In guiding mens unto his own designs In these outgoings would I sing his praise But my weak sense with the too glorious rays Is struck with such confusion that I find Only the worlds first Chaos in my mind Where Light and Beauty lie wrapt up in seed And cannot be from the dark prison freed Except that Power by whom the world was made My soul in her imperfect strugglings aid Her rude conceptions into forms dispose And words impart which may those forms disclose O thou eternal spring of glory whence All other streams derive their excellence From whose Love issues every good desire Quicken my dull earth with celestial fire And let the sacred theam that is my choice Give utterance and musick to my voice Singing the works by which thou art reveal'd What dark Eternity hath kept conceal'd From mortals apprehensions what hath been Before the race of Time did first begin It were presumptuous folly to enquire Let not my thoughts beyond their bound aspire Time limits mortals and Time had its birth In whose Beginning God made Heaven and Earth God the great Elohim to say no more Whose sacred Name we rather must adore Than venture to explain for He alone Dwells in himself and to himself is known And so even that by which we have our sight His covering is He clothes himself with light Easier we may the winds in prison shut The whole vast Ocean in a nut-shell put The Mountains in a little ballance weigh And with a Bullrush plumm the deepest Sea Than stretch frail humane thought unto the height Of the great God Immense and Infinite Containing all things in himself alone Being at once in all contain'd in none Yet as a hidden spring appears in streams The Sun is seen in its reflected beams Whose high embodied Glory is too bright Too strong an object for weak mortal sight So in Gods visible productions we What is invisible in some sort see While we considering each created thing Are led up to an uncreated spring And by gradations of successive Time At last unto Eternity do climb As we in tracks of second causes tread Unto the first uncaused cause are led And know while we perpetual motion see There must a first self-moving Power be To whom all the inferiour motions tend In whom they are begun and where they end This First eternal Cause th' Original Of Being Life and Motion GOD we call In whom all Wisdome Goodness Glory Might Whatever can himself or us delight Unite centring in his Perfection Whose Nature can admit but only One Divided Soveraignty makes neither great Wanting what 's shar'd to make the summ compleat And yet this soveraign sacred Unitie Is not alone for in this one are three Distinguisht not divided so that what One person is the other is not that Yet all the three are but one God most High One uncompounded pure Divinity Wherein subsist so the Mysterious three That they in Power and Glory equal be Each doth himself and all the rest possess In undisturbed joy and blessedness There 's no Inferiour nor no Later there All Coeternal all Coequal are And yet this Parity Order admits The Father first eternally begets Within himself his Son substantial Word And Wisdom as his second and their third The ever blessed spirit is which doth Alike eternally proceed from both These three distinctly thus in one Divine Pure Perfect Self-supplying Essence shine And all cooperate in all works done Exteriourly yet so as every one In a peculiar manner suited to His Person doth the common action do Herein the Father is the Principal Whose sacred counsels are th' Original Of every Act produced by the Son By'the Spirit wrought up to perfection I' the Creation thus by'the Fathers wise decree Such things should in such time and order be The first foundation of the world was laid The Fabrique by th' Eternal Word was made Not as th' instrument but joynt actor who Joy'd to fulfill the counsels which he knew By the concurrent Spirit all parts were Fitly dispos'd distinguisht rendred fair In such harmonious and wise order set As universal Beauty did compleat This most mysterious Triple Unitie In Essence One and in subsistence Three Was that great Elohim who first design'd Then made the Worlds that Angels and Mankind Him in his rich out-goings might adore And celebrate his praise for evermore Who from Eternity himself supplied And had no need of any thing beside Nor any other cause that did him move To make a World but his extensive Love It self delighting to communicate Its Glory in the creatures to dilate While they are led by their own excellence T' admire the first pure high Intelligence By all the Powers and vertues which they have To that Omnipotence who those Powers gave By all their glories and their joys to his Who is the fountain of all joy and bliss By all their wants and imbecillities To the full magazine of rich supplies Where Power Love Justice and Mercy shine In their still fixed heights and ne're