Sin Reason dethrones its self Sense without fear Usurps the Throne wild Passions domineer The Will yields freely her Imperial right To the tyrannic Lusts of Appetite O Chaos of Confusion whence such Pride Do Masters lacquey whilst their servants ride And Kings make up their subjects humble Train Of captive Vassals to confirm their Reign Awake the Earth's great Monarch will he have Ought but the Title of a Royal Slave Let him be King of and in Man to none Subject but his great Lords Eternal Throne Of whom he holds his Diadem in Fee By whom Kings reign and Princes do decree Knock off his Chains let him to purpose know Himself the rightful Lord of all below So shall the people of the Air Sea Field Pay humble Homage and due Tribute yied For hold they not of thee their breath and lives From whom mans Throne its Origine derives Their eyes wait all on thee thy copious hand Fills all their mouths with good by sea and land Thou giv'st them meat in season they rejoice To gather it when thou conceal'st thy voice They mourn in silence when thou hid'st thy Face Their beauty falls and all their goodly Grace When thou withdraw'st thy breath their spirits flye And they resolved into ashes dye And should thy Pow'r one moment but suspend Its act whole Nature makes a sudden end Heaven and distant Earth would soon come near Each Star drop down from its transparent sphere The Moon would cease to yield her various light And Sun himself be darkned into night The Fire for want of heat would chill to death The Air breathe out its last in one groans breath Mountains would skip away like frighted Rams And all the little Hills like fearful Lambs VVater and Earth would be again commixt As when no order was in Nature fixt The Elements confus'd in one rude Mass Yes all would swift into prime Nothing pass Nor were it hard that then thou should'st renew This ruin'd Theatre to publick view VVhose Word could in a thought bring on the stage The peaceful worlds most happy Golden Age Thy Majesty in all thy works renown'd Beyond all time sends an amazing sound How when he frowns the earth distracted shakes As with a strong Convulsion groans and quakes And rends with grief at what his fury can To unrelenting Rocky-hearted man The smitten Mountains smoak belch out and burn As if they would all into embers turn But what art thou fierce Aetna which dost raise VVith flaming Rivers the Cicilian Seas To them which the consuming fire did rain On Sodom's and Gomorrah's sinful Plain And they but puny sparks to that great lake Of Flames prepared for the damned's sake There burn yet never burnt the godless sp'rits Of evil men and Angels which the lights Of Nature Grace and Glory would despise Beyond redress with bold contemptuous eyes But we whilst being lasts Immortal King VVill thy great Names exalted Praises sing VVe thy Delight and thou our Joy shalt be In us thy Glory and our Bliss in thee Glory to God the Father Son and Sp'rit One boundless Fountain of Eternal Light As ever 't was before all time begun So is and ever shall when time is done The End of the Second Part. OF GOD IN THE CREATURE PART III. THus sung these Nymphs but as the clearest day Is not without some passing Clouds so may And often doth the most Celestial Mind This side the Moon molesting passions find Passions in bounds moving to proper ends Commence not Rebels but are Reasons Friends Friends to Devotion what diviner proves Than holy raging holy mourning loves Such mudless Floods fill'd and all day opprest The holy God-mans unpolluted breast Stoicks are stocks or else 'twixt them and Gods 'T is hard to find out any real odds No They 'r above by their grave Senate's voice God's calm by Nature they by gen'rous choice Egregious Pride vaunt men an Apathy Not found in Angels Immortality They joy when we do well then no doubt weep To see us buri'd in Lethargick sleep So these dear Twins from joy to sorrow turn To think how Vice triumphs and Vertues mourn Some whiles a profound silence occupies Their lips and looks then tears flow from their eyes PHILARETE speaks At length Philarete alas our age Exil'd from Converse to a Hermitage Good God! why might not vertue sometimes fear An Inter-Regnum of thy Royal Care Seeing her vanquisht self so trodden down And her proud Rival circl'd with a Crown THEOPHOBE To say the world in a blind Atom-dance Stumbled into its beauteous form by chance More Phrenzy speaks than that without a hand Sweet David's Psalter should be writ in Sand Nor is it less to think 't is left to lye Without its Makers over-ruling eye