Mundorum Explicatio :: :: University of Virginia Library

Mundorum Explicatio

or, The Explanation of an Hieroglyphical Figure: Wherein are couched the Mysteries of the External, Internal, and Eternal Worlds, shewing the true progress of a Soul from the Court of Jerusalem; from the Adamical fallen state to the Regenerate and Angelical. Being A Sacred Poem, written by S. P. [i.e. Samuel Pordage]

Pordage, Samuel (1633-1691?)

THE EXPLANATION OF AN Hieroglyphical Figure,

The first Part.

[section]

Mundus tenebrosus vel tartareus.

The second Part.

The third Part.

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

1. The first Part.

Sad and deplorable's the state of man,
Whose day's a vapour, and whose life's a span;
Whose years a bubble, and whose bliss is pain,
Whose joyes are trouble, and whose hopes are vain,
Should there indeed no other Worlds but this
Terrestrial be, in which he dwelling is.

Vain were the hopes of just and righteous men,
Than they none were more miserable then;
For who indeed more miserable seem,
More wretched and despis'd, forlorn then them:
Earth's fat, and bounty often is with-held,
Oft they're deny'd the riches of the feild:
A life here poor, and needy oft they have,
And oft return afflicted to the grave:
Whilst the unjust, and wicked man the while
Flows with his Hony, Butter, Milk and Oyl,
Whilst that his Wine press gusheth forth a stream
Of purple juyce to feed, and fatten him:
Whilst bounteous earth doth plenty him afford;
Whilst fill'd with pleasures, both of bed and bord,
Unpunisht, he afflicts the just, and poor,
And empty turns the begger from his door,
Grindeth the face of needy men: Commits
Murthers and Whoredomes, yet triumphing sits
Till he returneth to the greedy grave,
And yet is seen no punishment to have.
Sure this most plainly other Worlds doth shew
To be, where each of these shall have his due,
God's alwayes equal, ever just we see
His acts in number, weight and measure be.
Dives in plenty, Lazarus in pain,
(Yet God is just) shall in this world remain:
A world of pain there for the rich man is,
For Lazarus another full of bliss.

Let Atheists scoff, and seeing these things, declare
Profanely that no other worlds there are:
Let them cry pish, and mock them to their face,
Who threat them judgement in another place:
Let them accurst cry; May we live but here
In pleasures; God nor your vain Hell we fear:
See we not all men to the grave return,
Their dusty ashes gather'd in their urn,
Their flesh consume, their harder bones to rot,
Their fames and names both perish'd and forgot,
Who like the beasts unto the earth do go,
Their souls int' air dissolv'd, are seen no moe:

Deceit the mother of this folly is,
To think there's any other world but this,
For Sophisters to tye men to their Law,
Them with Religion, and a God did aw,
And with invented worlds hereafter; where
They answer should for what they had done here:
Where good and just men should in pleasures dwell,
The wicked be perplex'd with torments fell.
Let Atheists argue thus; Let them alone,
For at the last the worst will be their own,
When to their sorrow, and eternal pain
They find the notion of a God's not vain,
When they shall find, when they this world forego,
Another world of torment, pain and woe:
I mean not therefore with them to dispute,
Nor strive with arguments for to confute
Their cursed Tenents; for the stoutest doth
Oft' times when scar'd; in's heart misdoubt the truth
Of what he holds; who by his conscience aw'd,
Is forced to confess there is a God.
Who boldly dares deny the same in light,
The same again doth doubt, the same at night,
When fearfull darkness reigneth o're the world,
And fear and horror in each corner's hurld.
When dreadfull lightnings through the world do fly
When roaring thunders rattle in the skie,
When blustring storms do rend the stoutest oakes,
When mighty mountains rend with thunder strokes,
When the great Moles of the earth doth quake,
When roaring seas with dreadfull murmurs speak
Th' Almighty's power; the Atheist struck with fear,
Crying aloud for help, runs here and there,
And will he, nill he, then his thoughts do flie
For hepl to, and think there's a Deity;
Like that poor Godling who ran under bord,
And cry'd, I am no God, when thunders roar'd.
If then these wretches doubtfull are sometimes,
So obstinate me thinks they in their crimes
Should not be: for it that it doubtfull were,
This way more safe, than that it is to err;

For to believe there is a God, and him
To fear, no damagement can bring to them,
No hurt at all; when on the other side
They'n dangerous seas of Death eternal ride;
For if a God there be (as we well know
There is) into damnation's pit they throw
Themselves: so whilst their wisdom they'd expresse;
They damn themselves by their own foolishnesse.

But, that there is a God we need not prove,
When all things shew his matchlesse Pow'r, and Love;
For wheresoever we shall cast our eye,
Sure tokens of a mighty God we spy:
The glorious Splendor of the Lamp of Day,
The Mistresse of the Night's resplendant Ray.
The silver Spangles of the azure Skie,
The winged folk which in the ayr do flie,
The spangle-coated fishes of the Sea,
The Brutes, the herbs, the flowr'rs, and every tree,
Do daily tell us, that they being had,
And life, and growth, from an immortal God:
For who but diligently noteth them,
Must needs (as GALEN did) confesse the same.
The form, and being of this world doth prove,
The mighty power of the great JEHOVE,
And that a Deity there is: For why
'Tis plain it was not from Æternity,
The constant changes of all things below,
The same to wise men do most clearly show;
Its alteration, its Catastrophe
Declares; but what is from Æternity
No end can have. The world beginning had,
Which was from Chance, from Nature, or from God:
From CHANCE it was not; what a jumbled thing,
And foul mishapen Monster Chance would bring
Forth, could but she a world produce? but this
Of harmony and true agreement is
So full that Atheists convinc'd proclam'd
Have, that not chance but God the world hath fram'd.
For who considers but the Harmony
Of those bright fires shining in the skie,

The order, marriage, and the sweet consent
With one another of each Element:
The secret virtues of all things that grow,
The hidden Sympathy of things below,
And Earth's most admirable form; will not
Himself exhibit to be such a sot,
Nor will be fill'd with so much ignorance,
As to averr the world was made by CHANCE.
Nor yet by NATURE was the world created,
For if that she had thus the world instated,
All things obedient would have been to her,
And past her bounds, and rules not dar'd to stir,
But all do know how that sometimes the Creature,
Passeth the limits, and the bounds of Nature
Miraculously, as when the golden Sun
Ecclipsed is, in the full of the Moon:
As when the Sun; when Christ our Saviour dy'd;
His face did in a Mask of darknesse hide,
As all the world well knew; for then between
The Moon and him full half the Heav'n was seen:
So that it was impossible the cause
Of this Ecclipse should come from Nature's Laws,
Nor yet can those who Nature God will make
For every thing a Natural reason speak:
NATURE nor CHANCE therefore this world could frame,
A God therefore it follows made the same:
A GOD therefore there is: The Devil too,
And acts of evil spirits plainly shew
The same; the world can testifie to this
That Sp'rits apparitions no fable is.
But chiefly men (although they God deny)
Themselves are forc'd a God to justifie:
How else can they such an Idea frame
Of the great God, as to deny the same?
For who can an Idea frame of what
No being has? whose species is not?
We an Idëa frame may of a face
Of man, or beast, which living never was;
But men, and beasts there are, or else we frame
Could not any Idëa's of the same:

So man may false Ideas frame of God,
But were there none, he no Ideas shou'd;
So man of God doth an Idea frame,
Whilst he about goes to deny the same,
And so is forc'd indeed for to confess
What's mouth denyes with so much wickedness.
Nature hath with an Adamantine pen
Insculped deeply into the hearts of men,
That there's a God: although she could not show,
Nor dictate to them the true God to know:
And on their consciences she by her Law
Has of a Deity impos'd an aw:
For there's no Nation, though they brutish be,
But have a Notion of a Deitie;
Some thing or other for a God adore
They do; which certainly was past the power
Of humane policy for to imprint,
And o're the whole world, through all ages hint.
Conscience doth prove a Deity likewise,
Which in the face still of the wicked flies,
And though his actions ne'r so secret be,
Yet he's afraid there is an eye doth see;
An eye which points, and doth distinguish still,
Betwixt, (the several acts of) good and ill.
Lastly the soul of man, which shall for aye
In night Eternal, or eternal day
Dwell; which immortal is, (for were't not so,
Corruption would take hold upon it too
As well as on its case: but all know this,
Th' immortal soul in age the stronger is;
The nearer that the body's to the grave,
The more advantages the soul will have:
And so diseases which the case controule,
Cannot corrupt, nor yet infect the soul.
So alwayes mark whilst from the Body we
By contemplation deep abstracted be,
The soul doth better shew her complement;
But much more when she's from the body rent:
As also by her large capacity,
And by her utter independency

On th' outer case: for leaving that sometimes,
Without that she transcurs the earthly climes,
And visits places; and them far more clear
Beholds than if she in the body were:
This history will justifie, but we
Will strive for to avoid prolixity.
If the soul's mortal, what doth make her love
despising mortal things to sore above,
And never tire? like unto like doth goe:
Which makes her thus despise all things below:
And to the Centre, out of which she came,
Sill upwards tend with an immortal flame.)
I say the soul doth prove a God to be
The cause of her: or else it follows she
I, of her self the cause; then should we know
All things that are more clearly than we do;
Knowledge nor understanding should we want,
Nor of ourselves, nor parts be ignorant,
Of which we are; our parent then should not
Be ignorant of what they have begot:
But how the cause and the effect can be
All one, as yet I have not eyes to see.
But to conclude what further proof indeed
Of God, than his great Providence doth need?
His providence in every thing? but yet
In plaguing those who him deny'd, and it
Especially? for such struck with his rod,
Have by their deaths made known there is a God.
PHERECIDES was eaten up with lice;
LUCIAN by's dogs devoured in a trice:
DIAGORUS from ATHENS banished,
A talent promis'd them who brought his head:
An arrow split the heart of JULIAN:
An ulcer killed scoffing APPION:
MACHIAVEL in prison rotted: and
HERMANUS felt the fire, and God's just hand:
It would be endless to recount them all:
But as they did may every ATHEIST fall!

Seeing that there a God immortal is,
It fellows then there are more Worlds than this;

For God's not seen here in this Orb below,
But as he doth himself in's Creatures show:
Indeed he dwelleth here, and every where,
Nor can he be confined to a Sphere,
But yet there is a world, a glorious place,
Where brightned souls behold him face to face,
Where he is seen cloath'd with Eternal Day,
Where vails and shadows all are ta'ne away:
Where Saints behold him in great glory stand,
Not vail'd as here, nor at the second hand.
Who so believes the sacred Scripture, must
Acknowledge needs that our assertion's just,
For that to take all scruples from us says,
God not one World, but Worlds created has.
I'le here not usher in with museful straines,
Th' exuberant fancies of some witty braines,
Who make the Moon a World to be, and who
Make Worlds of all the starres of Heav'n too:
Let such themselves and others to delude
With brain-built worlds, and worlds infinitude,
I'le not contest; GOD may do what he please;
But here I treat not of such worlds as these,
For I confesse I do believe there's four,
And never was, and never shall be more:
Three of these Worlds are infinite, but this
Grosse World both visible, and finite is.
It matters not unto Salvation,
Whether there be a thousand Worlds, or one,
Such Worlds as this I mean: but it is meet
That we should know those Worlds of which I treat,
For to be ignorant of these, is to
Ignore the blisses that we ought to know:
How vain is Man for fancy'd worlds to hunt,
And of himself be wholly ignorant!
These Worlds of which we treat no fancies be,
For to deny them is plain Blasphemy,
And of them to be ignorant, no lesse
Then to be ignorant of Happinesse:
These Worlds not disputable are, for we
Do by experience know such Worlds there be:

Therefore no longer will I prologize,
But clearly set them forth before your eyes.

Pray cast your eye upon the Figure, and
The order see in which the Worlds do stand:
See here four Globes, So stand the Worlds, but yet
Not in this order, as you see these set:
But to man's sense these figures do I guesse,
Their place and order best of all expresse.
Though once be higher than another plac't,
We call that highest, which is inner most:
Who can at one expose to perfect view
Whole and compleat, Shell, Skin, and Kernel too?
As in an Egg you see the outer shell,
In that the white, i'th white the yolk doth dwell:
As in an Onion first the outer skin,
Then several others folded are within
Its strict enfolding, which do presse upon
The heart, or centre of the Onion,
As several Circles one within another
Drawn, some are farther, some more near than th' other
Unto the Centre: So these Worlds display
Unto your understandings best you may.
So are they plac'd: The Centre of them all
We highest; the Circumference lowest call:
So see in Man his outward case doth hide
A noble Soul; Which doth more inward bide.
This outward World is as the crust, or shell,
In which the other Light, and Dark Worlds dwell.
This outward World, is the Circumference,
And farthest from the Centre; Life from whence
It doth receive: for from the inward this
Produced was Most plain, the punction is
Before the circle; and the Yolke before
The white or shell. But then you'l say this more
Containeth than those Worlds that brought it forth;
So this is greater than what gave it birth:
Those suffer no dimention can, nor lye
So comprehended: As the Sun the Skie
Contains you see; his rays and influence
Howbe't no bounds can close, they'r so immense.

As God's in heaven we say; yet every where;
So th' inward worlds in this world closed are:
Life floweth to the finger from the heart:
Man's soul's in man, and yet in ev'ry part.

Alas! How blinded are the souls of men,
Whilst here inclosed in their fleshly pen,
Whilst here in prison fetter'd fast they lye,
Whilst they all things judge by their outward eye,
They see this earth wherein they live, and so
That there's an earthly world they surely know:
Now other worlds some do believe there are,
The natures of these worlds; or how, or where
They be, most men ignore: for of the same,
They several fancies in their heads do frame.
For speak of heav'n, strait way they cast their eyes
Towards the blew seas of the Chrystal skies,
Beyond the same a most Majestick Court,
Whose bliss doth pass the bounds of all report,
Where all the Saints in brightnesse like the Sun,
Seated on Thrones; where every one a Crown
Possessing, praise, and Hallelujahs sing,
To God who there sits on the Throne as King,
They think there is; and that their souls must fly
Thorow the Welkin to it when they dye.
But speak of Hell, strait way their thoughts do go
Unto the Centre of the earth below,
Where they in their imaginations frame,
A Realm of Sulphur, Darknesse, Fume and Flame,
Where great BEELZEBUB as a King commands
The smooky Devils, and sulphurian bands.
Mistake me not, I do not here deny,
Nor Hell's, nor Heav'ns true locality;
But here in reference to those I speak,
Who carnally both hell and heav'n do seek,
And who know nothing, nor of Heav'n nor Hell,
But by report, as they hear others tell;
Accounting it impossible to know,
Or Hell, or Heaven, while they dwell below.
Such of themselves be wholly ignorant,
And the true sight of Hell or Heav'n they want;

How they two several Principles be, and
How different, they do not understand:
How they in one another dwell, and yet
A gulf eternal how betwixt them set.
The Summit of their knowledge is to know
The nature of terrestrial things below,
They are content, the other worlds should rest
Till they of this by death are dispossest;
But all such may miss of the blessed sphere,
Who know it not, nor be assur'd of't here.

Therefore we first will with this world begin,
Best known to man, this which he dwelleth in:
From whence we step by step, at last ascend,
Shall, to th' Eternal world, the farthest end;
Man must from this the lowest world get up
By the Internal worlds, unto the top
And summit of his joyes: the way shall be
Shewn in this book with perspicuity.
But man a while my purpose here supplants,
The chiefest of the earths inhabitants;
Of whom a word, for he's the principal,
And should be Prince, and King, and Lord of all.

The Microcosm, little world, or Man,
Containeth all the outward great world can;
Is it not strange, and wonderfull that such
A little thing as Man, should hold so much?
Man is a wonder, and Gods image divine,
(If truly Man) within his breast doth shine.
It is not head, arms, body, members fair,
That maketh Man; he rather may compare
Himself unto some beast in painted dress,
Except the inward do him Man express.
What difference is there 'twixt a man and beast,
(None sure at all, or little to be guest)
If't wan't for Reason, and an immortal spark,
Which hides it self within his hollow Ark?
This makes him Man, and like a man to act,
Which gon, he's like a beast in shew and fact.
A man hath sense, he eats, he drinks, he sleeps,
Wallows in pleasure, seldome measure keeps,

Subject to hunger, thirst, to heat, and cold,
Sicknesse, Diseases, and converts to th' Mould
Of which he's fram'd; and like to other creatures,
There perisheth his beauteous forms, and features:
All this the Beast doth; then we thus may say
The fairest Beast is made upright of clay.
Men that we see within the great Creation,
Lie wallowing in all abomination,
In filthy Lusts, contagious pleasures foul,
As if they never, never had a soul,
Are not such Beasts? yea perfect Beasts, or worse,
For Beasts (most commonly) follow natures course,
Their beastial actions, acting in sobriety,
When men fulfil their Lusts in all Impiety,
Acting most beastly in all foul inormity,
And worser then the brutes, in their deformity:
That were it not for this their outward case
In PLUTO'S Court they would usurp a place;
For when the outward body doth consume,
In Hell such take their Hell-prepared room,
Their souls there having some such shape, or hue
Of beasts, whose actions they inclined to,
Assuming there some hideous form, or feature,
Rarely resembling their deformed Nature.
Thus may you see within this outward place,
We're either Men, or Beasts: when here our race
Is run, we shall to the Tartarean den
Go if we beasts are, but to Heav'n if Men.
Man was a Man created, and a King,
And Lord, and Ruler over every thing,
But now that state h'as lost, for which he groans,
Having gain'd dunghils,, for his Crowns, and Thrones.
Now of a King he is a servant made,
Who once immortal, now to Death betray'd:
Therefore behold him pourtrai'd to thine eye,
See where himself, his Crown and Scepter lye,
The Lamb the Type of Innocency too,
(Which LUCIFER with ADAM overthrew)
Under the great and massy Globe of Earth,
As if deprived both of Life, and breath.

This is the fallen state of Man, who must
His Crown not unregarded in the Dust
Permit to lye, but, what some e'r it cost,
Strive for to gain the Scepter that he lost;
And tho he now lyes slain depriv'd of all,
Crush'd with the weight of this terrestrial ball;
Yet shall this fallen Man at last arise,
And o're his now lost Kingdoms Regalize.
O man with joy expect this blisseful day,
Rouze up thy self, enquicken'd with the ray
Of life divine: Shake off this clogging Earth,
And strongly presse after another birth:
For that attained once, thou shalt be then,
As once thou wast, a Lord, and King agen.

In the Hieroglyphic see the lowest Globe,
Which represents this vast terrestrial Orb,
This World wherein we Live, this outward Earth,
Where we poor mortals draw a fading breath,
Where Souls immortal in a mortal case,
As in an Ergastule remain a space:
Which World's a mighty Prodigie; and those
Who it consider, in its Mazes lose
Themselves; for every thing perspicuously
The power shews of Heav'ns High Majesty.
How admirable is her Form, and Nature!
How beautiful, and well compos'd each Creature!
How full of beauty, and of Lovelinesse!
How sweetly, brave is she in Nature's dresse!
So that the eyes of man do dote upon her,
And Highest Trophies raise unto her honour.
How various and delightful are her climes!
Some smiling later, some bedress'd betimes;
Some wearing all the year a liv'ry green,
Some diversly with painted mantles seen,
While others dress'd in mantles made of snows,
Themselves (as 'twere) in silver garbs expose.
How variously delightful dressed is
Each clime, and Countrey with a native blisse!
How variously through ev'ry Region are
Her happy riches, and her costly ware,

Her helps and her commodities for Man,
Her treasures, and her pleasures too, which can
Delight her heart; spread by his bountious hand,
And all exposed unto his command.
Aspiring mountains here their heads do show,
Their pleasant dales, empal'd with woods below:
Here th'row the midst of them, the silver streams
Run trickling o're the stony pearly gems:
Here pleasant Hills adorn'd with lofty pines,
With Okes and Cedars; there the Elms and Vines
Sweetly embracing all the Hillocks side
Towards the East, fill with their branches wide.
Here stand the Laurels, with a verdant hue,
Here spreading Beaches, lofty Ashes too;
There by the Brooks grow brittle alder stems,
Willows and Sallows love the silver streams.
A thousand other trees here make a Grove,
Where the sad Turtle murm'ring wooes his love,
Where the sweet Nightingalls compose their layes,
Where other Songsters sing on several sptayes.
Praising their great Creator with their Notes.
Proceeding from their pretty warbling throtes.
Hard by are Meads in ammelled with flowers,
Cover'd with grass sprung from Zephyrian showers,
Where seems to be an everlasting spring,
Where Grashoppers in their shrill notes do sing;
Where feed the branched stag, the fair horn'd Ox,
The clambring Goats, the silver fleeced flocks,
The fair spread Mare, and the couragious horse,
Who kicks the rocks down with his heel's strong force.
Among the woods the several beasts of prey,
The roaring hests of their strong Prince obey:
The fowl Joves mighty Bird doth rule: Within
The Chrystal river several fishes swim,
And all these for the use of man were made
Good; who oft times converts them into bad.
About the Earth the liquid Ocean beats,
Scareing his sister with his boistrous Threats,
Athough she knows JEHOVAHS word is gone,
That she shall never drowned be ag'en,

Within whose liquid depths such wonders are,
As with the Earths or heavens may compare.
But round this Globe, with a vast azure bent,
Is bended round the starry Firmament,
Wherein the twinkling Lamps beday the nights,
Where are fixt, wandring, less and bigger lights:
There Cynthia ruleth Mistriss of the night,
With the clear splendor of her borrowed light;
The Sun day's King, and Lord of all the rest,
The clearest, hottest, brightest, and the best,
Begilds the day, and with a glorious splendor
His dayly service doth to mortals tender.
Thus hath the great Creator full of Love,
His wondrous blessings poured from above
Upon this world; that on this earthly stage,
Man comfort take might in this pilgrimage,
And not abuse them as most men have done,
And souls and bodies by them overthrown.
But if that now such outward bliss remains
After the change of Adams faulty stains,
What was the beauty and the comliness,
The splendor and incomparable dress
The Earth had when she from her Maker first
Came? e're that she was by his mouth accurst?
E're that she had put on inglorious weeds?
And cherished accurs'd and banefull seeds?

Should I lanch out into this endless main,
My shallow Barque could n're return again;
Such seas of water, and of wonder too
Appear, and shew themselves unto my view:
My eyes no objects on this earth do meet,
But they my globes do with their wonders greet,
For not the smallest fly, nor creeping Ant,
Do wonders, and what's admirable want:
So that I am amazed, and must cry,
Great is the power of his Majesty!
Great are the wonders that this Globe doth hold,
So great that they're not able to be told,
Therefore expect not at my hands, that I
Should open here Dame natures Mystery;

Or that the nature of all things below
I here should in this Epique Poem shew;
Or that I here the mighty wonders tell,
That in this Orb terrestrial do dwell:
This were an endlesse task; would Ages tyre,
Not Books of Worlds, but Worlds of Books require.
This would: for not the heat-born gnat, (in truth)
Or worm, but of 't deserve a Poem doth.

A glorious study 'tis to study Nature,
To read the great JEHOVAH in the Creature,
To meditate his mighty wonders here;
And Trophies to his Name thereby to rear:
The great Creator made all things that be,
For profit, pleasure, and commodity
Of man alone, therefore His holy Name
He ought to praise, and thank him for the same.
Let some therefore dive to Earth's Centre, and
The secrets of her bowels understand,
Let them her seal'd-up dores unbarr, and there
Her rusty Treasures brighten, and reclear:
Let such dive down into her depths below,
And the Arcana's of her Min'rals know;
Let them th'row ev'ry Room, and Chamber run,
And know the virtues of her central Sun,
Which with its Heat, pierceing th'row ev'ry room,
Gives life to seeds, sown in her vaster womb.
Let such behold her hidden Palaces,
Where sealed up lye hid her Mysteries,
There let them Tin, Ir'n, or pine, Stibium, Brasse,
Virmilion, Merc'ry, Lead, and Coperasse,
Copper, Letrargyre, Marble, Salt, and Jet,
View; and let them break up her Cabinet,
Where they with curious prying eyes, behold
May all her Mines of Silver, Steel, and Gold,
Her choyce of Rubies, Saphires, Calcedones,
Her Topaz, Opals, Emeraulds, Diamond's,
Her Carbuncles, her Amythists, her store
Of Turques, Crystals, and a thousand more:
Let them the virtues of the Load-stone see,
And all the Earths that Medcinable be:

Let them their secrets dayly meditate,
Through them God's name, and wonders predicate.

