MUNDORUM EXPLICATIO OR, The Explanation of an Hieroglyphical FIGURE: Wherein are couched the Mysteries of the External, Internal, and Eternal Worlds, showing the true progress of a Soul from the Court of Babylon to the City of jerusalem; from the Adamical fallen state to the Regenerate and Angelical.  
Being A Sacred POEM, written by S. P. Armig.  Through Faith we understand that the Worlds (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) were framed by the Word of God, so that things that are seen, were not made of things that do appear, Heb. 11. 3 God hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath Created Heir of all things, by whom he made the Worlds, Heb. 1. 2. O homo, quid miraris Syderum altitudines, & profunditatem ma●is? animi tui abyssum intra, & mirare si potes. Isid. lib. 1. de su●. Bon. — Quod magis ad nos Pertinet & Nescire Malum est— Hor. Sat. lib. 2. Quid noscis si teipsum nescis? Bucer in Psal. Homo ad contemplandum Creatorem suum Conditus est Gregor. Mor. 8. 
LONDON, Printed by T. R. for Lodowick Lloyd, at the Castle in Corn●il. 1661.   

INTO THE SACRED TREASURY OF THE IMMACULATE LAMB OF GOD THE HOLY JESUS: KING OF ALL THE WORLDS AND MAN'S REDEEMER THE MOST UNWORTHY OF HIS SERVANTS HUMBLY PROSTRATE IN ALL HUMILITY BEGS LEAVE TO CASTANNA THIS HIS SMALL MITE.   

THE PREFACE.  
CHRISTIAN Religion is summed up in these two words: LOVE God with all thy Heart, and thy Neighbour as thyself. Here indeed lies contracted the whole LAW of God, and of Nature. There are not many Volumes of Acts and Statutes to be observed, nor need man's memory be much burdened with the number of Doctrines and Commands: They are few and Natural; easy and plain. They are all contracted into one word LOVE: and what more natural appetite is there then that? what is Natural is easy, what easy, is plain. Man in his primary state and Condition was created with this appetite Love, as the means whereby he might enjoy the felicity he was created to; He naturally loved God his Creator, and Fountain from whence he sprung; as it is still natural for all Creatures to Love their Original, which is their Natural appetite not depraved. Now God requires no more of man, but that he follow that first institution and appetite of true Nature for which he was Created, which was to Love God, and that since his fellow Creatures were multiplied, that that natural appetite of Love should also be branched forth to them, as a part of Man's self: so that the one has relation to our souls enjoyment, the other to our living rightly; that is Godly, soberly, righteously. But Man being created a free Agent, whilst in Paradise, this natural appetite grew weak, and through his dis●●dience became depraved, and fell to lower Objects, which as a Curse inherently sticks on all his posterity, so that Man is apt to Love the base and terrene things of this world better than his Creator, and the more sublime of the other World. This is the reason Man disobeys God, and hurts himself; for the strongest Love causes the strickest obedience; so that did we love God, we should obey him, and did we truly love ourselves, we should not sin against our Neighbour, for what ever injury we do to him, the Law of 〈◊〉, giv●s him a retaliating power to do to us; though the strict Rules of the Go●●●l an● of C●ri●●inity teaches better. Now 〈◊〉 to Lov●●nd serve God is the end of all Religion: what need there be so many Disputes, and alterations concerning the meanus of ●o ●hip, and forms of Religion? whilst man busies himself in those outward Quarrels, and Differences he loses the substance and ma●row of his Religion, and instead of a f●●ling Love of God finds only a moral Notion of Him. Aw●y then with the Names of sects, of Churches, and more Holy and separate Congregations of Men, and let all press af●er this Love of God, and Charity to our Neighbour, to do to Him as we would have him do to us, and to live with a good Conscience under those Laws, and forms, as our superiors by the special Providence of God are permitted to impo●e upon us, which we ought to do if such L●wes and Forms are no ways a hindrance to th●s Command of Loving God; It is in e●d that disputative and wrangling Spirit which has lately seized on this part of the World, that ●as dampt Man's Love to God, and Ch●●ity towards his Neighbour; every one imposing on the liberty and Conscience of another what appears Truth to himself. They forget to write this on the Table of their memories ab alio expectes alteri quod feceris, for did they, they would Con●●der, that Man's Conscience is not to b● forced, the worship of God ought to be free: and that there is an unchangeable and Eternal Law wrote by the 〈◊〉 of God in the Heart of every man by which he shall receive his Condemnation if 〈◊〉; by which the Heathens are inexcusable, a●d must b● brought to judgement. Ch●ist the Saviour of mankind ca●e not into the World to abrogate this Law, but to confirm it, to make it more excellent, and to polish it by his Precepts ●nd Doctrine, whereby it might become more easy, and more to the Capacity of ma●. Therefore to live according to the Rules an● Precepts of Christ, and to be a true Christian, is to Live according to the Rules of Nature sublime●, by the Doctrine of jesus. But th● Devil that subtle Enemy of mankind has ever made the way of a Christian to seem so hard, and ●o repugnant to the Laws of Nature that it has almost affrighted flesh and blood to enter upon it, wh●n indeed it is the most genuine a●d natural ●ath that can be ●rod, both to the satisfaction of the Soul, and Body. Indeed to Nature depraved, from its first institution and purity, 〈◊〉 with the vicious enormities of hellish 〈◊〉, and of that dark Sphere, the way of a Christian must seem hard, and intolerable, and in that regard straight is the Way, and ●●rrow is the Gate that lea●s to Life Eternal. Through the cunning instigation of the Devil, Man being in the state of fallen or depraved Nature, and finding the outward World, with all its pleasurable baits and alluren●ents so agreeable and correspondent to this depraved Nature, and to his senses, he is content to live ●herein, and superficially to worship God un●er a few Notions, and 〈◊〉, about which he much troubles himself, w●en indeed h● ought to worship God in Spirit and in ●r●th, which is to L●ve him with the whole Heart, and to obey him entirely; therefore he must put off this whole Nature and be clothed anew, which is the 〈◊〉 and narrow way of Circumcision, and then, that Light or Eternal Law written in his Heart will direct him to live holily before God, and uprightly towards men. Man being a sensible Creature, as well as rational, is in both capacities depraved and fallen; This world and the things thereof falling under the senses, whereby they are busied, and the Soul hindered from more internal Contemplations, is indeed the great Engine whereby the Devil captivates so many, that they have not time to consider the nature of their souls, or the state of other worlds. They have some slight and superficial Notions, and Ideas of them, which they receive fro● the dictates of others, and with which they content themselves, and rest satisfie●, never understanding the deep mysteries contained in themselves. Did man search the profundity of himself, he would find a great mystery, and then ●his Hieglyphical Figure would not seem so great a Paradox as I question not but it will do to some. There are some things in it which will seem strange and new, and which doth not quadrate wholly with what is generally received: but since there is no difference in any fundamental p●rt of our faith in Christ jesus, all may read it though of different opinions without offence. CHRIST the great Exemplar of Holiness and of Cobriety, is here set out to be the Pattern of all Christians to walk after, and though it is not to be expected t●at any can arrive to so sublime a pitch which ●e in being both God and man arrived at, yet Man may attain to that degree of perfection in this Life as to walk uprightly, holily, and devoutly before God, and justly and blamelessly befor● men. Religion is not a m●e● notional knowledge of God, but a practical fe●ling of him, non magna joquimur sed vi●i●ur, ●t us live well rat●er than talk well, for knowledge without practice will but increase our condemnation in that great day, and will but witness against us to our prejudice. Nor can Ignorance be an excuse to any since God has given and Understanding and Capacity as a tall●nt to every m●n, to know and do enough for his own salvation, and which ought to be improved more or l●sse according to the value of his Talent, and not sluggishly to be cast aside in a Napkin, or laid out in f●volous, and unprofitable Things; The great helps Christians have above others, for that improvement, will call for a greater ●ncrease of their Talents, and greater will their condemnation be for their neglects. It is therefore out of that consideration and not ou● of any fantastic desire and itch of writing) that I have p●nn'd this following discourse, being the explanation of an Hierogliphical Figure of the Worlds, which came into my hands, another being the Author: That I might not stifle that internal motion which prompted me to it, though it was done without intention of making it public: But having p●ssed the test of better judgements than my own and approv●d, I have sent it forth, in that rude dr●ss as it fell from my hasty Pen, without other Ornaments and flatteries of Rhetoric, and Lang age, than what was natural and becoming, 〈…〉 more secret parts from rude and profa●e eyes. If that my good intention of awakening others to look after those World's most still ignore, and blindly grope after, and seriously to consider the immortality of their souls, and of the Eternal felicities or everlasting Torments, they hereafter m●st enjoy, take effect, I shall think myself happy, if not, I have done my duty, and my peace will be my Reward.  
Casta placent superis; purâ cum ment venite,  
Et manibus puris sumite fontis aquam.  Tibul. Elg.  

AN ENCOMIUM On I. B. and his Interperer I. Sparrow Esq wrote in Latin, and thus rendered into English.  
GReat Saint! though I not in the Rubric see▪  
Thy Name; in verse I may remember Thee.  
By whom we profit it is good to own;  
By thee I must confess I much have known.  
Of God, Heaven, Nature; we the secrets know  
By thy choice works; they mystic Wonders show.  
Thy Works do show the way to Paradise,  
To the blessed Kingdoms of Aeternal ●oys:  
The Sons of Wisdom only read thee right;  
By Day the Wise read thee; th' unwise by Night.  
Treasures and Gems are opened to their mind  
Whilst these an Abyss of thick d●●knesse find:  
Nor let them blame thee for the faults their own,  
'tis their dark minds see not when plainly shown.  
●●oud Man, and Covetous Sophist vain, take heed,  
●ost thou the sacred Works of Behman read?  
〈…〉 Worldling, you  
The 〈…〉 too?  
The outside of the Book yo● only see;  
N●● B●h●●n's m●nd, nor sacred Mystery:  
O'er 〈…〉 hang p●●chy Va●les, what there  
You see, to you ou● 〈…〉.  
B●● when yo● w●se, and 〈◊〉 read; his mind  
A 〈…〉, and Light you find.  
For you, the p●tchy 〈…〉 ay,  
〈…〉  
God's Spi●it's the Key; th' 〈◊〉 ins●●ration's showed:  
Douane he was in humane Science rude.  
Th● sacred Flame within his Breast did shine  
When that H● penned such mysteries Divine.  
'Twas God himself who d●d his Hand direct  
Who do●● the Infant, and the wise respect.  
God was his Master, it was he alone  
That made to him such mystic Wonders known;  
And the ●●cana's of the Wo●lds did ●he●  
Bo●● of the Light, the Dark, and this World too.  
To Him the mystic Tongue of Nature's given,  
Tha●, and the true Cabal ●s showed from Heaven.  
Tha mystic Tongue was Known in Paradise,  
And He like A●am Knew those mysteries.  
Within the Centre of his Breast d●vine  
〈…〉 the Sun of Righteousness did shine.  
W●en that he wrote his ch●●st Breast used to be  
Filled with the Spirit of the Deity.  
F●e biting Critic, and evil tongue's, that Prate  
'Gain●t Behman, and his Works Calumniate.  
woe to B●as●●emers; To the ●●ting Tongue  
Who to the Sa●●ts and all good men do wrong.  
Because a simple Laic, shall he be  
(Mayn't God choose whom he please) contemned by thee  
Do not his Works for new-coined Words d●sp●se,  
Mayn't God, who all words made, new Words devise?  
Wil● Wise men Gems in earthen Platters scorn?  
Or Wisdom 'cause her Robes are old, and torn?  
Bark on ●ll Tongues, that Him bespatter so,  
Yet 〈◊〉 ●alm under its ●eight ●hall grow.  
His ●alm ●hall flouri●● and it 〈◊〉 m●y,  
〈…〉  
Show n●g●t to ill Men, and to goo● Men Day.  
To ho●y Men with their 〈◊〉 l●ght,  
They ●hew the ●ay to 〈◊〉, and Heaven aright.  
I warn the scoffer 〈…〉  
Thou Behman's 〈…〉 no more.  
Now holy Soul these 〈…〉  
Wh●ch at thy shrine is offered by my Love.  
And though these perish may, thy N●me shall be  
A living Monument, as well as thee.  
In Heaven thou liv'st, for ever there: But here  
Whilst the World lasts, thou in thy works shinest clear.  
Great Saint we thus si●g forth out thanks below,  
Which are just debts, fo● what thou didst bestow.  
And learned Sparrow we thy praises too  
Will sing; Rewards too small for what is due.  
The gifts of Glory, and of Praise we owe:  
The English Behman doth thy Trophies show.  
Whilst English men that great Saints praise declare,  
Thy Name shall joined with Hi● receive a share:  
The Time shall come when h●s great Name shall rise,  
Thy Glory also shall ascend the Skies.  
Thou mad'st him English speak: or else what Good  
Had his works done us if not understood?  
To Germany they beneficial prove  
Alone; till we enjoyed them by thy Love.  
Their German-Robes thou took'st f●om them, that we  
Their Beauties, might in English Garments see.  
Thus has thy Love a vast ●●ch Treasure shown,  
And made what was exotic now our own.  
What thanks? W●at praise? o●e we 〈◊〉 Love so great?  
What cost can recompense your pains and sweat?  
But yet go on; done't Virtues Race decline;  
Finish in spite of B●hman's foes, and thine  
What yet remains of his choice works, that they  
By thee translated speak our Language may.  
If we reward you not, as is your due,  
A better hand shall give a Crown to you:  
Not Palms, nor Laurels, but of more renown  
Of Light Aeternal Christ will give a Crown.  Pium est agnoscere per quem profecisti.  

THE SYNOPSIS Of the chief things contained in this POEM.  

In the first Part.  
THe Inxocation  
The Invitation  
The Proem  
The Figure  
The state of the righteous deplorable, if there were no other worlds but this Page 1. 2  
The wicked flourish in this world p. 2  
Atheists arguments that there is no God, nor other worlds p. 2. 3  
That there is a God p. 4. 5, 6, 7  
That there are more worlds than this p. 7. 8  
The order of the worlds p. 9  
Most men ignorant of the other worlds p. 10  
The outer form maketh not a man p. 11. 12  
Man has lost his King ship over the world's p. 12. 13  
This world's description p. 13. 14, 15  
The Wonders of this world innumerable p. 15  
Wonders and secrets to be found out in the bowels of the earth p. 16  
In all her vegetables p. 17  
In Animals p. 18  
In the Element of water, and its Inhabitants p. 18. 19  
In the Air, and its Inhabitants p. 20  
In the Heavens, Stars, and Firmament p. 21. 22, 23  
Man's wonderful fo●m p. 23. 24  
Admirable speculations throughout the whole world p. 24. 25  
The world twofold: Sodom and Babylon in one part p. 25. 26  
Zion and Jerusalem in the other p. 26. 27  
Hell's Kingdom perspicuous in this world, with a Prophecy of its downfall p. 27. ●8  
Paradise hidden throughout the world p. 28. 29, 30  
Paradise may be found in this world p. 30  
The spirit or soul of this world created pure p. 30. 31  
The power and Magic of this world p. 31. 32 The Oracles, and Sibyls inspired by this power  
Spirits that belong to this world p. 32  
Astral Spirits p. 32  
Spirits belonging to the four Elements: Fire, Ayr, Water, Earth p. 32. 33, 34  
Of subterraneal Spirits Mortal spirits p. 33. 34  
The knowlodge of these spirits p. 34 Man above them  
Magic three sorts p. 35 A Christians prerogative  
Those skilled in the Magic of this world subject to danger p. 35. 36  
Why the spirits of this world appear not so frequently as formerly p. 36  
Satan's suggestion that there are no spirits p. 37  
That there are Pigmies, selves, and such like spirits p. 37. ●8  
God's great mercy that the hosts of evil spirits in this world are not visible p. 37. 38  
The numberless Legions of spirits which are sent into this world, from the Dark, and Light internal worlds, p. 38  
That they are not subject to the outer senses p. 39  
Spirits natures si● i'll p. 39 40  
Spirits have B●●ies, an● of what made p. 40  
Spirits of all sorts to be se●n by the internal eye, and subject to the internal senses p. 40. 41  
That spirits can appear to the outer eye, and be subject to the senses p. 41  
That spirits can assume any form p. 41  
The difference in the apparitions of good and evil spirits p. 41. 42  
How Spirits assume Bodies p. 42. 43  
Their command over the Elements p. 42. 43  
Histories tectifie the actions of Spirits p. 43. 44  
Examples of evil Spirits p. 44  
An History out of Niderius p. 44. 45, 46  
The Acts of good Spirits as frequent as the Bad p. 47  
Examples of good Angels p. 47. 48, 49  
An Hi●●ory of good Angel's ●●ts p. 4●. ● 49  
Why Angels ●p●ear not so 〈◊〉 as in ages pass p. 49▪ 50  
Why evil Spirits appear not o●●en to the outer eye p. 50. 51  
Why evil Spirits subvert not the order of the 〈◊〉: ●or work the u●ter subversio of mankind p. 51. 52  
Man's destruction from himself p. 52  
Of Genii good and B●d p. 52. 53 Their diligence about men  
The apparition of G●nii p. 53. 54 Examples of Guardian Angels  
Most men l●d by goo● or evil Daemons  
The protection of good Angels p. 54  
This world the scope of the internal worlds p. 54. 55  
Satan's privilege in this world  
The Devil's Love to be embodied p. 55  
They tremble at the thought of the world's dissolution p. 55  
The Devils Privilege by Adam's fall p. 55. 56  
This world's Creation p. 56  
Man's Creation p. 57  
Adam's and perfection p. 57 58 The Earth's  
The one temperature before the curse, and agreement upon Earth p. 57 58  
The agreement and harmony of the Creatures p. 58  
Adam Lord in Paradise p. 58. 59  
Adam, why created p. 59 60  
Adam's lapse p. 60. 61, 62  
Adam's sleep p. 62  
How Adam should have been in Paradise p. 62  
Eve created p. 62. 63  
Adam and Eve's state in Paradise p. 63  
Adam and Eve prohibited the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil p. 64. 65  
Satan's ●unning p. 65  
The Serpent's subtlety p. 65. 66  
Eve tempted p. 66. 67, 68, 69  
The tempting Apple, what it (probably) was p. 69  
Adam's and Eve's farther fall, whereby the curse entered into the world p. 69. 70  
God's judgement on Adam, and Eve pronounced p. 71. 72  
Christ promised p. 72  
Adam, and Eve driven out of Paradise p. 72. 73  
The curse takes hold on this world p. 73 What the curse is: ●ow it lay hid  
The discordancy, and mortality of all things produced by the Curse p. 73. 74, 75  
The Devil's joy at the world's mis●ry p. 76 The opposition of the dark and light worlds  
The first, and second Principles operation on the third p. 77  
Lucifer's boasts p. 78  
The Devil's great Engine to gain souls p. 78. 79  
Satan's malice to mankind p. 79  
The seed of God in all Men p. 79  
Great Lucifer's charge to the Spirits of the dark world, with their Commission to destroy man p. 79. 80, 81  
His charge to Baalzebub, Belial, Python, Samaliel, Asmodeus, Meriri, Astero●h p. 80  
To Abbadon, Mammon and other spirits p. 80. 81  
Pride, Envy, Avarice, Wrath, Despair, jealousy, Adultery, Lying, Lust, Luxury, Drunkenness, Hypocrisy, Swearing, Blasphemy, Theft, Murder, sent into the world p. 81. 82  
The Stygia● Troops, and Dea●● ent●r the world p. ●2  
Ma●'s 〈◊〉 p. 82  
Chri●● 〈◊〉 the spirits of the l●ght world p. 83  
His immense Love p. 83  
His Kingdom promised p. 8●. 84  
His charge 〈◊〉 g●od Angels, for the protection, 〈…〉 p. 84. 85. 86  
His charge 〈…〉 Mi●tat●on p. 84  
To 〈…〉 Psa●kiel, Uriel, Raphilel, ●●aniel, p. 85. 〈◊〉 and others ●. 86  
Humilu●, Love, Tr●t●, M●●kness● H●pe, Liberality, Courage, strength, Zeal, 〈◊〉 ●. 86 Wisdom, I●●●cence, Resignation, Obedience, Uprightness, Virginity, Peace, sent into the world p. 86. 87  
Free will p. 87. 88  
Angels nor Devils can force the will of Man p. 87. 88  
The good and evil Angel's war p. 88 89  
The Tree of Good, and evil fed upon by all men p. 89  
The fruits of this Tree p. 89. 90  
How made good, and how evil p. 90. 91, 92  
Scurillous Poets inveigh ' against p. 93  
The Good, only to b● chose p. 93  
The Devil's Stratag ms for to captivate man p. 93. 94  
The fantastic Region p. 95. 96  
The Errors of all Sects p. 96 The Devil's cunning  
Lu●ifer's desire of Man's perfection in Diabolical Arts, and Sciences, and his longing desire of dark Magis to exhibit the wonders of his Kingdom p. 96. 97  
Princes in the Devil's Kingdom p. 97  
The dark world p. ●7. 98 A dark Magician  
The Devil God's Ape p. 98  
Why the monstrous shapes of evil spirits are not frightful t● Magicians p. 98. 99  
The Prince of Hell's Embassy to a dark Magician p. 99 100  
The Magicians contract with the Devil p. 100  
The Devil's Power p. 100  
The Magitian's voyage to Hell p. 101. 102  
Hell poetically described p. 102. 103, 104  
The habitation of the Incubi, and Succubuses, and all such foul spirits invocated by witches, and wizards p. 102  
Witches power p. 102. 103  
And how evil Spirits mock at their charms p. 103  
Their rewards p. 103  
Spirits employments p. 103. 104  
Lethe, Erebus, Acheron, Cocytus, Orcus, p. 103. 104  
Remembrance of things passed in Hell p. 104  
Different sort of spirits p. 103. 104  
The horrible shapes of evil souls in Hell p. 104. 105  
Styx, Phlegeton, Tartarus p. 105. 106  
Hell's torments p. 105. 106, 107  
The Devil's cruelty p. 106. 107 Evil souls misery  
The Devils not ignorant of their fall, or of God p. 107. 108  
Their enmity against God p. 107. 108  
God never made Hell to torment souls p. 108  
How all things have proceeded from one Root p. 108  
The first Principle opened p. 108 Heaven, how the cause of Hell  
Lu●ifer's Creation p. 109  
His glorious seat and beauty p. 109. 110 His fall with the evil Angels  
How Hell fir● is made p. 110. 111  
Th● tr●● p●ins of Hell p. 110. 111  
The Devils not ignorant of their own Principle p. 111. 112  
The horrible shapes of the Devils p. 112. 113  
The Species of most things in Earth, in Hell p. 113  
The order, and Port, of the dark Kingdom p. 113. 114  
Lucifer, and his Princes described p. 114. 115, 116  
Lucif●r's benediction p. 116  
T●e fruits of the tree of Death p. 117. 118  
The description of the Tree of Death p. 117. 119, 120  
And their qualities  
The great power of the dark world p. 118. 119, 120, 121  
Granted also by the Devil to his Magicians  
Conclusion of the first Part. p. 221. 122.   

In the second Part.  
THe entrance p. 123. 124 And Invocation  
The Earth's vanity p. 124. 125  
The second Principle p. 125  
A Pilgrim to the new Jerusalem proposed p. 125  
Man's bewildered condition p. 126  
The Pilgrim's Prayer p. 126. 127  
An Angel sent p. 127  
His Embassy p. 128  
The sleep in sin before Conviction, or the Natural state of Man p. 128. 129  
Conviction p. 129. 130  
Horror of Conscience p. 130  
Repentance p. 131. 132  
Pardon of sin p. 132. 133  
Loathing of sin p. 133. 134  
Faith, and Hope p. 134. 135  
Free Grace p. 135  
Christ within p. 135. 136 Christ's Love  
The soul's Lethargy p. 136. 137  
Notions without substance p. 137. 138  
Misapprehension, and Deceit p. 138 False persuasion, and Security  
T itular Angel's help p. 138. 139  
The Soul's return p. 139  
Grace appears p. 140  
The Vision of new Jerusalem p. 141. 142, 143, 144 The eyesalve of Purity  
The difficulty of the way p. 143. 144  
Faith, and Hope return p. 144  
Truth, Watchfulness and Humility described p. 145. 146  
Their assistance to Man p. 146  
The us● of the Cross p. 146  
The Gate of Circumcision p. 146  
The Devil's fury p. 147  
His 〈◊〉 p. 147  
The will tempted p. 147  
The will, senses, and passions rebel p. 147. 148  
Grace assists p. 148. 149  
The will resolved to obey p. 149  
The Gate of Circumcision past p. 150  
The way of self-denial p. 150  
The Devil's shifts p. 150. 151  
The Soul's war with Lust p. 151  
Chastity's description p. 152  
〈◊〉 overcome p. 152  
P●ide overcome p. 153  
Described p. 153  
Wrath Overcome p. 154. 155  
Meekness described p. 154. 155  
Envy overcome p. 155  
Charity described p. 1●6  
Patience described p. 156. 157  
The Soul's exultancy in a Hymn p. 157. 158  
The Soul tempted by the world p. 158. 159  
Deceit p. 159. 160, 161  
Truth p. 161. 162  
Deceit detected p. 162. 163  
The world despised p. 164  
The Imitation of Christ p. 164. 165  
The birth of Christ p. 165. 166  
His Life and Habit p. 166. 167. 167 His Poverty  
His self-denial, Humility, and Meekness p. 167  
His breaking of Bread p, 167. 168  
His Patience, suffering, and Passion p. 168  
Christ died for all men p. 168. 169, 169 Election, and Reprobation conditionally  
Christ's Flesh and Blood p. 169. 170  
Christ's Death p. 170. 171  
None entered Heaven nor received perfect Happiness before the Ascension of Christ p. 172  
Christ's Resurrection and Ascension p. 173. 174  
Zeal p. 175. 176  
Prudence p. 176. 177  
Delilah destroyed in man p. 177. 178  
The Senses, Passions and Affections subdued p. 178  
No propriety p. 179  
The inner man: it's growth p. 179  
Chastity's praise p. 179. 180, 181  
The Soul's Spouse p. 181  
Sophia's description vision p. 181. 182, 183, 184  
Celestial, and Terrestrial Love p. 184. 185  
The soul wounded by Love p. 185  
The Flesh an hindrance to the souls sight p. 185. 186  
God must have the whole heart p. 186  
The soul●s resolution p. 187  
The power of words p. 187  
The Power and essicacy of Love p. 187. 188  
Fear and Love p. 188  
The soul inflamed with divine Love p. 188. 189  
The souls exultancy expressed in an Hymn in the praise of Sophia p. 189. 190, 191  
Love's Banquet and attractions p. 192  
The five internal senses opened p. 192. 193  
Their pleasures but the way to Bliss p. 194  
Imagination or Fancy described p. 194. 195  
The danger of Imagination p. 195  
Imagination overcome p. 195. 196  
The state of Silence p. 196. 197  
The Nature and benefit of Union p. 198. 199, 200 The Saints union and Communion  
The exceeding subtlety and envy of Satan p. 200  
The soul empoisoned through Complacency p. 200. 201, 202  
G●●'s pity p. 202. 203  
The soul sees its error p. 203  
True Resignation p. 204  
Subjection to God's Will p. 205  
The soul's offering p. 206. 207  
An H●mn of Resignation p. 207. 208, 209, 210  
True Wisdom p. 211 Rea●o●● blindness  
〈…〉 p. 211  
The Childlike state p. 211. 212  
The world left p. 212  
The be●●fi● of mortification p. 213  
The soul's true Death and mortification to all things p. 214. 215  
An Hymn of Mortification p. 215. 216  
The triumph of Death p. 216. 217  
The Olive bough of Peace p. 217. 218 The bloody Garment of Christ  
The souls Resurrection p. 218. 219  
Purgatory p. 219. 220, 221, 222, 223, 224  
No Imperfection can enter Heaven p. 222. 223  
T●e Heathens s●lvation p. 224. 225  
The Pilgrim's passage through Hell, or the dark Kingdom p. 225. 226, 227, 228  
What the Cherub is that God placed at the entrance of Paradise p. 229. 2●1  
The Devil overcome p. 228. 229  
The Partition-wall p. 229. 2●0, 231  
The Power of Christ extolled p. 229. 230  
Adam's fall the cause of the Partition-wall p. 230. 231  
Christ our Saviour's work p. 231 Christ our Saviour only  
The way to Paradise is through Hell, and how there's no redemption from Hell p. 231. 232  
Christ's descension into Hell p. 232  
How it was typified p. 233. 234  
The great work of salvation wrought alone by jesus Christ, that died at Jerusalem p. 234  
The Paradifical world p. 235  
The souls resurrection, or the new Birth p. 235. 236  
The souls study after Regeneration p. 236  
The two Principles explained p. 236. 237  
What Paradise, an● the second Principle are p. 237. 238  
Christ possesses the throne of Lucifer p. 238 How Hell came to be, And Lucifers fall  
The waters above the Firmament p. 238. 239, 240. The Eternity of the world The world's Creation succinctly described  
Adam created in Lucifer's stead p. 239  
The Earth whereof Adam's Body was made p. 240  
Adam soul p. 240  
Paradise opened in one place of the Earth, and why? p. 240. 241  
What the forbidden tree was p. 241  
Of Christ's Body after the Resurrection p. 141. 242  
Christ gained what Adam lost p. 242  
The soul prohibited union with the spirit of the outer world p. 242  
Paradise p. 243. 244, 245, etc.  
The clouds of Paradise p. 243. 244  
The Ideas of all things in this world in their purity in Paradise p. 244  
The Flowers and p. 244. 245, 246, 247 The ●rees of Paradise  
The Saint's Harmony in variety p. 245  
The River of Life p. 245 its virtue 246  
The fruit of Paradise p. 248. 249  
The perfumes of Paradise p. 247  
The tr●● of Life p. 248. 249 Its virtue  
The Graces that inhabit Paradise, and p. 249  
The S ouls ●wrod● wi●h the Graces p. 250. 251  
No● 〈…〉 Paradise p. 251. 252  
A● A●gel described p. 254  
Sophi● promised p. 254  
The celebration of the marriage feast p. 256  
The inner senses feasted p. 257. 258, 259, etc.  
The feast described p. 256. 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, etc.  
The Epithalamium p. 257. 258, 259  
The Feast of Love p. 261. 262, 263, 264  
Miracles not ceased p. 268. 269  
The Fruits and p. 269. 270, 271, 272, 273, etc. The Gifts of the tree of Life  
Gifts of T ongues p. 269  
Gifts of Reason p. 369. 270  
Gifts of Wisdom p. 270. 271, 272  
Gifts of Healing p. 272. 273, 274  
Gifts of Prophecy p. 274  
Of interpretation of Scripture p. 274  
Of Dreams, and p. 274  
Of Prayer p. 274. 27●  
Gifts of Poetry p. 285. 276, 277  
Gifts of discerning of Spirits p. 277. 278  
Gifts of union and Communion with holy Spirits departed p. 278. 279  
Of uniou and Communion with holy Angels p. 279. 280, 281  
Of Miracles p. 281. 282  
Gifts of seeing p. 282  
Of Hearing p. 282. 283  
Of Smelling p. 283  
Of T asting p. 283  
Of T ouching p. 283  
Of divine Magic p. 283. 284  
The Abuse of Magic, and how the divine Magic comes to be lost p. 284. 285, 286▪ 87. 189, 290  
Why so many lost their labour in search of the S tone p. 290. 291, 292  
The way to gain ●●e divine Magic p. 292. 223  
What a divine Magician is p. 293. 294, 295  
His power and knowledge p. 294. 295  
Of those skilled in 〈◊〉 Magic p. 295. 296  
The sacred wine of Love p. 297. 298  
The Soul drunk with L●ve p. 298  
The Dance of Love p. 299  
The Soul's r●pt of Love p. 299. 300, 301, 302 The Soul's Hymn  
The ●oul the Martyr of Love p. 302▪ 303 The Baptism, of Fi●e ●●d ●he Holy Ghost  
The glorious humanity of Christ appears in Paradise p. 303. 304, 335  
The Soul's ravishment in the Arms of Love p. 305. 306  
The Conclusion. p. 306. 307   

In the third Part.  
ENtrance, and Invocation p. 309. 310  
Carpers inveighs against p. 310  
Pearls not to be cast before Swine p. 310. 311  
That Heaven may be attained on Earth p. 311. 312  
Heaven every where, both within and without Man p. 312  
Heaven not locally beyond the stars only p. 312  
Heaven the C●ntr● of all things p. 313  
The Soul sees not without a Body p. 313. 314  
The outward Body a prison to the Soul p. 313. 314  
The true Body of the Soul p. 314  
The true Elements not seen p. 314  
Most Visions mentioned in Scripture not seen by the outer Eyes p. 315. 316  
A Confession p. 316  
Hell, and Heaven separated, and yet one in another p. 316. 317  
A great Happiness to be the Instrument of Good, and converting of Souls. p. 317  
The Aeternal world p. 317  
God not to be known out of Nature p. 318  
The Mystery of the Trinity p. 318  
The cause of Heaven and Hell p. 318. 319  
And of the torment of Hell, and the joys of Heaven p. 318. 319  
The Gulf between Heaven and Hell p. 318  
How Heaven and Hell are in one another. p. 318. 319  
The innumerable Wonders of Heaven p. 319. 320  
Man the Aepitomy of all worlds p. 320. 321  
Christ carries the soul into the Aeternal world p. 321 322  
The Gifts of the Graces p. 322. 323. 324  
The inexpressable joy, and ravishment of the Soul. p. 324  
The entrance into the Eternal World p. 324  
Three distinct Mansions or Orbs in the Aeternal World p. 325  
The first the still Eternity p. 325  
The farther ascension of the Soul into the Sphere of Angels p. 325. 326  
Angels superiority and inferority p. 326  
The unexpressable pleasure the Soul receives in this place from the Heart of God p. 326  
The Sanctum Sanctorum, or fixed Glory p. 327  
The Habitation of the Trinity p. 327  
The new Jerusalem described p. 327. 328, 329  
The Soul clothed with the new Body p. 330  
The Soul's union and Glorification p. 330  
God out of Nature unsearchable p. 331  
God not to be figured in the Imagination p. 331  
Man prohibited to look into the hidden secrets of God p. 331  
Conclusion. p. 331. 332.    

