Almighty Maker doth dispence To earthy creatures heavenly influence By it with angels swiftness are our eyes Exalted to the glory of the skies In whose bright character the light divine Which flesh cannot behold doth dimly shine Thus was the first Day made God so call'd Light Sever'd from Darkness Darkness was the Night Canto II. AGain spoke God the trembling waters move Part flie up in thick mists made clouds above Part closer shrink about the earth below But did not yet the mountains dry heads show Th' allforming Word stretcht out the Firmament Like azure curtains round his glorious Tent And in its hidden chambers did dispose The magazines of Hail and Rain and Snows Amongst those thicker clouds from whose dark womb Th' imprison'd winds in flame and thunder come Those Clouds which over all the wondrous Arch Like hosts of various formed creatures march And change the Scenes in our admiring eyes Who sometimes see them like vast mountains rise Sometimes like pleasant Seas with clear waves glide Sometimes like Ships on foaming billows ride Sometimes like mounted warriours they advance And seem to fire the smoaking Ordinance Sometimes like shady Forests they appear Here Monsters walking Castles rising there Scorn Princes your embroider'd Canopies And painted roofs the poor whom you despise With far more ravishing delight are fed While various clouds sayl o're th' unhoused head And their heav'd eyes with nobler scenes present Than your Poetick Courtiers can invent Thus the exalted waters were dispos'd And liquid Skies the solid world enclos'd To magnifie the most almighty hand That makes thin floods like rocks of crystal stand Not quenching nor drunk up by that bright wall Of fire which neighbouring them encircles all The new built Firmament God Heaven nam'd And over all the Arch his windows fram'd From whence his liberal hand at due time pours Upon the thirsty earth refreshing showers And clothes her bosome with descending Snow To cherish the young seeds when cold winds blow Hence every night his fatning dews he sheds And scatters Pearls amidst th' enamel'd beds But when presumptuous sins the bright arch scale He beats them back with terrifying hail Which like small shot amidst his foes he sends Till flaming Thunder his great Ordnance rends The clouds which big with horror ready stand To pour their burthens forth at his command But th' unpolluted air as yet had not From mortals impious breath infection got Enlightned then by a superiour ray A serene lustre deckt the second day Th' inferiour Globe was fashion'd on the third When waters at the all-commanding word Did hastily into their channels glide And the uncover'd hills as soon were dried In the same body thus distinct and joyn'd Water and earth as flesh and blood we find The late collected waters God call'd Seas Springs Lakes streams and broad Rivers are from these Brancht like life-feeding veins in every land Yet wheresoe're they seem to flow or stand As all in the vast Oceans bosome bred They daily reassemble in their head Which thorough secret conduits back conveys To every Spring the tribute that it pays So ages from th' Eternal bosome creep So lose them selves again in that vast deep So Empires so all other humane things With winding streams run to their native springs So all the goodness mortals exercise Flows back to God out of his own supplies Now the great fabrick in all parts compleat Beauty was call'd forth to adorn the seat Where Earth fixt in the Centre was the ground A mantle of light air compast it round Then first the watrie then the fiery wall And glittering heaven last involving all Earth's fair green robe vi'd with the azure skies Her proud Woods near the flaming Towers did rife The valleys Trees though less in breadth and height Yet hung with various fruit as much delight Beneath these little shrubs and bushes sprung With fair flowers cloth'd and with rich berries hung Whos 's more delightful fruits seem'd to upbraid The tall trees yielding only barren shade Then sprouted Grass and Herbs and Plants Prepar'd to feed the earth's inhabitants To glad their nostrils and delight their eyes Revive their spirits cure their maladies Nor by these are the senses only fed But th' understanding too while we may read In every leaf lectures of Providence Eternal Wisdom Love Omnipotence Which th' eye that sees not with Hells mists is blind That which regards not is of bruitish kind The various colours figures powers of these Are their Creators growing witnesses Their glories emblems are wherein we see How frail our humane lives and beauties be Even like those flowers which at the Sun-rise spread Their gawdy leaves and are at evening dead Yet while they in their native lustre shine The Eastern Monarchs are not half so fine In richer robes God clothes the dirty soyl Than men can purchase by their sin and toyl Then rather Fields than painted Courts admire Yet seeing both think both must feed the fire Only Gods works have roots and seeds from whence They spring again in grace and