Chapter VII

O wondrous Self! O sphere of light,
O sphere of joy most fair;
O act, O power infinite;
O subtile and unbounded air!
O living orb of sight!
Thou which within me art, yet me! Thou eye,
And temple of His whole infinity!
O what a world art Thou! A world within!
All things appear
All objects are
Alive in Thee! Supersubstantial, rare,
Above themselves, and nigh of kin
To those pure things we find
In His great mind
Who made the world! Tho' now eclipsed by sin
There they are useful and divine,
Exalted there they ought to shine.

THE APPREHENSION

If this I did not every moment see,
And if my thoughts did stray
At any time, or idly play,
And fix on other objects, yet
This Apprehension set
In me
Was all my whole felicity.

FULLNESS

That light, that sight, that thought,
Which in my soul at first He wrought,
Is sure the only act to which I may
Assent to-day:
The mirror of an endless life,
The shadow of a virgin wife,
A spiritual world standing within,
An Universe enclosed in skin,
My power exerted, or my perfect Being,
If not enjoying, yet an act of seeing.
My bliss
Consists in this,
My duty too
In this I view.
It is a fountain or a spring,
Refreshing me in everything.
From whence those living streams I do derive,
By which my thirsty soul is kept alive.
The centre and the sphere
Of my delights are here.
It is my David's tower
Where all my armour lies,
The fountain of my power,
My bliss, my sacrifice:
A little spark
That shining in the dark,
Makes and encourages my soul to rise,
The root of hope, the golden chain,
Whose end is, as the poets feign,
Fastened to the very throne
Of Jove.
It is a stone,
On which I sit,
An endless benefit,
That being made my regal throne,
Doth prove
An Oracle of His Eternal Love.

NATURE

That Custom is a second Nature, we
Most plainly find by Nature's purity.
For Nature teacheth nothing but the truth;
I'm sure that mine did in my virgin youth:
The very Day my Spirit did inspire,
The world's fair beauty set my soul on fire.
My senses were informers to my heart,
The conduits of His glory, power, and art.
His greatness, wisdom, goodness, I did see,
His glorious Love, and His Eternitie,
Almost as soon as born; and every sense
Was in me like to some Intelligence.
I was by nature prone and apt to love
All light and beauty, both in Heaven above,
And Earth beneath, prone even to admire,
Adore, and praise as well as to desire.
My inclinations raised me up on high,
And guided me to all Infinity.
A secret self I had enclosed within,
That was not bounded with my clothes or skin,
Or terminated with my sight, the sphere
Of which was bounded with the Heavens here:
But that did rather, like the subtile light,
Secured from rough and raging storms by night,
Break through the lanthorn's sides, and freely ray
Dispersing and dilating every way:
Whose steady beams too subtile for the wind,
Are such that we their bounds can scarcely find.
It did encompass, and possess rare things,
But yet felt more, and on its angel's wings
Pierced through the skies immediately, and sought
For all that could beyond all worlds be thought.
It did not move, nor one way go, but stood,
And by dilating of itself, all good
It strove to see, as if 'twere present there,
Even while it present stood conversing here:
And more suggested than I could discern,
Or ever since by any means could learn.
Vast, unaffected wonderful desires,
Like inward, native, uncaus'd hidden fires,
Sprang up with expectations very strange,
Which into new desires did quickly change:
For all I saw beyond the azure round,
Was endless darkness with no beauty crown'd.
Why beauty should not there, as well as here,
Why goodness should not likewise there appear,
Why treasures and delights should bounded be,
Since there is such a wide Infinitie;
These were the doubts and troubles of my Soul,
By which I do perceive without control,
A world of endless joys by Nature made,
That needs must flourish ever, never fade.
A wide, magnificent and spacious sky,
So rich 'tis worthy of the Deity,
Clouds here and there like winged charets flying,
Flowers ever flourishing, yet always dying,
A day of glory where I all things see,
As 'twere enrich'd with beams of light for me,
And drown'd in glorious rays of purer light,
Succeeded with a black, yet glorious night;
Stars sweetly shedding to my pleased sense,
On all things their nocturnal influence,
With secret rooms in times and ages more,
Past and to come enlarging my great store:
These all in order present unto me
My happy eyes did in a moment see,
With wonders there-too, to my Soul unknown,
Till they by men and reading first were shewn.
All which were made that I might ever be
With some great workman, some Great Deity.
But yet there were new rooms and spaces more,
Beyond all these, new regions o'er and o'er,
Into all which my pent-up Soul like fire
Did break, surmounting all I here admire.
The spaces fill'd were like a cabinet
Of joys before me most distinctly set:
The empty like to large and vacant room
For fancy to enlarge in, and presume
A space for more, remov'd, but yet adorning
Those near at hand, that pleased me every morning.
Here I was seated to behold new things,
In the fair fabric of the King of Kings.
All, all was mine. The fountain tho' not known,
Yet that there must be one was plainly shewn,
Which fountain of delights must needs be Love,
As all the goodness of the things did prove.
It shines upon me from the highest skies,
And all its creatures for my sake doth prize,
Of whose enjoyment I am made the end,
While how the same is so I comprehend.

