The poetical works of Thomas Traherne :: :: University of Virginia Library

The poetical works of Thomas Traherne

faithfully reprinted from the author's original manuscript together with Poems of Felicity reprinted from the Burney manuscript and Poems from Various Sources: Edited with preface and notes by Gladys I. Wade

Traherne, Thomas

PART ONE POEMS FROM THE DOBELL FOLIO MS.

PART TWO POEMS FROM THE BURNEY MS.

The Dedication.

The Author to the Critical Peruser.

The Præface

The Publisher To the Reader.

Divine Reflections ON THE NATIVE OBJECTS OF An Infant=Ey.

PART THREE POEMS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

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2. PART TWO POEMS FROM THE BURNEY MS.

Burney MS. 392. B.M.

The Dedication.

To GOD, my Sov'raign Lord,
My Heart and Hand accord
These Holy First-fruits of a Pious Mind
To DEDICATE.
At any Rate
I can't be so Injurious or Unkind
To the Memory of my Brother,
As to devote to any Other
These Sacred Relicks he hath left behind.

My GOD! Thou art the Heir
Of all the Prais and Pray'r
Which he, or I, can offer at Thy Throne.
DIVINITY
And POETRY
We call Our Gifts: Indeed they are Thine Own:
These Faculties from Thee do flow;
And therfore, that to Thee we ow
Both Them, Our selvs, and All, I needs must own.

Thy Prais a Subject is
Fitter for Souls in Bliss,
Whose more unclouded Sense may best descry
Those Depths and Hights,
To mortal Wights
Unknown, which in Thy Glorious Godhead ly.
This well the Author did perceiv,
And therfore hastned Flesh to leav,
That by the shift, he might becom All Ey.

Be pleas'd then to accept
This Off'ring I hav kept
Too long in Privat; since it may becom
A Publick Good,
If understood
Aright, and Thy good Spirit set it home
On Hearts, to propagat Thy Fear,
Till, as in Hev'n it is, So here
On Earth, Thy Will be don, Thy Kingdom com,

Amen.

Philip Traheron.

The Author to the Critical Peruser.

The naked Truth in many faces shewn,
Whose inward Beauties very few hav known,
A Simple Light, transparent Words, a Strain
That lowly creeps, yet maketh Mountains plain,
Brings down the highest Mysteries to sense
And keeps them there; that is Our Excellence:
At that we aim; to th' end thy Soul might see
With open Eys thy Great Felicity,
Its Objects view, and trace the glorious Way
Wherby thou may'st thy Highest Bliss enjoy.

No curling Metaphors that gild the Sence,
Nor Pictures here, nor painted Eloquence;
No florid Streams of Superficial Gems,
But real Crowns and Thrones and Diadems!
That Gold on Gold should hiding shining ly
May well be reckon'd baser Heraldry.

An easy Stile drawn from a native vein,
A clearer Stream than that which Poets feign,
Whose bottom may, how deep so'ere, be seen,
Is that which I think fit to win Esteem:
Els we could speak Zamzummim words, and tell
A Tale in tongues that sound like Babel-Hell;
In Meteors speak, in blazing Prodigies,
Things that amaze, but will not make us wise.

The Præface

On Shining Banks we could nigh Tagus walk;
In flow'ry Meads of rich Pactolus talk;
Bring in the Druids, and the Sybills view;
See what the Rites are which the Indians do;
Derive along the channel of our Quill
The Streams that flow from high Parnassus hill;

Ransack all Nature's Rooms, and add the things
Which Persian Courts enrich; to make Us Kings:
To make us Kings indeed! Not verbal Ones,
But reall Kings, exalted unto Thrones;
And more than Golden Thrones! 'Tis this I do,
Letting Poëtick Strains and Shadows go.

I cannot imitat their vulgar Sence
Who Cloaths admire, but not the Man they fence
Against the Cold; and while they wonder at
His Rings, his precious Stones, his Gold and Plate;
The middle piece, his Body and his Mind,
They over-look; no Beauty in them find:
God's Works they slight, their own they magnify,
His they contemn, or careless pass them by;

Their woven Silks and wel-made Suits they prize,
Valu their Gems, but not more precious Eys:
Their Useful Hands, their Tongues and Ruby Lips,
Their polisht Flesh where whitest Lillies mix
With blushing Roses and with saphire Veins,
The Bones, the Joints, and that which els remains

Within that curious Fabrick, Life and Strength,
I'th' wel-compacted bredth and depth and length
Of various Limbs, that living Engins be
Of glorious worth; God's Work they will not see:
Nor yet the Soul, in whose concealed Face,
Which comprehendeth all unbounded Space,
GOD may be seen; tho she can understand
The Length of Ages and the Tracts of Land
That from the Zodiac do extended ly
Unto the Poles, and view Eternity.

Ev'n thus do idle Fancies, Toys, and Words,
(Like gilded Scabbards sheathing rusty Swords)
Take vulgar Souls; who gaze on rich Attire
But God's diviner Works do ne'r admire.

T. T.

The Publisher To the Reader.

The faithful Watch-man being gon to rest
From's pious Labors, which he did not spare
To spend himself in; as All those attest
Who e'r convers'd with him, and know the Care
And earnest Pains which he did always take
To keep their drowzy Faculties awake:

Lest thy dull Soul should sleep the Sleep of Death
For lack of som such Means to ope thine Eys;
Lo, he yet speaks, tho dead and void of Breath,
In such a manner as may make thee wise
Unto Salvation; if a serious Thought
Thou fix upon what in this Book is wrote.

Which I do for no other End produce,
But that his lively Notions of God's Lov,
(Whose Works and Ways it was his constant Use
By Night to contemplat, by Day improv
In all his Talk) may cure that gross Neglect
Of our tru Joys which doth the Earth infect.

Truths common, tho not heeded, to thy View
I here present; And, that they mayn't do less
Than rouz thy Sens, if not thy Sight renew,
Shew the Divine cloath'd in a Poët's Dress,
To win Acceptance: for we all descry,
When Precepts cannot, Poëms take the Ey.

And let the Soul that borrows hence a Spark
Of Light; so blow it up into a Flame
Of Holy Lov, as may not in the Dark
Suppress the Benefit: but to God's Name
Giv all the Thanks and Prais (whom the Author meant
To honor) and not him the Instrument.

Amen.

Divine Reflections ON THE NATIVE OBJECTS OF An Infant=Ey.

O Lord, open thou my Lips, and my Mouth shall shew forth Thy Prais. Psal. 51. 15.

The Salutation.

These little Limbs,
These Eys and Hands which here I find,
This panting Heart wherwith my Life begins;
Where have ye been? Behind
What Curtain were ye from me hid so long!
Where was, in what Abyss, my new-made Tongue?

When silent I
So many thousand thousand Years
Beneath the Dust did in a Chaos ly,
How could I Smiles, or Tears,
Or Lips, or Hands, or Eys, or Ears perceiv?
Welcom ye Treasures which I now receiv.

I that so long
Was Nothing from Eternity,
Did little think such Joys as Ear and Tongue
To celebrat or see:
Such Sounds to hear, such Hands to feel, such Feet,
Such Eys and Objects, on the Ground to meet.

New burnisht Joys!
Which finest Gold and Pearl excell!
Such sacred Treasures are the Limbs of Boys
In which a Soul doth dwell:
Their organized Joints and azure Veins
More Wealth include than the dead World conteins.

From Dust I rise
And out of Nothing now awake;
These brighter Regions which salute mine Eys
A Gift from God I take:
The Earth, the Seas, the Light, the lofty Skies,
The Sun and Stars are mine; if these I prize.

A Stranger here,
Strange things doth meet, strange Glory see,
Strange Treasures lodg'd in this fair World appear,
Strange all and New to me:
But that they mine should be who Nothing was,
That Strangest is of all; yet brought to pass.

Wonder.

How like an Angel came I down!
How bright are all things here!
When first among his Works I did appear
O how their Glory did me crown!
The World resembled his ETERNITY,
In which my Soul did walk;
And evry thing that I did see
Did with me talk.

The Skies in their Magnificence,
The lovly lively Air,
Oh how divine, how soft, how sweet, how fair!
The Stars did entertain my Sense;

And all the Works of God so bright and pure,
So rich and great, did seem,
As if they ever must endure
In my Esteem.

A Nativ Health and Innocence
Within my Bones did grow,
And while my God did all his Glories show
I felt a vigor in my Sense
That was all SPIRIT: I within did flow
With Seas of Life like Wine;
I nothing in the World did know
But 'twas Divine.

Harsh rugged Objects were conceal'd,
Oppressions, Tears, and Cries,
Sins, Griefs, Complaints, Dissentions, weeping Eys,
Were hid: And only things reveal'd
Which hevenly Spirits and the Angels prize:
The State of Innocence
And Bliss, not Trades and Poverties,
Did fill my Sense.

The Streets seem'd paved with golden Stones,
The Boys and Girls all mine;
To me how did their lovly faces shine!
The Sons of men all Holy ones
In Joy and Beauty, then appear'd to me;
And evry Thing I found
(While like an Angel I did see)
Adorn'd the Ground.

Rich Diamonds, and Pearl, and Gold
Might evry where be seen;
Rare Colors, yellow, blew, red, white, and green
Mine Eys on evry side behold:

100

All that I saw, a Wonder did appear;
Amazement was my Bliss:
That and my Wealth met evry where.
No Joy to this!

Curs'd, ill-devis'd Proprieties
With Envy, Avarice,
And Fraud, (those Fiends that spoil ev'n Paradise)
Were not the Object of mine Eys;
Nor Hedges, Ditches, Limits, narrow Bounds:
I dreamt not ought of those,
But in surveying all mens Grounds
I found Repose.

For Property its self was mine,
And Hedges, Ornaments:
Walls, Houses, Coffers, and their rich Contents,
To make me Rich combine.
Cloaths, costly Jewels, Laces, I esteem'd
My Wealth by others worn,
For me they all to wear them seem'd,
When I was born.

Eden.

A learned and a happy Ignorance
Divided me
From all the Vanity,
From all the Sloth, Care, Sorrow, that advance
The Madness and the Misery
Of Men. No Error, no Distraction, I
Saw cloud the Earth, or over-cast the Sky.

101

I knew not that there was a Serpent's Sting,
Whose Poyson shed
On Men, did overspread
The World: Nor did I dream of such a thing
As Sin, in which Mankind lay dead.
They all were brisk and living Things to me,
Yea pure, and full of Immortality.

Joy, Pleasure, Beauty, Kindness, charming Lov,
Sleep, Life, and Light,
Peace, Melody, my Sight
Mine Ears and Heart did fill and freely mov;
All that I saw did me delight:
The Universe was then a World of Treasure
To me an Universal World of Pleasure.

Unwelcom Penitence I then thought not on;
Vain costly Toys,
Swearing and roaring Boys,
Shops, Markets, Taverns, Coaches, were unknown,
So all things were that drown my Joys:
No Thorns choakt-up my Path, nor hid the face
Of Bliss and Glory, nor eclypst my place.

Only what Adam in his first Estate
Did I behold;
Hard Silver and dry Gold
As yet lay under ground: My happy Fate
Was more acquainted with the old
And innocent Delights which he did see
In his Original Simplicity.

Those things which first his Eden did adorn,
My Infancy
Did crown: Simplicity
Was my Protection when I first was born.

102

Mine Eys those Treasures first did see
Which God first made: The first Effects of Lov
My first Enjoyments upon Earth did prov.

And were so Great, and so Divine, so Pure,
So fair and sweet,
So tru; when I did meet
Them here at first, they did my Soul allure,
And drew away mine Infant-feet
Quite from the Works of Men, that I might see
The glorious Wonders of the DEITY.

Innocence.

1

But that which most I wonder at, which most
I did esteem my Bliss, which most I boast
And ever shall applaud, is, that within
I felt no Stain, no Spot of Sin.

No Darkness then did over-shade,
But all within was pure and bright,
No Guilt did crush, nor Fear invade,
But all my Soul was full of Light.

A joyful Sense exempt from Fear
Is all I can remember;
The very Night to me was clear,
'Twas Summer in December.

2

A serious Meditation did employ
My Soul within, which, taken up with Joy,
Did seem no outward thing to note, but fly
All Objects that do feed the Ey:

103

While it those very Objects did
Admire, and prize, and prais, and lov,
Which in their Glory most are hid;
Which Presence only doth remov:

Their constant daily Presence I
Rejoicing at did see;
And that which takes them from the Ey
Of others, offer'd them to me.

3

No inward Stain inclined my Will
To Avarice or Pride: My Soul was still
With Admiration fill'd; no Lust nor Strife
Polluted then my Infant-Life.

No Fraud nor Anger in me mov'd,
No Malice, Jealousy, or Spight;
All that I saw I truly lov'd.
Contentment only and Delight

Were in my Soul. O Hev'n, what Bliss
Did I enjoy and feel!
What powerful Delight did this
Inspire! For this I daily kneel.

4

Whether it be that Nature is so pure,
And Custom only vicious; or to cure
Its Depravation, God did Guilt remov
To fix in me a Sense of 's Lov

So early; or that 'twas one Day
Wherin this Happiness I found,
Whose Strength and Brightness so do ray
That still it seems me to surround:

104

What e'r it was, it is a Light
So endless unto me,
That I a World of tru Delight
Did then, and to this day do, see.

5

That Prospect was the Gate of Hev'n; that Day
The ancient Light of Eden did convey
Into my Soul: I was an Adam there,
A little Adam in a Sphere

Of Joys: O there my ravisht Sense
Was entertain'd in Paradise;
And had a Sight of Innocence
Which was to mee beyond all Price.

An Antepast of Heven sure!
For I on Earth did reign:
Within, without me, all was pure:
I must becom a Child again.

An Infant-Ey.

A simple Light from all Contagion free,
A Beam that's purely Spiritual, an Ey
That's altogether Virgin, Things doth see
Ev'n like unto the Deity:
That is, it shineth in an hevenly Sence,
And round about (unmov'd) its Light dispence.

The visiv Rays are Beams of Light indeed,
Refined, subtil, piercing, quick and pure;
And as they do the sprightly Winds exceed,
Are worthy longer to endure:
They far out-shoot the Reach of Grosser Air,
Which with such Excellence may not compare.

105

But being once debas'd, they soon becom
Less activ than they were before; and then
After distracting Objects out they run,
Which make us wretched Men.
A simple Infant's Ey is such a Treasure
That when 'tis lost, w' enjoy no reall Pleasure.

O that my Sight had ever simple been!
And never faln into a grosser state!
Then might I evry Object still have seen
(As now I see a golden Plate)
In such an hev'nly Light, as to descry
In it, or by it, my Felicity.

As easily might soar aloft as mov
On Earth; and things remote as well as nigh
My Joys should be; and could discern the Lov
Of God in my Tranquility.
But Streams are heavy which the Winds can blow;
Whose grosser body must needs move below.

The East was once my Joy; and so the Skies
And Stars at first I thought; the West was mine:
Then Praises from the Mountains did arise.
As well as Vapors: Evry Vine
Did bear me Fruit; the Fields my Gardens were;
My larger Store-house all the Hemisphere.

But Wantonness and Avarice got in
And spoil'd my Wealth; (I never to complain
Can cease, till I am purged from my Sin
And made an Infant once again:)
So that my feeble and disabled Sense
Reacht only Near Things with its Influence.