excellence But mens have none like hasty lightning they Flash out and so for ever pass away This fair Creation finisht the third day In whose end God did the whole work survey The Seas the Skies the Trees and less plants view'd And by his approbation made them good In all the plants did living seeds enclose Whence their successive generations rose Gave them those powers which in them still remain Whereby they man and beast with food sustain Thrice had the day to gloomy night resign'd And thrice victorious o're the darkness shin'd Before the mediate cause of it the Sun Or any star had their creation For with th' Omnipotent it is all one To cause the day without or by the Sun God in the world by second causes reigns But is not tied to those means he ordains Let no heart faint then that on him depends When the means fail that lead to their wisht ends For God the thing if good will bring about With instruments we see not or without The fourth Light having now expell'd the shade God on that day the Luminaries made And plac'd them all in their peculiar sphears To measure out our days and months and years Which by their various motions are renew'd And heat and cold have their vicissitude So Springs and Autumns still successive be Till ages lose them in Eternity The Sun whom th' Hebrews Gods great servant call Plac'd in the middle Orb as Lord of all Is in a radiant flaming chariot whirl'd And dayly carried round abut the world By the first Movers force who in that race Scatters his light and heat in every place Yet not at once Now in the East he shines And then again to'the Western deep declines Seeming to quench his blazing taper there While it enlightens the
other Hemisphere Thus he their share of day and night divides Unto each world in their alternate tides But then its Orb by its own motion roll'd Varies the seasons brings in heat and cold As it projects its rays in a straight line Or more obliquely on the Earth doth shine And thus doth he to the low world dispense Life-feeding and engendring influence This Lord of Day with his reflected light Guilds the pale Moon the Empress of the night Whose dim Orb monthly wastes and grows Doth at the first sharp pointed horns disclose Then half then her full shining Globe reveals Which waining she by like degrees conceals The other glittering Planets now appear Each as a King enthron'd in his own Sphear Then the eighth heaven in fuller lustre shines Thick set with stars All these were made for signs That mortals by observing them might know Due times to cultivate the earth below To gather fruits plant trees and sow their seed To cure their herds and let their fair flocks breed Into safe harbours to retire their ships Again to launch out into the calm deeps Their wandring vessels in broad seas to guide When the lost shores no longer are descried Physicians to direct in their great art And other useful knowledge to impart Nor were they only made for signs to shew Fit opportunities for things we do But in their various aspects too we read Various events which shall in time succeed Droughts inundations famines plagues and wars By several conjunctions of the Stars At least shewn if not caus'd through the strong powers And workings Astral bodies have on ours Which as above they variously are joyn'd So are their subjects here below enclin'd To sadness mirth dread quiet love or hate All that may calm or trouble any state Yet are they but a second cause which God Shakes over sinners as a flaming rod And further manages in his own hands To scourge the pride of all rebellious lands Falsely and vainly do blind mortals then To them impute the fates and ills of men When their sinister operations be Only th' effects of mens iniquitie Which makes the Lord his glittering hosts thus send To execute the just threats they portend Nor are they characters of wrath alone They sometimes have Gods grace to mankind shown Such was that new Star which did heaven adorn When the great King of the whole word was born Such were those stars that fought for Israel When Jabins vanquisht host by Gods host fell Even those Stars which threaten misery and woe To wicked men to Saints deliverance show For when God cuts the bloody Tyrant down He will their lives with peace and blessings crown Thus the fourth evening did the fourth day close And where the Sun went down the Stars arose New triumph now the fifth day celebrates The perfum'd morning opes her purple gates Through which the Suns Pavilion doth appear And he array'd in all his lustre there Like a fresh Bridegroom with majestique grace And joy diffusing vigour in his face Comes gladly forth to greet his virgin bride Trick'd up in all her ornaments and pride Her lovely maids at his approach unfold Their gaudie vests on which he scatters gold Both chearing and enriching every place Through which he passes in his glorious race But though he found a noble Threatre As yet in it no living creatures were Though flowry carpets spread the whole Earths face And rich embroideries the upper Arch did