EASE

I

How easily doth Nature teach the soul
How irresistible is her infusion!
There's nothing found that can her force control
But sin. How weak and feeble's all delusion!

II

Things false are forc'd and most elaborate,
Things pure and true are obvious unto sense;
The first impressions in our earthly state
Are made by things most great in excellence.

III

How easy is it to believe the sky
Is wide and great and fair! How soon may we
Be made to know the Sun is bright and high,
And very glorious, when its beams we see!

IV

That all the Earth is one continued globe,
And that all men therein are living treasures,
That fields and meadows are a glorious robe
Adorning it with smooth and heavenly pleasures.

V

That all we see is ours, and every one
Possessor of the whole; that every man
Is like a God Incarnate on the Throne,
Even like the first for whom the world began;

VI

Whom all are taught to honour, serve, and love,
Because he is belov'd of God unknown;
And therefore is on Earth itself above
All others, that His wisdom might be shewn.

VII

That all may happy be, each one most blest,
Both in himself and others; all most high,
While all by each, and each by all possest
Are intermutual joys beneath the sky.

VIII

This shows a wise contrivance, and discovers
Some great Creator sitting on the Throne,
That so disposeth things for all His lovers,
That every one might reign like God alone.

SPEED

I

The liquid pearl in springs,
The useful and the precious things
Are in a moment known.
Their very glory does reveal their worth
(And that doth set their glory forth);
As soon as I was born they all were shewn.

II

True living wealth did flow
In crystal streams below
My feet, and trilling down
In pure, transparent, soft, sweet, melting pleasures,
Like precious and diffusive treasures,
At once my body fed, and soul did crown.

III

I was as high and great
As Kings are in their seat.
All other things were mine.
The world my house, the creatures were my goods,
Fields, mountains, valleys, woods,
Men and their arts to make me rich combine.

IV

Great, lofty, endless, stable,
Various and Innumerable,
Bright, useful, fair, divine.
Immovable and sweet the treasures were,
The sacred objects did appear
More rich and beautiful, as well as mine.

V

New all! new-burnisht joys;
Tho' now by other toys
Eclipst: new all and mine.
Great Truth so sacred seemed for this to me,
Because the things which I did see
Were such, my state I knew to be divine.

VI

Nor did the Angels' faces,
The glories and the graces,
The beauty, peace and joy
Of Heaven itself, more sweetness yield to me.
Till filthy sin did all destroy
Those were the offspring of the Deity.

THE CHOICE

I

When first Eternity stoop'd down to nought
And in the Earth its likeness sought,
When first it out of nothing fram'd the skies,
And form'd the moon and sun
That we might see what it had done,
It was so wise,
That it did prize
Things truly greatest, brightest, fairest, best,
All which it made, and left the rest.

II

Then did it take such care about the Truth,
Its daughter, that even in her youth,
Her face might shine upon us, and be known,
That by a better fate,
It other toys might antedate
As soon as shewn;
And be our own,
While we were hers; and that a virgin love
Her best inheritance might prove.

III

Thoughts undefiled, simple, naked, pure;
Thoughts worthy ever to endure,
Our first and disengaged thoughts it loves,
And therefore made the truth,
In infancy and tender youth
So obvious to
Our easy view
That it doth prepossess our Soul, and proves
The cause of what it all ways moves.

IV

By merit and desire it doth allure;
For truth is so divine and pure,
So rich and acceptable, being seen,
(Not parted, but in whole)
That it doth draw and force the soul,
As the great Queen
Of bliss, between
Whom and the Soul, no one pretender ought
Trust in to captivate a thought.

V

Hence did Eternity contrive to make
The truth so fair for all our sake
That being truth, and fair and easy too,
While it on all doth shine,
We might by it become divine,
Being led to woo
The thing we view,
And as chaste virgins early with it join,
That with it we might likewise shine.

VI

Eternity doth give the richest things
To every man, and makes all Kings.
The best and richest things it doth convey
To all, and every one,
It raised me unto a throne!
Which I enjoy,
In such a way,
That truth her daughter is my chiefest bride,
Her daughter truth's my chiefest pride.

