JACOB AT BETHEL by Lucy Hutchinson

Order and Disorder 19 from line 65:

 

Such in his desolate lodging Jacob found

Who sees the ladder standing on the ground,

The  top up to high heaven advanced, from whence

The angels waiting on God's providence

Perpetually in thick troops made descent

And back to heaven by the same steps went:

To heaven where his penetrating sight

Beheld the glorious uncreated light

Where are the ladder's top Jehovah stood

And thus His lasting promises renewed:

'I am that God whom Abraham did before,

And since, thy father Isaac did adore.

The land on which thou liest, I have decreed

To give unto thee and thy blessed seed

Which I will make as numerous as the sands,

Dilate to the east, west, north, and southern lands.

Blessings unto the whole earth's families

From thee and thy successors shall arise.

Lo, I am with thee and in every place

Where'er thou goest will be thy guard; my grace

Shall thee in all thy wandering sustain

And to this land conduct thee back again.

Till all my promises accomplished be

I will in no distress abandon thee.'

THE PROMISE TO ABRAHAM by Lucy Hutchinson

"It is in Isaac that I have decreed

A glorious name unto thy holy seed.

From him the godly nation shall descend,

His sons their eastern conquests shall extend,

And from a race of kings at last shall rise

That glorious Monarch whose great victories

Shall overthrow the powers of Death and Hell

And them from their usurped realm expel.

Then all mankind, whom they did captivate

Shall be his grace attain a blessed state.

Redeemed out of the dark unpleasant grave,

He shall their lives in sacred dwellings save.

But first a long and various tracts of time

Must be expired before thy nephews climb

To these last glories; yet here steadfast rest

Thy faith: the world shall be in Isaac blessed.

Then let not longer thy affections flow

In a divided channel, but bestow

It whole on him who is ordained thine heir,

And trust thy other child unto my care."

Around Lasswade Cemetery, Midlothian

including burial plaque for

William Drummond of Hawthornden

THE OLIVE PLANT by Lucy Hutchinson

Of all the plants that spring up from the ground,

With more or richer blessings none are crowned

Than is the olive, which still feels that light

That makes the altar and the temple bright,

Gives lustre to the face, poisons expels,

All rankling wounds, all venomous biting heals,

Produceth softness, smoothness, suppless, ease,

Fattening all food, allaying all disease.

Such are the blessed effects the gospel hath

On sinners wounded with the sense of wrath

By fiery serpents stung; it cures their smart,

Rough nature smooths, softens the obdurate heart,

Feeds the internal temple's lamps of grace

And sets sweet lustre on the exterior face.

But where these glorious great effects are wrought

The olive must in the dove's mouth be brought,

For fruitless is the gospel remedy

Except the Spirit do the cure apply.

Order and Disorder Canto 8: 167-184

The Woods near home; 

no olive trees

ON GOD AND MEN

Poor weak and silly mortals, who conceived 

Too foolishly of God while they believed 

That this divinity could be confined 

To any of those places they assigned, 

When even Heaven, which doth this globe embrace, 

Cannot hold Him who yet fills every place, 

Still present in the earth, the sea, the air, 

Not bounded, nor excluded anywhere, 

He in kings’ courts and great assemblies dwells, 

In private houses, and obscured cells. 

His presence over the whole world extends, 

And He to every single heart descends. 

Before designs to their ripe birth are brought, 

He’s at their first conception in the thought, 

And when the black deeds are brought forth, not night 

Nor darkness can obscure them from His sight. 

Yet though He all men’s inclinations knows, 

He often makes experiment of those 

Who boast His name, that when their weak holds fail, 

They, finding mortals’ best perfections frail, 

More humbly may to the Almighty bend 

And upon His, not their own strength depend. 

From Lucy Hutchinson Canto 15: 31-52

Loch Katrine

AFTER THE FLOOD

 At the Trossachs

Noah indeed did the old world survive,
Yet were his mates and he buried alive
In the decaying ark, not any sense
Appeared continuance there, or issue thence.
But faith through all the clouds saw God their guide
And on his wisdom for th’event relied,
Urging his promise did their frail hearts stay,
Assured they would be saved, though not which way,
At last, after five months were fully spent,
The Lord, pitying their tedious languishment,
Suddenly did their staggering hopes erect
And at their height the raging billows checked.
Whether immediately, as he before
Had framed, the sacred spirit did restore
The ruined world, or purposely, a wind
Whereof we can no cause in nature find,
Created as the means whereby he wrought
A miracle of mercy each way brought
Mankind relief, checked the exulting flood,
Which at his great rebuke now patient stood
And, guilty of its late exorbitance
Shrunk in as fast as it did first advance.

Lucy Hutchinson (1620-1681)

From 'Order and Disorder'.

From "Order and Disorder"

And herein truly lies the difference

Of natural and gracious penitence:

The first transferreth and extenuates

The guilt, which the other owns and aggravates.

While sin is but regarded slight and small

It makes the value of rich mercy fall.

But as our crimes seem greater in our eyes,

So doth our grateful sense of pardon rise.

 

From Canto 5: Order and Disorder by Lucy Hutchinson (1620–1681)

Comment on Genesis 3

Autumn in the Penicuik House Estate