106

A House, a Woman's Hand, a piece of Gold,
A Feast, a costly Suit, a beauteous Skin
That vy'd with Ivory, I did behold;
And all my Pleasure was in Sin:
Who had at first with simple Infant-Eys
Beheld as mine ev'n all Eternities.

O dy! dy unto all that draws thine Ey
From its first Objects: let not fading Pleasures
Infect thy Mind; but see thou carefully
Bid them adieu. Return: Thy Treasures
Abide thee still, and in their places stand
Inviting yet, and waiting thy Command.

The Return.

To Infancy, O Lord, again I com,
That I my Manhood may improv:
My early Tutor is the Womb;
I still my Cradle lov.
'Tis strange that I should Wisest be,
When least I could an Error see.

Till I gain strength against Temptation, I
Perceiv it safest to abide
An Infant still; and therfore fly
(A lowly State may hide
A man from Danger) to the Womb,
That I may yet New-born becom.

My God, thy Bounty then did ravish me!
Before I learned to be poor,
I always did thy Riches see,
And thankfully adore:
Thy Glory and thy Goodness were
My sweet Companions all the Year.

107

The Præparative.

My Body being dead, my Limbs unknown;
Before I skill'd to prize
Those living Stars, mine Eys;
Before or Tongue or Cheeks I call'd mine own,
Before I knew these Hands were mine,
Or that my Sinews did my Members join;
When neither Nostril, foot, nor Ear,
As yet could be discern'd, or did appear;
I was within
A House I knew not; newly cloath'd with Skin.

Then was my Soul my only All to me,
A living endless Ey,
Scarce bounded with the Sky,
Whose Power, and Act, and Essence was to see:
I was an inward Sphere of Light,
Or an interminable Orb of Sight,
Exceeding that which makes the Days,
A vital Sun that shed abroad his Rays:
All Life, all Sense,
A naked, simple, pure Intelligence.

I then no Thirst nor Hunger did perceiv;
No dire Necessity
Nor Want was known to me:
Without disturbance then I did receiv
The tru Ideas of all Things,
The Hony did enjoy without the Stings.
A meditating inward Ey
Gazing at Quiet did within me ly,
And all things fair
Delighted me that was to be their Heir.

108

For Light inherits Beauty; Hearing, Sounds;
The Nostril, sweet Perfumes;
All Tastes have secret Rooms
Within the Tongue; the Touching feeleth Wounds
Of Pain or Pleasure; and yet I
Forgat the rest, and was all Sight or Ey,
Unbody'd and devoid of Care,
Just as in Hev'n the Holy Angels are:
For simple Sense
Is Lord of all created Excellence.

Being thus prepar'd for all Felicity;
Not præpossest with Dross,
Nor basely glued to gross
And dull Materials that might ruin me,
Nor fetter'd by an Iron Fate,
By vain Affections in my earthy State,
To any thing that should seduce
My Sense, or els bereav it of its Use;
I was as free
As if there were nor Sin nor Misery.

Pure nativ Powers that Corruption loath,
Did, like the fairest Glass
Or spotless polisht Brass,
Themselvs soon in their Object's Image cloath:
Divine Impressions, when they came,
Did quickly enter and my Soul enflame.
'Tis not the Object, but the Light,
That maketh Hev'n: 'Tis a clearer Sight.
Felicity
Appears to none but them that purely see.

A disentangled and a naked Sense,
A Mind that's unpossest,
A disengaged Breast,
A quick unprejudic'd Intelligence

109

Acquainted with the Golden Mean,
An eeven Spirit, quiet, and serene,
Is that where Wisdom's Excellence
And Pleasure keep their Court of Residence.
My Soul get free,
And then thou may'st possess Felicity.

The Instruction.

Spew out thy Filth, thy Flesh abjure,
Let not Contingents thee defile;
For Transients only are impure,
And empty Things thy Soul beguile.

Unfelt, unseen let those things be,
Which to thy Spirit were unknown,
When to thy blessed Infancy
The World, thy Self, thy God, was shewn.

All that is Great and stable stood
Within thy harmless View at first;
All that in Visibles is Good,
Or Pure, or Fair, or Unaccurst.

Whatever els thou now dost see
In Custom, Action, or Desire,
Is but a part of Misery
Wherin all Men at once conspire.

The Vision.

Flight is but the Præparative: the Sight
Is deep and infinit.
Indeed, 'tis all the Glory, Light, and Space,
The Joy and blest Variety
That doth adorn the Godhead's Dwelling-place

110

'Tis all that Ey can see.
Even Trades themselvs, view'd with celestial Sight,
And Cares, and Sins, and Woes, giv Light.

Order the Beauty ev'n of Beauty is,
It is the Rule of Bliss,
The very Life and Form and Caus of Pleasure;
Which if we do not understand,
Ten thousand heaps of vain, tho massy, Treasure
Will but oppress the Land:
In Blessedness its self we that shall miss
(Being blind) which is the Sum of Bliss.

First then behold the World as thine, and well
Note that where thou dost dwell:
See all the Beauty of the spacious Case;
Lift up thy pleas'd and ravisht Eys;
Admire the Glory of this hevenly Place,
And all its Blessings prize.
That Sight well seen thy Spirit that prepare
To make all other things more rare.

Mens Woes shal be but Foils unto thy Bliss,
Thou once enjoying this:
Trades shal adorn and beautify the Earth;
Their Ignorance shall make thee bright;
Were not their Griefs Democritus's Mirth?
Their Slips shal keep thee right:
All shall be thine Advantage; all conspire
To make thy Bliss and Virtu higher.

To see the glorious Fountain and the End;
To see all Creatures tend
To thy Advancement, and so sweetly close
In thy Repose: To see them shine
In serviceable Worth; and even Foes,
Among the rest, made Thine:

111

To see all these at once unite in thee
Is to behold Felicity.

To see the Fountain is a Blessed thing;
It is to see the King
Of Glory face to face: But yet the End,
The deep and wondrous End, is more;
In that the Fount we also comprehend,
The Spring we there adore:
For in the End the Fountain is best shewn,
As by Effects the Caus is known.

From One, to One, in One, to see All things;
Perceiv the King of Kings
My God and Portion; to see his Treasures
Made all mine own, my Self the End
Of his great Labors! 'Tis the Life of Pleasures
To see my self His Friend!
Who All Things finds convey'd to him alone,
Must needs adore The Holy One.

The Rapture.

Sweet Infancy!
O Hevenly Fire! O sacred Light!
How fair and bright!
How Great am I
Whom the whol World doth magnify

O hevenly Joy!
O Great and Sacred Blessedness
Which I possess!
So great a Joy
Who did into my Arms convey?

112

From God abov
Being sent, the Gift doth me enflame
To prais his Name;
The Stars do mov,
The Sun doth shine, to shew his Lov.

O how Divine
Am I! To all this Sacred Wealth,
This Life and Health,
Who rais'd? Who mine
Did make the same! What hand divine!

News.

News from a forein Country came,
As if my Treasures and my Joys lay there;
So much it did my Heart enflame,
'Twas wont to call my Soul into mine Ear;
Which thither went to meet
Th' approaching Sweet,
And on the Threshold stood
To entertain the secret Good;
It hover'd there
As if 'twould leav mine Ear,
And was so eager to embrace
Th' expected Tidings, as they came,
That it could change its dwelling-place
To meet the voice of Fame.

As if new Tidings were the Things
Which did comprise my wished unknown Treasure,
Or els did bear them on their wings,
With so much Joy they came, with so much Pleasure,

113

My Soul stood at the Gate
To recreäte
It self with Bliss, and woo
Its speedier Approach; a fuller view
It fain would take,
Yet Journeys back would make
Unto my Heart, as if 'twould fain
Go out to meet, yet stay within,
Fitting a place to entertain
And bring the Tidings in.

What Sacred Instinct did inspire
My Soul in Childhood with an hope so strong?
What secret Force mov'd my Desire
T' expect my Joys beyond the Seas, so yong?
Felicity I knew
Was out of view;
And being left alone,
I thought all Happiness was gon
From Earth: for this
I long'd-for absent Bliss,
Deeming that sure beyond the Seas,
Or els in somthing near at hand
Which I knew not, since nought did pleas
I knew, my Bliss did stand.

But little did the Infant dream
That all the Treasures of the World were by,
And that himself was so the Cream
And Crown of all which round about did ly.
Yet thus it was! The Gem,
The Diadem,
The Ring enclosing all
That stood upon this Earthen Ball;

114

The hev'nly Ey,
Much wider than the Sky,
Wherin they All included were;
The Lov, the Soul, that was the King
Made to possess them, did appear
A very little Thing.

Felicity.

Prompted to seek my Bliss abov the Skies,
How often did I lift mine Eys
Beyond the Spheres!
Dame Nature told me there was endless Space
Within my Soul; I spy'd its very face:
Sure it not for nought appears.
What is there which a Man may see
Beyond the Spheres?
FELICITY.

There in the Mind of God, that Sphere of Lov,
(In nature, hight, extent, abov
All other Spheres,)
A Man may see Himself, the World, the Bride
Of God His Church, which as they there are ey'd
Strangely exalted each appears:
His Mind is higher than the Space
Abov the Spheres,
Surmounts all Place.

No empty Space; it is all full of Sight,
All Soul and Life, an Ey most bright,
All Light and Lov;
Which doth at once all things possess and giv,
Heven and Earth, with All that therin liv;

115

It rests at quiet, and doth mov;
Eternal is, yet Time includes;
A Scene abov
All Interludes.

Adam's Fall.

God made Man upright at the first;
Man made himself by Sin accurst:
Sin is a Deviation from the Way
Of God: 'Tis that wherin a Man doth stray
From the first Path wherin he was to walk,
From the first Theme he was to talk.

His Talk was to be all of Prais,
Thanksgiving, Rapture, Holy-days;
For nothing els did with his State agree:
Being full of Wonder and Felicity,
He was in thankful sort to meditate
Upon the Throne in which he sate.

No Gold, nor Trade, nor Silver there,
Nor Cloaths, no Coin, nor Houses were
No gaudy Coaches, Feasts, or Palaces,
Nor vain Inventions newly made to pleas;
But Native Truth, and Virgin-Purity,
An uncorrupt Simplicity.

His faithful Heart, his Hands, and Eys
He lifted up unto the Skies;
The Earth he wondring kneel'd upon; the Air,
He was surrounded with; the Trees, the fair
And fruitful Fields, his needful Treasures were;
And nothing els he wanted there.

116

The World its self was his next Theme,
Wherof himself was made Supream:
He had an Angel's Ey to see the Price
Of evry Creature; that made Paradise:
He had a Tongue, yea more, a Cherub's Sense
To feel its Worth and Excellence.

Encompass'd with the Fruits of Lov,
He crowned was with Heven abov,
Supported with the Foot-stool of God's Throne,
A Globe more rich than Gold or precious Stone,
The fertil Ground of Pleasure and Delight,
Encircled in a Sphere of Light.

The Sense of what He did possess
Fill'd him with Joy and Thankfulness;
He was transported even here on Earth,
As if he then in Heven had his Birth:
The truth is, Heven did the Man surround,
The Earth being in the middle found.

The World.

When Adam first did from his Dust arise,
He did not see,
Nor could there be
A greater Joy before his Eys:
The Sun as bright for me doth shine;
The Spheres abov
Do shew his Lov,
While they to kiss the Earth incline,
The Stars as great a Service do;
The Moon as much I view
As Adam did, and all God's Works divine
Are Glorious still, and Mine.

117

Sin spoil'd them; but my Savior's precious Blood
Sprinkled I see
On them to be,
Making them all both safe and good:
With greater Rapture I admire
That I from Hell
Redeem'd, do dwell
On Earth as yet; and here a Fire
Not scorching but refreshing glows,
And living Water flows,
Which Dives more than Silver doth request,
Of Crystals far the best.

What shal I render unto thee, my God,
For teaching me
The Wealth to see
Which doth enrich thy Great Abode?
My virgin-thoughts in Childhood were
Full of Content,
And innocent,
Without disturbance, free and clear,
Ev'n like the Streams of Crystal Springs,
Where all the curious things
Do from the bottom of the Well appear
When no filth or mud is there.

For so when first I in the Summer-fields
Saw golden Corn
The Earth adorn,
(This day that Sight its Pleasure yields)
No Rubies could more take mine Ey;
Nor Pearls of price,
By man's Device
In Gold set artificially,

118

Could of more worth appear to me,
How rich so'er they be
By men esteem'd; nor could these more be mine
That on my finger shine.

The azure Skies did with so sweet a smile,
Their Curtains spread
Abov my Head
And with its hight mine Ey beguile;
So lovly did the distant Green
That fring'd the field
Appear, and yield
Such pleasant Prospects to be seen
From neighb'ring Hills; no precious Stone,
Or Crown, or Royal Throne,
Which do bedeck the Richest Indian Lord,
Could such Delight afford.

The Sun, that gilded all the bordering Woods,
Shone from the Sky
To beautify
My Earthly and my Hevenly Goods;
Exalted in his Throne on high,
He shed his Beams
In golden Streams
That did illustrat all the Sky;
Those Floods of Light, his nimble Rays,
Did fill the glittr'ing Ways,
While that unsufferable piercing Ey
The Ground did glorify.

The choicest Colors, Yellow, Green, and Blew
Did all this Court
In comly sort
With mixt varieties bestrew;

119

Like Gold with Emeralds between;
As if my God
From his Abode
By these intended to be seen.
And so He was: I Him descry'd
In's Works, the surest Guide
Dame Nature yields; His Lov, His Life doth there
For evermore appear.

No House nor Holder in this World did I
Observ to be:
What I did see
Seem'd all Mine Own; wherin did ly
A Mine, a Garden, of Delights;
Pearls were but Stones;
And great King's Thrones,
Compared with such Benefits,
But empty Chairs; a Crown, a Toy
Scarce apt to pleas a Boy.
All other are but petty trifling Shews,
To that which God bestows.

A Royal Crown, inlaid with precious Stones,
Did less surprize
The Infant Eys
Of many other little Ones,
Than the great Beauties of this Frame,
Made for my sake,
Mine Eys did take,
Which I Divine, and Mine, do name.
Surprizing Joys beyond all Price
Compos'd a Paradise,
Which did my Soul to lov my God enflame,
And ever doth the same.

120

The Apostacy.

One Star
Is better far
Than many Precious Stones:
One Sun, which is by its own lustre seen,
Is worth ten thousand Golden Thrones:
A juicy Herb, or Spire of Grass,
In useful Virtu, native Green,
An Em'rald doth surpass;
Hath int' more Valu, tho less seen.

No Wars,
Nor mortal Jars,
Nor bloody Feuds, nor Coin,
Nor Griefs which those occasion, saw I then;
Nor wicked Thievs which this purloin:
I had no Thoughts that were impure;
Esteeming both Women and Men
God's Work, I was secure,
And reckon'd Peace my choicest Gem.

As Eve
I did believ
My self in Eden set,
Affecting neither Gold, nor Ermin'd Crowns,
Nor ought els that I need forget;
No Mud did foul my limpid Streams,
No Mist eclypst my Sun with frowns;
Set off with hev'nly Beams,
My Joys were Meadows, Fields, and Towns.

Those things
Which Cherubins
Did not at first behold
Among God's Works, which Adam did not see;
As Robes, and Stones enchas'd in Gold,

121

Rich Cabinets, and such like fine
Inventions; could not ravish me:
I thought not Bowls of Wine
Needful for my Felicity.

