| |
| MY ravisht soul, a pious ardour fires, | |
| To sing those mystick wonders it admires, | |
| Contemplating the Rise of every thing | |
| That, with Times birth, flow’d from th’ eternal spring: | |
| And the no less stupendious Providence | 5 |
| By which discording Natures ever since | |
| Have kept up universal Harmonie; | |
| While in one joynt obedience all agree, | |
| Performing that to which they were design’d | |
| With ready inclination; But Mankind | 10 |
| Es. 10.5,6,7, &c. | Alone rebels against his Makers will, | |
| Which tho’ opposing he must yet fulfill. | |
| And so that wise Power, who each crooked stream | |
| Most rightly guides, becomes the glorious theam | |
| Of endless admiration, while we see, | 15 |
| Whatever mortals vain endeavours be, | |
| Eccl. 6.10. | They must be broken who with Power contend, | |
| Es. 27.4. | And cannot frustrate their Creators End, | |
| Gen. 45.4,5. | Whose Wisdom, Goodness, Might and Glory shines | |
| Act. 2.23. | In guiding mens unto his own designs. | 20 |
| Gen. 50.20. | In these outgoings would I sing his praise, | |
| But my weak sense with the too glorious rays | |
| Is struck with such confusion, that I find | |
| Only the worlds first Chaos in my mind, | |
| Where Light and Beauty lie wrapt up in seed, | 25 |
| And cannot be from the dark prison freed, | |
| Except that Power, by whom the world was made, | |
| My soul in her imperfect strugglings aid, | |
| Her rude conceptions into forms dispose, | |
| And words impart, which may those forms disclose. | 30 |
| O thou eternal spring of glory, whence | |
| Jam. 1.17. | All other streams derive their excellence, | |
| From whose Love issues every good desire, | |
| Quicken my dull earth with celestial fire, | |
| And let the sacred theam that is my choice, | 35 |
| Give utterance and musick to my voice, | |
| Rom. 1.15. | Singing the works by which thou art reveal’d. | |
| What dark Eternity hath kept conceal’d | |
| From mortals apprehensions, what hath been | |
| Before the race of Time did first begin, | 40 |
| Deut. 29.29. | It were presumptuous folly to enquire. | |
| Let not my thoughts beyond their bound aspire, | |
| Time limits mortals, and Time had its birth, | |
| Gen. 1.1. | In whose Beginning God made Heaven and Earth. | |
| God, the great Elohim, to say no more, | 45 |
| Whose sacred Name we rather must adore | |
| Job 11.7. | Than venture to explain; for He alone | |
| 1 Tim. 6.16. | Dwells in himself, and to himself is known, | |
| & 1.17. | And so, even that by which we have our sight, | |
| Ps. 104.2. | His covering is, He clothes himself with light. | 50 |
| Easier we may the winds in prison shut, | |
| The whole vast Ocean in a nut-shell put, | |
| Es. 40.12. | The Mountains in a little ballance weigh, | |
| And with a Bullrush plumm the deepest Sea, | |
| Than stretch frail humane thought unto the height | 55 |
| Of the great God, Immense, and Infinite, | |
| Job 38. | Containing all things in himself alone, | |
| Being at once in all, contain’d in none. | |
| Yet as a hidden spring appears in streams, | |
| The Sun is seen in its reflected beams, | 60 |
| Whose high embodied Glory is too bright, | |
| Too strong an object for weak mortal sight; | |
| Rom. 1.20. | So in Gods visible productions, we | |
| Heb. 11.27. | What is invisible, in some sort see; | |
| While we considering each created thing, | 65 |
| Are led up to an uncreated spring, | |
| And by gradations of successive Time, | |
| Esai. 44.6. | At last unto Eternity do climb, | |
| As we in tracks of second causes tread | |
| Unto the first uncaused cause are led; | 70 |
| And know, while we perpetual motion see | |
| There must a first self-moving Power be, | |