Rich Sheba's Queen without sight or report Of the wise Jew might see him in his Court Such Beauty shows the Lord's Magnificence Its constancy his watchful Providence When Nature in a Sea floats there and here There needs some constant Pilot at the Steer PHILARETE All this is plain but that a special eye Is fixt on men dumbs all Philosophy 'T would rather speak a Goddess Fortune blind To raise the base depress the noble mind THEOPHOBE Philosophy must grant that active love Which on the dark Abyss did gently move To hatch the World and now with tender wings Kindly protects the Universe of things Leaves not their Lord Compendium of them all For making whom it did a Council call Of the most wise Three-One a clear presage Of some dear Offspring in its own Image This were to null the Laws of all wise Love And make it like the cruel Ostrich prove Whose Iron Bowels leave her harmless Egg To wait the crush of every chancing Leg And yet indeed Philosophy can't sound The depths of Providence which know no ground Much more exceeding shallow humane brain Than shells fall short of the unfathom'd Main Shall men explode a Being without end Because no finite can it comprehend Question the Ocean too you may as well Because you cannot hold it in a Shell Question a real Sun you may as soon Because not to be lanthorn'd at high-noon This knew the ancient Hero's and the more For adverse fate did meekly this adore Making their Reason when they saw it fail In these great deeps to strike to Faith the sail By Fortunes looks 't was never understood How to discern the vicious from the good For that bright Saint the man of Gods own Heart Had both of smiles and of her frowns his part PHILARETE Yet they complain'd their Faith fail'd to behold Vertue in rags and Vice in vests of Gold Yes famous singers of the inspired Quire Not with a common but Seraphick Fire THEOPHOBE Their Faith recoil'd yet trembling till it whole Return'd like Magnet-needles to the Pole It shook not fell as by a strong surprize The Fort of Life and Spirit swoons not dies Such conflicts Sister bring forth happy fruits As well-set Trees by storms get firmer
owe this your immortal Frame Eternal King thy Royal Excellence Transcends the world's whole vast circumference It 's Scepter rules the Heavens in its Hand It holds the pond'rous Globe of Sea and Land Filling beyond the Empyreum high The boundless deserts of Immensity Glory and Beauty ever thee Infold As some incorruptible Cloath of Gold The Sun and Moon great Luminaries given To Beautify the outward Courts of Heaven VVith all the Stars bespangling blackfac'd night Are brightish shades of thy primeval light No more to that than what dark nights permit In putrid Sticks to play the Hypocrite Or in Glow-worms can come in splendor near A Summer Solstice highest in its Sphere VVith this thy Royal Palace flows alone VVith this thou cloathest thy blest self and Throne O! strong ey'd Eagles dare not it behold T would blind the Cherubim were they too bold Unvail'd to gaze on tho in proper place The brightness of the Beatifick Face VVhat tongues of men or Angels can express Thy Kingdom 's unconceived Gloriousness Tho shadow'd out and glim'ringly descri'd By Heaven's most magnificent outside It 's Glorious Host all with great Letters Write God in their Frontispiece by their own Light Their Light shows his which never knew to rise Wax Wane Eclipse and never setting dies Their Order his each motion of them tend To that which none but he that made can mend Nor Solve the least Phenomena of it By their Romantick Whirli-pools of Wit He Rules them all with Law which by consent Unanimous they all Obey content To move on their own Centers as they were First bad like Fishes in a Sea of Air By no informing Life of Reason Sense Nor outward assisting Intelligence Old Sages dreams except that mind profound Which every where and no where can be found Piercing unseen all things which we may call The only truly Universal Soul This first these mighty Machins did display Keeps still in well-tun'd motion since that day No clash no jar who this Contemplates hears The Pythagorean Musick of the Spheres Which speaks great God of Peace the Harmony Of thy most Wise Celestial Hierarchy And of thy Universal Monarchy Their vig'rous Vertues shew their Makers strength Which knows no height or depth no breadth or length How cheerful goes the Sun Like some Bridegroom Advancing forth of his attiring Room Adorn'd with Gold and Gemms on every side Burning to meet the Lovely sloathful Bride Whom Bedded Moon and Stars