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!
IV
O what incredible delights, what fires,
What appetites, what joys do ye
Occasion, what desires,
What heavenly praises! While we see
What every Seraphim above admires!
Your Jubilee and trade,
Ye are so strangely and divinely made
Shall never, never fade:
Ye ravish all my soul: Of you I twice
Will speak, for in the dark y'are Paradise.
THOUGHTS.--III
Thoughts are the Angels which we send abroad,
To visit all the parts of God's abode.
Thoughts are the things wherein we all confess
The quintessence of sin and holiness
Is laid. All wisdom in a thought doth shine,
By thoughts alone the soul is made divine.
Thoughts are the springs of all our actions here
On earth, tho' they themselves do not appear.
They are the springs of beauty, order, peace,
The city's gallantries, the fields' increase.
Rule, government, and kingdoms flow from them,
And so doth all the New Jerusalem,
At least the glory, splendour, and delight,
For 'tis by thoughts that even she is bright.
Thoughts are the things wherewith even God is crown'd,
And as the soul without them's useless found,
So are all other creatures too. A thought
Is even the very cream of all He wrought.
All holy fear, and love, and reverence,
With honour, joy, and praise, as well as sense,
Are hidden in our thoughts. Thoughts are the things
That us affect: The honey and the stings
Of all that is are seated in a thought,
Even while it seemeth weak, and next to nought.
The matter of all pleasure, virtue, worth,
Grief, anger, hate, revenge, which words set forth,
Are thoughts alone. Thoughts are the highest things,
The very offspring of the King of Kings.
Thoughts are a kind of strange celestial creature
That when they're good, they're such in every feature.
They bear the image of their Father's face,
And beautify even all His dwelling-place:
So nimble, volatile, and unconfined,
Illimited, to which no form's assigned,
So changeable, capacious, easy, free,
That what itself doth please a thought may be.
From nothing to infinity it turns,
Even in a moment: Now like fire it burns,
Now's frozen ice: Now shapes the glorious sun,
Now darkness in a moment doth become.
Now all at once: Now crowded in a sand,
Now fills the hemisphere, and sees a land:
Now on a sudden's wider than the sky,
And now runs parile with the Deity.
'Tis such that it may all or nothing be,
And's made so active, voluble, and free
Because 'tis capable of all that's good,
And is the end of all when understood.
A thought can clothe itself with all the treasures
Of God, and be the greatest of His pleasures.
It all His laws, and glorious works, and ways,
And attributes and counsels, all His praise
It can conceive and imitate, and give:
It is the only being that doth live.
'Tis capable of all perfection here,
Of all His love and joy and glory there.
It is the only beauty that doth shine,
Most great, transcendent, heavenly, and divine.
The very best or worst of things it is,
The basis of all misery or bliss.
Its measures and capacities are such,
Their utmost measure we can never touch.
Here ornament on ornament may still
Be laid; beauty on beauty, skill on skill,
Strength still on strength, and life itself on life,
'Tis Queen of all things, and its Maker's wife.
The best of thoughts is yet a thing unknown,
But when 'tis perfect it is like His own:
Intelligible, endless, yet a sphere
Substantial too: In which all things appear,
All worlds, all excellencies, senses, graces,
Joys, pleasures, creatures, and the angels' faces.
It shall be married ever unto all,
And all embrace, tho' now it seemeth small.
A thought my soul may omnipresent be,
For all it toucheth which a thought can see.
O that mysterious Being! Thoughts are things
Which rightly used make His creatures Kings.
DESIRE
I
For giving me desire,
An eager thirst, a burning ardent fire,
A virgin infant flame,
A Love with which into the world I came,
An inward hidden heavenly love,
Which in my soul did work and move,
And ever me inflame
With restless longing, heavenly avarice,
That never could be satisfied,
That did incessantly a Paradise
Unknown suggest, and something undescried
Discern, and bear me to it; be
Thy Name for ever praised by me.
II
My parched and withered bones
Burnt up did seem: my soul was full of groans:
My thoughts extensions were:
Like paces, reaches, steps they did appear:
They somewhat hotly did pursue,
Knew that they had not all their due,
Nor ever quiet were:
But made my flesh like hungry, thirsty ground,
My heart a deep profound abyss,
And every joy and pleasure but a wound,
So long as I my Blessedness did miss.
O Happiness! A famine burns,
And all my life to anguish turns!
III
Where are the silent streams,
The living waters and the glorious beams,
The sweet reviving bowers,
The shady groves, the sweet and curious flowers,
The springs and trees, the heavenly days,
The flow'ry meads, and glorious rays,
The gold and silver towers?
Alas! all these are poor and empty things!
Trees, waters, days, and shining beams,
Fruits, flowers, bowers, shady groves and springs,
No joy will yield, no more than silent streams;
Those are but dead material toys,
And cannot make my heavenly joys.
IV
O Love! Ye amities,
And friendships that appear above the skies!
Ye feasts and living pleasures!
Ye senses, honours, and imperial treasures!
Ye bridal joys! ye high delights
That satisfy all appetites!
Ye sweet affections, and
Ye high respects! Whatever joys there be
In triumphs, whatsoever stand
In amicable sweet society,
Whatever pleasures are at His right hand,
Ye must before I am divine,
In full propriety be mine.
V
This soaring, sacred thirst,
Ambassador of bliss, approached first,
Making a place in me
That made me apt to prize, and taste, and see.
For not the objects but the sense
Of things doth bliss to souls dispense,
And make it, Lord, like thee,
Sense, feeling, taste, complacency, and sight,
These are the true and real joys,
The living, flowing, inward, melting, bright,
And heavenly pleasures; all the rest are toys:
All which are founded in Desire,
As light in flame and heat in fire.
THOUGHTS.--IV
In Thy presence there is fullness of Joy, and at Thy right hand
there are pleasures for evermore.