Bright Science dost dispel Those Lazy Mists exhal'd from Hell Which stifle Virtue cloud our Day Reflect or else Refract Heav'ns Ray. Thou rescu'st Reason purgest Sense From that Original Offence And as who Lovely Objects spies By the Soul's Spectacles and Burning-Glass the Eyes Catches Love's Fire With far more Vigorous Desire Than others could By what dull Sounds and Hearsay told Such is th' Advantage Thou win'st here As Sight are Sound and Eye o're Ear. Thy clear Proposals gather and draw Heaven in Thro' the Soul 's widen'd Pores and squeez out putrid Sin e Faith but supplies thy room and brings Heav'n wrapt in Words thou writ in Things Faith's Lesson all may read that look But thine 's the Clearer yet the Harder Book Oh Book Oh World Oh Sun clad in thin shade Oh Book the Best and All that God e're made Dull Clods Drops Sparks thou seem'st to be Small Atomes of Great Entity But Big with GOD is thy each part And Vaster Truths far than thy Whole Self art VI. The Architect and Owner of this All Delivered out in Gross The All-rich Ball In Number Measure Weight Proportioned aright And bid us Traffick with 't and thrive But we were at a Loss None could into it's hidden Treasures rightly dive 'Till his Wise Steward Science came Acquainted with her Master's Will And with rare Skill f Did subtly take in pieces the vast Frame And to Heav'ns Merchandize the more to wooe us Detail'd in Parcels and chaw'd small the too-great Morsel to us When Prudence the wise Governess Of Virtue 's Family would try A Pattern of her perfect Managery And Rational Actions her sweet Children dress Fixing upon them in fit places Her whole bright Set of Circumstantial Graces By thy square Science she each Line doth draw And makes thy Word her Rule thy Dictates Law VII g When Virtue her self to Heaven a Journey takes And quaintly dresses Her shining Tresses With the most Curious and Enamouring Art To ravish so the High King's Heart Fair Science thy Bright Eye her Looking-Glass she makes In thine Eye Reasons best Mirrour She can spy each slender Errour And the least Blemish of Deformity h What 's wrinkled loosely set or pinn'd awry i When Musick would the ravish'd Soul beguile To dwell in the Ear 's Labyrinth a while Nature's well-ecchoing Musick-room Whither repairs A pretty Quire of nimble light-foot Ayres Ferry'd o're in quavering Undulations Interwoven on a thousand Fashions And there presents an unseen Masque of Sounds Sent from the Tattling Strings or Whistling Pipes Rebounds While She makes Friends in Consort each Discording Part Her Art tunes Instruments but Science tunes her Art VIII Thou art that Bright Reserve of Light For the Wise Church when grown From Unripe Nonage to her Manly Noon Her Youth's School-Master dark Credulity Too weak to govern mankind now a Child no longer But fit for th' University Will her dear Charge to Thee in Part resign And those Soul-binding Charms of thine To govern such a Free-born Subject stronger GOD is the Fountain-Sun Thou his ne're-changing Moon That deal'st as great a share of Borrow'd Light As can consist with our Flesh-veiled sight Fair Dawning to Bright Bliss Dark Nature's fullest Noon IX But ah my lisping Lyre Is now quite spent yet Thou art still Intire Farewel Bright Science thrice farewel Yet part not from My Soul such kind of Houses use to be thy Home Nature has built Thee there fine k Christal Rooms And I will wooe Virtue her self to strow There for Thee her Best Perfumes The Fabrick thou 'lt embrave beyond all Art and Praise With thy own Soul-guilding Rayes There there vouchsafe to dwell There there farewel Farewel in me and thy Dear Self improve To Full Light in my Head and in my Heart Firm Love FINIS ANNOTATIONS a WHat is meant here by Science is already declar'd in the Preface viz. All those Knowledges whether acquir'd by Prayer or Study which superadded to Faith are apt to render it Lively And indeed should we restrain the common signification of that word which imports no more but Knowledge to the Stricter Sense in which the Schools take it nothing ought even speaking of Natural Objects in true speech to be called Science unless it be in some Sort deriv'd from God and by means of that Derivation be apt to raise us to the Knowledge of Him For since all Truths are Connected and Science is the Knowing of things by their Causes hence only such Knowledges as relate to the First Truth and inform us of the Derivation of Things from the First Cause or of their Connexion with it can pretend to the Honour of being reputed True Sciences For which reason the Epicureans who deny a First Cause and hold all things to be done by Chance can lay no Claim to Scientifical Knowledge of any thing in Nature Whence of all other Sects of Philosophers Their Principles are the most Absurd Precarious and Inconsistent Moreover Science is intended to Perfect the Understanding Faculty but when 't is Practical and fits the Soul for Action that is in our case for the Love of God then 