Let others on her superficies walk,
And thorow all her vegitables stalk:
Into Earths dainty garden-plats let them
Come and search out the vertues of each stem;
Let them the secrets of all simples know,
The vertues of all herbs, and flowers that grow:
Let them consider flowers fragrancies,
Their checquer works, and dainty diapres,
The Violets, the Roses and the Lilies;
The Pansies, Marigolds, and Daffodillies;
Th' admired Lotos: secret vertues given
To herbs and shrubs by the free hand of heaven.
Let Mugwort, Saffron, Burnet, Piony;
Swines-bread, St. Johns-wort, and Succory,
Madder, Angelica, and Bittany,
Lunaria, Hellebore, and Dittany,
With thousands more, whose vertues wonderful
Men into admiration justly pul,
Consider'd be: Then that which makes us bread,
And grain of all sorts be considered.
Then let them walk unto the spacious groves,
And see the Male-Palms, woo their female Loves,
View there the Peruanan Brasil, how
It peopled doth like to a Village show:
See there the Oak, the Maple, Ash and Vine,
The Elm, the Larch, the Cedar and the Pine,
The Indian Cocos, which supplies the lack
Alone both of the belly and the back,
The Corck, the Osier, Alder, Willow, Holm,
The Poplars, Beaches, Yews against a storm
Good for a shelter; and consider these,
The Natures and the Uses of the trees.
Then to the fragrant Orchards go, and there,
The Apple, Plum, the Cherry and the Pear,
The Apricock, the Oring, Quince and Beach,
The Limon, Feald-beard, Walnut that doth reach
It's head to Heav'n almost, the Olive, Date,
The Baulm, and Spice-trees, which are good to eat,

See (and admire the Hand of Providence)
Their Wonders, virtues, and their excellence.

Let others also view Earth's numerous guests,
And daily weigh the natures of the Beasts,
The Mysteries of Animals they may
And their hid virtues to the World display.
Let them traverse th' Hercanian Woods, and there
The shaggy Lion, and the cruel Bear,
The Elephant, Rinocerot, the Bore,
The Camel, Bull, Horse, Asse, a thousand more
Behold: and in black Chus his scorched plaines
Draw out the Serpents from the sandy draines:
Consider there the Basilisk they may,
Who through his eyes his poyson doth conveigh,
The scaly Dragon, spiteful Viper, the
Aspick, and Adder, and Tarantule,
Which puts the stung into a Capering fit;
Then call for Musick that's the cure of it:
Drynas, and Dispas, Scorpion, and Eft
Who tho but small, to kill can make a shift:
The Horn'd Cerastes, and the Crocadile
Who daily stuffs his mighty paunch in Nile.
And let them the Camelions various hue,
With worms, and flies, Bees, other insects too
Consider well, and let them then proclame
The virtues, and the Wonders of the same.

Again let others with industr'ous bent,
View, and review the other Element:
Peer into Rocks, and on the Mountains Top,
See mighty Rivers infant springs burst up:
And let them weigh (while others range the Woods)
The several virtues of the Crystal floods.
Let some behold the Cateracts of Nile,
Others the source of Tanais the while,
Some rapid Tigris, others Euphrates,
Ganges, and Plate, great Rivers rather Seas.
Tagus, and Rhyne, and Rhone, and Tiber too,
Arn, Sein, and Po, Ister, and Iber view,
Our silver Isis, which upon the main
Be'ing born, smels, purges, and grows sweet again.

Th' Effects and Operations then Recount
Of the day cold, and the Night-scalding fount:
Of Athamas whose cold, and Crystal Flood,
Gives living flames unto the drenched Wood.
Or Silarus, or the Ciconian streames
That wood convert to solid stone it seems.
Or the Arcadian Well, of which who drinks,
All other waters, yea wine loathsome thinks,
Also Lincestus who drink much of it,
Do reel like Drunkards in a drunken fit.
A thousand more scarce credible: and then
The medicinable waters good for men:
The Bathes of Bathe; Bangers in Gascony,
And Bajæ famous once in Italy.
Then to their Fish-boat, with their tackle try
To draw from Brooks the Silver-coated fry,
The speckled Trour, the Barbel, Tench, and Ele,
The dainty Salmon, Cherin, Lampry, Seile,
And many more: Then hoist into the Seas,
Where great variety their minds may please;
Where they as many several wonders view
May, as in th' Earth, and airy Regions too.
Th'row NEPTUNE'S wat'ry Regions let them go,
To THETIS Coral-garnish'd Court below.
There let them view the shrubs, the Trees, the Pearls,
The Syrens, Mearmaids, Tritons with their shels,
And all the Fishes that do daily sport
Themselves within great NEPTUNE'S liquid Court.
There they may Philanthropic Dolphins see,
The Whirle-Pool Whales, the terrour of the Sea
Leviathans; the Sturgions, Amia's,
The Cuttles, Tunnys, Prawnes, and Remora's,
The Pearl-Fish, Oysters, Sargus, Cantharus,
The Mullet, Herring, Uranoscopus:
With many more, which in that Region swarm,
Of sund'ry sizes, qualities, and Form.
There they the qualities of the Sea to know
May strive; how it doth daily ebb, and flow,
Its virtues, properties, how like a Lover
The Earth embraces, and yet flows not over:

And seeing these Arcana's of the flood;
May preach the wonders, praise the Name of God.

Also let others winged th'row the air,
Propitiously their noble courses steer,
And let their constant minds be dayly bent,
Upon the wonders of that Element:
There they may ransack every cave and house,
That doth belong to boistrous Æolus.
The several Regions of the air they may,
With Hails, and Snows, and Rains, and Frosts display,
With Dews and Comets, Exhalations, Thunder,
Mists, Blasts and Fumes, and Lightnings full of wonder.
They too consider may when they are there
The winged people of the moving air:
Up to the Eagles Eyrie may they run,
And see the Eaglets face, the dazling Sun,
Scorning to wink, for by this certain sign,
Fowles Prince knows that her brood is genuine.
Thence to the Arabian spicy woods they hast
May, and behold the Phænix in her nest,
The Whilst her spicy bed begins to burn,
And her consumeth in her fragrant urn;
Straight way the ashes in her dainty Tomb
Take life, and so the grave becomes the womb
Of a new Phænix, from whose ashes rise
Another Phænix shall when e're she dyes.
The unkind Estridge on th' Arabian plain,
Beating her plumes against the wind in vain,
Who cannot mount as other fowl, that fly
Within the liquid bosom of the skie;
Behold; and see Queen Juno's stately Bird,
Her train extending high at every gird:
The brustling Turky, and the crested Cock,
The Huswife's watch, the sturdy Plow-mans clock.
Then see the Crane, the Stork, the Pellican,
The Cormorant, the Hern, and silver Swan,
The Halcyon, the bird of Paradise,
That never touches ground untill she dies,
The Griffin, Faulcon, Laner, Marlin, Kite,
The Swift, and Swallow that renews the sight

Of her blind young with Selandine: the Pie,
The Lark and Finch, and many more that fly
Within the Air's fair region: Here they may
The secret vertues of them all display.
And seeing here the wonders of the Lord,
His Name and Praises trumpet may abroad.

Lastly, let others free from earthly cares,
God b'ye bid to the earth, and view the stars.
Where with fair pinions fluttering along,
The Azure dwelling of that numerous throng,
They may behold the Roods, and several Inns,
Of the sev'n Planets, and the twice six signs.
There they the Coach may of the day's bright Prince
Follow, and view's course, and circumference;
His flaming and swift steeds quotidian race,
His twelve fair lodgings in his annual space:
How he the seasons of the year createth,
How now the dayes length, now the nights length bateth.
There they fair PHEBE, horned now, e'r long
Filling her Orb with light grow fair, and young
Again, may see; her divers aspects, and
How when at full eclipsed understand:
How nimbly tripping in a swift carere,
The heav'nly Zodiack twelve times in a year
She passes. Thence to Mercuries sphere they go
May, and behold his annual motion too,
Who waiting on the Chariot of the Sun,
Spends almost twelve-moneths e'r his race is run.
Thence mounting higher they behold the fair,
And splendid Venus, now the evening star,
Sometimes again, with most resplendant rayes,
And matchless beauty sh' ushers in the days.
Thence still ascending viewing Phæbus sphere,
They may behold him measure out the year;
And how he doth years several seasons cause,
Spring at's approach, Winter when back he draws;
Summer and Autumn, when his jorneys made
Th'row Cancer, and when with the Virgin laid.
Thence to the angry God of War they go
May, and behold his sphere, and journey too,

Which e'r he't finish'd th'row the Houses has,
Three Sommers, and as many Winters passe.
Then to the Sphere of Jupiter they wenn
May, and behold his Chariot of Tinn,
Which twerling th'row the Zodiack, doth runne
Four trines of yeares e'r't doth to Pisces come.
Thence they to leaden Saturn may advance
Whose coursers slowly thirty yeares do prance,
E'r they can draw their heavy Car about,
And see the place from whence they first set out.
And thence to the eight Sphear; whose mighty bent
Contains the Host of the blew Firmament,
Whose vaster circuit, e'r it turns about
(Tho' swift) almost sev'n thousand years wears out.
Heav'n's glittering Zone next then they may behold,
Fringed with Silver, and embos'd with Gold,
Wherein twice six most glorious Figures stand,
Exactly wrought by an Almighty Hand:
March his brave Ram, and April's Bull that brings
Upon his horns the garland of the springs:
Th' embracing Twins; The Crab that first doth show
Fair Sommer's presence with a swetty brow:
Then rampant Leo, who with burning breath
Scorcheth the Planes, and green Woods withereth.
The Virgin next who smiling doth appear
To crown the Plow-man's Hopes for all the year.
The Ballance then beaming with splendour bright
The æquidistance weighs of Day, and Night.
The Scorpion, Centaure, Kid, and Skinker shine,
The Fishes too, a wet and Winter sign.
Turning their heads then to the Artic pole,
They may behold the monstrous Dragon roule,
And with his starry tail, the Wain-man; there
The Crown, the Harp, the Eagle, and the Spear
The Snake, the Swan, and flying Pegasus;
Andromeda, and her dear Perseus,
Casiopeia, and the Dolphin, and
Medusa's Head, and Cepheus do stand.
Then to th' Antartic turn they may, and view
Where the hot dog-star, and Orion too,

The Whale, the Whelpe, the Hare, the Hulke, and the
Raven, Wolfe, Fowl, the Boule and Hydra be:
The Crown, the Fish, and other starres beside,
Most plainly by Astronomers descri'd.
There also may they with a mind intense
Consider all the Twincklers influence
On th' Orb below, and how they often change
Mens minds, and manners, in a manner strange.
How pleasant meeting in conjunction smile;
How frowning opposite another while:
Heav'n is God's Book, the Starres are letters that
Himself so fair with his own finger wrot;
Wise Men can read them; ignorants indeed
Do 'count them Ciphers, 'cause they cannot read:
Wise Men alone do rule the starres, but they
Else cause both Man, and Beast their Laws obey:
Who vieweth thus th' Arcana's of the Sky,
Glory may give to Heav'n's High Majesty,
But let us not unmindful be of Man,
Who harbours Wonders in his outer frame;
Tho Worlds he hold, That to the outer Sphear
Doth answer, therefore to be mention'd here.
Let therefore some anatomize him, and
His Bodys inner parts well understand.
There in them see the purple springlets draine
From Life's true Centre thorow every vein:
The spungy Lungs, the bellows of the Breast,
The stomach Cook by whom the food is dres't;
The which prepar'd, by the Misentric's sent
Unto the Liver for its nourishment,
Where, in a short space all the juicy flood
Dy'd, is converted into Crimson blood,
From whence, as Rivers from the Fountains Head's,
It by the veins th'row all the Body spreads.
Descending lower let them view at leasure,
The Guts fine labyrinth the Bellie's Treasure.
But e'r they thus dissect him, let them see
His comely features, and Limbs symmetry,
See the fair capital of this structure, stand
On a Cylindric pillar to command

The rest: His spacious Front the Throne of Aw,
And Majesty: His eyes that homage draw
From other creatures, like two Twinklers bright
Sparkling, and streaming with clear Rayes of Light,
Stand placed under two fair arc's of Hair;
These with two lidds from harm defended are,
That with a double guard of slender pikes,
Keeps off th' offensives that the Eye dislikes.
See then the Conduits of the Head: likewise
Two blushing Mounts that in his Face arise;
The Ruby portals of a pearly gate,
The Mill and grinder of the body's meat.
The Tongue words former, and the mazey Ear
Through which he doth the formed voyces hear.
His Hands the body's Purveyors, his Knees,
His Legs, and Feet the Basis unto these;
For tyes the sinue, ligaments the Nerve,
And bones for Beams, do in this building serve.
But most of all, who'l not admire at
His speech, the nimble Tongue's uncessant chat?
Words they are wonders, in the Head created,
Then by the tell-tale Tongue aloud related.
His Wit, and Memory are admirable,
For to recount whose Wonders none are able.
Mechanics, and the Mathamatics too,
And almost all things in the World, do shew
The mighty wonders of Man's pregnant Brain:
The Muses, and Apollo's wits it drain
Would, should they go about but to recount
The same: indeed they Number do surmount.
But whosoe'r Contemplates Man, may see
The matchlesse Wisdom of Heav'n's Majesty.

These are the Seas of endlesse Wonders, where
God's admirable power doth appear,
For who-soe'r into these depths doth go,
Shall the Creator's Wonders see, and know,
Into which Seas infinitude I fear
So slender' vessel as mine own to steer:
Nor am I suffer'd now (to swell my verse)
These things (although Arcana's) to reherse:

Nor yet Geography's fair Lists to enter,
Fair EUROP'S limits, or great ASIA'S Centre,
To speak of, or to tell what bounds do close
Scorch'd AFRICK, AMERICA, what Seas.
To say what River, Mountain, Lake, or Ground,
O Seas, do such, and such a Countrey bound.
To tell each soil's abundant fruitfulnesse,
Its divers properties, and various dresse:
To say where grows the sweetest Grain, and where
Best wine; what Lands best Hemp, and cordage bear:
What Countrey Timber, Cattel, Silk, and Lead
Yeelds; Where most Mines are, where best Horses bred:
The Countreys temp'raments; the peoples manners,
Religion, Laws, Rites, Customs, Habits, Honors.
These things I leave to others to reherse,
They come not here in compasse of my Verse,
For should I lanch into so vast a Main,
My slender Barque could ne're return again;
Although indeed all these be Wonders great,
They are not those of which I mean to treat.

Fill'd with a fire that now inflames my Soul,
That with strong ardors, in my Breast doth roul,
That fill's me with a sacred rage, and beares
Me from the Earthly into mystic Sphears,
I write; Know therefore this World two-fold is,
Fill'd with a curse, and yet retains a blisse;
Full of deformity, and uglinesse.
Though washed over with an outward dresse;
And yet there is a part that doth indue,
The Robe of happinesse, and beauty too.
In one part stand great BABEL'S lofty Towers,
SODOM'S profane, and ÆGYPT'S wicked Bowers,
Where LUCIFER triumphs, and raignes as King,
In's Throne of Evil, and his Court of Sin;
Sorrow, and Care, Labour, and Toyl, and Swet,
Trouble, vexation, round about him set.
Here SATURN'S Lord, (though 'tis by usurpation)
Here he committeth spoil, and devastation;
Here his great Princes, with their Hellish art,
His Stygian Vice-Royes, govern each a part,

Who here maligning mortals happinesse,
Do cause them one another to distresse.
Here bloody wars, the stained Campaine spread
With mangled Limbs, and Bodies butchered:
Here is the Chrystal, turn'd to Crimson flood,
Distained with the gore of humane blood:
Here thousand Orphans, thousand Widows stray,
Here thousand Captives chain'd are led away.
Here Famine rageth, here contagions spread,
That scarce the Living can interr the Dead:
Here sicknesses, and all diseases are,
Here miseries, unhappinesse, and care.
Here also all the sinnes in order range,
Provoking all Men for to take their swinge:
Here avarice, here cruelty, and here
Lusts, murthers, rapines, drunkennesse appear,
Here Ryot, Luxuries, and wantonnesse,
Here also pinching, scraping, and excesse,
Deceit and cheating have their Residence
Within the vast Realms of this mighty Prince;
Within the circuit of great BABYLON,
Where mighty LUCIFER has pitch'd his throne:
Where like a Prince (and like a Lion stout
For's prey) he walks his Countrey round about.

In th' other part of this great Universe
(Which mask'd to mortals yet true beauty wears)
JERUSALEM, and blessed SION stand,
With famous Eden, and the Holy-Land,
Fair Paradise; felicites bless'd site,
Where pleasure, and unwearied delight
Where Plenty, Peace, where Justice, Righteousnesse,
Where Truth, Love, Piety, and Happinesse
Dwell sweetly link'd, There still a springing green,
And constant verdure, sans decay is seen.
No Winters blasts, no stormy Rages there,
No wars, nor cruel Discords once appear:
No vices Vipers brood, no blood, nor murther,
No cheats, deceits, no Rapines, nor disorder,
No Lusts, nor avarice, nor base impiety,
No cursing Men, blaspheming of the Deity,

No Oaths, nor Rancor, no injustice, nor
Ambition, Envy; Stimula's to war,
Can there approach: here only dwels community,
Peace, Meeknesse, Love, Truth, Wisdom, Joy, and Unity.
Here King of this part sacred Jesus sits,
Who to his Vice-Roys also parts commits,
The holy Angels; under whose command
They with impartial Justice rule the Land,
And for the good of mortals still expose,
Their vigor to the Rigour of our Foes,
Our Stygian foes, who, were it not for them,
From th' Earth would quickly root the mortal stemm.
All that both good, and blessed doth appear,
All that's delightful, or contentful here,
All that is beautiful, or doth delight
With hurtlesse pleasures, both our heart, and sight,
Proceedeth from the Happy Influence
Of this part of the world: Likewise from thence
Proceeds our health (mortals chief wealth) content,
Blisse, Joy, peace, concord, and true Blandishment.
All that both Evil, and accursed is,
All that is ugly, and all bane to Blisse,
All that is hurtful, poyson, sicknesse, death,
All discords, wars, infections, jarrs beneath,
On th' other side comes from the Influence
Of that part, where inthron'd sits Hel's black Prince.
Now were That gone, this Earth an Hell would be,
And were not This here we 't an Heav'n should see:
So that this Eart'hs a medly, checquer'd still
With black, and white, compos'd of Good, and Ill.

The darker part, where Sathan rules, doth here
Perspicuously to mortal eyes appear
Th'rowout the world; and blessed Paradise
Obscur'd by clouds, is hid from mortal eyes,
And as it were triumph'd upon, and fled
From th' Earth, and thence for ever banished.
What said I, hence for ever banish'd? No,
I must recant, and if I did say so,
For filled now with a prophetic Rage,
My Life, and all that's dear to me engage

I dare, I will; that Sathan's tumbling down,
And shall bereft be both of Rule, and Crown.
E'r long; this Earth so long the Stage of Hell,
Love's blessed influence e'r long shall feel:
Chere Saints, and tremble all you wicked crue,
A Day of blisse, of sorrow, be to you
It shall. Chere Hearts Night's sable blacks are gon,
And fait Aurora now begins to dawn:
Turn to the East your long-expecting eyes,
And see this Sun in his bright lustre rise;
His Kingdom then no longer shall be hid,
Nor under clouds of darknesses abide,
None then shall say, where is this Kingdom, where
This Paradise? for then it shall appear
In all its lustre th'row the Earth, and then
Jesus alone shall raign the King of Men.
Nothing but Peace, and Righteousnesse shall flow,
With Joy, and Blisse, and all content below:
Then shall JEHOVAH'S gracious will be done
On Earth, as now in Heav'n by every one.
For this end was the Earth created: shall
The end not be (for which God made this ball)
Effected then? for hitherto we see,
The Devil King was of this Globe, not he:
But now he shall be King alone, with shame
Hell banish'd Earth: I A TRUE PROPHET AM.

But now my thinks your words assault mine ear,
Where's Paradise? desirously you quære.
In what by-corner of the Earth it stands?
Whether in Peru? or by Ganges sands?
Whether it under the Antartic lyes?
Or where the Riphean snowy Mountains rise?
In what place lyes this blessed part, which is
The Realm of Joyes, and the state of Blisse?
We know that once (five thousand years ago)
It was where rapid Euphrates doth flow:
But where it ever since has hid its head,
Into what Kingdom, or what Countrey fled
We do not know. I'le tell you then where lyes
The happy Regions of bless'd Paradise.

To find this place, you need not cut the seas,
You need not travel to clear Euphrates;
You need not passe th' Arabian sands; nor go
Over the craggy Alpes uneven brow:
Nor visit TEMPES fragrant bosom, nor
Th' Atlantides, nor other Regions; for
Tho' round the world you go; search every Creek,
And ev'ry Land, and every corner seek
Of this great Universe, your labour lost
May be, and you reap pains for all your cost.
Know then that it in every Land doth lye,
But yet the place none but the Wise can 'spy:
Vails double dy'd in pitch are thrown thereon,
And yet it is as naked as the Sun.
Th'row out the world it is, and seems to be
Fast link'd unto the other part of the
Great World; but yet an endlesse Gulf remains,
Between this Land of Blisse, and that of stains.
Rivers they are not, that do bound this Land,
Nor massive Mountains, that do justing stand:
Nor Woods, nor Heaths, nor Planes, nor Hils, nor Seas,
Nor Groves, nor Vales, nor Piles, nor Pales, nor Trees
This place from th' other part of Earth divide:
Nor yet doth it in Caves, or Vallies hide
It self; nor doth between the Mountains lye,
Whose craggy tops aspiring touch the sky:
It's wall is fire, which bounds it round about,
Which keeps the wicked, and unrighteous out:
It's Janitor, or Centinal doth stand,
Arm'd with a flaming weapon in his hand;
But (without clouding it) it in a word;
A mighty Cherub only has for guard.
As Day dwels in the shadows of the Night,
As darknesse doth involve the splendid Light,
As the bright flame lyes hidden in the coal,
So lurking lyes this holy place in all
The Universe: So lies Jerusalem
And SION clouded are with Babylon,
But yet the Gulf 'twixt them's as great, I say;
As betwixt Light, and Darknesse, Night, and Day:

For tho, in one another hid they be,
They yet together cannot stand you see;
For when the Darknesse spreads its wings, the Light
Flyes: So bright Day doth chase away the Night.
When Night comes she involves the shining Day;
When Day comes it hides Night within it's Ray.
Thus dwell the Principles in one another,
Thus Hell, and Heaven blended are together,
Thus is the Good part of the Earth hid in
The Evil part, the spacious Realm of sin.

Then wonder not if I to you relate
That while you dwell in Babylonish state,
In midst of Babel, and her wickednesse,
Priding your self in all her whorish dresse,
Your next near neighbour (in the world's account)
May dwel upon thrice sacred SION'S Mount,
And in bless'd Paradise: for tho he may
In Night seem, He in Night has found the Day.
He plows, he sows, he reaps the Earth; so you
The Gleab do plow, sow, reap, and husband too,
But yet your aym, and end, and his infers
He is God's Stuart, you are Lucifers:
From several principles you act, and he
Is in the second, in the first you be;
He dwells in EDEN, and JERUSALEM,
But you in Ægypt, and in Babylon.
Thrice happy is the Man, that thus hath found
In midst of Babel this thrice hallowed ground.