The ERRATA in the First Part.  
PAge 8 verse 19 read 〈◊〉. p 9 v 9 r one VII r once. p 13 v. 35 some. p 14 v 3 r his. p 16 v 29 r Orpine. p 19 v 13 〈◊〉 v 19 r m●nv. p 25 ● 4 r or Ameri●● v 37 ● Satan's. p 2● v 20 r justling v 38 r o'er. p 31 in the Margert r p 09 v 1● r ●●●us v 30 r soul v 33 ● so. p 32 v 30 r fill. p 33 v 18 r Asphaltes' v 19 r such, p 3● in ma ●. p 11●, 118 1●9. and p 204 205. p 39 v 39 r Corporeal. p 41 v 28 r umbrattic in marg. r 192 193. p 44 v 〈◊〉 ●vthev 22 〈…〉. v 24 ● neuds v ulr. r But let etc. p 48 v 25 r Tiburtius. p. 49 in marg. r p 280. p 52 v u ●●r ●n. p 53 v 26 r 〈◊〉. p 54 in marg. r p 120. 121 and 193. p 56 v 1 r before hand in mar r p 〈◊〉 an ● 136▪ 137. p 7 in marg. r p 240. p 58 v 8. r hor. p 60 in marg. r p 17 a little below p 117. p 64 v 5● 〈◊〉. p ● marg. r pag 89. p 67 in marg. r 〈◊〉. p 69 in marg. v p 89. p 70 v 23 r Let●●. p 71 v 12 r the 〈…〉. r 116. p 72 in Marg. r ●19, in note r harmony. p 76. in note r p 110. p 79 v 1● r Cover. p ●1 v 3 r Men v ● r. p ●2 v 26 r 〈◊〉. p 〈◊〉 v 8 r destruction. p 86 v 2 r Bebritia p 89 note▪ la●● line but one r nor. p 90 v 3● r ●n. p 9● v 4 r 〈◊〉. p 96 in marg. ● p 146 v 29 r low. p 97 v ult. r and what regiment. p 98 v 1 room. p 101 r said v 1, 12 r 1 ethean in note third line r poetical for portical, and for believed r bou●. ●ed. p 10● v 2 r Night v 9 r As. in note p 9 p 193 v ●7 r slay. p 104 v 8 r streams. p 106 v 2 r admired v 24 r whose. p 108 in marg. note line 1 r That. p 112 v 11 r ●ou●. p 114 v 21 r Erebean. p 115 v 9 deal them. p 116 v 17 r glaring. p 120 v 17 r choke. p 121 v 9 r necromantic Art. v 21 r thy. p 122 v 3 r her.   

In the second PART.  
P. 124 v 29 r. caves p 125 v 20 r live. p. 126 v ●9 r they. p 128 v 15 r ye v 16 r yet v 27 it did seem, etc. p 131 v 37 r whom. p 13● v 23 r whilst. p 138 v 7 r those v 19 r along with me must, etc. p 142 v 3 r the v 20 r hand with a gold key v 39 r Throne. p 149 v ●4 r words. p. 150 v 11 r stock. p 152 v 21 r sptless. p 153 v 4 r the p 155 v 14 r menaces. p 158 v 9 r 〈◊〉. p 159 v 10 r mountain. p 160 v 2 r sulvid. p 161. in marg. r p 90 91, 92. p 162 v 7 r pharmaceu●●●● 34 r desires. p 164 v 34 r expose. p 165 v 39 r 'tis v ult. r hearts had, etc. p 170 in marg. r p 234 in marg. r That is. p 171 v 14 r envious v 38 r representing. p 172 in note line 6 r Devi's and Hell, etc. p 175 v 31 r them. p 181 v 29 r which to rarely. p 185 v 17 r at. p 1●7 v 32 r ●●ed, r on. p 189 v 9 r to. p 196 v ●5 r eye. p 296 v 2 r into. p 207 v 14 r frame. p 213 v 6 r and thus. p 214 v 17 r sea c. p 215 v 3 r purifies, p 216 v 3● deal down. p 217 v 1 r felt. p 218 v 19 r Ara●um. p. 20 v 28 r several. p 221 v 34 r threads. p 222 v 39 r ●s some etc. p 224 v 25 r they. p 232 v 21 deal the. p 234 v 371 were. p 235 v 10 r the. p 241 v 27 r from pa ad●se. p 244 v 22 r They gave that they &c. v 25 r her v 31 roor smell or. etc. p 245 v 21 ●an, etc. p 245 v 33 r ones. p 246 v 20 r this gold. v 25 r li●hir p 247 v 14 r wore mays, etc. p 248 v 26 r sure salutiserous. p 250 v 19 r Lights. p 251 v 33 r the. p 2●2 v 2 r radiant. p 253 v 1 r 100L. p 257 v 15 r Angels. v 27 r storms. p 259 v 18 r thy, p 261 v 28 r do. p 2 ● v 21 gems. v 16 r Hill. p ●65 v 11 r sacred v 28 r Ambr●sia. p 266 v 32 r thou now shalt b●. p 2●7 v 30 r express. v 36 r ●heomagical. p 270 v 2 r smaragds v 12 ridorth purrifie v 35 r mag●. p. 75 v 11 r at v 24 r profundity. p 270 v 7 r is v ult. r chod. p 278 v ult. r can't take, etc. p 27 v ● precipi●●es v 20 r hearts in unity so ●ast, v 29 r crowned. p 280 v 20 r wide grown then in the 〈…〉. p A 1 v 3 r ●●● v 27 r cheeks. p 282 v 1 r done. p 283 v 25 r their hearts. p 285 v 19 r hoping. p 20● v 10 r mysteries v 20 r Moon. p 287 v 22 r with. p. 285 v 9 r monads v 15 r Those v 24 r lin●s. p 29 v ●0 〈◊〉 some. p 292 v 1 r ●khilosophic. p 298 v 33 r his. p 299 v 34 r pleasures which the 〈◊〉 pu●. f 〈…〉 v ●35 ● joys. p 300 v 10 ● Ecstatic. p 301 v 2 r these v 12 r these. p 303 v 10 r pleasure was v 31 r her orb, ult. r beheld it clapped.   

In the third PART.  
Page ●31 v 5 r The deeper th●● into. p 314 v 1 r His v 7 r hands, and all parts. p 316 v 2 r saw v 26 de●● am. p 3●9 v 4 deal of Mysteries. p 321 v 7 r backed. v 22 r shone, v 32 r nor, p 331 v 28 r Air. p 324 in marg. m●●● os u●. p 327 v 5 r the Throne, p 328 v 4 r a glorious splendour v 9 r a sardonix v 17 r Crosian beans. p 329 v 34 r glorified Name. p 331 v 8 r nor ought he● to be v 18 in the marg. r Esay 40. 18. p 332 v ● r ma●st.   

INVOCATIO.  
KIng and Creator of all Worlds that be!  
Who wast from, and art to Eternity,  
I humbly beg; that with thy Spirit Divine,  
Thou wouldst wrap up this groveling Muse of mine,  
Beyond the limits of an Earthly strain,  
Beyond the dictates of my weaker brain,  
Beyond my poor Conceptions; that she may  
Sing, quickened by t●y own diviner Ray.  
Vouchsafe to grant, O Sempeternal King I  
Whilst I thyself, and thy great Wonders sing,  
A Beam of Light unto my Pen: Inspire  
Me with the Heats of the Seraphic Choir,  
That Cherub-like, with everlasting Lays  
Thy Wonders sing, and Carol forth thy Praise  
I cheerly may: Help then! without thy aid  
O Lord! my words are wind, my Numbers fade  
Shall, sooner than the Morning dew before  
The scorching Sun, which gone, is seen no more.  
Be thou propitious Lord! for unto thee  
Myself and Numbers dedicated be.   

INVITATIO.  
DRaw near you humble ones, and truly wise,  
Cast on this Figure your enlightened eyes,  
Where every World doth its Arcana's show:  
Unless gross darkness shall encompass you;  
Without explaining here you may behold  
The sacred Secrets that the Worlds enfold;  
But if that holy Ray of Light you want,  
You may in darkness sit, and ignorant,  
Despise the Knowledge of the Truth divine.  
Rich Pearls unfitting for the snouts of swine  
Are, and unless God with a powerful Gale  
Of Love, shall draw aside th' obscuring Veil,  
Their puzzling brains dulled with the Earth below,  
May still ignore those things we plainly show.  
But you whose hearts concentred are in Love,  
Whose eyes withdrawn from Earth, are fixed above,  
Whose minds placed on Celestial Objects, free  
From mortal cares, and carnal pleasures be;  
And you who rancour have dis●el'd your breasts,  
Who eat all fruitless, and most vain Contests  
I here invite: accept my homely fare,  
And freely grant your pardon where I err:  
I look for kindness from the learned, and wise,  
But scorn from those that Carp, and Criticise.  
The Hierogl●phick see: my Muse alone  
Travels in Numbers for to make it known.   

PROAEMIUM.  
ISing no Hero's douty gests in wars,  
〈…〉  
With glozing praises: Nor unto the Skies  
Advance some common Justice in a King,  
Nor the dread fury of the Wars I sing:  
Nor with bewitching Lays 〈…〉  
The Sacred, the base toys of wanton Love.  
Nor praise the Courtly beauties of the times,  
With Wine-inspired, and lascivious Rhithmes.  
With M●rs or Ven●s doth my Muse co●●oyn●  
〈…〉  
I Sing (filled with E●bean ●age) the way  
To Heaven above, and everlasting Joy;  
The vanity of cursed Earth beneath,  
Where we poor helpless Mortals live and breath;  
Th' Eternal horrors of the larger Sphere,  
Where great Beelzebub and his Princes are:  
The constant Joys, and everlasting Bliss  
Of the light World; or blessed Paradise:  
The holy mysteries of the Worlds above  
The lasting pleasures of the Spheres of Love:  
These are the holy subjects of my Song;  
Which doth the quavers of a sweeter Tongue  
Than mine deserve: But yet accept my Will,  
Which better would; had I had better Skill.  
The Hieroglyphical FIGURE Of the WORLDS.   

THE EXPLANATION OF AN Hieroglyphical Figure, SHOWING THE MYSTERIES OF THE External, Internal & Eternal WORLDS.  

The first Part.  