't is Full Lively and in that state which makes Science be as it should be that is Unmixt with Ignorance Whereas when 't is meerly Speculative and Unactive 't is Weak Faint ofttimes Airy and alwayes as to Heaven Vseless and by reason of it's Imperfection being alloy'd with some degree of Ignorance it degenerates from the Sincere and Genuine nature of Knowledge For it is to be noted that Virtue and Science are here treated of as in their Abstracted Ideas or as perfectly depur'd from all their Imperfections as may be seen in the third Stanza upon Virtue and in the 7th and 8th Stanzas here With which it may well consist that there may be many inferior Degrees of both of them that are not acquired either by Art of Contemplation but are Instill'd by the Common Doctrine and Discipline of the Church which may suffice to bring Souls to Heaven sooner or later tho' they may not perhaps come so high as to dispose them Immediately for the Beatifical Vision this being only attainable by those who are Pure in Heart and cleans'd from all Inordinate by-By-Affections to Creatures which requires more than Common Illuminations b For the Connatural way to Love any things is to Know and Conceit Lively the Goodness that is in it and therefore Regularly and in due order of Nature according to the Express and Lively Knowledge a Soul has of Coelestial Goods so great in proportion is her Love of them Whence whenever she falls into Sin or Loves not Heaven as she ought 't is because some Temporary or False Good making a more Agreeable Appearance to her at that unlucky Season the Knowledge of the Incomparable Good of Heaven which she had before is Darken'd and Dimm'd by Passion or which is the same by too much affection to some Creature according to that saying of Divines Omnis
dispences And transpires its Influences Which in Soul-quickening Rayes sent down Our dry and barren Earth with show'rs of Blessings crown Thy Fragrant Breast Is a Phoenix Cherub's Nest Where she does brooding sit k On thousand Birds of Paradise i' th' shell as yet Which with a Wise Impatiency Peck and spurn at their Prison to get free And ripe to be released they Chirp at the Dawning Glimpse of their Immortal Day Poor Unfledg'd things whose Pinions aym Heav'n's Eye And in their Downy Nonage meditate the Sky VIII Sum up thy Thoughts my Soul sum up thy Treasure This All 's too Poor of Worth and Time 's too Short a Leasure Thy dearest Saint In Form and Colours worthy Her to Paint Alas what can be found In Nature's Round l Whether we look up to those Nimble things Fancy-clad with Wings Or down to this dull-pac'd Corporeal Sphere m Nature's Well-furnish'd Shop of Instrumental Ware From neither can w' expect other Supplies But Raggs of being Torn in thin Formalities Too narrow far To define Her In whom Each single Good and Sweet Do in a Sacred Eminency meet IX Be then thy Self Dear Saint be Thine Own Beauty Our Slender Fancies shall not dare To injure Thee who art supremely Fair By a detractingly-Officious Duty Be still thy own Pure Self admit no Leaven For if thou beest Thy Self thou'lt be a Heaven Heav'n wrapt up in the Oar thou art refin'd To Glory when we 're made all Mind Life of oft self-reflected Grace-directed Reason Still ripe to act when Providence points the Season Spirit of Spirits Seraphick Quintessence Which none but such Pure Fires As Heav'n it self inspires n Blown too by God's own Breath can extract thence Balsom of Souls whose Vigour when it leaves 'em Nought from Eternal Death and Sin 's Corruption saves ' em Suburbs or Gate to Heav'ns Metropolis Planter of Paradise and Seed of Bliss The Flow'ry High Way to my Endless End My Loveliest and my Everlasting Friend Oh may no Loves Master this Heart of Mine But that Dear Mistress of Sweet Thee and Thine FINIS ANNOTATIONS a BY Virtue is meant that Queen of all Virtues Charity or an Intire Love of God no Virtue being truly and indeed such but That which directs all our Actions to our True Last End and only Sovereign Good the Enjoyment of Him This and none but This being able to Satiate Man's Natural Inclination and Propension to Happiness No wonder then the most elaborate Expressions fall short of reaching the Character Due to such a Transcendent Excellency This being the Highest Perfection of which a Creature can be capable in this world Since none is or can be above it but that which is beyond all our Conceptions the Vnspeakable State of Glory or the Actual Fruition of God as in Himself b After the Author had disgrac't the Idle Courtships and Ridiculous Flatteries us'd by the common sort of Poets to their Worldly Mistresses he addresses himself to Invoke his Spiritual Mistress Virtue and so makes the same which was his Subject or Theme to be his Must also And to ennoble his Conceptions as much as may be he raises his Thoughts to contemplate Her in that most Perfect State in which she will be found in every Holy Soul at the Last Day when all Venial Imperfections exprest by