The purest Chrystal, nor the whitest snow,
Nor candid'st Lilies, fairest flowers that grow,
Nor splendid Phœbus, nor the nitid ayr,
Nor shining Phœbe half so bright, nor fair,
Nor half so pure, nor immaculate
Are as the Soul of this great World: yet that
Before Man fell, lesse pure, and divine
Than Man was, and under his feet did shine.
But since he joyn'd with it, and by it fell,
He gave admittance also unto Hell,
And its Magia to infect it, so
That man by it is oft made subject to

Hel's Prince, and Law: for whilst he in this Room
Of flesh remains, he's easily o'recome
By the World's spirit: Sathan wholly bent
To mischief Man, makes it his instrument,
So that, what's pure of it self he still
Distaines, and so converteth Good to Ill.
Heav'n also for the good of man doth use
The same; for by the same he doth diffuse
External blessings, Wisdom, Wit, and Wealth,
Riches, and Honors, Plenty, Pleasures, Health;
But this more plainly shall explained be
VVhere we speak of the Good, and Evil Tree.

I do admire that man should ignorant
Be of this great World's Soul; so greatly want
The true sight of't, being so nearly he
To it is fastned by a Sympathie:
For's outward body cometh from that womb,
That very LIMYS, whence this Earth did come:
Being that by the same such strange things brought
May be to passe, such mighty wonders wrought;
Such miracles of Nature shewn: For by
The same he may do wonders, Prophesie,
Be by infusion Learn'd in Tongues, and Arts,
And thousand others which this Sp'rit imparts,
In so much that amazed Man has thought,
The Devil only such great things had wrought.
For not the Devil as most men suppose,
But this world's Seal those Oracles inclose
Did of the Heathen; So the Sybills, So
The Druids did what came to passe foreknow:
And to those Priests fill'd with Prophetic rage,
By the same Sp'rit did future things presage.
So famous actions, done by Ganges strand,
The same day known in the Ausonian Land
Were, and might well be, by this Sp'rit made known,
As what on all parts of our body's done
We at the instant know; this world's Soul so
What's done in any part of th' Earth doth know,
And so impart the same to Mortals may;
And Wonders, which I mention not, display:

And all this by Man's close conjunction
With this great Spirit (not the Devils) 's done.
Yet I confesse that oftentimes the Devil,
That great Imposter, Father of all evil,
Hath had his Oracles, and Prophets too,
That he thereby might his dark Magic shew,
From whence much ill produc'd was: So that all
Count him the Father of what's Magical.

Now to this World's great Spirit there belong
Of Spirits an innumerable throng,
Which only to this outer world pertain,
With it created, and shall dye again
When it's dissolv'd: These nothing have to do
With those black Spirits that are subject to
Hell's horrid Prince; and different from those
Whom the Prince of the lighter Orb hath chose
To be's peculiar servants. These controul
Doth (being its Instruments) the great World's Soul.
Of these, some in the fiery Element
Inhabit; some within the azure bent
Among the starres: And others daily sport
Within the flameing Rooms of Vulcan's Court:
Such are within Vesuvius's sulp'ry womb,
And great Enseladus's fiery 'tomb:
Such in flame-belching Propochampech sport;
Such cause the noyses in Mount Heclesort;
Where flakes of fire, and black stinking smoke,
The Countrey round for many Leagues do choke;
Where hammers noyse, and Cyclop's strokes like thunder,
Till all that dare, go hear the same with wonder.
Others there be, which do their nests prepare,
Within the tepid bosom of the Ayr:
These are swift Curriers who with news can go,
And things transport from Ganges, unto PO:
These are those airy birds that soon can bear,
Your whisper'd Treason unto Cesar's ear,
These, these are those muster'd by higher hands,
That in the aire's clear Region shew their bands.
Where skirmishing in battel's order, shew
Warrs future evils, and events to you:

Such Germany, and our dear Albion has
Seen just before dire warrs have come to passe.
Some dwell within the caves of Æolus:
Some likewise dwell in dropping Auster's house:
Some ride upon the back of Taurus; some
From Western Seas with sweet Favonius come:
Some on the wings of blustring Boreas ride;
And some sweet Zephe's fragrant blasts bestride.
Others love Neptune's Courts, and Theti's Lap:
Others themselves in Chrystal Rivers wrap,
Such was that Triton, who met Cæsar on
The sedge-fring'd Bank of rapid Rubicon:
And bravely sounding his recurved shell
Presag'd good Fortune: which to Cæsar fell.
Others in Fountains have their habitations;
Others in Lakes, sporting in inundations:
Some love the River, some a stinking Pool.
Some clear-spring'd Jordan; some Asphales foul;
Some stinking Lakes, which as Mæotis love;
Some likewise never from Avernus move.
So some the lesser Rivers, some the Great
Do chuse (some wander) for a constant seat.
Some to the Earth belong, and these abound
In numbers great, or on, or under ground.
The subterran, within their hidden den,
Hide treasures from, sometimes disclose, to Men:
Sometimes such move the Treasures that they hide,
Sometimes by these are Mines, to Men deny'd.
Sometimes great treasures they disclose; anon
To durt convert them, or thence steal ag'en.
Others: which on the Earth do dwell, some Love
The Rocks, and Caves, and some the shady Grove;
Some Woods, & Trees: some stones, some fields, some Planes,
Some Vales, some Hills, some Marshes, Meadows, Draines.
Some in Islandian Hecla love to lye,
Others in Hechelberg to roare, and cry.
Some one place, some another Love, but all
Are frequent almost throughout all the Ball.
Some love for to converse with men, but some
More solitary rather'd have their Room.

Some also love among the dead to be,
Church-yards and Tombs do best with such agree:
I do not mean those shapes of Men that walk
About Church-yards, or bloody feilds do stalk,
For these are th' astral bodyes of dead men,
Which to the earthy fain would joyn agen,
But these dissolving, those are forc'd to die,
And to the chaos whence they came to fly.
Now some of these have bodies, others none,
Some borrow shapes, some shapes have of their own,
Some are great Lords, and Princes, others are
Servants to them: some peace, and others war
Do cause: some govern Cities, Countries large,
Some have a greater, some a lesser charge.
Some they are oft, some they are seldome seen:
Some meerly mortal, at a certain time
Die as the Beasts, and to their Æther go;
Some 'bide so long shall as the world shall do;
Who then shall, with the soul of this great world,
Into the womb from whence they came de hurl'd.

By these Arcanas deep are oft made known
To men, and secrets of this world are shown:
Farther they search not, for their skill doth lie
In knowing solely this worlds Mystery.
There lyes their Essence. But the Devils can
The dark world's secrets and the Outer's scan:
And so the Angels know their own, and this
World; 'cause their Essence in them hidden is.
But man compos'd of all the worlds may know
The things of this, the light, and dark world too.
A thousand Myst'rys here disclos'd might be
Fetch'd from these knowing spirits treasury;
And would man dive into their depths, he there
Sould find great secrets, and Arcana's rare
Concerning (only) this great world: But I
Do man advise a lof'tier flight to fly,
And not into this out-world's Magick quære;
For noble Man's not born a subject here,
But this world's spirit to command, and so
Should from a higher Magick all things know.

Magick is threefold: this world's natural,
Sacred the light, dark, diabolical:
Great is the Magic of this world, but yet
Greater the dark, the light more great than it.
When this worlds secrets, Man knows from the light,
He knows the Magic of this world aright,
But otherwise he deals preposterous,
Lets go a Jewel; doth a bauble choose.
As it unlawfull is for man, for to
Investigate the dark world's Magic; so
He leave this lower Magic should, and strive
To gain what it through Adam did deprive
Him of; for 'twas the Magic of this orb
Which clothed Adam in his fleshly garb.
Let man therefore wisely investigate
The ancient Glory of his pristine state,
And through the Magic of the light worlds see
This world's Arcana's, and grand Mystery.
The Heathen that advantage had not, as
Through mercy now the holy Christian has,
For Christ our Saviour hath thrown down the Wall
Which wrath erected had through Adams fall,
Which bard us from the secrets of that place,
Illuminated by our Saviours face,
And gives free leave unto the Holy-wise,
Adams lost Magic now to reagnize:
Through which, true-man may able be to know
Th' internal Worlds, and this worlds secrets too.

This is the true and safest way to see
Into the Magick of this world, and be
Acquainted with all its Arcana's, for
Through ignorance great danger else incur
You may. Satan that great Impostor, that
Doth for to mischief Man all times await,
With higher Magic can deceive you soon,
And by the world's sp'rit can procure your ruin.
Since he (through Adams fall) within this Sphere
Has got a place, he doth so dominere,
That to his will he bowes this Magic, and
Makes this worlds spirits follow his command;

So that all mischief that these Spirits do
The Man, the Devil doth enforce them to.
One skil'd in the dark-Magic can do more
Then he who's skil'd in this World's, but before
Them both is he who in the Light-World's skil'd:
By him the plottings of the Devil's spil'd,
He cann't deceived be, to his doth bow
This World's deep Magic, and the Devil's too.
He then this World's whole Host of Spirits, and
The dark World's too, shall have at his command,
Inferiors bow unto Superiors shall:
This out World's Spirits passive lye to all
Both Dark and Light Magicians, so that they
Sometime the dark, sometime the Light obey.
Let Christians therefore the true Magic gain,
And nothing hidden from them shall remain:
Then without danger to deceived be
By Hell the myst'ries of this World they'le see.
For this end Jesus (at whose mighty Name
All evil spirits bow their Heads for shame,
And fear) beholding Sathan's Subtleties,
How he by this World's Spirits, injuries
To Man did do; has them restrained, so
That they appear not as they're wont to do.
To him they bow'd, where e're he came their heads,
And ever since where his bright Gospel spreads
They're not so frequent; for the glorious Rayes
Of it, with splendor doth them much amaze.
In former time the Heathen swallow'd were
More into th' Spirit of this outer Sphear,
Then men are now (and yet more wickednesse
Abounds now in the World, I do confesse,
Because Hell's Centre now is open'd more
Within this World, than e'r it was before,
Because the wrath of God's more irritated,
Because through Light our sinnes are aggravated)
Therefore these Spirits were more frequent then:
Appear'd to, and conversed more with Men.
Men now more near conjoyn to Hell; therefore
They Men frequent not as they did before:

Not now by Vice-Roy's, but now Hell commands
In person, and in their Hearts Centre stands.

The Devil like a subtle Captain deals,
Who from 's Foe's actions still advantage steals,
And strives to make his Foe's brave Policies,
Prove helps to him, to himself injuries:
Sathan perceiving the high hand of Heaven,
For to restrain the power it had given
To Spirits, and that now they in this Sphear
Did not, as they did formerly appear,
He strait suggests to Man that there are none,
And so to think a vain opinion
Makes him believe it is: Through which sad Evil
He might induc'd be to believe no Devil,
And so no Hell, nor Heav'n; for by this mean
He hopes Atheism to bring in again,
That he Mens souls might get: But who believe
This great Impostor, do themselves deceive.
Laugh not at Fairies, Pigmies, Gnomies, Sylfes,
Melosinæ, Sylvestres, Syrens, Elfes,
At Lemures, Neuferan, Diamæ,
At Nymphs, Penates, Durdales, Undenæ,
For name them what you will, or as you please
Baptize them, there such Spirits are as these.
As likewise Planetary Spirits, and
Such as do Places, and the Winds command:
With thousand other mundane Spirits, that
God did, when he did this great World create,
But, who their Power, and Mysteries would know,
May to Agrippa, and Trithemius go.
But ah, how many scoff at Spirits, and
Deride the things they do not understand!
For more then ever Hell in this Prevailes,
That Truth's are 'counted old-Wives idle Tales.

You self-conceited, who so slyly jere,
'Tis happy for you Spirits disappear:
That God (for to convince you) don't affright
You, with the horrors of Æternal Night,
With those black shades sprung from the Stygian Sphear,
Which are (tho' unseen by you) conversant here.

You ignorants it is a sign you know
Scarce what belongs unto this world below,
Much less to those which from your blinder eye,
In vails of Pitch, and night enfolded lye.
Had I the Key that could your eyes unloc,
Had I the art to pull those Curtains back,
Or rub those scales off, which before them be,
You Truth, and Hell's black swarms at once should see:
You'd startle then into belief, and cry
We'l never more that Spirits are deny.

Beside the numberless spiritual throng
Which do unto this outer world belong,
Within the Region of this world there are
Vast troops which come from the internal sphere,
Both from the dark Tartarean Centre, and
From that Orb where doth Loves great Prince command.
Being this world of good and bad's compos'd,
Spirits both good and bad are here disclos'd,
For as these seek the hurt of man, so those
Their vertue to their venom do oppose.
Innumerable are the Sulphry swarms
Hell belches forth to cause poor mortal harms,
Vast teter Troops continually from thence
Are sent to fight the battles of their Prince,
Who ranging thorow out the world contrive,
How they may man of bliss and rest deprive.
Go count the motes that in the Sun-shine fly,
Go count the sands that on the shore do lye,
Go count the roleing billows of the sea,
Go count the stars that in the heavens be,
Number me these, and thou perhaps mayst tell
The Legions which do hither come from Hell:
Scarce is a place throughout this world so wide,
But where ten Millions of these spirits 'bide.
But now to match these evil spirits, come
There do as many, from the sacred womb
Of the Light-world; which sacred spirits do
Equal their numbers, and their powers too:
So that the world divided is betwixt
Them both, and of them good, and bad is mixt:

These seek to spill, kill, hart and destroy man;
Those comfort, please, ease, help him all they can.

Nay gaze not round so with thine outer eye,
As if thou mean'st to give this truth the lie,
And 'cause thou blinded can'st not spirits see,
T'affirm, and boldly swear that none there be:
You Linceus tell me canst thou see the wind?
If not, a spirit how that's more refin'd?
Winds blasts thou feelest, if not made of steel,
So spirits dire effects I'm sure most feel,
Although they ignorant may be from whence
Proceeds their felt (tho unseen) influence.
Nay spread not so thine hands, and arms abroad
Thinking to feel, and catch them, 'cause I said
They every where did stand; forbear, forbear,
Open thine hand, and see how much of air
Thou holdst; spirits can pass thy body thorow,
Lye in thy bosome, yet not felt by you.
Nay gape not so, nor snap at every blast,
As if thou spirits hadst a mind to taste,
For they into thy mouth themselves can put,
Its ruby gates, and strong porcullis shut.
Nor snuff the wind, as if thou meanest to smell
Them out, if near thee by the stink of hell,
To find them out thou surely now dost think,
By their sulphurious smell, and Stygian stink.
They can deceive thee with the sweeter air,
Or fume themselves in thy perfumed hair:
But hell, and all its stinks lye round about
Thee, yet thou sensless canst not smeel them out,
Nay prick not up thy ears to hear the noises
They make in going, nor to hear the voices
Of those that talk: they softly whisper, so
That thou not hear them canst; on wool they go;
They talk can by thee, (yet thou ne'er the near)
And never move the air unto thine ear.

We by our outer senses understand
Nothing, but what's compos'd of matter, and
Form, and what is corporal, and what
Not of a simple essence is, but that

Which of a mixture doth partake I wis:
Each Spirit of a simple nature is;
And therefore not t'our outer sences subject,
Except connexed to some outer object,
Where there is Matter, Form, or corporeity:
(Which not in Spirits, nor the sacred Deity
Are simply) Spirits to our outer eye
And th' other sences then do subject lye.
Mistake me not, that Spirits bodies have
I'le not deny: but these I do believe
Spiritual, and incorporeal are,
And of their Nature very much do share:
These also to our outward sences be
Not Subject. As I said the Deity
No form nor matter has: a body tho
It has, for Christ God's Body is we know.
Spirits not made of matter simply too,
Do bodies tho spiritual indue
Unto our inner sences they thereby,
Tho not t'our outer sences subject ly.

They therefore who acquainted are, with the
Internal Worlds, and their grand mysterie,
Whose sences are unlocked by that hand,
Which doth all sences, and all World's command,

Can Spirits see, and with Lincean eyes
Behold their Bodies, features, shapes, and guise:
Can also touch them, and their Bodies feel:
Can also tast them: and their scents can smell,
The Sulph'ry stinks, which from dark Spirits rise,
The sweet perfumes from those of Paradise:
Can, also hear the Angels sacred Songs,
The dark Worlds Cursings belch'd from fiery Tongues.
These are Arcana's, which I'l not rehearse,
Cause scoffers breathes shall not betaint my Verse:
Who these things see, see with enlightned eyes:
A word's enough unto the truly-Wise.
But go, unbelieving Thomas's, who sware
You will believe not that there Spirits are,
Except them with your outer eye you see,
Except they subject to your sences be;
Who scoff at the internal sences, and
Deride as whimsies what you understand
Not: Spirits can (such Sadduces to fear)
In outer Bodies and grosse shapes appear:
So that your Ear, your Nose, your Hand, your Eye,
May them both (plainly) hear, smell, feel, and spy.
No formes there be within great Tellus womb,
But Spirits (freely may and) can assume:
And Spirits never come in shapes that fright:
The Evil cann't assume the shapes of Light.
Some starry Halos still attends the Good;
Some dark unbrattic shade the Stygian brood:
Good Sp'rits still in humane shapes appear,
In star-like Lights, or brightnesses more clear
Than the third Orb's fair, and resplendant Queen;
Seldom in any other bodies seen:
The dark Orb's Spirits take an Humane garb,
Or any other shape within this Orb;
There is no creature 'mong the numerous swarm,
But they into its likenesse can transform
Themselves, and all such shapes assume, and use,
The which the Earth doth any way produce;
However most times they assume the feature
Or of some rav'nous, or some ugly creature.

But let good Spirits how they please appear,
Or in what'ever form, or figure here
Be manifest, a magic still attends
That doth distinguish them from Hellish Fiends,
They bring good news, are messengers of joy,
They clear from fear, from sadnesse, and annoy
The Seers hearts by their sweet presence, and
Do make them what they are soon understand.
But those dark Fiends of the Tartarean Den,
How e'r disguis'd strike horror into Men
By some hid Magic's secret influence
At the first sight: 'tis easie then from whence
They come to know; for tho, a sudden fear
The good may cause when they to men appear
Who'r unacquainted with them; recompence
That fear they do with a sweet influence
Which from their presence flows immediatly,
Which them doth ravish with its suavity.

Ask not what Taylor fits their fine array?
Or makes those cloathes, or gowns so fit which they
Appear in oft? or of what stuff they'r made?
Who dons their garments? How they are array'd?
They are self-Taylors, and self-helpers too,
And in a moment can all shapes indue.
Have they a mind for to be seen, they call
The Elements (who subject to their thrall
Do lye) unto their help: and then, of these
They form what Bodys (for themselves) they please,
But so compos'd that in a moment they
Can them dissolve, and soon disperse away.
Th' apt-to be-formed aire, doth matter yield
Fit for all shapes: for oft I have beheld
The hanging clouds sometimes a Horse to frame,
Then to a Lion, or a Dog the same
Convert, and so vicessively, to make
A thousand Forms, a thousand shapes to take.
So most times Spirits (when here seen) do shroud
Themselves within some grosse, and airy cloud,
Which they transform can to what shapes they please,
And then disperse them into ayr with ease:

For aire condensed will admit we know,
Colour, and Form, witnesse the clouds, and Bow.
Both Good, and Bad, the Elements can take
And of them for themselves fit bodies make,
The nimble Fire, the moistful Water, and
The Earth do subject lye to their command.
Dead bodies they can doubtlesse enter (that
Can them possesse when in a living state)
And e'r they'r rotten agitate them so
That they about (as if alive) may go.
Mouth, Arms, Legs, Tallons, and such members they
(Their force, and powers better to display)
Assume of a grosse substance: with their Hands
At once they fell a thousand armed Bands,
With their sharp tallons pierce the flesh, and beat
To dust the top of Taurus with their Feet.
With Swords, and such like instruments they slay,
Beat, strike, and wound, and fiercely chase away
Mortals sometimes: But doubtlesse they may these
Things do w'thout Armes, or members if they please.
But whensoever Spirits Bodies here
Assume, and to our outer Eye appear,
They put on such as may convenient be,
And with their inner Bodies best agree,
For look what shapes their inner Bodies have,
Such shapes, (if visibly appear) they crave:
I cannot better represent it than
Thus: Let a waxen Picture of a Man
Be made compleat, exactly like, and fit
And Hollow, let the Man then into it
Be put, the Picture's like the Man, but he
In it inclosed close you cannot see:
So Spirits when they 'ppear unto our eye
Their bodies cloath with visibility;
So that the outer forms the' assimulate
In all things answer their internal state,
But that those shapes our outer eyes may see,
These seen may only by our inner be.

But how should I this Volumn swell if that
I mention should what Histories relate!

Concerning those stupendious acts (which made
Men wonder much) of spirits good, and bad,
The title of which would swell too high for me,
And ask more sheets than in this book shall be.
So that I wonder much that men should grow
S'incredulous; think there's no Spirit, though,
Plenty of actions their beliefs might gain,
As not to judge the Melancholick brain,
Or phantasie to be the Father that
Did Acts of Spirits Good, and bad create.
So palpable they are that who denies
Them, may as well Histories Verities
Question in all things else. Perversity
Sticks not to give the Sun it self the Lye.

What were those spirits that Eubatis house
In Corinth haunted? What was that did use
For to disturb Pausanias his rest?
Or that who Nero did so much molest?
Or that which Otto terrifi'd? Or those
That us'd to sport about the shady brows
Of the sad grave of curs'd Caligula?
What was that ayr and pestilential Ray,
Which from Apollo's Fane at Babylon
Flew th'row the Earth, which was no sooner gon
From whence (it seems) it had been locked up,
But all the World drank Plague's infernal Cup?
And what were those so oft appear'd unto
Lancastrian, and Warbosian witches too?
What spirit Job tormented! What was he
Caus'd Sarah Raguel's Daughters misery,
Forcing her Grooms by Hymen crown'd at noon,
To passe the Ferry-boat of Charon soon?
I should want time to write, and you to read
Should I but mention every horrid deed
Of evil Spirits, which in History
Is noted: who shall doubt this verity?
But one I'le here recite, Niderius
His Pen the same made known hath unto us.

Upon the Confines of Bohemia lies
A Stygian Vale, where shady Mountains rise

Burden'd with aged trees, whose bushy heads
Fill th' under-lying Vale with horrid shades,
Denying Phæbus in the brightest Day
Leave amply there for to project his Ray.
Here every Night after that Sol was gon
To court Queen Thetis in the Ocean,
And that the horrid shaddows of the Night
With pitchy Vailes had muffled up the Light;
Hell and its Princes mustered their Forces,
Their bands of Foot-men, and their Troops of Horses,
And in disport to Exercise, and play,
Their Stygian Troops, imbattel'd in array,
They did divide, meeting with strange effort
Pel-mell they joyn'd, and skirmish'd thus in sport.
The Mountains eccho'd, and the Vallies rung
With the strange noises of this Stygian throng,
The ayr re-ratled with their Canons noyse,
Their armours clashing, and the horrid voyce
Of fighting, roaring, howling, hissing Fiends,
Like to the loud-mouth Thunder, when it rends
The tallest Cedars, and the strongest Rocks
With unresistible, and deadly knocks.
Here flakes of fire, here curled Clouds of Fume,
With Sulphur mix'd, and other stinks did come
From out the Vale, as if that Ætna there
Had spet his fiery entrals in the ayr,
And by and by they such a yell would send
As if at once they Heav'n, and Earth would rend:
Pompey and Cæsar on the fatal Plaine
Of Pharsalia, or great Tamerlaine,
And Bajazet, great Alexander, and
Darius who all Asia did command
Met with lesse clamor, and lesse noyse of armes
Then made these Devils with infernal Charmes:
Thorow the gentle air these clamours flye
Which gave Alarums to the dwellers by,
The fearfull ran away, the stoutest dare
Not go to see what fighting Foes these were:
Untill at last two stout, and hardy Knights
Alarum'd with these noyses several Nights,

Accounting it disgrace for them who were
The Sons of Mars for to admit of Fear,
Resolv'd to go into the Vale, and see
Who those nocturnal Combatants might be.
The night appointed arm'd, and mounted they
Dauntlesse, and stout, together take their way,
Fair Phæbe tripping th'row the azure skies,
Favour'd with smiles of light their enterprize,
And on the Rode her silver beams doth shed,
Which to this Close, and haunted Valley led:
By whose fair beams of Light disery they might
Two Armies battail'd, and prepar'd to fight
Their Troops well marshal'd, prest, and ready bent,
And Colours streaming in each Regiment,
The Foot prepar'd, the Horsemen mounted, and
Th' Artillery fitted, and in order stand:
Here Drumms were beat, here Fifes were play'd upon,
Here the shril-sounding Trumpets strongly blown
Tantara go, and other musick, that
Men prest to blood, and rage doth animate.
This seen, the heart of one strong fear subdues,
And farther on to go he doth refuse,
I'ave seen enough (said he) nor is it good
To match with Friends for feeble Flesh, and Blood,
Let's now retire, while that we may, from these
Fiends, and not dally with such Prodigies.
Coward stay thou (the other strait replies)
I'le try their mettal e'r I go: Then hies
Upon the gallop to these Armies, but
He in the midst is by a Champion met;
They draw their Weapons, stoutly fight, but he
Strait loses both his head, and Victory.
The other lesse Fool-hardy flies; relate
He doth next day, this Champions desperate Fate,
The People thither go by heaps: The dead
Body they find, some furlongs from his Head,
But neither print of mens feet, nor of Horses
Nor any sign of all these warlike Forces
Were to be seen: Such stories Histories
Afford in plenty. And let this suffice.