SAd and deplorable's the state of man,  
Whose day's a vapour, and whose life's a span;  
Whose years a bubble, and whose bliss is pain,  
Whose joys are trouble, and whose hopes are vain,  
Should there indeed no other Worlds but this  
Terrestrial be, in which he dwelling is.  
Vain were the hopes of just and righteous men,  
Than they none were more miserable then;  
For who indeed more miserable seem,  
More wretched and despised, forlorn then them:  
Earth's fat, and bounty often is withheld,  
Oft they're denied the riches of the field:  
A life here poor, and needy oft they have,  
And oft return afflicted to the grave:  
Whilst the unjust, and wicked man the while  
Flows with his Honey, Butter, Milk and Oil,  
Whilst that his Wine-press gusheth forth a stream  
Of purple juice to feed, and fatten him:  
Whilst bounteous earth doth plenty him afford;  
Whilst filled with pleasures, both of bed and board,  
Unpunished, he afflicts the just, and poor,  
And empty turns the beggar from his door,  
Grindeth the face of needy men: Commits  
Murders and Whoredoms, yet triumphing sits  
Till he returneth to the greedy grave,  
And yet is seen no punishment to have.  
Sure this most plainly other Worlds doth show  
To be, where each of these shall have his due,  
God's always equal, ever just we see  
His acts in number, weight and measure be.  
Dives in plenty, Lazarus in pain,  
(Yet God is just) shall in this world remain:  
A world of pain there for the rich man is,  
For Lazarus another full of bliss.  
Let Atheists scoff, and seeing these things, declare  
Profanely that no other worlds there are:  
Let them cry pish, and mock them to their face,  
Who threat them judgement in another place:  
Let them accursed cry; May we live but here  
In pleasures; God nor your vain Hell we fear:  
See we not all men to the grave return,  
Their dusty ashes gathered in their urn,  
Their flesh consume, their harder bones to rot,  
Their fames and names both perished and forgot,  
Who like the beasts unto the earth do go,  
Their souls int' air dissolved, are seen no moe:  
Deceit the mother of this folly is,  
To think there's any other world but this,  
For Sophisters to tie men to their Law,  
Them with Religion, and a God did awe,  
And with invented worlds hereafter; where  
They answer should for what they had done here:  
Where good and just men should in pleasures dwell,  
The wicked be perplexed with torments fell.  
Let Atheists argue thus; Let them alone,  
For at the last the worst will be their own,  
When to their sorrow, and eternal pain  
They find the notion of a God's not vain,  
When they shall find, when they this world forego,  
Another world of torment, pain and woe:  
I mean not therefore with them to dispute,  
Nor strive with arguments for to confute  
Their cursed Tenants; for the stourest doth  
Oft times when scared; in's heart misdoubt the truth  
Of what he holds; who by his conscience awed,  
Is forced to confess there is a God.  
Who boldly dares deny the same in light,  
The same again doth doubt, the same at night, 
M●ntiuntur qui dicunt se non sentire esse Dium, nam etse tibi affirmant interdiù, noctù tamen & sibi dubitant. Sen.   
When fearful darkness reigneth o'er the world,  
And fear and horror in each corner's hurled.  
When dreadful lightnings through the world do fly  
When roaring thunders rattle in the sky,  
When blustering storms do rend the stoutest oaks,  
When mighty mountains rend with thunder strokes,  
When the great Moles of the earth doth quake,  
When roaring seas with dreadful murmurs speak  
Th' Almighty's power; the Atheist struck with fear,  
Crying aloud for help, runs here and there,  
And will he, nill he, than his thoughts do fly  
For hepl to, and think there's a Deity;  
Like that poor Godling who ran under board, 
Claudius.   
And cried, I am no God, when thunders roared.  
●f then these wretches doubtful are sometimes,  
●o obstinate me thinks they in their crimes  
Should not be: for it that it doubtful were,  
This way more safe, than that it is to err;  
For to believe there is a God, and him  
To fear, no damagement can bring to them,  
No hurt at all; when on the other side  
They'n dangerous seas of Death eternal ride;  
For if a God there be (as we well know  
There is) into damnation's pit they throw  
Themselves: so whilst their wisdom they'd express;  
They damn themselves by their own foolishness.  
But, that there is a God we need not prove,  
When all things show his matchless Power, and Love;  
For wheresoever we shall cast our eye,  
Sure tokens of a mighty God we spy:  
The glorious Splendour of the Lamp of Day,  
The Mistress of the Night's resplendent Ray.  
The silver Spangles of the azure Sky,  
The winged folk which in the air do fly,  
The spangle-coated fishes of the Sea,  
The Brutes, the herbs, the flowr'rs, and every tree,  
Do daily tell us, that they being had,  
And life, and growth, from an immortal God:  
For who but diligently noteth them,  
Must needs (as GALEN did) confess the same.  
The form, and being of this world doth prove,  
The mighty power of the great JEHOVE,  
And that a Deity there is: For why  
'Tis plain it was not from Eternity,  
The constant changes of all things below,  
The same to wise men do most clearly show;  
Its alteration, its Catastrophe  
Declares; but what is from Eternity  
No end can have. The world beginning had,  
Which was from Chance, from Nature, or from God:  
From CHANCE it was not; what a jumbled thing,  
And foul misshapen Monster Chance would bring  
Forth, could but she a world produce? but this  
Of harmony and true agreement is  
So full that Atheists convinced proclaimed  
Have, that not chance but God the world hath framed.  
For who considers but the Harmony  
Of those bright fires shining in the sky,  
The order, marriage, and the sweet consent  
With one another of each Element:  
The secret virtues of all things that grow,  
The hidden Sympathy of things below,  
And Earth's most admirable form; will not  
Himself exhibit to be such a sot,  
Nor will be filled with so much ignorance,  
As to aver the world was made by CHANCE.  
Nor yet by NATURE was the world created,  
For if that she had thus the world instated,  
All things obedient would have been to her,  
And past her bounds, and rules not dared to stir,  
But all do know how that sometimes the Creature,  
Passeth the limits, and the bounds of Nature  
Miraculously, as when the golden Sun  
Eclipsed is, in the full of the Moon:  
As when the Sun; when Christ our Saviour died;  
His face did in a Mask of darkness hide,  
As all the world well knew; for then between  
The Moon and him full half the Heaven was seen:  
So that it was impossible the cause  
Of this Eclipse should come from Nature's Laws,  
Nor yet can those who Nature God will make  
For every thing a Natural reason speak:  
NATURE nor CHANCE therefore this world could frame,  
A God therefore it follows made the same:  
A GOD therefore there is: The Devil too,  
And acts of evil spirits plainly show  
The same; the world can testify to this  
That Spirits apparitions no fable is.  
But chiefly men (although they God deny)  
Themselves are forced a God to justify:  
How else can they such an Idea frame  
Of the great God, as to deny the same?  
For who can an Idea frame of what  
No being has? whose species is not?  
We an Idëa frame may of a face  
Of man, or beast, which living never was;  
But men, and beasts there are, or else we frame  
Could not any Idëa's of the same:  
So man may false Ideas frame of God,  
But were there none, he no Ideas sho●'d;  
So man of God doth an Idea frame,  
Whilst he about goes to deny the same,  
And so is forced indeed for to confess  
What's mouth denies with so much wickedness.  
Nature hath with an Adamantine pen  
Ensculpted deeply into the hearts of men,  
That there's a God: although she could not show,  
Nor dictate to them the true God to know:  
And on their consciences she by her Law  
Has of a Deity imposed an awe:  
For there's no Nation, though they brutish be,  
But have a Notion of a Deity;  
Some thing or other for a God adore  
They do; which certainly was past the power  
Of humane policy for to imprint,  
And o'er the whole world, through all age's hint.  
Conscience doth prove a Deity likewise,  
Which in the face still of the wicked ●●es,  
And though his actions ne'er so secret be,  
Yet he's afraid there is an eye doth see;  
An eye which points, and doth distinguish still,  
Betwixt (the several acts of) good and ill.  
Lastly the soul of man, which shall for aye  
In night Eternal, or eternal day  
Dwell; which immortal is, (for were't not so,  
Corruption would take hold upon it too  
As well as on its case: but all know this,  
Th' immortal soul in age the stronger is;  
The nearer that the body's to the grave,  
The more advantages the soul will have:  
And so diseases which the case control,  
Cannot corrupt, nor yet infect the soul.  
S● always mark whilst from the Body we  
By contemplation on deep abstracted be,  
The ●oal doth better show her compliment;  
But much more when she's from the body rend:  
As also by her la●ge capacity,  
And by her utter independency  
On th' outer case: for leaving that sometimes,  
Without that she transcurs the earthly climes,  
And visits places; and them far more clear  
Beholds than if she in the body were:  
This history will justify, but we  
Will strive for to avoid prolixity.  
If the soul's mortal, what doth make her love  
〈◊〉 despising mortal things to sore above,  
And never tyre? like unto like doth go:  
Which makes her thus despise all things below:  
And to the Centre, out of which she came,  
S●ll upwards tend with an immortal flame.)  
I say the soul doth prove a God to be  
The cause of her: or else it follows she  
I● of herself the cause; then should we know  
All things that are more clearly than we do;  
Knowledge nor understanding should we want,  
Nor of ourselves, nor parts be ignorant,  
Of which we are; our parent then should not  
Be ignorant of what they have begot:  
But how the cause and the effect can be  
All one, as yet I have not eyes to see.  
But to conclude what further proof indeed  
Of God, than his great Providence doth need?  
His providence in every thing? but yet  
In plaguing those who him denied, and it  
Especially? for such struck with his rod,  
Have by their deaths made known there is a God.  
PHERECIDES was eaten up with louse;  
LUCIAN by's dogs devoured in a trice:  
DIAGORUS from ATHENS banished,  
A talon promised them who brought his head:  
An arrow split the heart of JULIAN:  
An ulcer killed scoffing APPION:  
MACHIAVELLI in prison rotten: and  
HERMANUS felt the fire, and God's just hand:  
●t would be endless to recount them all:  
●ut as they did may every ATHEIST fall!  
Seeing that there a God immortal is,  
〈◊〉 follows then there are more Worlds than this;  
For God's not seen here in this Orb below,  
But as he doth himself in's Creatures show:  
Indeed he dwelleth here, and every where,  
Nor can he be confined to a Sphere,  
But yet there is a world, a glorious place,  
Where brightened souls behold him face to face, 
1 Cor. 13 12.   
Where he is seen clothed with Eternal Day,  
Where vails and shadows all are ta'en away:  
Where Saints behold him in great glory stand,  
Not veiled as here, nor at the second hand.  
Who so believes the sacred Scripture, must  
Acknowledge needs that our assertion's just,  
For that to take all scruples from us says,  
God not one World, 
Heb. 11. 3.  but Worlds created has.  
I'll hear not usher in with museful strains,  
Th' exuberant fancies of some witty brains,  
Who make the Moon a World to be, and who  
Make Worlds of all the stars of Heaven too:  
Let such themselves and others to delude  
With brain-built worlds, and world's infinitude,  
I'll not contest; GOD may do what he please;  
But here I treat not of such Worlds as these,  
For I confess I do believe there's four,  
And never was, and never shall be more:  
Three of these Worlds are infinite, but this  
Gross World both visible, and finite is.  
It matters not unto Salvation,  
Whether there be a thousand Worlds, or one,  
Such Worlds as this I mean: but it is meet  
That we should know those Worlds of which I treat,  
For to be ignorant of these, is to  
Ignore the blisses that we ought to know:  
How vain is Man for fancied worlds to hunt,  
And of himself be wholly ignorant!  
These Worlds of which we treat no fancies be,  
For to deny them is plain Blasphemy,  
And of them to be ignorant, no less  
Then to be ignorant of Happiness:  
These Worlds not disputable are, for we  
Do by experience know such Worlds there be:  
Therefore no longer will I prologise,  
But clearly set them forth before your eyes▪  
Pray cast your eye upon the Figure, and  
The order see in which the Worlds do stand:  
See here four Globes, So stand the Worlds, but yet  
Not in this order, as you see these set:  
But to man's sense these figures do I guess,  
Their place and order best of all express.  
Though once be higher than another placed,  
We call that highest, which is inner most:  
Who can at one expose to perfect view  
Whole and complete, Shell, Skin, and Kernel too?  
As in an Egg you see the outer shell,  
In that the white, i'th' white the yolk doth dwell:  
As in an Onion first the outer skin,  
Then several others folded are within  
Its strict enfolding, which do press upon  
The heart, or centre of the Onion,  
As several Circles one within another  
Drawn, some are farther, some more near than th'other  
Unto the Centre: So these Worlds display  
Unto your understandings best you may.  
So are they placed: The Centre of them all  
We highest; the Circumference lowest call:  
So see in Man his outward case doth hide  
A noble Soul; Which doth more inward bide.  
This outward World is as the crust, or shell,  
In which the other Light, and Dark World's dwell.  
This outward World, is the Circumference,  
And farthest from the Centre; Life from whence  
It doth receive: for from the inward this  
Produced was Most plain, the punction is  
Before the circle; and the Yolk before  
The white or shell. But then you●l say this more  
Containeth than those Worlds that brought it forth;  
So this is greater than what gave it birth:  
Those suffer no dimention can, nor lie  
So comprehended: As the Sun the Sky  
Contains you see; his rays and influence  
Howbeed no bounds can close, they're so immense.  
As God's in heaven we say; yet every where;  
So th' inward worlds in this world closed are:  
Life floweth to the finger from the heart:  
Man's soul's in man, and yet in every part.  
Alas▪ How blinded are the souls of men,  
Whilst here enclosed in their fleshly pen,  
Whilst here in prison fettered fast they lie,  
Whilst they all things judge by their outward eye,  
They see this earth wherein they live, and so  
That there's an earthly world they surely know:  
Now other worlds some do believe there are,  
The natures of these worlds, or how, or where  
They be, most men ignore: for of the same,  
They several fancies in their heads do frame.  
For speak of heaven, straight way they cast their eyes  
Towards the blue seas of the Crystal skies,  
Beyond the same a most Majestic Court,  
Whose bliss doth pass the bounds of all report,  
Where all the Saints in brightness like the Sun,  
Seated on Thrones; where every one a Crown  
Possessing, praise, and Hallelujahs sing,  
To God who there sits on the Throne as King,  
They think there is; and that their souls must fly  
Thorough the Welkin to it when they die.  
But speak of Hell, straight way their thoughts do go  
Unto the Centre of the earth below,  
Where they in their imaginations frame,  
A Realm of Sulphur, Darkness, Fume and Flame,  
Where great BEELZEBUB as a King commands  
The smooky Devils▪ and sulphurian bands.  
Mistake me not, I do not here deny,  
Nor Hell's, nor heavens true locality;  
But here in reference to those I speak,  
Who carnally both hell and heaven do seek,  
And who know nothing, nor of Heaven nor Hell,  
But by report, as they hear others tell;  
Accounting it impossible to know,  
Or Hell, or Heaven, while they dwell below▪  
Such of themselves be wholly ignorant,  
And the true sight of Hell or Heaven they want;  
How they two several Principles be, and  
How different, they do not understand:  
How they in one another dwell, and yet  
A gulf eternal how betwixt them set.  
Tho Summit of their knowledge is to know  
The nature of terrestrial things below,  
They are content, the other worlds should rest  
Till they of this by death are dispossessed;  
But all such may miss of the blessed sphere,  
Who know it not, nor be assured of't here.  
Therefore we first will with this world begin,  
Best known to man, this which he dwelleth in:  
From whence we step by step, at last ascend,  
Shall, to th' Eternal world, the farthest end;  
Man must from this the lowest world get up  
By the Internal worlds, unto the top  
And summit of his joys: the way shall be  
Shown in this book with perspicuity.  
But man a while my purpose here supplants,  
The chiefest of the earth's inhabitants;  
Of whom a word, for he's the principal,  
And should be Prince, and King, and Lord of all.  
The Microcosm, little world, or Man,  
Containeth all the outward great world can;  
Is it not strange, and wonderful that such  
A little thing as Man, should hold so much?  
Man is a wonder, and God's image divine,  
(If truly Man) within his breast doth shine.  
It is not head, arms, body, members fair,  
That maketh Man; he rather may compare  
Himself unto some beast in painted dress,  
Except the inward do him Man express.  
What difference is there 'twixt a man and beast,  
(None sure at all, or little to be guest)  
If't waned for Reason, and an immortal spark,  
Which hides itself within his hollow Ark?  
This makes him Man, and like a man to act,  
Which gone, he's like a beast in show and fact.  
A man hath sense, he eats, he drinks, he sleeps,  
Wallows in pleasure, seldom measure keeps,  
Subject to hunger, thirst, to heat, and cold,  
Sickness, Diseases, and converts to th'Mould  
Of which he's framed; and like to other creatures,  
There perisheth his beauteous forms, and features:  
All this the Beast doth; then we thus may say  
The fairest Beast is made upright of clay.  
Men that we see within the great Creation,  
Lie wallowing in all abomination,  
In filthy Lusts, contagious pleasures foul,  
As if they never, never had a soul,  
Are not such Beasts? yea perfect Beasts, or worse,  
For Beasts (most commonly) follow nature's course,  
Their beastial actions, acting in sobriety,  
When men fulfil their Lusts in all Impiety,  
Acting most beastly in all foul inormity,  
And worse than the brutes, in their deformity:  
That were it not for this their outward 
* The flesh.  case  
In PLUTO'S Court they would usurp a place;  
For when the outward body doth consume,  
In Hell such take their Hell-prepared room,  
Their souls there having some such shape, or hue  
Of beasts, whose actions they inclined to,  
Assuming there some hideous form, or feature,  
Rarely resembling their deformed Nature.  
Thus may you see within this outward place,  
We're either Men, or Beasts: when here our race  
Is run, we shall to the Tartarean den  
Go if we beasts are, but to Heaven if Men.  
Man was a Man created, and a King,  
And Lord, and Ruler over every thing,  
But now that state h'as lost, for which he groans,  
Having gained dunghills,, for his Crowns, and Thrones.  
Now of a King he is a servant made,  
Who once immortal, now to Death betrayed:  
Therefore behold him portrayed to thine eye,  
See where himself, his Crown and Sceptre lie,  
The Lamb the Type of Innocency too,  
(Which LUCIFER with ADAM overthrew)  
Under the great and massy Globe of Earth,  
As if deprived both of Life, and breath.  
This is the fallen state of Man, who must  
His Crown not unregarded in the Dust  
Permit to lie, but, what sum e'er it cost,  
Strive for to gain the Sceptre that he lost;  
And though he now lies slain deprived of all,  
Crushed with the weight of this terrestrial ball;  
Yet shall this fallen Man at last arise,  
And o'er his now lost Kingdoms Regalize.  
O man with joy expect this blissful day,  
Rouse up thyself, enquickened with the ray  
Of life divine: Shake off this clogging Earth,  
And strongly press after another birth:  
For that attained once, thou shalt be then,  
As once thou wast, a Lord, and King again.  
In the Hieroglyphic see the lowest Globe,  
Which represents this vast terrestrial Orb,  
This World wherein we Live, this outward Earth,  
Where we poor mortals draw a fading breath,  
Where Souls immortal in a mortal case,  
As in an Ergastule remain a space:  
Which World's a mighty Prodigy; and those  
Who it consider, in its Mazes lose  
Themselves; for every thing perspicuously  
The power shows of heavens High Majesty.  
How admirable is her Form, and Nature!  
How beautiful, and well composed each Creature!  
How full of beauty, and of Loveliness!  
How sweetly, brave is she in Nature's dress!  
So that the eyes of man do dote upon her,  
And Highest Trophies raise unto her honour.  
How various and delightful are her climes!  
Some smiling later, some bedressed betimes;  
Some wearing all the year a liv'ry green,  
Some diversely with painted mantles seen,  
While others dressed in mantles made of snows,  
Themselves (as'twere) in silver garbs expose.  
How variously delightful dressed is  
Each clime, and Country with a native bliss!  
How variously through every Region are  
Her happy riches, and her costly ware,  
Her helps and her commodities for Man,  
Her treasures, and her pleasures too, which can  
Delight her heart; spread by a bounteous hand,  
And all exposed unto his command.  
Aspiring mountains here their heads do show,  
Their pleasant dales, impaled with woods below:  
Here through the midst of them, the silver streams  
Run trickling o'er the stony pearly gems:  
Here pleasant Hills adorned with lofty pines,  
With Oaks and Cedars; there the Elms and Vines  
Sweetly embracing all the Hillocks side  
Towards the East, fill with their branches wide.  
Here stand the Laurels, with a verdant hue,  
Here spreading Beaches, lofty Ashes too;  
There by the Brooks grow brittle alder stems,  
Willows and Sallows love the silver streams.  
A thousand other trees here make a Grove,  
Where the sad Tuttle murmuring woes his love,  
Where the sweet Nightingalls compose their lays,  
Where other Songsters sing on several sptayes.  
Praising their great Creator with their Notes.  
Proceeding from their pretty warbling throats.  
Hard by are Meads in ammelled with flowers,  
Covered with grass sprung from Zephyrian showers,  
Where seems to be an everlasting spring,  
Where Grasshoppers in their shrill notes do sing;  
Where feed the branched stag, the fair horned Ox,  
The clambering Goats, the silver fleeced flocks,  
The fair spread Mare, and the courageous horse,  
Who kicks the rocks down with his heels strong force.  
Among the woods the several beasts of prey,  
The roaring hests of their strong Prince obey:  
The fowl Ioves mighty Bird doth rule: Within  
The Crystal river several fishes swim,  
And all these for the use of man were made  
Good; who oft times converts them into bad.  
About the Earth the liquid Ocean beats,  
Scareing his sister with his boisterous Threats,  
Athough she knows JEHOVAHS' word is gone,  
That she shall never drowned be again,  
Within whose liquid depths such wonders are,  
As with the Earth's or heaven's may compare.  
But round this Globe, with a vast azure bent,  
Is bended round the starry Firmament,  
Wherein the twinkling Lamps beday the nights,  
Where are fixed, wand'ring, less and bigger lights:  
There Cyath●a ruleth Mistress of the night,  
With the clear splendour of her borrowed light;  
The Sun day's King, and Lord of all the rest,  
The clearest, hottest, brightest, and the best,  
B●gilds the day, and with a glorious splendour  
His daily service doth to mortals tender.  
Thus hath the great Creator full of Love,  
His wondrous blessings poured from above  
Upon this world; that on this earthly stage,  
Man comfort take might in this pilgrimage,  
And not abuse them as most men have done,  
And souls and bodies by them overthrown.  
But if that now such outward bliss remains  
After the change of Adam's faulty stains,  
What was the beauty and the comeliness,  
The splendour and incomparable dress  
The Earth had when she from her Maker first  
Came? e'er that she was by his mouth accursed?  
ere that she had put on inglorious weeds?  
And cherished accursed and baneful seeds?  
Should I launch out into this endless main,  
My shallow Bark could ne'er return again;  
S●ch seas of water, and of wonder too  
Appear, and show themselves unto my view:  
My eyes no objects on this earth do meet,  
But they my globes do with their wonders greet,  
For not the smallest fly, nor creeping Ant,  
Do wonders, and what's admirable want:  
So that I am amazed, and must cry,  
Great is the power of his Majesty!  
Great are the wonders that this Globe doth hold,  
So great that they're not able to be told,  
Therefore expect not at my hands, that I  
Should open here Dame nature's Mystery;  
Or that the nature of all things below  
I here should in this Epique Poem show;  
Or that I here the mighty wonders tell,  
That in this Orb terrestrial do dwell:  
This were an endless task; would Ages tire,  
Not Books of Worlds, but Worlds of Books require.  
This would: for not the heat-born gnat, (in truth)  
Or worm, but of't deserve a Poem doth.  
A glorious study 'tis to study Nature,  
To read the great JEHOVAH in the Creature,  
To meditate his mighty wonders here,  
And Trophies to his Name thereby to rear:  
The great Creator made all things that be,  
For profit, pleasure, and commodity  
Of man alone, therefore His holy Name  
He ought to praise, and thank him for the same.  
Let some therefore dive to Earth's Centre, and  
The secrets of her bowels understand,  
Let them her seal'd-up doors unbarr, and there  
Her rusty Treasures brighten, and reclear:  
Let such dive down into her depths below,  
And the Arcana's of her Min'rals know;  
Let them through every Room, and Chamber run,  
And know the virtues of her central Sun,  
Which with its Heat, piercing through every room,  
Gives life to seeds, sown in her vaster womb.  
Let such behold her hidden Palaces,  
Where sealed up lie hid her Mysteries,  
There let them Tin, Ir'n, or pine, Stibium, Brass,  
Virmilion, Merc'ry, Led, and Coperasse,  
Copper, Letrargyre, Marble, Salt, and jet,  
View; and let them break up her Cabinet,  
Where they with curious prying eyes, behold  
May all her Mines of Silver, Steel, and Gold,  
Her choice of Rubies, Saphires, Calcedones,  
Her Topaz, Opals, Emeralds, Diamond's,  
Her Carbuncles, her Amythists, her store  
Of Turques, Crystals, and a thousand more:  
Let them the virtues of the Loadstone see,  
And all the Earth's that Medcinable be:  
Let them their secrets daily meditate,  
Through them God's name, and wonders predicate.  
Let others on her superficies walk,  
And thorough all her vegetables stalk:  
Into Earth's dainty garden-plats let them  
Come and search out the virtues of each stem;  
Let them the secrets of all simples know,  
The virtues of all herbs, and flowers that grow:  
Let them consider flowers fragrancies,  
Their checquer work●, and dainty diapres,  
The Violets, the Roses and the Lilies;  
The Pansies, Marigolds, and Daffodillies;  
Th' admired Lotos: secret virtues given  
To herbs and shrubs by the free hand of heaven.  
Let Mugwort, Saffron, Burnet, Peony▪  
Swines-bread, St. Johns-wort, and Succory,  
Madder, Angelica, and Bittany,  
Lunaria, Hellebore, and Dittany,  
With thousands more, whose virtues wondered  
Men into admiration justly pul●,  
Consider'd be: Then that which makes us bread,  
And grain of all sorts be considered.  
Then let them walk unto the spacious groves,  
And see the Male-Palms, woe their female Loves,  
View there the Peruanan Brasil, how  
It peopled doth like to a Village show:  
See there the Oak, the Maple, Ash and Vine,  
The Elm, the Larch, the Cedar and the Pine,  
The Indian Cocos, which supplies the lack  
Alone both of the belly and the back,  
The Corck, the Osier, Alder, Willow, Holm,  
The Poplars, Beaches, Yews against a storm  
Good for a shelter; and consider these,  
The Natures and the Uses of the trees.  
Then to the fragrant Orchards go, and there,  
The Apple, Plum, the Cherry and the Pear,  
The Apricock, the Oring, Quince and Beach,  
The Limon, Feald-beard, Walnut that doth reach  
Its head to Heaven almost, the Olive, Date,  
The Baulm, and Spice-trees, which are good to eat,  
See (and admire the Hand of Providence)  
Their Wonders, virtues, and their excellence.  
Let others also view Earth's numerous guests,  
And daily weigh the natures of the Beasts,  
The Mysteries of Animals they may  
And their hid virtues to the World display.  
Let them traverse th' Hercanian Woods, and there  
The shaggy Lion, and the cruel Bear,  
The Elephant, Rinocerot, the Boar,  
The Camel, Bull, Horse, Ass, a thousand more  
Behold: and in black Chus his scorched plains  
Draw out the Serpents from the sandy drains:  
Consider there the Basilisk they may,  
Who through his eyes his poison doth convey,  
The scaly Dragon, spiteful Viper, the  
Aspic, and Adder, and Tarantule,  
Which pu●s the stung into a Capering fit;  
Then call for Music that's the cure of it:  
D●ynas, and Dispas, Scorpion, and Eft  
Who though but small, to kill can make a shift:  
The Horned Cerastes, and the Crocodile  
Who daily stuffs his mighty paunch in Nile.  
And let them the Chameleons various hue,  
With worms, and flies, Bees, other infects too  
Consider well, and let them then proclaim  
The virtues, and the Wonders of the same.  
Again let others with industr'ous bent,  
View, and review the other Element:  
Peer into Rocks, and on the Mountain's Top,  
See mighty Rivers infant springs burst up:  
And let them weigh (while others range the Woods)  
The several virtues of the Crystal floods.  
Let some behold the Cateracts of Nile,  
Others the source of Tanais the while,  
Some rapid Tigris, others Euphrates,  
Ganges, and Plate, great Rivers rather Seas.  
Tagus, and Rhyne, and Rhone, and Tiber too,  
Arn, S●in, and Po, Ister, and 〈◊〉 view,  
Our silver ●●is, which upon the main  
〈◊〉 born, smells, purges, and grows sweet again.  
Th' Effects and Operations then Recount  
Of the day cold, and the Night-scalding fount:  
Of Athamas whose cold, and Crystal Flood,  
Gives living flames unto the drenched Wood  
Or Silarus, or the Ciconian streams  
That wood convert to solid stone it seems.  
Or the Arcadian Well, of which who drinks,  
All other waters, yea wine loathsome thinks,  
Also Lincestus who drink much of it,  
Do reel like Drunkards in a drunken fit.  
A thousand more scarce credible: and then  
The medicinable waters good for men:  
The Baths of bath; Bangers in Gascony,  
And Bajae famous once in Italy.  
Then to their Fish-boat, with their tackle try  
To draw from Brooks the Silver-coated fry,  
The speckled Trour, the Barbel, Tench, and Eel,  
The dainty Salmon, Cherin, Lampry, Seile,  
And ●ny more: Then hoist into the Seas,  
Where great variety their minds may please;  
Where they as many several wonders view  
May, as in th' Earth, and airy Regions too.  
Through NEPTUNE'S wa●'ry Regions let them go,  
To THETIS Coral-garnished Court below.  
There let them view the shrubs, the Trees, the Pearls,  
The Sirens, Mearmaids', Tritons with their shells,  
And all the Fishes that do daily sport  
Themselves within great NEPTUNE'S liquid Court.  
There they may Philanthropic Dolphins see,  
The Whirlpool Whales, the terror of the Sea  
Leviathans; the Sturgeons, Amia's,  
The Cuttles, Tunnys, Prawns, and Remora's,  
The Pearl-Fish, Oysters, Sargus, Cantharus,  
The Mullet, Herring, Uranoscopus:  
With many more, which in that Region swarm,  
Of sund'ry sizes, qualities, and Form.  
There they the qualities of the Sea to know  
May strive; how it doth daily ebb, and flow,  
Its virtues, properties, how like a Lover  
The Earth embraces, and yet flows not over:  
And seeing these A●cana's of the flood;  
May preach the wonders, praise the Name of God.  
Also let others winged through the air,  
Propitiously their noble courses steer,  
And let their constant minds be daily bend,  
Upon the wonders of that Element:  
There they may ransack every cave and house,  
That doth belong to boisterous Aeolus.  
The several Regions of the air they may,  
With Hails, and Snows, and Rains, and Frosts display,  
With Dews and Comets, Exhalations, Thunder,  
Mists, Blasts and Foams, and Lightnings full of wonder.  
They too consider may when they are there  
The winged people of the moving air:  
Up to the Eagles Eyrie may they run,  
And see the Eaglets face, the dazzling Sun,  
Scorning to wink, for by this certain sign,  
Fowls Prince knows that her brood is genuine.  
Thence to the Arabian spicy woods they hast  
May, and behold the Phoenix in her nest,  
The Whilst her spicy bed begins to burn,  
And her consumeth in her fragrant urn;  
Strait way the ashes in her dainty Tomb  
Take life, and so the grave becomes the womb  
Of a new Phoenix, from whose ashes rise  
Another Phoenix shall when e'er she dies.  
The unkind Ostrich on th' Arabian plain,  
Beating her plumes against the wind in vain,  
Who cannot mount as other fowl, that fly  
Within the liquid bosom of the sky;  
Behold; and see Queen Juno's stately Bird,  
Her train extending high at every gird:  
The brustling Turkey, and the crested Cock,  
The housewife's watch, the sturdy Ploughman's clock.  
Then see the Crane, the Stork, the Pelican,  
The Cormorant, the Hern, and silver Swan,  
The Halcyon, the bird of Paradise,  
That never touches ground until she dies,  
The Griffin, Falcon, Laner, Marlin, Kite,  
The Swift, and Swallow that renews the sight  
Of her blind yo●ng with Selandine: the Pie,  
The Lark and Finch, and many more that fly  
Within the Air's fair region: Here they may  
The secret virtues of them all display.  
And seeing here the wonders of the Lord,  
His Name and Praises trumpet may abroad.  
Lastly, le● others free from earthly cares,  
God b'ye bid to the earth, and view the stars.  
Where with fair pinions fluttering along,  
The Azure dwelling of that numerous throng,  
They may behold the Roods, and several Inns,  
Of the seven Planets, and the twice six signs.  
There they the Coach may of the day's bright Prince  
Follow, and view's course, and circumference;  
His flaming and swift steeds quotidian rac●,  
His twelve fair lodgings in his annual space:  
How he the seasons of the year createth,  
How now the day's length, now the night's length bateth.  
There they fair PHEBE, horned now, e'er long  
Filling her Orb with light grow fair, and young  
Again, may see; her divers aspects, and How when at full eclipsed understand:  
How nimbly tripping in a swift career,  
The heavenly Zodiac twelve times in a year  
She passes. Thence to Mercury's sphere they go  
May, and behold his annual motion too,  
Who waiting on the Chariot of the Sun,  
Spends almost twelvemonths e'er his race is run.  
Thence mounting higher they behold the fair,  
And splendid Veaus, now the evening star,  
Sometimes again, with most resplendent rays,  
And matchless beauty she ushers in the days.  
Thence still ascending viewing Phoebus sphere,  
They may behold him measure out the year;  
And how he doth years several seasons cause,  
Spring at's approach, Winter when back he draws;  
Summer and Autumn, when his journeys made  
Through Cancer, and when with the Virgin laid.  
Thence to the angry God of War they go  
May, and behold his sphere, and journey too,  
Which e'er heed finished through the Houses has,  
Three Summers, and as many Winter's pass.  
Then to the Sphere of jupiter they wen  
May, and behold his Chariot of Tinn,  
Which twerling through the Zodiac, doth run  
Four trines of years ●'r't doth to Pisces come.  
Thence they to leaden Saturn may advance  
Whose coursers slowly thirty years do prance,  
E'er they can draw their heavy Car about,  
And see the place from whence they first set out.  
And thence to the eight Sphere; whose mighty bent  
Contains the Host of the blue Firmament,  
Whose vaster circuit, e'er it turns about  
(Tho'swift) almost seven thousand years wears out.  
heavens glittering Zone next than they may behold,  
Fringed with Silver, and embosed with Gold,  
Wherein twice six most glorious Figures stand,  
Exactly wrought by an Almighty Hand:  
March his brave Ram, and Apri●'s Bull that brings  
Upon his horns the garland of the springs:  
Th' embracing Twins; The Crab that first doth show  
Fair Sommer's presence with a sweaty brow:  
Then rampant Leo, who with burning breath  
Scorcheth the Planes, and green Woods withereth.  
The Virgin next who smiling doth appear  
To crown the Plowman's Hopes for all the year.  
The Balance then beaming with splendour bright  
The aequidistance weighs of Day, and Night.  
The Scorpion, Centaur, Kid, and Skinker shine,  
The Fishes too, a wet and Winter sign.  
Turning their heads then to the Artic pole,  
They may behold the monstrous Dragon roll,  
●ith his starry tail, the Wain man; there  
〈◊〉 Crown, the Harp, the Eagle, and the Spear  
The Snake, the Swan, and flying Pegasus;  
And●omeda, and her dear P●rseus,  
Casiop●ia, and the Dolphin, and  
Medusa's Head, and Cepheus do stand.  
Then to th' Antarctic turn they may, and view  
Where the 〈◊〉 dog-star, and Orion too,  
The Whale, the Whelp, the Hare, the Hulk, and the  
Raven, Wolf, Fowl, the Bowl and Hydra be:  
The Crown, the Fish, and other stars beside,  
Most plainly by Astronomers descried.  
There also may they with a mind intense  
Consider all the Twincklers influence  
On th'Orb below, and how they often change  
men's minds, and manners, in a manner strange.  
How pleasant meeting in conjunction smile;  
How frowning opposite another while:  
Heaven is God's Book, the Stars are letters that  
Himself so fair with his own finger wrote;  
Wise Men can read them; ignorants indeed  
Do ' count them cyphers, 'cause they cannot read:  
Wise Men alone do rule the stars, but they  
〈◊〉 cause both Man, and Beast their Laws obey:  
Who vieweth thus th' Arcana's of the Sky,  
Glory may give to heavens High Majesty,  
But let us not unmindful be of Man,  
Who harbours Wonders in his outer frame;  
Tho Worlds he hold, That to the outer Sphere  
Doth answer, therefore to be mentioned here.  
Let therefore some anatomize him, and  
His Body's inner parts well understand.  
There let them see the purple springlets drain  
From Life's true Centre thorough every vein:  
The spongy Lungs, the bellows of the Breast,  
The stomach Cook by whom the food is dressed;  
The which prepared, by the Misentric's scent  
Unto the Liver for its nourishment,  
Where, in a short space all the juicy flood  
Died, is converted into Crimson blood,  
From whence, as Rivers from the Fountain's Head's,  
It by the veins through all the Body spreads.  
Descending lower let them view at leisure,  
The Guts fine labyrinth the Bellie's Treasure.  
But e'er they thus dissect him, let them see  
His comely features, and Limbs symmetry,  
See the fair capital of this structure, stand  
On a Cylindric pillar to command  
The rest: H●s spacious Front the Throne of Aw,  
And Majesty: His eyes that homage draw  
From other creatures, like two Twinklers bright  
Sparkling, and streaming with clear Rays of Light,  
S●and placed under two fair arc's of Hair;  
These with two lids from harm defended are,  
That with a double guard of slender pikes,  
Keeps off th' offensives that the Eye dislikes.  
See then the Conduits of the Head: likewise  
Two blushing Mounts that in his Face arise;  
The Ruby portals of a pearly gate,  
The Mill and grinder of the body's meat.  
The Tongue words former, and the mazey Ear  
Through which he doth the form voices hear.  
His Hands the body's Purveyors, his Knees,  
His Legs, and Feet the Basis unto these;  
For ties the sinew, ligaments the Nerve,  
And bones for Beams, do in this building serve.  
But most of all, who'll not admire at  
H●s speech, the nimble Tongue's uncessant chat?  
Words they are wonders, in the Head created,  
Then by the tell-tale Tongue a loud related.  
His Wit, and Memory are admirable,  
For to recount whose Wonders none are able.  
Mechanics, and the Mathamatics too,  
And almost all things in the World, do show  
The mighty wonders of Man's pregnant Brain:  
The Muses, and Apollo's wits it drain  
Would, should they go about but to recount  
The same: indeed they Number do surmount.  
But whosoever Contemplates Man, may see  
The matchless Wisdom of heavens Majesty.  
Th●se are the Seas of endless Wonders, where  
God's admirable power doth appear,  
For whosoever into these depths doth go,  
Shall the Creator's Wonders see, and know,  
Into which Seas infinitude I fear  
So slender' vessel as mine own to steer:  
Nor am I suffered now (to swell my verse)  
These things (although Arcana's) to rehearse:  
Nor yet Geography's fair Lists to enter,  
Fair E●ROP'S limits, or great ASIA'S Centre,  
To speak of, or to tell what bounds do close  
Scorched afric, AMERICA, what Seas.  
To say what River, Mountain, Lake, or Ground,  
Or Seas, do such, and such a Country bound.  
To tell each soil's abundant fruitfulness,  
It's divers properties, and various dress:  
To say where grows the sweetest Grain, and where  
Best wine; what Lands best Hemp, and cordage bear:  
What Country Timber, cattle, Silk, and Lead  
Yields; Where most Mines are, where best Horses bred:  
The Country's temp'raments; the people's manners,  
Religion, Laws, Rites, Customs, Habits, Honours.  
These things I leave to others to rehearse,  
They come not here in compass of my Verse,  
For should I launch into so vast a Main,  
My slender Bark could ne'er return again;  
Although indeed all these be Wonders great,  
They are not those of which I mean to treat.  
Filled with a fire that now inflames my Soul,  
That with strong ardours, in my Breast doth roll,  
That fills me with a sacred rage, and bears  
Me from the Earthly into mystic Spheres,  
I write; Know therefore this World twofold is,  
Filled with a curse, and yet retains a bliss;  
Full of deformity, and ugliness.  
Though washed over with an outward dress;  
And yet there is a part that doth endue,  
The Robe of happiness, and beauty too.  
In one part stand great BABEL'S lofty Towers,  
SODOM'S profane, and AEGYPT'S wicked Bowers,  
Where LUCIFER triumphs, and reigns as King,  
In's Throne of Evil, and his Court of Sin;  
Sorrow, and Care, Labour, and Toil, and Sweat,  
Trouble, vexation, round about him set.  
Here SATURN'S Lord, (though 'tis by usurpation)  
Here he committeth spoil, and devastation;  
Here his great Princes, with their Hellish art,  
His Stygian Viceroys, govern each a part,  
Who here maligning mortals happiness,  
Do cause them one another to distress.  
Here bloody wars, the stained Campaine spread  
With mangled Limbs, and Bodies butchered:  
Here is the Crystal, turned to Crimson flood,  
Distained with the gore of humane blood:  
Here thousand Orphans, thousand Widows stray,  
Here thousand Captives chained are led away.  
Here Famine rageth, here contagions spread,  
That scarce the Living can intert the Dead:  
Here sicknesses, and all diseases are,  
Here miseries, unhappiness, and care.  
Here also all the sins in order range,  
Provoking all Men ●or to take their swinge:  
Here avarice, here cruelty, and here  
Lusts, murders, rapines, drunkenness appear,  
Here Riot, Luxuries, and wantonness,  
Here also pinching, scraping, and excess,  
Deceit and cheating have their Residence  
Within the vast Realms of this mighty Prince;  
Within the circuit of great BABYLON,  
Where mighty LUCIFER has pitched his throne:  
Where like a Prince (and like a Lion stout  
For's prey) he w●lks his Country round about.  
In th'other part of this great Universe  
(Which masked to mortals yet true beauty wears)  
JERUSALEM, and blessed S●ON stand,  
With famous Ed●●, and the Holy-Land,  
Fair Paradise; felicites blessed site,  
Where pleasure, and unwearied delight  
Where Plenty, Peace, where Justice, Righteousness,  
Where Truth, Love, Piety, and Happiness  
Dwell sweetly linked, There still a springing green,  
And constant verdure, sans decay is seen.  
No Winter's blasts, no stormy Rages there,  
No wars, nor cruel Discords once appear:  
No vices Vipers brood, no blood, nor murder,  
No cheats, deceits, no Rapines, nor disorder,  
No Lusts, nor avarice, nor base impiety,  
No cursing Men, blaspheming of the Deity,  
No Oaths, nor Rancour, no injustice, nor  
Ambition, Envy; Stimula's to war,  
Can there approach: here only dwells community,  
Peace, Meekness, Love, Truth, Wisdom, Joy, and Unity.  
Here King of this part sacred jesus sits,  
Who to his Vice-Roys also parts commits,  
The holy● Angels; under whose command  
They with impartial justice rule the Land,  
And for the good of mortals still expose,  
Their vigour to the Rigour of our Foes,  
Our Stygian foes, who, were it not for them,  
From th' Earth would quickly root the mortal stem.  
All that both good, and blessed doth appear,  
All that's delightful, or contentful here,  
All that is beautiful, or doth delight  
With hurtless pleasures, both our heart, and sight,  
Proceedeth from the Happy Influence  
Of this part of the world: Likewise from thence  
Proceeds our health (mortals chief wealth) content,  
Bliss, Joy, peace, concord, and true Blandishment.  
All that both Evil, and accursed is,  
All that is ugly, and all bane to Bliss,  
All that is hurtful, poison, sickness, death,  
All discords, wars, infections, jars beneath,  
On th' other side comes from the Influence  
Of that part, where enthroned sits Hel's black Prince.  
Now were That gone, this Earth an Hell would be,  
And were not This here we 't an Heaven should see:  
So that this Eart'hs a medley, chequered still  
With black, and white, composed of Good, and iii.  
The darker part, where Satan rules, doth here  
Perspicuously to mortal eyes appear  
throughout the world; and blessed Paradise  
Obscured by clouds, is hid from mortal eyes,  
And as it were triumphed upon, and fled  
From th' Earth, and thence for ever banished.  
What said I, hence for ever banished? No,  
I must recant, and if I did say so,  
For ●illed now with a prophetie Rage,  
My Life, and all that's dear to me engage  
I dare, I will; that Satan's tumbling down,  
And shall bereft be both of Rule, and Crown.  
E'er long; this Earth so long the Stage of Hell,  
Love's blessed influence e'er long shall feel:  
Cher● Saints, and tremble all you wicked crew,  
A Day of bliss, of sorrow, be to you  
It shall. Cheer Hearts Night's sable blacks are gone,  
And fait Aurora now begins to dawn:  
Turn to the East your long-expecting eyes,  
And see this Sun in his bright lustre rise;  
His Kingdom then no longer shall be hid,  
Nor under clouds of darknesses abide,  
None then shall say, where is this Kingdom, where  
This Paradise? for than it shall appear  
In all its lustre through the Earth, and then  
jesus alone shall reign the King of Men.  
Nothing but Peace, and Righteousness shall flow,  
With Joy, and Bliss, and all content below:  
Then shall IEHOVAH'S gracious will be done  
On Earth, as now in Heaven by every one.  
For this end was the Earth created: shall  
The end not be (for which God made this ball)  
Effected then? for hitherto we see,  
The Devil King was of this Globe, not he:  
But now he shall be King alone, with shame  
●ell banished Earth: I A TRUE PROPHET AM.  
But now my thinks your words assault mine ear,  
Where's Paradise? desirously you quaere.  
In what by-corner of the Earth it stands?  