by his lent light Revel and Dance out the Ensuing night Nor knows their Cheer decay but each days Sun Doth like a Wine-refreshed Giant run His Race no stop his Labour loves no Rest That all may with his Life-full Heat be Blest From their Harmonious Courses time begun And seasons with their various Tempers sprung Day into Night Spring into Autumn dyes With these and after dead with these arise Besides their common Influence and light The Stars in Martial Mode his Battels Fight Who calls them all to Muster by their Names And of their force a dread Militia Frames Witness thou Ancient River Fam'd Kishon Thou Gibeon and thou Vale of Aijalon They March in Order at his bare Command And at his word ' midst their Carreers they stand Beneath these Glorious Globes next thou spread'st out What a rare Orb of Immixt Fire about Or in the Ample hollow of the Moon Which Astronomick Hawks would spy out soon Were not its Nature so Refin'dly good Not to be seen felt heard or understood No Thou great Wisdom which o're all dost reign Created'st nought in Natures Frame in vain The Liquid Heaven of Expanded Air A spacious Tent Magnificently Fair Three noble Stories compassing Earth's Globe Stupendious Frame rooft with a Starry Robe The low'rmost Room where Winged Creatures Fly Hath hanging Waters for its Canopy In which the Architect hath lay'd the Floor And Beams of his Etherial Chambers o're Wond'rous Geometry these without fear On Waters Lean Waters on Fleeting Air. There March the Clouds which the great King of Kings Rules as his Chariots Wheel'd with swift Winds On which he Rides Triumphant when Descends wings To work his Judgments and his Mercies ends Hence roar dread Might thy great Artillery When thou speak'st Thunder from the Flaming Sky Tho mostly conduits thorow which thy hands Make glad with Streams of Fatness Thirsty Lands O! the unseen Divinest Majesty Vouchsaf'd in Shining Clouds to Humane Eye Like Doves and Eagles with their outspread wing They hover light and Glorious Angels bring Courtiers of Heaven to represent the mind Profound which no quick Lynceus's Eye can find Who by his Ministers thus oft appears Sometimes in Flames sometimes white subtil Airs As Stars Fire Air by motion do his will So heavy Earth obeys by standing still Lo how it stands on it self firmly bas't The World's fix'd center by deep wisdom plac't That poiz'd with its own weight ' midst fluid Air Can fall no way O hand which plac'd it there Unless quite cross to Nature it should soon Fall upwards Mountains tumbling to the Moon O thou whose Throne 's above the lofty Skies In Glory unapproacht by mortal Eyes If we descend beneath the silent Cells Of all the Dead thy boundless Self there dwells We find thee in vast Treasures without end Which nought but Avarice can comprehend Art thou not in the Mother Waters deep Near to the Region's confines where no sleep Allays the restless pains of Damned Souls In blackest darkness who with horrid Howls Ring doleful Knells to their Eternal Death Which ever Lives whose pangs are still in birth Or could we with the mornings wings take flight To th' utmost Sea swift as a Dart of Light Thy right Hand in a thought us apprehends Which far beyond all tracts of Sea extends 'T was thy out-stretched Arm which cloath'd the Globe Of Earth with Sea first as a water'd Robe Then a wav'd belt wonder of wisdom made For maintenance of Universal Trade Betwixt all Lands with Law it Ebbs and Flows Which all Eyes see how no grand Sophy knows It 's Tow'ring Floods at thy rebuke are lay'd And fly at thy loud Thunder's Voice afraid As in just Noah's days when for mens sins To Clouds dens'd Air Sea Treasure-house of Springs Thy fury let an uncontrouled way To make the Universe one Shoreless Sea Waves 'bove the tops of Hills lift their proud head At thy Command at thy Command they fled Aw'd all by thy rebuke's Majestick Grace With haste away to their appointed place And tho they now like Mountains rise again Fall down like Vallies to a spacious Plain Their bounds are fixt by thine Almighty hand Which rein's their rage with nought but cords of Sand That they shall ne're return to drown the Land Through spungy bottoms they occultly creep Into the Mother VVaters silent deep Great Treasure-House still teeming VVomb of some Clear pleasant Fountains whence sweet waters come Through strange Meanders percolated from The Native saltness of the Oceans VVomb Or who knows