All Bliss
Consists in this,
To do as Adam did;
And not to know those superficial Joys
Which were from him in Eden hid:
Those little new-invented Things,
Fine Lace and Silks, such Childish Toys
As Ribbans are and Rings,
Or worldly Pelf that Us destroys.

For God,
Both Great and Good,
The Seeds of Melancholy
Creäted not: but only foolish Men,
Grown mad with customary Folly
Which doth increase their Wants, so dote
As when they elder grow they then
Such Baubles chiefly note;
More Fools at Twenty Years than Ten.

But I,
I know not why,
Did learn among them too
At length; and when I once with blemisht Eys
Began their Pence and Toys to view,
Drown'd in their Customs, I became
A Stranger to the Shining Skies,
Lost as a dying Flame;
And Hobby-horses brought to prize.

122

The Sun
And Moon forgon,
As if unmade, appear
No more to me; to God and Heven dead
I was, as tho they never were:
Upon som useless gaudy Book,
When what I knew of God, was fled,
The Child being taught to look,
His Soul was quickly murthered.

O fine!
O most divine!
O brave! they cry'd; and shew'd
Som Tinsel thing whose Glittering did amaze,
And to their Cries its beauty ow'd;
Thus I on Riches, by degrees,
Of a new Stamp did learn to gaze;
While all the World for these
I lost: my Joy turn'd to a Blaze.

Solitude.

How desolate!
Ah! how forlorn, how sadly did I stand
When in the field my woful State
I felt! Not all the Land,
Not all the Skies,
Tho Heven shin'd before mine Eys,
Could Comfort yield in any Field to me,
Nor could my Mind Contentment find or see.

Remov'd from Town,
From People, Churches, Feasts, and Holidays,
The Sword of State, the Mayor's Gown,
And all the Neighb'ring Boys;

123

As if no Kings
On Earth there were, or living Things,
The silent Skies salute mine Eys, the Seas
My Soul surround; no Rest I found, or Eas.

My roving Mind
Search'd evry Corner of the spacious Earth,
From Sky to Sky, if it could find,
(But found not) any Mirth:
Not all the Coasts,
Nor all the great and glorious Hosts,
In Hev'n or Earth, did any Mirth afford;
No welcom Good or needed Food, my Board.

I do believ,
The Ev'ning being shady and obscure,
The very Silence did me griev,
And Sorrow more procure:
A secret Want
Did make me think my Fortune scant.
I was so blind, I could not find my Health,
No Joy mine Ey could there espy, nor Wealth.

Nor could I ghess
What kind of thing I long'd for: But that I
Did somwhat lack of Blessedness,
Beside the Earth and Sky,
I plainly found;
It griev'd me much, I felt a Wound
Perplex me sore; yet what my Store should be
I did not know, nothing would shew to me.

Ye sullen Things!
Ye dumb, ye silent Creatures, and unkind!
How can I call you Pleasant Springs
Unless ye eas my Mind!

124

Will ye not speak
What 'tis I want, nor Silence break?
O pity me, and let me see som Joy;
Som Kindness shew to me, altho a Boy.

They silent stood;
Nor Earth, nor Woods, nor Hills, nor Brooks, nor Skies,
Would tell me where the hidden Good,
Which I did long for, lies:
The shady Trees,
The Ev'ning dark, the humming Bees,
The chirping Birds, mute Springs and Fords, conspire,
While they deny to answer my Desire.

Bells ringing I
Far off did hear, som Country Church they spake;
The Noise re-ecchoing throu the Sky
My Melancholy brake;
When't reacht mine Ear
Som Tidings thence I hop'd to hear:
But not a Bell me News could tell, or shew
My longing Mind, where Joys to find, or know.

I griev'd the more,
'Caus I therby somwhat encorag'd was
That I from thence should learn my Store;
For Churches are a place
That nearer stand
Than any part of all the Land
To Hev'n; from whence som little Sense I might
To help my Mind receiv, and find som Light.

They louder sound
Than men do talk, somthing they should disclose;
The empty Sound did therfore wound
Becaus not shew Repose.

125

It did revive
To think that Men were there alive;
But had my Soul, call'd by the Toll, gon in,
I might have found, to eas my Wound, a Thing.

A little Eas
Perhaps, but that might more molest my Mind;
One flatt'ring Drop would more diseas
My Soul with Thirst, and grind
My Heart with grief:
For People can yield no Relief
In publick sort when in that Court they shine,
Except they mov my Soul with Lov divine.

Th' External Rite,
Altho the face be wondrous sweet and fair,
Can satiate my Appetit
No more than empty Air
Yield solid Food.
Must I the best and highest Good
Seek to possess; or Blessedness in vain
(Tho 'tis alive in som place) strive to gain?

O! what would I
Diseased, wanting, melancholy, giv
To find that tru Felicity,
The place where Bliss doth liv?
Those Regions fair
Which are not lodg'd in Sea nor Air,
Nor Woods, nor Fields, nor Arbour yields, nor Springs,
Nor Hev'ns shew to us below, nor Kings.

I might hav gon
Into the City, Market, Tavern, Street,
Yet only chang'd my Station,
And strove in vain to meet

126

That Eas of Mind
Which all alone I long'd to find:
A common Inn doth no such thing betray,
Nor doth it walk in Peeple's Talk, or Play.

O Eden fair!
Where shall I seek the Soul of Holy Joy
Since I to find it here despair;
Nor in the shining Day,
Nor in the Shade,
Nor in the Field, nor in a Trade
I can it see? Felicity! O where
Shall I thee find to eas my Mind! O where!

Poverty.

As in the House I sate
Alone and desolate,
No Creature but the Fire and I,
The Chimney and the Stool, I lift mine Ey
Up to the Wall,
And in the silent Hall
Saw nothing mine
But som few Cups and Dishes shine
The Table and the wooden Stools
Where Peeple us'd to dine:
A painted Cloth there was
Wherin som ancient Story wrought
A little entertain'd my Thought
Which Light discover'd throu the Glass.

I wonder'd much to see
That all my Wealth should be
Confin'd in such a little Room,
Yet hope for more I scarcely durst presume.

127

It griev'd me sore
That such a scanty Store
Should be my All:
For I forgat my Eas and Health,
Nor did I think of Hands or Eys,
Nor Soul nor Body prize;
I neither thought the Sun,
Nor Moon, nor Stars, nor Peeple, mine,
Tho they did round about me shine;
And therfore was I quite undon.

Som greater things I thought
Must needs for me be wrought,
Which till my craving Mind could see
I ever should lament my Poverty:
I fain would have
Whatever Bounty gave;
Nor could there be
Without, or Lov or Deity:
For, should not He be Infinit
Whose Hand created me?
Ten thousand absent things
Did vex my poor and wanting Mind,
Which, till I be no longer blind,
Let me not see the King of Kings.

His Lov must surely be
Rich, infinit, and free;
Nor can He be thought a God
Of Grace and Pow'r, that fills not his Abode,
His Holy Court,
In kind and liberal sort;
Joys and Pleasures,
Plenty of Jewels, Goods, and Treasures,
(To enrich the Poor, cheer the forlorn)
His Palace must adorn,

128

And given all to me:
For till His Works my Wealth became,
No Lov, or Peace did me enflame:
But now I have a DEITY.

Dissatisfaction.

In Cloaths confin'd, my weary Mind
Persu'd Felicity;
Throu ev'ry Street I ran to meet
My Bliss:
But nothing would the same disclose to me.
What is,
O where, the place of holy Joy!
Will nothing to my Soul som Light convey!
In ev'ry House I sought for Health,
Searcht ev'ry Cabinet to spy my Wealth,
I knockt at ev'ry Door,
Askt ev'ry Man I met for Bliss,
In ev'ry School, and Colledg, sought for this:
But still was destitute and poor.

My piercing Eys unto the Skies
I lifted up to see;
But no Delight my Appetit
Would sate;
Nor would that Region shew Felicity:
My Fate
Deny'd the same; Abov the Sky,
Yea all the Hev'n of Hev'ns, I lift mine Ey;
But nothing more than empty Space
Would there discover to my Soul its face.

129

Then back dissatisfy'd
To Earth I came; among the Trees,
In Taverns, Houses, Feasts, and Palaces,
I sought it, but was still deny'd.

Panting and faint, full of Complaint,
I it persu'd again,
In Diadems, and Eastern Gems,
In Bags
Of Gold and Silver: But got no more Gain
Than Rags,
Or empty Air, or Vanity;
Nor did the Temples much more signify:
Dirt in the Streets; in Shops I found
Nothing but Toil. Walls only me surround
Or worthless Stones or Earth;
Dens full of Thievs, and those of Blood
Complaints and Widows Tears: no other Good
Could there descry, no Hev'nly Mirth.

Mens Customs here but vile appear;
The Oaths of Roaring Boys,
Their Gold that shines, their sparkling Wines,
Their Lies,
Their gawdy Trifles, are mistaken Joys:
To prize
Such Toys I loath'd. My Thirst did burn;
But where, O whither should my Spirit turn!
Their Games, their Bowls, their cheating Dice,
Did not compleat, but spoil, my Paradise.
On things that gather Rust,
Or modish Cloaths, they fix their minds,
Or sottish Vanity their Fancy blinds,
Their Eys b'ing all put out with Dust.

130

Sure none of these, sensless as Trees,
Can shew me tru Repose.
Philosophy! canst thou descry
My Bliss?
Will Books or Sages it to me disclose?
I miss
Of this in all: They tell me Pleasure,
Or earthly Honor, or a fading Treasure,
Will never with it furnish me.
But then, Where is? What is, Felicity?
Here Men begin to doat,
Stand unresolv'd, they cannot speak,
What 'tis; and all or most that Silence break
Discover Nothing but their Throat.

Weary of all that since the Fall
Mine Eys on Earth can find,
I for a Book from Heven look,
Since here
No Tidings will salute or eas my Mind:
Mine Ear,
My Ey, my Hand, my Soul, doth long
For som fair Book fill'd with Eternal Song.
O that! my Soul: for that I burn:
That is the Thing for which my Heart did yern.
Diviner Counsels there;
The Joys of God, the Angels Songs,
The secret Causes which employ their Tongues,
Will surely pleas when they appear.

What Sacred Ways! What hev'nly Joys!
Which Mortals do not see?
What hidden Springs! What glorious Things
Abov!

131

What kind of Life among them led may be
In Lov!
What Causes of Delight they have!
What pleasing joyous Objects God them gave!
This mightily I long'd to know;
Oh, that som Angel these would to me shew!
How full, divine, and pure,
Their Bliss may be, including All
Things visible or invisible, which shall
To Everlasting firm endure.

O this! In this I hop'd for Bliss;
Of this I dreamt by Night:
For this by Day I gasping lay;
Mine Eys
For this did fail: For this, my great Delight
The Skies
Became, in hopes they would disclose
My Sacred Joys, and my desir'd Repose.
Oh! that som Angel would bring down
The same to me; That Book should be my Crown.
I breathe, I long, I seek:
Fain would I find, but still deny'd,
I sought in ev'ry Library and Creek
Until the Bible me supply'd.

The Bible.

That! That! There I was told
That I the Son of God am made,
His Image. O Divine! And that fine Gold,
With all the Joys that here do fade,
Are but a Toy, compared to the Bliss
Which Hev'nly, God-like, and Eternal is.

132

That We on earth are Kings;
And, tho we're cloath'd with mortal Skin,
Are Inward Cherubins; hav Angels Wings;
Affections, Thoughts, and Minds within,
Can soar throu all the Coasts of Hev'n and Earth;
And shall be sated with Celestial Mirth.

Christendom.

When first mine Infant-Ear
Of Christendom did hear,
I much admired what kind of Place or Thing
It was of which the Folk did talk:
What Coast, what Region, what therin
Did mov, or might be seen to walk.
My great Desire
Like ardent fire
Did long to know what Things did ly behind
That Mystic Name, to which mine Ey was blind.

Som Depth it did conceal,
Which, till it did reveal
Its self to me, no Quiet, Peace, or Rest,
Could I by any Means attain;
My earnest Thoughts did me molest
Till som one should the thing explain:
I thought it was
A Glorious Place,
Where Souls might dwell in all Delight and Bliss;
So thought, yet fear'd that I the Truth might miss:

Among ten thousand things,
Gold, Silver, Cherub's Wings,
Pearls, Rubies, Diamonds, a Church with Spires,

133

Masks, Stages, Games and Plays,
That then might suit my yong Desires,
Feathers and Farthings, Holidays,
Cards, Musick, Dice,
So much in price;
A City did before mine Eys present
Its self, wherin there reigned sweet Content.

A Town beyond the Seas,
Whose Prospect much did pleas,
And to my Soul so sweetly raise Delight
As if a long expected Joy,
Shut up in that transforming Sight,
Would into me its Self convey;
And Blessedness
I there possess,
As if that City stood on my own Ground,
And all the Profit mine which there was found.

Whatever Force me led,
My Spirit sweetly fed
On these Conceits; That 'twas a City strange,
Wherin I saw no gallant Inns,
No Markets, New or Old Exchange,
No Childish Trifles, useless Things;
Nor any Bound
That Town surround;
But as if all its Streets ev'n endless were;
Without or Gate or Wall it did appear.

Things Native sweetly grew,
Which there mine Ey did view,
Plain, simple, cheap, on either side the Street,
Which was exceeding fair and wide;
Sweet Mansions there mine Eys did meet;
Green Trees the shaded Doors did hide:

134

My chiefest Joys
Were Girls and Boys
That in those Streets still up and down did play,
Which crown'd the Town with constant Holiday.

A sprightly pleasant Time,
(Ev'n Summer in its prime),
Did gild the Trees, the Houses, Children, Skies,
And made the City all divine;
It ravished my wondring Eys
To see the Sun so brightly shine:
The Heat and Light
Seem'd in my sight
With such a dazling Lustre shed on them,
As made me think 'twas th' New Jerusalem.

Beneath the lofty Trees
I saw, of all Degrees,
Folk calmly sitting in their doors; while som
Did standing with them kindly talk,
Som smile, som sing, or what was don
Observ, while others by did walk;
They view'd the Boys
And Girls, their Joys,
The Streets adorning with their Angel-faces,
Themselvs diverting in those pleasant Places.

The Streets like Lanes did seem,
Not pav'd with Stones, but green,
Which with red Clay did partly mixt appear;
'Twas Holy Ground of great Esteem;
The Spring's choice Liveries did wear
Of verdant Grass that grew between
The purling Streams,
Which golden Beams
Of Light did varnish, coming from the Sun,
By which to distant Realms was Service don.

135

In fresh and cooler Rooms
Retir'd they dine: Perfumes
They wanted not, having the pleasant Shade
And Peace to bless their House within,
By sprinkled Waters cooler made,
For those incarnat Cherubin.
This happy Place,
With all the Grace
The Joy and Beauty which did it beseem,
Did ravish me and highten my Esteem.

That here to rais Desire
All Objects do conspire,
Peeple in Years, and Yong enough to play,
Their Streets of Houses, common Peace,
In one continued Holy day
Whose gladsom Mirth shall never cease:
Since these becom
My Christendom,
What learn I more than that Jerusalem
Is mine, as 'tis my Maker's, choicest Gem.

Before I was aware
Truth did to me appear,
And represented to my Virgin-Eys
Th' unthought of Joys and Treasures
Wherin my Bliss and Glory lies;
My God's Delight, (which givs me Measure)
His Turtle Dov,
Is Peace and Lov
In Towns: for holy Children, Maids, and Men
Make up the King of Glory's Diadem.