Whether in Peru? or by ●anges sands?  
Whether it under the Aatartic lies?  
Or where the Riphean snowy Mountains rise?  
In what place lies this blessed part, which is  
The Realm of Joys, and the state of Bliss?  
We know that once (five thousand years ago)  
It was where rapid Euphrates doth flow:  
But where it ever since has hid its head,  
Into what Kingdom, or what Country fled  
We do not know. I'll tell you then where lies  
The happy Regions of blessed Paradise.  
To find this place, you need not cut the seas,  
You need not travel to clear Euphrates;  
You need not pass th' Arabian sands; nor go  
Over the craggy Alps uneven brow:  
Nor visit TEMPE'S fragrant bosom, nor  
Th' Atlantides, nor other Regions; for  
Tho' round the world you go; search every C●eek,  
And every Land, and every corner seek  
Of this great Universe, your labour lost  
May be, and you reap pains for all your cost.  
Know then that it in every Land doth lie,  
But yet the place none but the Wise can ' spy:  
Vails double died in pitch are thrown thereon,  
And yet it is as naked as the Sun.  
Through out the world it is, and seems to be  
Fast linked unto the other part of the  
Great World; but yet an endless Gulf remains,  
Between this Land of Bliss, and that of stains.  
Rivers they are not, that do bound this Land,  
Nor massive Mountains, that do just stand:  
Nor Woods, nor Heaths, nor Planes, nor Hills, nor Seas,  
Nor Groves, nor Vales, nor Piles, nor Pales, nor Trees  
This place from th'other part of Earth divide:  
Nor yet doth it in Caves, or Valleys hide  
Itself; nor doth between the Mountains lie,  
Whose craggy tops aspiring touch the sky:  
It's wall is fire, which bounds it round about,  
Which keeps the wicked, and unrighteous out:  
It's janitor, or Centinal doth stand,  
Armed with a flaming weapon in his hand;  
But (without clouding it) it in a word;  
A mighty Cherub only has for guard.  
As Day dwells in the shadows of the Night,  
As darkness doth involve the splendid Light,  
As the bright flame lies hidden in the coal,  
So lurking lies this holy place in all  
The Universe: So lies jerusalem  
And ZION clouded are with Babylon,  
But yet the Gulf 'twixt them's as great, I say;  
As betwixt Light, and Darkness, Night, and Day:  
For though, in one another hid they be,  
They yet together cannot stand you see;  
For when the Darkness spreads its wings, the Light  
Flies: So bright Day doth chase away the Night.  
When Night comes she involves the shining Day;  
When Day comes it hides Night within its Ray.  
Thus dwell the 
* The first Principle. The second Principle.  Principles in one another,  
Thus Hell, and Heaven blended are together,  
Thus is the Good part of the Earth hid in  
The Evil part, the spacious Realm of sin.  
Then wonder not if I to you relate  
That while you dwell in Babylonish state,  
In midst of Babel, and her wickedness,  
Priding yourself in all her whorish dress,  
Your next near neighbour (in the world's account)  
May dwell upon thrice sacred SION'S Mount,  
And in blessed Paradise: for though he may  
In Night seem, He in Night has found the Day.  
He ploughs, he sows, he reaps the Earth; so you  
The Gleab do plough, sow, reap, and husband too,  
But yet your aim, and end, and his infers  
He is God's Stuart, you are Lucifer's:  
From several principles you act, and he  
Is in the second, in the first you be;  
He dwells in EDEN, and JERUSALEM,  
But you in Egypt, and in Babylon.  
Thrice happy is the Man, that thus hath found  
In midst of Babel this thrice hallowed ground.  
The purest Crystal, nor the whitest snow,  
Nor candid'st Lilies, fairest flowers that grow,  
Nor splendid Phoebus, nor the nitid air,  
Nor shining Phoebe half so bright, nor fair,  
Nor half so pure, nor immaculate  
Are as the Soul of this great World: yet that  
Before Man fell, less pure, and divine  
Than Man was, and under his feet did shine.  
But since he joined with it, and by it fell,  
He gave admittance also unto Hell,  
And its Magia to infect it, so  
That man by it is oft made subject to  
Hel's Prince, and Law: for whilst he in this Room  
Of flesh remains, he's easily o'ercome  
By the World's spirit: Satan wholly bend  
To mischief Man, makes it his instrument,  
So that, what's pure of itself ●e still  
Distaines, and so converteth Good to iii.  
Heaven also for the good of man doth use  
The same; for by the same he doth diffuse  
External blessings, Wisdom, Wit, and Wealth,  
Riches, and Honours, Plenty, Pleasures, Health;  
But this more plainly shall explained be  
Where we speak of the Good, and Evil Tree. 
See Pag.   
I do admire that man should ignorant  
Be of this great World's Soul; so greatly want  
The true sight of't, being so nearly he  
To it is fastened by a Sympathy:  
For's outward body cometh from that womb,  
That very LIMIES, whence this Earth did come:  
Being that by the same such strange things brought  
May be to pass, such mighty wonders wrought;  
Such miracles of Nature shown: For by  
The same he may do wonders, Prophecy,  
Be by infusion Learned in Tongues, and Arts,  
And thousand others which this Spirit imparts,  
In so much that amazed Man has thought,  
The Devil only such great things had wrought.  
For not the Devil as most men suppose,  
But this world's Seal those Oracles enclose  
Did of the Heathen; So the Sibyls, So  
The Druids did what came to pass foreknow:  
And to those Priests filled with Prophetic rage,  
By the same Spirit did future things presage.  
So famous actions, done by Ganges strand,  
The same day known in the Ausonian Land  
Were, and might well be, by this Spirit made known,  
As what on all parts of our body's done  
We at the instant know; this world's Soul so  
What's done in any part of th' Earth doth know,  
And so impart the same to Mortals may;  
And Wonders, which I mention not, display:  
And all this by Man's close conjunction  
With this great Spirit (not the Devils) 's done.  
Yet I confess that oftentimes the Devil,  
That great Imposter, Father of all evil,  
Hath had his Oracles, and Prophets too,  
That he thereby might his dark Magic show,  
From whence much ill produced was: So that all  
Count him the Father of what's Magical.  
Now to this World's great Spirit there belong  
Of Spirits an innumerable throng,  
Which only to this outer world pertain,  
With it created, and shall die again  
When it's dissolved: These nothin have to do  
With those black Spirits that are subject to  
Hell's horrid Prince; and different from those  
Whom the Prince of the lighter Orb hath chose  
To be's peculiar servants. These control  
Doth (being its Instruments) the great World's Soul.  
Of these, some in the fiery Element  
Inhabit; some within the azure bend  
Among the stars: And others daily sport  
Within the flaming Rooms of Vulcan's Court:  
Such are within Vesuvius' sulp'ry womb,  
And great Enseladus' fiery ' tomb:  
Such in flame-belching Propochampech sport;  
Such cause the noises in Mount Heclesort;  
Where flakes of fire, and black stinking smoke,  
The Country round for many Leagues do choke;  
Where hammers noise, and Cyclops strokes like thunder,  
Till all that dare, go hear the same with wonder.  
Others there be, which do their nests prepare,  
Within the ●epid bosom of the Air:  
These are swift Curriers who with news can go,  
And things transport from Ganges, unto PO:  
These are those airy birds that soon can bear, 
Ecl. 10. 20.   
Your whispered Treason unto Cesar's ear,  
These, these are those mustered by higher hands,  
That in the air's clear Region show their bands.  
Where skirmishing in battle's order, show  
Wars future evils, and events to you:  
Such Germany, and our dear Albion has  
Seen just before dire wars have come to pass▪  
Some dwell within the caves of Aeolus:  
Some likewise dwell in dropping Austers house:  
Some ride upon the back of Taurus; some  
From Western Seas with sweet Favoni●● come:  
Some on the wings of blustering Bor●as ride;  
And some sweet Zepher's fragrant blasts bestride.  
Others love Neptun●'s Courts, and Th●t●'s Lap:  
O●hers themselves in Crystal Rivers wrap,  
Such was that Triton, who met Caesar on  
The sedg●-fring'd Bank of rapid Rubicon:  
And bravely sounding h●s recurved shell  
Presaged good Fortune: which to Caesar fell.  
Others in Fountains have their habitations;  
Others in Lakes, sporting in inundations:  
Some love the River, some a stinking Pool.  
Some clear-springed Iord●n; some Asphales' foul;  
Some stinking Lakes, which as Maeotis love;  
Some likewise never from Avernus move.  
So some the lesser Rivers, some the Great  
Do choose (some wander) for a constant seat.  
Some to the Earth belong, and these abound  
In numbers great, or on, or under ground.  
The subterran, within their hidden den,  
Hide treasures from, sometimes disclose, to Men:  
Sometimes such move the Treasures that they hide,  
Sometimes by these are Mines, to Men denied.  
Sometimes great treasures they disclose; anon  
To dirt convert them, or thence steal again.  
Others: which on the Earth do dwell, some Love  
The Rocks, and Caves, and some the shady Grove;  
Some Woods, & Trees: some stones, some fields, some Planes,  
Some Vales, some Hills, some Marshes, Meadows, Drains.  
Some in Islandian He●la love to lie,  
Others in Hechelberg to roar, and cry.  
Some one place, some another Love, but all  
Are frequent almost throughout all the Ball.  
Some love for to converse with men, but some  
More solitary rathered have their Room.  
Some also love among the dead to be,  
Churchyards and Tombs do best with such agree:  
I do not mean those shapes of Men that walk  
About Churchyards, or bloody fields do stalk,  
For these are th' astral bodies of dead men,  
Which to the earthy fain would join again,  
But these dissolving, those are forced to die,  
And to the Chaos whence they came to fly.  
Now some of 
* Spirits.  these have bodies, others none,  
Some borrow shapes, some shapes have of their own,  
Some are great Lords, and Princes, others be  
Servants to them: some peace, and others war  
Do cause: some govern Cities, Country's large,  
Some have a greater, some a lesser charge.  
Some they are oft, some they are seldom seen:  
Some merely mortal, at a certain time  
Die as the Beasts, and to their AEther go;  
Some 'bide so long shall as the world shall do;  
Who then shall, with the soul of this great world,  
Into the womb from whence they came de hurled.  
By these Arcanas deep are oft made known  
To men, and secrets of this world are shown:  
Farther they search not, for their skill doth lie  
In knowing solely this world's Mystery.  
There lies their Essence. But the Devils can  
The dark world's secrets and the Outer's scan:  
And so the Angels know their own, and this  
World; 'cause their Essence in them hidden is.  
But man composed of all the worlds may know  
The things of this, the light, and dark world too.  
A thousand Myst'ries here disclosed might be  
Fetched from these knowing spirits treasury;  
And would man dive into their depths, he there  
Sold find great secrets, and Arcana's rare  
Concerning (only) this great world: But I  
Do man advise a lof'tier flight to fly,  
And not into this out-world's Magic quaere;  
For noble Man's not born a subject here,  
But this world's spirit to command, and so  
Should from a higher Magic all things know.  
Magic is threefold: this world's natural,  
Sacred the light, dark, diabolical:  
Great is the Magic of this world, but yet  
Greater the dark, the light more great than it.  
When this world's secrets, Man knows from the light,  
He knows the Magic of this wo●ld aright,  
But otherwise he deals preposterous,  
Le's go a Jewel; doth a bauble choose.  
As it unlawful is for man, for to  
Investigate the dark world's Magic; so  
He leave this lower Magic should, and strive  
To gain what it through Adam did deprive  
Him of; for 'twas the Magic of this orb  
Which clothed Adam in his fleshly garb.  
Let man therefore wisely investigate  
The ancient Glory of his pristine state,  
And through the Magic of the light worlds see  
This world's Arcana's, and grand Mystery.  
The Heathen that advantage had not, as  
Through mercy now the holy Christian has,  
For Christ our Saviour hath thrown down the Wall  
Which wrath erected had through Adam's fall,  
Which barred us from the secrets of that place,  
Illuminated by our Saviour's face,  
And gives free leave unto the Holy-wise,  
adam's lost Magic now to reagnize:  
Through which, trueman may able be to know  
Th' internal Worlds, and this world's secrets too.  
This is the true and safest way to see  
Into the Magic of this world, and be  
Acquainted with all its Arcana's, for  
Through ignorance great danger else incur  
You may. Satan that great Impostor, that  
Doth for to mischief Man all times await,  
With higher Magic can deceive you soon,  
And by the world's spirit can procure your ruin.  
Since he (through Adam's fall) within this Sphere  
Has got a place, he doth so domineer,  
That to his will he bows this Magic, and  
Makes this world's spirits follow his command;  
So that all mischief that these Spirits do  
The Man, the Devil doth enforce them to.  
One skilled in the dark-Magic can do more  
Than he who's skilled in this World's, but before  
Them both is he who in the Light-●o●ld's skilled:  
By him the plottings of the Devil's spilled,  
He can't deceived be, 
Concerning Magic, see farther pag.  to his doth bow  
This World's deep Magic, and the Devil's too.  
He than this World's whole Host of Spirits, and  
The dark World's too, shall have at his command,  
Inferiors bow unto Superiors shall:  
This out World's Spirits passive lie to all  
Both Dark▪ and Light Magicians, so that they  
Sometime the dark, sometime the Light obey.  
Let Christians therefore the true Magic gain,  
And nothing hidden from them shall remain:  
Then without danger to deceived be  
By Hell the mysteries of this World they'll see.  
For this end jesus (at whose mighty Name  
All evil spirits bow their Heads for shame,  
And fear) beholding Sath●●n's Subtleties,  
How he by this World's Spirits, injuries  
To Man did do; has them restrained, so  
That they appear not as they're wont to do.  
To him they bowed, where e'er he came their heads,  
And ever since where his bright Gospel spreads  
They're not so frequent; for the glorious Rays  
Of it, with splendour doth them much amaze.  
In ●ormer time the Heathen swallowed were  
More into th' Spirit of this outer Sphere,  
Then men are now (and yet more wickedness  
Abounds now in the World, I do confess,  
Because Hell's Centre now is opened more  
Within this World, than e'er it was before,  
Because the wrath of God's more irritated,  
Because through Light our sins are aggravated)  
Therefore these Spirits were more frequent then:  
Appeared to, and conversed more with Men.  
Men now more near conjoin to Hell; therefore  
They Men frequent not as they did before:  
Not now by Vice-Roy●s, but now Hell commands  
In person, and in the● Heart's Centre stands.  
The Devil like a subtle Captain deals,  
Who from's Foe's actions still advantage steals,  
And strives to make his Foe's brave Policies,  
Prove helps to him, to himself injuries:  
Satan perceiving the high hand of Heaven,  
For to restrain the power it had given  
To Spirits, and that now they in this Sphere  
Did not, as they did formerly appear,  
He straight suggests to Man that there are none,  
And so to think a vain opinion  
Makes him believe it is: Through which sad Evil  
He might induced be to believe no Devil,  
And so no Hell, nor Heaven; for by this mean  
He hopes Atheism to bring in again,  
That he men's souls might get: But who believe  
This great Impostor, do themselves deceive.  
Laugh not at Fairies, Pigmies, Gnomies, selves,  
M●losinae, Sylvestres, Sirens, Elves,  
At Lemures, Neuferan●, Diamae,  
At Nymphs, Penates, Durdal●s, Und●nae,  
For name them what you will, or as you please  
Baptise them, there such Spirits are as these.  
As likewise Planetary Spirits, and  
Such as do Places, and the Winds command:  
With thousand other mundane Spirits, that  
God did, when he did this great World create,  
But, who their Power, and Mysteries would know,  
May to Agrippa, and Trithemius go.  
But ah, how many scoff at Spirits, and  
Deride the things they do not understand!  
For more than ever Hell in this Prevails,  
That Truth's are ' counted oldwives idle Tales.  
You selfconceited, who so slyly jere,  
'Tis happy for you Spirits disappear:  
That God (for to convince you) done't affright  
You, with the horrors of Aeternal Night,  
With those black shades sprung from the Stygi●● Sphere,  
Which are (tho' unseen by you) conversant here.  
You ignorants it is a sign you know  
Scarce what belongs unto this world below,  
Much less to those which from your blinder eye,  
In vails of Pitch, and night enfolded lie.  
Had I the Key that could your eyes unloc,  
Had I the art to pull those Curtains back,  
Or rub those scales off, which before them be,  
You Truth, and Hell's black swarms at once should see:  
You'd startle then into belief, and cry  
W●'l never more that Spirits are deny.  
Beside the numberless spiritual throng  
Which do unto this outer world belong,  
Within the Region of this world there are  
Vast troops which come from the internal sphere,  
Both from the dark Tartarean Centre, and  
From that Orb where doth Loves great Prince command.  
Being this world of good and bad's composed,  
Spirits both good and bad are here disclosed,  
For as these seek the hurt of man, so those  
Their virtue to their venom do oppose.  
Innumerable are the Sulph●y swarms  
Hell belches forth to cause poor mortal harms,  
Vast teter Troops continually from thence  
Are sent to fight the battles of their Prince,  
Who ranging thorough out the world contrive,  
How they may man of bliss and rest deprive.  
Go count the motes that in the Sunshine fly,  
Go count the sands that on the shore do lie,  
Go count the rolling billows of the sea,  
Go count the stars that in the heavens be,  
Number me those, and thou perhaps mayst tell  
The Legions which do hither come from Hell:  
Scarce is a place throughout this world so wide,  
But where ten Millions of these spirits 'bide.  
But now to match these evil spirits, come  
There do as many, from the sacred womb  
Of the Light-world; which sacred spirits do  
Equal their numbers, and their powers too:  
So that the world divided is betwixt  
Them both, and of them good, and bad is mixed:  
These seek to spill, kill, hurt and destroy man;  
Those comfort, please, ease, help him all they can.  
Nay gaze not round so with thine outer eye,  
As if thou meanest to give this truth the lie,  
And 'cause thou blinded canst not spirits see,  
T' affirm, and boldly ●wear that none there ●e:  
You Linccus tell me canst thou see the wind?  
If not, a spirit how that's more refined?  
Wind's blasts thou feelest, if not made of steel,  
So spirits dire effects I'm sure most feel,  
Although they ignorant may be from whence  
Proceeds their felt (though unseen) influence.  
Nay spread not so thine hands, and arms abroad  
Thinking to feel, and catch them, 'cause I said  
They every where did stand; forbear, forbear,  
Open thine hand, and see how much of air  
Thou hold'st; spirits can pass thy body thorough,  
Lie in thy bosom, yet not felt by you.  
Nay gape not so, not snap at every blast,  
As if thou spirits hadst a mind to taste,  
For they into thy mouth themselves can put,  
Its ruby gates, and strong porcullis shut.  
Nor snuff the wind, as if thou meanest to smell  
Them out, if near thee by the stink of hell,  
To find them out thou surely now dost think,  
By their sulphurous smell, and Stygian stink.  
They can deceive thee with the sweeter air,  
Or fume themselves in thy perfumed hair:  
But hell, and all its stinks lie round about  
Thee, yet thou senseless canst not smeel them out,  
Nay prick not up thy ears to hear the noises  
They make in going, nor to hear the voices  
Of those that talk: they softly whisper, so  
That thou not hear them canst; on wool they go;  
They talk can by thee, (yet thou ne'er the near)  
And never move the air unto thine ear.  
We by our outer senses understand  
Nothing, but what's composed of matter, and  
Form, and what is corporal, and what  
Not of a simple essence is, but that  
Which of a mixture doth partake I wis:  
Each Spirit of a simple nature is; 
Parallel.   
And therefore not t' our outer senses subject,  
Except connexed to some outer object,  
Where there is Matter, Form, or corporeity:  
(Which not in Spirits, nor the sacred Deity  
Are simply) Spirits to our outer eye  
And th' other senses than do subject lie.  
Mistake me not, that Spirits bodies have  
I'll not deny: but these I do believe  
Spiritual, and incorporeal are,  
And of their Nature● very much do share:  
These also to our outward senses be  
Not Subject. As I said the Deity  
No form 
* 
That is simply of itself, for as the Soul is not of matter, Form, etc. yet it has a body wherein its Image is exhibited: So Spirits are not of Matter, Form, etc. yet they have Bodies which are distinct from them, but not as our gross bodies, subject to our outward senses, but to our inward: For had they not bodies they could not be visible to our internal eyes which pierce into their Kingdoms and habitations, which bodies, are of a very like nature to themselves.  
Now as the good Angels and Spirits have Bodies, wherein they are sensible of all the blessings of the Eternal Sphere: So the evil Angels and Spirits ●ave in which they are sensible, of the wrath and fiery property of the dark World: For, without bodies there could be no sensibility, etc.  
Their Bodies likewise are of a spiritual substance made out of Sulphur, Mercury, and 〈◊〉, in the inward ground of Eternal Nature the bodies both of Angels and Devils being of the same Matter, but that those are Harmonized by the property of the Light or second Principles, these 〈…〉 by that of the dark or first ' Principle.   nor matter has: a body though  
It has, for Christ God's Body is we know.  
Spirits not made of matter simply too,  
Do bodies tho spiritual endue  
Unto our inner senses they thereby,  
Tho not t' our outer senses 
* ●i. e. may be seen, felt, heard, smelled, etc.  subject lie.  
They therefore who acquainted are, with the  
Internal Worlds, and their grand mystery,  
Whose senses are unlocked by that hand,  
Which doth all senses, and all World's command,  
Can Spirits see, and with Lincean eyes  
Behold their Bodies, features, shapes, and guise:  
Can also touch them, and their Bodies feel:  
Can also taste them: and their scents can smell▪  
The Sulph'ry stinks, which from dark Spirits rise,  
The sweet perfumes from those of Paradise:  
Can also hear the Angels sacred Songs,  
The dark World's Cursings belched from fiery Tongues.  
These are Arcana's, which I'll not rehearse,  
Cause scoffers breaths shall not betaint my Verse:  
Whose these things see, see with enlightened eyes:  
A word's enough unto the truly-Wise.  
But go, unbelieving Thomas', who swore  
You will believe not that there Spirits are,  
Except them with your outer eye you see,  
Except they subject to your senses be;  
Who scoff at the internal senses, 
See pag.  and  
Deride as whimsies what you understand  
Not: Spirits can (such Sadduces to fear)  
In outer Bodies and groffe shapes appear:  
So that your Ear, your Nose, your Hand, your Eye,  
May them both (plainly) hear, smell, feel, and spy.  
No forms there be within great Tellus womb,  
But Spirits (freely may and) can assume:  
And Spirits never come in shapes that fright:  
The Evil can't assume the shapes of Light.  
Some starry Halos still attends the Good;  
Some dark unbrattic shade the Stygian brood:  
Good Spirits still in humane shapes appear,  
In starlike Lights, or brightnesses more clear  
Than tho third Orb's fair, and resplendent Queen;  
Seldom in any other bodies seen:  
The dark Orb's Spirits take an Humane garb,  
Or any other shape within this Orb;  
There is no creature 'mong the numerous swarm,  
But they into its likeness can transform  
Themselves, and all such shapes assume, and use,  
The which the Earth doth any way produce;  
However most times they assume the feature  
Or of some ra●'nous, or some ugly creature.  
But let good Spirits how they please appear,  
Or in what'ever form, or figure here  
Be manifest, a magic still attends  
That doth distinguish them from Hellish Fiends,  
They bring good news, are messengers of joy,  
They clear from fear, from sadness, and annoy  
The Seers hearts by their sweet presence, and  
Do make them what they are soon understand.  
But those dark Fiends of the Tantalean Den,  
How e'er disguised strike horror into Men  
By some hid Magic's secret influence  
At the first sight: 'tis easy then from whence  
They come to know; for though, a sudden fear  
The good may cause when they to men appear  
Who'r unacquainted with them; recompense  
That fear they do with a sweet influence  
Which from their presence flows immediately,  
Which them doth ravish with its suavity.  
Ask not what Tailor fits their fine array?  
Or makes those clothes, or gowns so fit which they  
Appear in oft? or of what stuff they're made?  
Who dons their garments? How they are arrayed?  
They are self-Taylors, and self-helpers too,  
And in a moment can all shapes endue.  
Have they a mind for to be seen, they call  
The Elements (who subject to their thrall  
Do lie) unto their help: and then, of these  
They form what bodies (for themselves) they please,  
But so composed that in a moment they  
Can them dissolve, and soon disperse away.  
Th'apt-to● beformed air, doth matter yield  
Fit for all shapes: for oft I have beheld  
The hanging clouds sometimes a Horse to frame,  
Then to a Lion, or a Dog the same  
Convert, and so vicessively, to make  
A thousand Forms, a thousand shapes to take.  
So most times Spirits (when here seen) ●do shroud  
Themselves within some gross, and airy cloud,  
Which they transform can to what shapes they please,  
And then disperse them into air with ease:  
For air condensed will admit we know,  
Colour, and Form, witness the clouds, and Bow.  
Both Good, and Bad, the Elements can take  
And of them for themselves fit bodies make,  
The nimble Fire, the moistful Water, and  
The Earth do subject lie to their command.  
Dead bodies they can doubtless enter (that  
Can them possess when in a living state)  
And e'er they're rotten agitate them so  
That they about (as if alive) may go.  
Mouth, Arms, Legs, Talons, and such members they  
(Their force, and powers better to display)  
Assume of a gross substance: with their Hands  
At once they fell a thousand armed Bands,  
With their sharp talons pierce the flesh, and beat  
To dust the top of Taurus with their Feet.  
With Swords, and such like instruments they slay,  
Beat, strike, and wound, and fiercely chase away  
Mortals sometimes: But doubtless they may these  
Things do w'thout Arms, or members if they please.  
But whensoever Spirits Bodies here  
Assume, and to our outer Eye appear,  
They put on such as may convenient be,  
And with their inner Bodies best agree,  
For look what shapes their inner Bodies have,  
Such shapes, (if visibly appear) they crave:  
I cannot better represent it than  
Thus: Let a waxen Picture of a Man  
Be made complete, exactly like, and fit  
And Hollow, let the Man then into it  
Be put, the Picture's like the Man, but he  
In it enclosed close you cannot see:  
So Spirits when they 'ppear unto our eye  
Their body's cloth with visibility;  
So that the outer forms the, assimilate  
In all things answer their internal state,  
But that those shapes our outer eyes may see,  
These seen may only by our inner be.  
But how should I this Volumn swell if that  
I mention should what Histories relate!  
Concerning those stupendious acts (which made  
Men wonder much) of spirits good, and bad,  
The title of which would swell too high for me,  
And ask more she●ts than in this book shall be.  
So that I wonder much that men should grow  
SH' incredulous; think there's no Spirit, though,  
Plenty of actions their beliefs might gain,  
As not to judge the Melancholic brain,  
Or fantasy to be the Father that  
Did Acts of Spirits Good, and bade create.  
So palpable they are that who denies  
Them, may as well Histories Verities  
Question in all things else. Perversity  
Sticks not to give the Sun itself the Lye.  
What were those spirits that Eubatis house  
In Corinth haunted? What was that did use  
For to disturb Pausanias his rest?  
Or that who Nero did so much molest?  
Or that which Otto terrified? Or those  
That used to sport about the shady brows  
Of the sad grave of cursed Coligula?  
What was that air and pestilential Ray,  
Which from Apollo's Fane at Babylon  
Flew through the Earth, which was no sooner gone  
From whence (it seems) it had been lock●● up,  
But all the World drank Plague's infernal Cup  
And what were those so oft appeared unto  
Lancastrian, and Warbosian witches too?  
What spirit job tormented! What was he  
Caused Sarah Raguels, Daughter's misery, 
Io● 1. Tobit 7.   
Forcing her Grooms by Hymen crowned at noon,  
To pass the Ferry-boat of Charon soon?  
I should want time to write. and you to read  
Should I but mention every horrid deed  
Of evil Spirits, which in History  
Is noted: who shall doubt this verity?  
But one I'll here recite, Niderius 
Nidor. lib. ult. Formic.   
His Pen the same made known hath unto us.  
Upon the Confines of Bohemia lies  
A Stygian Vale, where shady Mountains rise  
burdened with aged trees, whose bushy heads  
Fill th'under-lying Vale with horrid shades,  
Denying Phoebus in the brightest Day  
Leave amply there for to project his Ray.  
Here every Night after that Sol was gone  
To court Queen Thetis in the Ocean,  
And that the horrid shadows of the Night  
With pitchy Veils had mu●●led up the Light;  
Hell and its Princes mustered their Forces,  
Their bands of Footmen, and their Troops of Horses,  
And in disport to Exercise, and play,  
Their Stygian Troops, embattled in array,  
They did divide, meeting with strange effort  
Pelmell they joined, and skirmished thus in sport.  
●he Mountains echoed, and the Valleys rung  
With the strange noises of this Stygian throng,  
The air re-ratled with their Canon's noise,  
Their armours clashing, and the horrid voice  
Of fight, roaring, howling, hissing Fiends,  
Like to the loudmouth Thunder, when it rends  
The tallest Cedars, and the strongest Rocks  
With unresistible, and deadly knocks.  
Here flakes of fire, here curled Clouds of Fume,  
With Sulphur mixed, and other stinks did come  
From out the Vale, as if that Aetna there  
Had spit his fiery entrails in the air,  
And by and by they such a yell would send  
As if at once they Heaven, and Earth would rend:  
Pompey and Caesar on the fatal Plain  
Of Pharsalia, or great Tamerlaine,  
And Ba●azet, great Alexander, and  
Darius who all Asia did command  
Met with less clamour▪ and less noise of arms  
Then made these Devils with infernal Charms:  
Thorough the gentle air these clamours fly  
Which gave Alarms to the dwellers by,  
The fearful ran away, the stoutest dare  
Not go to see what fight Foes these were:  
Until at last two stout, and hardy Knights  
Alarmed with these noises several Nights,  
Accounting it disgrace for them who were  
The Sons of Mars for to admit of Fear,  
Resolved to go into the Vale, and see  
Who those noctarnal Combatants might be.  
The night appointed armed, and mounted they  
Dauntless, and stout, together take their way,  
Fair Phoebe tripping through the azure skies,  
Favoured with smiles of light their enterprise,  
And on the Road her silver beams doth shed,  
Which to this Close, and haunted Valley led:  
By whose fair beams of Light descry they might  
Two Armies battailed, and prepared to fight  
Their Troops well marshaled, pressed, and ready bent,  
And Colours streaming in each Regiment,  
The Foot prepared, the Horsemen mounted, and  
Th' Artillery fitted, and in order stand:  
Here Drums were beat, here Fifes were played upon,  
Here the shril-sounding Trumpets strongly blown  
Tantara go, and other music, that  
Men pressed to blood, and rage doth animate.  
This seen, the heart of one strong fear subdues,  
And farther on to go he doth refuse,  
I'ave seen enough (said he) nor is it good  
To match with Friends for feeble Flesh, and Blood,  
Let's now retire, while that we may, from these  
Fiends, and not dally with such Prodigies.  
Coward stay thou (the other straight replies)  
I●le try their metal e'er I go: Then hies  
Upon the gallop to these Armies, but  
He in the midst is by a Champion met;  
They draw their Weapons, stoutly fight, but he  
Straight loses both his head, and Victory.  
The other less Foolhardy flies; relate  
He doth next day, this Champions desperate Fate,  
The People thither go by heaps: The dead  
Body they find, some furlongs from his Head,  
But neither print of men's feet, nor of Horses  
Nor any sign of all these warlike Forces  
Were to be seen: S●ch stories Histories  
Afford in plenty. And let this suffice.  
Nor are the sacred Acts of Spirits good,  
Inferior or less frequent than the Bad,  
●or they do mortals help as often still,  
As those black Fiends appear to do them ill.  
Doth not the sacred Writ most clearly shine  
In every place with Angels Acts divine?  
What were those Sacred Nuncio's that came, 
Gen. 18.   
And eat, and drank, and Talked with Abraham?  
They eat, and drank, not that they needed it,  
For unto nothing soon resolved their m●at.  
And who were those who Let protected, 
Gen. 19  from  
The sulphury flames which did on Sod●m come?  
That the Egyptians firstborn slew? 
Exod. 12. 29.  and that  
Which did Senac'hrib's Host exterminate?  
That which with Manoa communed, 
2 Kings 19  and he  
Which Daniel helped in his extremity?  
Which talked with Esdras? 
judges 13.  and those five that fought  
In golden arms for Macha●eus stout? 
Dan. 6. 22.   
And what was he who Mary visited? 
2 Esd. 4.   
And he who Peter from his prison led? 
2 Mac. 10. 30.   
Full every where are holy Histories,  
Of holy Acts of Angels like to these, 
Luke 1.   
Who by the Mandate of their masters Will 
Acts 12.   
Attend the good of Fragil mortal still:  
This one I'll cite, to them who more would know  
The Ecclesiastic Histories will show.  
When Christianism's fair, 
Marull.  and sacred Light  
Contested with the foul, 
Spalat. lib. 1. cap. 8.  and cursed Night  
Of Paganism; Then the raging Fiends,  
Brought many Saints unto most cruel ends,  
And then the holy Angels of the Lord,  
Bestirred themselves to propagate his Word,  
And in the Christians great extremities,  
Applied choice comforts to their Miseries:  
So that with hearts undaunted evermore,  
The Rage, and fury of Hel's Prince they bore.  
Among the rest stout LAURENTINUS, and  
His valiant brother PERGENTINUS stand  
As Champions stout, and bid defiance to  
Hell: their pernicious and immortal Foe.  
Their holy Tongues fired with Zeal decry  
The Heathens Idol, and Idolatry:  
Their holy charms enchain the People's hearts,  
And Sathaa's wounded by the sacred darts  
Shot from their pious mouths; and fearing now  
To be overcome voweth their overthrow.  
TIBURTIUS then Areciam's Lord is bend  
To be (the Prince of STYX) his Instrument:  
He these seeks to dissuade, but all in vain▪  
They scorn his honeyed words, and sugared train,  
The more TIBURTIUS lauds his jupiter,  
The more he up their holy zeal doth stir.  
Enraged he as Satan did command  
Caused them with cruel cords for to be bound,  
And then with bats for to be beaten ●ore,  
Till their white backs were covered with gore.  
But mark an Angel with a steely wand  
And frowning brows doth by these Martyrs stand  
Unseen, he strikes their Executioners,  
Which blow its dire effects full soon infers;  
For straight their arms, who beat these Martyrs so,  
Are now not able for to strike a blow,  
Dried up they are like sticks; their sinews shrunk  
And dryth hath up their strength, and vigour drunk:  
Cruel Tiberius then to prison hales  
These Brothers: (Hell now claps on all his Sails;  
Blown with the blasts of Rage, fell mischiefs barque  
Seeks to overwhelm the Christian's new-built Ark)  
There as it were within the jaws of Hell,  
Where horrid Night, and Stygian stinks did dwell,  
Where mire, and filthy dirt, and stinking dung  
Bespread the floor, and the black wall's behung:  
There are the Brothers, noble Brothers put,  
And there from food, as well as Light are shut.  
But stay Tiburtius, 'tis not thou canst keep  
Food from these Martyrs: Christ will feed his sheep:  
And though ten thousand Iron bars behem,  
He in the foulest hole will feast with them.  
A sacred Angel now Hel's Rage withstands,  
And notwithstanding his severe Commands,  
Brings every day food to these close shut up:  
With which they bountifully dine, and sup.  
In vain Tiburtius every day inquires  
Which of the constant brothers first expires,  
In vain he waits (and still in vain he may)  
To hear the cruel cutthroat keepers say  
That they were starved to death: He waits in vain,  
Raging therefore he now will have them slain.  
This cruel Monster, and right Stygian Heir  
Doth now a walk of burning Coals prepare;  
And (cruel) forces these two Saints to stalk  
With naked feet upon this fiery walk:  
The glowing Coals (charged by the Angel so)  
Kiss their sweet feet unhurt as they do go,  
Fast locking up their burning quality  
As splendent Gems under their feet do lie.  
But all this will not serve their turns; for now  
Unto JOVE'S Image they are bid to bow,  
Instead of jove to jesus straight they cry,  
When one of his blessed Chore doth thither fly,  
Touching the Idol with his sacred hand,  
Prodigiously converts the same to sand,  
The brass resolved to dust falls on the ground,  
Whilst Heathen Iesu's blessed Name re●ound.  
Such were the acts of holy Angels, then  
Frequent, though now so seldom seen by men.  
And what's the reason that these Sons of Light  
Seem as it were now to eschew our sight?  
Why don't they now appear as they were wont  
To do, in former ages? and why don't  
They show their kind familiarity  
But hide themselves in veiled obscurity?  
Some think the sins of Men the cause; 
See p.  and sure  
Angels love to converse with none but pure  
Men like themselves: and though this may not be  
The only Cause of their obscurity  
Unto our outer eye, yet sure I am,  
Man's inner converse hindered by the same  
Is, for while Men lie plunged in the mire  
Of sin, they can't behold these sparks of fire.  
Others suppose the Church confirmed now,  
Has no such need as heretofore for to  
Be strengthened, therefore Angels don't appear,  
And therefore miracles now ceased are.  
Others do think (and sure their reason's good)  
Since God himself put on our flesh and Blood, 
Mr. Laurence Communion and war with Angels. pag. 16.   
And since that Iesu's blessed Humanity  
For ay enthroned is in Heaven on high,  
That Mortals should Spiritualised be,  
And him by Faith, in Truth, and Spirit see.  
For the Internal World's now opened are,  
And Spiritual Treasures more than e'er they were,  
So that Man now converse with Angels may  
In a more Spiritual, and nearer way,  
For Angels though they don't appear, do Love  
Men as they did, and round him daily move,  
For to defend him from all hurt, and Harm,  
With Magic vigour of their powerful arm.  
They willing are still to converse with Men  
Who lay aside the letting Veils of Sin.  
But what's the reason seeing Spirits have  
Such power here, that th' Ill do not bereave  
Man of his Life? and with their shapes affright  
Him from his Reason, Wits, and Senses quite?  
Why don't they haunt Man with continual terror?  
And show themselves in their dread shapes of horror?  
Why don't they muster all the Winds? and tear  
The Rocks a●●●nder? and the Mountains bear  
Un●o some City pashing with the stones  
Both Towers, and Walls, Houses, and Men at once?  
Why don't they move the Raging Seas, and make  
At once a Kingdom, or a Land, a Lake?  
And sith a power to slaughter men they have  
Why don't they sweep whole Towns into the grave?  
Being they are to mischief always bend,  
Why make they Man to be their Instrument?  
The Devil Man's subtle and crafty foe  
Charges his slaves, 
〈◊〉  that they themselves do show  
T● none, but such whom he'● assured are  
〈◊〉, and bound 〈◊〉 his Iron snare:  
For he's afraid if he should men affright  
With the black shadows of the dismal Night,  
And should in's horrid shapes be seen, that they  
(Sith Men in fear, are then most apt to pray  
For help to God) should through a sense of fear  
On goodness think, and from their sins forbear:  
And lest that many, who no Hell believe  
Now; he by this means should re-undeceive  
Beside the shame, of their foul blot, and slain  
From oft appearing doth them much restrain,  
For they do know Man knows their fall, and straight  
They hang their heads if he the same relate.  
Therefore they're much enraged if any spy  
Them will they, nile they, with an inner eye.  
But chiefly this restrains them: Well they know  
Their ministry, and what they are to do  
Spiritual is, and that they need not come  
In shapes, nor Corporeity assume.  
They are to tempt Man unto Sinn, and they  
That very well can do a better way  
Than to be seen, into the fancy press  
They do and there suggest all wickedness.  
Sleeping, and waking, Night, and Day, they do  
Disturb the fancy, and the senses too.  
So that they'll not appear unto the eye  
Except they think they an advantage spy.  
But why Man's Life they do not take away  
Nor all the order of the World destroy  
Is this: JEHOVA whose black slaves they be  
Holds in his Hand their chains extremity,  
So that like Bandogs they may bark, and grin,  
But cannot hurt unless he lose the chain:  
Which loosed (for sin's correction) straight they room  
And upon man with rage, and fury come.  
Likewise we must not think the Angels idle,  
But that they still their rage, and fury bridle,  
Opposing still the rigour of their arms,  
Against the venom of their spells, and charms:  
So that with wisdom, and with might they can  
Avert their plots, and stratagems from Man.  
But I suppose, did God give Satan leave,  
He would not Men, as most suppose, deprive  
Of Life (though I confess his furious spite  
Effect much harm, and desolation might)  
For what good would it do for him to Crown  
At once the whole World with a Martyrdom?  
For what good would it do him to destroy  
Man? for himself by it he'd more annoy:  
'Tis not this Life of Man he seeks, but the  
Soul's company with him Eternally:  
Therefore he'd have Men in prosperity,  
And's loath to see them in Adversity.  
In eas●, and pleasure Men to sin are subject,  
Disease stirs up to a Celestial object.  
If Satan should Man's hand so agitate  
That he should burst in twain the thread of Fate  
Of any one: answer shall he the fact  
If that his will concurred not with the act?  
Then Daemonaicks must be guilty too  
Of whatsoever they in their fits do do.  
Satan knows well enough what e'er ill in  
Their minds he puts, imputed sha'ned for sin  
Be unto them, unless their will they shall  
Conjoin thereto. This sin we rightly call.  
Therefore he tempts, well knowing that he can  
Not hurt: for Man himself must murder Man.  
H●rt from himself doth flow; 
〈…〉  but cunning he  
Makes Man betray himself to misery.  
But if that any persecute he would  
His Rage, and spite would be against the Good,  
Whom he should think were past his reach, or those  
Who naked should themselves to him expose,  
Hoping thereby to make them sin, or that  
They should grow through oppression desperate.  
But God who bounds the Seas, doth Hell command,  
And binds the Devils with the selfsame Hand.  
Man as the Sages not untruly said  
Peculiar Genii has both good and bad:  
Each good Man has an Angel guardian, 
Mat. 13. 10.   
And evil Daemon has each evil Man  
For to attend upon him; one doth still  
Egg Man to Good, the other unto ill.  
As doth a careful Nurse attend the child  
She suckles, lest by harm it be beguiled,  
Or hurt, and as she joys to see it grow  
In strength, and all perfections; even so  
The Angel tu●ular attends his Ward,  
And daily it doth from all evil guard:  
He joys to see his charge to grow apace  
In heavens perfections, and the strength of Grace:  
He guards his charge from ills, and doth undo  
Hel's plots, and snares, and stops his fury too.  
And were it not for such an Angel's guard,  
To shun Hel's snares, a Saint would find it hard.  
What owe we then unto heavens Love, that sends  
So good a Nurse that Man so frankly tends?  
So evil Men, ill Daemons wait upon,  
Who joy to see them in Hel's Races run,  
They have their several charges too, and they  
Also upon their charge attend always:  
Each seeks his charge to hale to TOPHET, even  
As the good Angel to bring his to Heaven.  
Sometimes these Genii bodies take, and then  
Themselves they do exhibit unto men:  
For Bishop Bruno heard a voice cry thus;  
No Bishop! I am thy evil Genius,  
ere long I'll fetch thee: and e'er long indeed  
A Roof fell down upon his cursed head. 
Plutarch:   
So Marcus Br●tus his evil Genius spied  
(Whose Fate presaged) the night before he died 
Vit:   
Cassius Parmensis saw a Daemoa that  
With horrid looks presaged his evil Fate,  
Who being asked what he was? he thus  
Replied; I am thy evil Genius.  
Good Men likewise have their own Genii seen  
And with them also conversant have been.  
B●din relates a story of a Man  
Who was directed by his Guardian  
Angel, at all times, who forewarned him still  
(That he prevent it might) of any ill  
That threatened him: or if he did not well  
He by some sign him of it still would tell:  
And every morning (such his holy care  
Was) him awaked, and stirred him up to prayer;  
And every night he in a dream did show  
Those accidents that should next day ensue:  
So that he was fore-armed still, and thus  
Preserved till Death by his good Genius.  
One jacob Behre, 
In vita Behm.  a very pious Man  
By prayer obtained an Angel Guardian.  
Which both himself, and's Wife saw every Night  
About their Bed, like to a shining Light.  
Such is God's Love, and such the Angels care,  
That we as children, they as Nurses are.  
I do believe that there are many now  
That by the guidance of their Angels go,  
Steer as they do direct; are guided by  
And have converse with their own Genii.  
And tho, men may not often see their own  
Genii; and though themselves they have not shown  
Often; unseen they act and do direct  
Our actions, and us from Hel's harms protect.  
They do inspire us, and as God commands,  
Sometimes they help, sometimes withhold their Hands.  
Good Angels help good men, the evil still  
Entice, and draw them to the pits of ill.  
Most men are by Good, or ' ill Genii led,  
In all their actions, though they're undescryed:  
Therefore behold within the Globe I paint  
An Angel Guardian waiting on a Saint:  
An evil Daemon, which another leads,  
Who in the paths of sin, and Tart'rus treads.  
But the deep Magic of each mystic Sphere  
We shall (below at full) describe, 
See p. & p.  not here.  
We here proceed shall (though in homely garb)  
To show the mysteries of this outer Orb.  
〈◊〉 This Wo●ld from th'inward Worlds its being got,  
And of their natures doth participate.  
The curse with blessings, good with bad doth blend.  
Both Centres hither do their forces send:  
This is the stage on which both act, 'tis here  
Their influence, and power doth appear:  
This is the field, in which these powers do band,  
And strive which of them may Man's heart command.  
This is the receptacle, here below  
For Heaven and Hell their Wonders both to show:  
So that here is as 'twere conjoined in one  
Both Sodom, Egypt, and jerusalem.   