| Rom. 11.26. | To whom all the inferiour motions tend, | |
| Act. 17.24, | In whom they are begun, and where they end. | |
| 26,28. | This First eternal Cause, th’ Original | 75 |
| Of Being, Life, and Motion, GOD we call; | |
| In whom all Wisdome, Goodness, Glory, Might, | |
| Whatever can himself or us delight | |
| Unite, centring in his Perfection, | |
| Eph. 4.5. | Whose Nature can admit but only One: | 80 |
| Divided Soveraignty makes neither great, | |
| Wanting what’s shar’d to make the summ compleat. | |
| The Tri- | And yet this soveraign sacred Unitie | |
| nity. | Is not alone, for in this one are three, | |
| 1 Joh. 5.7. | Distinguisht, not divided, so that what | 85 |
| Mat. 28.19. | One person is, the other is not that; | |
| Mat. 3.16,17. | Yet all the three, are but one God most High, | |
| One uncompounded, pure Divinity, | |
| Wherein subsist so, the Mysterious three, | |
| That they in Power and Glory equal be; | 90 |
| Joh. 14.10. | Each doth himself, and all the rest possess | |
| Prov. 8.22,30. | In undisturbed joy and blessedness. | |
| Jo. 1.1. | There’s no Inferiour, nor no Later there, | |
| Phil. 2.6. | All Coeternal, all Coequal, are, | |
| Joh. 5.18. | And yet this Parity Order admits. | 95 |
| The Father first, eternally begets, | |
| Joh. 1.14. | Within himself, his Son, substantial Word | |
| 1 Cor. 1.14. | And Wisdom, as his second, and their third | |
| Joh. 16.13,14. | The ever blessed spirit is, which doth | |
| Joh. 15.16. | Alike eternally proceed from both. | 100 |
| These three, distinctly thus, in one Divine, | |
| Pure, Perfect, Self-supplying Essence shine: | |
| Joh. 5.17. | And all cooperate in all works done | |
| Exteriourly, yet so, as every one, | |
| In a peculiar manner suited to | 105 |
| Heb. 12.19. | His Person, doth the common action do. | |
| Es. 42.4. | Herein the Father is the Principal, | |
| Joh. 5.26. | Whose sacred counsels are th’ Original | |
| 1 Cor. 8.6. | Of every Act; produced by the Son, | |
| Joh. 5.19. | By’the Spirit wrought up to perfection. | 110 |
| Eph. 1.11. | I’the Creation thus, by’the Fathers wise decree, | |
| 2 Tim. 1.9. | Such things should in such time, and order be, | |
| Jo. 1.3. | The first foundation of the world was laid. | |
| Heb. 1.2. | The Fabrique, by th’ Eternal Word, was made | |
| Joh. 5.19, &c. | Not as th’ instrument, but joynt actor, who | 115 |
| Joy’d to fulfill the counsels which he knew. | |
| Gen. 1.2. | By the concurrent Spirit all parts were | |
| Job 26.13. | Fitly dispos’d, distinguisht, rendred fair, | |
| In such harmonious and wise order set, | |
| As universal Beauty did compleat. | 120 |
| This most mysterious Triple Unitie, | |
| In Essence One, and in subsistence Three, | |
| Was that great Elohim, who first design’d, | |
| Then made the Worlds, that Angels and Mankind | |
| Rev. 4.11. | Him in his rich out-goings might adore, | 125 |
| Psal. 147, & 148. | And celebrate his praise for evermore; | |
| Act. 17.24. | Who from Eternity himself supplied, | |
| And had no need of any thing beside, | |
| Nor any other cause that did him move | |
| To make a World, but his extensive Love, | 130 |
| It self delighting to communicate; | |
| Its Glory in the creatures to dilate, | |
| While they are led by their own excellence | |
| Job 33.12. | T’ admire the first, pure, high Intelligence, | |
| Psal. 95.3. | By all the Powers and vertues which they have, | 135 |
| Rev. 19.6. | To that Omnipotence who those Powers gave; | |
| By all their glories and their joys to his, | |
| Ps. 16.11. | Who is the fountain of all joy and bliss; | |
| Gen. 17.10. | By all their wants and imbecillities, | |
| To the full magazine of rich supplies, | 140 |
| Where Power, Love, Justice, and Mercy shine | |