decline No streams can shrink the self-supplying spring No retributions can more fulness bring To the eternal fountain which doth run In sacred circles ends where it begun And thence with inexhausted life and force Begins again a new yet the same course It instituted in Times infant birth When the Creator first made Heaven and Earth Time though it all things into motion bring Is not it self any substantial thing But only Motions measure As a twin Born with it and they both at once begin With the existence of the rolling sphere Before which neither time nor motion were Time being a still continued number made By the vicissitude of Light and Shade By the Moons growth and by her waxing old By the successive Reign of heat and cold Thus leading back all ages to the womb Of vast Eternity from whence they come And bringing new successions forth until Heaven its last revolutions shall fulfil And all things unto their first state restore When Motion ceasing Time shall be no more But with the visible Heavens shall expire While they consume in the worlds funeral fire Th' invisible Heavens being still the same Shall not be toucht by the devouring flame Treating of which let 's wave Platonick dreams Of Worlds made in Idea fitter theams For Poets fancies than the reverent view Of Contemplation fixt on what is true And only certain kept upon record In the Creators own revealed word Which when it taught us how our world was made Wrapt up th' invisible in mystique shade Yet through those clouds we see God did create A place his presence doth irradiate Where he doth in his brightest lustre
grace That we may it with fuller joy embrace Which when it brings a frighted wretch from hell Makes it love more than those who never fell But mankinds love to God grows by degrees As he more clearly Gods sweet mercy sees And God at first reveals not all his grace That men more ardently may seek his face Averted by their folly and their pride Which makes them their confounded faces hide As still the Sun 's the same behind the clouds Such is Gods love which his kind anger shrouds Which doth not all at once it self reveal But first in the thick shadows that conceal Its glory doth attenuation cause Then the black dismal curtain softly draws And lets some glimmering light of hope appear Which rather is a lessening of our fear Than an assurance of our joy and peace A truce with misery rather than release Thus had not God come in mankind had died Without repair yet came he first to chide To urge their sin with its sad consequence And make them feel the weight of their offence To ' examine and arraign them at his bar And shew them what vile criminals they were But ah our utterance here is choak'd with woe With tardy steps from Paradise we go Then let us pause on our lost joys a while Before we enter on our sad exile Canto V. SAd Natures sighs gave the Alarms And all her frighted hosts stood to their arms Waiting whom the great Soveraign would employ His all deserted rebels to destroy When God descended out of heaven above His disobedient Viceroy to remove Yet though himself had seen the forfeiture Which distance could not from his eyes obscure To teach his future Substitutes how they Should judgements execute in a right way He would not unexamin'd facts condemn Nor punish sinners without hearing them Therefore cites to his bar the Criminals And Adam first out of his covert calls Where art thou Adam the Almighty said Here Lord the trembling sinner answer made Amongst the trees I in the garden heard Thy voice and being naked was afeard Nor durst I so thy purer sight abide Therefore my self did in this shelter hide Hast thou said God eat the forbidden tree Or who declar'd thy nakedness to thee She answer'd Adam whom thou didst create To be my helper and associate Gave me the fatal fruit and I did eat Then Eve was also call'd from her retreat Woman what hast thou done th' Almighty said Lord answer'd she the serpent me betray'd And I did eat Thus did they both confess Their guilt and vainly sought to make it less By such extenuations as well weigh'd The sin so circumstanc'd more sinful made A course which still half softned sinners use Transferring blame their own faults to excuse They care not how nor where and oftentimes On God himself obliquely charge their crimes Expostulating in their discontent As if he caus'd what he did not prevent Which Adam wickedly implies when he Cries 'T was the woman That thou gavest me Oft-times make that the devils guilt alone Which was as well and equally their own His lies could never have prevail'd on Eve But that she wisht them truth and did believe A forgery that suited her desire Whose haughty heart was prone enough to ' aspire The tempting and the urging was his ill But the compliance was in her own will And herein truly lies the difference Of natural and gracious penitence