The Devil, crafty in his hellish art,  
Rejoiced much to see this World produced  
From two more inward beings, now he used  
His utmost skill, and it stood him upon,  
This World's, and Adam's soul in union  
For to conjoin, For well he thereby knew  
A place of pleasure should to him accrue.  
Infernal Spirits find some ease, 
They'd rather enter the herd than return to the fiery Centre.  when they  
Imbody in some earthly bodies may. 
Matt. 3. 31.   
The herd of Swine they'd rather enter, than  
Return into their smoky hole again:  
Leaving their fiery Centre, they as 'twere  
Come forth of prison for to take the air:  
Here they disport themselves; and closely lurk  
With eagerness to do their father's work,  
Which is to draw th'immortal Souls of men,  
For to inhabit their Sulphurous den.  
The Devils tremble when they think upon  
This outward Fakrick's dissolution,  
For then more strictly shall they wrapped be  
In their own Centre to Eternity.   

This wily Serpent all his craft did use,  
His poison through this Earth for to diffuse●  
Which he no way effect could: 
The fall,  b' Adam's lapse  
Only a way is made; He him entraps,  
Assaults his freewill, doth expose to view  
This World's rare beauties when 'twas form new:  
Shows him the tree forbid, whose dangling fruit  
So pleasing, with a new made creature suit  
He well knew would: This was the only gate▪  
By which he hoped to overthrow him at.  
He knew be●orehad the sad consequence  
Of Adam's ●all: Therefore he strives from whence  
He wa● created to attract him; and  
Thereby to lessen him of his Command.  
Adam was King, sole Prince, and Lord of all  
The Earth, but lost it by his fatal fall.  
Satan knew, he millions of Souls should gain  
By this means, to increase his hellish train;  
And hoped (it may be) for to conquer all  
That should produced be on this earthly Ball,  
If Adam should not fall, 
(i. e)  he likewise knew,  
He in this World should nothing have to do,  
But should be banished quite, which is the 
* The first Principle overcome, the second, or Paradise, thorough all.  state  
Is promised, for which the Angels wait;  
To see Hel's power banished, Heavens' alone  
To have with this World's Spirit union:  
Then shall the curse be fled, and Paradise  
To flourish here we shall see with our eyes.  
But Adam's fatal lapse, from what, to what,  
In brief my slender Muse shall now relate.  
Th' Aeternal one, or th' one Original,  
Th' internal World's, which Principles we call,  
Or his right hand, or left hand, Wrath, o● Love  
Considering, doth with his Spirit move  
On them: 
See further pag▪  what Images there Spiritual  
Were, he gave them substance corporeal,  
And by his Fiat this great Machine made  
Of nought: and in such form and order laid  
This huge vast Mol●s, (or live creature, some  
So have affirmed, I'n this a Sceptic am)  
That there no disagreeing seeds appeared,  
All was by order, weight, and measure reared.  
Heaven, Earth, Ayr, Seas, Fire, Water, Land, and all  
Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Birds, the which this Ball  
I● habited, they so created were  
That they partaked of each internal Sphere:  
And though those Kingdoms ever disagree,  
Were in the World in complete harmony,  
So had the great Creator ordered it,  
And them so in their place, and order set,  
That there was no disunion, for that seed  
Of disagreement conquered was, and hid:  
The lighter World was Master, th'other did  
Obey as servant, and all things were good.  
To what served this the brutish Animal  
God's mighty Wonders in their earthly Ball  
Contemplate could not: God Almighty then  
In his own holy likeness form Man;  
His shape it may be somewhat like to this  
We now do bear: But his pure Body was  
Composed of Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal,  
Out of the inward ground spiritual. 
See p.   
It's nature was, as all things than create,  
Most pure, and good, and in a perfect state.  
Into this newmade Form God breathed then  
The breath of Life, 
Gen. 2. 7.  which gave a Soul to Man,  
Which Soul Eternal is; so framed by God  
That from three Kingdoms it its being had:  
Three Essences do it compose; so made  
That it may stand, or be to hell betrayed:  
Or like an empty Vacuum, which is  
Capable to be filled with Woe, or Bliss:  
For what the Soul cleaves most unto when she  
Puts off this case, she to Eternity  
Enjoys. Nor is she God as some do deem,  
But 's expressed Word, or Breath to me doth seem:  
Or a shot Ray from that diviner Sun,  
Who is in all things, and is yet but One.  
Adam thus made, perfect, and good, by God  
In Paradise is placed, a blessed abode:  
Then was the golden age indeed, Earth gave  
Nor Weeds, nor Thorns, but clothed in liv'ry brave  
Had a perpetual spring; continual green  
In every place, on every tree was seen:  
No dainty Flower, which art makes now to flourish,  
But then the Earth did naturally nourish.  
A constant verdure it retained, and then  
With thousand flowers spotted was the green:  
Each tree at one time bore both fruit, and flower;  
Each herb to heal, but not to hurt had power.  
No sharpness in the fruit, no naughty smell,  
The worst fruit then, our best now, did excel:  
No hurtful herb, no poisonous Root grew there,  
Of 'tis own accord the Earth all things did bear,  
No Summer's parching heat, nor Winter's cold  
There was: one temperature did all enfold.  
Boreas broke not his Hyperborean den,  
Nor did wet Auster, or that Eurus wen  
From theirs: A pleasing Zepher only kissed  
The waving trees: No cloud nor foggy mist  
Caused from the Earth's ill vapours; she had none:  
No Sea-got cloud arose between the Sun  
And th' pregnant Earth; no sudden storms of Rain:  
No snow, no hail, nor thundering was there then.  
Tempestuous Orion threatened not the Seas;  
Nor showed the time to sail the Pleyades.  
Saturn had then no naughty influence,  
A fructifying power came from thence:  
The Planets not in opposition moved:  
The heavens, the Earth, the Earth the heavens loved:  
Heaven sent no storms Earth's beauties to deface,  
Earth with dull mists dimmed not heavens brighter face:  
No star there was that had ill influence,  
All Rays were blest that were projected thence.  
All things in perfect Harmony agreed:  
In Heaven, nor Earth, was there discording seed.  
The Lion, with the Lamb did play, the Bear  
Robbed not the Bees; nor sheep the Wolf did fear.  
The crested Cock undauntedly stood by  
The Fox, as then devoyed of sublety:  
The Toad no venom had; nor poisonous sting  
The Scorpion: Nor did then the Birds great King  
Feed on the rest: nor did the Falcon prey  
Upon the Dove: nor Fishes in the Sea  
Did feed the Cormorant: the lesser fry  
Fed not the greater, nor was enmity  
Then found in Birds, in Fishes, or in Beast:  
LOVE all conjoined, in Love all still did feast.  
ADAM is Lord, and King: each animal  
Comes at his beck, and doth obey his call;  
All bow their lofty heads if he comes near,  
The Hart, nor timorous Hare his presence fear,  
The shaggy Lion, Bear, the Bull, the Boar,  
Couch at his feet, him as their God adore.  
He wanted not then, as we now do want,  
Help from the Beasts, nor physic from the plant,  
Meat from the Fowls, and Fishes: nor had he  
So gross a Body to be fed, as we.  
Upon the tree of Life he only fed;  
No vapours than arose to dull his head;  
No sleep e'er closed his watchful eyes; nor knew  
He want of it; no hunger did accrue.  
His soul like ours was not 
* i e. Labouring under an imperfect sight.  parturient,  
He saw through all things, knew what all things meant:  
Gave names to all the Creatures, and did frame  
Them, as their natures so he gave their Name.  
Nor did he want the Camel, nor the Horse  
To carry him, he in himself had force  
Enough to move his Body, and to bear  
It where he list, o'er Sea, or through the Ayr.  
No water could his Body drown, nor fire  
Consume; nor subject was't to Death's dread ire.  
It then immortal was imperishable;  
Corporeal, and yet unalterable  
He such a Body had as Christ had on  
After his glorious Resurrection.  
In this state ADAM stood; but God foresaw  
The woe that he soon on himself would draw:  
Therefore he thus forewarns him: New made Soul!  
Work of my Hands, in whom no pheeces foul  
Remain! a second Deity! O thou  
For ay mayst live! Thou art immortal now;  
Thou art an Angel, and I thee prefer  
For to possess the Throne of LUCIFER.  
For this end did I thee Create, that the  
Void Throne of LUCIFER, possessed might be:  
Thou shalt enjoy, and if thou standest upright,  
Th' Eternal mansions of ne'er fading Light.  
Look to thyself therefore, for thou mayst guess  
LUCIFER envy will thy happiness;  
He'll strive to overthrow thee, and to gain  
Thee to the mansions of ●●ernal pain.  
thou'rt now in Paradise, thy soul doth move  
In my bright Kingdom of Aeternal Love.  
Now take thy choice; I thee a freewill give;  
Whether thou'lt mortal be, or ever live.  
The way ●'le tell thee, 〈◊〉 thee what to do,  
If then thou fallest, the fault shall lie on you.  
thou'rt now in Paradise a second God,  
If then thou wouldst 〈◊〉 this blessed abode,  
Put not thy will into tha●●ingdom, where  
Reigns in my wrath th●●allen LLUCIFER.  
Instead of Light, an Angel thou wilt be  
Of darkness then unto Eternity.  
Nor put thy mind into this ●●rth below  
Lust thou not after it; if thou dost so  
Thou shalt a carnal Body have, 〈◊〉 be  
Subject to Death, lose Immo●●l●●y.  
But put thy Mind, thy Will, t●y Faculties  
In my Light-Kingdom; exerc●●● thou these  
There: Feed not on the Tree of death, nor on  
The mortal 
* The Tree of life is the second Principle, or love of God, See pag.  fruit, but feed thou still upon  
The 
The Tree of Good and evil the properties of this World. See p.  Tree of Life: Th' one darkness, th' other death,  
But this doth true Aeternal Life, 
The Tree of Death, the awakened properties of the dark World, or wrathful Principle, the seat and habitation of Luciser, ● and the evil Angels. See farther, p.  bequeath,  
Thou seest now what thou ought'st to do; stand fast,  
But forty days will thy temptation last,  
In which time of thou fallest not, thou shalt be  
For ever clothed with Immortality:  
Be like the Angels, as thou art; possess  
E'r-lasting Joys; Aeternal Happiness.  
If not, this Body shall another have  
Of the World's nature, subject to the grave,  
And what thou now possessest thou shalt lose,  
Go now or Death, or Life Aeternal choose.  
ADAM'S now left alone in Paradise  
Unto the mortal Principle his eyes  
He turns: For he has no desire to prove  
The wrathful Kingdom; He's quite out of Love  
With it; abhors it, turns his eyes away,  
And lets them on this lower Orb to stray.  
With it he's captivated, and his Lust,  
Puts after it; he it desires to taste.  
Or thus more properly: These Kingdoms three  
In equal Concord placed in Adam be.  
Nor the dark World, nor this low Orb, to prove  
Should he desire; but that Orb of Love;  
In that alone should his desire have gone,  
With that, not these for to have union.  
But his desire soon awakened  
The humane property; unmarried  
He quickly was from th' second Principle  
When once from it unto the third he fell▪  
His Body changed is; or th' other this  
More base endues: Strange Metamorphosis!  
What was before diaphanous, and clear,  
Not now transparent; muddy doth appear:  
What was like air, is now like Earth; what light  
Now's heavy; and for an unbounded sight,  
Each object intervening hindereth:  
For an immortal, now a mortal breath  
He draws: His Body which before could fly  
Clogged now is with a load of flesh, doth lie  
Fixed to this Orb: his quicker pace now's gone,  
He tries to fly but he can scarcely run:  
He tries the Waters, at the River's brinks,  
Pass as before he could not, now he sinks  
Unto the bottom: that same Element  
Small aid for to support his body lent.  
Adam's amazed, and in the Crystal Glass  
Of Waters, he beholds his limbs, and Face,  
He feels his hair, his nose, his teeth, his flesh,  
Then views, then feels, then views himself afresh.  
Then tries to use his nimble feet; the Reeds  
In running cut his naked legs, he bleeds;  
He feels the smart, he wonders more at this,  
And strangeth at his Metamorphosis.  
With this gross body, he a lesser sight  
Gains; he has lost th' immense, and heaven'ly Light  
He had before. A smaller intellect  
And understanding now he has: Direct  
Himself he can't; he finds his body's case  
Like heavy shakels pin him to the place:  
Anon dull 
* (i. e.) His lotsing (or sleeping to) the heavn'ly Image, by being awakened to the earthly.  sleep sits on his eyes, and he  
Through out his body feels a Lethargy;  
Extended on the verdant grass he lies  
And fondly sleepeth with fast closed eyes.  
God sees this lapse, he pities him; he saw  
His heavenly Image from his sight withdraw:  
ADAM his knowledge lost, and power too:  
Help now himself he can't; this did accrue  
By's lapse; but had he stood in Paradise  
His blessed estate, had then been on this wise.  
God's Image than he should have born for aye  
But not as now, obscured with clogs of clay;  
The heavenly part should through the outward shine;  
Free as the air; his meat, and drink divine;  
Nor as we eat, should he have eaten then,  
Magically, yet with mouth, lips, and tongue,  
But not into the body, there's no vent  
And nothing could turn into Excrement.  
No need should he have had of carnal food,  
The Beasts, nor Fowls could do him little good;  
But God forese'ing he'd lapse from this blessed state.  
Did therefore them for's future helps create.  
And yet he should have had his senses free,  
In higher measure, and full purity.  
Nor should he have continued alone,  
(Such members as we have now he had none  
To propagate) he magically, as  
The Sun's bright beams the waters surface pass  
Doth, without pain, so should he have brought forth  
In Paradise. By a Celestial birth,  
He should in God's blessed Image more have got,  
Aeternal all, none subject to Fate's Lot.  
He should both Father be, and Mother then,  
For Male, and Female God created Man:  
Both Man, and Woman, Wife, and Virgin he  
Together was, in State of purity.  
God saw that he, in this new lapsed state;  
Had lost the power now to propagate;  
Deterred by that vail of flesh: so would  
He have continued still; nor ever could  
From's loins an issue spring. God just and true,  
T'whom future things are present, all fore-knew,  
Therefore that VENUS, or that power he had  
In him, before to propagate, he clad  
In flesh like him; and of his life, and being  
Framed his EVE: both in all things agreeing.  
Man once was whole-man, but now broke alas!  
Is but the half of what at first ●e was:  
Such members then, as we have now they got,  
Fit, (as the Beast does) for to propagate.  
ADAM awakes, and views his new made EVE,  
He knows she's partly of's self; doth to her cleave,  
And upon her his sole desire doth cast,  
With her he joys, in her he takes repast.  
In Paradise as yet they were, for sin  
Actually had yet not entered in,  
Nor was the vanity awaked as yet,  
God's blessed Image in their souls was set,  
Though much obscured: In great felicity  
And Joy they lived, not knowing vanity,  
Nor Good, nor Evil; Could they so have stood  
They had been blessed, for their state was good.  
Their pronity unto a farther Fall  
God saw, therefore he thus to them doth Call.  
Great Protoplast! and Prince of Paradise!  
Take heed thou losest not these happy Joys  
Once more I thee forewarn: already thy  
Imagination in Earth's property  
Did work: thou seest what thou thereby hast lost,  
Thy Earthly Body did a better cost,  
Of one, thou now art twain; th' Habiliments  
A Body made up of the Elements,  
Which yet no jar doth know; nor cold, nor heat  
Thy exposed flesh the temperate air doth threat.  
My Heavenly power yet doth penetrate,  
And clothe thy Body in this naked state,  
Nor knowst thou good, or ill: In Harmony  
Thou art; nor is awaked Hel's property  
As yet: therefore if thou wouldst stand for ay,  
Obey what I command; mark what I say.  
Seest thou the happy pleasures of this place?  
What verdant Groves, 
This is meant of the second Principle, where Adam should constantly feed, and where there is always a coatinual variety, and full plenty of that Heavenly meat which entices the soul, and which is freely given:  and flowering Trees do grace  
This blessed Soul? how many Trees do suit  
Thy dainty palate, with their happy fruit?  
How many thousands here, in order set  
Fit for thy food do court thy lips to eat?  
Here, here is choice, nor will their sweetness cloy  
Thy stomach, nor their acritude annoy  
Thy taste; their substance is Ambrosia, and  
Their Liquor Nectar: Zephyrs to thy hand  
Do blow the laden bows; spare not to eat  
Thou canst not suffet with this pleasing Meat.  
Nor needest thou to lay up store, nor fear  
To want; Continually these Trees do bear;  
The Fruit renews as fast as thou canst pull;  
All here is good, yet thou thy choice may'st cull.  
See but what store there is, enough for thee,  
And thousands more. Amongst these Trees, one Tree,  
And but one 
* This is the Tree of good, and evil, which is the spirit of this World, in which the Devil had shed his ●ssence, though it was not manifested, nor should have been, but by Adam's putting his mind into it, and transgressing the Command of God: then the Devil's Tincture prevailed, and the Curse blended with the Blessing, and so Paradise was lost. * (i. e.) They shall utterly (dye to, or) lose the Hav'nly Image: or be so obscured as is now in us through Adam's Transgression, that unless by Christ, it had been impossible to recover it again.  Tree will I deba● thee from,  
Near that I charge thee, that you never come;  
See where it stands surrounded with the rest,  
Placed in the Garden's Centre: See 'tis dressed  
Not like the other Trees, from th' other thou  
May'st easily know it, by each leaf and bow.  
Nor think that I would bar thee from this Tree,  
Did not I know it would prove Death to thee,  
Shouldst thou but eat thereon. thou'rt ignorant  
Oft's nature, and what liquor virulent  
Its fruit contains. Therefore I say beware,  
eat thou the thought of it, and do not dare  
To taste of it? Let not the Devil entice  
Thee unto it, for if thou dost thou * diest;  
Tho● Paradise shalt lose, and thou shalt see  
The World endued with fatal misery:  
The curse shall spring through out the Earth, and thou  
In pleasure shalt no longer live, as now;  
But shalt with pain, and labour, cold, and heat,  
Sorrow, and care, and trouble get thy meat.  
Look to thyself, let not the Devil thee  
Provoke, to eat on this 
* See more of this Tree. pag.  forbidden Tree  
For if thou dost, thou wilt it soon repent,  
For breaking this my just Commandment.  
The Devil like a Gamester, who hath lain  
All that he hath at stake, and is undone  
If that he lose: or like some General  
Encamped before some rich, strong City Wall,  
In whose subversion he's assured to gain  
A mass of Treasure, and eternal Fame,  
Doth play his part, and useth all his skill  
To win the Game, and conquer Adam's Will,  
He fears if Eve the newmade World increase  
Should with some pretty Babe in Paradise  
E'er that the Wrath awakened was, he should  
Miscarry in his great design, nor could  
He then so easily have drawn from good,  
Their brighter souls, when they so long had stood.  
A Captain who some Castle thinks to take  
By stratagem, an hundred plots doth make  
In's brain, resolves on this, and then on that,  
Then liketh this, then likes another plot:  
Anon he spies some danger, or defect  
In that; his thoughts some other thing Erect,  
And then to work he sets his busy brain,  
Until his thoughts have perfected the train:  
Which well digested, unto work he goes,  
Undauntedly resolves to win or lose;  
So subtle Satan after many wiles,  
Thus our first Parents cunningly beguiles.  
Amongst the other Beasts that did resort  
As humble servants unto ADAM'S Court,  
There was a Serpent whose fine speekled hide,  
And pretty features with rare colours died,  
Had gained EVE'S Love, and who it may be had  
Entwined about her naked neck, and played  
With her white hands; or favoured in her lap:  
This Satan thought was best her to entrap.  
Into this Beast he 
* (i. e) He awakens the first Principle in it (which was in all connexed with the second or good, but in equal harmony and agreement) sh●dding his Essence in the very creation of it from whence it had its subtlety, though i● itself it was good. S●e Behm. Myst. Magnum, pag. 89. 90.  goes, and still doth lie  
About the Tree forbid: Eve's longing eye  
Full oft salutes that fatal Tree; desire  
She doth to taste the fruit, approaching nigher  
The subtle Serpent frisking on the Tree  
She spies: The shadow cannot hurt, thinks she.  
Nearer she goes; thinking on God's Command  
She fears for to proceed, then makes a stand,  
But still the more she thought she was forbid,  
The more she longs, the more desire she did.  
(The same we still retain, for even thus  
We most desire what is forbid to us)  
She steps a little forward; then retires  
Then moves again: tempted by her desires  
She doth the Tree approach. God's stricter Law  
Affright's her; she's about for to withdraw:  
Satan seeing her the place about to leave,  
Thus through the Serpent tempts our Grandam Eve.  
Great Mistress of this World, our gracious Queen,  
Commandress of this mighty Orb terrene,  
Why so unwilling to approach this Tree,  
Which I the best judge in this Grove to be?  
Me thinks you seemed to dread the shade thereof  
When you unwilling to approach, aloof  
Stood looking on't: As yet you seem to fear  
The very shade; as if some hurt dwelled here.  
Tell, what is in't that can displease you thus?  
Eve answers then: The Lord commanded us  
To please our tastes, with the variety  
Of all those fruits which in this Garden be,  
Only this Tree alone he barred us from  
And charged us never near its shade should come.  
For Death is harboured in this Tree, our last  
And fatal day is come should we but taste  
This tempting fruit: Great pity 'tis so fair  
And lovely Apples should such poison bear.  
The subtle Serpent that he might beguile  
The better, answered with a forced smile.  
Pleasures are hardly left, when that our sense  
Confirmed by reason, and experience,  
Find them both good, and just: I am too wise,  
This Tree in truth hath opened mine eyes,  
For to beguiled be; Think you to ' fright  
Me, with your Bug-bears from my chief delight?  
No, you would drive me from my happiness  
That you this fair Tree might alone possess.  
Say what you will, this Tree nor fruit I fear,  
I by experience know no hurt dwells here;  
And you know that; Nor I said Eve, nor do  
I now dissemble, I the truth to you  
Declared have; God charged us not come nigh,  
Nor taste this Tree; did we, we sure should die.  
The subtle Serpent thus reanswereth:  
And speak you Truth? what this Tree bring you Death?  
God charged you thus? And told you you should die  
Did you but taste thereof? I now know why  
He made you this believe: Lend me your ear,  
I'll banish soon from you this vainer fear,  
And let you know that in this Grove there's none  
So beautiful, and Good, as is this one.  
All what I have, this subtlety, this wit  
I must acknowledge that I owe to it,  
Which by frequenting of this better Tree,  
Hath been I know not how inspired in me.  
You see more wit, and subtlety I have  
Then all the Beasts beside; This Tree this gave;  
Which doth increase, and whilst I here remain  
More wit, and knowledge every day I gain.  
Reflect a little; 
This like the Devil exhibited the forbidden Tree in a most exquisite dress: for Eve thought it good, and pleasing, with a vain hope of becoming as God, or else she had never chosen it.  let your eyes but trace  
Each Tree that grows in this Celestial place,  
Consider all their beauties: look ag'in  
And see if any like to this is seen.  
Though all are full of Beauty, verdant, fair,  
May yet there any with this Tree compare?  
This Tree is Mistress of the rest, and Queen  
Of this same Grove, none hath such verdant green;  
See how she in the midst is placed, each tree  
Encompass her, and as her servants ●e,  
Bow their proud tops unto her lofty spire;  
See how she mounteth than the rest far higher,  
And threateneth with her waveing tops (well near  
Unto the clouds) the rest who shrink for fear  
Their humble heads. See what a length extends  
Her interwoven Arms, which still befriend  
The under-growing grass with pleasing shades:  
Look what soft moss her mighty bowl invades,  
Like to a mantle of green plush, these be  
Like Ornaments unto her Majesty,  
As Queen of all the rest. Consider, and  
Think if that he who this severe Command  
Gave unto you, so would his works disgrace  
By placing poison in the happiest place:  
All things he made are Good; where are your Eyes?  
Think you that ill can be in Paradise?  
Can this choice Tree so great an ill contain?  
Pish! done't believe't, for all such thoughts are vain.  
No, no, I'll tell you why he did forbid  
You to come near this Tree; such virtue's hid  
Within its golden Fruit, should you but taste,  
You'd be for ever happy, ever blest;  
No longer then in stupid Ignorance  
Should you enchained be; then happy glance  
From brighter Light, would in your Souls arise:  
See then would your blind Soul; and dimmer eyes  
Made bright, discern betwixt all good, and ill,  
Transcendent knowledge than your brains would fill,  
You should be wise, and like the Gods; this knew  
They well, should happen (if you eat) to you:  
Therefore they did prohibit you this Tree,  
L●st you by eating like themselves should be.  
Thus should you die, fear not such scare-crows now;  
See how the glittering Fruit doth lad each bow:  
Look how they're painted with Vermilion die  
Like golden stars set in a verdant Sky,  
Or like the blushing Roses, which are seen  
New peeping forth thorough a verdant Screen.  
Look how the Apples blush, see how they stand,  
See how the boughs, bow down to kiss thine hand;  
All's at thy choice: which on this fair-spread Tree.  
(Come tell me Eve!) most liked is by thee?  
See here's a fine one, this? or this best likes  
Thee? do but look what many pretty strikes  
Of red, and yellow paint; here's one that skipps  
Unto thy mouth: here thine own Cherry lips  
Are answered; thy softer skin thou mayst  
Here find; but there's a mellow one whose taste  
So 
* 'Tis probable that Eve chose Concupiscence which is a fruit of the forbidden Tr●e, See the fruits, p. But in whatsoever it was, the eating was but the breaking off their wills, from the ●ill of Go● by disobedience, thereby awakening keeping the wrathful or first Principle of Death, which diffused itself by this means on the whole world  sweet— delicious that 'twil ravish quite  
Thy loser senses with extreme delight;  
Thou hast such choice thou knowst not which to choose:  
Come take this on my word, try what accrues  
By this: here take it, prithee ea●, and try  
If thou a Goddess art not by, and by.  
Tempted by these fine words, and that fair Fruit,  
Fear holds her Hands, desire prompts her to't,  
At last she takes the sugared bait, doth eat,  
Finds it for th' present very pleasing meat,  
Now on its pleasing hue her looks she cast,  
Then with her tongue the sweeter Liquor taste  
She doth: mean time her husband passing by  
The place she thus attempts. Look here what I  
Have got (said she) so fair an Apple, yet  
Thou never saw'st: 'tis passing pleasing meat,  
Melts in my mouth; I wondered much that we  
So strictly were forbid this pleasing Tree:  
As mortals here we shall not make abode,  
I shall a Goddess be, and thou a God;  
We shall be wise as they: here eat thou this  
I first have proved: me thinks it pleasing is.  
Adam invited thus receives the fruit,  
And without long delay falls rashly to't.  
He that hath drunk the juice of Aconite,  
Or the lethiferous Henbane, straight his sp'right  
O'er fired, or too much cooled, a punction feels,  
With grievous smarting rage, his body reels,  
His eyes grow dim, his senses stupid; stand  
The blood doth in his Face, nor Feet, nor Hand  
Can he scarce wag; the World turns round: his Head  
Grows dizzy, by and by his spirits fled  
From his swelled Carcase, dead they leave him: so  
These guilty couple began to feel their woe;  
Strait operates the Fruit, a shivering cold  
Upon their naked Carcases takes hold,  
A sudden tremor shakes their Limbs; their Eyes  
Close on a sudden, and dark mists arise,  
Mixed with thick vapours 'fore their sight; they found  
Themselves amazed: Cast in a kind of stound  
The light they had they lose. Some drunken sot  
O'er charged with Wine or Bear, till he has forgot  
To use his reason, a strong drowsiness  
His fume-farced Brain, and weakened eyes possess;  
Whilst that he's drenched in Lith, and sleepeth fast  
His fellows for a punishment do cast:  
Agreed; they thence him to a Wood do bear,  
Pull off his clothes, and naked leave him there  
Fast sleeping on the grass: When sleep, the Fume  
That did molest his drunken B●ain o'er come  
Had; he awakes, and his unclosing eyes  
Rubs with his hand; he is about to rise  
When that he feels himself a cold; he sees  
Before his eyes the Skies, and wavering Trees;  
Finds that he has no clothes; gets on his feet  
And ev'● ' object with'amazed eyes doth greet;  
Amazed he stands, wonders how he came there,  
Looks still about, views round, and every where,  
For to resolve him none he spies; doth go  
Doubts wh'r he dreams, or is awaked or no:  
Now on the ground, now to the skies are hurled  
His eyes: Like one dropped from another World  
He stands, and knows not what to say, or do:  
Just so do stand, and act these guilty two.  
They are amazed, they scarcely know the place,  
All things do seem now with another Face:  
God's Image shrinks into a cloud, the light  
Of that bright Sun obscured is from their sight,  
But by and by the Wrath's awakened,  
And now they see their eyes are opened:  
They know they're naked, see their beastial Form,  
They are ashamed of it, they know the harm  
They'ave done unto themselves: both Good, and Ill  
Indeed they know, that eat, but this thy will.  
Satan rejoices at his victory,  
His poison doth diffuse immediately  
Thorough their Bodies: now they 'ave fading breath,  
Bodies to sickness subject, 
The first Principle was now awakened in them: and the second or the Image of God was wholly disappeared tho not utterly extinct, as it is not till Man come to the perfection (or rather imperfection) of being in highest union with the dark Wo●ld, as is showed, p.  and to Death:  
Now they Sol's heat do feel, now Hiems could▪  
Which to keep off themselves in leaves they'nfould.  
Now have the stars a power over them:  
A death they pick may now from every stem:  
The Beasts no longer them obey, if nigh  
They come, they dread them, and away they fly.  
Fowls use their wings to shun them: Sorrow, Fear,  
Anguish, and Trouble, Heaviness, and Care,  
Anxiety, Tears, Sighs, and Passions they  
Are subject to: Their Bodies made of clay  
To all distempers now. This they brought forth  
By feeding on the Principle of Wrath.  
God doth no longer unto them appear  
Now as a Father, but a Judge severe:  
They tremble at his Voice: behind the Trees  
They think themselves from his all-piercing Eyes  
To hide. He sees them, and amidst their fears  
He thundereth these words into their ears.  
You guilty Souls where are you? have you thus  
Transgressed? See now how you are like to us!  
Ah foolish Adam that wert thus befooled  
When I before to thee the danger told!  
Art thou a God? or thou a goddess Eve?  
See how the Serpent did you both deceive!  
Now ye are like the Beasts: This baneful fruit  
From which I charged you so, hath brought you to't.  
Thou Eve, with Grief, Pain, Sorrow, Trouble, Care,  
And great discomfort, shalt thy children bear;  
Subject to Adam: and thou Adam get  
Thy food shalt with hard labour, toil, and sweat.  
Cursed is the Earth for this thy folly. Stay  
Here thou no longer must: Hence, pack away,  
Thou'st lost the pleasures of blessed Paradise,  
They are obscured from thy blinded eyes:  
Nor may's thou ere return: 
Purgatory, or the refining or purifying Fire: see where it stands, pag.  A flaming Sword  
Placed in a Cherubs hand the door doth guard.  
Thou hast endued now mortality;  
Go and enjoy this World in misery.  
Thus spoke God's Justice; then his Mercy broke  
A deeper silence and 
* Adam or the Image of God as he was first created:  him thus bespoke.   