Nor are the sacred Acts of Spirits good,
Inferior or lesse frequent than the Bad,
For they do mortals help as often still,
As those black Fiends appear to do them ill.
Doth not the sacred Writ most clearly shine
In every place with Angels Acts divine?
What were those Sacred Nuncio's that came,
And eat, and drank, and Talk'd with Abraham?
They eat, and drank, not that they needed it,
For unto nothing soon resolv'd their meat.
And who were those who Lot protected, from
The Sulph'ry flames which did on Sodom come?
That the Ægyptians first-born slew? and that
Which did Senac'hrib's Host exterminate?
That which with Manoa commun'd, and he
Which Daniel help'd in his extremity?
Which talk'd with Esaras? and those five that fought
In golden armes for Machabeus stout?
And what was he who Mary visited?
And he who Peter from his prison led?
Full every where are holy Histories,
Of holy Acts of Angels like to these,
Who by the Mandate of their masters Will
Attend the good of Fragil mortal still:
This one I'le cite, to them who more would know
The Ecclesiastic Histories will show.

When Christianism's fair, and sacred Light
Contested with the foul, and cursed Night
Of Paganism; Then the raging Fiends,
Brought many Saints unto most cruel ends,
And then the holy Angels of the Lord,
Bestirr'd themselves to propagate his Word,
And in the Christians great extremities,
Apply'd choyce comforts to their Miseries:
So that with hearts undaunted evermore,
The Rage, and fury of Hel's Prince they bore.
Among the rest stout LAURENTINUS, and
His valiant brother PERGENTINUS stand
As Champions stout, and bid defiance to
Hell: their pernicious and immortal Foe.

Their holy Tongues fiered with Zeal decry
The Heathens Idol, and Idolatry:
Their holy charmes enchain the Peoples hearts,
And Sathan's wounded by the sacred darts
Shot from their pious mouthes; and fearing now
To be o're-come voweth their overthrow.
TIBURTIUS then Areciam's Lord is bent
To be (the Prince of STYX) his Instrument:
He these seeks to disswade, but all in vain;
They scorn his hony'd words, and sugar'd traine,
The more TIBURTIUS lauds his Jupiter,
The more he up their holy zeal doth stirr.
Enraged he as Sathan did command
Caus'd them with cruel cords for to be bound,
And then with batts for to be beaten sore,
Till their white backs were covered with gore.
But mark an Angel with a steely wand
And frowning brows doth by these Martyrs stand
Unseen, he strikes their Executioners,
Which blow its dyre effects full soon infers;
For strait their armes, who beat these Martyrs so,
Are now not able for to strike a blow,
Dry'd up they are like sticks; their sinnews shrunk
And dryth hath up their strength, and vigor drunk:
Cruel Tiberius then to prison hales
These Brothers: (Hell now claps on all his Sailes;
Blown with the blasts of Rage, fell mischiefs barque
Seeks to o'rewhelm the Christian's new-built Ark)
There as it were within the jawes of Hell,
Where horrid Night, and Stygian stinks did dwell,
Where mire, and filthy durt, and stinking dung
Bespread the floor, and the black wall's behung:
There are the Brothers, noble Brothers put,
And there from food, as well as Light are shut.
But stay Tiburtius, 'tis not thou canst keep
Food from these Martyrs: Christ will feed his sheep:
And tho ten thousand Iron barrs behem,
He in the foulest hole will feast with them.
A sacred Angel now Hel's Rage withstands,
And notwithstanding his severe Commands,

Brings ev'ry day food to these close shut up:
With which they bountifully dine, and sup.
In vain Tiburtius every day enquires
Which of the constant brothers first expires,
In vain he waits (and still in vain he may)
To hear the cruel cut-throat keepers say
That they were starv'd to death: He waites in vain,
Raging therefore he now will have them slain.
This cruel Monster, and right Stygian Heir
Doth now a walk of burning Coales prepare;
And (cruel) forces these two Saints to stalk
With naked feet upon this fiery walk:
The glowing Coales (charg'd by the Angel so)
Kisse their sweet feet unhurt as they do go,
Fast locking up their burning quality
As splendant Gemms under their feet do lye.
But all this will not serve their turns; for now
Unto JOVE'S Image they are bid to bow,
Instead of Jove to Jesus strait they cry,
When one of his blest Chore doth thither flye,
Touching the Idol with his sacred hand,
Prodigiously converts the same to sand,
The brasse resolv'd to dust falls on the ground,
Whilst Heathen Jesu's blessed Name resound.
Such were the acts of holy Angels, then
Frequent, tho now so seldom seen by men.

And what's the reason that these Sons of Light
Seem as it were now to eschew our sight?
Why don't they now appear as they were wont
To do, in former ages? and why don't
They shew their kind familiarity
But hide themselves in vail'd obscurity?
Some think the sins of Men the cause; and sure
Angels love to converse with none but pure
Men like themselves: and though this may not be
The only Cause of their obscurity
Unto our outer eye, yet sure I am,
Man's inner converse hinder'd by the same
Is, for while Men lye plunged in the mire
Of sinn, they cann't behold these sparks of fire.

Others suppose the Church confirmed now,
Has no such need as heretofore for to
Be strengthened, therefore Angles don't appear,
And therefore miracles now ceased are.
Others do think (and sure their reason's good)
Since God himself put on our flesh and Blood,
And since that Jesu's blest Humanity
For ay inthroned is in Heav'n on high,
That Mortals should Spiritualized be,
And him by Faith, in Truth, and Spirit see.
For the Internal World's now open'd are,
And Spiritual Treasures more then e'r they were,
So that Man now converse with Angels may
In a more Spiritual, and nearer way,
For Angels tho they don't appear, do Love
Men as they did, and round him daily move,
For to defend him from all hurt, and Harm,
With Magic vigour of their powerful arm.
They willing are still to converse with Men
Who lay aside the letting Vailes of Sin.
But what's the reason seeing Spirits have
Such power here, that th' Ill do not bereave
Man of his Life? and with their shapes affright
Him from his Reason, Wits, and Sences quite?
Why don't they haunt Man with continual terror?
And shew themselves in their dread shapes of horror?
Why don't they muster all the Winds? and tear
The Rocks assunder? and the Mountains bear
Unto some City pashing with the stones
Both Towers, and Walls, Houses, and Men at once?
Why don't they move the Raging Seas, and make
At once a Kingdom, or a Land, a Lake?
And sith a power to slaughter men they have
Why don't they sweep whole Townes into the grave?
Beeing they are to mischief alwayes bent,
Why make they Man to be their Instrument?
The Devil Mans subtle and crafty foe
Charges his slaves, that they themselves do show
To none, but such whom he's assured are
Better'd, and bound fast in his Iron snare:

For he's affraid if he should men affright
With the black shadows of the dismal Night,
And should in's horrid shapes be seen, that they
(Sith Men in fear, are then most apt to pray
For help to God) should through a sence of fear
On goodnesse think, and from their sins forbear:
And lest that many, who no Hell believe
Now; he by this meanes should re-undeceive
Beside the shame, of their foul blot, and stain
From oft appearing doth them much restrain,
For they do know Man knows their fall, and strait
They hang their heads if he the same relate.
Therefore they'r much enrag'd if any spy
Them will they, nil they, with an inner eye.
But chiefly this restrains them: Well they know
Their ministry, and what they are to do
Spiritual is, and that they need not come
In shapes, nor Corporeity assume.
They are to tempt Man unto Sinn, and they
That very well can do a better way
Than to be seen, into the fancy presse
They do and there suggest all wickednesse.
Sleeping, and waking, Night, and Day, they do
Disturb the fancy, and the sences too.
So that they'l not appear unto the eye
Except they think they an advantage spy.

But why Man's Life they do not take away
Nor all the order of the World destroy
Is this: JEHOVA whose black slaves they be
Holds in his Hand their chaines extremity,
So that like Bandoggs they may bark, and grin,
But cannot hurt unlesse he lose the chain:
Which loos'd (for sinnes correction) strait they rome
And upon man with rage, and fury come.
Likewise we must not think the Angels idle,
But that they still their rage, and fury bridle,
Opposing still the rigor of their armes,
Against the venom of their spells, and charmes:
So that with wisdom, and with might they can
Avert their plots, and stratagems from Man.

But I suppose, did God give Sathan leave,
He would not Men, as most suppose, deprive
Of Life (tho I confesse his furious spight
Effect much harm, and desolation might)
For what good would it do for him to Crown
At once the whole World with a Martyrdom?
For what good would it do him to destroy
Man? for himself by it he'd more annoy:
'Tis not this Life of Man he seeks, but the
Soul's company with him Æternally:
Therefore he'd have Men in prosperity,
And's loth to see them in Adversity.
In ease, and pleasure Men to sin are subject,
Disease stirs up to a Cœlestial object.
If Sathan should Man's hand so agitate
That he should burst in twain the thread of Fate
Of any one: answer shall he the fact
If that his will concurr'd not with the act?
Then Dæmonaicks must be guilty too
Of whatsoe'r they in their fits do do.
Sathan knows well enough what e'r ill in
Their minds he puts, imputed sha'n't for sin
Be unto them, unlesse their will they shall
Conjoyn thereto. This sin we rightly call.
Therefore he tempts, well knowing that he can
Not hurt: for Man himself must murther Man.
Hurt from himself doth flow; but cunning he
Makes Man betray himself to misery.
But if that any persecute he wou'd
His Rage, and spight would be against the Good,
Whom he should think were past his reach, or those
Who naked should themselves to him expose,
Hoping thereby to make them sin, or that
They should grow through oppression desperate.
But God who bounds the Seas, doth Hell command,
And binds the Devils with the self-same Hand.

Man as the Sages not untruly say'd
Peculiar Genii has both good and bad:
Each good Man has an Angel guardian,
And evil Dæmon has each evil Man

For to attend upon him; one doth still
Egg Man to Good, the other unto ill.
As doth a careful Nurse attend the child
She suckles, lest by harm it be beguil'd,
Or hurt, and as she joys to see it grow
In strength, and all perfections; even so
The Angel tutular attends his Ward,
And daily it doth from all evil guard:
He joys to see his charge to grow apace
In Heav'n's perfections, and the strength of Grace:
He guards his charge from ills, and doth undo
Hel's plots, and snares, and stops his fury too.
And were it not for such an Angel's guard,
To shun Hel's snares, a Saint would find it hard.
What owe we then unto Heav'n's Love, that sends
So good a Nurse that Man so frankly tends?
So evil Men, ill Dæmons wait upon,
Who joy to see them in Hel's Races run,
They have their several charges too, and they
Also upon their charge attend alway:
Each seeks his charge to hale to TOPHET, even
As the good Angel to bring his to Heaven.

Sometimes these Genii bodies take, and then
Themselves they do exhibit unto men:
For Bishop Bruno heard a voyce cry thus;
No Bishop! I am thy ev'l Genius,
E're long I'le fetch thee: and e're long indeed
A Roof fell down upon his cursed head.
So Marcus Brutus his ev'l Genius spy'd
(Whose Fate presag'd) the night before he dy'd.
Cassius Parmensis saw a Dæmon that
With horrid looks presag'd his evil Fate,
Who being asked what he was? he thus
Reply'd; I am thy evil Genius.
Good Men likewise have their own Genii seen
And with them also conversant have been.
Bodin relates a story of a Man
Who was directed by his Guardian
Angel, at all times, who forewarn'd him still
(That he prevent it might) of any ill

That threat'ned him: or if he did not well
He by some sign him of it still would tell:
And ev'ry morning (such his holy care
Was) him awak'd, and stir'd him up to prayer;
And every night he in a dream did shew
Those accidents that should next day ensue:
So that he was fore-armed still, and thus
Preserv'd till Death by his good Genius.
One Jacob Behre, a very pious Man
By prayer obtain'd an Angel Guardian.
Which both himself, and's Wife saw every Night
About their Bed, like to a shining Light.
Such is God's Love, and such the Angels care,
That we as children, they as Nurses are.

I do believe that there are many now
That by the guidance of their Angels go,
Steer as they do direct; are guided by
And have converse with their own Genii.
And tho, men may not often see their own
Genii; and though themselves they have not shown
Often; unseen they act and do direct
Our actions, and us from Hel's harms protect.
They do inspire us, and as God commands,
Sometimes they help, sometimes with-hold their Hands.
Good Angels help good men, the evil still
Entice, and draw them to the pits of ill.
Most men are by Good, or 'ill Genii led,
In all their actions, tho they'r undescry'd:
Therefore behold within the Globe I paint
An Angel Guardian waiting on a Saint:
An evil Dæmon, which another leads,
Who in the pathes of sinn, and Tart'rus treads.
But the deep Magic of each mystic Sphear
We shall (below at full) describe, not here.
We here proceed shall (tho in homely garb)
To shew the Myst'ries of this outer Orb.

This World from th' inward Worlds its being gat,
And of their natures doth participate.
The curse with blessings, good with bad doth blend.
Both Centres hither do their forces send:

This is the stage on which both act, 'tis here
Their influence, and power doth appear:
This is the field, in which these powers do band,
And strive which of them may Man's heart command.
This is the receptacle, here below
For Heav'n and Hell their Wonders both to shew:
So that here is as 'twere conjoyn'd in one
Both Sodom, Ægypt, and Jerusalem.

The Devil, crafty in his hellish art,
Rejoyced much to see this World produc'd
From two more inward beings, now he us'd
His utmost skill, and it stood him upon,
This World's, and Adam's soul in union
For to conjoyn, For well he thereby knew
A place of pleasure should to him accrew.
Infernal Spirits find some ease, when they
Imbody in some earthly bodies may.
The herd of Swine they'd rather enter, than
Return into their smoaky hole agen:
Leaving their fiery Centre, they as 'twere
Come forth of prison for to take the ayr:
Here they disport themselves; and closely lurk
With eagernesse to do their fathers work,
Which is to draw th' immortal Souls of men,
For to inhabit their Sulphurious den.
The Devils tremble when they think upon
This outward Fakrick's dissolution,
For then more strictly shall they wrapped be
In their own Centre to Æternity.

This wily Serpent all his craft did use,
His poyson th'row this Earth for to diffuse
Which he no way effect could: b'Adam's lapse
Only a way is made; He him intraps,
Assaults his free-will, doth expose to view
This World's rare beauties when 'twas formed new:
Shews him the tree forbid, whose dangling fruit
So pleasing, with a new made creature suit
He well knew would: This was the only gate
By which he hop'd to overthrow him at.

He knew beforehad the sad consequence
Of Adam's fall: Therefore he strives from whence
He was created to attract him; and
Thereby to lessen him of his Command.
Adam was King, sole Prince, and Lord of all
The Earth, but lost it by his fatal fall.
Sathan knew, he millions of Souls should gain
By this meanes, to encrease his hellish train;
And hop'd (it may be) for to conquer all
That should produc'd be on this earthly Ball,
If Adam should not fall, he likewise knew,
He in this World should nothing have to do,
But should be banish'd quite, which is the state
Is promised, for which the Angels wait;
To see Hel's power banish'd, Heav'n's alone
To have with this World's Spirit union:
Then shall the curse be fled, and Paradise
To flourish here we shall see with our eyes.
But Adam's fatal lapse, from what, to what,
In brief my slender Muse shall now relate.

Th' Æternal one, or th' one Original,
Th' internal World's, which Principles we call,
Or his right hand, or left hand, Wrath, or Love
Considering, doth with his Spirit move
On them: what Images there Spiritual
Were, he gave them substance corporeal,
And by his Fiat this great Machine made
Of nought: and in such form and order laid
This huge vast Moles, (or live creature, some
So have affirm'd, I'n this a Sceptic am)
That there no disagreeing seeds appear'd,
All was by order, weight, and measure rear'd.
Heav'n, Earth, Ayr, Seas, Fire, Water, Land, and all
Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Birds, the which this Ball
Inhabited, they so created were
That they partak'd of each internal Sphear:
And though those Kingdoms ever disagree,
Were in the World in compleat harmony,
So had the great Creator order'd it,
And them so in their place, and order set,

That there was no disunion, for that seed
Of disagreement conquer'd was, and hid:
The lighter World was Master, th' other did
Obey as servant, and all things were good.

To what serv'd this the brutish Animal
God's mighty Wonders in their earthly Ball
Contemplate could not: God Almighty then
In his own holy likenesse formed Man;
His shape it may be somewhat like to this
We now do bear: But his pure Body was
Compos'd of Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal,
Out of the inward ground spiritual.
Its nature was, as all things then create,
Most pure, and good, and in a perfect state.
Into this new-made Form God breathed then
The breath of Life, which gave a Soul to Man,
Which Soul Eternal is; so fram'd by God
That from three Kingdoms it its being had:
Three Essences do it compose; so made
That it may stand, or be to hell betray'd:
Or like an empty Vacuum, which is
Capable to be fill'd with Wo, or Blisse:
For what the Soul cleaves most unto when she
Puts off this case, she to Æternity
Enjoys. Nor is she God as some do deem,
But 's express'd Word, or Breath to me doth seem:
Or a shot Ray from that diviner Sun,
Who is in all things, and is yet but One.

Adam thus made, perfect, and good, by God
In Paradise is plac'd, a bless'd abode:
Then was the golden age indeed, Earth gave
Nor Weeds, nor Thorns, but cloath'd in liv'ry brave
Had a perpetual spring; continual green
In ev'ry place, on ev'ry tree was seen:
No dainty Flower, which art makes now to flourish,
But then the Earth did naturally nourish.
A constant verdure it retain'd, and then
With thousand flowers spotted was the green:
Each tree at one time bore both fruit, and flower;
Each herb to heal, but not to hurt had power.

No sharpnesse in the fruit, no naughty smell,
The worst fruit then, our best now, did excel:
No hurtful herb, no poysonous Root grew there,
Of 'ts own accord the Earth all things did bear,
No Summer's parching heat, nor Winter's cold
There was: one temperature did all infold.
Boreas broke not his Hyperborean den,
Nor did wet Auster, or that Eurus wen
From theirs: A pleasing Zepher only kist
The waving trees: No cloud nor foggy mist
Caus'd from the Earth's ill vapours; she had none:
No Sea-got cloud arose between the Sun
And th' pregnant Earth; no sudden storms of Rain:
No snow, no hail, nor thund'ring was there then.
Tempestuous Orion threatned not the Seas;
Nor shew'd the time to sail the Pleiades.
Saturn had then no naughty influence,
A fructifying power came from thence:
The Planets not in opposition mov'd:
The Heav'ns, the Earth, the Earth the Heav'ns lov'd:
Heav'n sent no storms Earth's beauties to deface,
Earth with dull mists dimm'd not Heav'ns brighter face:
No starr there was that had ill influence,
All Rays were blest that were projected thence.
All things in perfect Harmony agreed:
In Heav'n, nor Earth, was there discording seed.
The Lion, with the Lamb did play, the Bear
Rob'd not the Bees; nor sheep the Wolf did fear.
The crested Cock undauntedly stood by
The Fox, as then devoy'd of sublety:
The Toad no venom had; nor poysonous sting
The Scorpion: Nor did then the Birds great King
Feed on the rest: nor did the Falcon prey
Upon the Dove: nor Fishes in the Sea
Did feed the Cormorant: the lesser fry
Fed not the greater, nor was enmity
Then found in Birds, in Fishes, or in Beast:
LOVE all conjoyn'd, in Love all still did feast.

ADAM is Lord, and King: each animal
Comes at his beck, and doth obey his call;

All bow their lofty heads if he comes near,
The Hart, nor timerous Hare his presence fear,
The shaggy Lion, Bear, the Bull, the Bore,
Couch at his feet, him as their God adore.
He wanted not then, as we now do want,
Help from the Beasts, nor physick from the plant,
Meat from the Fowles, and Fishes: nor had he
So grosse a Body to be fed, as we.
Upon the tree of Life he only fed;
No vapours then arose to dull his head;
No sleep e'r clos'd his watchful eyes; nor knew
He want of it; no hunger did accrew.
His soul like ours was not parturient,
He saw th'row all things, knew what all things meant:
Gave names to all the Creatures, and did frame
Them, as their natures so he gave their Name.
Nor did he want the Camel, nor the Horse
To carry him, he in himself had force
Enough to move his Body, and to bear
It where he list, o're Sea, or th'row the Ayr.
No water could his Body drown, nor fire
Consume; nor subject was't to Death's dread ire.
It then immortal was imperishable;
Corporeal, and yet unalterable.
He such a Body had as Christ had on
After his glorious Resurrection.

In this state ADAM stood; but God foresaw
The wo that he soon on himself would draw:
Therefore he thus forewarns him: New made Soul!
Work of my Hands, in whom no pheeces foul
Remain! a second Deity! O thou
For ay mayst live! Thou art immortal now;
Thou art an Angel, and I thee prefer
For to possesse the Throne of LUCIFER.
For this end did I thee Create, that the
Voy'd Throne of LUCIFER, possess'd might be:
Thou shalt enjoy, and if thou stand'st upright,
Th' Eternal mansions of ne're fading Light.
Look to thy self therefore, for thou mayst guesse
LUCIFER envy will thy happinesse;

He'l strive to overthrow thee, and to gain
Thee to the mansions of Eternal pain.
Thou'rt now in Paradise, thy soul doth move
In my bright Kingdom of Æternal Love.
Now take thy choyse; I thee a free-will give;
Whether thou'lt mortal be, or ever live.
The way I'le tell thee, shew thee what to do,
If then thou fall'st, the fault shall lye on you.
Thou'rt now in Paradise, a second God,
If then thou would'st not lose this bless'd abode,
Put not thy will into that Kingdom, where
Reignes in my wrath the fallen LUCIFER.
Instead of Light, an Angel thou wilt be
Of darknesse then unto Æternity.
Nor put thy mind into this Earth below
Lust thou not after it; if thou dost so
Thou shalt a carnal Body have, and be
Subject to Death, lose Immortality.
But put thy Mind, thy Will, thy Faculties
In my Light-Kingdom; exercise thou these
There: Feed not on the Tree of death, nor on
The mortal fruit, but feed thou still upon
The Tree of Life: Th' one darknesse, th' other death,
But this doth true Æternal Life, bequeath,
Thou seest now what thou ought'st to do; standfast,
But forty dayes will thy temptation last,
In which time if thou fall'st not, thou shal't be
For ever cloath'd with Immortality:
Be like the Angels, as thou art; possesse
E'r-lasting Joys; Æternal Happinesse.
If not, this Body shall another have
Of the World's nature, subject to the grave,
And what thou now possessest thou shalt lose,
Go now or Death, or Life Æternal chuse.