136

On Christmas-Day.

Shall Dumpish Melancholy spoil my Joys
While Angels sing
And Mortals ring
My Lord and Savior's Prais!
Awake from Sloth, for that alone destroys,
'Tis Sin defiles, 'tis Sloth puts out thy Joys.
See how they run from place to place,
And seek for Ornaments of Grace;
Their Houses deckt with sprightly Green,
In Winter makes a Summer seen;
They Bays and Holly bring
As if 'twere Spring!

Shake off thy Sloth, my drouzy Soul, awake;
With Angels sing
Unto thy King,
And pleasant Musick make;
Thy Lute, thy Harp, or els thy Heart-strings take,
And with thy Musick let thy Sense awake.
See how each one the other calls
To fix his Ivy on the walls,
Transplanted there it seems to grow
As if it rooted were below:
Thus He, who is thy King,
Makes Winter, Spring.

Shall Houses clad in Summer-Liveries
His Praises sing
And laud thy King,
And wilt not thou arise?
Forsake thy Bed, and grow (my Soul) more wise,
Attire thy self in cheerful Liveries:
Let pleasant Branches still be seen
Adorning thee, both quick and green;

137

And, which with Glory better suits,
Be laden all the Year with Fruits;
Inserted into Him,
For ever spring.

'Tis He that Life and Spirit doth infuse:
Let ev'ry thing
The Praises sing
Of Christ the King of Jews;
Who makes things green, and with a Spring infuse
A Season which to see it doth not use:
Old Winter's Frost and hoary hair,
With Garland's crowned, Bays doth wear;
The nipping Frost of Wrath b'ing gon,
To Him the Manger made a Throne,
Du Praises let us sing,
Winter and Spring.

See how, their Bodies clad with finer Cloaths,
They now begin
His Prais to sing
Who purchas'd their Repose:
Wherby their inward Joy they do disclose;
Their Dress alludes to better Works than those:
His gayer Weeds and finer Band,
New Suit and Hat, into his hand
The Plow-man takes; his neatest Shoos,
And warmer Glovs, he means to use:
And shall not I, my King,
Thy Praises sing?

See how their Breath doth smoak, and how they haste
His Prais to sing
With Cherubim;
They scarce a Break-fast taste;
But throu the Streets, lest precious Time should waste,
When Service doth begin, to Church they haste.

138

And shall not I, Lord, com to Thee,
The Beauty of thy Temple see?
Thy Name with Joy I will confess,
Clad in my Savior's Righteousness;
'Mong all thy Servants sing
To Thee my King.

'Twas thou that gav'st us Caus for fine Attires;
Ev'n thou, O King,
As in the Spring,
Dost warm us with thy fires
Of Lov: Thy Blood hath bought us new Desires
Thy Righteousness doth cloath with new Attires.
Both fresh and fine let me appear
This Day divine, to close the Year;
Among the rest let me be seen
A living Branch and always green,
Think it a pleasant thing
Thy Prais to sing.

At break of Day, O how the Bells did ring?
To thee, my King,
The Bells did ring;
To thee the Angels sing:
Thy Goodness did produce this other Spring,
For this it is they make the Bells to ring:
The sounding Bells do throu the Air
Proclaim thy Welcom far and near;
While I alone with Thee inherit
All these Joys, beyond my Merit.
Who would not always sing
To such a King?

I all these Joys, abov my Merit, see
By Thee, my King,
To whom I sing,
Entire convey'd to me.

139

My Treasure, Lord, thou mak'st the Peeple be
That I with pleasure might thy Servants see.
Ev'n in their rude external ways
They do set forth my Savior's Prais,
And minister a Light to me;
While I by them do hear to Thee
Praises, my Lord and King,
Whole Churches ring.

Hark how remoter Parishes do sound!
Far off they ring
For thee, my King,
Ev'n round about the Town:
The Churches scatter'd over all the Ground
Serv for thy Prais, who art with Glory crown'd.
This City is an Engin great
That makes my Pleasure more compleat;
The Sword, the Mace, the Magistrate,
To honor Thee attend in State;
The whole Assembly sings;
The Minster rings.

Bells.

I.

Hark! hark, my Soul! the Bells do ring,
And with a louder voice
Call many Families to sing
His publick Praises, and rejoice:
Their shriller Sound doth wound the Air,
Their grosser Strokes affect the Ear,
That we might thither all repair
And more Divine ones hear.

140

If Lifeless Earth
Can make such Mirth,
What then shall Souls abov the starry Sphere!

Bells are but Clay that men refine
And rais from duller Ore;
Yet now, as if they were divine,
They call whole Cities to adore;
Exalted into Steeples they
Disperse their Sound, and from on high
Chime-in our Souls; they ev'ry way
Speak to us throu the Sky:
Their iron Tongues
Do utter Songs,
And shall our stony Hearts make no Reply!

From darker Mines and earthy Caves
At last let Souls awake,
And leaving their obscurer Graves
From lifeless Bells example take;
Lifted abov all earthly Cares,
Let them (like these) rais'd up on high,
Forsaking all the baser Wares
Of dull Mortality,
His Praises sing,
Tunably ring,
In a less Distance from the peaceful Sky.

II.

From Clay, and Mire, and Dirt, my Soul,
From vile and common Ore,
Thou must ascend; taught by the Toll
In what fit place thou mayst adore;

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Refin'd by fire, thou shalt a Bell
Of Prais becom, in Mettal pure;
In Purity thou must excell,
No Soil or Grit endure.
Refin'd by Lov,
Thou still abov
Like them must dwell, and other Souls allure.

Doth not each trembling Sound I hear
Make all my Spirits dance?
Each Stroak's a Message to my Ear
That casts my Soul into a Trance
Of Joy: They're us'd to notify
Religious Triumphs, and proclaim
The Peace of Christianity,
In Jesus holy Name.
Authorities
And Victories
Protect, increas, enrich, adorn the same.

Kings, O my Soul, and Princes now
Do prais His holy Name,
Their golden Crowns and Scepters bow
In Honor of my Lord: His Fame
Is gon throu-out the World, who dy'd
Upon the Cross for me: And He
That once was basely crucify'd
Is own'd a Deity.
The Higher Pow'rs
Hav built these Tow'rs
Which here aspiring to the Sky we see.

Those Bells are of a piece, and sound,
Whose wider mouths declare
Our Duty to us: Being round
And smooth and whole, no Splinters are

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In them, no Cracks, nor holes, nor flaws
That may let out the Spirits thence
Too soon; that would harsh jarring caus
And lose their Influence.
We must unite
If we Delight
Would yield or feel, or any Excellence.

Churches.

I.

Those stately Structures which on Earth I view
To GOD erected, whether Old or New;
His Sacred Temples which the World adorn,
Much more than Mines of Ore or Fields of Corn,
My Soul delight: How do they pleas mine Ey
When they are fill'd with His Great Family!
Upon the face of all the peepl'd Earth
There's no such sacred Joy or solemn Mirth,
To pleas and satisfy my Heart's Desire,
As that wherwith my Lord is in a Quire,
In holy Hymns by warbling Voices prais'd,
With Eys lift up, and joint Affections rais'd.

The Arches built (like Hev'n) wide and high
Shew his Magnificence and Majesty
Whose House it is: With so much Art and Cost
The Pile is fram'd, the curious Knobs embost,
Set off with Gold, that me it more doth pleas
Than Princes Courts or Royal Palaces;
Great Stones pil'd up by costly Labors there
Like Mountains carv'd by human Skill appear;
Where Towers, Pillars, Pinnacles, and Spires
Do all concur to match my great Desires,
Whose Joy it is to see such Structures rais'd
To th' end my God and Father should be prais'd.

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II.

Were there but one alone
Wherin we might approach his Throne,
One only where we should accepted be,
As in the Days of old
It was, when Solomon of Gold
His Temple made; we then should see
A numerous Host approaching it,
Rejoicing in the Benefit:
The Queen of Sheba com
With all her glorious Train,
The Pope from Rome,
The Kings beyond the Main;
The Wise men of the East from far,
As guided by a Star,
With Rev'rence would approach that Holy Ground,
At that sole Altar be adoring found.

Great Lords would thither throng,
And none of them without a Song
Of Prais; Rich Merchants also would approach
From ev'ry forein Coast;
Of Ladies too a shining Host,
If not on Hors-back, in a Coach;
This Single Church would crouded be
With Men of Great and High Degree:
Princes we might behold
With glitt'ring Scepters there
In-laid with Gold
And precious Stones, draw near.
No Room for mean Ones there would be,
Nor place for Thee and Me:
An endless Troop would crouding there appear,
Bringing new Presents daily ev'ry Year.

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But now we Churches have
In ev'ry Coast, which Bounty gave
Most freely to us; now they sprinkled stand
With so much Care and Lov,
Tokens of Favor from abov,
That men might com in ev'ry Land
To them with greater Eas; lo, we
Those blest Abodes neglected see:
As if our God were worse
Becaus His Lov is more,
And doth disburse
Its self in greater Store;
Nor can object with any face
The Distance of the place;
Ungrateful We with slower haste do com
Unto his Temple, 'caus 'tis nearer home.

Misapprehension.

Men are not wise in their Tru Interest,
Nor in the Worth of what they long possest:
They know no more what is their Own
Than they the Valu of't have known.
They pine in Misery,
Complain of Poverty,
Reap not where they hav sown,
Griev for Felicity,
Blaspheme the Deity;
And all becaus they are not blest
With Eys to see the Worth of Things:
For did they know their Reall Interest,
No doubt they'd all be Kings.

There's not a Man but covets and desires
A Kingdom, yea a World; nay, he aspires

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To all the Regions he can spy
Beyond the Hev'ns Infinity:
The World too little is
To be his Sphere of Bliss;
Eternity must be
The Object of his View
And his Possession too;
Or els Infinity's a Dream
That quickly fades away; He lovs
All Treasures; but he hates a failing Stream
That dries up as it movs.

Can Fancy make a Greater King than God?
Can Man within his Soveraign's Abode
Be dearer to himself than He
That is the Angels Deity?
Man is as wel belov'd
As they, if he improv'd
His Talent as we see
They do; and may as well
In Blessedness excell.
But Man hath lost the ancient Way,
That Road is grown into Decay;
Brambles shut up the Path, and Briars tear
Those few that pass by there.

They think no Realms nor Kingdoms theirs,
No Lands nor Houses, that have other Heirs.
But native Sense taught me more Wit,
The World did too, I may admit:
As soon as I was born
It did my Soul adorn,
And was a Benefit
That round about me lay;
And yet without Delay

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'Twas seated quickly in my Mind,
Its Uses also I yet find
Mine own: for God, that All things would impart,
Center'd it in my Heart.

The World set in Man's Heart, and yet not His!
Why, all the Compass of this great Abyss,
Th' united Service and Delight,
Its Beauty that attracts the Sight,
That Goodness which I find,
Doth gratify my Mind;
The common Air and Light
That shines, doth me a Pleasure
And surely is my Treasure:
Of it I am th' inclusive Sphere,
It doth entire in me appear
As well as I in it: It givs me Room,
Yet lies within my Womb.

The Improvment.

'Tis more to recollect than make; the one
Is but an Accident without the other:
We cannot think the World to be the Throne
Of God, unless his Wisdom shine as Brother
Unto his Power, in the Fabrick, so
That we the one may in the other know.

His Goodness also must in both appear,
And All the Children of his Lov be found,
In the Creation of the Starry Sphere,
And in the framing of the fruitful Ground,
Before we can that Happiness descry
Which is the Daughter of the DEITY.

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His Wisdom's seen in ord'ring this Great House;
His Power shines in governing the Sun;
His Goodness doth exceeding Marvellous
Appear in ev'ry Thing His Hand hath don:
And all his Works, in their Variety,
United or asunder, pleas the Ey.

But neither Goodness, Wisdom, Power, nor Lov,
Nor Happiness its self, in things could be,
Did they not all in one fair Order mov,
And jointly by their Service end in Me.
Had He not made an Ey to be the Sphere
Of all these Things, How could their Use appear?

His Wisdom, Goodness, Power, as they unite
All Things in One, that they may be the Treasures
Of one Enjoyer, reach the utmost Hight
They can attain; and are then Our Pleasures,
When all the Univers combines in One
T' exalt a Creature, as if that alone.

To make the Product of far distant Seas
Meet in a point, be present to mine Ey
In Virtu, not in Bulk; one Man to pleas
With His wise Conduct of the Hevens high;
From East and West, and North, and South to bring
The useful Influence of ev'ry Thing;

Is far more Great than to create them where
They now do stand; His Wisdom more approv'd,
So do His Might and Goodness more appear,
In recollecting All that should be lov'd,
That All might be a Gift to ev'ry One,
Than in the sev'ral Parts of His wide Throne.

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By wise Contrivance He doth All things guide,
And so dispose them, that while they unite,
For Man He endless Pleasures doth provide,
And shews that Happiness is His Delight;
His Creature's Happiness, as well as His:
For that in Truth he seeks; and that's his Bliss.

O Rapture! Wonder! Ecstasy! Delight!
How Great then must His Glory be! How great
Our Blessedness! How vast and infinit
Our Pleasure! How transcendent! How compleat!
If We the Goodness of our GOD possess,
And all His Joy be in Our Blessedness.

Almighty Power, when it is employ'd
For One, that he with Glory might be crown'd;
Eternal Wisdom, when it is enjoy'd
By One, whom all its Beauties do surround;
Produce a Creature that will all his Days
Return the Sacrifice of Endless Prais.

But, Oh! The Vigor of mine Infant-Sense
Drives me too far: I had not yet the Ey,
The Apprehension, or Intelligence,
Of things so very Great, Divine, and High.
To me the Off-spring of Eternity,
And mine they were, and therfore pleas'd mine Ey.

That was enough at first. Eternity,
Infinity, and Lov, were silent Joys;
Pow'r, Wisdom, Goodness, and Felicity;
All these, which now our Care and Sin destroys,
By Instinct virtually I did discern,
And by their Representatives did learn.

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As Spunges gather Moisture from the Earth
Wheron there is scarce any Sign of Dew;
As Air infecteth Salt; so at my Birth
All these were unperceiv'd, yet near and tru:
Not by Reflection, or distinctly known;
But, by their Efficacy, all mine own.

The Odour.

These Hands are Jewels to the Ey,
Like Wine, or Oil, or Hony, to the Taste:
These Feet which here I wear beneath the Sky
Are us'd, yet never waste.
My Members all do yield a sweet Perfume;
They minister Delight, yet not consume.

Ye living Gems, how Tru! how Near!
How Reall, Useful, Pleasant! O how Good!
How Valuable! yea, how Sweet! how Fair!
B'ing once well understood!
A Gem retains its Worth by being intire,
Sweet Scents diffus'd do gratify Desire.

Can melting Sugar sweeten Wine?
Can Light communicated keep its Name?
Can Jewels solid be, tho they do shine?
Embody'd Fire flame?
Ye solid are, and yet do Light dispence;
Abide the same, tho yield an Influence.

Your Uses flow while ye abide:
The Services which I from you receiv
Like sweet Infusions throu me daily glide
Ev'n while they Sense deceiv,
B'ing unobserv'd: for only Spirits see
What Treasures Services and Uses be.