Where art thou Adam? is that Face of thine  
Muffled in Clouds that was so like to mine?  
Where art thou? lost! O sad! my Wrath doth say  
Thou shouldst in this sad case remain for aye.  
But Love will mercy show. In Enmity  
The Serpent's, and the Woman's seed shall be:  
This Love, in mercy to you, will infuse  
He shall thy heel, but thou his head shalt bruise.  
The Gate of Life is shut; losts thy blessed state,  
But Time shall come when it recuperate  
Shall be: the Gates of Death broke down, and one  
What thou hast lost recover shall again.   

From Paradise they go, 
Christ promised, or the opening of the second Principle.  or Paradise  
Rather 
* The loss of Paradise was from the Curse, the Curse is nothing, but Paradise or the second Principle withdrawn or obscured, by the first and third Principle: it held then, all the four Elements as it were in Captivity, and in humanity, but now they bury the second Principle under them,  departs from them: their blinded eyes  
Can't pierce into the holy Element,  
Which in this World, as in a prison penned,  
Remains. Like to a Tree whose springing sap  
Causes the Tree grow green, when to the top  
It doth ascend; but when unto the root  
It goes; how bears the Tree of leaves, and fruit?  
There it lies buried, and the Tree seems dead  
Till its remounting all begreens her head.  
So did the World appear, lost was its grace,  
A darker Veil now hid its brighter Face:  
Far greater difference this change d●d bring  
Then 'twixt cold Winter, and the pleasant Spring.  
Or like a burning Torch, which being sat  
I'th' midst of some great Room doth dissipate  
The darker shades: which by and by immured  
In some dark Lantern, all the Room's obscured,  
And scarce a Ray of brighter Light is seen:  
So is the World to what it once hath been.  
The Devil's 
* That is the first Principle then, broke loose and domineered over the second in the third (when before the second wholly reigned and held captive the first) which proceeded from Adam's lapse, for thereby the Devil gained power to infuse his virulent Tincture: 'Tis true, the World partaking of both Principles at the Creation, the first remained there, but so captivated as it did not appear: but as a spark raked up in the Ashes: which was blown into a Flame by Adam's fall which awakened the wrath fire Principle; or as all passions rest in Man, which are no disturbance to him if they are not awakened but useful: so the first Principle was useful being in subjection to the second, and gave a strength and consisting power to the third.  poison is diffused through all  
Things that compose, or circundate this ball.  
Both good, and bad together blend: in some  
Things more of Good: in others more doth come  
Of Bad: the Rose hath more of Paradise  
Then faetid Hemlock, Pinks, than Margs, or Crise:  
The Lamb than Tigers; Appletrees than Yew:  
The Doves than Hawks: Nightshade hath less than Rew.  
The Devil chose those creatures that were armed  
With Teeth, Horns, talons, claws, that others harmed  
By them might be; for had he chose the Dove,  
Or Lamb, could they like Hawk, or Lion prove?  
Discording Seeds now grow in every thing;  
Confusion thorough all the Earth doth spring.  
Wrath's Principle doth penetrate this Ball,  
And what abo●t it is coporeal:  
Both good, and ill together mixed are:  
All things created, of them have a share.  
This ill lay hid before: We poison may  
Into our Bodies safely take; alloy  
The same with other good ingredients  
In such, and such a quantity: It rends  
The Body else if it superabound:  
So this great Orb in pristine state was found.  
Or as in Man all Passions hidden lie,  
Which none, if not awakened, can descry;  
Nor do they hurt him: But awaken those,  
The Mind and Body both they discompose.  
So dormant lay the wrathful Principle,  
As sparks of fire, in ashes wrapped, until  
By Adam's fall it was awaked, the same  
Hid spark, by Satan's blown into a flame.  
The Planets now forego their wont Love,  
Contrary'ng do in opposition move:  
Th● 〈◊〉 Aspects; the starry Orbs immense,  
Do now receive a naughty influence;  
Such to the Earth they give. The Heaven, and she  
Now seem to be at deadly enmity:  
From her thick vapours, and bad stinks arise,  
Which as her darts she sends against the skies.  
Sol sucks her moisture forth, with vehement heat  
Her parched sides, as with his scourges, beat  
He doth: And Heaven her flowering Corn, with round  
Ice-bullets forceth to the very ground.  
Syderial blasts, Mildew, and storms he sends;  
Then from his window agile lightning wends:  
When that enough he with his Summer scourges  
Has beaten her, comes Winter; then with surges  
He doth bedrench her Face: Contracting cold  
Robs her of all her Beauties: very old  
She seems, when snows hang dangling on her head:  
Chaps which for heat did, now for cold do spread.  
Then storms of Rain, and blustering Winds do make  
Her Brooks o'erflow, her Trees, and Mountains quake.  
Thus they oppose each other, now the Seas  
Beat with the Wind, do threat the very Skies:  
Sometimes excurring from his wont place,  
With brinish floods doth wash his Sister's Face.  
Now Love is lost; no longer unity  
But wrath, and hatred 'mong the Creatures be:  
The Lamb now fears the Wolf: The Lion tears  
The Kid for food: Bees robbed are now by Bears;  
They stings receive: The tusked Boar the Cow  
Assaults: The tender Dear, and Hares are now  
Slain by the Dogs: The mighty Elephant,  
Serpents, and the Rhinoceroth supplant:  
The harmless yields to those of greater power;  
All filled with Ire, each other do devour.  
Serpent's now stings receive, strong poison Toads,  
Reptiles, with reptiles, Plants with Plants at odds  
Are now: Now death-Hemlock, and Woolf's-Bain hold,  
With too much heat this, that with too much cold  
Doth kill: Now Briars, Nettles, Thorns, and Weeds,  
With hurtful Plants, the Earth accursed breeds.  
Now Whales eat other Fish: Trout Dace devours:  
Minnows the Perch: The Pike the Rivers scours:  
To catch the smaller Fry: Eels Gudgeons eat;  
And them the Herns; Fish now for Fowl are meat:  
They too on each another prey: The Kite  
On tender Chickens; Hawks on Sparrows light.  
Thus Enmity arose; thus wrath, and strife;  
And thus each Creature seeks each others life.  
And all, or most se●k humane blood to spill,  
Because that Man was cause of all their ill. 
* For had not Man fell the Creatures had remained in love and unity as they were created, but when the first Principle of wrath was awakened, and diffused itself thorough out the world, it also was diffused thorough out them. ▪  
All this did spring from the first Principle,  
Which opened straight when our first Parents fell:  
And thus the World from its first happy state,  
To this, we now do see it in, was brought.  
But now the Time's at hand, all long to see,  
This World again a Paradise shall be:  
The Wrath shall be dethroned, the Lamb shall Reign  
In purity; when Christ appears again:  
O hast thy coming Lord! This blessed Day  
Let us behold! Lord Jesus hast away!  
Wrath's mighty Monarch seeing how he had wrought,  
And the whole Orb under his power brought  
By Adam's lapse, rejoiced much; and strait  
He doth his Kingdom's Princess convocate,  
With the whole Host of Hell: to whom he thus  
Speaks. Princely vassals! Who is like to us?  
What power can contend with us? I see  
The Light World's strength can't match our Policy.  
This Day brave Princes have I subject made  
A World, and Man too by our guiles betrayed.  
I need not tell, what you already know,  
That I to Love am an Eternal Foe;  
So he to Me; or that continual Jarr●  
Betwixt us rise, and everlasting wars.  
Our Kingdoms opposite you know, Contend  
For mastership, which strife shall never end:  
We differ in all things, nor shall a Truce  
A minute's quietude from Arms produce:  
We are as strong as they: I scorn to bow  
To him, for I a way have gained how  
For to increase our strength: You Kingdoms, and  
Whole Worlds shall have now under your Command;  
So many vassals shall this Kingdom stuff,  
Were't not so vast, 'twould scarce be large enough  
For to contain them: you great Princes now  
I will advise you what you are to do.  
The World, and Man which I have gained, I see  
By strength, and cunning must preserved be▪  
You know aspiring 
* Here is meant those fallen Angels, that with Lucifer their Captain fell into the wrath, and ever since were the chief Princes thereof. See their fall, pag.  Princes! you and I  
Left Heaven for prying into the unity,  
Because we scorned but for to be above  
(For why should mighty Wrath give place to) Love?  
We left those Orbs, and did them all despise,  
And did this mighty Kingdom colonize  
Because we would be free; here we Command,  
Are Kings; there servants, did obedient stand;  
We are grown mighty, and our powers we'll try  
To make all World's bow to our Majesty,  
Our fires Love's Waters shall consume: we'll see  
Who shall be greatest either I or he.  
A World betwixt us not long since was made,  
Wrath's essence there as well as Love's was shed.  
Ours made Rocks, stones, flints, Mines of Iron, and Led:  
His Rivers, Trees, Ayr, Gold, and Silver bred:  
In ordering 
* (i. e.) The first Princip. which is not simply evil, but as it is in opposition to the good.  them, there was an higher hand,  
Which to conjunction did them both Command,  
And strange such opposites should mixed be  
In every thing in equal Harmony:  
But that 
* The two Essences of the first and second Principles.  Usurper got the upper ground;  
And under his our Essence strictly bound,  
So that he Lord was, ours a slave, and thus  
He thought for aye, to Lord it over us.  
O how I raged! O how the fire flew  
From my bright eyes; how I shook Hell you knew  
Full well, 
* Love, or the second Principle.  But yet no way there was that I  
For to release our essence could espy,  
I a sworn Foe to Harmony did great  
At Heart, to see our essence bound; and fret  
Did to behold my mortal Foe to sport  
Himself on Earth, and call it his own Court.  
Making a Paradise of it; whilst there  
I for to set a foot did scarcely dare:  
O how I longed for a confusion, and  
To have my Essence like to his Command;  
To vex me more, and to increase his bliss,  
He made a Man for to enjoy all this;  
By what I thought would hurt me most of all  
Gained I have the Rule of Earth's fair Ball:  
No way our Essence to release was left  
But by the fall of Man; always to sift  
I then began: In Paradise there stood  
A Tree, was partly evil, partly good;  
This was to Man prohibited; Love knew  
If he should eat thereof, what would ensue;  
For by that means alone our Essence might  
Released be; Loves Essence put to flight.  
I then bestirred myself, and by my guiles  
Made them to eat thereof, who poor exiles  
Do now repent their fact: their Joy, and Bliss,  
And every thing on earth subverted is.  
Our essence now doth every where appear  
And like itself begins to domineer;  
Now we'll command the Earth; Love's essence scoff:  
For I intent you shall be Lords thereof.  
Are not we mighty now? who like to us?  
Ha! who can match us, when we can do thus?  
Our Foe who thought in Earth to captivate  
Us, prisoned is: thus altered is our state!  
But let us now provide for th' Future: Gain  
We may a Kingdom better than maintain  
It being got. Our Foe hath footing there  
Still, who will strive for to regain his share,  
And beat us back again; the which he can  
Ne'er do, but by redeeming fallen Man.  
About him all our strife will be; for Love  
Still loves this Man all Creatures else above;  
For him I know his Forces he'll engage,  
Therefore the World must be the fight stage  
For our two Powers: He'd not let us have one  
Would Man obey him, or with him Conjoin.  
But we'll deal well enough: his Paradise  
Now can't be seen; we'll set before Man's eyes  
The Earth's vain pleasures, which shall captivate  
Him to us; rob him of his future state:  
For present 
* Indeed this is the thing if rightly considered th● gains Hell so many M●n: the present and pleasant condition without reflection of hereafter.  Pleasures far more pleasing are  
Than those hereafter promised few know where.  
we'll have a thousand ways (experience  
Shall make you masters in our Arts Commence)  
For to beguile poor Man: we'll do it though  
We nothing gain by it, to rob our Foe  
Of his delights: But Man is mighty great  
Without him our Kingdom can't be complete,  
Which is exceeding vast, you know it wants  
To fill each corner such inhabitants.  
Who most men gain shall, I with Love do vie,  
Nor can he Man's Soul Correct more than I.  
He without Man cannot his Wonders show,  
Nor I without him what my power can do:  
Therefore when one you gained have to your lore,  
He'll sooner gain to you a thousand more.  
But all of you mark this: No Soul doth come  
In flesh: no Babe springs from its Mother's womb,  
But that my Foe a little spark doth place  
The which he calls his Image, or his Grace,  
Within the Centre of its Soul. This than  
You must endeavour to root out of Men,  
And in its place, place mine, for that once gone  
He's perfect with us, and is sure our own.  
But if extinguish it you can't; I say  
Smothered with the World's pleasures what you may,  
And be you sure it ne'er begins to glow,  
For if it does the better gains our Foe.  
I know you will be circumspect; therefore  
To such free Agents, need I say no more,  
But go, and do your work; maintain our might  
Within the World, against Love's power fight:  
My aid you shall not want.   

Go mighty Prince  
Lord of the air, with all your Forces hence  
March to the lower Orb: Do thou abide  
I'th' Airy Regions; over storms preside,  
Tempests, and blust'ring Winds: Do thou direct  
Some naughty influence, from bad aspect  
To newborn Infants: with blasts mildews, blites,  
Afflict the Earth, and spoil her best delights.  
Mighty Baalzebub follow him, and be  
Thou Lord of discord, plagues, discordancy;  
Man, Beast, and Earth, falls under thy large Lot:  
Do thou Men disunite; send murrain, rot  
Am●ng the Beasts; send Locusts, vermin, and  
Do what thou canst for to afflict the Land.  
Great Belial, with thousand Legions wend  
Thou next into the Earth, thy Forces bend  
To make of no effect Love's goodness, seek  
Holy Ideas in Man's mind to break,  
Disturb his intellect, Chimaeras vain  
Strange untrue fancies cause thou in his brain.  
Next Pit●on go with thy innumerable  
Legions of Daemons, be throu strong, and able  
For to pervert the Truth, infatuate  
Man's understanding; Cause him Truth to hare.  
Potent Samaeliel Sa●●an Enemy  
To Love, and goodness, thou thy Forces try  
Justice for to pervert; Wrath, Terror, Ire,  
Disperse through out the World; set all on fire  
And bring confusion if thou canst. For us  
Do thou destroy all things Asmodeus;  
Thou fiery Spirit raise such to the seat  
Of greatness, who Lov●'s Forces may defeat:  
With Pride, and Cruelty endue them. High  
Thou next with thy Troops bitter Meriri:  
Seek thou to hinder Man's perfection,  
Disturb his happiness, and union  
With our Foe Love: and let thy Pride express  
Thy high, and mighty Forces stateliness.  
Next march swift Asteroth; to men of Parts  
Make known our secrets, Sciences, and Arts:  
Let't be thy work continually to fill,  
Their busy brains, with our delighting skill.  
Ten thousand Legions I assign to thee  
Abaddon Spirit of Impiety:  
Take thou away all comfort: sickness, death,  
Destruction cause to all that are beneath  
Thy power. Mammon though the last, nor least,  
For thy power reach shall from the West, to East;  
See that that thou all dost cause the world to love,  
Preside o'er riches, and all things that move  
Below the Moon's sphere: tie the world to Man  
And they can't mount unto Love's Kingdom then●  
Under your banners march may those mixed spirits  
For usual scouts to scare: black shades and Nights  
Hobgoblins, Lemures, Ast'ral spirits to talk  
About the fields; some in Church yards to walk:  
Ghosts, Fairy's, Night-mares, dark t●●icula's,  
Affrighting Spectres, haunting Emp●sa●●,  
Cadds, airy Demons, strange Phantasms, and  
Legions of other spirits to fill the band.   

Press closer numerous swarm; your ranks disclose;  
Let yo● ' brave Princes nigher draw: repose  
My chiefest strength in them I do; for us  
With man their fight will still be cominus.  
I know they're active: you great Daemons show  
Them where to fight, let them alone to do,  
Do you dispose them: let the airy Prince  
Cast man's nativity: then learn from thence  
His 
* For all men are not alike inclined either to virtues or vices, some more to this sin, some more to other virtues, which may be by the influence of genial stars in the time of conception.  inclinations; then may you choose  
Which of these Princes you had best to use:  
Which will most fitting be; where one can't come  
Another may, and have a spacious room.  
Brave 
* Here is meant the very spirit or essence of pride, and so of the rest, which came into the world, and so into men presently after the fall.  Pride who art so like to us, you shall  
Be constitute Lieutenant General:  
Next under thee let Envy march: to thee  
Grand Avarice, the third allotted be.  
Then furious Wrath, Despair, and jealousy,  
March with your bands: and let Idolatry  
Go next. Ad●li'●y, Lying, 〈◊〉.  
Lust, Luxury, 〈◊〉, march you next to these.  
〈◊〉, your ●wy-sac'd bands in order  
Se●: them march after Perjury, and Murder:  
〈◊〉, and Blasphemy; your charge is thus:  
By any means to gain Man's Soul to us:  
Take all advantages, and bravely fight  
Against our Foes, the Troops of Love, and Light.  
I need to say no more; nor need I fear  
But I shall overcome all Men; when here  
I see such mighty powers: who can withstand  
Your mighty ●orces, and Hel's powerful Band?  
Go, and the World po●●●●●e: I doubt not now  
But Man to us, and Love's Prince too shall bow.   

The Stygian Princes bow their snaky heads,  
And Joy their Captain in their Faces reads:  
●o they 〈◊〉, and from 〈◊〉 sulphury throats,  
Belch o●t ten thousand loud confused notes.  
Then from their Centre thousand Myriads go,  
Of teter Stygian Bands, where here below,  
The Earth, th● air, and the vast hollowness  
Betwixt the Ceru●le sky, and Earth possess  
They do: And all combined are to annoy  
Man, and his Soul immortal to destroy.  
Black 〈◊〉 triumphing with a sable Bow,  
〈◊〉 Earth with arms displayed marcheth too:  
Where murdering Hag, her skilful hand to try,  
With sat●l Darts made Abel's life to ●●ye:  
The 〈◊〉 that ever yielded mortal breath;  
T●● first that ever felt the Dart of Death.  
And thus this World her misery endued  
Which guilty Adam's crime, and Sin pursued.   

Can Man escape such powers as these? can he  
In tasety sleep● or one poor minute be  
Secure? what can defend him from these arms?  
Or who repel m●y Satan's threatened harms?  
Spirits encounter Spirits must: The Light  
●orl●, that alo●● must match the dark World's might.  
The Prince of Love, of Light, of Peace, of Truth,  
Beholds poor Man, and his sad state with Ruth:  
And though Man's guilt brought down this sad distress,  
He Love immense doth still to him express:  
And lest that mighty Wrath his Soul devour,  
He will protect him with his mighty Power.  
heavens brighter Bands he therefore Convocates,  
And thus his Royal Will to them relates.  
Blessed Princes of this lighter World! and ye  
Vast Troops endued with immortality!  
Know; Man for whom a Paradise we made,  
By his own folly is to Wrath betrayed.  
He hath deserted us: this happy Realm  
Hath lost; now misery doth overwhelm  
Him; and our Image in obscurity  
Doth buried by the World's gross Spirit lie.  
Wrath's Principle hath poisoned the Earth,  
Spoilt Paradise with his infectious Breath:  
He now triumphs. But what lose we? 'tis Man  
That suffers most for his own folly, then  
Shall we desert him? leave him to his Foe?  
Strict justice might, but Love cannot do so●  
Can fire cool? or can cold Water burn?  
No more can I from this my nature turn:  
Nor his neglect, nor his strange follies move  
May me to Wrath. O no! I still am Love.  
My nature cannot change: I pity have;  
I must, I will endeavour Man to save.  
So long as he my Image doth retain,  
Although obscured; ●le seek him to regain  
To me, and that immortal spark divine,  
Shall like the Sun in its fair splendour shine.  
Can I the Principle of Wrath dethrone  
Out of his heart, and th'out Worlds, he's my own.  
Wrath's Principle although he triumphs now,  
One day again shall to our Powers bow:  
The Earth a Paradise shall be, and then  
All things shall turn to Harmony again:  
My Foe shall then be captivated: Man shall  
Most happy live upon the outward Ball.  
Six 
* A thousand years are as one day in the computation of God: so that probably this may come to pass in the age of the world 7000. Which will be completed in th● year of Christ 2051. ●hich is 394. years hence: so Christ's cocoming into the world in fl●sh will be about the midst between man's Creation, and his restauration into that Paradisical state he had lost: Then it is like the Sabbath of rest shall be until the conflagration of the world. But we may not determine any thing concerning this, for it may be sooner, for Christ promised that the d●yes should be shortened for the Elects sake. The time none knows, but all expect. Come Lord jesus, come quickly.  days first passed must be: that principle Thousands of souls shall to its centre pull  
I'th' interim: I man's nature too must take  
Myself; and die, that I wrath's power may breaks  
This I'll effect, such love to man I bear.  
We are as strong as wrath; we need not fear;  
His fires, our waters shall put ou●: our Dove  
Shall fight his Dragon. Nought's so strong as Love.  
No● Death, nor Hell can conquer it. The wrath  
Already sent hath his black Legions forth  
Into the Earth. Poor man's in danger; hast  
Unto his succour: Let your Troops be pla●'t  
●ust opposite unto those teter bands  
Which Hell's 〈◊〉 commands.   