VII

All mine! And seen so easily! How great, how blest!
How soon am I of all possest!
My infancy no sooner opes its eyes,
But straight the spacious Earth
Abounds with joy, peace, glory, mirth,
And being wise
The very skies,
And stars do mine become; being all possest
Even in that way that is the best.

THE PERSON

I

Ye Sacred limbs,
A richer blazon I will lay
On you than first I found:
That like celestial kings,
Ye might with ornaments of joy
Be always crown'd.
A deep vermilion on a red,
On that a scarlet I will lay,
With gold I'll crown your head,
Which like the Sun shall ray.
With robes of glory and delight
I'll make you bright.
Mistake me not, I do not mean to bring
New robes, but to display the thing:
Nor paint, nor clothe, nor crown, nor add a ray,
But glorify by taking all away.

II

The naked things
Are most sublime, and brightest show,
When they alone are seen:
Men's hands than Angels' wings
Are truer wealth even here below:
For those but seem.
Their worth they then do best reveal,
When we all metaphors remove,
For metaphors conceal,
And only vapours prove.
They best are blazon'd when we see
The anatomy,
Survey the skin, cut up the flesh, the veins
Unfold: the glory there remains:
The muscles, fibres, arteries, and bones
Are better far than crowns and precious stones.

III

Shall I not then
Delight in those most sacred treasures
Which my great Father gave,
Far more than other men
Delight in gold? Since these are pleasures
That make us brave!
Far braver than the pearl and gold
That glitter on a lady's neck!
The rubies we behold,
The diamonds that deck
The hands of queens, compared unto
The hands we view;
The softer lilies and the roses are
Less ornaments to those that wear
The same, than are the hands, and lips and eyes
Of those who those false ornaments so prize.

IV

Let verity
Be thy delight; let me esteem
True wealth far more than toys:
Let sacred riches be,
While falser treasures only seem,
My real joys.
For golden chains and bracelets are
But gilded manacles, whereby
Old Satan doth ensnare,
Allure, bewitch the eye.
Thy gifts, O God, alone I'll prize,
My tongue, my eyes,
My cheeks, my lips, my ears, my hands, my feet;
Their harmony is far more sweet;
Their beauty true. And these in all my ways
Shall themes become and organs of Thy praise.

THE ESTATE

I

But shall my soul no wealth possess,
No outward riches have?
Shall hands and eyes alone express
Thy bounty? Which the grave
Shall strait devour. Shall I become
Within myself a living tomb
Of useless wonders? Shall the fair and brave
And great endowments of my soul lie waste,
Which ought to be a fountain, and a womb
Of praises unto Thee?
Shall there no outward objects be,
For these to see and taste?
Not so, my God, for outward joys and pleasures
Are even the things for which my limbs are treasures.

II

My palate is a touch-stone fit
To taste how good Thou art,
And other members second it
Thy praises to impart.
There's not an eye that's fram'd by Thee,
But ought Thy life and love to see:
Nor is there, Lord, upon mine head an ear,
But that the music of Thy works should hear.
Each toe, each finger, framed by Thy skill,
Ought ointments to distil.
Ambrosia, nectar, wine should flow
From every joint I owe,
Or things more rich; while they Thy holy will
Are instruments adapted to fulfill.

III

They ought, my God, to be the pipes
And conduits of Thy praise.
Men's bodies were not made for stripes,
Nor anything but joys.
They were not made to be alone:
But made to be the very throne
Of Blessedness, to be like Suns, whose rays,
Dispersed, scatter many thousand ways.
They drink in nectars, and disburse again
In purer beams, those streams,
Those nectars which are caus'd by joys,
And as the spacious main
Doth all the rivers, which it drinks, return,
Thy love receiv'd doth make the soul to burn.

IV

Elixirs richer are than dross,
And ends are more divine
Than are the means; but dung and loss
Materials (tho' they shine
Like gold and silver) are, compar'd
To what Thy Spirit doth regard,
Thy will require, Thy love embrace, Thy mind
Esteem, Thy nature most illustrious find.
These are the things wherewith we God reward.
Our love He more doth prize,
Our gratitude is in His eyes
Far richer than the skies.
And those affections which we do return,
Are like the love which in Himself doth burn.

V

We plough the very skies, as well
As earth; the spacious seas
Are ours; the stars all gems excel.
The air was made to please
The souls of men: devouring fire
Doth feed and quicken man's desire.
The orb of light in its wide circuit moves,
Corn for our food springs out of very mire,
Our fuel grows in woods and groves;
Choice herbs and flowers aspire
To kiss our feet: beasts court our loves.[J]
How glorious is man's fate!
The laws of God, the works He did create,
His ancient ways, are His and my Estate.

