歌词
Gabriel:
Lord Stadtholder, how? Whither bound?
Lucifer:
To thee,
O Herald and Interpreter of Heaven.
Gabriel:
Me thinks I read thy purpose on thy brow.
Lucifer:
Thou who canst fathom and who canst reveal,
Through the deep-searching light of thy mind's eye,
The shadowy mysteries of God,
Relieve me with thy coming.
The late decision of the ruling Powers,
The new decree made by the Godhead,
Who esteems celestial joys as of less worth than earthly elements,
oppresses Heaven,
Even from the low abyss the Earth exalts above the stars,
sets man high in the seat of the Angels,
whom, shorn of primordial powers,
He then commands for human happiness to sweat and slave.
We Spirits are yet too gross to comprehend this mystery.
Thou, who the key dost guard
Of God's rich treasure-house of mysteries, unlock,
if so thou mayest,
this secret dark
From out thy sealèd book:
unfold to us
The will of Heaven.
Gabriel:
As much as it is to us
Permitted to unfold out of God's book:
Indeed, may damage bring.
The Sovran Power revealeth only what He deems most fit.
The inner light blinds even Seraphim.
The spotless Wisdom would, in part, her will conceal,
in part would it disclose.
The reason why the Lord
(Which secret we shall know, when first shall pass
A lineage of Earth-born generations)
Who, both God and man become,
shall reign, and rule,
Afar and wide, the stars, the sea, the Earth
And all that live,
the Heavens conceal from thee:
Time shall divulge the cause.
God's trumpet heed:
His will thou now hast heard.
Lucifer:
Shall then on high
A worm, an alien, wield the greatest power?
Must they who native are to Heaven
thus yield to foreign rule?
Shall man then found a throne
Even o'er the Throne of God?
Till now my crown hath bowed to none
But God.
Gabriel:
Then also bow before this last decree of God,
who leadeth all that have their being from naught,
yea, all that e'er shall live,
Unto their end and certain destiny,
Thou art, indeed,
Most zealous for the glory of God's name;
Though truly without weighing well that God,
The point wherein His majesty doth lie,
Far better knows than we.
Cease therefore now this inquisition.
For when God as man shall have become,
He shall this book of His own mysteries,
now sealed with seven seals.
Himself unseal.
To taste the kern within is not for thee;
thou seest the shell alone.
Then of this long concealment
we shall learn the cause and hidden reason,
all the while deep-gazing;
in the unveiled Holy of Holies.
It now behooves us ever to obey
And to revere this rising dawn,
to use our light with thankfulness until the time
When knowledge in her power shall drive all doubt away,
even as the sun the night.
Now learn we gradually,
with modest reverence,
God's Wisdom to approach.
And this to us reveals,
by slow degrees,
the light of truth and knowledge,
and requires that,
on his watch,
Each shall submit himself to reason's rule,
Lord Stadtholder, be calm. Be foremost,
thou, now to maintain the law.
God sends me hence. I must away.
Lucifer:
I do beseech thee, Gabriel,
if now thy trumpet's voice,
The new-made law given by the High Command,
I do resist, or seemingly oppose.
We strive for God's own honor, yea,
to give to God His Right, should I become thus daring
And wander far beyond the narrow path
Of my obedience.
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