ADAM'S now left alone in Paradise
Unto the mortal Principle his eyes
He turns: For he has no desire to prove
The wrathful Kingdom; He's quite out of Love
With it; abhorrs it, turns his eyes away,
And lets them on this lower Orb to stray.

With it he's captivated, and his Lust,
Puts after it; he it desires to tast.
Or thus more properly: These Kingdoms three
In equal Concord plac'd in Adam be.
Nor the dark World, nor this low Orb, to prove
Should he desier; but that Orb of Love;
In that alone should his desire have gon,
With that, not these for to have union.
But his desier soon awakened
The humane property; unmaried
He quickly was from th' second Principle
When once from it unto the third he fell.
His Body changed is; or th' other this
More base indues: Strange Metamorphosis!
What was before diaphanous, and clear,
Not now transparent; muddy doth appear:
What was like ayr, is now like Earth; what light
Now's heavy; and for an unbounded sight,
Each object intervening hindereth:
For an immortal, now a mortal breath
He draws: His Body which before could flye
Clog'd now is with a load of flesh, doth lye
Fix'd to this Orb: his quicker pace now's gon,
He tries to flye but he can scarcely run:
He tries the Waters, at the Rivers brinks,
Passe as before he could not, now he sinks
Unto the bottom: that same Element
Small aid for to support his body lent.
Adam's amaz'd, and in the Chrystal Glasse
Of Waters, he beholds his limbs, and Face,
He feels his hair, his nose, his teeth, his flesh,
Then views, then feels, then views himself afresh.
Then tries to use his nimble feet; the Reeds
In running cut his naked legs, he bleeds;
He feels the smart, he wonders more at this,
And strangeth at his Metamorphosis.
With this grosse body, he a lesser sight
Gaines; he has lost th' immense, and heaven'ly Light
He had before. A smaller intellect
And understanding now he has: Direct

Himself he cann't; he finds his body's case
Like heavy shakels pin him to the place:
Anon dull sleep sits on his eyes, and he
Th'row out his body feels a Lethargy;
Extended on the verdant grasse he lyes
And soundly sleepeth with fast closed eyes.

God sees this lapse, he pitys him; he saw
His heav'nly Image from his sight withdraw:
ADAM his knowledge lost, and power too:
Help now himself he cann't; this did accrue
By's lapse; but had he stood in Paradise
His bless'd estate, had then been on this wise.
God's Image then he should have born for aye
But not as now, obscur'd with clogs of clay;
The heav'nly part should th'row the outward shine;
Free as the ayr; his meat, and drink divine;
Nor as we eat, should he have eaten then,
Magically, yet with mouth, lips, and tongue,
But not into the body, there's no vent
And nothing could turn into Excrement.
No need should he have had of carnal food,
The Beasts, nor Fowls could do him little good;
But God forese'ing he'd lapse from this bless'd state.
Did therefore them for's future helps create.
And yet he should have had his sences free,
In higher measure, and full purity.
Nor should he have continued alone,
(Such members as we have now he had none
To propogate) he magically, as
The Sun's bright beames the waters surface passe
Doth, without pain, so should he have brought forth
In Paradise. By a Cœlestial birth,
He should in God's bless'd Image more have got,
Æternal all, none subject to Fate's Lot.
He should both Father be, and Mother then,
For Male, and Female God created Man:
Both Man, and Woman, Wise, and Virgin he
Together was, in State of purity.

God saw that he, in this new lapsed state;
Had lost the power now to propogate;

Deterred by that vail of flesh: so would
He have continu'd still; nor ever could
From 's loines an issue spring. God just and true,
T'whom future things are present, all fore-knew,
Therefore that VENUS, or that power he had
In him, before to propagate, he clad
In flesh like him; and of his life, and being
Framed his EVE: both in all things agreeing.
Man once was whole-man, but now broke alass!
Is but the half of what at first he was:
Such members then, as we have now they gat,
Fit, (as the Beast does) for to propogate.
ADAM awakes, and views his new made EVE,
He knows she's part of's self; doth to her cleave,
And upon her his sole desire doth cast,
With her he joys, in her he takes repast.

In Paradise as yet they were, for sin
Actually had yet not enter'd in,
Nor was the vanity awak'd, as yet,
God's blessed Image in their souls was set,
Though much obscur'd: In great felicity
And Joy they liv'd, not knowing vanity,
Nor Good, nor Evil; Could they so have stood
They had been blessed, for their state was good.
Their pronity unto a farther Fall
God saw, therefore he thus to them doth Call.

Great Protoplast! and Prince of Paradise!
Take heed thou losest not these happy Joys
Once more I thee forewarn: already thy
Imagination in Earth's property
Did work: thou seest what thou thereby hast lost,
Thy Earthly Body did a better cost,
Of one, thou now art twain; th' Habiliments
A Body made up of the Elements,
Which yet no jar doth know; nor cold, nor heat
Thy expos'd flesh the temperate ayr doth threat.
My Heav'nly power yet doth penetrate,
And cloath thy Body in this naked state,
Nor know'st thou good, or ill: In Harmony
Thou art; nor is awak'd Hel's property

As yet: therefore if thou wouldst stand for aye,
Obey what I command; mark what I say.

Seest thou the happy pleasures of this place?
What verdant Groves, and flowring Trees do grace
This blessed Soul? how many Trees do sute
Thy dainty pallat, with their happy fruit?
How many thousands here, in order set
Fit for thy food do court thy lips to eat?
Here, here is choyce, nor will their sweetnesse cloy
Thy stomach, nor their acritude annoy
Thy tast; their substance is Ambrosia, and
Their Liquor Nectar: Zephirs to thy hand
Do blow the laden bows; spare not to eat
Thou can'st not surfet with this pleasing Meat.
Nor needest thou to lay up store, nor fear
To want; Continually these Trees do bear;
The Fruit renews as fast as thou canst pull;
All here is good, yet thou thy choyce may'st cull.
See but what store there is, enough for thee,
And thousands more. Amongst these Trees, one Tree,
And but one Tree will I debar thee from,
Near that I charge thee, that you never come;
See where it stands surrounded with the rest,
Plac'd in the Garden's Centre: See 'tis drest
Not like the other Trees, from th' other thou
May'st eas'ly know it, by each leaf and bow.
Nor think that I would bar thee from this Tree,
Did not I know it would prove Death to thee,
Shouldst thou but eat thereon. Thou'rt ignorant
Oft's nature, and what liquor virulent
Its fruit contains. Therefore I say beware,
Shun thou the thought of it, and do not dare

To tast of it: Let not the Devil entice
Thee unto it, for if thou dost thou dy'st;
Thou Paradise shalt loose, and thou shalt see
The World endu'd with fatal misery:
The curse shall spring th'row out the Earth, and thou
In pleasure shalt no longer live, as now;
But shalt with pain, and labour, cold, and heat,
Sorrow, and care, and trouble get thy meat.
Look to thy self, let not the Devil thee
Provoke, to eat on this forbidden Tree
For if thou dost, thou wilt it soon repent,
For breaking this my just Commandement.

The Devil like a Gamester, who hath lain
All that he hath at stake, and is undone
If that he lose: or like some General
Encamp'd before some rich, strong City Wall,
In whose subversion he's assur'd to gain
A masse of Treasure, and eternal Fame,
Doth play his part, and useth all his skill
To win the Game, and conquer Adam's Will,
He fears if Eve the new-made World encrease
Should with some pretty Babe in Paradise
E'r that the Wrath awak'ned was, he should
Miscarry in his great design, nor could
He then so easily have drawn from good,
Their brighter souls, when they so long had stood.
A Captain who some Castle thinks to take
By stratagem, an hunder'd plots doth make
In's brain, resolves on this, and then on that,
Then liketh this, then likes another plot:
Anon he spies some danger, or defect
In that; his thoughts some other thing Erect,
And then to work he sets his busie brain,
Until his thoughts have perfected the train:
Which well disgested, unto work he goes,
Undauntedly resolves to win or lose;
So subtle Sathan after many wiles,
Thus our first Parents cunningly beguiles.

Amongst the other Beasts that did resort
As humble servants unto ADAM'S Court,

There was a Serpent whose fine speckled hide,
And pretty features with rare colours dy'd,
Had gain'd EVE'S Love, and who it may be had
Entwin'd about her naked neck, and play'd
With her white hands; or favour'd in her lap:
This Sathan thought was best her to intrap.
Into this Beast he goes, and still doth lie
About the Tree forbid: Eve's longing eye
Full oft salutes that fatal Tree; desire
She doth to tast the fruit, approaching nigher
The subtle Serpent frisking on the Tree
She 'spies: The shaddow cannot hurt, thinks she.
Nearer she goes; thinking on God's Command
She feares for to proceed, then makes a stand,
But still the more she thought she was forbid,
The more she longs, the more desire she did.
(The same we still retain, for even thus
We most desire what is forbid to us)
She steps a little forward; then retires
Then moves again: tempted by her desires
She doth the Tree approach. God's stricter Law
Affright's her; she's about for to withdraw:
Sathan se'ing her the place about to leave,
Thus through the Serpent tempts our Grandame Eve.

Great Mistresse of this World, our gracious Queen,
Commandresse of this mighty Orb terrene,
Why so unwilling to approach this Tree,
Which I the best judge in this Grove to be?
Me thinks you seem'd to dread the shade thereof
When you unwilling to approach, aloof
Stood looking on't: As yet you seem to fear
The very shade; as if some hurt dwelt here.
Tell, what is in't that can displease you thus?
Eve answers then: The Lord commanded us
To please our tastes, with the variety
Of all those fruits which in this Garden be,
Only this Tree alone he bard us from
And charg'd us never near its shade should come.
For Death is harbour'd in this Tree, our last
And fatal day is come should we but taste

This tempting fruit: Great pity 'tis so fair
And lovely Apples should such poyson bear.
The subtle Serpent that he might beguile
The better, answer'd with a forced smile.

Pleasures are hardly left, when that our sence
Confirm'd by reason, and experience,
Find them both good, and just: I am too wise,
This Tree in truth hath opened mine eyes,
For to beguiled be; Think you to 'fright
Me, with your Bug-bears from my chief delight?
No, you would drive me from my happinesse
That you this fair Tree might alone possesse.
Say what you will, this Tree nor fruit I fear,
I by experience know no hurt dwells here;
And you know that; Nor I say'd Eve, nor do
I now dissemble, I the truth to you
Declared have; God charg'd us not come nigh,
Nor tast this Tree; did we, we sure should dye.
The subtle Serpent thus reanswereth:
And speak you Truth? what this Tree bring you Death?
God charg'd you thus? And told you you should dye
Did you but tast thereof? I now know why
He made you this believe: Lend me your ear,
I'le banish soon from you this vainer fear,
And let you know that in this Grove there's none
So beautiful, and Good, as is this one.
All what I have, this subtlety, this wit
I must acknowledge that I owe to it,
Which by frequenting of this better Tree,
Hath been I know not how inspir'd in me.
You see more wit, and subtilty I have
Then all the Beasts beside; This Tree this gave;
Which doth encrease, and whilst I here remain
More wit, and knowledge every day I gain.
Reflect a little; let your eyes but trace
Each Tree that grows in this Celestial place,

Consider all their beauties: look ag'in
And see if any like to this is seen.
Though all are full of Beauty, verdant, fair,
May yet there any with this Tree compare?
This Tree is Mistresse of the rest, and Queen
Of this same Grove, none hath such verdant green;
See how she in the midst is plac'd, each tree
Encompasse her, and as her servants be,
Bow their proud tops unto her lofty spire;
See how she mounteth than the rest far higher,
And threatneth with her waveing tops (well neer
Unto the clouds) the rest who shrink for fear
Their humble heads. See what a length extends
Her interwoven Armes, which still befriend
The under-growing grasse with pleasing shades:
Look what soft mosse her mighty bole invades,
Like to a mantle of green plush, these be
Like Ornaments unto her Majesty,
As Queen of all the rest. Consider, and
Think if that he who this severe Command
Gave unto you, so would his works disgrace
By placing poyson in the happiest place:
All things he made are Good; where are your Eyes?
Think you that ill can be in Paradise?
Can this choyce Tree so great an ill contain?
Pish! don't believ't, for all such thoughts are vain.
No, no, I'le tell you why he did forbid
You to come neer this Tree; such virtue's hid
Within its golden Fruit, should you but tast,
You'd be for ever happy, ever blest;
No longer then in stupid Ignorance
Should you enchained be; then happy glance
From brighter Light, would in your Souls arise:
See then would your blind Soul; and dimmer eyes
Made bright, discern betwixt all good, and ill,
Transcendant knowledge then your brains would fill,
You should be wise, and like the Gods; this knew
They well, should happen (if you eat) to you:
Therefore they did prohibit you this Tree,
Lest you by eating like themselves should be.

Thus should you dye, fear not such scare-crows now;
See how the glit'ring Fruit doth lade each bow:
Look how they'r painted with Vermilion dye
Like golden starres set in a verdant Skye,
Or like the blushing Roses, which are seen
New peeping forth thorow a verdant Screen.
Look how the Apples blush, see how they stand,
See how the boughs, bow down to kiss thine hand;
All 's at thy choyce: which on this fair-spread Tree.
(Come tell me Eve!) most liked is by thee?
See here's a fine one, this? or this best likes
Thee? do but look what many pretty strikes
Of red, and yellow paint; here's one that skipps
Unto thy mouth: here thine own Cherry lips
Are answered; thy softer skin thou mayst
Here find; but there's a mellow one whose tast
So sweet—delicious that 'twil ravish quite
Thy looser sences with extream delight;
Thou hast such choyce thou know'st not which to choose:
Come take this on my word, try what accrews
By this: here take it, prethee eat, and try
If thou a Goddesse art not by, and by.

Tempted by these fine words, and that fair Fruit,
Fear holds her Hands, desire prompts her to't,
At last she takes the sugar'd bait, doth eat,
Findes it for th' present very pleasing meat,
Now on its pleasing hue her looks she cast,
Then with her tongue the sweeter Liquor tast
She doth: mean time her husband passing by
The place she thus attempts. Look here what I
Have got (said she) so fair an Apple, yet
Thou never saw'st: 'tis passing pleasing meat,
Melts in my mouth; I wonder'd much that we
So strictly were forbid this pleasing Tree:
As mortals here we shall not make abode,
I shall a Goddesse be, and thou a God;
We shall be wise as they: here eat thou this
I first have prov'd: me thinks it pleasing is.

Adam invited thus receives the fruit,
And without long delay falls rashly to't.

He that hath drunk the juice of Aconite,
Or the lethiferous Henbane, strait his sp'right
O're fir'd, or too much cool'd, a punction feels,
With grievous smarting rage, his body reels,
His eyes grow dim, his sences stupid; stand
The blood doth in his Face, nor Feet, nor Hand
Can he scarce wagg; the World turns round: his Head
Grows dizzy, by and by his spirits fled
From his swell'd Carcase, dead they leave him: so
These guilty couple 'gan to feel their wo;
Strait operates the Fruit, a shivering cold
Upon their naked Carcasses takes hold,
A sudden tremour shakes their Limbs; their Eyes
Close on a sudden, and dark mists arise,
Mix't with thick vapours 'fore their sight; they found
Themselves amaz'd: Cast in a kind of stound
The light they had they loose. Some drunken sot
Or'e charg'd with Wine or Bear, till h'has forgot
To use his reason, a strong drowsinesse
His fume-farc'd Brain, and weakned eyes possesse;
Whilst that he's drench'd in Lith, and sleepeth fast
His fellows for a punishment do cast:
Agreed; they thence him to a Wood do bear,
Pull off his cloaths, and naked leave him there
Fast sleeping on the grasse: When sleep, the Fume
That did molest his drunken Brain o're come
Had; he awakes, and his unclosing eyes
Rubbs with his hand; he is about to rise
When that he feels himself a cold; he sees
Before his eyes the Skies, and wavering Trees;
Finds that he has no cloaths; gets on his feet
And ev'r' object with 'amaz'd eyes doth greet;
Amaz'd he stands, wonders how he came there,
Looks still about, views round, and every where,
For to resolve him none he spies; doth go
Doubts wh'r he dreams, or is awak'd or no:
Now on the ground, now to the skies are hurld
His eyes; Like one dropt from another World

He stands, and knows not what to say, or do:
Just so do stand, and act these guilty two.
They are amaz'd, they scarcely know the place,
All things do seem now with another Face:
Gods Image shrinks into a cloud, the light
Of that bright Sun obscur'd is from their sight,
But by and by the Wrath's awakened,
And now they see their eyes are opened:
They know they'r naked, see their beastial Form,
They are asham'd of it, they know the harm
They'ave done unto themselves: both Good, and Ill
Indeed they know, that Shun, but this thy will.

Sathan rejoyces at his victory,
His poyson doth diffuse immediately
Thorow their Bodyes: now they'ave fading breath,
Bodies to sicknesse subject, and to Death:
Now they Sol's heat do feel, now Hyems cold,
Which to keep off themselves in leaves they'n fould.
Now have the starres a power over them:
A death they pick may now from ev'ry stemm:
The Beasts no longer them obey, if nigh
They come, they dread them, and away they flye.
Fowles use their wings to shun them: Sorrow, Feare,
Anguish, and Trouble, Heavinesse, and Care,
Anxiety, Tears, Sighs, and Passions they
Are subject to: Their Bodies made of clay
To all distempers now. This they brought forth
By feeding on the Principle of Wrath.

God doth no longer unto them appear
Now as a Father, but a Judge severe:
They tremble at his Voyce: behind the Trees
They think themselves from his all-piercing Eyes
To hide. He sees them, and amidst their feares
He thundereth these words into their eares.
You guilty Souls where are you? have you thus
Transgrest? See now how you are like to us!
Ah foolish Adam that wert thus befool'd
When I before to thee the danger told!
Art thou a God? or thou a goddesse Eve?
See how the Serpent did you both deceive!

Now ye are like the Beasts: This banefull fruit
From which I charg'd you so, hath brought you to't.
Thou Eve, with Grief, Pain, Sorrow, Trouble, Care,
And great discomfort, shalt thy children bear;
Subject to Adam: and thou Adam get
Thy food shalt with hard labour, toyl, and sweat.
Curs'd is the Earth for this thy folly. Stay
Here thou no longer must: Hence, pack away,
Thou'st lost the pleasures of bless'd Paradise,
They are obscured from thy blinded eyes:
Nor may'st thou e're return: A flaming Sword
Plac'd in a Cherubs hand the door doth guard.
Thou hast endued now mortality;
Go and enjoy this World in misery.
Thus spake God's Justice; then his Mercy brake
A deeper silence and him thus bespake.

Where art thou Adam? is that Face of thine
Muffled in Clouds that was so like to mine?
Where art thou? lost! O sad! my Wrath doth say
Thou should'st in this sad case remain for aye.
But Love will mercy shew. In Enmity
The Serpent's, and the Woman's seed shall be:
This Love, in mercy to you, will infuse
He shall thy heel, but thou his head shalt bruise.
The Gate of Life is shut; lost's thy blest state,
But Time shall come when it recuperate
Shall be: the Gates of Death broke down, and one
What thou hast lost recover shall again.

From Paradise they go, or Paradise
Rather departs from them: their blinded eyes

Cann't pierce into the holy Element,
Which in this World, as in a prison pent,
Remains. Like to a Tree whose springing sap
Causes the Tree grow green, when to the top
It doth ascend; but when unto the root
It goes; how bears the Tree of leaves, and fruit?
There it lies buried, and the Tree seems dead
Till its remounting all begreens her head.
So did the World appear, lost was its grace,
A darker Vail now hid its brighter Face:
Far greater difference this change did bring
Then 'twixt cold Winter, and the pleasant Spring.
Or like a burning Torch, which being sat
I'th midst of some great Room doth dissipate
The darker shades: which by and by immur'd
In some dark Lanthorn, all the Room's obscur'd,
And scarce a Ray of brighter Light is seen:
So is the World to what it once hath been.
The Devil's poyson is diffus'd th'row all
Things that compose, or circundate this ball.
Both good, and bad together blend: in some
Things more of Good: in others more doth come
Of Bad: the Rose hath more of Paradise
Then fætid Hemlock, Pinkes, than Margs, or Crise:
The Lamb then Tygers; Apple-trees than Yew:
The Doves than Hawkes: Nightshade hath lesse than Rew.
The Devil chose those creatures that were arm'd
With Teeth, Hornes, tallons, clawes, that others harm'd
By them might be; for had he chose the Dove,
Or Lamb, could they like Hawk, or Lion prove?

Discording Seeds now grow in every thing;
Confusion thorow all the Earth doth spring.
Wrath's Principle doth penetrate this Ball,
And what about it is coporeal:
Both good, and ill together mixed are:
All things created, of them have a share.
This ill lay hid before: We poyson may
Into our Bodies safely take; allay
The same with other good ingredients
In such, and such a quantity: It rents
The Body else if it superabound:
So this great Orb in pristine state was found.
Or as in Man all Passions hidden lye,
Which none, if not awaken'd, can descry;
Nor do they hurt him: But awaken those,
The Mind and Body both they discompose.
So dormant lay the wrathful Principle,
As sparks of fire, in ashes wrapt, untill
By Adam's fall it was awak'd, the same
Hid spark, by Sathan's blown into a flame.

The Planets now forego their wonted Love,
Contrary'ng do in opposition move:
They ill Aspects; the starry Orbs immense,
Do now receive a naughty influence;
Such to the Earth they give. The Heav'n, and she
Now seem to be at deadly enmity:
From her thick vapours, and bad stinks arise,
Which as her darts she sends against the skies.
Sol sucks her moisture forth, with vehement heat
Her parched sides, as with his scourges, beat
He doth: And Heav'n her flowring Corn, with round
Ice-bullets forceth to the very ground.
Syderial blasts, Mildew, and storms he sends;
Then from his window agil light'ning wends:
When that enough he with his Summer scourges
Has beaten her, comes Winter; then with surges
He doth bedrench her Face: Contracting cold
Robs her of all her Beauties: very old
She seems, when snows hang dangling on her head:
Chaps which for heat did, now for cold do spread.

Then storms of Rain, and blustring Winds do make
Her Brooks o'reflow, her Trees, and Mountains quake.
Thus they oppose each other, now the Seas
Beat with the Wind, do threat the very Skies:
Sometimes excurring from his wonted place,
With brinish floods doth wash his Sister's Face.
Now Love is lost; no longer unity
But wrath, and hatred 'mong the Creatures be:
The Lamb now fears the Wolf: The Lion tears
The Kid for food: Bees rob'd are now by Bears;
They stings receive: The tusked Bore the Cow
Assaults: The tender Dear, and Hares are now
Slain by the Dogs: The mighty Elephant,
Serpents, and the Rhinoceroth supplant:
The harmlesse yields to those of greater power;
All fill'd with Ire, each other do devour.
Serpents now stings receive, strong poyson Toads,
Reptils, with Reptils, Plants with Plants at odds
Are now: Now death-Hemlock, and Woolf's-Bain hold,
With too much heat this, that with too much cold
Doth kill: Now Bryars, Nettles, Thorns, and Weeds,
With hurtful Plants, the Earth accursed breeds.
Now Whales eat other Fish: Trout Dace devoures:
Minnows the Perch: The Pike the Rivers scoures
To catch the smaller Fry: Eeles Gudgions eat;
And them the Herns; Fish now for Fowl are meat:
They too on each another prey: The Kite
On tender Chickens; Hawkes on Sparrows light.
Thus Enmity arose; thus wrath, and strife;
And thus each Creature seeks each others life.
And all, or most seck humane blood to spill,
Because that Man was cause of all their ill.
All this did spring from the first Principle,
Which open'd strait when our first Parents fell:
And thus the World from its first happy state,
To this, we now do see it in, was brought.