THE ENQUIRY

I

Men may delighted be with springs,
While trees and herbs their senses please,
And taste even living nectar in the seas:
May think their members things
Of earthly worth at least, if not divine,
And sing because the earth for them doth shine:

II

But can the Angels take delight,
To see such faces here beneath?
Or can perfumes indeed from dung-hills breathe?
Or is the world a sight
Worthy of them? Then may we mortals be
Surrounded with eternal Clarity.

III

Even holy angels may come down
To walk on Earth, and see delights,
That feed and please, even here, their appetites.
Our joys may make a crown
For them. And in His Tabernacle men may be
Like palms we mingled with the Cherubs see.

IV

Men's senses are indeed the gems,
Their praises the most sweet perfumes,
Their eyes the thrones, their hearts the Heavenly rooms,
Their souls the diadems,
Their tongues the organs which they love to hear,
Their cheeks and faces like to theirs appear.

V

The wonders which our God hath done,
The glories of His attributes,
Like dangling apples or like golden fruits,
Angelic joys become.
His wisdom shines on Earth; His love doth flow,
Like myrrh or incense, even here below.

VI

And shall not we such joys possess,
Which God for man did chiefly make?
The Angels have them only for our sake!
And yet they all confess
His glory here on Earth to be divine,
And that His Godhead in His works doth shine.

THE CIRCULATION

I

As fair ideas from the sky,
Or images of things,
Unto a spotless mirror fly,
On unperceived wings,
And lodging there affect the sense,
As if at first they came from thence;
While being there, they richly beautify
The place they fill, and yet communicate
Themselves, reflecting to the seer's eye;
Just such is our estate.
No praise can we return again,
No glory in ourselves possess,
But what derived from without we gain,
From all the mysteries of blessedness.

II

No man breathes out more vital air
Than he before sucked in:
Those joys and praises must repair
To us, which 'tis a sin
To bury in a senseless tomb.
An earthly wight must be the heir
Of all those joys the holy Angels prize,
He must a king before a priest become,
And gifts receive or ever sacrifice.
'Tis blindness makes us dumb:
Had we but those celestial eyes,
Whereby we could behold the sum
Of all His bounties, we should overflow
With praises did we but their causes know.

III

All things to Circulations owe
Themselves; by which alone
They do exist; they cannot shew
A sigh, a word, a groan,
A colour or a glimpse of light,
The sparkle of a precious stone,
A virtue, or a smell, a lovely sight,
A fruit, a beam, an influence, a tear,
But they another's livery must wear,
And borrow matter first,
Before they can communicate.
Whatever's empty is accurst:
And this doth shew that we must some estate
Possess, or never can communicate.

IV

A sponge drinks in the water, which
Is afterwards exprest.
A liberal hand must first be rich:
Who blesseth must be blest.
The thirsty earth drinks in the rain,
The trees suck moisture at their roots,
Before the one can lavish herbs again,
Before the other can afford us fruits.
No tenant can raise corn or pay his rent,
Nor can even have a lord,
That has no land. No spring can vent,
No vessel any wine afford
Wherein no liquor's put. No empty purse,
Can pounds or talents of itself disburse.

V

Flame that ejects its golden beams
Sups up the grosser air;
To seas that pour out their streams
In springs, those streams repair;
Receiv'd ideas make even dreams.
No fancy painteth foul or fair
But by the ministry of inward light,
That in the spirits cherisheth its sight.
The moon returneth light, and some men say
The very sun no ray
Nor influence could have, did it
No foreign aids, no food admit.
The earth no exhalations would afford,
Were not its spirits by the sun restored.

VI

All things do first receive, that give:
Only 'tis God above,
That from and in Himself doth live;
Whose all-sufficient love
Without original can flow
And all the joys and glories shew
Which mortal man can take delight to know.
He is the primitive eternal spring
The endless ocean of each glorious thing.
The soul a vessel is,
A spacious bosom, to contain
All the fair treasures of His bliss,
Which run like rivers from, into the main,
And all it doth receive returns again.

AMENDMENT

I

That all things should be mine,
This makes His bounty most divine:
But that they all more rich should be,
And far more brightly shine,
As used by me;
It ravisheth my soul to see the end,
To which this work so wonderful doth tend.