grace And standards on the mountains stood between Bearing festoones like pillars wreath'd with green The velvet couches and the mossy seats The open walks and the more close retreats Were all prepar'd Yet no foot trod the woods Nor no mouth yet had toucht the pleasant floods No weary creature had repos'd its head Among the sweet perfumes of the low bed The air was not respir'd in living breath Throughout a general stilness reign'd like death The King of day came forth but unadmir'd Like unprais'd gallants blushingly retir'd As an uncourted beauty Nights pale Queen Grew sick to shine where she could not be seen When the Creator first for mute herds calls And bade the waters bring forth animals Then was all shell-fish and each Scaly race At once produc'd in their assigned place The crooked Dolphins great Leviathan And all the Monsters of the Ocean Like wanton kids among the billows play'd Nor was there after on the dry land made Any one beast of less or greater kind Whose like we do not in the waters find Where every greater fish devours the less As mighty Lords poor Commoners oppress Next the Almighty by his forming Word Made the whole plumie race and every bird It s proper place assign'd while with light wings All mounted heaven some o're the lakes and springs Some over the vast Fens and Seas did flie Some near the ground some in the cloudy skie Some in high trees their proud nests built some chose The humble shrubs for their more safe repose Some did the marshes some the rivers love Some the Corn-fields and some the shady grove That silence which reign'd every where before It s universal Empire held no more Even night and darkness its own dear retreat Could not preserve it in their reign compleat The Nightingales with their complaining notes Ravens and Owls with their ill-boding throats And all the birds of night shrill crowing Cocks Whose due kept times made them the worlds first clocks All interrupted it even in the night But at the first appearance of the light A thousand voyces the green woods whole quire With their loud musick do the day admire The Lark doth with her single carol rise To welcome the fair morning in the skies The amorous and still complaining Dove Courts not the day but woes her own fair love The Jays and Crows against each other rayl And chattering Pies begin their gossips tale Thus life was carri'd on which first begun In growth of plants in fishes motion And next declar'd it self in living sound Whilst various noise the yielding air did wound Various instincts the Birds by nature have Which God to them in their creation gave That unto their observers do declare The storms and calms approaching in the air That teach them how to build their nests at spring And hatch their young under their nursing wing To lead abroad and guard their tender brood To know their hurtful and their healing food To feed them till their strength be perfect grown And after teach them how to feed alone Could we the lessons they hold forth improve We might from some learn chaste and constant love Conjugal kindness of the paired Swans Paternal Bounty of the Pelicans While they are prodigal of their own blood To feed their chickens with that precious food Wisdome of those who when storms threat the Skie In thick assemblies to their shelter flie And those who seeing devourers in the air To the safe covert of the wing repair
we all our actions regulate Which heaven both first and last should terminate And in whatever circle else they run There should they end there should they be begun There seek their pattern and derive from thence Their whole direction and their influence As when th' Almighty this low world did frame Life by degrees to its perfection came In Vegetation first sprung up to sense Ascended next and climb'd to reason thence So we pursuing our attainments should Press forward from what 's positively good Still climbing higher until we reach the best And that acquir'd for ever fix our rest Our souls so ravisht with the joys divine That they no more to creatures can decline As Gods Rest was but a more high retreat From the delights of this inferiour seat So must our souls upon our Sabbaths climb Above the world sequestred for that time From those legitimate delights which may Rejoyce us here upon a common day As God his works compleated did retire To be ador'd by the Angelick Quire So when on us the seventh days light doth shine Should we our selves to Gods assemblies joyn Thither all hearts as one pure offring bring And all with one accord adore our King This seventh day the Lord to mankind gave Nor is it the least priviledge we have And ours peculiarly The Orbs above Aswell the seventh as the sixth day move The rain descends and the fierce tempest blows On it the restless Ocean ebbs and flows Bees that day fill the hive and on that day Ants their provisions in their store-house lay All creatures plie their works no beast But those which mankind use share in that rest Which God indulg'd only to humane race That they in it might