But now the Time's at hand, all long to see,
This World again a Paradise shall be:
The Wrath shall be dethron'd, the Lamb shall Reign
In purity; when Christ appears again:
O hast thy coming Lord! This blessed Day
Let us behold! Lord Jesus hast away!
Wrath's mighty Monarch se'ing how he had wrought,
And the whole Orb under his power brought
By Adam's lapse, rejoyced much; and straight
He doth his Kingdom's Princes convocate,
With the whole Host of Hell: to whom he thus
Speakes. Princely vassals! Who is like to us?
What power can contend with us? I see
The Light World's strength cann't match our Policy.
This Day brave Princes have I subject made
A World, and Man too by our guiles betray'd.
I need not tell, what you already know,
That I to Love am an Eternal Foe;
So he to Me; or that continual Jarrs
Betwixt us rise, and everlasting warrs.
Our Kingdoms opposite you know, Contend
For mastership, which strife shall never end:
We differ in all things, nor shall a Truce
A minutes quietude from Armes produce:
We are as strong as they: I scorn to bow
To him, for I a way have gained how
For to encrease our strength: You Kingdoms, and
Whole Worlds shall have now under your Command;
So many vassals shall this Kingdom stuff,
Wer't not so vast, 'twould scarce be large enough
For to contain them: you great Princes now
I will advise you what you are to do.
The World, and Man which I have gain'd, I see
By strength, and cunning must preserved be.

You know aspiring Princes! you and I
Left Heav'n for prying into the unity,

Because we scorn'd but for to be above
(For why should mighty Wrath give place to) Love?
We left those Orbs, and did them all despise,
And did this mighty Kingdom colonize
Because we would be free; here we Command,
Are Kings; there servants, did obedient stand;
We are grown mighty, and our powers we'l try
To make all World's bow to our Majesty,
Our fires Love's Waters shall consume: we'l see
Who shall be greatest either I or he.
A World betwixt us not long since was made,
Wrath's essence there as well as Love's was shed.
Ours made Rocks, stones, flints, Mines of Iron, and Lead:
His Rivers, Trees, Ayr, Gold, and Silver bred:
In ordering them, there was an higher hand,
Which to conjunction did them both Command,
And strange such opposites should mixed be
In every thing in equal Harmony:
But that Usurper got the upper ground;
And under his our Essence strictly bound,
So that he Lord was, ours a slave, and thus
He thought for aye, to Lord it over us.
O how I raged! O how the fire flew
From my bright eyes; how I shook Hell you knew
Full well, But yet no way there was that I
For to release our essence could espy,
I a sworn Foe to Harmony did gret
At Heart, to see our essence bound; and fret
Did to behold my mortal Foe to sport
Himself on Earth, and call it his own Court.
Making a Paradise of it; whilst there
I for to set a foot did scarcely dare:
O how I long'd for a confusion, and
To have my Essence like to his Command;
To vex me more, and to encrease his blisse,
He made a Man for to enjoy all this;
By what I thought would hurt me most of all
Gained I have the Rule of Earth's fair Ball:
No way our Essence to release was left
But by the fall of Man; alwayes to sift

I then began: In Paradise there stood
A Tree, was partly evil, partly good;
This was to Man prohibited; Love knew
If he should eat thereof, what would ensue;
For by that meanes alone our Essence might
Released be; Loves Essence put to flight.
I then bestir'd my self, and by my guiles
Made them to eat thereof, who poor exiles
Do now repent their fact: their Joy, and Blisse,
And every thing on earth subverted is.
Our essence now doth ev'ry where appear
And like it self begins to domineer;
Now we'l command the Earth; Love's essence scoff:
For I intend you shall be Lords thereof.
Are not we mighty now? who like to us?
Hah! who can match us, when we can do thus?
Our Foe who thought in Earth to captivate
Us, prison'd is: thus alter'd is our state!
But let us now provide for th' Future: Gain
We may a Kingdom better than maintain
It being got. Our Foe hath footing there
Still, who will strive for to regain his share,
And beat us back again; the which he can
Ne'r do, but by redeeming fallen Man.
About him all our strife will be; for Love
Still loves this Man all Creatures else above;
For him I know his Forces he'l engage,
Therefore the World must be the fighting stage
For our two Powers: He'd not let us have one
Would Man obey him, or with him Conjoyn.
But wee'l deal well enough: his Paradise
Now cann't be seen; wee'l set before Man's eyes
The Earth's vain pleasures, which shall captivate
Him to us; rob him of his future state:
For present Pleasures far more pleasing are
Than those hereafter promis'd few know where.

Wee'l have a thousand wayes (experience
Shall make you masters in our Arts Commence)
For to beguile poor Man: wee'l do it tho
We nothing gain by it, to rob our Foe
Of his delights: But Man is mighty great
Without him our Kingdom cann't be compleat,
Which is exceeding vast, you know it wants
To fill each corner such inhabitants.
Who most men gain shall, I with Love do vie,
Nor can he Man's Soul Correct more than I.
He without Man cannot his Wonders show,
Nor I without him what my power can do:
Therefore when one you gain'd have to your lore,
He'l sooner gain to you a thousand more.
But all of you mark this: No Soul doth come
In flesh: no Babe springs from its Mothers womb,
But that my Foe a little spark doth place
The which he calls his Image, or his Grace,
Within the Centre of its Soul. This then
You must endeavour to root out of Men,
And in its place, place mine, for that once gon
He's perfect with us, and is sure our own.
But if extinguish it you cann't; I say
Smother't with the World's pleasures what you may,
And be you sure it ne'r begins to glow,
For if it does the better gains our Foe.
I know you will be circumspect; therefore
To such free Agents, need I say no more,
But go, and do your work; maintain our might
Within the World, against Love's power fight:
My ayd you shall not want.

Go mighty Prince
Lord of the ayr, with all your Forces hence
March to the lower Orb: Do thou abide
I'th' Airy Regions; over storms preside,
Tempests, and blust'ring Winds: Do thou direct
Some naughty influence, from bad aspect
To new-born Infants: with blasts mildews, blites,
Afflict the Earth, and spoil her best delights.

Mighty Baalzebub follow him, and be
Thou Lord of discord, plagues, discordancy;
Man, Beast, and Earth, falls under thy large Lot:
Do thou Men disunite; send murrain, rot
Among the Beasts; send Locusts, vermine, and
Do what thou canst for to afflict the Land.
Great Belial, with thousand Legions wend
Thou next into the Earth, thy Forces bend
To make of no effect Love's goodnesse, seek
Holy Idea's in Man's mind to break,
Disturb his intellect, Chymera's vain
Strange untrue fancies cause thou in his brain.
Next Pithon go with thy innumerable
Legions of Dæmons, be throu strong, and able
For to pervert the Truth, infatuate
Man's understanding; Cause him Truth to hate.
Potent Samaeliel Sathan Enemy
To Love, and goodnesse, thou thy Forces try
Justice for to pervert; Wrath, Terror, Ire,
Disperse th'row out the World; set all on fire
And bring confusion if thou canst. For us
Do thou destroy all things Asmodeus;
Thou fiery Spirit raise such to the seat
Of greatnesse, who Love's Forces may defeat:
With Pride, and Cruelty indue them. Hie
Thou next with thy Troops bitter Meriri:
Seek thou to hinder Man's perfection,
Disturb his happinesse, and union
With our Foe Love: and let thy Pride expresse
Thy high, and mighty Forces statelinesse.
Next march swift Asteroth; to men of Parts
Make known our secrets, Sciences, and Arts:
Let't be thy work continually to fill,
Their busie brains, with our delighting skill.
Ten thousand Legions I assign to thee
Abaddon Spirit of Impiety:
Take thou away all comfort: sicknesse, death,
Destruction cause to all that are beneath
Thy power. Mammon tho the last, not least,
For thy power reach shall from the West, to East;

See that that thou all dost cause the world to love,
Preside o're riches, and all things that move
Below the Moons sphear: tie the world to Man
And they cann't mount unto Loves Kingdom then.
Under your banners march may those mixt sp'rits
For usual scouts to scare: black shades and Nights
Hobgoblins, Lemures, Ast'ral spirits to talk
About the fields; some in Church yards to walk:
Ghosts, Fairies, Night-mares, dark trricula's,
Affrighting Spectres, haunting Empusa's,
Cadds, airy Dæmons, strange Phantasms, and
Legions of other sp'rits to fill the band.
Press closer numerous swarm; your ranks disclose;
Let yon' brave Princes nigher draw: repose
My chiefest strength in them I do; for us
With man their fight will still be cominus.
I know they'r active: you great Dæmons show
Them where to fight, let them alone to do,
Do you dispose them: let the airy Prince
Cast mans nativity: then learn from thence
His inclinations; then may you choose
Which of these Princes you had best to use:
Which will most fitting be; where one cann't come
Another may, and have a spacious room.
Brave Pride who art so like to us, you shall
Be constitute Lieutenant General:
Next under thee let Envy march: to thee
Grand Avarice, the third allotted be.
Then furious Wrath, Dispaire, and Jelousie,
March with your bands: and let Idolatry

Go next. Adult'ry, Lying, Drunkennesse.
Lust, Luxury, Theft, march you next to these.
Hypocrisie, your twy-fac'd bands in order
Set: them march after Perjury, and Murther:
Swearing, and Blasphemy; your charge is thus:
By any means to gain Man's Soul to us:
Take all advantages, and bravely fight
Against our Foes, the Troops of Love, and Light.
I need to say no more; nor need I fear
But I shall overcome all Men; when here
I see such mighty powers: who can withstand
Your mighty Forces, and Hel's powerful Band?
Go, and the World possesse: I doubt not now
But Man to us, and Love's Prince too shall bow.
The Stygian Princes bow their snaky heads,
And Joy their Captain in their Faces reads:
Io they hisse, and from their sulph'ry throats,
Belch out ten thousand loud confused notes.
Then from their Centre thousand Myriads go,
Of teter Stygian Bands, where here below,
The Earth, the ayr, and the vast hollownesse
Betwixt the Cerurle sky, and Earth possesse
They do: And all combin'd are to annoy
Man, and his Soul immortal to destroy.
Black Death triumphing with a sable Bow,
The Earth with armes displayed marcheth too:
Where murthering Hag, her skilful hand to try,
With fatal Darts made Abel's life to flye:
The first that ever yielded mortal breath;
The first that ever felt the Dart of Death.
And thus this World her misery indu'd
Which guilty Adam's crime, and Sin pursu'd.

Can Man escape such powers as these? can he
In safety sleep? or one poor minute be
Secure? what can defend him from these armes?
Or who repel may Sathan's threat'ned harmes?
Spirits encounter Spirits must: The Light
World, that alone must match the dark Worlds might.

The Prince of Love, of Light, of Peace, of Truth,
Beholds poor Man, and his sad state with Ruth:
And tho Man's guilt brought down this sad distresse,
He Love immense doth still to him expresse:
And lest that mighty Wrath his Soul devour,
He will protect him with his mighty Power.
Heav'n's brighter Bands he therefore Convocates,
And thus his Royal Will to them relates.

Blest Princes of this lighter World! and ye
Vast Troops indu'd with immortality!
Know; Man for whom a Paradise we made,
By his own folly is to Wrath betray'd.
He hath deserted us: this happy Realm
Hath lost; now misery doth overwhelm
Him; and our Image in obscurity
Doth buried by the World's grosse Spirit lye.
Wrath's Principle hath poysoned the Earth,
Spoyl'd Paradise with his infectious Breath:
He now triumphs. But what lose we? 'tis Man
That suffers most for his own folly, then
Shall we desert him? leave him to his Foe?
Strict Justice might; but Love cannot do so:
Can fier cool? or can cold Water burn?
No more can I from this my nature turn:
Nor his neglect, nor his strange follies move
May me to Wrath. O no! I still am Love.
My nature cannot change: I pity have;
I must, I will endeavour Man to save.
So long as he my Image doth retain,
Although obscur'd; I'le seek him to regain
To me, and that immortal spark divine,
Shall like the Sun in its fair splendor shine.
Can I the Principle of Wrath dethrone
Out of his heart, and th' out Worlds, he's my own.
Wrath's Principle although he triumphs now,
One day again shall to our Powers bow:
The Earth a Paradise shall be, and then
All things shall turn to Harmony agen:
My Foe shall then be captivate: Man shall
Most happy live upon the outward Ball.

Six dayes first past must be: that principle
Thousands of souls shall to its centre pull
I'th' intrim: I mans nature too must take
My self; and dy, that I wraths power may break:
This I'le effect, such love to man I bear.
We are as strong as wrath; we need not fear;
His fires, our waters shall put out: our Dove
Shall fight his Dragon. Nought's so strong as Love.
Nor Death, nor Hell can conquer it. The wrath
Already sent hath his black Legions forth
Into the Earth. Poor man's in danger; hast
Unto his succour: Let your Troops be plac't
Just opposite unto those teter bands
Which Hells Generalissimo commands.

Arch-Prince of Angels MICHAEL; of all
Heavens brighter Legions be thou General:
Conduct our forces to Earths Orb, and there
Oppose the Dragon, bid man not to fear
His stygian crue. Do thou match Satan, and
To his dark troops oppose thy brighter band.
Maintain thou Love and Justice, 'gainst his might
Do thou with equal force and valour fight.
All heaven's Host attend thee shall, and let
Some powerful Angel o're the stars be set,
To let their male-conjunctions, and thence
For to direct their better influence
Unto the Earth: to cause the seasons due,
Unto the Earth, her pleasures to renue.
And thou Mittatron thy strong Legions place
In rank and order 'gainst Baalzebubs face:

Do you unite; whilest he doth discord move
Conjoyn thou all in amity and love.
Whilst that he causes Battails, Plagues and Dearth,
Thou peace, and health, and fructifie the earth.
Next Caphtiel 'gainst Belial thy foe,
With Myriads of brighter Angels go:
Illuminate man's minde, and make him see,
For his distraction Belial's policie:
His stranger fancies cause to vanish quite,
And of my goodnesse let him have a sight.
Go Jophiel and hinder Python's force,
Obstruct his vile infatuating source;
Exhibit truth to Man: open his eyes
That he may clearly see grosse Python's lies.
Ten thousand Legions take thou Ptsadkiel,
And bravely meet the firy Asmodel:
Be thou as well as he concomitant
With Princes, keep them that they may not vaunt
Of their high state: Let Pride and Cruelty
Be banish'd from them, let humility
Supply their place: whilst that he raiseth jars,
Cause Amity; oppose thy Peace to Wars.
Bright Prince Uriel, flags of light display,
And 'gainst Meriri with thine march away:
Stop thou his full career, and se that you
With wisdome and true happinesse endue
Man; give him eyes to see perfection
If that with us he will have union.
Cœlestial Raphiel next march thou forth
With thy brave cohorts against Astaroth:
Show thou to man our glory, and our skill,
Our abstruce secrets; with light Magic fill
Him, give him knowledge, understanding, and
Wit to eschew Astaroths subtle band:
Guard thou his health; divert the fatal knife,
And keep off all attempts against his life.
Next Haniel your Legions compleat,
Let your battalions 'gainst Abaddons meet:
With equal courage fight you band to band:
Provoke to piety, bring comfort, and

Solace: Root out Wrath's image, in its place:
He instrumental to infer my Grace.
Strong Gabriel, with courage meet thy Foe,
And with thy Troops, 'gainst mighty Mammon go:
Dissolve Man's fear, inject the fear of me,
Loose from the World his Soul, and set him free
From Avarice; exhibit to his eye
Heav'n's glorious Riches, and vast Treasury:
Observe the motions of great Mammon, fight
At every turn, with that stiff opposite.
Under your Banners to the Orb below
May brightnesses, and beams of Glory go:
Light apparitions, sweet and pleasing noyses,
Tinkling of Bells, and other sacred voyces,
For to attract the mind, to our bless'd Sphear,
T'expel Teares, sadnesse, and disturbing Fear.
Let every Country have a Guardian:
And let a Genius wait on every Man.

Give way, and let these Princes Congregate,
Who with your help will Man felicitate,
And bravely strive with all those Troops that ride
So daringly under the Flag of Pride.
Humility Prince of this Train, first go
Into the Earth, confront thy prideful Foe
With all thy force: whilst he elates do thou
Inflect mens hearts: make them not scorn to bow.
To thee Prince Love I joyn, whose power, and might
Makes Hel's black bands to tremble at his sight:
O how they fear him! Against all I send
Thee; chiefly though thy force 'gainst envy bend,
Rush on their blacker Troops; let Malice, Hate
Envie's Companions feel thy Force's weight.
'Gainst Avarice, march Liberality.
And Truth, against twy-fac'd Hypocrisie.
Meeknesse meet thou stern Wrath: Strength, Courage, Hope,
Do thou with sad Despair most bravely Cope.
Zeal march Idolatry Faith wing the Souls
Of men, and bear them higher than the Poles:
By thee they shall possesse this Kingdom e're
Their prison'd Souls have left the other Sphere:

By thee Hel's poyson, shall dispelled be;
Custom of sinning 'fore thy Troops shall flee.
Go Wisdom with your Troops. And Innocence
With Resignation joyn; Obedience
With Uprightnesse: oppose to guilt and guile,
To stubbornnesse, and disobedience vile.
Go Continence, and chast Virginity,
Resist thou Lust, thou wanton Luxury.
Light vanquish thou dark mists, and clouds of Error;
Joy, bitter Sadnesse: Peace disturbing Terror.
Go bravely now, Hel's force, and strength resist,
My Power, and Magic shall you still assist.

Strait from their Centre these light Troops do go,
To help poor Man against his Stygian Foe;
Who else would be devoured soon; all still
Do eagre strive to do their Master's will:
Magic opposeth Magic: Spirits, Spirits.
Man's will can not be forc'd: He still inherits
A Kingly freedom; neither World Constrain
Man to do what he does; they seek to gain
His full assent, or else 'tis nothing worth:
For what if one should with a sword, in Wrath
Destroy my Corpse? or fling me in the Sea
From some high Rock? What? should I guilty be,
Unlesse that I with my free will had gon,
And voluntary sought destruction?
Sinn's not without assent: Nor lyes it in
B'ing tempted, but in yielding lyes the sin.
Is God so hard to punish us, think you,
For sin if we no otherwise can do?
Have we no power to will the good? O sad!
If God should punish if we will the bad.
And yet you see most wills seem captivate
To ill: in this we'r like an Infant, that
Chooseth some bauble when a Jewel too
With it expos'd was to his choyce and view:
He's not constrain'd, he chuse may which he will:
So we through ignorance oft chuse the ill.
Man's will is free. Both Worlds strive with their might,
For this their powers so eagerly do fight.

Hell tempt, allures, attracts, and draws, and still
A thousand wayes, seeks for to gain man's will.
Love, with his agents draw the other way,
Exhibite, Glory, Brightnesse, Riches, Joy
Spiritual: To this man now doth bend
His will, anon doth to the other tend.
The more that Satan gains of him, the less
His will he doth unto the good express:
The more heav'n gains of him, the more he still
Eschewes the bad, turns to the good his will.
In this there are degrees: coaction may
Befall me, when my Will another way
Propends: like one who to the place doth go
Where he must executed be: ye know,
Without his will his body would not move,
And yet that thing he wills he doth not love:
His will's yet free, that cann't be forc'd: refuse
He cannot Death, yet it he doth not choose.
So often times to Man it may befall,
That he may do what he not wills at all.
Man wills not wholly ill, untill that he
With Hell in union and conjunction be;
Then he's a devil. Hell to ill propends
Wholly; as God to good for ever tends.

The powers of both the worlds now being sent
Into this Orb begin their bickerment:
Wrath's forces strive, and ADAM's first born Cain
They get: the light world's forces ABEL gain.
Since when they still have fought, their forces faile
Nor, nor e're shall: stout wrath seem'd to prevail
Continually. Under his power the world
He quickly got; therefore God's Justice hurld
The fleeting waters o're the Earth, which drown'd
All creatures, but what in the Ark were found.

How many men had he in Sodom got,
When Love amongst them had but one poor Lot.
Thus Hell prevail'd until the Prince of Love
Himself came down from his bright Throne above,
Indu'd with humane flesh: an overthrow
He gave to Hell; who rues that fatal blow:
For since that time Loves banners were display'd
Th'rowout the Orb; Hells strength and force decay'd.

Whilst thus these powers for man contend, and be
In sharpest Wars; upon the mortal tree
Man lives, his food which to his pallate suits
Best, are its various and delicious fruits.
This is the Tree of Good and Evil: for
The Fruits themselves tho' good, nor evil are,
Yet (as the Plannet Mercury) incline
To either, as they are to whom they joyn.
'Tis not the grosser part that feeds thereon,
But 'tis the soul, the highest part of man.
The flesh hath fleshly food; the soul likewise
Feeds, but on choice and more varieties.
This Tree is good for food; such choice of fruits
It hath, that it conveniently suits
With every soul; so large and fairly spread
That with its branches East, and West are wed.
These then the fruits are. Here hangs natural Wit,
And Judgement, which humane affaires doth fit.
Here a propriety in goods, and Lands,
Self Interest; Love to relations hangs
On this Bow; here an innate doing right
Pends; here hangs Riches, yon' unto the fight

Appears the lovely fruit of Beauty; there
Sports to refresh the mind, and Body are.
Here Honours hang, and high promotions;
Plenty of Goods, and great possessions.
Here dangles Pleasures, here Morality,
Good Carriage, Parts, and civil honesty.
Degrees of State, whence Kings, and Lords arise,
Earles, Barrons, Knights, Gentry, Nobilities:
Here Power, and Authority; and here
This Bow innate Concupiscence doth bear.
On th' other side all manual Arts, and Trades,
In clusters hang, among the greener shades.
Here you may find both Grammer, Rhetoric,
With Logic, opticks, and Arithmetic:
Musick, Physicks, Metaphysicks too,
With Geometry hang dangling in your view;
Astronomy, and Geography there,
Astrologie, and Surgery appear.
Here nat'ral Magic; and Theology,
Accompan'ed with antique Poetry;
Here Chimistry, Ethicks, œconomicks,
Phisosophy all sorts, and Politicks,
With many more do grow. This is the food
Which Man's Soul eats, and finds it very good.
If that you well revolve these in your mind,
Nor Good, nor Bad them in themselves you'l find;
Yet may to poyson be converted, or
Made wholsome nourishment convenient for
Man's soaring Soul. Here the two opposite
Worlds forces often meet, and strongly fight.
Both would his Cooks be, both desire to carve,
Both willingly would at his Table serve,
That they their Tinctures might infuse; for meats
Do operate much in his Soul that eates,
For Beauty (which a pleasant harmony
Of Blood, and humours is, just symmetry
Of all the parts) no evil is: nor is't
A sin to have it, or a sin to miss't:
Yet Sathan this to poyson may convert,
If thorow it he should elate the heart;

Make those that it possesse, make 't nothing worth
By spending precious Time to set it forth.
Sathan endeavours thorow it to cause
Pride, and to make them greedy of applause,
To dresse it forth with highest vanities:
To make adorers with their wanton eyes:
Then Lust creeps in, with other sins; and thus
Beauty though good is evil made to us.
Loves Forces strive if thou hast Beauty, to
Make it most wholsom, and good food for you:
He'd make thee Chast, and strive his Grace to set,
As Jewels in so fair a Cabinet.
Vertue shines brightest in a beauteous frame,
That graceth Beauty: Beauty to the same
Adds splendor. Oft the Beauty of the Soul
Is disregarded in a Face that's foul.
Therefore if thou art beautiful, thou art
More fit to serve God with a purer heart;
For is't not fit that he who Beauty gave,
Before all others should thy Beauty have?
Thus pleadeth Love, who'd make it good; and thus
It may be made both Good, and ill to us.
To ill the Devil would convert thy Wit,
And understanding, by employing it
In vanities, or some ill Arts, or by
Converting it to guile, or subtilty.
Loves power would draw it unto goodnesse, and
His sacred Mysteries to understand
Cause, by converting it to Wisdom; so
Wit may our Friend be, or may be our Foe.
All Arts and Sciences may be abus'd,
Made Good if rightly, Bad if wrongly us'd.
So nat'ral knowledge us indammage may,
But do great good if it we well employ.
So whilst that we inspect Astrology,
Or the starres motions by Astronomy
View; we may there Gods Wonders contemplate,
Which may to Earth our eager Love abate:
Whilst we in Natural Magic look, and see
The various Wonders that there hidden be.

