setting up a scientific experiment when he wrote of the process in the fall and recovery of humanity. He did not suggest that the Philosophers Stone would be produced by collecting the right ingredients, following the right procedures and, using the proper techniques in such a way that the outcome would be assured. Blake asked his reader to become aware of the minute details, while at the same time he was cognizant of the whole of which the details were a part.

Northrop Frye wrote of this situation in The Double Vision, the last book he wrote before his death in 1991. You may recall that his first book, published in 1947, was   Fearful Symmetry.

"If the spirit of man and the spirit of God inhabit the same world, that fact is more important than the theological relation between them." Page 84

"There is nothing unique about death itself...
In the double vision of a spiritual and a physical world simultaneously present, every moment we have lived through we have also died out of into another order. Our life in the resurrection, then, is already here, and waiting to be recognized." Page 85
 
If there was one big Truth that Blake wanted to convey it was that the message of Jesus was still waiting to be heard. The New Testament shows us the truth that God is an internal reality which is ever-present and makes man whole. But this message has fallen into the hands of people who reject the truth of it and alter it into the old falsehoods of following external routines of ritual and law and selfish interest. The grip of darkness and error maintains its hold in the minds and lives of people.

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 114, (E 385)
"And Los & Enitharmon took the Body of the Lamb 
Down from the Cross & placd it in a Sepulcher which Los had hewn
For himself in the Rock of Eternity trembling & in despair 
Jerusalem wept over the Sepulcher two thousand Years
Page 115  
Rahab triumphs over all she took Jerusalem
Captive A Willing Captive by delusive arts impelld
To worship Urizens Dragon form to offer her own Children
Upon the bloody Altar. John Saw these things Reveald in Heaven
On Patmos Isle & heard the Souls cry out to be deliverd"

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 563)
"The Combats of Good & Evil is Eating of the Tree
of Knowledge     The Combats of Truth & Error is Eating of the Tree
of Life   & of Truth & Error which are the same thing
these are not only Universal but Particular.  Each are
Personified There is not an Error but it has a Man for its
Agent that is it is a Man.. There is not a Truth
but it has also a Man                 Good & Evil are Qualities in Every Man
whether Good or Evil Man          These are Enemies & destroy one
another by every Means in their power both of deceit & of open
Violence The Deist & the Christian are but the Results of these
Opposing Natures Many are Deists who would in certain Circumstances   
have been Christians   in outward appearance Voltaire was one of
this number he was as intolerant as an Inquisitor   Manners make
the Man not Habits.  It is the same in Art by their Works ye [P
90] shall know them the Knave who is Converted to Deism & the
Knave who is Converted to Christianity is still a Knave but he
himself will not know it tho Every body else does    Christ comes
as he came at first to deliver those who were bound under the
Knave not to deliver the Knave He Comes to Deliver Man the
Accused & not Satan the Accuser        we do not
find any where that Satan is Accused of Sin he is only accused of
Unbelief & thereby drawing Man into Sin that he may accuse him. 
Such is the Last Judgment a Deliverance from Satans Accusation
Satan thinks that Sin is displeasing to God he ought to know that
Nothing is displeasing to God but Unbelief & Eating of the Tree
of Knowledge of Good & Evil" 

Annotations to Watson, (E 614)
 "To me who believe the Bible & profess myself a Christian a
defence of the Wickedness of the Israelites in murdering so many
thousands under pretence of a command from God is altogether
Abominable & Blasphemous.  Wherefore did Christ come was it not
to abolish the Jewish Imposture   Was not Christ murderd because
he taught that God loved all Men & was their father & forbad all
contention for Worldly prosperity in opposition to the Jewish
Scriptures which are only an Example of the wickedness & deceit
of the Jews & were written as an Example of the possibility of
Human Beastliness in all its branches.  Christ died as an
Unbeliever . & if the Bishops had their will so would Paine. 

but he who speaks a word against the Son of man shall be
forgiven let the Bishop prove that he has not spoken against 

the Holy Ghost who in Paine strives with Christendom as in
Christ he strove with the Jews" 

Annotations to Watson, (E 615)

"That the Jews assumed a right Exclusively to the benefits
of God. will be a lasting witness against them. & the same will
it be against Christians"

Annotations to Watson, (E 615)

"The Bible or Peculiar Word of God, Exclusive of Conscience
or the Word of God Universal, is that Abomination which like the
Jewish ceremonies is for ever removed & henceforth every man may
converse with God & be a King & Priest in his own house" 
 

Annotations to Watson, (E 615)

"The Bible tells me that the plan of Providence was Subverted
at the Fall of Adam & that it was not restored till Christ" 

Letters, To Butts, (E 719) 

"And now let me finish with assuring you that Tho I have been
very unhappy I am so no longer I am again Emerged into the light
of Day I still & shall to Eternity Embrace Christianity and Adore
him who is the Express image of God but I have traveld thro
Perils & Darkness not unlike a Champion I have Conquerd and shall
still Go on Conquering Nothing can withstand the fury of my
Course among the Stars of God & in the Abysses of the Accuser My
Enthusiasm is still what it was only Enlarged and confirmd"

Blake's Notebook, (E 876)
    " 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

Blake's Notebook, (E 876)   

    "If Moral Virtue was Christianity
     Christs Pretensions were all Vanity
     And Caiphas & Pilate Men
     Of Moral Praise Worth   & the Lions Den
     And not the Sheepfold Allegories
     Of God & Heaven & their Glories 

     The Moral Christian is the Cause 
     Of the Unbeliever & his Laws"