Lucifer. Belzebub

Lucifer:

Ye speedy Spirits, stay our chariot now, God's Morning-star in its full zenith stands; Its height is reached; and lo! the moment comes When Lucifer must set before this star, This double star that rises from below And seeks the way above, to tarnish Heaven With earthly glow. No more should ye adorn Proud Lucifer's apparel with glittering crowns, Nor gild his forehead with the glorious dawn Of morning-star, to which Archangels kneel. Another splendor sweeps into the light Of God, whose radiance drowns our vaunted glory. As to the eyes of man, below, the sun, By day, puts out the stars. The shades of night Bedim the Angels and the suns of Heaven: For man hath won the heart of the Most High, Within his new-created Paradise. He is the friend of Heaven. Our slavery Even now begins. Go hence, rejoice and serve And honor this new race like servile slaves. For God was man created; we, for him. Let then the Angels bend their necks beneath His feet. Let each one now upon him wait And bear him even unto the highest Thrones On hands or wings: for our inheritance Shall pass to him, the chosen son of God. We, the first-born, shall suffer in this Realm. The son, born on that day, the sixth, and made In the image of the Father, shall attain The crown. And rightly unto him was given The mighty sceptre, which shall cause even us, The ones first born, to tremble and to shake. Here holds no contradiction now: ye heard What Gabriel's trump spake at the golden port?

Belzebub:

O! Stadtholder of God's superior Powers, Alas! we hear too well, amid the praise Of choristers, a discord that makes sad The feast eterne. The charge of Gabriel Is clear. It needs no tongue of Cherubim To unfold its sense. Nor was there need to send Apollion below, a nearer view To gain of Adam's realm beneath the moon. How gloriously the Godhead dealt with him Doth well appear. He hath, for his defence, Even given a life-guard, many thousands strong, While He supports his rank and dignity, As if he were the supreme Chief of Spirits. The massive gate of Heaven stands ajar For Adam's seed. An earth-worm that hath crawled Out of the dust—out of a clod of clay Defies thy power. Thou shalt yet man behold O'er thee exalted, so that thou shalt fall Upon thy knees and there, abased, adore, With drooping eyes, his lofty eminence, His power and high authority. He shall, When glorified by the Omnipotent, Yet seat himself, even by the side of God, Empowered to reign beyond the farthest rounds And endless circles of eternity. That, from the bounds of time and space set free, Revolve unceasingly around one God, Who is their centre and circumference. What clearer proof need we to see that God Shall glorify mankind, and us degrade? For we were born to serve, and man, to rule. Then henceforth put the sceptre from thy hand: There is another one below, who reigns, Or soon shall reign. Put off thy morning rays And wreaths of light before this sun, or else Have care to bring him in with songs of joy And triumph and with honors full divine. We soon shall see the Heavens changed in state. Behold! the stars look out and from their paths Retreat, aglow with longing to receive With reverence this new and coming light.

Lucifer:

That shall I thwart, if in my power it be.

Belzebub:

There hear I Lucifer and him behold. Who from Heaven's face can drive the night away. Where he appears, day's glory dawns anew. His crescent light, the first and nighest God, Shall ne'er grow dim. His word is stern command; His will and nod a law by none transgressed. The Godhead is in him obeyed and served, Praised, honored, and adored. Should then a voice More faint than his now thunder from God's Throne? Than his be more obeyed? Should God exalt A younger son, begot of Adam's loins, Even over him? That would most violate The heirship of the eldest-born and rob His splendor of its rays. 'Neath God Himself None is so great as thou. The Godhead once Set thee the first in glory at His feet. Then let not man dare thus our order great Profane, nor thus cast down these vested Rights "Without a cause, or all of Heaven shall spring To arms 'gainst one.