We may with greater ardour praise his Name,
Who out of nothing, thus all things did frame.
Thus it redound may to God's glory: But
It by temptation we do solely put
Our mindes therein, or greater things neglect
For them, or to the stars an indirect
Power ascribe; or natural Magic passe
To necromancy, or Hells arts, alas!
How are we lost! thus recreations
May help the mind; or prove temptations
To greater ills. Thus Logick may be bent
For to maintain Errors by Argument,
And Syllogisms, when the Truth it shou'd
Alone maintain: Thus bad it proves: Thus good.
So Rhetoric with all its figures may
A false cause to Truth's prejudice display.
What may do greater good, than may the Tongue?
And yet what is there that doth greater wrong?
So Eloquence which should to heaven invite,
By Satans means doth unto Hell excite.
How good a fruit's divine Theology!
Yet it by Satan may corrupted be:
How many Errors, Schisms, Heresies,
Strange Fancies, Whimsies, horrid Blasphemies
Hath sprung from those who thus have study'd, by
Our Adversarie's subtle ingeny
Caus'd! Musick Satan doth impoyson too,
And makes more hurt, than good by it accrue
To most; for those, whose minds he doth possesse,
It stirs to Lust, provokes to wantonness:
Allures to riot, and to vanity:
Thus is't the fruit made of the evil Tree.
When that it should (so minds to Heav'n erect
Do find it) unto happiness direct
Our fleeting thoughts, and by those warbling measures
Ravish our souls from earth, to Heavens pleasures:
Make us to enter contemplation
Of those sweet voices, which before the Throne
Sing evermore with Halalujahs; raise
Our duller spirits; and make us sing with praise

Heav'n's mercies to us; and above the poles
Divinely carry our harmonious souls;
Where in a kind of extasie, a bliss
Not to be spoke they find. Thus good it is.

And now my heart glows with a sacred fire,
Just is my zeal, nor sinful is my ire,
'Gainst those vitiators who in these our times
Make Poesie hateful, by their wanton rithmes;
Who feel no sacred, glowing heats; who prize
No flames, but what come from their Mistress' eyes.
Leave off you looser rithmers, cease your pains,
For shame, and trouble shall be all your gains.
Abuse no longer what in times of old
God hath himself made use of to unfold
His sacred Mysteries, nor let it be
Made by you thus fruit of the evil Tree.
Luxurious wits who feed on Poetry
Are thus by subtle Satan drawn awry,
Whilst they the creame of wit do spend, to grace
With Eulogies some disproportion'd face.
Let these low lines you witty ones excite
Your ready quills, on some such theame to write,
Then shall mine cede to yours: not while you erre
And mortal beauties do to heav'n preferre
The end of Poesy is the praise of God,
Us'd to that end it is exceeding good.

The food of man's soul thus describ'd you see,
The fruits are of the the good and evil Tree,
Which may be made, or good, or bad or so
Bring Man to blisse, or everlasting woe.
Therefore take heed to Satans subtle traine,
That by these fruits thy soul he may not gain,
For here he shews his cunning, and his skill,
To make thee, only feed upon the ill.
Heav'n's forces strive, and if thou wilt obey,
This Tree shall be the Tree of good, and joy:
And since we must upon it feed we shou'd
Eschew the Evil, and accept the Good.

The subtle Serpent, our sworn foe, with his
Vast Troops, do use to keep us from our bliss

A thousand wayes: a thousand stratagems
And tricks he hath: he round about behemms
Our yielding Souls; and round about he sets
To catch us fast, his strong, and wide spread nets:
Hel's Troops like Ants do never idle stand.
But move about Earth's mighty Moles, and
All wayes to gain the Soul of Man do try;
Which got they straight send to Hel's Treasury.
Sometimes he this makes use of, sometimes that,
This serves for this that for another Plot.
Sometime the Starres, and their bad influence
As instruments he uses; and from whence
He oft assaults poor Man. MARS stirs to wrath,
And blood, SATURN to Avarice, and sloth:
MERC'RIE to Theft: Ambition JUPITER,
VENUS to Lust, and the cold MOON, to err.
His wayes innumerable are, and mount
Unto infinity; the starres you count
May first, or sands that on the shore do lye.
He'l suit all Humours: By their humours try
To work for his advantage. To excesse
Of feeding this man, that to drunkennesse,
He doth provoke. Leads this to Pride; to Lust
Another: this to doing things unjust
To lying, Theft, Adultery, Perjury,
And to all manner of iniquity.
But meets he with a studious Man, or one
Who hath got conquest o're his passion,
Unto grosse sins he doth not tempt them, he
Their strength doth know; therefore with policy
His shape he changes, and with subtle guile
Corrupts their knowledge; and with errours vile
Their Brains doth fill: if in Theology
Their study be; their errours are more high.
A prying mind finds he in men of Parts,
He subtlely draws them to his blacker Arts,
Where with most strange delusions them delude
And thus himself in every one intrude
He will; and suting to their inclination
With cunning Art, unseen work their destruction.

But sees he now some who in earnest be
To leave the World, who would their Spirits free
From his sad bondage, bid this Earth adiew,
And would with Heav'n a stricter league renew:
Uprightly walk, and very closely presse
To find that Gate that leads to happinesse,
Out of this Earth; thus cunningly he deals,
So soon as he their working pulses feels.
A mighty Circle 'fore the gate he draws,
The which scarce touched is with Heaven's Rayes:
Those then who presse toward this Gate, anon
Fall into this Fantastic Region.
For so it is they in a Circle run,
Blinded, and groping, wanting heat, and Sun.
A little Light, as at a crevice flows
Into the place, the which these umbra's shows
Unto their hood-winck'd eyes: Formes, Government,
Words, Literal sence, Disputes, and Cavilment,
Concerning Ceremonies, Judging, and
Self-gathering in a more righteous Band.
With these they sport themselves, who (like that fire
That in the Night leads people th'row the mire,
And 'bout the Field) do cause these blind ones stray,
In oblique pathes, and hinder from the way
They should have ta'n. In this same Region
All Sects, as in a misty Circle run.
Here gropes the Presbyter, whose rigid sp'rit
Is took for zeal: beclouded too with night
In this dark Region's th' Independant who
Hath a more pleasing sp'rit, and better hue.

The Dippers here do wash their scaly eyes,
And round about the bolder Ranter flies,
Here the severer Quakerist, and here
Fift Monarchists; Enthusiasts appear,
With other Sects, and Fanaticks, and all
Who pressing forward stay, or catch a fall.

For such whose love to heaven, caus'd them press
Towards that gate that leads to happiness,
Once enter'd here, it is more hard to finde
Then 'twas before they entered this blinde
Phantastic place: passe this forme, that, try there
Another, round them all, yet where you were
At first you are; nor are more neer the gate
In this same sect now, then you were in that.
Help't by some Angel, or some brighter ray,
Of all these Sects some may invene the way
Out of this Region, and may finde the gate
Which all that Heaven find must enter at.
All it endeavour: can we justly blame
Them, when they grope about to find the same?
Alas! though some do almost touch it, yet
Through blindnesse they can have no power to see't.
The way's not Sects, nor formes of pleasing sence,
But Truth, and Life, to Christ obedience.

Tho Satan tempteth all men unto sin,
And doth desire they should inhabite in
His harsh-dark, principle, and rather then
He'd any loose, a thousand wayes for men
He trys, as by this worlds law pleasures, yet
He'd rather man should like a Prince be set
Then like a slave in his great Kingdom; there
Both high and low degrees of places are:
They nearer to, or farther from his Throne
Are set, as they with him have union.
Those whom this worlds low pleasures catch, or those
Who by Lust, Lying, Wrath, or Envy goes
To this dark world; are kind of underlings,
And are like Subjects to Hells greater Kings.
But those who to greater perfection
Arrive, and who have stricter union

With Hell; and those who knew his Magic's might
Advanc'd are, and their states are higher pight.
These do become Princes in Wrath, and these
He loveth most; for they his nature please,
Are one with him; these do his Wonders show
And make his mighty power known below.
These are his Agents, Saints, beloved ones,
Are more than servants: these become his Sons.
Heav'n thirsts not more to have one perfect here
To make his Glory, and his might appear,
Than Hell; who as tho Elder Brother show
His Magic first shall on this Earth below.
Therefore it first I will describe, and tell,
The Power, Nature, Might, and Pomp of Hell.

Mundus tenebrosus vel tartareus.

Suppose the mighty Prince of darknesse wou'd
Himself incarnate, vail with with fleshly Hood
His Stygian Face; to shew the power, and might
Of the vast Kingdom of Æternal Night,
Upon this Earth: He finds a man propense
From genial starres to ill; a mind immense
After abstruser prying; piercing Wit
Grave look and studious; such a Man is fit
For this his high design. First then he strait
Causes his Princes on his elbow wait,
With all Hel's agents, who in clusters presse
T'imbue his Soul with deep dy'd wickednesse,
By their infernal Magic; they convert
The mortal Tree's fruit to the Evil part.
He feeds on ill, the which his Soul doth stain;
His freer will unto themselves they gain:
And by degrees, his sences please, that he
Desireth they should his Companions be.
They promise then if he'l obedient
Be; with what power, and Regiment

They will indue him, His high mind doth come,
And Hel's disciple doth at last become.
Some Angel then Hel's mighty Prince assignes
To wait on him; he good converse declines:
The Dæmons laugh to see him captivate,
And scoff the Angels of the other state.
Seeing that he obedient is, they now
Cause him unto Hel's Image for to bow:
And as the Prince of Heav'n commandeth his
A way to gain, the same, to shun Heav'ns blisse
Hel's Prince commands. He from the World abstract
Must be, lest that his deeper thoughts detract
From that high work he doth intend him for:
He fastings, vigils, doth command him; nor
Lesse prayers than the other World requires,
Washings, and Ceremoies he desires:
And also that he should be Celebate,
Thus like an Ape he God doth imitate
In all his biddings, th' better to beguile
Man, with his high deceits, and cunning vile.
He spares him in grosse sins, it may be too,
Lest they with pinguitude his Soul imbue,
And make's lesse apt to search those hidden arts,
Which Hell to his obedient ones imparts.
But if he in them Master will Commence,
He must attain it by obedience
To whatsoever Hell commands; for he
Must gain the Will, then act by sympathy.

He now it may be for some yeares hath serv'd
This Principle, nor from his Laws hath swerv'd,
But still obedient been: nor his desire
Thereto doth slack, implete with hellish fire.
His serving Dæmon still attending too,
With Stygian vigor doth his heart imbue:
Pleases his fancy with some stranger art,
Hels sacramental Mysteries impart
He doth; till at the last he doth bequeath
To him the fruits of the black Tree of Death.
Rough hairy Satyrs with their cloven feet
And staring eyes if that a stranger meet

Should, all alone in some dark Wood and night,
How pitifully would they him affright.
Or any other ill-shap'd monster, yet
A frequent sight no wonder would beget:
And should such Satyrs often be with him,
No whit at all affrightful would they seem.
So those dark Spirits apparitions might,
Man's weaker sences at the first affright.
But after some familiarity
No fear at all would be; especially
To those whose natures, as their natures be,
In a strict league with Hell; and would be such
Did not their Souls in a flesh'd body couch.
Toads are not venomous to Toads; nor is
The Lion truculent to those of his
Kind; nor are Monsters frightful unto theirs:
Satyrs to Satyrs, nor are Bears to Bears:
So Man whose Soul's drench'd in the Stygian pool;
Thinks not Hel's worst deformed spirits soul.
And this they know, or else I do suppose
They'd not so boldly their strange shapes disclose.
Hel's mighty Prince sees now his servant fit
To see his Kingdoms pomp: he doth commit
The charge thereof to some great Prince, who goes
To him, and thus his message doth disclose.

Hel's mighty Monarch, Prince of Acheron;
Great Duke of Styx, Primate of Phlegiton,
Of Lethe Earl, great Lord of Cocytus,
Of deep Avernus, Orcus, Erebus,
And of the whole dark World; best part of this
Gain'd by his forces, and now joyn'd to his;
My soveraign Leige, hath sent me unto you
His faithful servant, with his leave to shew
Our Kingdom's glory, whereby you may see
That you do serve no petty Majesty.
Our high and mighty Prince, hath had regard
To all your services, he now reward
Will your fidelity: he Crowns, and thrones
As well as LOVE hath for his faithful ones.

100

A Throne, and Crown he hath prepar'd for thee,
And of our Kingdom thou a Peer shalt be,
When thou this Body shalt put off, and set
Thy Soul at liberty, which now doth let
Perfect enjoyment: In the mean time tho,
This favour's granted, that I thee may show
Our pomp, and Glory: art thou willing? say!
To whom Hel's servant thus without delay.
Great Prince and servant to our soveraign King,
What joyful news is this that you do bring!
I scarce contain my Soul. What? shall I see
The glory of his Stygian Majesty
E'r I depart this VVorld? this favour would
More strictly bind me his, and if I could
Be more his than I am: what in this Ball
I have, I willing am to part withall
To purchase this: Love's great inticements, I
Abhor, and do spontaneously deny.
Come let us go, I burn with strong desire,
For to be in, and see this Orb of Fire.
Hel's Nuncio thus speaks. Valiant heart, delay
I will not: thou thy hearts desire enjoy
Shalt; and when thou hither returnest, then
Thou shalt be Hel's highest Magitian;
Such gifts we will bestow: and thou shalt see
Before thou back returnst, what Gifts they be.
Your staffe is needlesse; nor your Horse you need,
For I am able to make greater speed,
For whilst that you can ride a League, assoon
I can be mounted higher than the Moon:
I can transport your Corpse, no need of that
There is, at this time; for our Journey's not
So great; only make fast your Closet door
That none may enter to disturb you: for
Your Body here shall lye: Then shall you see,
How nimble Spirits without Bodies be.
You misse it shall not for you'l think you bear
It still, but feel it lighter than the Ayr.
Alasse! that is a prison to the Soul,
She free from that, is then without controul;

101

Nor could that bear indeed, what you will feel
Be'ing made of flesh, nay were it made of steel
It could not, 'twould consumed be: your sp'rit
Can bear the punctions of eternal Night,
Being in union with us, and may passe
Into our Kingdom; for your Nature as
Ours is, your sences will be open too,
You'l think you see, feel, hear, as now you do.
But why do I forestal you thus? Delay
I will no longer: Come I'le lead the way.

This spy'd: his hand upon his eyes he lay's,
To which Ethæan stupor he conveighs;
Down falls his Carcasse like a Trunck bereft
Of Life; no sence is in his Body left:
His Spirit's fled, and by Hel's Fiend is brought
Into that Kingdom, switter than a Thought.
Thus then he felt himself. He was like one
Who in his sleep sees some strange Vision.
And dreams himself awake; but yet doth find
Some kind of misty Atoms, which do blind
His sight from a clear view. He thus at first
Did find himself, untill he farther thrust
Was from's attractive Corpse: He nimbly than
And with a clearer sight to mount began.
Thus then his Jornal was. Nor Moon, nor Sun,
Nor any other Star upon him shon;
But yet not quite of Light devoy'd, he had
Such as wherewith a misty ev'ning's clad,
A kind of twylight: Earth, nor raging Seas,
Nor any thing but misty ayr he sees.
A circling Cloud darker then pitch appears,
Vast, and of huge extent; aloft it rears
In forms of Cliffs, and pointed Rocks. The Sp'rite
Thus speaks: these pitchy, cloudy mounts in sight,
Impale our Kingdom? 'Tis Avernus call'd
With such continued Rocks our Kingdom's wall'd.

102

This is the Entry. Here involved lies
Continual Light, none there a Ray espies
Of any Light: part of this Rock God threw
In 't Ægypt, when that thicker darknesse flew
Th'row out the Land; our dearest servants he
With our own weapons plagues continually.
'Tis not so dark within the pale: now this
Is caused by Antiperistasis:
And that cold Region which ingendreth hail,
And thunder (which when Icy clouds assail
Each other's made) becomes so violent
From two contraries, which from both sides sent,
Causes its forces shrink together; so
More violent, pent in lesse room they grow.
This darknesse then flies from that Light within,
And from the Light World's shine; so lies between,
Shrouding together, pressing close, and thick,
Fast cleaving, closely doth together stick.

These palpable dark clouds they enter; where
He doth a thousand shreeks, and howlings hear,
Cursings, Blasphemings, swearing, murmuring voyces,
Bellowing, with a thousand ugly noyses;
But horrid darknesse so encompas'd him
That who these noyses made could not be seen;
Besides an ugly filthy stink he smelt,
An horrid tast clove to his tongue; he felt
The dark clouds presse upon him. Th'row they passe
And with swift steps leave this abhorred place.
B'ing past his truchman thus. What you did hear
Caus'd was by Spirits that inhabit there,
Who sporting were together: Teter haggs
In th' outward World feed these with shriv'led baggs,
The which they suck, There dwell the Incubi,
And Succubi; deformed Spirits lye
By millions there; those who desire to feed
On humane morsels; such who shed their seed
Into old Haggs: and these are those which they
Call down to their assistance: these obey

103

To teter charmes, oyntments, perfumes, and these
Appear to them in various shapes; and please
Them with their antic Tricks: make hoggs to dance
On hinder feet, platters to skip, and prance,
With such like sports; make Cows, and Cattel languish,
And mortal men strike too with pain, and anguish:
And these old haggs command, unlesse they are
By the other World resisted, then they dare
Not do't. These are our slaves, we them command,
And when we need them on our errands send.
In these th' old Haggs delight, for often they
(Such power they have) their Bodies do conveigh
From place, to place; and often meet their sp'rights,
Their Bodies left: where fed with grosse delights,
They back return: These are our Prince's slaves
Who bring him many Souls, when that the graves
Their Bodies take: But oft times these do flye,
And tear in pieces as in sportful play
Those whom they serv'd, when that their date is out:
Now we are Princes, and alasse but flout
Those powting, Witches, when with charmes they think
To call us down t'obey their dreiry wink.
No, we stir not, but when our mighty Prince
Imposes his Commands; then wend we hence
Into the World. When that you do return
These Sp'rites you heard shall all obey your charm;
Nay we; and if our Prince that power gives,
But yet that power has no man that lives:
For to call down, an Angel of his Throne,
He first with him must have high union.

Still on they passe? upon the right hand stood
Oblivious Lethe, 'bout whose slow-pac'd flood
Lay many sleepy Sp'rites, whose office was,
From that place to the outer World to passe,
With Pitchers full of that same Water; by
Which, they brought Souls into a Lethargy;
And kind of stupor, lest the spark of Love,
Whose nature's agil' should with Life remove
Their Syncopy to goodnesse. On th' other side
About dark Erebus, as many 'bide.

104

There did, who those Erebean waves did bear
Into the Earth; which they to Souls did share
With liberal dole: the which no sooner ta'ne,
But darknesse, and obscurity remain
There dos upon their souls, which doth remove
The glowing spark of the bright Light of Love.
Further they passe, untill or last they come
Unto th' joylesse extreams of Acheron:
Here he beheld many a naked soul
Drench'd in those waves by Spirits black, and foul,
Their Faces sad, and heavy, melancholick;
(Nor were those Spirits there so brisk, and frollick
As those in other places, which it seems
Caus'd by the operation of these streams
Was) form'd like Death; Despair sat in their eyes,
And every moment caus'd new miseries.
Others apace did thence that water bear
Into the Earth, which caused sad despair,
To souls that tast thereof. Who passe this stream
Their Bodies dead, none may their souls redeem.
Over that stream they passe; when that he hears
Sad Lamentations, for the Vale of Teares
They enter'd had: sliding along the Vale
Cocytus ran; upon whose banks did wail
With lamentations sad, whole troopes of Souls,
A stream of Teares into the River rouls
From their sad eyes: Before their faces hung
Tablets of brasse, where all that they had done
In their life-time was wrot, which now renew'd
Their sorrow. This Spectacle being view'd
They further passe, where scummy Orcus ran
With fœtid waves from the cold Stygian
Lake: about whose most horrid banks he spy'd
All sorts of evil Beasts: The Stygian guide
Thus spake:

Seest thou those mighty Herds, these are
The Souls of Men, who did these natures bear
When they were on the Earth. Yond' herd of Swine
Were greedy Gluttons, who with Beer, and Wine

105

And all the dainties that the Earth did yield
Four times a day their greedy paunches fill'd:
Their belly was their God, such natures then
They had, which here they have and shall retain.
Yond' herd of Goats were lustful persons: those
Grim Currs were such who ever would oppose
Love's Reign, and Kingdom, snappish, greedy: and
Such as were lawless Lords: that grim-look'd band
Of Lions: Those rough Beares were such, who still
Dispoyl'd their Neighbours: such who rob, and pill
With subtilty, those wilely Foxes were:
Such as were envious speckled Toads now are:
Th' Avaritious Tigers, Monsters, Doggs; too long
'Twill be for to rehearse that numerous throng,
But crawling wormes, Vipers, all ugly Creatures
Are such who once exactly bore their natures
In humane shapes, which now these forms retain
And in this guise for ever shall remain.

This said they passe along: Their way they take
Directly now unto the Stygian Lake.
The Pool appears in sight, an horrid stink
Invades his nostrils, e'r he gains the brink,
Like fætid sut mixt with sulphurian fumes:
The slow-pac't Water moves with Icy scumms,
Upon its surface; than the brumal snow
Far colder 'tis: upon its banks did grow
Taxi with sable leaves: darker than ink
Or blackest pitch the water was, the brink
Dy'd was with sable hew: the froery scum
Left black impressions on the bank: a fume
More dark than Night in curling clouds arose:
The strongest poyson that on Earth's Orbs grows
Is not by the tenth part so strong as that
Cold-icy stream: thousand of Souls there sat
Shivering for cold, when strait a Troop appears
Of horrid Devils, with long flagging Eares
Down to their shoulders, saucer eyes, and lips
Of mighty magnitude, like souced tripes
Hung lower than their chins: their snaky haires
Hung over their comuted fronts: like Beares

106

Their feet, and armes were; their cruented pawes
Were arm'd with bristles, and advanced clawes:
With these they gripe those naked Souls, then on
Their shoulders hoyst them, and away they run.
Come let us follow: these the torments are
The damn'd for ever, and for ever bear,
In this same place, thus said the guiding Fiend:
With hasty steps, as fast as they, they wend,
When presently they are arriv'd upon
The burning Banks of fiery Plegeton.
In here they souse them: Crys, and shrecks they make,
But hard-heart Devils can no pity take:
Over, and over here they plunge them, then
To cold-stream'd Styx they bear them back agen,
And thus by turns these torments, with delight
They give, without a moment of respite.
Swifter than Tygris, or Danubus, this
Tartarean River runs, far hotter is
Than boyling Liquor; here it bubbles, Fumes
Which turn to Flame, flow from its Sulph'ry wombs:
The banks are lick'd by Living flames, from out.
Of gapeing chincks both fire, and brimstone spout.

This seen they further passe; not far from this
Was Tartarus, within his huge Abysse,
He look'd, and saw nothing but horrid, dark,
Obnigrous clouds: heard Wolves, and Dogges to bark,
Lions, and Tygers roar; men shreech, and wail,
Others Blaspheme, and others Curse, and rail
'Gainst Heav'n, a strange confused noyse: He smelt
Most horrid stinks: and cold damp vapours felt.
Srait wayes huge fires appear'd below, whereby
He might the Souls tormented there descry:
All sorts of torments that you can devise
With all the plagues, and all the Miseries
You can imagin he inflicted saw,
Upon those miserable Souls below.
Some torn with wheels, some with hot Tongs, their tongues
Pul'd out; and some with scalding flames their Lungs
Wash'd were, and others in the fire hung
From whence they into frozen Rivers flung

107

Were by and by: and others whip't with steel:
Others on Gridirons brent, whilst others feel
The smart of Salt, and Vineger, which laid
Is on their tender flesh, be'ing newly flead:
With divers other sorts of torments: then
From this deep pit of Hell they farther wen.