Arch-Prince of Angels MICHAEL; of all  
Heavens brighter Legions be thou General:  
Conduct our forces to Earth's Orb, and there  
Oppose the Drago●, bid man not to fear  
His ●●ygian crew. Do thou match Satan, and  
To his dark troops oppose thy brighter band.  
Maintain thou Love and justice, against his might  
Do thou with equal force and valour fight.  
●ll heaven's Host attend thee shall, and let  
Some powerful Angel o'er the stars be set,  
To let their male-conjunctions, and thence  
For to direct their better influence  
Unto the Earth: to cause the seasons due,  
Unto the Earth, her pleasures to renew.  
And thou Mittatron thy strong Legions place  
In rank and order against Baalzebubs face:  
Do you unite; whilst he doth discord move  
Conjoin thou all in amity and love.  
Whilst that he causes Battles, Plagues and Dearth,  
Thou peace, and health, and fructi●ie the earth.  
Next Caphtiel against Belial thy foe,  
With Myriad of brighter Angels go:  
Illuminate man's mind, and make him see,  
For his distraction Belial's policy:  
His stranger fancies cause to vanish quite,  
And of my goodness let him have a sight.  
Go jophiel and hinder Python's force,  
Obstruct his vile infatuating source;  
Exhibit truth to Man: open his eyes  
That he may clearly see gross Python's lies.  
Ten thousand Legions take thou Ptsadkiel,  
And bravely meet the fiery Asmodel:  
Be thou as well as he concomitant  
With Princes, keep them that they may not vaunt  
Of their high state: Let Pride and Cruelty  
Be banished from them, let humility  
Supply their place: whilst that he raiseth jars,  
'Cause Amity; oppose thy Peace to Wars.  
Bright Prince Uriel, flags of light display,  
And against Meriri with thine march away:  
Stop thou his full carrer, and see that you  
With wisdom and true happiness endue  
Man; give him eyes to see perfection  
If that with us he will have union.  
Celestial Rap●iel next march thou forth  
With thy brave cohor●s against Astaroth:  
Show thou to man our glory, and our skill,  
Our abstruse secrets; with light Magic fill  
Him, give him knowledge, understanding, and  
Wit to eschew Astaroths subtle band:  
Guard thou his health; divert the fatal knife,  
And keep off all attempts against his life.  
Next Haniel your Legions complete,  
Let your battalions against abaddon's meet:  
With equal courage fight you band to band:  
Provoke to piety, bring comfort, and  
Solace: Root out 〈◊〉 image, in its place:  
He instrumental to infer my G●ace.  
Strong G●briel, with courage meet thy Foe,  
And with thy Troops, against mighty M●mmon go:  
Dissolve Man's fear, inject the fear of me,  
Lose from the World his Soul, and set him free  
From 〈◊〉; exhibit to his eye  
heavens glorious Riches, and vast Treasury:  
Observe the motions of great Mammon, fight  
At every turn, with that stiff opposite.  
Under your Banners to the Orb below  
May brightnesses, and beams of Glory go:  
Light apparitions, sweet and pleasing noises,  
Tinkling of Bells, and other sacred voices,  
For to attract the mind, to our blessed Sphere,  
T' expel Tears, sadness, and disturbing Fear.  
Let every Country have a Guardian:  
And let a Genius wait on every Man.  
Give way, and let these Prince's Congregate,  
Who with your help will Man felicitate,  
And bravely strive with all those Troops that ride  
So daringly under the Flag of Pride.  
Humility Prince of this T●ain, 
* ●●re is also meant the very essence and Spirit of Humility, and so of the rest.  first go  
Into the Earth, confront thy prideful Foe  
With all thy force: whilst he elates do thou  
Inflect men's hearts: make them not scorn to bow.  
To thee Prince Love ●●joyn, whose power, and might  
Makes Hel's black bands to tremble at his sight:  
O how they ●ear him I Against all I send  
Thee; chiefly though thy force against ●●vy bend,  
Rush on their blacker Troops; let Malice, Hate  
〈◊〉 Companions ●eel thy Force's weight●  
‛ 'Gainst A●●●ice, march Liberality.  
And Tr●th, against twy-faced Hypocrisy.  
〈…〉 mere thou ste●● 〈◊〉: Strength, Courage, Hope,  
Do 〈…〉 sad D●spair most bravely Cope.  
〈…〉 Faith wing the Souls  
〈…〉 them higher than the Poles:  
〈…〉 this Kingdom ere  
〈…〉 have left the ●ther Sphere:  
By thee Hel's poison, shall dispelled be;  
Custom of sinning ' ●ore thy Troops shall flee.  
Go Wisdom with your Troops. And Innocence's  
With Resignation join; Obedience  
With Uprightnesse: oppose to g●●l● and guile,  
To stubbornness, and disobedience v●le.  
Go Continence, and chaste V●ginity,  
Resist thou Lust, thou wanton Luxury.  
Light vanquish thou dark mist●, and clouds of Error;  
joy, bitter Sadness: peace d●urbing Terror.  
Go bravely now, Hel's force, and strength resist,  
My Power, and Magic shall you s●ll assist.  
Straight from their Centre these light Troops do go,  
To help poor Man against his Stygian Foe;  
Who else would be devoured soon; all still  
Do eager strive to do their Master's will:  
Magic opposeth Magic: Spirits, Spirits.  
Man's will can not be 
* The will c●●not su●fer 〈◊〉 and yet it may brfall M●●: for through the power of temptation m●● may go co 〈◊〉 to his 〈◊〉 will.  forced: He still inherits  
A Kingly freedom; neither World 
* That it is so that he is a swe●ble to the constrain, ●or if I am possessed with an 〈◊〉 spirit (o● the permission of Go●) and th● f●●●e my lips to sp●ck 〈◊〉 that cannot 〈…〉  Constrain  
Man to do what he does; they seek to gain  
His full assent, or else 'tis nothing worth:  
For what if one should with a sword, in Wrath  
Destroy my Corpse? or fling me in the Sea  
From some high Rock? What? should I guilty be,  
Unless that I with my free will had gone,  
And voluntary sought destruction?  
sin's not without assent: Nor lies it in  
B'ing tempted, but in yielding lies the sin.  
●s God so hard to punish us, think you,  
For sin if we no otherwise can do?  
Have we no power to will the good? O sad!  
If God should punish if we will the bad.  
And yet you see most wills seem captivate  
To ill: in this we're like an Infant, that  
Chooseth some bauble when a Jewel too  
With it exposed, was to his choice and view:  
He's not constrained, he choose may which he will:  
So we through ignorance oft choose the ill.  
Man's will is free. Both Words strive with their might,  
For this their powers so eagerly do fight.  
Hell temp●●, allures, attract, and craws, and still  
A thousand ways, seeks for to gain man's will.  
Love, with his agents draw the other way,  
Exhibit, Glory, Brightness, Riches, ●oy  
Spiritual: To this man now doth bend  
His will, ano● doth to the other tend.  
The more that S 〈◊〉 gains of him the less  
His will he doth unto the good express:  
The more heaven gains of him, the more he still  
eschews the bad, turns to the good his will.  
In this there are degrees: coaction may  
Befall me, when my Will another way  
Propends: like one who to the place doth go  
Where he must executed be: ye know,  
Without his will his body would not move,  
And yet that thing he wills he doth not love:  
His will's yet free, that can't be forced: refuse  
He cannot Death, yet it he doth not choose.  
So often times to Man it may befall,  
That he may do what he not wills at all.  
M●n wills not wholly ill, until that he  
With Hell in union and conjunction be;  
Then he's a devil. Hell to ill propends  
Wholly▪ as God to good for ever tends.   

The powers of both the worlds now being sent  
Into this Orb begin their bickerment:  
Wrath's sources strive, and ADAM's fi●t born Cain  
T●●y get: the light world's forces ABEL. gain.  
Since when they still have fought, their forces fail  
Not, nor e'te shall: stout wr●th seemed to prevail.  
Cont nua●●y. Under his power the world  
He quickly got; 
* 〈…〉 the same as the 〈◊〉 would, but yet contrary to Love, and in it 〈…〉 of God is not evil of itself, but it is 〈…〉 of the dark world, and without which there could be no H●ll.  therefore God's justice.. hurled  
The 〈◊〉ng waters o'er the Fa●th, which drowned  
〈◊〉 creatures, but what in the Ark were sound.  
How many men had he in Sodom got,  
When Love amongst them had but one poor Lot.  
Thus Hell prevailed until the Prince of Love  
Himself came down from his bright Throne above,  
Endued with humane flesh: an overthrow  
He gave to Hell; who tues that fatal blow:  
For since that time Loves banners were displayed  
Th'rowout the Orb; Hells strength and force decayed.   

Whilst thus these powers for man contend, and be  
In sharpest Wars; upon the mortal tree  
Man lives, his food which to his palate suits  
Best, are its various and delicious fruits.  
This is the Tree of Good and Evil: for  
The Fruits themselves though good, nor evil are,  
Yet (as the Planet Mercury) incline  
To either, as they are to whom they join.  
'Tis not the grosser part that feeds thereon,  
But 'tis the soul, the highest part of man.  
The flesh hath fleshly food; the soul likewise  
Feeds, but on choice and more varieties.  
This Tree is good for 
* To us mortals, nor is it the forbidden tree to us, only the evil part thereof which stands in the wrath of God, and in the first principle. But Adam was in Paradise without this mo●al terrestrial body, and was not to have put his imagination into the earthly nature at all, nor to have desired after the fruits of this Tree, but to have known all things in that principle in which be stood, and to have held both this and the first in subjection under him: This now cannot be performed by us wholly, so lo●g as these bodies remain, for we cannot maintain our bodies without the fruit of this Tree, now is the fruit evil of itself, but may serve us for the better glorification of the Almighty.  food; such choice of fruits  
It hath, that it conveniently suits  
With every soul; so large and fairly spread  
That with its branches East, and West are wed.  
These than the fruits are. Here hangs natural Wit,  
And judgement, which humane affairs doth fit.  
Here a propriety in goods, and Lands,  
Self Interest; Love to relations hangs  
On this Bow; here an innate doing right  
Ponds; here hangs Riches, you ' unto the sight  
Appears the lovely fruit of Beauty; there  
Spo●ts to refresh the mind, and Body are.  
Here Honou●s hang, and high promotions;  
Plenty of Goods, and great possessions.  
Here dangles Pleasures, here Morality,  
Good Carriage, Parts, and civil honesty.  
Degrees of State, whence Kings, and Lords arise,  
Earls, Barons, Knights, Gentry, Nobilities:  
Here Power, and Authority; and here  
This Bow innate Concupiscence doth bear.  
On th'other side all manual Arts, and Trades,  
In clusters hang, among the greener shades,  
Here you may find both Grammar, Rhetoric,  
With Logic, optics, and A●tl●etic:  
Music, Physics, Metaphysics too,  
With Geometry hang dangling in your view;  
Astronomy, and Geography there,  
Astrology, and Surgery appear.  
Here natural Magic; and Theology,  
Accompanied with antique Poetry;  
Here Chemistry, Ethics, economics,  
Phisosophy all sorts, and Politics,  
With many more do grow. This is the food  
Which Man's Soul eats, and finds it very good.  
If that you well revolve these in your mind.  
Nor Good, nor Bade them in themselves you'll find;  
Yet may to●poyson be converted, or  
Made wholesome nourishment convenient for  
Man's soaring Soul. Here the two opposite  
World's forces often meet, and strongly fight.  
Both would his Cooks be, both desire to carve,  
Both willingly would at his Table serve,  
That they their Tinctures might infuse; for meats  
Do operate much in his Soul that eats,  
For Beauty (which a pleasant harmony  
Of Blood, and humours is, just symmetry  
Of all the parts) no evil is: nor is't  
A sin to have it, or a sin to misted:  
Yet Satan this to poison may convert,  
If thorough it he should elate the heart;  
Make those that it possess, make't nothing worth  
By spending precious Time to set it forth.  
Satan endeavours thorough it to cause  
Pride, and to make them greedy of applause,  
To dress it forth with highest vanities:  
To make adorers with their wanton eyes:  
Then Lust creeps in, with other sins; and thus  
Beauty though good is evil made to us.  
Love's Forces strive if thou hast Beauty, to  
Make it most wholesome, and good food for you:  
He'd make thee chaste, and strive his Grace to set,  
As Jewels in so fair a Cabinet.  
Virtue shines brightest in a beauteous frame,  
That graceth Beauty: Beauty to the same  
Adds splendour. Oft the Beauty of the Soul  
Is disregarded in a Face that's foul.  
Therefore if thou art beautiful, thou art  
More fit to serve God with a purer heart;  
For is't not fit that he who Beauty gave,  
Before all others should thy Beauty have?  
Thus pleadeth Love, who'd make it good; and thus  
It may be made both Good, and ill to us.  
To ill the Devil would convert thy Wit,  
And understanding, by employing it  
In vanities, or some ill Arts, or by  
Converting it to guile, or subtlety.  
Love's power would draw it unto goodness, and  
His sacred Mysteries to understand  
Cause, by converting it to Wisdom; so  
Wit may our Friend be, or may be our Foe.  
All Arts and Sciences may be abused,  
Made Good if rightly, Bad if wrongly used.  
So natural knowledge us endamage may,  
But do great good if it we well employ.  
So whilst that we inspect Astrology,  
Or the stars motions by Astronomy  
View; we may there Gods Wonders contemplate,  
Which may to Earth our eager Love abate:  
Whilst we in Natural Magic look, and see  
The various Wonders that there hidden be.  
We may with greater ardour praise his Name,  
Who out of nothing, thus all things did frame.  
Thus it redound may to God's glory: But  
It by temptation we do solely put  
Our minds therein, or greater things neglect  
For them, or to the stars an indirect  
Power ascribe; or natural Magic pass  
To necromancy, or Hell's arts, alas!  
How are we lost! thus recreat●ons  
May help the mind; or prove temptations  
To greater ills. Thus Logic may be bend  
For to maintain Errors by Argument,  
And Syllogisms, when the Truth it should  
Alone maintain: Thus bade it proves: Thus good.  
So Rhetoric with all its figures may  
A false cause to Truth's prejudice display.  
What may do greater good, than may the Tongue?  
And yet what is there that doth greater wrong?  
So Eloquence which should to heaven invite,  
By Satan's means doth unto Hell excite.  
How good a fruits divine Theology!  
Yet it by Satan may corrupted be:  
How many Errors, Schisms, Heresies,  
Strange Fancies, Whimsies, horrid Blasphemies  
Hath sprung from those who thus have studied, by  
Our adversary's subtle ingeny  
Caused! Music Satan doth impoyson too,  
And makes more hurt, than good by it accrue  
To most; for those, whose minds he doth possesle,  
It stirs to Lust, provokes to wantonness:  
Allures to riot, and to vanity  
Thus is't the fruit made of the evil Tree.  
When that it should (so minds to Heaven erect  
Do find it) unto happiness direct  
Our fleeting thoughts, and by those warbling measures  
Ravish our souls from earth, to Heaven's pleasures:  
Make us to enter contemplation  
Of those sweet voices, which before the Throne  
Sing evermore with Halalujahs; raise  
Our duller spirits; and make us sing with praise  
heavens mercies to us; and above the poles  
Divinely carry our harmonious souls;  
Where in a kind of ecstasy, a bliss  
Not to be spoke they find. Thus good it is.  
And now my heart glows with a sacred fire,  
Just is my zeal, nor sinful is my ire,  
'Gainst those vitiators who in these our times  
Make Poesy hateful, by their wanton rhythms;  
Who feel no sacred, glowing heats; who prise  
No flames, but what come from their Mistress ' eye.  
Leave off you loser rithmers, cease your pains,  
For shame, and trouble shall be all your gains.  
Abuse no longer what in times of old  
God hath himself made use of to unfold  
His sacred Mysteries, nor let it be  
Made by you thus fruit of the evil Tree.  
Luxurious wits who feed on Poetry  
Are thus by subtle Satan drawn awry,  
Whilst they the cream of wit do spend, to grace  
With Eulogies some disproportioned face.  
Let these low lines you witty ones excite  
Your ready quills, on some such theme to write,  
Then shall mine cede to yours: not while you err  
And mortal beauties do to heaven prefer  
The end of Poesy is the praise of God,  
Used to that end it is exceeding good.  
The food of man's soul thus described you see,  
The fruits are of the the good and evil Tree,  
Which may be made, or good, or bad or so  
Bring Man to bliss, or everlasting woe.  
Therefore take heed to Satan's subtle train,  
That by these fruits thy soul he may not gain,  
For here he shows his cunning, and his skill,  
To make thee, only feed upon the ill.  
heavens forces strive, and if thou wilt obey,  
This Tree shall be the Tree of good, and joy:  
And since we must upon it feed we should  
Eschew the Evil, and accept the Good.  
The subtle Serpent, our sworn foe, with his  
Vast Troops, do use to keep us from our bliss  
A thousand ways: a thousand stratagems  
And tricks he ha●●: he round about behemms  
Our yielding 〈◊〉; and 〈◊〉 about he sets  
To catch us ●●st, his strong, and wide spread nets:  
Hel's Troops like Ants do never idle stand.  
But mov● about Earth's mighty Moles, and  
All ways to gain the So●l of Man to t●y;  
Which got they strait send to Hel's Treasury.  
Sometimes he this makes use of, sometimes that,  
This serves for this that for another Plot.  
Sometimes the Stars, and their ●ad influence  
As instruments he uses: and from whence  
He oft assaults poor Man. MARS stirs to wrath,  
And blood, S●●T●R to Avarice, and sloth:  
MERC'RIE to Theft: Ambition JUPITER,  
VENUS to Lust, and the cold MOON, to err.  
His ways innumerable are, and mount  
Unto infinity; the stars you count  
May first, or sands that on the shore do lie.  
He'll suit all Humours: By their humours try  
To work for his advantage. To excess  
Of feeding this man, that to drunkenness,  
He doth provoke. Leads this to Pride; to Lust  
Another: this to doing things unjust  
To lying, Theft, Adultery, Perjury,  
And to all manner of iniquity.  
But meets he with a studious Man, or one  
Who hath got conquest o'er his passion,  
Unto gross sins he doth not tempt them, he  
Their strength doth know; therefore with policy  
His shape he changes, and with subtle guile  
Corrupts their knowledge; and with errors vile  
Their Brains doth fill: if in Theology  
Their study be; their errors are more high.  
A prying mind finds he in men of Parts,  
He subtly draws them to his blacker Arts,  
Where with most strange delusions them delude  
And thus himself in every one intrude  
He will; and suiting to their inclination  
With cunning Art, unseen work their destruction.  
But sees 〈◊〉 some who in earnest be  
To leav● the World, who would their Spirits free  
From his sad bondage, bid this Earth adieu,  
And wo●ld with Heaven a stricter league renew:  
Uprightly walk, and very closely press  
To find that Gate that leads to happiness,  
Out of this Earth; thus cunningly be deals,  
So soon as he their working pulses feels.  
A mighty Circle 'fore the gate he draws,  
The which scarce touched is with Heaven's Rays:  
Those than who pres●e toward this Gate, anon  
Fall into this Fantastic Region. 
Regio Fantastica.   
For so it is they in a Circle run,  
Blinded, and groping, wanting heat, and Sun.  
A little Light, as at a crevice flows  
Into the place, the which these umbra's shows  
Unto their hoodwinked eyes: Forms, Government,  
Words, Literal sense, Disputes, and Cavilment,  
Concerning Ceremonies, judging, and  
Self-gathering in a more righteous Band.  
With these they sport themselves, who (like that fire  
That in the Night leads people through the mire,  
And 'bout the Field) do cause these blind ones stray,  
In oblique paths, and hinder from the way  
They should have ta'en. In this same Region  
All 
* I mean not here Heretics, and such more grossly abused by the Devil: 〈◊〉 at least those who do not think themselves in the right way; but I intent all those who desire cordially after Heaven and happiness; in what sect, form or condition soever. And yet entering into this fantastic Region, and relying upon any 〈◊〉 or form of warship, though it may not be evil of itself, make a retardation or move in this dark Circle, without pressing ●orward to the life of that, which they may suppose they have found in their self-chosen worship: when indeed they are deceived, and are but in this fantastic Region.  Sects, as in a misty Circle run.  
Here gropes the Presbyter, whose rigid spirit  
Is took for zeal: beclouded too with night  
In this dark Region's th' independent who  
Hath a more pleasing spirit, and better hue.  
The Dippers here do wash their scaly eyes,  
And round about the bolder Ranter flies,  
Here the severer 〈◊〉, and here  
Fist 〈◊〉 Enthusiasts appear,  
With other Sects, and F●●●aticks, and all  
Who pressing forward stay, or catch a ●all.  
For such whose love to heaven, caused them press  
Towards that gate that leads to happiness,  
Once entered here, it is more hard to find  
Then 'twas before they entered this blind  
Fantastic place: pass this form, that, try there  
Another, ●ound them all, yet where you were  
At first you are; nor are more near the gate  
In this same sect now, than you were in that.  
Helped by so●e Angel, or some brighter ray,  
Of all these Sects some may invene the way  
Out of this Region, and may find the 
* This is the Gate of Circumcision see described. P.  gate  
Which all that Heaven find must enter at.  
All it endeavour: can we justly blame  
Them, when they grope about to find the same?  
Alas! though some do almost touch it, yet  
Through blindness they can have no power to see't.  
The way's not Sects, nor forms of pleasing sense,  
But Truth, and Life, to Christ obedience.  
Tho Satan tempteth all men unto sin,  
And doth desire they should inhabit in  
His harsh-dark, principle, and rather than  
He'd any loose, 
'Tis like he loves a Baalam better than a drunken Nabal, for he is more capable of doing him service than the other.  a thousand ways for men  
He tries▪ as by this world's law pleasures, yet  
He'd rather man should like a Prince be set  
Then like a slave in his great Kingdom; there  
Both high and low degrees of places are:  
They nearer to, or farther from his Throne  
Are set, as they with him have union.  
Those whom this world's low pleasures catch, or those  
Who by Lust, Lying, Wrath, or Envy goes  
To this dark world; are kind of underlings,  
And are like Subjects to Hell's greater Kings.  
But those who to greater perfection  
Arrive, and who have stricter union  
With Hell; and those who knew his M●gic's might  
Advanced are, and their states are higher pight.  
These do become Princes in Wrath, and these  
He loveth most; for they his nature please,  
Are one with him; these do his Wonders show  
And make his mighty power known below.  
These are his Agents, Saints, beloved ones,  
Are more than servants: these become his Sona.  
Heaven thirsts not more to have one perfect here  
To make his Glory, and his might appear,  
Than Hell; who as th● 
* Which has relati●● to the first Principle. See Behm.  Elder Brother show  
His Magic first shall on this Earth below.  
Therefore it first I will describe, and tell,  
The Power, Nature, Might, and Pomp of Hell.   

Mundus tenebros●s vel tartareus.  

SUppose the mighty Prince of darkness would  
Himself incarnate, veil with with fleshly Hood  
His Stygian Face; to show the power, and might  
Of the vast Kingdom of Aeternal Night,  
Upon this Earth: He finds a man propense  
From genial stars to ill; a mind immense  
After abstruser prying; piercing Wit  
Grave look and studious; such a Man is fit  
For this his high design. First then he straight  
Causes his Princes on his elbow wait,  
With all Hel's agents, who in clusters press  
T' imbue his Soul with deep died wickedness,  
By their infernal Magic; they convert  
The mortal Trees fruit to the Evil part.  
He feeds on ill, the which his Soul doth slain;  
His freer will unto themselves they gain:  
And by degrees, his senses please, that he  
Desireth they should his Companions be.  
They promise then if he'll obedient  
Be; with what power, and Regiment  
They will endue him, His high mind doth come,  
And Hel's disciple doth at last become.  
Some Angel then Hel's mighty Prince assigns  
To wait on him; he good converse declines:  
The Daemons laugh to see him captivate,  
And scoff the Angels of the other state.  
Seeing that he obedient is, they now  
Cause him unto Hel's Image for to bow:  
And as the ●●●nce of Heaven commandeth his  
A way to gain, the same, to shun heavens bliss  
Hel's Prince commands. He from the World abstract  
Must be, lest that his deeper thoughts detract  
From that high work he doth intend him for:  
He fastings, vigils, doth command him; nor  
Less prayers than the other World requires,  
Washings, and Ceremoys he desires  
And also that he should be Celebate,  
Thus like an Ape he God doth imitate  
In all his bid, th'better to beguile  
Man, with his high deceits, and cunning vile.  
He spares him in gross sins, it may be too,  
Lest they with pinguitude his Soul imbue,  
And makes less apt to search those hidden arts,  
Which Hell to his obedient ones imparts.  
But if he in them Master will Commence,  
He must attain it by obedience  
To whatsoever Hell commands; for he  
Must gain the Will, than act by sympathy.  
He now it may be for some years hath served  
This Principle, nor from his Laws hath swerved  
But still obedient been: nor his desire  
Thereto doth slack, implete with hellish fire.  
His serving Daemon still attending too,  
With Stygian vigour doth his heart imbue:  
Pleases his fancy with some stranger art,  
Hell's sacramental Mysteries impart  
He doth; till at the last he doth bequeath  
To him the fruits of the black Tree of Death.  
Rough hairy Satyrs with their cloven feet  
And staring eyes if that a stranger meet  
Should all alone in some dark Wood and night,  
How pitifully would they him affright ●  
Or any other ill-shaped monster, yet  
A frequent sight no wonder would beget▪  
And should such Satyrs often be with him,  
No whit at all affrightful would they seem.  
So those dark Spirits apparitions might,  
Man's weaker senses at the first affright.  
But after some familiarity  
No fear at all would be; especially  
To those whose natures, as their natures be,  
In a strict league with Hell; and would be such  
Did not their Souls in a fleshed body couch.  
Toads are not venomous to Toads; nor is  
The Lion truculent to those of his  
Kind; nor are Monsters frightful unto theirs:  
Satyrs to Satyrs, not are Bears to Bears:  
So Man whose Soul's drenched in the Stygian pool;  
Thinks not Hel's worst deformed spiri●s soul.  
And this they know, or else I do suppose  
They'd not so bo●dly their strange shape's disclose.  
Hel's mighty Prince sees now his servant ●it  
To see his Kingdom's pomp: he doth commit  
The charge thereof to some great Prince, who goes  
To him, and thus his message doth disclose.   