come before his face To celebrate his worship and his praise And gain a blessing upon all their days O wretched souls of perverse men who slight So great a grace refuse such rich delight Which the inferiour creatures cannot share To which alone their natures fitted are And whereby favour'd men admitted be Into the angels blest societle Yet is this Rest but a far distant view Of that celestial life which we pursue By Satan oft so interrupted here That little of its glory doth appear Nor can our souls sick languid appetite Feast upon such substantial strong delight As musick pains the grieved aking head With which the healthful sense is sweetly fed So duties wherein sound hearts full joys find Fetters and sad loads are to a sick mind Till it thereto by force it self mure And from a loathing fall to love its cure God for his worship kept one day of seven The other six to man for mans use given Adam although so highly dignified Was not to spend in idle ease and pride Nor supine sleep drunk with his sensual pleasures Profusely wasting th' Empires sacred treasures As now his faln sons do that arrogate His forfeited dominion and high state But God his dayly Business did ordain That Kings hence taught might in their Realms maintain Fair order serving those whom they command As guardians not as owners of the land Not being set there to pluck up and destroy Those plants whose culture should their cares employ Nor doth this precept only Kings comprize The meanest must his little paradise With no less vigilance and care attend Than Princes on their vast enclosures spend All hence must learn their duty to suppress Th' intrusions of a sordid idleness Who form'd could have preserv'd the garden fair Without th' employment of mans busie care But that he will'd that our delight should be The wages of our constant industrie That we his ever bounteous hand might bless Crowning our honest labours with success And tast the joy men reap in their own fruit Loving that more to which they contribute Either the labour of their hands or brains Than better things produc'd by others pains Led by desire fed with fair hope the fruit Oft-times delights not more than the pursuit For man a nature hath to action prone That languishes and sickens finding none As standing pools corrupt water that flows More pure by its continual current grows So humane kind by active exercise Do to the heights of their perfection rise While their stock'd glory comes to no ripe growth Whose lives corrupt in idleness and sloth Which is not natural but a disease That doth upon the flesh-cloy'd spirit seize Where health untainted is then the sound mind In its employment doth its pleasure find But when death or its representer sleep Upon the mortals tired members creep This during its dull reign doth life suspend That ceasing action puts it to an end Lastly since God himself did man employ To dress up Paradise that moderate joy Which from this fair creation we derive Is not our sin but our prerogative If bounded so as we fix not our rest In creatures which but transient are at best Yet 't is sin to neglect not use or prize As well as 't is to wast and idolize Canto IV. GOod were all natures as God made them all Good was his Will permitting some to fall That th' rest renouncing their frail strength might stand Humble and firm in his supporting hand His wisdome and omnipotence might own When his Foes power and craft is overthrown Seeing his hate of sin might thence confess His pure innate and perfect Holiness And that the glory of his Justice might In the Rebels torturing flames seem bright That th' ever bless'd Redeemer might take place To illustrate his rich mercy and free grace Whereby he fallen sinners doth restore To fuller bliss than they enjoy'd before That Vertue might in its clear brightness shine Which like rich ore concealed in the mine Had not been known but that opposing vice Illustrates it by frequent exercise If all were good whence then arose the ill 'T was not in Gods but in the creatures will Averting from that good which is supream Corrupted so as a declining stream That breaks off its communion with its head By whom its life and sweetness late were fed Turns to a noisome dead and poysonous Lake Infecting all who the foul waters take Or as a Branch cut from the living Tree Passes into contempt immediately And dies divided from its glorious stock So strength disjoyned from the living rock Turns to contemned imbecillity And doth to all its grace and glory die Some new-made Angels thus not more sublime In nature than transcending in their crime Quitting th' eternal fountain of their light Became the first-born sons of woe and night Princes of Darkness and the sad Abysse Which now their cursed place and portion is Where they no more must fee Gods glorious face Nor ever taste of his refreshing grace But in the fire of his fierce anger dwell Which though it burns enlightens
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
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'