Now far they were not gon from Tartarus
When in this sort spake Hel's mystagagus.
Whilest we proceed t'our Kingdoms Centre, where
Our mighty King his Court doth keep, declare
I will, our Kingdom's first original,
When we came first into this fiery Ball;
For do not think that ignorant we be
Of our beginning, and high pedegree,
Or that we have no memory of what
We once enjoy'd: no more then Souls forget
What they in Earth have done, when they come here,
For all their deeds Eternal forms do bear
Which here remain; and which torments them more
Than in cold Styx for to be plunged o're:
Ah! Could but Souls in Lethe drenched be,
How little would they feel of misery!
But this a favour is which now I shew,
And should be granted unto none but you.

Know then there is a God, and this although
We tremble at it, we assur'dly know;
Yet that there's none we oftentimes suggest
Unto the misbelieving Atheist.
This God, or mighty Power which all Worlds fill,
Unsearchable he is, we to his Will
Obedient are, he fills our World, his Might
And Power 's as great here as in th' Orb of Light:
By it this World consists, and it shall be
Thou't had beginning, to Æternity.
'Tis not against this Power that we tear,
And rend, and fight, and so opposing are,
Ne'r to be reconcil'd: Our foe is Love,
The second Principle 'gainst that we move
In Wrath, and bitternesse, and natural
It is for us to fight against that Ball.

108

As fire cann't but tend upwards, so cann't we
But to that Orb perpetual Enmity
Bear: That to us has an Antipathy.
Think not that God in Wrath did us create,
Or that for damned Souls he made this state,
For to torment them in: He did not Will
That there a Hell should be: or any ill.
Thus then it came. God from Æternity
Did generate two Principles, which be
Contrary to each other. God alone
Cannot (but by these Principles) be known.
These generate he did Æternally,
Both in, and by himself, a mysterie
Not to be comprehended. Neither tho
Is God; yet he's the Root from whence they flow:
This Principle in which we make abode
Is call'd the first: An ang'ry, zealous God
And full of Wrath, Vengeance, and Ire, here
To mortal Men, and us he doth appear.
In th' other Principle of Love, and Light,
To men he doth appear quite opposite:
The nature of our Principle is this,
It full of raging, anxious prickling is,
An harsh, sowr, tart, fell, eager essence, and
Of bitternesse, and stinging full; we stand
In this. The other Principle is quite
An other nature, to this opposite,
We know no more of that: this I can tell
That accidentally is the cause of Hell.

109

Proceeding still they now were come upon
The entrance to Hel's inmost Region;
A vast huge Globe of sad dark glowing Fire
He saw, and in it thousand Devils, nigher
He fears to go: which seen thus said the Fiend,
What now? affraid? what is the matter Friend;
You do forget you have no body on
Your Spirit's here, and Spirits cannot burn.
With this you must be cloath'd; in this we dwell,
And so must you: This is the fire of Hell.
Which never can go out: don't you admire
What fuel 'tis maintains so great a fire?
Come, e'r we farther go I will explain
Its cause, and nature in a word, or twain.

This Principle of Wrath, of which I spake
Ev'n now, God ne'r intended to awake,
For it recluded was; he did not will
It should be open, nor that so much ill
Should happen. Now before your lower Sphear
Had birth, or being, we created were:
Our mighty Prince, King Lucifer was then
Created of such stuff, as Souls of Men
Created are, and we his servants true,
Cœlestial Forms, at that time did indue.
Our Prince more bright, than your light-giving Sun
In glorious Rayes of Heavn'ly Light out-shon
All other Angels, sat upon the Throne
Of God, and like a God himself did reign.
Out of both Principles compos'd we were,
As Man's Soul is; and other Angels are:
The first recluded was, and we were made
I'th second, there we should for aye have stay'd:
But our brave Prince (I must commend him for't)
Did bravely Lord it in a Kingly sort
Over the heart of God; that meeknesse scorn'd,
Did higher flye, and his high Spirit turn'd
Into the fiery property; that Rage
And fiery flash which Love could not asswage
He there begat. We as our Master did,
Raged as he; and so defiance bid

110

To Love, and Meeknesse, and those Angels that
With no aspiring Spirits kept their state.
Thus we deserted with our Prince that Throne
Of Light, and Love, and gain'd this fiery one,
Where we are potent, and with that strong might
'Gainst Michael our adversary fight.
Now those bright Rayes which our brave Prince had on
Before with courage high he left that Throne,
As scorning to adorn his Princely grace
With ought that did belong unto that place,
He left behind; with that fine form which he
There had: now in the fiery property
We other forms have got, which we can change
Into all sorts of shapes, and Figures strange.
In that great rage, and burning of the Wrath,
This Fire you see we live in then hurst forth,
Which from our selves proceeds, and which is made
By that strong enmity which doth invade
Us, 'gainst the adverse Orb of Light: and know
This Fire doth from bitter harshnesse grow;
As when you rub your flint upon a wheel
Which turneth round, and is compos'd of Steel,
You see from bitter grating Fires proceed,
So our harsh grating Spirits Fire breed,
Which is the same you see; This is the pain
That we, and all the damned in remain,
For all those torments that I shew'd you were
But Images, the better to declare
The nature of this one, and yet alass
This doth all them a thousand times surpasse.
Spirits alasse! though sensible, cann't feel
Material Fire, or jerkes from whips of Steel;
Nor water-torments; 'tis an aking smart,
Most cruel, sowr, eager, fierce, and tart,
Astringent, cold, attracting, harsh desire
Which breeds a piercing, prickling, stinging fire;
Which turns to rage, and enmity, and that
Stirs up the prickling, if it groweth flat,
So feeds with fuel: like a turning wheel
It still runs round: These are the pains we feel.

111

Suppose that one who has a strong desire,
Which burneth in him, and he's all on fire
For to ascend a Mountain made of Glasse,
The which he knows impossible: alasse!
He yet to do it strives; and yet despairs,
He has no hope, and yet desires, nor dares
To think he can; yet trys, he sees 'tis vain
Yet he desires, and yet he cann't refrain:
Again he tries, he cannot set his feet
But down he slides; this anguish doth beget,
That rage, and fury; then desire again
Renews the anguish, Anguish rage, that pain
Begets, and thus himself his torment breeds:
So here our torment from our selves proceeds,
The which Eternal is. The damned Crue
And we our torments daily thus renew,
A strong desire we do here retain
(The which is mix'd with Anguish, Grief, and pain)
After the Heart of God, not that we would
Possesse it, or dwell in it if we could,
We cann't have such a thought; for we no lesse
Than enmity eternally possesse
Against what we desire: we still despair,
We cannot hope, yet still desiring are,
And what doth breed in us the greater wo,
Is 'cause that to Æternity we know.
It so continue must: anguish, and smart,
A stinging, prickling, akeing, sowr, tart,
And horrid Grief torments us, then again
Desire breeds Anguish, Anguish breeds our pain;
And thus (though't cannot be exprest) we feel
Æternal Wrath, like to a turning Wheel
Which ever moves: And this to you I tell
The damned feel: These are the pains of Hell.

Our Prince, and we after the World was made,
Burn'd with a strong desire to invade
That new-made Orb; the which we could not do
Untill our Cunning Adam overthrew:
Then we our Forces sent. What myriads we
Have gain'd to us your eyes shall witnesse be,

112

For 'tis our nature to gain what we can,
We love the noble Company of Man,
If not, why should we labour so? we were
Created of the substance your souls are,
And you like us may if you will become,
Here's entertainment, and enough of room.
You see how well I love you, that I dare
Hel's pains and secrets, freely thus declare,
You may be sure that I would ne'r do thus,
Did I not you esteem as one of us.
And you'd confirmed be e'r you return;
When that yo'ar enter'd where that fire doth burne,
You'l understand what 'tis: you then in part
As we do, Wrath and enmity exert
Will 'gainst the Orb of Love. Nor what I tell
Think strange; would you of our own Principle
Have us be ignorant? or not to know
From whence we came? how enmity did grow
Betwix'd the second Principle, and us?
Forget our former seats? you'd make us thus
Like to you Mortals; who by sicknesse what
Before, or Age in Youth, they 'ave don forget.
We know more then you think we do, alltho
We it to Mortals very seldom show;
Come let us stay no longer, you shall see
Hel's pomp, and 's mighty Stygian Majesty.

This said, they both together go: No flame
Or lighter blaze, from that dark fire came,
But 'twas like a dark-glowing Coal, or like
A d'outed Candle, with a glowing week.
Here enter'd, now he feels an enmity
Against Love's Kingdom, and the Deity:
He sees the Devils, smells Sulphurian stinks,
Hears them blaspheme; himself a Devil thinks;
Does as they do. Thousands at first do meet
Him in most horrid shapes, with cloven feet,
With Dragons tailes, and looks: hard scaly hides
Long-tusked teeth, jawes gaping far, and wide,
These usher them along: He also saw
Millions of Souls, who in such shapes did draw

113

Hel's fœtid ayr (a blast whereof would choke
The earthly Globe) their mouths spat fire, and smoak,
Their faces black as ink, comuted some,
And very few retain'd an humane form;
And those that did were bunch-back'd, crooked, lam'd,
One ey'd, deformed, and more ugly seem'd
Than those with other shapes; but now he met
The greater Princes in their order set.

Who'd think that Hell should there retain the Form
Of every thing that doth this World adorn?
Why not? if Heav'n the purer forms of these
Things uncorrupted bear; the Species
Impure, and corrupted, may not Hell
With as much reason think you hold aswell?
Yea sure the Devils cloath themselves in all
Shapes may: excepting the Angelical;
As Angels cannot take a Devils hew,
So cannot Devils Angels shapes indue;
Both may an humane form; for sure he that
A soul can, may a body agitate.

Thus then in brief the shew of Hell was: when
With this fell rabble in that fiery den,
A while he marched had; A troop he met
Of many millions in their order set
Under their several Princes: on each side
Making a lane, they do themselves divide.
Some they were mounted upon Elephants,
Some upon Camels; and some vast Gyants
Stood on their feet, whose heads like waving Trees
To shrubs: did shadow those that to their Knees
Scarce reach'd. Some others in their Chariots were;
And prauncing steeds do other Captains bear.
Some upon Wolves, some upon Asses ride,
Some Lions, Tygers, Whales, and Bears bestride:
All sorts of Instruments, they bear. Some horn
Their shining fronts, like yellow brasse adorn,
Some heads like Dragons, some like Mastives bear:
With hispid mantles of dark pitchy hair.
Some hide their sooty hides; others are in
A Dragons scaly Coat: a Lions skin,

114

Others indue: some from their mouthes a stink
Of smoak, and brimstone send: some soot, and ink
Spew: some spit Toads, and Spiders, others flakes
Of fire; and some instead of Hair have Snakes
Dangling about their eares, and twisting round
Their necks, depend their tailes unto the ground.
Such kind of forms all bear. He still doth passe
Thorow this mighty Troop: conducted was
By all the chief, untill at last he came
Where seates a kind of Theatre did frame.

At th' upper end great Lucifer he saw,
(Whose frown keeps the Tartarean troops in awe)
Ston an Ebon Throne, more black than Jet,
And round about him Hel's great Princes set,
According to their ranks. Great Lucifer
A sable Crown upon his head did bear,
One hand a Scepter held, the other bore
A hissing Snake, upon his back he wore
Nothing but griesly hair, more black than Night,
Under his supercilious brow a Light
Like burning coals came from his saucer eyes:
His rugged cheeks like Rephean Rocks did rise,
With dented Vallies: every time he spoke
From's hellish mouth came clouds of pitchy smoak,
Which intermixed were with flakes of fire.
His breast beset with hair as stiffe as wire,
Bore two great duggs, from whence like spring-lets fell
Ereban Nectar, or the milk of Hell,
More black than pitch, and bitterer then soot
It was, from whence unto h's cloven foot
He was beset with hair, a shaggy Beast
Thus sat in state to entertain his guest.
Behind his Throne Hel's Armes were plac'd which were
A Dragon guils, with wings erect i'th' ayr,
A wreathed tail, his mouth flames proper yield,
Holding a Banner, in a sable Field.
Earth's solid Globe was on the other part
Pourtrai'd; where stood grim Griesly Death, his Dart
Piercing a tender Lamb, who yields his breath
And Life, unto the cruel stroke of Death,

115

His Banner broke in twain: hard by was seen
An humane Form: triumphing over him
With a great Mace, an horned Devil stood:
Upon the Earth a mighty Dragon trod,
Bearing a sable Flag, display'd on high,
In which was fairly written VICTORY
This was to shew his triumph over Man,
And Love's fair Orb, in this fame Stygian
Realm, and to shew them that here he reigns alone,
None but himself there sits upon the Throne.

On's right hand set, of that dark Region
The potent Princes, every one a Throne
Possess'd: Balzebub, Sathan, Asmodel,
Miriri, Mammon, Ast'roth, Belial,
With thousands more Commanding Dæmons, who
In strange, and various shapes appear'd in view.
On's left hand sat Prince Pride, in's face Disdain
Pourtrayed was; big were his looks, his Train
Hung lower than his Feet; a Peacocks plume
Shaded his hory Crest; with strong perfume
His 'brodered Gown did smell; pendants did deck
His flagging Eares, black Chaines præcing'd his neck:
Finer than all the rest he was, one hand
On's side was plac'd, a flaming hellish brand
The other held. Next him sat Envy, who
Did garments speck'd with swelling Toads indue:
A meagre Face he had, and hollow Eyes,
Lean jawes, thin neck, and spiney armes, and thighs:
His Head anguiferous, a poyson strong
Continually drop'd from his spungy Tongue,
At's feet Detraction sat his servitour,
With Enmity, who for his service bore
Two mighty Scorpions. Avarice was next
Who held his pawes continually convext,
With Clawes like iron teeth; a swinish Face
He had; no Ornaments but hair did grace
His hellish Corpse. Next furious fiery Wrath
Quick flames, and fiery darts sat belching forth,
His hands were arm'd with steel; a Dragon's hide
A crosse his shoulders with live Snakes was ty'd:

116

A Lions foce he had. Next goatish Lust
Sat in a Throne all over-spread with dust,
A stinking smell he had, the skins of Goats
Were ty'd about him in the stead of Coats:
The down of Sparrows want of hair supply'd
Upon his scalp; his eyes on every side
Still rowl'd about. Tun-belly'd Drunkennesse
Sat next; his ugly shape a Tongue expresse
Cannot: not's horrid brother Gluttony,
With thousands more, whom the man's Sp'rit descry
Did in their Pomp: Amaz'd almost to see
So many Princes, 'bout Hel's Majesty
He nearer drew; when the great Prince of Hell
Shaking his driety locks these words did yell
Forth from his pitchy mouth; black smoak, and flame
From's cursed throat with's words together came.

Welcom my Son unto these glowing parts,
I have considered thy great deserts,
For which I did permit that thou might'st see,
My Kingdom's Glory, and my Majesty.
Here is a Throne, and here a Crown lies by
For thee, when it shall be thy destiny
To leave the prison of thy Soul: I do
In the mean time my power confirm on you;
Thou shalt my great Magitian be, and show
Strange uncoth Wonders in the Orb below.
Hau—Let this blast imbue thy fetid Soul,
Accept my power, and let none controul
Thy might, and force. Go to the Tree of Death,
Eat of the fruit, and so confirm my Breath:
Chuse what thou pleasest, there is choice, nay all
If thou canst use them in the earthly Ball,
For our great Glory. Our great Mysteries
When thou hast eaten, thou wilt better prize:
VVhen thou shalt be confirm'd: Love then shall flye,
None in thy Heart shall ever reign but I.
This said, he nodded to the Prince that brought
Him thither, who conceiv'd his Princes thought:
Doing obeysance both withdrew: and strait
Towards the Tree of Death they ambulate.

117

A narrow Vale they enter, where, nor Tree
Nor spire of grasse, or any herb he see
Could: on each side huge cloudy Rocks mount up,
Which hanging over almost kisse a top.
A thick, dark shadow, on the ground they cast;
From hollow crannies comes a fœtid blast,
Which 'mongst the windings frames a murmuring voice,
And getting out an horrid hissing noyse
Doth make: Thorow the midst a pitchy stream
(The which from Styx and other Rivers came)
Runs; this they follow till they saw it shoot
Its sooty waters, at the very Root
Of the mortiferous Tree; in there it fell
Conveighing thither all the dregs of Hell.
By which that Tree is nourished: He now
Lifts up his eyes, and that strange Tree doth view.
The trunck more hard than solid steel, for mosse,
With filthy spawn of Toads inclosed was,
Poyson of Asps instead of shining gum,
Thorow the bark from every limb did come.
Thrice fifty Cubits scarce could close about
Its mighty bole: on every limb stretch'd out
Hung crawling Vipers, sucking with delight
The juyce of Henbanc, and of Aconite
From off the leaves, which gave a filthy stink,
And were more black than Pitch, or blackest ink.
An horrid blast arising from the ground
Concusse the leaves, which make a dryery sound
In their forc't Kissing: Bitterer then soot
Mixed with Gall, and Wormwood's juyce, the fruit
Was, which thick sparsed here, and there did grow,
In sundry colours on each sable bow.
A while he views this Tree: Hel's horrid Fiend
From's smoaky throat at last these words doth send.

Seest thou this stately Tree, those Fruits I wis
Are our Ambrosia; and our Nectar is
That humid juyce you see; no other food
But what grows here our Prince esteemeth good.

118

No Winter with its nipping frosts bereaves
This lurid Tree of there his sable leaves:
Nor leaves, nor blossoms adds the spring unto't:
Nor yellow Autumn robs it of its Fruit,
It thus continues as it is, and tho
We daily feed thereon it doth not grow
Barren of Fruit, for tho we cul apace
Others supply straitway their vacant place,
And should we off the Fruit we see now pull,
Next moment renders it again as full.
We need not fear but here is choyce enough,
For every Prince hath here his several bough.
Yon' fair-spread arm whose fruit so rarely dy'd,
Spec't like the Peacock's tail, yields food for Pride.
Yon Snake-betwisted bow, Toad-specled fruit
Doth best the slavering Chaps of Envy sute.
Yon' sire-coloured Pome loves mighty wrath:
Lust thinks that jetty Apple better worth.
Yon' mighty Limb which beareth Apples thrice
As big as all the rest, Loves Avarice;
Yon' juicy Fruit which liquor doth express
Thorow the skin loves beastly Drunkennesse.
And those two thick fruit-pressed limbs close by,
Belongs to wantonnesse, and gluttony.
On that feeds sloth, and that arm which you there
Behold doth serve the Table of despair.
Yon' strange-shap'd Fruit, which on that bow you see,
Is suck'd upon by foul-mouth'd Perjury:
It's endlesse to name all: Rare Fruit beside
All these, we have upon the other side.

Step hither, look! here's gallant Fruit indeed;
Here 'tis, and if you please, that you shall feed;
These are the Fruits will ope your dimmer eyes,
Will make you subtle, and exceeding wise.
These, these will shew the vertue of this Tree;
And I will tell you what those Apples be.
Seest that fair one with Crimson-circles deckt,
And here and therewith Characters bespec't?

119

Should'st thou eat that as good a linguist strait
Should be, as he that seven years had sat
Poring on books, enduring cold, and pain
A Language, or some Rhetorick to gain:
The juice of this fine fruit did Herod lick,
When he a God was styl'd for's Rhetorick.
And that round apple, which hangs dangling there,
Will make you be a cunning Sophister.
Yon apple which is so variegate,
Will make you cunning in mechanicks strait.
This Apple here which hangs so fair to view;
With Mathematick cunning will imbue;
See what Cylindres, and Rhomboides
What Quadrats, Diagramms, Isoce'les
With other lines, and figures printed in
Black, red, and yellow streakes upon the skin;
These shew its Nature. But yon with a Star
So fairly mark'd, makes an Astrologer:
Should'st thou eat this which hangeth over us
More cunning then was Æsculapius
Thou'ldst be; and skilfull too in Chiron's art
If that, which hangeth on that bow a th' wart.
But yon fair fruit which takes up so much room,
Will make you know before what is to come:
Of this did Baalam often feed, when he
Did by our divination Prophesie?
In former time this Apple was in use
Much, when Delphean Priests did suck the juice:
And on the next they fed, when they in verse
Their Oracles did usually reherse.

120

But yon five Apples which I shew you now,
And which do triumph on the upper bough,
Shall be thy food: See here I'le reach them down,
Make much of them, for now they are thine own,
Well may'st thou prize them, Heav'n nor Earth such fruit
Can give, which may so well thy nature suit.
These with thee take, and feed upon below:
But first to thee I will their vertues show.

This purple colour'd one more cold than Ice,
Or Riphæan snow, extinguish in a trice
Will that Scintilla Love hath plac'd in thee:
Then shalt thou wholly from his chaines be free.
Flouds of temptations, nor whole streams of sin,
Nor pleasures, which the World may draw you in,
Are strong enough to dout that little spark,
Which closely gloweth in thy hollow ark.
Well may they cloak it that it may not flame,
But 'tis this fruit that must put out the same.
This next although more black than pitch it be,
Will firmly glew together Hell, and thee:
A thousand chaines shall sooner break, than this
Resolve thee, of so strong a nature 'tis.
With all Hel's Peers, and our great Prince you wil
By it hold highest Correspondence still.
By this third, snaky-colour'd one, below
Thou shalt most strange-amazing Wonders do.
Th' Eternal flames which wend above the sky,
Unto the Earth thou may'st call by and by:
The Hyperborean sconce thou mayst command,
To œstuate the Sea to Mountains; and
Mayst at thy bidding Taurus rend in twain:
Or Atlas fling into the Western main.
This reddish one bespotted thus with jet,
The lock'd gates of thy sences ope will set;
Your quicker eyes although on Earth you stand
Shall pierce the Centre of our darker Land:
Then shall you see us when you please, and know
How that your Prince, and we your Brothers do:
Our shriller voyces shall assault your ear:
Your nose shall smell the sulphur of our Sphear:

121

And our hot breaths, feel blowing in your face;
Our Kingdom's dainties tast in every place,
Banquet and deeply drink with us: so you
May be on Earth, and in our Kingdom too.
By this last teter one, all evil Sprites
That b'longs to Hell, to please you with delights
You when you please may call, nay if you will
Ten thousand Legions shall attend you still.
All that belongs toth' Necromancy Art,
And Conjuration 'twill to you impart;
That at your beck from hence you may adjure,
The blackest Fiend to be your servitour.
Jannes and Jambres, Simon and Faustus eat
(Tho not to fill them) of this pretious meat.
See now what power thou'rt indued with,
By these rare fruits pluck'd from the Tree of Death:
The gold of In'd, nor Peru, not the Seas
Rich Treasure purchase may such Fruits as these,
The fabuliz'd Hesperian fruit of old,
Were durt to these, although they were of Gold.
Come now thou great Magitian thou shalt go
Unto the Body, which remains below;
Our Pomp, and Power, thou hast seen, and I
To you our Kingdom's nature did descry:
You need no conduct hither now, for when
You please, you my come visit us agen.
This said: he strait his body reassumes,
And thus Hel's great Magitian becomes.

My Muse returned from the darker Sphear,
Her garments rank of Sulphur smell I fear,
Which may offend: with those strange sights, which late
She saw affrighted, now shel'd titubate
Should she proceed: Like one which newly come
From long restraint in some dark Dungion
Cannot indure the splendid Light, nor dares
Sol's beams behold, so with my Muse it fares,
Who newly flown out of the house of Night
Dares not as yet describe the Orb of Light,

122

Till that in Jordan, she hath bath'd her eyes.
And Virgin Limbs, that she may brighter rise,
New modulizing of his Harp again,
To sing Heaven's Blisses in a higher strain.

The end of the first Part.