Kings Accept her Zeal amongst their noblest things Nor was Goats Hair and Badgers skins put back From his blest Seat who could no Purple lack 'T is not Heav'ns Greatness to encrease but show What to its Goodness we poor Mortals owe That all Religion means therefore such Trees As give no food the chiefest Deities Thought fit to â—â— chuse Great Jupiter for Oak Apollo Lawrel Venus Myrtle spoke Bacchus the Ivy Herc'les Poplar took Then take you this not meant to make you more But only show that we your worth a dore Your Worth which stands storm-proof as sacred Oaks And like the Lawrel smiles at lightning strokes Of envious eyes of whose fresh leaves is made As of a Myrtle Grove a pleasant shade All to delight and shrowd that sing your Name On Oaten Pipes and teach the Woods the same The Woods the same Woods once obedient were To Orpheus and danc'd to 's charmful Air. Nor did Rocks to Amphion less perform His Musick drew them mighty Thebes to form So may your gentle Airs rude Nature storm Storm to a Calm till you bring on the stage The peaceful Worlds most Loyal Golden Age So Prays Sirs Your most Humbly Devoted HENRY GRENFIELD TO THE READER Candid Reader I Must satisfy my self in Advertising you on what account my Littleness is so daring as first to offer any thing of its own to publick view and secondly Why a work of this Nature As for the first I can solemnly affirm I do it not without much painful Reluctance Resulting from the Conscious and most Mature apprehensions of my Insufficiency to produce any thing of a Complexion strong enough to endure an open and piercing Air which I have good reason to expect But in this Dispute the over-ruling consideration of Gratitude as I afore hinted remains Conqueror and sways my Actions quite counter to my inclinations As for the second granting I am oblig'd by some moral inforcements to appear thus unwillingly publick why yet should I chuse to do it in a dress of this kind which by how much the more it is of Divine Materials is by so much the more of weighty import and hazardous attempt For who is sufficient for those things 'T is the good pleasure of Heaven to which we all owe the profoundest and chearfullest obedience that hitherto I should remain short of the prime and darling end of my Studies Namely of being admitted to serve at the Holy Altar or of going not as the Scribes but as one having authority before the multitude into the House of the Lord in the Voice of Praise and Thanks-giving amongst such as keep Holy-day the Prime and Darling end I say of my Studies for the meanest Door-keeper in the House of God as amongst us Establish'd by Law in a decency and order well becoming the Beauty of Holiness and most expressive of the Heroical Primitive Piety I ever Esteemed infinitely preferrable to the Proudest Prince in the Synnagogues of Corah For this reason tho with my heart I abhor all Sacrilegious Intrusions on the Altar yet fain would I rival the little Sparrow and Swallow in contending for a place to Set and Sing within an allowable propinquity In pursuance hereof I cannot but endeavour seeing Condemned as the dumb Jack in the Virginals to a Regretful silence yet by one motion or other to contribute somewhat to the general Harmony in which all Creatures by the Indispensible Laws of their Creation ought to bear a part that is in the Resounding the praises of the most Glorious Creator that great Harmostes or Master of Harmony which hath so Musically Composed the Vniversal Poem of both the Intellectual and Sensible Worlds in just Number Weight and Measure that each part answers other and all the Whole in most Tunable Proportions Nor could I accomplish this noble end in a more worthy Argument than a cheerful Contemplation of the Divine Perfection in the Works of Creation and Providence than which there is no part of Natural Theology more necessarily behooveful or more excellently comfortable As to my self I am fully perswaded there is no more efficacious preservative of the Life and true Happiness or a more Vigorous Antidote against the Stings of Misery than this one consideration of an All-wise most Gracious All-disposing Providence a General over the General System of the World a special over man and most special over good men which consideration busies it self not so much in conversing as Democritus altogether with Melancholick Creatures to search out the seat and nature of black choler as in preventing if possible so malignant a humour or if not then in sweetning the Waters imbitter'd by it with infusions of heavenly Nectar Which otherwise might prove incomparably more unpotable than the bitterest of the Waters of Meribah And what is so sensibly