| In their still fixed heights, and ne’re decline. | |
| No streams can shrink the self-supplying spring, | |
| Job 35.2[?]. | No retributions can more fulness bring | |
| Psal. 16.2. | To the eternal fountain, which doth run | 145 |
| Rev. 1.8. | In sacred circles, ends where it begun, | |
| Esa. 41.4. | And thence with inexhausted life and force | |
| Begins again a new, yet the same course | |
| It instituted in Times infant birth, | |
| Gen. 1.1. | When the Creator first made Heaven and Earth. | 150 |
| Time. | Time though it all things into motion bring | |
| Be resheth | Is not it self any substantial thing, | |
| In Capite, | But only Motions measure; As a twin | |
| Principio. | Born with it; and they both at once begin | |
| With the existence of the rolling sphere, | 155 |
| Before which neither time nor motion were. | |
| Time being a still continued number, made | |
| By the vicissitude of Light and Shade, | |
| By the Moons growth, and by her waxing old, | |
| By the successive Reign of heat and cold, | 160 |
| Thus leading back all ages to the womb | |
| Of vast Eternity from whence they come, | |
| And bringing new successions forth, until | |
| Heaven its last revolutions shall fulfil, | |
| And all things unto their first state restore, | 165 |
| Rev. 10.6. | When Motion ceasing, Time shall be no more; | |
| But with the visible Heavens shall expire | |
| 2 Pet. 3.12. | While they consume in the worlds funeral fire; | |
| Heb. 12.27,28. | Th’ invisible Heavens begin still the same, | |
| Shall not be toucht by the devouring flame. | 170 |
| Treating of which, let’s wave Platonick dreams | |
| Of Worlds made in Idea, fitter theams | |
| For Poets fancies, than the reverent view | |
| Of Contemplation, fixt on what is true | |
| And only certain, kept upon record | 175 |
| In the Creators own revealed word, | |
| Which when it taught us how our world was made, | |
| Wrapt up th’ invisible in mystique shade. | |
| Heaven. | Yet through those clouds we see, God did create | |
| A place his presence doth irradiate. | 180 |
| Heb. 11.10. | Where he doth in his brightest lustre shine; | |
| Es. 66.1. | Yet doth not his own Heaven, him confine: | |
| Mat. 5.34. | Although the Paradise of the fair world above, | |
| 1 King. 8.27. | Each where perfum’d with sweet respiring Love, | |
| Luk. 23.43. | Refresht with Pleasures never shrinking streams, | 185 |
| Illustrated with Lights unclouded beams, | |
| 1 Cor. 13.13. | The happy land of peace and endless Rest | |
| 1 Joh. 4.16. | Which doth both soul and sense with full joys feast, | |
| Psal. 16.11. | Feasts that extinguish not the appetite | |
| Rev. 20.5. | Which is renew’d to heighten the delight. | 190 |
| Heb. 4.9. | Here stands the Tree of life, deckt with fair fruit, | |
| Rev. 14.13. | Whose leaves health to the nations contribute. | |
| Rev. 22.2. | The spreading, true celestial Vine | |
| Joh. 15.1. | Where fruitful grafts and noble clusters shine. | |
| Here Majesty and Grace together meet; | 195 |
| The Grace is glorious, and the Glory sweet. | |
| Rev. 21.25,26. | Here is the Throne of th’ universal King | |
| To which the suppliant world addresses bring. | |
| Here next him doth his Son in triumph fit, | |
| Ps. 110.1. | Waiting till all his foes lie at his feet. | 200 |
| Ex. 15.17,18. | Here is the Temple of his Holiness, | |
| Rev. 7.17. | The Sanctuary for all sad distress. | |
| 1 Pet. 1.4. | Here is the Saints most sure inheritance | |
| Col. 3.1,2,24. | To which they all their thoughts and hopes advance. | |
| Here their rich recompence and safe rest lies, | 205 |
| Heb. 12.2. | For this they all th’ inferiour world despise; | |
| Yet not for this alone, though this excel, | |
| But for that Diety who here doth dwell; | |