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The Services which from you flow
Are such diffusiv Joys as know no measure;
Which shew His boundless Lov who did bestow
These Gifts to be my Treasure.
Your Substance is the Tree on which it grows;
Your Uses are the Oil that from it flows.

Thus Hony flows from Rocks of Stone;
Thus Oil from Wood; thus Cider, Milk, and Wine,
From Trees and Flesh; thus Corn from Earth; to one
That's hev'nly and divine.
But He that cannot like an Angel see,
In Heven its self shall dwell in Misery.

If first I learn not what's Your Price
Which are alive, and are to me so near;
How shall I all the Joys of Paradise,
Which are so Great and Dear,
Esteem? Gifts ev'n at distance are our Joys,
But lack of Sense the Benefit destroys.

Liv to thy Self; thy Limbs esteem:
From Hev'n they came; with Mony can't be bought,
And b'ing such Works as God himself beseem,
May precious well be thought.
Contemplat then the Valu of this Treasure,
By that alone thou feelest all the Pleasure.

Like Amber fair thy Fingers grow;
With fragrant Hony-sucks thy Head is crown'd;
Like Stars, thine Eys; thy Cheeks like Roses shew:
All are Delights profound.
Talk with thy self; thy self enjoy and see:
At once the Mirror and the Object be.

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What's Cinnamon, compar'd to thee?
Thy Body is than Cedars better far:
Those Fruits and Flowers which in Fields I see,
With thine, can not compare.
Where thou hast mov'd aright, the Scent I find
Of fragrant Myrrh and Aloes left behind.

But what is Myrrh? What Cinnamon?
What Aloes, Cassia, Spices, Hony, Wine?
O sacred Uses! You to think upon
Than these I more incline.
To see, taste, smell, observ; is to no End,
If I the Use of each don't apprehend.

Admiration.

Can Human Shape so taking be,
That Angels com and sip
Ambrosia from a Mortal Lip!
Can Cherubims descend with Joy to see
God in his Works beneath!
Can Mortals breath
FELICITY!
Can Bodies fill the hev'nly Rooms
With welcom Odours and Perfumes!
Can Earth-bred Flow'rs adorn Celestial Bowers
Or yield such Fruits as pleas the hev'nly Powers!

Then may the Seas with Amber flow;
The Earth a Star appear;
Things be divine and hevenly here.
The Tree of Life in Paradise may grow
Among us now: the Sun
Be quite out-don
By Beams that shew

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More bright than his: Celestial Mirth
May yet inhabit all this Earth.
It cannot be! Can Mortals be so blind?
Hav Joys so near them, which they never mind?

The Lilly and the Rosy-Train
Which, scatter'd on the ground,
Salute the Feet which they surround,
Grow for thy sake, O Man; that like a Chain
Or Garland they may be
To deck ev'n thee:
They all remain
Thy Gems; and bowing down their head
Their liquid Pearl they kindly shed
In Tears; as if they meant to wash thy Feet,
For Joy that they to serv thee are made meet.

The Sun doth smile, and looking down
From Hev'n doth blush to see
Himself excelled here by thee:
Yet frankly doth dispers his Beams to crown
A Creature so divine;
He lovs to shine,
Nor lets a Frown
Eclyps his Brow, becaus he givs
Light for the Use of one that livs
Abov himself. Lord! What is Man that he
Is thus admired like a Deity!

The Approach.

That Childish Thoughts such Joys inspire
Doth make my Wonder and his Glory higher;
His Bounty and My Wealth more great;

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It shews his Kingdom and his Work compleat;
In which there is not any thing
But what may be improv'd by God my King.

He in our Childhood with us walks,
And with our Thoughts mysteriously He talks;
He often visiteth our Minds,
But cold Acceptance frequently He finds:
We often send Him griev'd away,
Els He would oftner com and longer stay.

O Lord, I wonder at thy Lov
Which did my Infancy so early mov:
But more at that which did forbear
And mov'd so long, tho slighted many a Year:
But most of all, O God, that thou
Shouldst me at last convert I scarce know how.

Thy Gracious Motions oft in Vain
Assaulted me: My Heart did hard remain
Long time: I sent my God away
Much griev'd that He could not impart His Joy.
I careless was, nor did regard
The End for which He all these Thoughts prepar'd.

But now with new and open Eys
I see beneath as if abov the Skies:
When I on what is past reflect
His Thoughts and Mine I plainly recollect:
He did approach me, nay, did woo;
I wonder that my God so much would do.

From Nothing taken first I was:
What wondrous things His Goodness brought to pass!
Now in this World I Him discern,

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And what His Dealings with me meant I learn,
He sow'd in me Seeds of Delights
That might grow up to future Benefits.

Of Thoughts His Goodness long before
Prepar'd a precious and celestial Store;
And with such curious Art in-laid,
That Childhood might its self alone be said
My Tutor, Teacher, Guide to be;
Ev'n then instructed by the Deity.

Nature.

That Custom is a Second Nature, we
Most plainly find by Nature's Purity:
For Nature teacheth nothing but the Truth;
I'm sure mine did so in my Virgin-Youth.
As soon as He my Spirit did inspire,
His Works He bid me in the World admire.
My Senses were Informers of my Heart,
The Conduits of His Glory, Pow'r, and Art:
His Greatness, Wisdom, Goodness, I did see,
Endearing Lov, and vast Eternity,
Almost as soon as born; and ev'ry Sense
Was in me like to som Intelligence.
I was by nature prone and apt to lov
All Light and Beauty, both in Hev'n abov
And Earth beneath; was ready to admire,
Adore and prais, as well as to desire.
My Inclinations rais'd me up on high,
And guided me to trace Infinity.
A secret Self I had enclos'd within,
That was not bounded with my Cloaths or Skin,

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Or terminated with my Sight, whose Sphere
Ran parallel with that of Heven here:
And did, much like the subtil piercing Light,
When fenc'd from rough and boistrous Storms by night,
Break throu the Lanthorn-sides, and with its Ray
Diffuse its Glory spreading evry way:
Whose steddy Beams, too subtil for the Wind,
Are such that we their Bounds can hardly find.
It did encompass and possess Rare Things,
But yet felt more; and on Angelick Wings
Pierc'd throu the Skies immediatly, and sought
For all that could beyond all Worlds be thought.
It did not go or mov, but in me stood,
And by dilating of its self, all Good
It try'd to reach; I found it present there,
Ev'n while it did remain conversing here;
And more suggested than I could discern,
Or ever since by any means could learn.
Vast, unaffected, wonderful, Desires,
Like nativ, ardent, inward, hidden Fires,
Sprang up, with Expectations very strange,
Which into stronger Hopes did quickly change;
For all I saw beyond the Azure Round
Seem'd endless Darkness, with no Beauty crown'd.
Why Light should not be there as well as here;
Why Goodness should not likewise there appear;
Why Treasures and Delights should bounded be
Since there is such a wide Infinity:
These were the Doubts and Troubles of my Soul,
By which we may perceiv (without controul)
A World of endless Joys by Nature made
That needs must always flourish, never fade.
A wide, magnificent, and spacious Sky,
A Fabrick worthy of the Deity;

156

Clouds here and there like winged Chariots flying
Flowers ever flourishing, yet always dying;
A Day of Glory where I all things see
Enricht with Beams of Light as 'twere for me;
And that, after the Sun withdraws his Light,
Succeeded with a shady glorious Night;
The Moon and Stars shedding their Influence
On all things, as appears to common Sense:
With secret Rooms in Times and Ages more
Past and to com, enlarging my great Store.
These all in Order present unto me
My happy Eys were able then to see,
With other Wonders, to my Soul unknown
Till they by Men and Reading first were shewn.
And yet there were many new Regions more
Into all which my new-fledg'd Soul did soar,
Whose endless Spaces, like a Cabinet,
Were fill'd with various joys in order set.
The Empty, like to wide and vacant Room
For Fancy to enlarge in, and presume
A Space for more, not fathom'd yet, implies
The Boundlessness of what I ought to prize.
Here I was seated to behold New Things
In th' August Mansion of the King of Kings;
And All was mine. The Author yet not known,
But that there must be one was plainly shewn;
Which Fountain of Delights must needs be Lov,
As all the Goodness of the Things did prov:
Of whose Enjoiment I am made the End,
While, how the same is so, I comprehend.

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Eas.

How easily doth Nature teach the Soul!
How irresistible is her Infusion!
There's Nothing found that can her Force controll
But Sin. How weak and feeble's all Delusion!

Things false are forc'd and most elaborate;
Things pure and tru are obvious unto Sense:
The first Impressions in our earthly State
Are made by Things of highest Excellence.

How easy is it to believ the Sky
Is wide, and great, and fair! How soon may we
Be made to know the Sun is bright, and high,
And very glorious, when its Beams we see!

That all the Earth is one continu'd Globe;
And that all Men therin are Living Treasures;
That Fields and Meadows like a glorious Robe
Adorn it with variety of Pleasures.

That all we see is Ours, and evry One
Possessor of the whole: That evry Man
Is like a God incarnat in his Throne,
Ev'n as the first for whom the World began.

Whom All are taught to honor, serv, and lov,
Becaus he is Belov'd of God most High,
And therfore ev'ry Man is plac'd abov
His Brother, for the Proof of Charity.

That all may happy be, each one most blest
Both in himself and others; All supream,
While All by Each, and Each by All possest;
Are inter-mutual Joys, beyond a Dream.

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This shews a wise Contrivance, and discovers
A Great Creätor sitting on the Throne,
Who so disposeth things for all His Lovers,
That evry One might reign, like God, Alone.

Dumness.

Sure Man was born to meditat on things,
And to contemplat the Eternal Springs
Of God and Nature, Glory, Bliss, and Pleasure;
That Life and Lov might be his chiefest Treasure:
And therfore Speechless made at first, that he
Might in himself profoundly busied be;
Not giving vent before he hath ta'n in
Such Antidotes as guard his Soul from Sin.

Wise Nature made him Deaf too, that he might
Not be disturb'd while he doth take Delight
In inward Things; nor be deprav'd with Tongues,
Nor injur'd by the Errors and the Wrongs
That mortal Words convey: For Sin and Death
Are most infused by accursed Breath
That, flowing from corrupted Intrails, bear
Those hidden Plagues which Souls may justly fear.

This, (my dear Friends) this was my blessed Case;
For, nothing spake to me but the fair Face
Of Hev'n and Earth, when yet I could not speak:
I did my Bliss, when I did Silence, break.
My Non-Intelligence of Human Words
Ten thousand Pleasures unto me affords:
For, while I knew not what to me they said;
Before Their Souls were into Mine convey'd;
Before that Living Vehicle of Wind
Did breathe into me their infected Mind;

159

Before My Thoughts with Theirs were levened,
The Gate of Souls as yet not opened:
Then did I dwell within a World of Light
Retir'd and separat from all mens Sight;
Where I did feel strange Thoughts, and Secrets see
That were (or seem'd) only reveal'd to Me:
There I saw all the World enjoy'd by One;
There All Things seem'd to end in Me alone:
No Business serious deem'd, but that which is
Design'd to perfect my Eternal Bliss.

D'ye ask me What? It was for to admire
The Satisfaction of all Just Desire:
'Twas to be pleas'd with all that God had don:
'Twas to enjoy All that's beneath the Sun:
'Twas with a steddy, quick, and lively Sense
Duly to estimat the Excellence
Of all God's Works: T' inherit endless Treasure,
And to be fill'd with Everlasting Pleasure:
To prize, and prais. Thus was I shut within
A Fort impregnable to any Sin,
Till the Avenues being open laid,
Whole Legions enter'd, and the Fort betray'd.

Yer which unhappy time, within my Mind
A Temple and a Teacher I could find,
With a large Text to comment on: No Ear,
But Eys themselvs were all the Hearers there;
And evry Stone and evry Star a Tongue,
And evry Gale of Wind a Psalm or Song:
The Hevens were an Oracle, and spake
Divinity; the Earth did undertake
The Office of a Priest; and I b'ing dumb,
(Nothing besides was so) All things did com
With Voices and Instructions. But when I
Had learnt to speak, their Pow'r began to dy:

160

Mine Ears let other Noises in, not theirs;
A Noise disturbing all my Hymns and Pray'rs:
My Foes pull'd down my Temple to the ground,
And my untainted Soul did deeply wound;
Marr'd all my inward Faculties; destroy'd
The Oracle, and all I there enjoy'd.

Yet to mine Infancy what first appear'd;
Those Truths which (being Speechless) I had heard,
Preventing all the rest, got such a Root
Within my Heart, and stick so close unto 't;
It may be trampled on; but still will grow,
And Nutriment to Soil its self will ow.
The first Impressions are immortal all:
And let my Foes cry ne'r so loud, or call;
Yet these still whisper, if I will but hear,
And penetrat the Heart, if not the Ear.

My Spirit.

My naked simple Life was I:
That Act so strongly shin'd
Upon the Earth, the Sea, the Sky,
It was the Substance of the Mind;
The Sense its self was I.
I felt no Dross nor Matter in my Soul,
No Brims nor Borders, such as in a Bowl
We see: My Essence was Capacity.
That felt all things;
The Thought that springs
There-from's its Self: It hath no other Wings
To spread abroad, nor Eys to see,
No pair of Hands to feel,
Nor Knees to kneel:

161

But being Simple, like the Deity,
In its own Center is a Sphere,
Not limited, but evry-where.

It acts not from a Center to
Its Object, as remote;
But present is, where it doth go
To view the Being it doth note:
What ever it doth do,
It doth not by another Engin mov,
But by and of its self doth Activ prov:
Its Essence is transform'd into a tru
And perfect Act.
And so exact
Hath God appear'd in this mysterious Fact,
That 'tis all Ey, all Act, all Sight;
Nay, what it pleas can be;
Not only see
Or do: for 'tis more voluble than Light,
Which can put on ten thousand Forms,
Being cloath'd with what its self adorns.

This made me present evermore
With whatsoere I saw.
An Object, if it were before
Mine Ey, was by Dame Nature's Law
Within my Soul: Her Store
Was all at once within me; all her Treasures
Were my immediat and internal Pleasures;
Substantial Joys, which did inform my Mind.
With all she wrought
My Soul was fraught,
And evry Object in my Heart, a Thought
Begot or was: I could not tell
Whether the Things did there

162

Themselvs appear,
Which in my Spirit truly seem'd to dwell:
Or whether my conforming Mind
Were not ev'n all that therin shin'd.

But yet of this I was most sure,
That at the utmost length
(So worthy is it to endure)
My Soul could best express its Strength:
It was so quick and pure
That all my Mind was wholy Evry-where;
What-e'r it saw, 'twas actually there;
The Sun, ten-thousand Stages off, was nigh;
The utmost Star,
Tho seen from far,
Was present in the Apple of mine Ey:
There was my Sight, my Life, my Sense,
My Substance, ev'n my Mind:
My Spirit shin'd
Ev'n there, not by a transeunt Influence.
The Act was immanent, yet there;
The Thing remote, yet felt ev'n here.

O Joy! O Wonder and Delight!
O sacred Mystery!
My Soul a Spirit wide and bright!
An Image of the Deity!
A most Substantial Light!
That being Greatest which doth Nothing seem!
Why, 'twas my All: I nothing did esteem
But that alone; A strange, a living Sphere!
A deep Abyss
That sees and is
The only proper Place of hev'nly Bliss.
To its Creätor 'tis so near

163

In Lov and Excellence,
In Life and Sense,
In spiritual Worth and Frame; so Dear:
That it, without Hyperbole,
Is own'd His Son and Friend to be.