II

That we should make the skies
More glorious far before Thine eyes
Than Thou didst make them, and even Thee
Far more Thy works to prize,
As used they be
Than as they're made, is a stupendous work,
Wherein Thy wisdom mightily doth lurk.

III

Thy greatness, and Thy love,
Thy power, in this, my joy doth move;
Thy goodness, and felicity
In this exprest above
All praise I see:
While Thy great Godhead over all doth reign,
And such an end in such a sort attain.

IV

What bound may we assign,
O God, to any work of thine!
Their endlessness discovers thee
In all to be Divine;
A Deity
That will for evermore exceed the end
Of all that creature's wit can comprehend.

V

Am I a glorious spring
Of joys and riches to my King?
Are men made Gods? And may they see
So wonderful a thing
As God in me?
And is my soul a mirror that must shine
Even like the sun and be far more divine?

VI

Thy Soul, O God, doth prize
The seas, the earth, our souls, the skies;
As we return the same to Thee
They more delight Thine eyes,
And sweeter be
As unto thee we offer up the same,
Than as to us from Thee at first they came.

VII

O how doth Sacred Love
His gifts refine, exalt, improve!
Our love to creatures makes them be
In Thine esteem above
Themselves to Thee!
O here His goodness evermore admire!
He made our souls to make His creatures higher.

THE DEMONSTRATION

I

The highest things are easiest to be shewn,
And only capable of being known.
A mist involves the eye
While in the middle it doth live;
And till the ends of things are seen
The way's uncertain that doth stand between.
As in the air we see the clouds
Like winding sheets or shrouds,
Which, though they nearer are, obscure
The sun, which, higher far, is far more pure.

II

Its very brightness makes it near the eye,
Tho' many thousand leagues beyond the sky.
Its beams by violence
Invade, and ravish distant sense.
Only extremes and heights are known,
No certainty, where no perfection's, shewn.
Extremities of blessedness
Compel us to confess
A God indeed, Whose excellence
In all His works must needs exceed all sense.

III

And for this cause incredibles alone
May be by demonstration to us shewn.
Those things that are most bright
Sun-like appear in their own light,
And nothing's truly seen that's mean:
Be it a sand, an acorn, or a bean,
It must be cloth'd with endless glory,
Before its perfect story
(Be the spirit ne'er so clear)
Can in its causes and its ends appear.

IV

What can be more incredible than this,
Where may we find a more profound abyss?
What Heavenly height can be
Transcendent to this Summity!
What more desirable object can
Be offered to the soul of hungering man!
His gifts as they to us come down
Are infinite and crown
The soul with strange fruitions; yet
Returning from us they more value get.

V

And what than this can be more plain and clear?
What truth than this more evident appear?
The Godhead cannot prize
The sun at all, nor yet the skies,
Or air, or earth, or trees, or seas,
Or stars, unless the soul of man they please.
He neither sees with human eyes,
Nor needs Himself seas, skies,
Or earth, or any thing: He draws
No breath, nor eats or drinks by Nature's laws.

VI

The joy and pleasure which His soul doth take
In all His works is for His creatures' sake.
So great a certainty
We in this holy doctrine see
That there could be no worth at all
In any thing material, great, or small,
Were not some creature more alive,
Whence it might worth derive.
God is the spring whence things come forth,
Souls are the fountains of their real worth.

VII

The joy and pleasure which His soul doth take
In all His works is for His creatures' sake.
Yet doth He take delight
That's altogether infinite
In them even as they from Him come,
For such His love and goodness is, the sum
Of all His happiness doth seem,
At least in His esteem,
In that delight and joy to lie
Which is His blessed creatures' melody.

VIII

In them He sees, and feels, and smells, and lives,
In them affected is to whom He gives:
In them ten thousand ways,
He all His work again enjoys
All things from Him to Him proceed
By them: are His in them: as if indeed
His Godhead did itself exceed.
To them He all conveys;
Nay, even Himself! He is the End
To whom in them Himself, and all things tend.

THE ANTICIPATION

I

My contemplation dazzles in the End
Of all I comprehend,
And soars above all heights,
Diving into the depths of all delights.
Can He become the End,
To whom all creatures tend,
Who is the Father of all Infinites?
Then may He benefit receive from things,
And be not Parent only of all springs.

II

The End doth want the means, and is the cause,
Whose sake, by Nature's laws,
Is that for which they are.
Such sands, such dangerous rocks we must beware:
From all Eternity
A perfect Deity
Most great and blessed he doth still appear;
His essence perfect was in all its features,
He ever blessed in His joys and creatures.