| Psal. 73.25. | For heaven it self to Saints no heaven were | |
| Did not their God afford his presence there; | 210 |
| But now, as he inhabits it, it is | |
| 2 Tim. 4.8. | The treasure-house of everlasting bliss, | |
| Joh. 14.2. | The Fathers house, the Pilgrims home, the Port | |
| Heb. 11. | Of happiness, th’ illustrious Regal Court, | |
| Psal. 15.1. | The City that on the worlds summit stands, | 215 |
| & 122.3. | United in it self, not made with hands; | |
| Heb. 12.22. | Whose Citizens, Walls, Pavements are so bright | |
| 2 Cor. 5.1. | They need no Sun in Gods more radiant Light. | |
| Rev. 21.23. | The pure air being not thickned with dark clouds, | |
| No sable night the constant glory shrowds; | 220 |
| Nor needs there night, when no dull lassitude | |
| Doth into the unwearied soul intrude; | |
| New vigour flowing in with that dear joy | |
| Whose contemplation doth their lives employ. | |
| 2 Cor. 12.2. | This heaven, the third to us within, | 225 |
| The first, if from the outside we begin, | |
| Is incorruptible, and still the same, | |
| 1 Pet. 1.4. | Confirm’d by him who did its substance frame: | |
| No time its strong foundations can decay, | |
| Its renew’d glory fadeth not away. | 230 |
| Joel 2.30. | The other heavens which it doth enfold, | |
| Esa. 34.4. | In tract of time as garments shall wax old, | |
| Ps. 102.26. | And all their outworn glory shall expire | |
| 1 Pet. 3.7,12. | In the worlds dreadful last devouring fire; | |
| But this shall still unchangeable remain, | 235 |
| While all the rolling Spheres which it contains | |
| Shall be again into their Chaos whirl’d | |
| At the last dissolution of the world. | |
| For God, who made this blessed place to be | |
| The habitation of his Sanctitie, | 240 |
| Rev. 21.27. | Admitting nothing into it that’s vile, | |
| Nothing that can corrupt, or can defile, | |
| Never withdraws his gracious presence thence | |
| Es. 4.5. | But is on all the Glory a defence. | |
| Nor are his Gates ere shut by night or day, | 245 |
| His only dread keeps all foes far away. | |
| He not for need, but for Majestick state, | |
| Angels. | Innumerable hosts of Angels did create | |
| To be his outguards, in respect of whom | |
| Esa. 48.2. | He doth his name El-tzeboim assume. | 250 |
| Mat. 26.53. | These perfect, pure Intelligences be, | |
| 2 Sam. 14.17. | Excel in Might, and in Celeritie, | |
| 2 Thes. 1.7. | Whose sublime natures, and whose agile powers, | |
| Dan. 9.21. | Are vastly so superiour unto ours, | |
| Es. 6.6. | Our narrow thoughts cannot to them extend, | 255 |
| Col. 2.18. | And things so far above us comprehend, | |
| As in themselves, although in part we know, | |
| Some scantlings by appearances below, | |
| And sacred Writ, wherein we find there be | |
| Rom. 8.38. | Distinguisht Orders in their Hierarchie; | 260 |
| 1 Thes. 4.16. | Arch-Angels, Cherubims, and Seraphims, | |
| Ps. 103.20,21. | Who celebrate their God with holy Hymns. | |
| Gen. 3.24. | Ten thousand thousand vulgar Angels stand | |
| Dan. 7.10. | All in their ranks, waiting the Lords command, | |
| Mat. 6.10. | Which with prompt inclination of their will, | 265 |
| And chearful, swift obedience they fulfil; | |
| Whether he them to save poor men employ, | |
| Psal. 91.11,12. | Or send them arm’d, proud rebels to destroy; | |
| 2 King. 19.35. | Whether he them to mighty Monarchs send, | |
| Gen. 32.1. | Or bid them on poor Pilgrim Saints attend, | 270 |
| Luk. 2.13,14. | Whether they must in heavenly lustre go, | |
| Gen. 32.1,2. | Or walk in mortal mean disguise below: | |
| Gen. 19.1. | So kind, so humble are they, though so high, | |
| Psa. 104.4. | They do it with the same alacrity. | |