A strange extended Orb of Joy
Proceeding from within,
Which did on evry side display
Its force; and being nigh of Kin
To God, did evry way
Dilate its Self ev'n instantaneously,
Yet an Indivisible Center stay,
In it surrounding all Eternity.
'Twas not a Sphere;
Yet did appear
One infinit: 'Twas somwhat evry-where.
And what it had a Power to see,
On that it always shin'd:
For 'twas a Mind
Exerted, reaching to Infinity:
'Twas not a Sphere; but 'twas a Power
More high and lasting than a Tower.

O wondrous Self! O Sphere of Light!
Emblem of Day most fair!
O Pow'r and Act, next Infinit,
Like subtil and unbounded Air!
O Living Orb of Sight!
Thou that within me art, my Self! An Ey
Or Temple of a wide Infinity!
O What a World art Thou! a World within!
In thee appear
All Things, and are
Alive in Thee! super-substantial, rare,

164

Abov themselvs, and near a-kin
To those pure Things we find
In His Great Mind
Who made the World! Tho now eclyps'd by Sin,
Yet this within my Intellect
Is found, when on it I reflect.

Silence.

A quiet silent Person may possess
All that is Great or Good in Blessedness:
The Inward Work is the Supream; for all
The other were occasion'd by the Fall.
A man, that seemeth Idle to the view
Of others, may the greatest Business do:
Those Acts which Adam in his Innocence
Was to perform, had all the Excellence:
Others which he knew not (how good so-e'r)
Are meaner Matters, of a lower Sphere;
Building of Churches; Giving to the Poor;
In Dust and Ashes lying on the floor;
Administring of Justice; Preaching Peace;
Plowing and Toiling for a forc'd Increas;
With Visiting the Sick, or Governing
The Rude and Ignorant. This was a thing
As then unknown: for neither Ignorance,
Nor Poverty, nor Sickness, did advance
Their Banner in the World, till Sin came in;
Since that, these to be needful did begin.

The first and only Work he had to do,
Was, of his Bliss to take a grateful View;
In all the Goods he did possess, rejoice;
Sing Praises to his God with cheerful voice;

165

T' express his hearty Thanks, and inward Lov,
Which is the best accepted Work abov
Them all. And this at first was mine: These were
My Exercises of the highest Sphere.
To see, approv, take pleasure, and rejoice
In Heart; is better than the loudest Nois.
No Melody in Words can equal that:
The sweetest Organ, Lute, or Harp, is flat
And dull, compar'd therto. O! that I still
Could prize my Father's Lov and Holy Will!
This is to honor, worship, and adore;
This is to fear Him; nay, it is far more:
'Tis to enjoy him, and to imitate
The very Life and Bliss of His High 'State:
'Tis to receiv with holy Reverence
His mighty Gifts, and with a fitting Sense
Of pure Devotion, and Humility,
To prize his Works, his Lov to magnify.

O happy Ignorance of other Things,
Which made me present with the King of Kings,
And like Him too! All Spirit, Life, and Power,
Wreathed into a never-fading Bower.
A World of Innocence as then was mine,
In which the Joys of Paradise did shine;
And while I was not here, I was in Heven,
Not Resting One, but evry Day, in Seven:
At all times minding with a lively Sense
The Univers in all its Excellence.
No other Thoughts did intervene, to cloy,
Divert, extinguish, or eclyps my Joy:
No Worldly Customs, new-found Wants or Dreams
Invented here, polluted my pure Streams:
No Wormwood-Star into my Sea did fall;
No rotten Seed, or Bitterness of Gall,

166

Tainted my Soul. From all Contagion free,
I could discern with an unclouded Ey,
In that fair World One onely was the Friend,
One Spring, one living Stream, one only End;
There only One did sacrifise and sing
To only One Eternal Hev'nly King:
The Union was so strict betwixt the Two,
That All was Either's which my Soul did view;
His Gifts, and my Possessions, both our Treasures;
He Mine, and I the Ocean of His Pleasures:
He was an Ocean of Delights, from whom
The Springs of Life and Streams of Bliss did com;
My Bosom was an Ocean into which
They all did run, that me they might enrich.
A vast and measure-less Capacity
Enlarg'd my Soul like to the Deity,
In whose mysterious Mind and potent Hand
All Ages and all Worlds together stand;
Who, tho He nothing said, did always reign,
And in Himself Eternity contain.
When in my Soul the King of Kings did sit,
The World was more in me, than I in it.
And to Himself, in Me, He ever gave
All that He takes Delight to see me have.
Ev'n thus my Spirit was an Endless Sphere,
Like God himself; He, Hev'n, and Earth, being there.

167

Right Apprehension.

[I.]

Giv but to things their tru Esteem,
And those which now so vile and worthless seem
Will so much fill and pleas the Mind,
That we shall there the only Riches find,
How wise was I
In Infancy!
I then saw in the clearest Light;
But corrupt Custom is a second Night.

Custom; that must a Trophy be
When Wisdom shall compleat her Victory:
For Trades, Opinions, Errors, are
False Lights, but yet receiv'd to set off Ware
More false: We're sold
For worthless Gold.
Diana was a Goddess made
That Silver-Smiths might have the better Trade.

But giv to Things their tru Esteem,
And then what's magnify'd most vile will seem:
What commonly's despis'd, will be
The truest and the greatest Rarity.
What Men should prize
They all despise;
The best Enjoiments are abus'd;
The Only Wealth by Madmen is refus'd.

A Globe of Earth is better far
Than if it were a Globe of Gold: A Star
Much brighter than a precious Stone:
The Sun more Glorious than a Costly Throne;
His warming Beam,
A living Stream
Of liquid Pearl, that from a Spring
Waters the Earth, is a most precious thing.

168

What Newness once suggested to,
Now clearer Reason doth improv, my View:
By Novelty my Soul was taught
At first; but now Reality my Thought
Inspires: And I
Perspicuously
Each way instructed am; by Sense
Experience, Reason, and Intelligence.

A Globe of Gold must Barren be,
Untill'd and Useless: We should neither see
Trees, Flowers, Grass, or Corn
Such a Metalline Massy Globe adorn:
As Splendor blinds,
So Hardness binds;
No Fruitfulness it can produce;
A Golden World can't be of any Use.

Ah me! This World is more divine:
The Wisdom of a God in this doth shine.
What ails Mankind to be so cross?
The Useful Earth they count vile Dirt and Dross:
And neither prize
Its Qualities,
Nor Donor's Lov. I fain would know
How or why Men God's Goodness disallow.

The Earth's rare ductile Soil,
Which duly yields unto the Plow-man's Toil,
Its fertile Nature, givs Offence;
And its Improvment by the Influence
Of Hev'n; For, these
Do not well pleas,
Becaus they do upbraid Mens hardned Hearts,
And each of them an Evidence imparts

169

Against the Owner; whose Design
It is that Nothing be reputed fine,
Nor held for any Excellence,
Of which he hath not in himself the Sense.
He too well knows
That no Fruit grows
In him, Obdurat Wretch, who yields
Obedience to Hev'n, less than the Fields:

But being, like his loved Gold,
Stiff, barren, and impen'trable; tho told
He should be otherwise: He is
Uncapable of any hev'nly Bliss.
His Gold and he
Do well agree;
For he's a formal Hypocrite,
Like that Unfruitful, yet on th' outside bright.

Ah! Happy Infant! Wealthy Heir!
How blessed did the Hev'n and Earth appear
Before thou knew'st there was a thing
Call'd Gold! Barren of Good; of Ill the Spring
Beyond Compare!
Most quiet were
Those Infant-Days, when I did see
Wisdom and Wealth couch'd in Simplicity.

II.

If this I did not evry moment see,
And if my Thoughts did stray
At any time, or idly play,
And fix on other Objects: yet
This Apprehension set
In me
Secur'd my Felicity.

170

Fulness.

That Light, that Sight, that Thought,
Which in my Soul at first He wrought,
Is sure the only Act to which I may
Assent this day:
The Mirror of an endless Life;
The Shadow of a Virgin-Wife;
A Spiritual Creätion within;
An Universe enclos'd in Skin:
My Power exerted, or my perfect Being,
If not Enjoying, yet an Act of Seeing:
My Bliss
Consists in this;
My Duty too
In this I view.
It is a Fountain, or a Spring
Refreshing me in evry thing;
From whence those living Streams I do derive,
By which my thirsty Soul is kept alive.
The Center and the Sphere
Of my Delights are here:
It is my David's Tower
Where all my Armor lies,
The Fountain of my Power,
My Bliss, my Sacrifice;
A little Spark
That shining in the dark
Makes and encorages my Soul to rise.
The Root of Hope, the Golden Chain;
Whose End is, as the Poets feign,
Fasten'd to the very Throne
Of JOVE:
It is a Stone
On which I sit;

171

An endless Benefit,
That, being made my Regal Throne,
Doth prov
An Oracle of His Eternal Lov.

Speed.

The liquid Pearl in Springs,
The useful and the precious Things,
Are in a moment known:
Their very Glory does reveal their Worth;
(And that doth set their Glory forth.)
As soon as I was born they all were shewn.

Tru living Wealth did flow
In Crystal-Streams below
My feet; and trilling down
In tru, substantial and immaculat Pleasure,
(A precious and diffusiv Treasure,)
At once my Body fed, and Soul did crown.

I was as high and great
As Kings are in their Seat:
All other Things were mine;
The World my House, the Creatures were my Goods;
Fields, Mountains, Vallies, Woods,
Men and their Arts, to make me Rich combine.

Great, fair, and valuable,
Various and innumerable,
Most useful and divine,
(Such as to be my Treasures fittest were,)
The Sacred Objects did appear,
All full of Worth, as well as Mine.

172

New all! New polisht Joys;
Tho now by other Toys
Eclypst: New all, and mine.
This Sacred Truth more welcom seem'd to me,
Becaus the Best of Things I see
Were mine, which shew'd my State to be divine.

Nor did the Angels Faces,
The Glories and the Graces,
The Beauty, Peace, and Joy
Of Hev'n its self, more Sweetness yield to me.
Till cursed Sin did all destroy,
These were the Off-spring of the Deity.

The Choice.

When first Eternity stoopt down to Nought
And in the Earth its Likeness sought;
When first it out of Nothing fram'd the Skies,
And form'd the Moon and Sun
That we might see what it had don;
It was so wise
That it did prize
Things truly Greatest, fittest, fairest, best:
All such it made, and left the rest.

Then did it take such Care about the Truth,
Its Daughter, that, ev'n in her Youth,
Her Face might shine upon us, and be known;
That by a better Fate
It other Toys might antedate,
As soon as shewn;
And be our own,
While we are Hers: And that a Virgin Lov
Her best Inheritance might prov.

173

Thoughts undefiled, holy, good, and pure,
Thoughts worthy ever to endure,
Our first and disengaged Thoughts it lovs;
And therfore made the Truth,
In Infancy and tender Youth,
So obvious to
Our native View
That it doth prepossess our Soul, and provs
The Caus of what it always movs.

By Merit and Desire it doth allure,
For Truth is so divine and pure,
So rich and acceptable, being seen,
(Not parted but i'th' whole)
That it doth draw and force my Soul,
As the Great Queen
Of Bliss, between
Whom and the Soul no one Pretender ought
Thrust in, to captivat a Thought.

Hence did Eternity contrive to make
The Truth so winning for our sake,
That being Truth, and fair, and easy too,
While it on all doth shine,
We might by it becom divine;
B'ing led to woo
The thing we view,
And as chast Virgins early with it join,
That by it we might likewise shine.

Eternity doth giv the Richest Things
To evry Man, and makes all Kings:
The Best and Choicest Things it doth convey
To All and evry One.
It raised Me unto a Throne!

174

Which I enjoy.
In such a way,
That Truth her Daughter is my Only Bride,
Her Daughter Truth's my chiefest Pride.

All mine! And seen so easily! How blest!
How soon am I of all possest!
My Infancy no sooner opes its Eys
But strait the spacious Earth
Abounds with Glory, Peace, and Mirth.
If thou be Wise,
The very Skies
And all abov them are Thine Own; possest
In such a way as is the Best.

The Person.

Ye sacred Limbs,
A richer Blazon I will lay
On you, than first I found:
That, like Celestial Kings,
Ye might with Ornaments of Joy
Be always crown'd.
A deep Vermilion on a Red,
On that a Scarlet, I will lay;
With Gold I'll crown your Head,
Which like the Sun shall ray:
With Robes of Glory and Delight
I'll make you bright.
Mistake me not: I do not mean to bring
New Robes, but to display the thing;

175

Nor paint, nor cloath, nor crown, nor add a Ray;
But glorify by taking all away.

The Naked Things
Are most sublime, and brightest shew,
When they alone are seen:
Mens Hands than Angels Wings
Are truer Wealth, tho here below;
For those but seem.
Their Worth they then do best reveal
When we all Metaphors remov;
For, Metaphors conceal,
And only Vapors prov.
They best are blazon'd when we see
Th' Anatomy,
Survey the Skin, cut up the Flesh, the Veins
Unfold; the Glory there remains:
The Muscles, Fibres, Arteries, and Bones,
Are better far than Artificial Stones.

Shall I not then
Delight in this most Sacred Treasure,
Which my Great Father gave,
Far more than other men
Delight in Plate? Since these do pleasure
And make us brave!
Much braver than the Pearls and Gold
That glitter on a Lady's Neck.
The Rubies we behold,
The Diamonds that deck
The Hands of Queens, compar'd unto
The Limbs we view;
The whitest Lillies, blushing Roses, are
Lest Ornaments to those that wear
The same, than are the Hands, and Lips, and Eys
Of them who those false Ornaments so prize.

176

Let Verity
Be thy Delight: Let me esteem
Tru Wealth far more than Toys:
Let Sacred Riches be,
While the fictitious only seem,
My Reall Joys:
For Golden Chains and Bracelets are
But gilded Manacles, wherby
Old Satan doth ensnare,
Allure, bewitch the Ey.
Thy Gifts, O God, alone I'll prize,
My Tongue, my Eys,
My Cheeks, my Lips, mine Ears, my Hands, my Feet;
Their Harmony is far more sweet,
Their Beauty tru. And these, in all my Ways,
Shall be the Themes and Organs of thy Prais.

The Image.

If I be like my God, my King,
(Tho not a Cherubim,)
I will not care,
Since all my Pow'rs derived are
From none but Him.
The best of Images shall I
Comprised in Me see;
For I can spy
All Angels in the Deity
Like me to ly.

177

The Estate.

But shall my Soul no Wealth possess?
No Outward Riches have?
Shall Hands and Eys alone express
Thy Bounty, which the Grave
Will soon devour? Shall I becom
Within my self a Living Tomb
Of useless Wonders? Shall the fair, and brave,
And great Endowments of my Soul ly waste;
Which ought to be a Fountain and a Womb
Of Praises unto Thee?
Shall there no Outward Objects be
For these to see and taste?
Not so, my God, for other Joys and Pleasures
Are the Occasion that my Limbs are Treasures.