St. Paul by the Metaphors of Hay Stubble c. which alloy'd the purity of Heavenly Love in most of them shall be purged away by the Ravishing Sight of their Dear Saviour whom they had loved here chiefly tho' not so perfectly as they ought now appearing in his Glory and coming to deliver them from their tormenting Pains caused by their suspensive Hope of their long-delay'd and earnestly-desir'd Bliss and from those pains of Sense also which they endur'd for their By-Affection and Undue Adhesion to Creatures the love to which they did not so entirely order to the Love of Heaven Let then the Readers but fancy to themselves that Ardency of Divine Love which at the World 's happy Period when the Course of Nature now for ever useless shall be at a Stand and Time shall be no more will transport those Holy Souls and instate them in the Eternal Inheritance of those Blissful Mansions Let them next reflect on what Faith assures them that either they must strive to store up in their Souls while they are here that Disposition which and which only can immediately fit them for Heaven or they must be eternally Miserable if thy wholly neglect it or else suffer unspeakable Torments in the Intermediate State if they but slightly cultivate their Minds with Virtue Let I say Loose Livers and Tepid Souls but reflect steadily on these two Points and it must needs excite in them a Sollicitous care to improve their Wills with a fervent Love of Heaven which may be with less labour attained and at a far easier rate purchast here that hereafter c The Whole Material World was created for the Salvation of good Souls and consequently to breed and nourish them up in Virtue without which Salvation is Vnattainable and Impossible And 't is the peculiar effect of Charity or Virtue to order all those Creatures we make use of as Means to compass that Best End Whence by the Rule of Contraries we may gather the Hideous Enormity of Sin which consisting in the Chusing some Creature for our Ultimate End and in the Directing all our Actions to the Attaining and Enjoying that Perishable and False Good does of it's own nature disorder all the World and ravel it into a wrong Frame and Method and would actually Pervert the Order of the Universe did not the Infinite Goodness of God to support his own Work and supply the Failings of his Weak Creatures mercifully bring a Greater Good to the World out of their Miscarriages make a More perfect Harmony Spring out of that Confusion and so contrive things that the Vices of the Wicked should advance Holy and well-meaning Souls to a higher pitch of Virtue d As Vulgar Poets use to extoll their Worldly Mistresses for their rare Nature the Composition and Symmetry of their Bodies the Gracefulness and Beauty of their Face the Agreeableness of their Humour the Sweetness of their Breath and Deliciousness of their Breasts so all these Considerations are turn'd here to a Spiritual Sense in Commendation of Virtue under each of these Respects e Anaxagoras the Philosopher held the Soul was made of Harmony Too Musical a Conceit unless meant as here that she is a Principle of Order And certainly of all Orders That is the most Harmonious best proportion'd and Exact which directs every thing to Man's True Last End for which his nature was Created A Property only belonging to Charity or Virtue f For the Order of Sublunary things passing thro' the hands of Creatures who are Themselves disabled by Weakness or disorderd with Passion and therefore in both regards Imperfect Agents does oftentimes seem Straggling and Perplext And only the Supream
peccans ignorat Every one that sins is to some degree Ignorant How far Ignorance is Culpable or Excusable belongs to that Great Judge to determine who knows the Heart Only this we can certainly affirm in common by the Light we have from Christian Principles that whenever the affection to any Creature so besots and Blinds us that we do not Love Heaven above all things but fail in those Duties which only can dispose us to attain it we are plunging our Souls into that sad condition which unrepented of must inevitably bring us to Eternal Misery when our Jolly Days so carelesly spent are past which God only knows how few they may be c To illustrate this Point held by some Great Divines we may reflect that as when in other Animals the Brain is Full of Species or Particles receiv'd from any Object that is agreeable to their Natures it happens that by this Total possessing of the Fancy abundance of Spirits are sent forth thence into other parts whence the Animal becomes Active and Eager to pursue it which Principle or Power of Acting we use to call Appetite or Sensitive Love of it In the same manner when in a Rational Creature or Man the Vnderstanding is Wholly taken up with the Knowledge of Heaven clearly appearing to it as its onely True and Eternal Good that Fullness of Heavenly Thoughts excludes and hinders the Co-existence much more the Competition of the deluding and