III

From everlasting He those joys did need,
And all those joys proceed
From Him eternally.
From everlasting His felicity
Complete and perfect was,
Whose bosom is the glass,
Wherein we all things everlasting see.
His name is Now, His Nature is Forever:
None can His creatures from their Maker sever.

IV

The End in Him from everlasting is
The fountain of all bliss:
From everlasting it
Efficient was, and influence did emit,
That caused all. Before
The world, we do adore
This glorious End. Because all benefit
From it proceeds: both are the very same,
The End and Fountain differ but in Name.

V

That so the End should be the very Spring
Of every glorious thing;
And that which seemeth last,
The fountain and the cause; attained so fast
That it was first; and mov'd
The Efficient, who so lov'd
All worlds and made them for the sake of this;
It shews the End complete before, and is
A perfect token of His perfect bliss.

VI

The End complete, the means must needs be so,
By which we plainly know,
From all Eternity,
The means whereby God is, must perfect be.
God is Himself the means
Whereby He doth exist:
And as the Sun by shining's cloth'd with beams,
So from Himself to all His glory streams,
Who is a Sun, yet what Himself doth list.

VII

His endless wants and His enjoyments be
From all Eternity
Immutable in Him:
They are His joys before the Cherubim.
His wants appreciate all,
And being infinite,
Permit no being to be mean or small
That He enjoys, or is before His sight:
His satisfactions do His wants delight.

VIII

Wants are the fountains of Felicity;
No joy could ever be
Were there no want. No bliss,
No sweetness perfect were it not for this.
Want is the greatest pleasure
Because it makes all treasure.
O what a wonderful profound abyss
Is God! In whom eternal wants and treasures
Are more delightful, since they both are pleasures.

IX

He infinitely wanteth all His joys;
(No want the soul e'er cloys.)
And all those wanted pleasures
He infinitely hath. What endless measures,
What heights and depths may we
In His felicity
Conceive! Whose very wants are endless pleasures.
His life in wants and joys is infinite,
And both are felt as His Supreme Delight.

X

He's not like us; possession doth not cloy,
Nor sense of want destroy;
Both always are together;
No force can either from the other sever.
Yet there's a space between
That's endless. Both are seen
Distinctly still, and both are seen for ever.
As soon as e'er He wanteth all His bliss,
His bliss, tho' everlasting, in Him is.

XI

His Essence is all Act: He did that He
All Act might always be.
His nature burns like fire;
His goodness infinitely does desire
To be by all possesst;
His love makes others blest.
It is the glory of His high estate,
And that which I for evermore admire,
He is an Act that doth communicate.

XII

From all to all Eternity He is
That Act: an Act of bliss:
Wherein all bliss to all
That will receive the same, or on him call,
Is freely given: from whence
'Tis easy even to sense
To apprehend that all receivers are
In Him, all gifts, all joys, all eyes, even all
At once that ever will or shall appear.

XIII

He is the means of them, they not of Him.
The Holy Cherubim,
Souls, Angels from Him came
Who is a glorious bright and living Flame,
That on all things doth shine,
And makes their face divine.
And Holy, Holy, Holy is His Name:
He is the means both of Himself and all,
Whom we the Fountain, Means, and End do call.

THE RECOVERY

I

To see us but receive, is such a sight
As makes His treasures infinite!
Because His goodness doth possess
In us, His own, and our own Blessedness.
Yea more, His love doth take delight
To make our glory infinite;
Our blessedness to see
Is even to the Deity
A Beatific vision! He attains
His Ends while we enjoy. In us He reigns.

II

For God enjoy'd is all His End.
Himself He then doth comprehend
When He is blessed, magnified,
Extoll'd, exalted, prais'd, and glorified,
Honor'd, esteem'd, belov'd, enjoy'd,
Admired, sanctified, obeyed,
That is received. For He
Doth place His whole felicity
In that: who is despised and defied,
Undeified almost if once denied.

III

In all His works, in all His ways,
We must His glory see and praise;
And since our pleasure is the end,
We must His goodness, and His love attend.
If we despise His glorious works,
Such sin and mischief in it lurks
That they are all made vain;
And this is even endless pain
To Him that sees it: Whose diviner grief
Is hereupon (ah me!) without relief.

IV

We please His goodness that receive:
Refusers Him of all bereave.
As bridegrooms know full well that build
A palace for their bride. It will not yield
Any delight to him at all
If she for whom he made the hall
Refuse to dwell in it,
Or plainly scorn the benefit.
Her act that's woo'd yields more delight and pleasure
If she receives, than all the pile of treasure.