My Palat is a Touch-stone fit
To taste how Good Thou art;
My other Members second it,
Thy Praises to impart:
There's not an Ey that's fram'd by Thee
But is thy Life and Lov to see:
Nor is there, Lord, upon mine Head, an Ear,
But that the Musick of Thy Works should hear:
Each Toe, each Finger, by thy pow'rful Skill
Created, should distill
Ambrosia; more than Nectar flow
From evry Joint I ow,
B'ing well-imploy'd; for they Thy Holy Will
Are activ Instruments made to fulfill.

Elixirs richer are than Dross;
The End is more divine
Than are the Means: But Dung and Loss
Materials (tho they shine

178

Like Gold and Silver) are, compar'd
To what Thy Spirit doth regard,
Thy Will require, Thy Lov embrace, thy Mind
Esteem, thy Wisdom most illustrious find.
These are the Things God reckons His Reward;
An grateful Heart that pays
Homage to Him without Delays;
A Tongue that's us'd to prais;
A bended Knee; an Ey fixt on the Skies;
A du Emploiment of our Faculties.

For this the Hev'ns were made as well
As Earth, the spacious Seas
Are ours: the Stars that Gems excell,
And Air, design'd to pleas
Our Earthly part; the very Fire
For Uses which our Needs require:
The Orb of Light in its wide Circuit movs;
Corn for our Food springs out of very Mire;
Fences and Fewel grow in Woods and Groves;
Choice Herbs and Flow'rs aspire
To kiss our Feet; Beasts court our Lovs.
How Glorious is Man's Fate!
The Laws of God, the Works He did creäte,
His ancient Ways, are His and My ESTATE.

The Evidence.

His Word confirms the Sale:
Those Sheets enfold my Bliss:
Eternity its self's the Pale
Wherin my tru Estate enclosed is:
Each ancient Miracle's a Seal:
Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Patriarchs are

179

The Witnesses; and what their Words reveal,
Their written Records do declare.
All may well wonder such a 'State to see
In such a solemn sort settled on me.

Did not his Word proclaim
My Title to th' Estate,
His Works themselvs affirm the same
By what they do; my Wish they antedate.
Before I was conceiv'd, they were
Allotted for my great Inheritance;
As soon as I among them did appear
They did surround me, to advance
My Interest and Lov. Each Creature says,
God made us Thine, that we might shew His Prais.

The Services they do,
Aloud proclaim them Mine;
In that they are adapted to
Supply my Wants; wherin they all combine
To pleas and serv me, that I may
God, Angels, Men, Fowls, Beasts, and Fish enjoy,
Both in a natural and transcendent way;
And to my Soul the Sense convey
Of Wisdom, Goodness, Power, and Lov Divine,
Which made them all, and made them to be mine.

The Enquiry.

Men may delighted be with Springs,
(While Trees and Herbs their Senses pleas,)
Reap a rich Harvest from the Earth and Seas;
May think their Members things
Of earthly Worth at least, if not divine;
And sing, becaus the Sun doth for them shine:

180

But can the Angels take Delight
To see such Faces here beneath?
Or can Perfumes from sordid Dunghills breath?
Or is the World a Sight
Worthy of them? Then may we Mortals be
Joint-Heirs with them of wide Eternity.

Ev'n Holy Angels may com down
To walk on Earth, and find Delights
That feed and pleas, ev'n here, their Appetites;
Our Joys compose a Crown
For them. Men in God's Tabernacle may be,
Where Palm-Trees with the Cherubs mix'd we see.

Mens Senses are indeed the Gems;
Their Praises the most sweet Perfumes;
Their God-like Souls do fill the hev'nly Rooms
Where Angels walk: the Pens
And Eys of those blest Spirits are employ'd
To Note our Virtues, wherwith they are joy'd.

The Wonders that our God hath don;
The Glory of His Attributes,
Like dangling Apples, or much better Fruits,
Angelick Joys becom:
They see His Wisdom and His Lov doth flow
Like Myrrh or Incense, even here below.

And Shall not We those Joys possess
Which God for Man did chiefly make?
The Angels have them only for Our sake!
And yet, They do confess
His Glory here on Earth to be sublime,
His God-head in His Works appears Divine.

181

Shadows in the Water.

In unexperienc'd Infancy
Many a sweet Mistake doth ly:
Mistake tho false, intending tru;
A Seeming somwhat more than View;
That doth instruct the Mind
In Things that ly behind,
And many Secrets to us show
Which afterwards we com to know.

Thus did I by the Water's brink
Another World beneath me think;
And while the lofty spacious Skies
Reversed there abus'd mine Eys,
I fancy'd other Feet
Came mine to touch or meet;
As by som Puddle I did play
Another World within it lay.

Beneath the Water Peeple drown'd,
Yet with another Hev'n crown'd,
In spacious Regions seem'd to go
As freely moving to and fro:
In bright and open Space
I saw their very face;
Eys, Hands, and Feet they had like mine;
Another Sun did with them shine.

'Twas strange that Peeple there should walk,
And yet I could not hear them talk:
That throu a little watry Chink,
Which one dry Ox or Horse might drink,
We other Worlds should see,
Yet not admitted be;
And other Confines there behold
Of Light and Darkness, Heat and Cold.

182

I call'd them oft, but call'd in vain;
No Speeches we could entertain:
Yet did I there expect to find
Som other World, to pleas my Mind.
I plainly saw by these
A new Antipodes,
Whom, tho they were so plainly seen,
A Film kept off that stood between.

By walking Men's reversed Feet
I chanc'd another World to meet;
Tho it did not to View exceed
A Phantasm, 'tis a World indeed,
Where Skies beneath us shine,
And Earth by Art divine
Another face presents below,
Where Peeple's feet against Ours go.

Within the Regions of the Air,
Compass'd about with Hev'ns fair,
Great Tracts of Land there may be found
Enricht with Fields and fertil Ground;
Where many num'rous Hosts,
In those far distant Coasts,
For other great and glorious Ends,
Inhabit, my yet unknown Friends.

O ye that stand upon the Brink,
Whom I so near me, throu the Chink,
With Wonder see: What Faces there,
Whose Feet, whose Bodies, do ye wear?
I my Companions see
In You, another Me.
They seemed Others, but are We;
Our second Selvs those Shadows be.

183

Look how far off those lower Skies
Extend themselvs! scarce with mine Eys
I can them reach. O ye my Friends,
What Secret borders on those Ends?
Are lofty Hevens hurl'd
'Bout your inferior World?
Are ye the Representatives
Of other Peopl's distant Lives?

Of all the Play-mates which I knew
That here I do the Image view
In other Selvs; what can it mean?
But that below the purling Stream
Som unknown Joys there be
Laid up in Store for me;
To which I shall, when that thin Skin
Is broken, be admitted in.

On Leaping over the Moon.

I saw new Worlds beneath the Water ly,
New Peeple; yea, another Sky,
And Sun, which seen by Day
Might things more clear display.
Just such another
Of late my Brother
Did in his Travel see, and saw by Night,
A much more strange and wondrous Sight:
Nor could the World exhibit such another,
So Great a Sight, but in a Brother.

Adventure strange! No such in Story we
New or old, tru or feigned, see.
On Earth he seem'd to mov
Yet Heven went abov;

184

Up in the Skies
His Body flies
In open, visible, yet Magick, sort:
As he along the Way did sport
Over the Flood he takes his nimble Course
Without the help of feigned Horse.

As he went tripping o'r the King's high-way,
A little pearly River lay
O'r which, without a Wing
Or Oar, he dar'd to swim,
Swim throu the Air
On Body fair;
He would not use nor trust Icarian Wings
Lest they should prov deceitful things;
For had he faln, it had been wondrous high,
Not from, but from abov, the Sky:

He might hav dropt throu that thin Element
Into a fathomless Descent;
Unto the nether Sky
That did beneath him ly,
And there might tell
What Wonders dwell
On Earth abov. Yet doth he briskly run,
And bold the Danger overcom;
Who, as he leapt, with Joy related soon
How happy he o'r-leapt the Moon.

What wondrous things upon the Earth are don
Beneath, and yet abov, the Sun?
Deeds all appear again
In higher Spheres; remain
In Clouds as yet:
But there they get

185

Another Light, and in another way
Themselvs to us abov display.
The Skies themselvs this earthly Globe surround;
W'are even here within them found.

On hev'nly Ground within the Skies we walk,
And in this middle Center talk:
Did we but wisely mov,
On Earth in Hev'n abov,
Then soon should we
Exalted be
Abov the Sky: from whence whoever falls,
Through a long dismall Precipice,
Sinks to the deep Abyss where Satan crawls
Where horrid Death and Despair lies.

As much as others thought themselvs to ly
Beneath the Moon, so much more high
Himself he thought to fly
Above the starry Sky,
As that he spy'd
Below the Tide.
Thus did he yield me in the shady Night
A wondrous and instructiv Light,
Which taught me that under our Feet there is,
As o'r our Heads, a Place of Bliss.

[To the same purpos; he, not long before]

To the same purpos; he, not long before
Brought home from Nurse, going to the door
To do som little thing
He must not do within,

186

With Wonder cries,
As in the Skies
He saw the Moon, O yonder is the Moon
Newly com after me to Town,
That shin'd at Lugwardin but yesternight,
Where I enjoy'd the self-same Light.

As if it had ev'n twenty thousand faces,
It shines at once in many places;
To all the Earth so wide
God doth the Stars divide
With so much Art
The Moon impart,
They serv us all; serv wholy ev'ry One
As if they served him alone.
While evry single Person hath such Store,
'Tis want of Sense that makes us poor.

Sight.

Mine Infant-Ey
Abov the Sky
Discerning endless Place,
Did make me see
Two Sights in me,
Three Eys adorn'd my Face:
Two Luminaries in my Flesh
Did me refresh;
But one did lurk within,
Beneath my Skin,
That was of greater Worth than both the other;
For those were Twins; but this had ne'r a Brother.

187

Those Eys of Sense
That did dispense
Their Beams to nat'ral things,
I quickly found
In narrow Bound
To know but earthly Springs.
But that which throu the Hevens went
Was excellent,
And Endless; for the Ball
Was Spirit'all:
A visiv Ey things visible doth see;
But with th' Invisible, Invisibles agree.

One World was not
(Be't ne'r forgot)
Ev'n then enough for me:
My better Sight
Was infinit,
New Regions I must see.
In distant Coasts new Glories I
Did long to spy:
What this World did present
Could not content;
But, while I look'd on Outward Beauties here,
Most earnestly expected Others there.

I know not well
What did me tell
Of endless Space: but I
Did in my Mind
Som such thing find
To be beyond the Sky
That had no Bound; as certainly
As I can see

188

That I have Foot or Hand
To feel or Stand:
Which I discerned by another Sight
Than that which grac'd my Body much more bright.

I own it was
A Looking-Glass
Of signal Worth; wherin,
More than mine Eys
Could see or prize,
Such things as Virtues win,
Life, Joy, Lov, Peace, appear'd: a Light
Which to my Sight
Did Objects represent
So excellent;
That I no more without the same can see
Than Beasts that have no tru Felicity.

This Ey alone,
(That peer hath none)
Is such, that it can pry
Into the End
To which things tend,
And all the Depths descry
That God and Reason do include.
By this are view'd
The very Ground and Caus
Of sacred Laws,
All Ages too, Thoughts, Counsels, and Designs;
So that no Light in Hev'n more clearly shines.

189

Walking.

To walk abroad is, not with Eys,
But Thoughts, the Fields to see and prize;
Els may the silent Feet,
Like Logs of Wood,
Mov up and down, and see no Good,
Nor Joy nor Glory meet.

Ev'n Carts and Wheels their place do change,
But cannot see; tho very strange
The Glory that is by:
Dead Puppets may
Mov in the bright and glorious Day,
Yet not behold the Sky.

And are not Men than they more blind,
Who having Eys yet never find
The Bliss in which they mov:
Like Statues dead
They up and down are carried,
Yet neither see nor lov.

To walk is by a Thought to go;
To mov in Spirit to and fro;
To mind the Good we see;
To taste the Sweet;
Observing all the things we meet
How choice and rich they be.

To note the Beauty of the Day,
And golden Fields of Corn survey;
Admire each pretty Flow'r
With its sweet Smell;
To prais their Maker, and to tell
The Marks of His Great Pow'r.

190

To fly abroad like activ Bees,
Among the Hedges and the Trees,
To cull the Dew that lies
On evry Blade,
From evry Blossom; till we lade
Our Minds, as they their Thighs.

Observ those rich and glorious things,
The Rivers, Meadows, Woods, and Springs,
The fructifying Sun;
To note from far
The Rising of each Twinkling Star
For us his Race to run.

A little Child these well perceivs,
Who, tumbling in green Grass and Leaves,
May Rich as Kings be thought,
But there's a Sight
Which perfect Manhood may delight,
To which we shall be brought.

While in those pleasant Paths we talk
'Tis that tow'rds which at last we walk;
For we may by degrees
Wisely proceed
Pleasures of Lov and Prais to heed,
From viewing Herbs and Trees.

The Dialogue.

Q.
Why dost thou tell me that the fields are mine?

A.
Becaus for thee the fields so richly shine.

Q.
Am I the Heir of the Works of Men?

A.
For thee they dress, for thee manure them.

191

Q.
Did I my self by them intended see,
That I the Heir of their Works should be,
It well would pleas; But they themselvs intend:
I therfore am not of their Works the End.

A.
The reall Benefit of all their Works,
Wherin such mighty Joy and Beauty lurks,
Derives its self to thee; to thee doth com,
As do the Labors of the Shining Sun;
Which doth not think on thee at all, my Friend,
Yet all his Beams of Light on thee do tend:
For thee they shine and do themselvs display;
For thee, they do both make and gild the Day;
For thee doth rise that glorious Orb of Light;
For thee it sets, and so givs way for Night;
That glorious Bridegroom daily shews his face,
Adorns the World, and swiftly runs his Race,
Disperseth Clouds, and raiseth Vapors too,
Exciteth Winds, distills the Rain and Dew,
Concocteth Mines, and makes the liquid Seas
Contribute Moisture to the Neighb'ring Leas,
Doth quicken Beasts, revive thy vital Powers,
Thrusts forth the Grass, and beautifies thy Flowers,
By tacit Causes animats the Trees,
As they do Thee so he doth cherish Bees,
Digesteth Mettals, raiseth Fruit and Corn,
Makes Rivers flow, and Mountains doth adorn:
All these it doth, not by its own Design,
But by thy God's, which is far more divine;
Who so disposeth Things, that they may be
In Hev'n and Earth kind Ministers to Thee:
And tho the Men that toil for Meat, and Drink,
And Cloaths, or Houses, do not on Thee think;

192

Yet all their Labors by His hevenly Care
To Thee, in Mind or Body, helpful are:
And that God thus intends thy single Self,
Should pleas thee more, than if to heap up Wealth
For Thee, all Men did work, and sweat, and bleed;
Mean Thee alone (my Friend) in ev'ry Deed.

Dreams.

'Tis strange! I saw the Skies;
I saw the Hills before mine Eys;
The Sparrow fly;
The Lands that did about me ly;
The reall Sun, that hev'nly Ey!
Can closed Eys ev'n in the darkest Night
See throu their Lids, and be inform'd with Sight?

The Peeple were to me
As tru as those by day I see;
As tru the Air,
The Earth as sweet, as fresh, as fair
As that which did by day repair
Unto my waking Sense! Can all the Sky,
Can all the World, within my Brain-pan ly?

What sacred Secret's this,
Which seems to intimat my Bliss?
What is there in
The narrow Confines of my Skin,
That is alive and feels within
When I am dead? Can Magnitude possess
An activ Memory, yet not be less?

