III
Where goodness is within, the soul doth reign.
Goodness the only Sovereign!
Goodness delights alone to see
Felicity.
And while the Image of His goodness lives
In me, whatever He to any gives
Is my delight and ends
In me, in all my friends:
For goodness is
The spring of bliss,
And 'tis the end of all it gives away
And all it gives it ever doth enjoy.
IV
His goodness! Lord, it is His highest glory!
The very grace of all His story!
What other thing can me delight
But the blest sight
Of His eternal goodness? While His love,
His burning love the bliss of all doth prove,
While it beyond the ends
Of Heaven and Earth extends,
And multiplies
Above the skies,
His glory, love, and goodness in my sight
Is for my pleasure made more infinite.
V
The soft and swelling grapes that on their vines
Receive the lively warmth that shines
Upon them, ripen there for me:
Or drink they be,
Or meat. The stars salute my pleased sense
With a derived and borrowed influence:
But better vines do grow,
Far better wines do flow
Above, and while
The Sun doth smile
Upon the lilies there, and all things warm,
Their pleasant odours do my spirit charm.
VI
Their rich affections me like precious seas
Of nectar and ambrosia please.
Their eyes are stars, or more divine
And brighter shine:
Their lips are soft and swelling grapes, their tongues
A quire of blessed and harmonious songs.
Their bosoms fraught with love
Are Heavens all Heavens above;
And being Images of God they are
The highest joys His goodness did prepare.
[THE SOUL'S GLORY]
In making bodies Love could not express
Itself, or art; unless it made them less.
O what a monster had in man been seen,
Had every thumb or toe a mountain been!
What worlds must he devour when he did eat?
What oceans drink? Yet could not all his meat,
Or stature, make him like an Angel shine;
Or make his soul in glory more divine.
A soul it is that makes us truly great,
Whose little bodies make us more complete.
An Understanding that is Infinite,
An endless, wide, and everlasting sight,
That can enjoy all things and nought exclude,
Is the most sacred greatness may be viewed.
'Twas inconvenient that his bulk should be
An endless hill; he nothing then could see:
No figure have, no motion, beauty, place,
No colour, feature, member, light, or grace:
A body like a mountain is but cumber,
An endless body is but idle lumber,
It spoils converse, and Time itself devours,
While meat in vain in feeding idle powers,
Excessive bulk being most injurious found,
To those conveniences which men have crown'd.
His wisdom did His power here repress,
God made man greater while He made him less.
[FINITE YET INFINITE]
His power bounded, greater is in might,
Than if let loose 'twere wholly infinite.
He could have made an endless Sea by this,
But then it had not been a Sea of Bliss.
Did water from the centre to the skies
Ascend, 'twould drown whatever else we prize.
The Ocean bounded in a finite shore,
Is better far because it is no more,
No use nor glory would in that be seen,
His power made it endless in esteem.
Had not the sun been bounded in its sphere,
Did all the world in one fair flame appear,
And were that flame a real infinite,
'Twould yield no profit, splendour, nor delight.
Its corps confined and beams extended be
Effects of wisdom in the Deity.
One star made infinite would all exclude,
An earth made infinite could ne'er be viewed.
But one being fashioned for the other's sake,
He bounding all, did all most useful make:
And which is best, in profit and delight,
Tho' not in bulk, they all are infinite.