V

But we have hands, and lips, and eyes,
And hearts and souls can sacrifice;
And souls themselves are made in vain
If we our evil stubbornness retain.
Affections, praises, are the things
For which He gave us all those springs;
They are the very fruits
Of all those trees and roots,
The fruits and ends of all His great endeavours,
Which He abolisheth whoever severs.

VI

'Tis not alone a lively sense,
A clear and quick intelligence,
A free, profound, and full esteem;
Tho' these elixirs all and ends do seem:
But gratitude, thanksgiving, praise,
A heart returned for all those joys,
These are the things admired,
These are the things by Him desired:
These are the nectar and the quintessence,
The cream and flower that most affect His sense.

VII

The voluntary act whereby
These are repaid is in His eye
More precious than the very sky.
All gold and silver is but empty dross,
Rubies and sapphires are but loss,
The very sun, and stars and seas
Far less His spirit please:
One voluntary act of love
Far more delightful to His soul doth prove,
And is above all these as far as love.

ANOTHER

I

He seeks for ours as we do seek for His;
Nay, O my Soul, ours is far more His bliss
Than His is ours; at least it so doth seem
Both in His own and our esteem:

II

His earnest love, His infinite desires,
His living, endless, and devouring fires,
Do rage in thirst and fervently require
A love 'tis strange it should desire.

III

We cold and careless are, and scarcely think
Upon the glorious spring whereat we drink.
Did He not love us we could be content:
We wretches are indifferent!

IV

He courts our love with infinite esteem,
And seeks it so that it doth almost seem
Even all His blessedness. His love doth prize
It as the only Sacrifice.

V

'Tis death, my soul, to be indifferent,
Set forth thyself unto thy whole extent,
And all the glory of His passion prize,
Who for thee lives, who for thee dies.

VI

His goodness made thy love so great a pleasure,
His goodness made thy soul so great a treasure
To thee and Him: that thou mightst both inherit,
Prize it according to its merit.

VII

There is no goodness nor desert in thee,
For which thy love so coveted should be;
His goodness is the fountain of thy worth;
O live to love and set it forth.

VIII

Thou nothing giv'st to Him, He gave all things
To thee, and made thee like the King of Kings:
His love the fountain is of Heaven and Earth,
The cause of all thy joy and mirth.

IX

Thy love is nothing but itself, and yet
So infinite is His that He doth set
A value infinite upon it. Oh!
This, canst thou careless be, and know!

X

Let that same goodness, which being infinite,
Esteems thy love with infinite delight,
Tho' less than His, tho' nothing, always be
An object infinite to thee.

XI

And as it is the cause of all esteem,
Of all the worth which in thy love doth seem,
So let it be the cause of all thy pleasure,
Causing its being and its treasure.

LOVE

I

O nectar! O delicious stream!
O ravishing and only pleasure! Where
Shall such another theme
Inspire my tongue with joys or please mine ear!
Abridgment of delights!
And queen of sights!
O mine of rarities! O Kingdom wide!
O more! O cause of all! O glorious Bride!
O God! O Bride of God! O King!
O soul and crown of everything!

II

Did not I covet to behold
Some endless monarch, that did always live
In palaces of gold,
Willing all kingdoms, realms, and crowns to give
Unto my soul! Whose love
A spring might prove
Of endless glories, honors, friendships, pleasures,
Joys, praises, beauties and celestial treasures!
Lo, now I see there's such a King,
The fountain-head of everything!

III

Did my ambition ever dream
Of such a Lord, of such a love! Did I
Expect so sweet a stream
As this at any time! Could any eye
Believe it? Why all power
Is used here;
Joys down from Heaven on my head do shower,
And Jove beyond the fiction doth appear
Once more in golden rain to come
To Danæ's pleasing fruitful womb.

IV

His Ganimede! His life! His Joy!
Or He comes down to me, or takes me up
That I might be His boy,
And fill, and taste, and give, and drink the cup.
But those (tho' great) are all
Too short and small,
Too weak and feeble pictures to express
The true mysterious depths of Blessedness.
I am His image, and His friend,
His son, bride, glory, temple, end.

THOUGHTS.--I

I

Ye brisk, divine and living things,
Ye great exemplars, and ye heavenly springs,
Which I within me see;
Ye machines great,
Which in my spirit God did seat,
Ye engines of felicity;
Ye wondrous fabrics of His hands,
Who all possesseth that He understands;
That ye are pent within my breast,
Yet rove at large from East to West,
And are invisible, yet infinite,
Is my transcendent and my best delight.