evident to me with immediate respect to my self I am also morally ascertain'd of with Relation to others and more particularly my Brethren in Religion Church and Country that especially in these distracted and troublesome times when all order hath been wickedly design'd and attempted to be overwhelmed with Confusion There is no more opportune consideration than this as well for necessity as pleasure Nay more necessary for the support as well as of the being as of the well-being of all natural and consequently all revealed Religion that being a main prop and foundation of this It is true the Holy Jesus God blessed for ever incarnate is the sole fountain of our true comfort especially of that most sublimated comprehensive comfort the Peace of God which passeth all understanding Yet without a previous perswasion of this over-ruling Providence this inexhaustible Fountain quo ad nos would inevitably dry up as to the Act of affording us any solid either present or hoped Consolation But let the good man which exerciseth himself herein to keep a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man carry about in his Bosome an applying consideration of Divine Providence And he is most truly the Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foursquar'd man cast him where you will he will be sure to fall as a Dye on a secure bottom Which saving consideration of Divine Providence that you and I and all our Fellow Christians may of the Divine Mercy obtain and by the Divine Grace improve from one degree to another till it arrives to a perfect Plerophory is the hearty prayer of Your truly Affectionate HENRY GRENFIELD GOD IN THE CREATURE PART I. JUST were the Eye-lids of the Morn unstay'd And pleasant Light with nimble Wings display'd Guilding with silver Strakes each fitted Cloud Whilst early Larks their Mattens sung aloud A grateful Hymn to welcome the glad sight Of Heav'ns First-born Blessing Earth's Delight The smile of Nature and bright Paraphrase On other Blessings finer of the Cha's When he who never sleeps lightned mine eyes Bad me to life from death-like sleep arise Whether some subtil Beam my clouded sense Pierc'd or Lights secret
quickning influence I knew 't was day left Sleep and Bed which have Such lively Pictures of sad Death and Grave And having lift to him my Heart and Voice Who makes each Morn's out-going to rejoice I and my Friend pursu'd our wont delights With new fresh Air to recreate our Sp'rits Our Walk a River bounded on one side Whose Chrystal Streams with lulling Murmurs glide By goodly florid Banks On th' other hand An Ancient Venerable Grove did stand A Grove which Nature strove to beautifie With much and wonderful Variety Tho well-bough'd Trees gave a refreshing Shade Yet Phoebus gentle Beams of Flowers made Of Herbs and Fruits such stores as might content The exigence of Use and Ornament O rural sweetest pleasures here a mind Abstract from Earth lost Paradise might find Enjoying Paradise's chiefest Grace Whilst she contemplates God in Natures Face The Birds among the Branches Anthems chant To his great VVisdoms Excellence which can't Forget to teach how they all Art may shame In building Houses of exactest frame Higher and lower as by Prophesie VVhat would th' approachng Summers temper be To nurse their dear young in till they them bring To trust in open Heaven to their VVing Here poor young Ravens by unnatural Parents expos'd gaping to Heaven call VVhich hears their piteous Importunities And answers their dumb Pray'rs with quick supplies Filling their mouths with Flies or fertile Dews Or somewhat else But whatsoe're we chuse Of Divine Goodness here 's a pregnant sense And signal wonder of its Providence This all the neighbouring fields and vallies round In ecchoing responses still resound All Cattel using Morn Noon Evening-tide One Common-Prayer to him that doth provide Their food in season rewards liberally Their Nat'ral Religions Liturgy Immence Intelligence which bruits dost guide By rules above all Philosophick Pride Men call them natural instincts imprest On their wild Fancies leading to the best Preservatives of their dear natures good As if by reasons conduct understood How would the new-hatch'd Duck by innate Love VVithout example to the Puddles move The untaught Cockatrice into the ground An entry strive to make where none was found VVhilst gen'rous Eagles from a like delight Attempt with unfletcht wings a nobler flight What other dictates prompt young Hares or Deer Ne'r yet made game to flee with swift-foot fear The little