seducing Appearances of Transitory Goods whence the whole Man strains towards the attainment of it and becomes Active to pursue which Knowledge now made a strong Practical Judgment and Operative does the same that the Will uses and is to do and therefore say they 't is the same Power which we call the Will Whence the Great St. Austin no less solidly than acutely says that the Understanding and Will do differ as Luna semiplena and plena that is as the Moon Half-full and Full. To apply this to our Point in hand In the same manner that these Powers called the Understanding and Will do differ so in the same proportion according to this Opinion must Knowledge and Love of Heaven that is Science and Virtue which are the Acts or rather Habits of those Powers be distinct also and the Difference between them if we take Knowledge as in its perfect State is this that the One is consider'd as receiv'd from Outward Objects and perfecting the Soul interiourly as it is Intellective and the Other as it has respect to those Acts it is to produce and to the End it is apt to work for or pursue The Usefulness of this Doctrine may seem to evince its Truth For hence we may clearly see that the only secure way to resist Temptations to avoid Sin to raise our Souls to Heaven and keep them up at that pitch and in a word to manage our Actions so as to attain to Salvation consists in this that either we fix and rivet in our Minds by wise Reflexions strong and steady Habitual Judgments of the Incomparable Good of Heavenly Bliss and of the Nothingness in comparison of all Temporary Goods which is the Way Proper for the Learned and more Elevated Souls Or else by Frequent Dints and Impressions made by constant Prayer Devout Reading Pious Discourses Vse of Sacraments c. To lay up in our Souls Great store of Spiritual Ideas and Express conceits of Heavenly Objects so that they may be ready and at hand to make head against and subdue the Weaker Band of the Impressions made by False Goods assaulting our Fancies with their Glossy and Sophisticate appearances and Tempting us to follow their Sinful Suggestions For our constant Experience informs us upon a Cursory Reflexion that we never Conquer in our Spiritual Warfare but when we are well furnisht with such Heavenly Ideas which keep our Soul upon her Guard and Fortify her with the Lively Representations of our True Good and that on the other side we are never Overcome but when thro' our Neglecting to stand prepared for our Christian Battel we have either Rang'd but a Thin Troop of Heavenly Thoughts on Reasons fide or else thro' our Slack Discipline we keep them not Watchful to repell the Fiery Darts of Concupiscence which our Ghostly Enemy makes use of when he assails us Whence Assiduity and Constancy in our Spiritual Exercises and Devout Duties not for Fashions sake but out of a Sincere and True Intention to bear up to Heaven is the Only Sure and Effectual way to attain it and whenever we grow Careless and Negligent in performing those Duties we do most certainly lie Expos'd to the Stratagems of our Adversary the Devil and are in imminent danger of being Spiritually Wounded by Sin and if that Wound be Mortal of Spiritual Death Eternal Damnation e Had all Men Perfect Science of the Excellency of Heavenly Bliss of which we onely Treat here Faith would not be needful for that particular neither if all other Respects were Equal would there be so much Sin in the World Which is one Reason why the Saints in Heaven are absolutely incapable of Sinning or falling from their Happy State f By considering the Particularities found in each Piece of Nature apart which thus singled out become fit to be the Objects of the several Sciences that Treat of them Whereas were those Distinct Considerations blended together confusedly as they are found in the Thing it self our Imperfect way of Knowing being unable to comprehend the whole Object and all the several Respects that belong to it at one Intuitive View as do the Angels and consequently not being able to fathom it we could not have any Science at all of it g To accomplish a Soul in Exact Virtue either our own Knowledge enabling us to look thorowly into Christian Principles and our own Interiour or the Guidance of Skilful and Knowing Spiritual Directors is absolutely necessary without which many Imperfections and Deviations from the straight Rule of Christian Morality must needs happen h That is what 's Uneven and Inconsistent what Tepid and Weak thro' want of Habitual Steadiness and â—â—rmness and what 's against the Exact Rule of Christ's most Immaculate Law or beside that Rule i It being too tedious and indeed impertinent to mention the other Liberal Sciences notice is here taken of Musick onely which is us'd in all Publick Solemnities as an Incitement to Devotion and absolutely necessary for Sacred Poesie Psalms and Hymns in which the most Soul-melting Strains of Piety are deliver'd k An Intellectual or Spiritual Nature FINIS