II

By you I do the joys possess
Of yesterday's-yet-present blessedness;
As in a mirror clear,
Old objects I
Far distant do even now descry,
Which by your help are present here.
Ye are yourselves the very pleasures,
The sweetest, last, and most substantial treasures:
The offsprings and effects of bliss
By whose return my glory is
Renew'd and represented to my view:
O ye delights, most pure, divine, and true!

III

Ye thoughts and apprehensions are
The Heavenly streams which fill the soul with rare
Transcendent perfect pleasures.
At any time
As if ye still were in your prime,
Ye open all His heavenly treasures.
His joys accessible are found
To you, and those things enter which surround
The soul. Ye living things within!
Where had all joy and glory been
Had ye not made the soul those things to know,
Which seated in it make the fairest shew?

IV

I know not by what secret power
Ye flourish so: but ye within your bower
More beautiful do seem,
And better meat
Ye daily yield my soul to eat,
Than even the objects I esteem
Without my soul. What were the sky,
What were the sun, or stars, did ye not lie
In me, and represent them there
Where else they never could appear!
Yea, what were bliss without such thoughts to me,
What were my life, what were the Deity?

V

O ye Conceptions of delight!
Ye that inform my soul with life and light!
Ye representatives, and springs
Of inward pleasure!
Ye joys, ye ends of outward treasure!
Ye inward and ye living things!
The thought or joy conceived is
The inward fabric of my standing bliss:
It is the very substance of my mind
Transform'd and with its objects lined,
The quintessence, elixir, spirit, cream:
'Tis strange that things unseen should be supreme.

VI

The eye's confined, the body's pent
In narrow room: limbs are of small extent,
But thoughts are always free;
And as they're best
So can they even in the breast
Rove o'er the world with liberty:
Can enter ages, present be
In any kingdom, into bosoms see.
Thoughts, thoughts can come to things and view
What bodies can't approach unto:
They know no bar, denial, limit, wall,
But have a liberty to look on all.

VII

Like bees they fly from flower to flower,
Appear in every closet, temple, bower,
And suck the sweet from thence
No eye can see:
As tasters to the Deity,
Incredible their excellence,
For evermore they will be seen,
Nor ever moulder into less esteem.
They ever shew an equal face,
And are immortal in their place:
Ten thousand Ages hence they are as strong,
Ten thousand Ages hence they are as young.

THOUGHTS.--II

I

A delicate and tender thought
The quintessence is found of all He wrought;
It is the fruit of all his works,
Which we conceive,
Bring forth, and give,
Yea and in which the greater value lurks.
It is the fine and curious flower
Which we return and offer every hour;
So tender is our Paradise
That in a trice
It withers strait and fades away
If we but cease its beauty to display.

II

Why things so precious should be made
So prone, so easy, and so apt to fade
It is not easy to declare;
But God would have
His creatures brave,
And that too by their own continual care.
He gave them power every hour
Both to erect and to maintain a tower,
Which he far more in us doth prize
Than all the skies,
That we might offer it to Him,
And in our souls be like the Seraphim.

III

That temple David did intend
Was but a thought, and yet it did transcend
King Solomon's. A thought we know
Is that for which
God doth enrich
With joys even Heaven above and Earth below.
For that all objects might be seen
He made the orient azure and the green:
That we might in his works delight
And that the sight
Of those His treasures might enflame
The soul with love to Him, He made the same.

IV

This sight which is the glorious End
Of all His works and which doth comprehend
Eternity and time and space,
Is far more dear,
And far more near
To Him, than all His glorious dwelling-place.
It is a spiritual world within,
A living world and nearer far of kin
To God than that which first he made.
While that doth fade
This therefore ever shall endure
Within the soul as more divine and pure.

[THE INFLUX]

I

Ye hidden nectars, which my God doth drink,
Ye heavenly streams, ye beams divine,
On which the angels think,
How quick, how strongly do ye shine!
Ye images of joy that in me dwell,
Ye sweet mysterious shades
That do all substances excel,
Whose glory never fades;
Ye skies, ye seas, ye stars, or things more fair,
O ever, ever unto me repair!

II

Ye pleasant thoughts! O how that sun divine
Appears to-day which I did see
So sweetly then to shine
Even in my very infancy!
Ye rich ideas which within me live
Ye living pictures here,
Ye spirits that do bring and give
All joys; when ye appear
Even Heaven itself and God, and all in you
Come down on earth and please my blessed view.

III

I never glorious great and rich am found,
Am never ravished with joy,
Till ye my soul surround:
Till ye my blessedness display
No soul but stone, no man but clay am I,
No flesh, but dust, till ye
Delight, invade and move my eye,
And do replenish me;
My sweet informers and my living treasures,
My great companions and my only pleasures!