The first transferreth and extenuates The guilt which the other owns and aggravates While sin is but regarded slight and small It makes the value of rich mercy fall But as our crimes seem greater in our eyes So doth our grateful sense of pardon rise Poor mankind at Gods righteous bar was cast And set for judgement by when at the last Satan within the serpent had his doom Whose execrable malice left no room For plea or pardon but was sentenc'd first Thou said the Lord above all beasts accurst Shalt on thy belly creep on dust shalt feed Between thee and the woman and her seed And thine I will put lasting enmity Thou in this war his heel shalt bruise but He Thy head shall break More various Mystery Ne're did within so short a sentence lie Here is irrevocable vengeance here Love as immutable Here doth appear Infinite Wisdome plotting with free grace Even by Mans Fall th' advance of humane race Severity here utterly confounds Here Mercy cures by kind and gentle wounds The Father here the Gospel first reveals Here fleshly veils th' eternal son conceals The law of life and spirit here takes place Given with the promise of assisting grace Here is an Oracle fore-telling all Which shall the two opposed seeds befall The great war hath its first beginning here Carried along more than five thousand year With various success on either side And each age with new combatants suppli'd Two Soveraign Champions here we find Satan and Christ contending for mankind Two Empires here two opposite Cities rise Dividing all in two Societies The little Church and the worlds larger State Pursuing it with ceaseless spite and hate Each party here erecting their own walls As one advances so the other falls Hope in the Promise the weak Church confirms Hell and the world fight upon desperate terms By this most certain Oracle they know Their war must end in final overthrow Some little present mischief they may do And this with eager malice they pursue The Angels whom Gods justice did divide Engage their mighty powers on either side Hells gloomy Princes the worlds rulers made Heavens unseen host the Churches guard and aid Till the frail womans conquering son shall tread Beneath his feet the serpents broken head Though God the speech to mans false foe address The words rich grace to fallen man express Which God will not to him himself declare Till he implore it by submissive prayer Sufficient 't is to know a latitude For hope which doth no penitent exclude Had deaths sad sentence past on man before The promise of that seed which should restore His fallen state destroying death and sin Cureless as Satans had his misery been But though free grace did future help provide Yet must he present loss and woe abide And feel the bitter curse that he may so The sweet release of saving mercy know Prepar'd with late indulged hope on Eve Th' almighty next did gentler sentence give I will said he greatly augment thy woes And thy conceptions which with painful throes Thou shalt bring forth yet shall they be to thee But a successive crop of misery Thy husband shall thy ruler be whose sway Thou shalt with passionate desires obey Alas how sadly to this day we find Th' effect of this dire curse on
shine Yet doth not his own Heaven him confine Although the Paradise of the fair world above Each where perfum'd with sweet respiring Love Refresht with Pleasures never shrinking streams Illustrated with Lights unclouded beams The happy land of peace and endless Rest Which doth both soul and sense with full joys feast Feasts that extinguish not the appetite Which is renew'd to heighten the delight Here stands the Tree of life deckt with fair fruit Whose leaves health to the nations contribute The spreading true celestial Vine Where fruitful grafts and noble clusters shine Here Majesty and Grace together meet The Grace is glorious and the Glory sweet Here is the Throne of th' universal King To which the suppliant world addresses bring Here next him doth his Son in triumph sit Waiting till all his foes lie at his feet Here is the Temple of his Holiness The Sanctuary for all sad distress Here is the Saints most sure inheritance To which they all their thoughts and hopes advance Here their rich recompence and safe rest lies For this they all th' inferiour world despise Yet not for this alone though this excel But for that Deity who here doth dwell For heaven it self to Saints no heaven were Did not their God afford his presence there But now as he inhabits it it is The treasure-house of everlasting bliss The Fathers house the Pilgrims home the Port Of happiness th' illustrious Regal Court The City that on the worlds summit stands United in it self not made with hands Whose Citizens Walls Pavements are so bright They need no Sun in Gods more radiant Light The pure air being not thickned with dark clouds No sable night the constant glory shrowds