Chapter XXIV (3)

All that is great and stable stood
Before thy purer eyes at first:
All that in visibles is good
Or pure, or fair, or unaccurst.

Whatever else thou now dost see
In custom, action, or desire,
'Tis but a part of misery
In which all men at once conspire.

THE VISION

I

Flight is but the preparative. The sight
Is deep and infinite,
Ah me! 'tis all the glory, love, light, space,
Joy, beauty and variety
That doth adorn the Godhead's dwelling-place,
'Tis all that eye can see.
Even trades themselves seen in celestial light,
And cares and sins and woes are bright.

II

Order the beauty even of beauty is,
It is the rule of bliss,
The very life and form and cause of pleasure;
Which if we do not understand,
Ten thousand heaps of vain confused treasure
Will but oppress the land.
In blessedness itself we that shall miss,
Being blind, which is the cause of bliss.

III

First then behold the world as thine, and well
Note that where thou dost dwell.
See all the beauty of the spacious case,
Lift up thy pleas'd and ravisht eyes,
Admire the glory of the Heavenly place
And all its blessings prize.
That sight well seen thy spirit shall prepare,
The first makes all the other rare.

IV

Men's woes shall be but foils unto thy bliss,
Thou once enjoying this:
Trades shall adorn and beautify the earth,
Their ignorance shall make thee bright,
Were not their griefs Democritus his mirth?
Their faults shall keep thee right:
All shall be thine, because they all conspire,
To feed and make thy glory higher.

V

To see a glorious fountain and an end,
To see all creatures tend
To thy advancement, and so sweetly close
In thy repose: to see them shine
In use, in worth, in service, and even foes
Among the rest made thine:
To see all these unite at once in thee
Is to behold felicity.

VI

To see the fountain is a blessed thing,
It is to see the King
Of Glory face to face: but yet the end,
The glorious, wondrous end is more;
And yet the fountain there we comprehend,
The spring we there adore:
For in the end the fountain best is shewn,
As by effects the cause is known.

VII

From one, to one, in one to see all things,
To see the King of Kings
But once in two; to see His endless treasures
Made all mine own, myself the end
Of all his labours! 'Tis the life of pleasures!
To see myself His friend!
Who all things finds conjoined in Him alone,
Sees and enjoys the Holy One.

THE RAPTURE

I

Sweet Infancy!
O fire of heaven! O sacred Light!
How fair and bright!
How great am I,
Whom all the world doth magnify!

II

O Heavenly joy!
O great and sacred blessedness
Which I possess!
So great a joy
Who did into my arms convey!

III

From God above
Being sent, the Heavens me enflame:
To praise his Name
The stars do move!
The burning sun doth shew His love.

IV

O how divine
Am I! To all this sacred wealth,
This life and health,
Who raised? Who mine
Did make the same? What hand divine?

THE IMPROVEMENT

I

'Tis more to recollect, than make. The one
Is but an accident without the other.
We cannot think the world to be the Throne
Of God, unless His Wisdom shine as Brother
Unto His Power, in the fabric, so
That we the one may in the other know.

II

His goodness also must in both appear,
And all the children of His love be found
In the creation of the starry sphere,
And in the forming of the fruitful ground;
Before we can that happiness descry
Which is the Daughter of the deity.

III

His wisdom shines in spreading forth the sky,
His power's great in ordering the Sun,
His goodness very marvellous and high
Appears, in every work His hand hath done:
And all His works in their variety
United or asunder please the eye.

IV

But neither goodness, wisdom, power, nor love,
Nor happiness itself in things could be,
Did they not all in one fair order move,
And jointly by their service end in me:
Had He not made an eye to be the Sphere
Of all things, none of these would e'er appear.

V

His wisdom, goodness, power, as they unite,
All things in one, that they may be the treasures
Of one enjoyer, shine in the utmost height
They can attain; and are most glorious pleasures,
When all the universe conjoined in one,
Exalts a creature as if that alone.

VI

To bring the moisture of far-distant seas
Into a point, to make them present here,
In virtue, not in bulk; one man to please
With all the powers of the Highest Sphere
From East, from West, from North and South, to bring
The pleasing influence of every thing,

VII

Is far more great than to create them there
Where now they stand; His wisdom more doth shine
In that His might and goodness more appear
In recollecting; He is more divine
In making every thing a gift to one
Than in the sev'ral parts of all His spacious Throne.

VIII

Herein we see a marvellous design,
And apprehending clearly the great skill
Of that great Architect, whose love doth shine
In all His works, we find His Life and Will:
For lively counsels do the Godhead shew,
And these His love and goodness make us know.

IX

By wise contrivance He doth all things guide,
And so dispose them, that while they unite
For man He endless pleasures doth provide,
And shows that happiness is His delight,
His creatures' happiness as well as His:
For that in truth He seeks, and 'tis His bliss.

X

O rapture! wonder! ecstasie! delight!
How great must then His glory be, how great
Our blessedness! How vast and infinite
Our pleasure, how transcendent, how complete,
If we the goodness of our God possess,
And all His joy be in our blessedness.

XI

Almighty power when it is employed
For one, that He with glory might be crown'd;
Eternal wisdom when it is enjoyed
By one whom all its pleasures do surround,
Produce a creature that must, all his days,
Return the sacrifice of endless praise.

XII

But Oh! the vigour of mine infant sense
Drives me too far: I had not yet the eye,
The apprehension, or intelligence
Of things so very great, divine, and high.
But all things were eternal unto me,
And mine, and pleasing which mine eye did see.

XIII

That was enough at first: eternity,
Infinity, and love were silent joys;
Power, wisdom, goodness, and felicity;
All these which now our care and sin destroys,
By instinct virtually were well discern'd,
And by their representatives were learn'd.