193

May all that I can see
Awake, by Night within me be?
My Childhood knew
No Difference, but all was Tru,
As Reall all as what I view;
The World its Self was there. 'Twas wondrous strange,
That Hev'n and Earth should so their place exchange.

Till that which vulgar Sense
Doth falsly call Experience,
Distinguisht things:
The Ribbans, and the gaudy Wings
Of Birds, the Virtues, and the Sins,
That represented were in Dreams by night
As really my Senses did delight,

Or griev, as those I saw
By day: Things terrible did aw
My Soul with Fear;
The Apparitions seem'd as near
As Things could be, and Things they were:
Yet were they all by Fancy in me wrought,
And all their Being founded in a Thought.

O what a Thing is Thought!
Which seems a Dream; yea, seemeth Nought,
Yet doth the Mind
Affect as much as what we find
Most near and tru! Sure Men are blind,
And can't the forcible Reality
Of things that Secret are within them see.

Thought! Surely Thoughts art tru;
They pleas as much as Things can do:
Nay Things are dead,

194

And in themselvs are severed
From Souls; nor can they fill the Head
Without our Thoughts. Thoughts are the Reall things
From whence all Joy, from whence all Sorrow springs.

The Inference.

I.

Well-guided Thoughts within possess
The Treasures of all Blessedness.
Things are indifferent; nor giv
Joy of themselvs, nor griev.
The very Deity of God torments
The male-contents
Of Hell; To th' Soul alone it provs
A welcom Object, that Him lovs.
Things tru affect not, while they are unknown:
But Thoughts most sensibly, tho quite alone.

Thoughts are the inward Balms or Spears;
The living Joys, or Griefs and Fears;
The Light, or els the Fire; the Theme
On which we pore or dream.
Thoughts are alone by Men the Objects found
That heal or wound.
Things are but dead: they can't dispense
Or Joy or Grief: Thoughts! Thoughts the Sense
Affect and touch. Nay, when a Thing is near
It can't affect but as it doth appear.

Since then by Thoughts I only see;
Since Thought alone affecteth me;
Since these are Reall things when shewn;
And since as Things are known

195

Or thought, they pleas or kill: What Care ought I
(Since Thoughts apply
Things to my Mind) those Thoughts aright
To frame, and watch them day and night;
Suppressing such as will my Conscience stain,
That Hev'nly Thoughts me hev'nly Things may gain.

Ten thousand thousand Things are dead;
Ly round about me; yet are fled,
Are absent, lost, and from me gon;
And those few Things alone,
Or griev my Soul, or gratify my Mind,
Which I do find
Within. Let then the Troubles dy,
The noisom Poisons buried ly:
Ye Cares and Griefs avaunt, that breed Distress
Let only those remain which God will bless.

How many Thousands see the Sky,
The Sun and Moon, as well as I?
How many more that view the Seas,
Feel neither Joy nor Eas?
Those Things are dead and dry and banished.
Their Life is led
As if the World were yet unmade:
A Feast, fine Cloaths, or els a Trade,
Take up their Thoughts; and, like a grosser Skreen
Drawn o'r their Soul, leav better Things unseen.

But O! let me the Excellence
Of God, in all His Works, with Sense
Discern: Oh! let me celebrat
And feel my blest Estate:
Let all my Thoughts be fixt upon His Throne;
And Him alone

196

For all His gracious Gifts admire,
Him only with my Soul desire:
Or griev for Sin. That with du Sense, the Pleasure
I may possess of His Eternal Treasure.

II.

David a Temple in his Mind conceiv'd;
And that Intention was so well receiv'd
By God, that all the Sacred Palaces
That ever were did less His Glory pleas.

If Thoughts are such; such Valuable Things;
Such reall Goods; such human Cherubins;
Material Delights; transcendent Objects; Ends
Of all God's Works, which most His Ey intends.
O! What are Men, who can such Thoughts produce,
So excellent in Nature, Valu, Use?
Which not to Angels only grateful seem,
But God, most Wise, himself doth them esteem
Worth more than Worlds? How many thousand may
Our Hearts conceiv and offer evry Day?
Holy Affections, grateful Sentiments,
Good Resolutions, virtuous Intents,
Seed-plots of activ Piety; He values more
Than the Material World He made before.
To such as these the Blessed-Virgin-Mother
Of God's own Son, (rather than any other)
Apply'd her Mind; for, of her pious Care
To treasure up those Truths which she did hear
Concerning Christ, in thoughtful Heart, w're told;
But not that e'r with Offerings of Gold
The Temple she enricht. This understood,
How glorious, how divine, how great, how good

197

May we becom! How like the Deity
In managing our Thoughts aright! A Piety
More grateful to our God than building Walls
Of Churches, or the Founding Hospitalls:
Wherin He givs us an Almighty Power
To pleas Him so, that could we Worlds creäte,
Or more New visible Earths and Hev'ens make,
'Twould be far short of this; which is the Flower
And Cream of Strength. This we might plainly see,
But that we Rebels to our Reason be.
Shall God such sacred Might on us bestow?
And not employ't to pay the Thanks we ow?
Such grateful Offerings able be to giv;
Yet them annihilat, and God's Spirit griev
Consider that for All our Lord hath don,
All that He can receiv is this bare Sum
Of God-like Holy Thoughts: These only He
Expects from Us, our Sacrifice to be.

The City.

What Structures here among God's Works appear?
Such Wonders Adam ne'r did see
In Paradise among the Trees,
No Works of Art like these,
Nor Walls, nor Pinnacles, nor Houses were.
All these for me,
For me these Streets and Towers,
These stately Temples, and these solid Bowers,
My Father rear'd:
For me I thought they thus appear'd.

198

The City, fill'd with Peeple, near me stood;
A Fabrick like a Court divine,
Of many Mansions bright and fair;
Wherin I could repair
To Blessings that were Common, Great, and Good:
Yet all did shine
As burnisht and as new
As if before none ever did them view:
They seem'd to me
Environ'd with Eternity.

As if from Everlasting they had there
Been built, more gallant than if gilt
With Gold, they shew'd: Nor did I know
That they to Hands did ow
Themselvs. Immortal they did all appear
Till I knew Guilt.
As if the Publick Good
Of all the World for me had ever stood,
They gratify'd
Me, while the Earth they beautify'd.

The living Peeple that mov'd up and down,
With ruddy Cheeks and sparkling Eys;
The Musick in the Churches, which
Were Angels Joys (tho Pitch
Defil'd me afterwards) as my chief crown
I then did prize:
These only I did lov
As do the blessed Hosts in Heven abov:
No other Pleasure
Had I, nor wish'd for other Treasure.

The Hevens were the richly studded Case
Which did my richer Wealth inclose;

199

No little privat Cabinet
In which my Gems to set
Did I contrive: I thought the whol Earth's face
At my Dispose:
No Confines did include
What I possest, no Limits there I view'd;
On evry side
All endless was which then I spy'd.

'Tis Art that hath the late Invention found
Of shutting up in little Room
Ones Endless Expectations: Men
Have in a narrow Penn
Confin'd themselvs: Free Souls can know no Bound;
But still presume
That Treasures evry where
From Everlasting Hills must still appear,
And be to them
Joys in the New Jerusalem.

We first by Nature all things boundless see;
Feel all illimited; and know
No Terms or Periods: But go on
Throughout the Endless Throne
Of God, to view His wide Eternity;
Ev'n here below
His Omnipresence we
Do pry into, that Copious Treasury.
Tho men have taught
To limit and to bound our Thought.

Such Treasures as are to be valu'd more
Than those shut up in Chests and Tills,
Which are by Citizens exteem'd,
To me the Peeple seem'd:

200

The City doth encreas my glorious Store,
Which sweetly fills
With choice Variety
The Place wherin I see the same to be;
And strangely is
A Mansion or Tower of Bliss.

Nor can the City such a Soul as mine
Confine; nor be my only Treasure:
I must see other Things to be
Of my Felicity
Concurrent Instruments, and all combine
To yeild me Pleasure.
And God, to gratify
This Inclination, helps me to descry
Beyond the Sky
More Wealth provided, and more high.

Insatiableness.

I.

No Walls confine! Can nothing hold my Mind?
Can I no Rest nor Satisfaction find?
Must I behold Eternity
And see
What Things abov the Hev'ns be?
Will nothing serv the Turn?
Nor Earth, nor Seas, nor Skies?
Till I what lies
In Time's beginning find;
Must I till then for ever burn?

Not all the Crowns; not all the heaps of Gold
On Earth; not all the Tales that can be told,

201

Will Satisfaction yield to me:
Nor Tree,
Nor Shade, nor Sun, nor Eden, be
A Joy: Nor Gems in Gold,
(Be't Pearl or precious Stone,)
Nor Spring, nor Flowers,
Answer my Craving Powers,
Nor any Thing that Eyes behold.

Till I what was before all Time descry,
The World's Beginning seems but Vanity.
My Soul doth there long Thoughts extend
No End
Doth find, or Being comprehend:
Yet somwhat sees that is
The obscure shady face
Of endless Space,
All Room within; where I
Expect to meet Eternal Bliss.

II

This busy, vast, enquiring Soul
Brooks no Controul,
No Limits will endure,
Nor any Rest: It will all see,
Not Time alone, but ev'n Eternity.
What is it? Endless sure.

'Tis mean Ambition to define
A single World:
To many I aspire,
Tho one upon another hurl'd:
Nor will they all, if they be all confin'd,
Delight my Mind.

202

This busy, vast, enquiring Soul
Brooks no Controul:
'Tis very curious too.
Each one of all those Worlds must be
Enricht with infinit Variety
And Worth; or 'twill not do.

'Tis nor Delight nor perfect Pleasure
To have a Purse
That hath a Bottom in its Treasure,
Since I must thence endless Expense disburse.
Sure there's a GOD (for els there's no Delight)
One Infinit.

Consummation.

The Thoughts of Men appear
Freely to mov within a Sphere
Of endless Reach; and run,
Tho in the Soul, beyond the Sun.
The Ground on which they acted be
Is unobserv'd Infinity.

Traversing throu the Sky,
Tho here, beyond it far they fly:
Abiding in the Mind
An endless Liberty they find:
Throu-out all Spaces can extend,
Nor ever meet or know an End.

They, in their native Sphere,
At boundless Distances appear:
Eternity can measure;
Its no Beginning see with Pleasure.
Thus in the Mind an endless Space
Doth nat'rally display its face.

203

Wherin becaus we no
Object distinctly find or know;
We sundry Things invent,
That may our Fancy giv content;
See Points of Space beyond the Sky,
And in those Points see Creatures ly.

Spy Fishes in the Seas,
Conceit them swimming there with Eas;
The Dolphins and the Whales,
Their very Finns, their very Scales,
As there within the briny Deep
Their Tails the flowing Waters sweep.

Can see the very Skies,
As if the same were in our Eys;
The Sun, tho in the Night,
As if it mov'd within our Sight;
One Space beyond another still
Discovered; think while ye will.

Which, tho we don't descry,
(Much like by night an useless Ey,
Not shaded with a Lid,
But in a darksom Dungeon hid)
At last shall in a glorious Day
Be made its Objects to display

And then shall Ages be
Within its wide Eternity;
All Kingdoms stand,
Howe'r remote, yet nigh at hand;
The Skies, and what beyond them ly,
Exposed unto evry Ey.

204

Nor shall we then invent
Nor alter Things; but with content
All in their places see,
As doth the Glorious Deity;
Within the Scope of whose Great Mind,
We all in their tru Nature find.

Hosanna.

No more shall Walls, no more shall Walls confine
That glorious Soul which in my Flesh doth shine:
No more shall Walls of Clay or Mud
Nor Ceilings made of Wood,
Nor Crystal Windows, bound my Sight,
But rather shall admit Delight.
The Skies that seem to bound
My Joys and Treasures,
Of more endearing Pleasures
Themselvs becom a Ground:
While from the Center to the utmost Sphere
My Goods are multiplied evry where.

The Deity, the Deity to me
Doth All things giv, and make me clearly see
The Moon and Stars, the Air and Sun
Into my Chamber com:
The Seas and Rivers hither flow,
Yea, here the Trees of Eden grow,
The Fowls and Fishes stand,
Kings and their Thrones,
As 'twere, at my Command;
God's Wealth, His Holy Ones,
The Ages too, and Angels all conspire:
While I, that I the Center am, admire.

205

No more, No more shall Clouds eclyps my Treasures,
Nor viler Shades obscure my highest Pleasures;
No more shall earthen Husks confine
My Blessings which do shine
Within the Skies, or els abov:
Both Worlds one Heven made by Lov,
In common happy I
With Angels walk
And there my Joys espy;
With God himself I talk;
Wondring with Ravishment all Things to see
Such Reall Joys, so truly Mine, to be.

No more shall Trunks & Dishes be my Store,
Nor Ropes of Pearl, nor Chains of Golden Ore;
As if such Beings yet were not,
They all shall be forgot.
No such in Eden did appear,
No such in Heven: Heven here
Would be, were those remov'd;
The Sons of Men
Liv in Jerusalem,
Had they not Baubles lov'd.
These Clouds dispers'd, the Hevens clear I see.
Wealth new-invented, mine shall never be.

Transcendent Objects doth my God provide,
In such convenient Order all contriv'd,
That All things in their proper place
My Soul doth best embrace,
Extends its Arms beyond the Seas,
Abov the Hevens its self can pleas,
With God enthron'd may reign:
Like sprightly Streams
My Thoughts on Things remain;
Ev'n as som vital Beams

206

They reach to, shine on, quicken Things, and make
Them truly Usefull; while I All partake.

For Me the World created was by Lov;
For Me the Skies, the Seas, the Sun, do mov;
The Earth for Me doth stable stand;
For Me each fruitful Land
For Me the very Angels God made His
And my Companions in Bliss:
His Laws command all Men
That they lov Me,
Under a Penalty
Severe, in case they miss:
His Laws require His Creatures all to prais
His Name, and when they do't be most my Joys.

The Review.

I

Did I grow, or did I stay?
Did I prosper or decay?
When I so
From Things to Thoughts did go?
Did I flourish or diminish,
When I so in Thoughts did finish
What I had in Things begun;
When from God's Works to think upon
The Thoughts of Men my Soul did com?
The Thoughts of Men, had they been Wise,
Should more delight me than the Skies.
They mighty Creatures are
For these the Mind
Affect, afflict, do eas or grind;
But foolish Thoughts ensnare.

207

Wise ones are a sacred Treasure;
Tru ones yield Substantial Pleasure:
Compar'd to them,
I Things as Shades esteem.
False ones are a foolish Flourish,
(Such as Mortals chiefly nourish)
When I them to Things compare,
Compar'd to Things, they Trifles are;
Bad Thoughts do hurt, deceiv, ensnare.
A good Man's Thoughts are of such price
That they creäte a Paradise:
But he that misemploys
That Faculty,
God, Men, and Angels doth defy;
Robs them of all their Joys.

II

My Child-hood is a Sphere
Wherin ten thousand hev'nly Joys appear:
Those Thoughts it doth include,
And those Affections, which review'd,
Again present to me
In better sort the Things that I did see.
Imaginations Reall are,
Unto my Mind again repair:
Which makes my Life a Circle of Delights;
A hidden Sphere of obvious Benefits:
An Earnest that the Actions of the Just
Shall still revive, and flourish in the Dust.

FINIS