Nor needs there night when no dull lassitude Doth into the unwearied soul intrude New vigour flowing in with that dear joy Whose contemplation doth their lives employ This heaven the third to us within The first if from the outside we begin Is incorruptible and still the same Confirm'd by him who did its substance frame No time its strong foundations can decay It s renew'd glory fadeth not away The other heavens which it doth enfold In tract of time as garments shall wax old And all their outworn glory shall expire In the worlds dreadful last devouring fire But this shall still unchangeable remain While all the rolling Spheres which it contains Shall be again into their Chaos whirl'd At the last dissolution of the world For God who made this blessed place to be The habitation of his Sanctitie Admitting nothing into it that 's vile Nothing that can corrupt or can defile Never withdraws his gracious presence thence But is on all the Glory a defence Nor are his Gates ere shut by night or day His only dread keeps all foes far away He not for need but for Majestick state Innumerable hosts of Angels did create To be his outguards in respect of whom He doth his name El-tzeboim assume These perfect pure Intelligences be Excel in Might and in Celeritie Whose sublime natures and whose agile powers Are vastly so superiour unto ours Our narrow thoughts cannot to them extend And things so far above us comprehend As in themselves although in part we know Some scantlings by appearances below And sacred Writ wherein we find there be Distinguisht Orders in their Hierarchie Arch-Angels Cherubims and Seraphims Who celebrate their God with holy Hymns Ten thousand thousand vulgar Angels stand All in their ranks waiting the Lords command Which with prompt inclination of their will And chearful swift obedience they fulfil Whether he them to save poor men employ Or send them arm'd proud rebels to destroy Whether he them to mighty Monarchs send Or bid them on poor Pilgrim Saints attend Whether they must in heavenly lustre go Or walk in mortal mean disguise below So kind so humble are they though so high They do it with the same alacrity Why blush we not at our vain pride when we Such condescension in Heavens Courtiers see That they who sit on heavenly thrones above Scorn not to serve poor worms with fervent Love And joyful praises to th' Almighty sing When they a mortal to their own home bring How gracious is the Lord of all that He Should thus consider poor mortalitie Such powers for us into those powers diffuse Such glorious servants in our service use Who whether they with Light or Heaven had Creation were within the six days made But leave we looking through the vail nor pry Too long on things wrapt up in mystery Reserv'd to be our wonder at that time When we shall up to their high mountain climb Besides th' Empyrean heaven we are told Of divers other heavens which we behold Only by Reasons eye yet were not they If made at least distinguisht the first day Then from the height we cannot comprehend Let us to our inferiour world descend The Earth at first was a vast empty place A rude congestion without form or grace A confus'd mass of undistinguisht feed Darkness the deep the Deep the solid hid Where things did in unperfect Causes sleep Until Gods Spirit mov'd the quiet deep Brooding the creatures under wings of Love As tender birds hatcht by a Turtle Dove Light first of all its radiant wings display'd God call'd forth Light that word the creature made Whether it were the natures more divine Or the bright mansion where just souls must shine Or the first matter of those Tapers which The since-made firmament do still enrich It is not yet agreed among the wise But thus the day did out of Chaos rise And casts its bright beams on the floating world O're which soon envious night her black mists hurl'd Damping the new born splendour for a space Till the next morning did her shadows chace With restor'd beauty and triumphant force Returning to begin another course An emblem of that everlasting feud 'Twixt sons of light and darkness still pursued And of that frail imperfect state wherein The wasting lights of mortal men begin Whose comforts honours lives soon as they shine Must all to sorrows changes death resign Even their wisdomes and their vertues light Are hid by envies interposing night But though these splendors all in graves are thrown Whereever the true feed of light is sown The Powers of Darkness may contend in vain It shall a conquerour rise and ever reign For when God the victorious morning view'd Approving his own work he said 't was good And of inanimate creatures sure the best As that which shews and beautifies the rest Those melancholy thoughts which night creates And seeds in mortal bosomes dissipates In its own nature subtile swift and pure Which no polluted mirrour can endure By it th'