Hound who graze yet never quake By fierce-lookt Bulls of a tremendous make Nor do the meanest Vegetables want Their part in this good God's on every Plant Each shows a signature unto the eye A fair plain impress of Divinity Which no malicious hand can ere deface But ruining the creatures native Grace No more than that fam'd Artizan's great name To whom Minerva's Target ow'd its Frame Would to be raz'd by time or envy yield Without the joint-defacing of the Shield Their cunning make contriv'd so curiously Of parts a useful multiplicity Their due observance of set-times for growth Some with more speed and some with greater sloth That strange variety which may be found In one good natur'd little plot of Ground Their charming beauties Perfumes natural And active Virtues most Medicinal Their occult sympathetick Qualities With their eternal strange Antipathies All which we here contemplate sober sense In force to own to proclaim Providence But vanity of men we disbelieve What 's far remote with disregard receive What 's nigh as if who nearest Temples lye Were re'lly farthest from the Deity Plant Animal within our walk ne're moves Nor can we speak of the Palmetto's loves But here you 'l see Lillies on every hand Cloath'd all with Virgin-white in orders stand Which tho themselves do neither toil nor spin Yet far outgallant Israel's pompous King Yes in the most serene and brightest day Of his most flourishing and glorious May. So that thy Faith Reason and Sense shall yield A God to cloath the Lillies of the Field Nor is young Eglantine here without sense Of his sweet kind benign Influence Which through its uncleft vail steals safely home VVith virile heat into its Virgin-womb When round it first a spinie fence he forms To shroud its tender tirements from the storms Replete with Heavens Dews it spreads and swells Grows fair full-cheek'd yet by its blushes tells And tacitely confesses that it knows 'T is not to be compar'd with Sharon's Rose Thus by these sensless beauties excellence VVe guess at Beauties Flowers quintessence No wonder was a Garden first design'd For mans most noble contemplating mind The Scene of the First Adam's Happiness And of the Second Adam's great Converse Yet here our Veneration's much at odds VVith what Egypians paid their noble Gods Their Gardens are their Temples whence arise Thick sets of Leek and Onion Deities Sordid Religion true we can't neglect To visit our fair Grove with much respect A School of natural Theology Each Plant a Preacher of the Deity But to adore the work for Love or Fear Is to affront the Maker not indear Yet I remind I said on t'other hand An Ancient Venerable Grove did stand Yes Venerable for the Companies Of sacred Creatures dazling Mortal eyes VVhether they were of real Flesh refin'd Or else in any shapes were all pure mind I can't resolve but where they trod that ground Methinks commands a Reverence profound 'T was here we heard a voice as we pass'd by VVhich quickly mov'd our swift cur'osity VVe search'd and looking round my friend espy'd Under a Beech whose Boughs were thick and wide Two Nymphs whose form and Visage did bespeak Something in them extraord'nary great But Dress and Gestures some that sought relief Under a long and sore afflicting grief Alas said he two Angels from on high Come to Condole Caitiff Mans misery I through this bushy Covert see the Tears VVhich their bright Eyes shed in their Ev'ning pray'rs By last nights cold good God they look so meek Congeal'd to pearl on their sad pallid Cheek Their Names we heard not yet judg them to be VVhat we found new engraven on the Tree Here lately sate forlorn Theophobe VVith her dear Sister scorn'd Philarete Twins born of Eusebia write the sage In Time's Beginning and the VVorlds first Age As they have been Companions in their Birth So undivided will they be in Death The End of the First Part. OF GOD IN THE CREATURE PART II. BUT as some Rivers in the salt sea drown'd Are undebauch'd with native sweetness found So these blest minds untainted piety Amidst a flood of vicious misery From dunghil fumes there 's no defilement done To these imbodied beams of the Suns Son No tho we see them fall on such base ground Yet pure with strong reflection they rebound They'midst their tears prelude in sweet accents Their morning Song to the Omnipotent's Great Glory VVisdom Pow'r and rich Goodness Display'd in wonders through the Universe Tune up our Spirits your Holy Harmonies And let your full-fletch'd praises mount the Skies Bless your Almighty Parent 's sacred name To whom you