| Lu. 16.20. | Why blush we not at our vain pride, when we | 275 |
| Such condescension in Heavens Courtiers see, | |
| That they who sit on heavenly thrones above, | |
| Scorn not to serve poor worms with fervent Love? | |
| And joyful praises to th’ Almighty sing, | |
| Mat. 13.39. | When they a mortal to their own home bring? | 280 |
| How gracious is the Lord of all, that He | |
| Should thus consider poor mortalitie, | |
| Such powers for us, into those powers diffuse, | |
| Such glorious servants, in our service, use? | |
| Who whether they, with Light, or Heaven, had | 285 |
| Creation, were within the six days made. | |
| But leave we looking through the vail, nor pry | |
| Too long on things wrapt up in mystery, | |
| Heb. 12.22. | Reserv’d to be our wonder at that time, | |
| When we shall up to their high mountain climb. | 290 |
| Besides th’ Empyrean heaven we are told | |
| Of divers other heavens which we behold | |
| Only by Reasons eye, yet were not they | |
| If made at least distinguisht the first day. | |
| Then from the height we cannot comprehend, | 295 |
| Let us to our inferiour world descend. | |
| Earth’s | The Earth at first was a vast empty place, | |
| Chaos. | A rude congestion without form or grace, | |
| Gen. 1.2. | A confus’d mass of undistinguisht seed, | |
| Darkness the deep, the Deep the solid hid: | 300 |
| Where things did in unperfect Causes sleep, | |
| Until Gods Spirit mov’d the quiet deep, | |
| Brooding the creatures under wings of Love, | |
| As tender birds hatcht by a Turtle Dove. | |
| Light first of all its radiant wings display’d, | 305 |
| Gen. 1.3,4,5. | God call’d forth Light: that word the creature made. | |
| Whether it were the natures more divine, | |
| Or the bright mansion where just souls must shine, | |
| Or the first matter of those Tapers which | |
| The since-made firmament do still enrich, | 310 |
| It is not yet agreed among the wise: | |
| But thus the day did out of Chaos rise, | |
| And casts its bright beams on the floating world, | |
| O’re which soon envious night her black mists hurl’d, | |
| Damping the new-born splendour for a space, | 315 |
| Till the next morning did her shadows chace: | |
| With restor’d beauty and triumphant force, | |
| Returning to begin another course, | |
| An emblem of that everlasting feud | |
| Joh. 3.19,20,21. | ’Twixt sons of light, and darkness still pursued; | 320 |
| Col. 1.12,13. | And of that frail imperfect state wherein | |
| The wasting lights of mortal men begin; | |
| 1 Pet. 1.24. | Whose comforts, honours, lives, soon as they shine | |
| Must all to sorrows, changes, death resign; | |
| Even their wisdomes and their vertues light | 325 |
| Are hid by envies interposing night. | |
| But though these splendors all in graves are thrown, | |
| Psa. 97.11. | Whereever the true seed of light is sown, | |
| The Powers of Darkness may contend in vain, | |
| It shall a conquerour rise and ever reign. | 330 |
| For when God the victorious morning view’d, | |
| Approving his own work he said ’twas good: | |
| And of inanimate creatures sure the best, | |
| As that which shews and beautifies the rest, | |
| Those melancholy thoughts which night creates | 335 |
| And seeds in mortal bosomes, dissipates: | |
| In its own nature subtile, swift and pure, | |
| Which no polluted mirrour can endure. | |
| By it th’ Almighty Maker doth dispence | |
| To earthy creatures, heavenly influence; | 340 |
| By it with angels swiftness are our eyes, | |
| Exalted to the glory of the skies, | |
| In whose bright character the light divine, | |
| Which flesh cannot behold, doth dimly shine. | |
| Thus was the first Day made; God so call’d Light, | 345 |
| Sever’d from Darkness, Darkness was the Night. | |
| |