Hel's mighty Monarch, Prince of Acher●n;  
Great Duke of Styx, Primate of Phlegeton,  
Of Lethe Earl, great Lord of Cocy●●●,  
of deep Avernus, Orcus, E●ebus,  
And of the whole dark world; best part of this  
Gained by his forces, and now joined to his;  
My sovereign Liege, hath sent me unto you  
His faithful servant, with his leave to show  
Our Kingdom's glory, whereby you may see  
That you do serve no petty Majesty.  
Our high and mighty Prince, hath had regard  
To all your services, he now reward  
Will your fidelity: he Crowns, and thrones  
As well as LOVE hath for his faithful ones.  
A Throne, and Crown he hath prepared for thee,  
And of our Kingdom thou a Peer shalt be,  
When thou this Body shalt put off, and set  
Thy Soul at liberty, which now doth let  
Perfect enjoyment: In the mean time tho,  
This favour's granted, that I thee may show  
Our pomp, and Glory: art thou willing▪ say!  
To whom Hel's servant thus without delay.  
Great Prince and servant to our sovereign King.  
What joyful news is this that you do bring!  
I scarce contain my Soul. What? shall I see  
The glory of his Stygian Majesty  
E'er I depart this World? this favour would  
More strictly bind me his, and if I could  
Be more his than I am: what in this Ball  
I have, I willing am to part withal  
To purchase this: Love's great enticements, I  
Abhor, and do spontaneously deny.  
Come let us go, I burn with strong desire,  
For to be in, and see this Orb of Fire.  
Hel's Nuncio thus speaks. Valiant heart, delay  
I will not: thou thy hearts desire enjoy  
Shalt; and when thou hither returnest, than  
Thou shalt be Hel's highest Magician;  
Such gifts we will bestow: and thou shalt see  
Before thou back returnest, what Gifts they be.  
Your staff is needless: nor your Horse-you need,  
For I am able to make greater speed,  
For whilst that you can ride a League, assoon  
I can be mounted higher than the Moon:  
I can transport your Corpse, no need of that  
There is, at this time; for our Journey's not  
So great; only make fast your Closer door  
That none may enter to disturb you: for  
Your Body here shall lie: Then shall you see,  
How nimble Spirits without Bodies be.  
You miss it shall not for you'll think you bear  
It still, but feel it lighter than the Ayr.  
Alas! that is a prison to the Soul,  
She free from that, is then without control;  
Nor could that bear indeed, what you will feel  
Being made of flesh, nay were it made of steel  
It could not, 'twould consumed be: your spirit  
Can bear the punctions of eternal Night,  
Being in union with us, and may pass  
Into our Kingdom; for your Nature as  
Ours is, your senses will be open too,  
You'll think you see, feel, hear, as now you do.  
But why do I forestall you thus? Delay  
I will no longer: Come I'll lead the way.  
This spied: his hand upon his eyes he lays,  
To which Ethaean stupor he conveys;  
Down falls his Carcasle like a Trunk bereft  
Of Life; no sense is in his Body left:  
His Spirit's fled, and by Hel's Fiend is brought  
Into that Kingdom, swi●ter than a Thought.  
Thus than he felt himself. He was like one  
Who in his sleep sees some strange Vision.  
And dreams himself awake; but yet doth find  
Some kind of misty Atoms, which do blind  
His sight from a clear view. He thus at first  
Did find himself, until he farther thrust  
Was from's attractive Corpse: He nimbly than  
And with a clearer sight to mount begun.  
Thus than his Jornal was. Nor Moon, nor Sun,  
Nor any other Star upon him shone;  
But yet not quite of Light devoyed, he had  
Such as wherewith a misty ev'ning's clad,  
A kind of twilight: Earth, nor raging Seas,  
Nor any thing but misty air he sees.  
A circling Cloud darker than pitch appears,  
Vast, and of huge extent; aloft it rears  
In forms of Cliffs, and pointed Rocks. The Spirit  
Thus speaks: these pitchy, cloudy mounts in sight,  
Impale our Kingdom? 'Tis Avcr●●● called  
With such continued Rocks our Kingdom's 
* Though Hell be here after a portical manner described, yet k●●● that it is not to be believed, nor is in any particular place of the world, but thorough out the whole world: yet in 〈◊〉 it may be said to be walled because of its eternal separation from the secon● Principle.  walled.  
This is the Entry. Here involved lies  
Continual Light, none there a Ray espies  
Of any Light: part of this Rock God threw  
Int Egypt, when that thicker darkness flew  
Through out the Land; our dearest servants he  
With our own weapons plagues continually.  
'Tis not so dark within the pale: now this  
Is caused by Antiperistasis:  
And that cold Region which engendereth hail,  
And thunder (which when Icy clouds assail  
Each other's made) becomes so violent  
From two contraries, which from both sides sent,  
Causes its forces shrink together; so  
More violent, penned in less room they grow.  
This darkness than flies from that Light within,  
And from the Light World's shine; so lies between,  
Shrouding together, pressing close, and thick,  
Fast cleaving, closely doth together stick.  
These palpable dark clouds they enter; where  
He doth a thousand shrecks, and howl hear,  
Cursings, Blaspheming, swearing, murmuring voyc●●,  
Bellowing, with a thousand ugly noises;  
But horrid darkness so encompassed him  
That who these noises made could not be seen;  
Besides an ugly filthy stink he simelt,  
An horrid taste clove to his tongue; he felt  
The dark clouds press upon him. Through they pass  
And with swift steps leave this abhorred place.  
B'ing past his truchman thus. What you did hear  
Caused was by Spirits that inhabit there,  
Who spo●ting were together: Teter hags  
In th'outward World feed these with shri●'led bags,  
The which they suck, There dwell the Incubi,  
And Succubuses; deformed Spirits lie  
By millions there; those who desire to feed  
On humane morsels; such who shed their seed  
Into old Hags: 
* I● regard that th●●●orld being outermost is also lowermost. See pag.  and these are those which they  
Call down to their assistance; these obey  
To ●e●er charms, ointments, perfumes, and these  
Appear to them in various shapes; and please  
Them with their antic Tricks: make hogs to dance  
On hinder feet, platters to skip, and prance,  
With such like sports; make Cows, and cattle languish,  
And mortal men strike too with pain, and anguish:  
And these old hags command, unless they are  
By the other World resisted, than they dare  
Not do't. These are our slaves, we them command,  
And when we need them on our errands send.  
In these th'old Hags delight, for of●en they  
(Such power they have) their Bodies do convey  
From place, to place; and often meet theirsp'rights,  
Their Bodies left: where fed with gross delights,  
They back return: These are our Prince's slaves  
Who bring him many Souls, when that the graves  
Their Bodies take: But oft times these do fly,  
And tear in pieces as in sportful play  
Those whom they served, when that their date is out●  
Now we are Princes, and alas but flout  
Those pouting Witches, when with charms they think  
To call us downt ' obey their drei●y wink.  
No, we stir not, but when our mighty Prince  
Imposes his Commands; then wend we hence  
Into the World. When that you do return  
These spirits you heard shall all obey your charm;  
Nay we; and if our Prince that power gives,  
But yet that power has no man that lives:  
For to call down, an Angel of his Throne,  
He first with him must have high union.  
Still on they pass? upon the right hand●stood  
Oblivious Lethe, 'bout whose slow-paced flood  
Lay many sleepy Sp'rit●, whose office was,  
From that place to the outer World to pass,  
With Pitchers full of that same Water; by  
Which, they brought Souls into a Lethargy;  
And kind of stupor, lest the s●ark of Love,  
Whose nature's ag●l' should with Life remove  
Their Syncopy to goodness. On th'other side  
About dark Erebus, as many 'bide.  
There did, who those Erebean waves did bear  
Into the Earth; which they to Souls did share  
With liberal dole: the which no sooner ta'en,  
But darkness, and obscurity remain  
There does upon their souls, which doth remove  
The glowing spark of the bright Light of Love.  
Further they pass, until or last they come  
Unto th' joyless extremes of Acheron:  
Here he beheld many a naked soul  
Drenched in those waves by Spirits black, and foul,  
Their Faces sad, and heavy, melancholic;  
(Nor were those Spirits there so brisk, and frolic  
As those in other places, which it seems  
Caused by the operation of these streams  
Was) formed like Death; Despair sat in their eyes,  
And every moment caused new miseries.  
Others apace did thence that water bear  
Into the Earth, which caused sad despair,  
To souls that ●ast thereof. Who pass this stream  
Their Bodies dead, none may their souls redeem.  
Over that stream they pass; when that he hears  
Sad Lamentations, for the Vale of Tears  
They entered had: sliding along the Vale  
Cocytus ran; upon whose banks did wail  
With lamentations sad, whole troops of Souls,  
A stream of Tears into the River rolls  
From their sad eyes: Before their faces hung  
Tabl●ts of bra●●e, where all that they had done  
In their life-time was wrote, which now renewed  
Their sorrow. This Spectacle being viewed  
They fur● ere pass, where scummy Orcus ran  
W●●h ●aetid waves from the cold Stygian  
Lake: about whose most horrid banks he spied  
All sorts of evil Beasts: The Stygian guide  
Thus spoke:   

Sucst thou those mighty Herds, these are  
The Souls of Men, who did these natures bear  
Wh●n they were on the Earth. Yond herd of Swine  
Were greedy Gluttons, who with Beer, and Wine  
And all the dainties that the Earth did yield  
Four times a day their greedy paunches filled:  
Their belly was their God, such natures than  
They had, which here they have and shall retain.  
Yond herd of Goats were lustful persons: those  
Grim Curs were such who ever would oppose  
Love's Reign, and Kingdom, snappish, greedy: and  
Such as were lawless Lords: that grim-looked band  
Of Lions: Those rough Bears were such, who still  
Despoiled their Neighbours: such who rob, and pill  
With subtlety, those wilily Foxes were:  
Such as were envious speckled Toads now are:  
Th' Avaricious Tigers, Monsters, Dogs; too long  
'Twill be for to rehearse that numerous throng,  
But crawling worms, Vipers, all ugly Creatures  
Are such who once exactly bore their natures  
In human shapes, which now these forms retain  
And in this guise for ever shall remain.  
This said they pass along: Their way they take  
Directly now unto the Stygian Lake.  
The Pool appears in sight, an horrid stink  
Invades his nostrils, e'er he gains the brink,  
Like f●etid sut mixed with sulphurian fumes:  
The slow-paced Wat●● moves with Icy scumms,  
Upon its surface; than the brumal snow  
Far colde● 'tis: upon its banks did grow  
Taxi with sable leaves: darker than ink  
Or blackest pitch the water was, the brink  
Died was with sable hue: the froery scum  
Left black impressions on the bank: a fume  
More dark than Night in curling clouds arose:  
The strongest poison that on Earth's Orbs grows  
Is not by the tenth part so strong as that  
Cold-icy stream: thousand of Souls there sat  
Shivering for cold, when straight a Troop appears  
Of horrid Devils, with long flagging Ears  
Down to their shoulders, saucer eyes, and lips  
Of mighty magnitude, like soused tripes  
Hung lower than their chins: their snaky hairs  
Hung over their cornuted fronts: like Bears  
Their feet, and arms were; their cruented paws  
Were armed with bristles, and advanced claws:  
With these they gripe those naked Souls, then on  
Their shoulders hoist them, and away they run.  
Come let us follow: these the torments are  
The damned for ever, and for ever bear,  
In this same place, thus said the guiding Fiend:  
With hasty steps, as fast as they, they wend,  
When presently they are arrived upon  
The burning Banks of fiery Pl●geton.  
In here they souse them: Cries, and shrecks they make,  
But hard-heart Devils can no pity take:  
Over, and over here they plunge them, then  
To cold-streamed Styx they bear them back again,  
And thus by turns these torments, with delight  
They give, without a moment of respite.  
Swi●●er than Tigris, or danuby, this  
Tartarean River runs, far hotter is  
Than boiling Liquor; here it bubbles, Fumes  
Which turn to Flame, flow from its sulphury wombs:  
The banks are licked by Living flames, from out●  
Of gapeing chinks both fire, and brimstone spout.  
This seen they further pass; not far from this  
Was Tartarus, within his huge Abyss, ●  
He looked and saw nothing but horrid, dark,  
Obnigrous clouds: heard Wolves, and Dogs to bark.  
Lions, and Tigers roar; men shreech, and wail,  
Others Blaspheme, and others Curse, and rail  
Against Heaven, a strange confused noise: He smelled  
Most horrid stinks: and cold damp vapours felt.  
Straight ways huge fires appeared below, whereby  
He might the Souls tormented there descry:  
All sorts of torments that you can devise  
With all the plagues, and all the Miseries  
You can imagine he inflicted saw,  
Upon those miserable Souls below.  
Some torn with wheels, some with hot Tongues, their tongues  
Pulled out; and some with scalding flames their Lungs  
Washed were, and others in the fire hung  
From whence they into frozen Rivers flung  
Were by and by: and others whipped with steel:  
Others on Gridirons brent, whilst others feel  
The smart of Salt, and Vinager, which laid  
Is on their tender flesh, being newly flayed:  
With divers other sorts of torments: then  
From this deep pit of Hell they farther wen.  
Now far they were not gone from Tartarus  
When in this sort spoke Hel's mystag●gus.  
Whilst we proceed t' our Kingdom's Centre, where  
Our mighty King his Court doth keep, declare  
I will, our Kingdom's first original,  
When we came first into this ●●ery Ball;  
For do not think that ignorant we be  
Of our beginning, and high pedigree,  
Or that we have no memory of what  
We once enjoyed: no more than Souls forget  
What they in Earth have done, when they come here,  
For all their deeds Eternal forms do b●ar  
Which here remain; and which torments them more  
Than in cold Styx for to be plunged o'er:  
Ah! Could but Souls in Lethe drenched be,  
How little would they feel of misery!  
But this a favour is which now I show,  
And should be granted unto none but you.  
Know then there is a God, and this although  
We tremble at it, we assur'dly know;  
Yet that there's none we oftentimes suggest  
Unto the misbelieving Atheist.  
This God, or mighty Power which all World● fill,  
Unsearchable he is, we to his 
* That is i● that Principle.  Will  
Obedient are, he fills our World, his Might  
And Power's as great here as in th' Orb of Light:  
By it this 
* The Kingdom of 〈◊〉 rath.  World consists, and it shall be  
Thou't had beginning, to Eternity.  
'Tis not against this Power that we ●ear,  
And rend, and fight, and so opposing are,  
Ne'er to be reconciled: Our foe is Love,  
The second Principle against that we move  
In Wrath, and bitterness, and natural  
It is for us to fight against that Ball.  
As fire can't but tend upwards, so can't we  
But to that Orb perpetual Enmity  
Bear: That to us has an Antipathy.  
Think not that God in Wrath did us create,  
Or that for damned Souls he made this state,  
For to torment them in: He did not Will  
That there a Hell should be: or any ill.  
Thus than it came. God from Eternity  
Did generate two Principles, which be  
Contrary to each other. God alone  
Cannot (but by these Principles) be known.  
These generate he did Eternally,  
Both in, and by himself, a mystery  
Not to be comprehended. Neither tho  
Is 
* This is out of the Eternal nature, the ●nsearchable ens increatum, or nothing abyss: But God is God only in the second Principle or Love.  God; yet he's the 
* From this sight (though not clearly comprehending it) the Ranters fell into that erroneous notion of all things proceeding from God, aswell the evil as the good, and that they served him in all manner of wickedness and sins, aswell as in uprightness and Love, seeing he was the Author of all. Indeed they ferved the first Principle, and unl●sse they repent may therein serve to Eternity.  Root from whence they flow:  
This Principle in which we make abode  
Is called the first: An ang'●y, zealous God  
And full of Wrath, Vengeance, and Ire, here  
To mortal Men, and us he doth appear.  
In th'other Principle of Love, and Light,  
To men he doth appear quite opposite:  
The nature of our 
* The first Principle described.  Principle is this,  
It full of raging, anxious prickling is,  
An harsh, sour, tart, fell, ●ager essence, and  
Of bitterness, and stinging full; we stand  
In this. The other Principle is quite  
An other nature, to this opposite,  
We know no more of that: this I can tell  
That accidentally is the 
* For Hell is the privation of Heaven, and were there no joy, ease, and pleasure, there could be ●now● no sorrow, pain, and T●rment: Should the second Principle shed ●t self thorough out the first, that would also become Heaven, so the absence of that, causes Hell.  cause of Hell.  
Proceeding still they now were come upon  
The entrance to Hel's inmost Region;  
A vast huge Globe of sad dark glowing Fire  
He saw, and in it thousand Devils, nigher  
He fears to go: which seen thus said the Fiend,  
What now? afraid? what is the matter Friend;  
You do forget you have no body on  
Your Spirit's here, and Spirits cannot burn.  
With this you must be clothed; in this we dwell,  
And so must you: This is the fire of Hell.  
Which never can go out: don't you admire  
What fuel 'tis maintains so great a fire?  
Come, e'er we farther go I will explain  
Its cause, and nature in a word, or twain.  
This Principle of Wrath; of which I spoke  
Even now, God ne'● intended to awake,  
For it recluded was; he did not will  
It should be open, nor that so much ill  
Should happen. Now before your lower Sphere  
Had birth, or being, we created were:  
Our mighty Prince, King Lucifer was then  
Created of such stuff, as Souls of Men  
Created are, and we his servants true,  
Celestial Forms, at that time did endue.  
Our Prince more bright, than your light-giving Sun  
In glorious Rays of Heavn'ly Light out-shon  
All other Angels, sat upon the Throne  
Of God, and like a God himself did reign.  
Out of both Principles composed we were,  
As Man's Soul is; and other Angels are:  
The first recluded was, and we were made ●  
I'th' second, there we should for aye have stayed:  
But our brave Prince (I must commend him for't)  
Did bravely Lord it in a Kingly sort  
Over the heart of God; that meekness scorned,  
Did higher fly, and his high Spirit turned  
Into the fiery property; that Rage  
And fiery flash which Love could not assuage  
He there begat. We as our Master did,  
Raged as he; and so defiance bid  
To Love, and Meekness, and those Angels that  
With no aspiring Spirits kept their state.  
Thus we deserted with our Prince that Throne  
Of Light, and Love, and gained this fiery one,  
Where we are potent, and with that strong might  
Against Mic●●●● our adversary fight.  
Now those bright Rays which our brave Prince had on  
Before with courage high he lef● that Throne,  
As scorning to adorn his Princely grace  
With aught that did belong unto that place,  
He left behind; 
The ●all of Lucifer with his Angels.  with that fine form which he  
There had: now in the fiery property  
We other forms have got, which we can change  
Into all sorts of shapes, and Figures strange.  
In that great r●ge, and burning of the Wrath,  
This fire you see we live in then h●rst forth,  
Which from ourselves proceeds, and which is made  
By that strong enmity which doth invade  
Us, against the ●●verse Orb of Light: and know  
This Fire doth from bitter harssinesse grow;  
As when you rub your f●int upon a wheel  
Which turneth round, and is composed of Steel,  
You see from bitter grating Fires proceed,  
So our harsh grating Spirits Fire breed,  
Which is the same you see; This is the pain  
That we, and all the damned in remain,  
For all those torments that I showed you were  
But Images, the better to declare  
The nature of this one, and yet alas  
This doth all them a thousand times surpass.  
Spirits alas! though sensible, can't feel  
Material Fire, or jerkes from whips of Steel;  
Nor water-torments; 'tis an aching smart,  
Most cruel, sour, eager, fierce, and tart,  
Astringent, cold, attracting, harsh desire  
Which breeds a piercing, prickling, stinging fire;  
Which turns to rage, and enmity, and that  
Stirs up the prickling, if it groweth flat,  
So feeds with fuel: like a turning wheel  
It still runs round: These are the pains we feel.  
Suppose that one who has a strong desire,  
Which burneth in him, and he's all on fire  
For to ascend a Mountain made of Glass,  
The which he knows impossible: alas!  
He yet to do it strives; and yet despairs,  
He has no hope, and yet desires, nor dares  
To think he can; yet tries, he sees 'tis vain  
Yet he desires, and yet he can't refrain:  
Again he tries, he cannot set his feet  
But down he slides; this anguish doth bege●,  
That rage, and fury; then desire again  
Renews the anguish, Anguish rage, that pain  
Begets, and thus himself his torment breeds:  
So here our torment from ourselves proceeds,  
The which Eternal is. The damned Crew  
And we our torments daily thus renew,  
A strong desire we do here retain  
(The which is mixed with Anguish, Grief, and pain)  
After the Heart of God, not that we would  
Possess it, or dwell in it if we could,  
We can't have such a thought; for we no less  
Than enmity eternally possess  
Against what we desirer● we still despair,  
We cannot hope, yet still desiring are,  
And what doth breed in us the greater woe,  
Is 'cause that to Eternity we know.  
It so continue must: anguish, and smart,  
A stinging, prickling, akeing, sour, tart,  
And horrid Grief torments us, than again  
Desire breeds Anguish, Anguish breeds our pain;  
And thus (though 't cannot be expressed) we feel  
Aeternal Wrath, like to a turning Wheel  
Which ever moves: And this to you I tell  
The damned feel: These are the pains of Hell.  
Our Prince, and we after the World was made,  
Burned with a strong desire to invade  
That newmade Orb; the which we could not do  
Until our Cunning Adam overthrew:  
Then we our Forces sent. What myriads we  
Have gained to us your eyes shall witness be.  
For 'tis our nature to gain what we can,  
We love the noble Company of Man,  
If not, why should we labour so? we were  
Created of the substance your souls are,  
And you like us may if you will become,  
Here's entertainment, and enough of room.  
You see how well I love you, that I dare  
Hel's pains and secrets, freely thus declare,  
You may be sure that I would ne'er do thus,  
Did I not you esteem as one of us.  
And you'd confirmed be e'er you return;  
When that you're entered where that fire doth burn,  
You'll understand what 'tis: you then in part  
As we do, Wrath and enmity exert  
Will against the Orb of Love. Nor what I tell  
Think strange; would you of our own Principle  
Have us be ignorant? or not to know  
From whence we came? how enmity did grow  
Betwixed the second Principle, and us?  
Forge t our former seats? you'd make us thus  
Like to you Mortals▪ who by sickness what  
Before, or Age in Youth, they have done forget.  
We know mo●e than you think we do, alltho  
We it to Mortals very seldom show;  
Come let us stay no longer, you shall see  
Hel's pomp, and 's mighty Stygian Majesty.  
This said, they both together go: No flame  
Or lighter blaze, from that dark fire came,  
But 'twas like a dark-glowing coal, or like  
A d'outed Candle, with a glowing week.  
Here entered, now he feels an enmity  
Against Love's Kingdom, and the Deity:  
He sees the Devils, smells Sulphurian stinks,  
Hears them blaspheme; himself a Devil thinks▪  
Does as they do. Thousands at first do meet  
Him in most horrid shapes, with cloven feet,  
With Dragon's tails, and looks: hard scaly hides  
Long-tusked teeth, jaws gaping far, and wide,  
These usher them along: He also saw  
Millions of Souls, who in such shapes did draw  
Hel's fetid ay● (a blast whereof would choke  
The earthly Globe) their mouths spa● fire, and smoke,  
Their faces black as ink, cornuted some,  
And very few retained an humane form;  
And those that did were bunch-backed, crooked, lamed,  
One eyed, deformed, and more ugly seemed  
Than those with other shapes; but now he met  
The greater Princes in their order set.  
Who'd think that Hell should there retain the Form  
Of every thing that doth this World adorn?  
Why not? if Heaven the purer forms of these  
Things uncorrupted bear; the Species  
Impu●e, and corrupted, may not Hell  
With as much reason think you hold aswell?  
Yea sure the Devils cloth themselves in all  
Shapes may: excepting the Angelical;  
As Angels cannot take a Devils hew,  
So cannot Devils Angel's shapes endue;  
Both may an humane form; for sure he that  
A soul can, may a body ag●●●te.  
Thus then in brief the show of Hell was: when  
With this fell rabble in that fiery den,  
A while he marched had; A troop he met  
Of many millions in their order set  
Under their several Princes: on each side  
Making a lane, they do themselves divide.  
Some they were mounted upon Elephants,  
Some upon Camels; and some vast Giants  
Stood on their feet, whose heads like waving Trees  
To shrubs: did shadow those that to their Knees  
Scarce reached. Some others in their Char●●● were;  
And prancing steeds do other Captains bear.  
Some upon Wolves, some upon Asses ●ide,  
Some Lions, Tigers, Whales, and Bears bestride:  
All sorts of Instruments, they bear. Some horn  
Their shining fronts, like yellow brass adorn.  
Some heads like Dragons, some like Mast●●●● bear:  
With hispid mantles of dark pitchy hair.  
Some hide their 〈◊〉 hides: others are in  
● Dragon's scaly Coa●: a Lion's skin●  
Others ind●e; 〈◊〉 from their mouths a stink  
Of smoke and 〈◊〉 send: some soot, and ink  
Spew: some spit Toads, and Spiders, others flakes  
O●●ire; and some instead of Hair have snake's  
Dangling about their ●ares, and twisting round  
Their necks, depend their tails unto the ground.  
Such kind of Forms all bear. He still doth 〈◊〉  
Thorough this mighty T●●op: conducted was  
By all the chief, until at last he came  
Where seats a kind of Theatre did frame.  
At th'upper end great Lucifer he saw,  
(Whose ●ro●n keeps the Ta●arean troops in a●e)  
S●t●on an Ebon Throne, more black than Jet,  
And round abou● him Hel's great Princes set,  
According to their ranks. Great Lucis●r  
A s●ble Crown upon his head did bear,  
One hand a S●●pter held, the other bore  
A hissing Snake, upon his back he wore  
Nothing but grisly hair, more black than Night,  
Under his supercilious brow a Light  
Like 〈◊〉 coils came from his saucer eyes:  
His rugged cheeks Like 〈◊〉 Rocks did rise,  
With dented Valleys: every time he spoke  
From's hellish mouth came clouds of 〈◊〉 smoke,  
Which intermixed were with flakes of fire.  
His breast beset with ●air as stiff as wire,  
Bo●e two great duggs, from whence like spring-lers●ell  
〈…〉  
His Banner broke in twain: hard by was●een  
An humane Form: triumphing over him  
With a great Ma●e, an horned Devil stood:  
Upon the Earth a mighty Drag●n trod,  
Bearing a sable 〈◊〉, displayed on high,  
In which was fairly 〈◊〉 VIC●O 〈◊〉  
This was to show his triumph over 〈◊〉,  
And Love's fair O●●, in this fame 〈◊〉 an  
Realm, and to show them that here he reigns alone,  
None but himself there sits upon the Throne.  
On's right hand set, of that dark 〈◊〉  
The potent Princes, every one a Throne  
Possessed: Balzebub, Satan, Asmodel,  
Miriri, Mammon, Ast'roth, Beli●,  
With thousands more Commanding D●●m●ns, who  
In strange, and various shapes appeared in view.  
On's left hand sat Prince Pride, in's face Disd●●●  
Portrayed was; big were his looks, his Train  
Hung lower than his Feet; ● Peacooks p●●me  
Shaded his hoary Crest; with strong per●●●●  
His ' broidered G●wn did smell; pendants did d●ck  
His flagging Ears, black Cha●nes pr●●ing'd his neck:  
Finer than all the rest he was, one hand  
On's side was placed, a alarming hellish bra●d  
The other held. Next him sat Envy, who  
Did garments specked with swelling ●oads endue:  
A meager Face h● had, and hollow Eyes,  
Lean jaws, thin neck, and spin●y arms, and thighs:  
His Head a●guiferous, a poison strong  
Continually dropped from his spongy Tongue,  
At's feet 〈◊〉 sat his servitor,  
With Enmity, who for his service b●re  
Two mighty Scorpi●●●, 〈◊〉 was next  
Who held his paws continually convext,  
With Claws like iron 〈◊〉; a 〈…〉  
He had; no Ornaments 〈◊〉 hair did grac●  
His hellish Corpse. Next furious fiery 〈◊〉  
Quick flames, and fiery darts sat bel●●●ng forth,  
His hands were armed with steel; a Dragon's 〈◊〉  
A cross his shoulders with live Snakes was tied:  
A Lions foce he had. Next goatish Lust  
Sat in a Throne all overspread with dust,  
A stinking smell hehad, the skins of Goats  
Were tied about him in the stead of Co●ts:  
The down of Sparrows want of hair supplied  
Upon his scalp; his eyes on every side  
Still rolled about. Tun-bellyed Drunkenness  
Sat next; his ugly shape a Tongue express  
Cannot: nor's horrid brother Gluttony,  
With thousands more, whom the man's 〈◊〉 descry  
Did in their Pomp: Amazed almost to see  
So many Princes, 'bout Hel's Majesty  
He nearer drew; when the great Prince of Hell  
Shaking his dreary locks these words did yell  
Forth from his pitchy mouth; black smoke, and flame  
From's cursed throat with's words together came.  
Welcome my Son unto these glowing parts,  
I have considered thy great deserts,  
For which I did permit that thou mightst see,  
My Kingdom's Glory, and my Majesty.  
Here is a Throne, and here a Crown lies by  
For thee, when it shall be thy destiny  
To leave the prison of thy Soul: I do  
In the mean ti●●●ny power confirm on you;  
Thou shalt my great Magician be, and show  
Strange uncoth Wonders in the Orb below.  
Have— Let this blast imbue thy fetid Soul,  
Accept may power, and let none control  
Thy might, and force. Go to the Tree of Death▪  
Eat of the fruit, and so confirm my Breath:  
Choose what thou pleasest, there is choice, nay all  
If thou canst use them in the earthly Ball,  
For our great Glory. Our great Mysteries  
When thou hast earen, thou wilt better prise:  
When thou shalt be confirmed: Love the● shall fly,  
None in thy Heart shall ever reign but ●.  
This said, he nodded to the Prince that brought  
Him thither, who conceived his Prince's thought:  
Doing obeisance both withdrew: and straight  
Towards the Tree of Death they ambulate.  
A narrow Vale they enter, where, nor Tree  
Nor spire of grass, or any herb he see  
Co●ld: on each side huge cloudy Rocks mount up.  
Which hanging over almost kiss a top.  
A thick, dark shadow, on the ground they cast;  
From hollow crannies comes a ●aetid blast,  
Which amongst the windings frames a murmuring voice,  
And getting out 〈◊〉 horrid hissing noise  
Doth make: Thorough the midst a pitchy stream  
(The which from Styx and other Rivers came)  
Runs; this they follow till they saw it shoot  
Its sooty waters, at the very Root  
Of the mortiferous Tree; in there it fell  
Conveying thither all the dregs of Hell.  
By which that Tree is nourished: He now  
Lifts up his eyes, and that strange Tree doth view.  
The trunk more hard than solid steel, for mo●●e,  
With filthy spawn of Toads enclosed was,  
Poison of Asps instead of shining gu●,  
Thorough the bark from every limb did come.  
Thrice fifty Cubi●● scarce could close about  
Its mighty bowl: one every limb stretched out  
Hung crawling Vipers, sucking with delight  
The juice of Henbane, and of Aconite  
From off the leaves, which gave a filthy stink,  
And were more black than Pitch, or blackest ink.  
An horrid blast arising from the ground.  
Concusse the leaves, which make a dryery sound  
In their forced Kissing: Bitterer than soo●  
Mixed with Gall, and Wormwooded juice, the fruit  
Was, which thick sparsed here, and there did grow,  
In sundry colour's on each sable bow.  
A while he views this Tree: Hel's horrid Fiend  
From's smoky throat at last these wo●ds doth send.   

Seest thou this stately Tree, those Fruits I wis  
Are our Ambrosi●; and our Nectar is  
That humid ●●yce you see; no other 〈◊〉  
But what grows here our Prince esteemeth good.  
No Winter with its nipping frosts bereaves  
This lurid Tree of these his fable leaves:  
Nor leaves, nor blossoms adds the spring unto't:  
Nor yellow Autumn robs it o● its Fruit,  
It thus continues as it is, and though  
We daily feed thereon it doth not grow  
Barren of ●ruit, for though we cull apace  
Others supply straightway their vacant place,  
And should we off the Fruit we see now pull  
Next moment renders it again as full.  
We need not fear but h●re is choice enough  
For every Prince hath here his several bough.  
Yon fair spread arm whose fruit so rarely died,  
Speced like the Peacock's tail, yields food for Pride.  
Yond Snake-betwisted bow, To●d-specled fruit  
Doth best the slavering Chaps of Envy suit.  
Yon sire-coloured ●ome loves mighty 〈◊〉  
Lust thinks that je●●y Apple better worth.  
Yon mighty Limb which berreth Apples thrice  
As big as all the 〈◊〉, Loves Auspice;  
Yon juicy Fruit which liquor doth express  
Thorough the skin loves beastly Drunkenness.  
And those two thick fruit-pressed limbs close by,  
Belongs to wantonness, and gluttony.  
On that feeds sloth, and that arm which you there  
Behold doth serve the Table of despair.  
Yon strange-shaped Fruit, which on that bow you ●ee,  
Is sucked upon by foul-mouthed Perjury:  
It's endless to name all: Rare Fruit beside  
All these, we have upon the other side.   

Step hither, look! here●s gallant Fruit indeed;  
Here 'tis, and if you please, that you shall feed;  
These are the Fruits will open your dimmer eyes,  
Will make you subtle, and exceeding wise.  
These▪ these will show the virtue of this Tree;  
And I will tell you what those Apples be.  
Seest that fair onewith Crimson-circle●de●kt,  
And here and there with Characters ●espe●'t?  
Shouldst thou eat that as good a 
* The Devil is able to impart all Arts and Sciences by infusion into t●ose wh● a●● in a strict u●●on with him: ●e hath a power permitted him to do very great wonders: so; 'tis said, that there shall be signs and wonders wrought by him, even bringing down of 〈◊〉 from Heaven, with other strange signs, and miracles, before the second Principle of● Love shall come to act his: for, though many have arrived at a great height in wickedness, yet they have not come 〈◊〉 that union 〈◊〉 the Devil here described, which may be, attained, nay, shall be by some, and for which the Devil earnestly longs, that be might ●e exa●●ing his mighty power in the earth, that he might de●ude the people with the strangeness, and greatness of his Arts, which must be overcome by those of the second Principle.  linguist straight  
Should be, as he that se●en years had ●●t  
Poring on books, enduring cold, and pain  
A Language, or some Rhetoric to gain:  
The juice of this fine fruit did Herod lick,  
When he a God was styled for's Rhetoric.  
And that round apple, which hangs dangling there,  
Will make you be a cunning Sophister.  
You apple which is so variegate,  
Will make you cunning in mechanics straight.  
This Apple here which hangs so fair to view,  
With Mathematic cunning will imbue;  
See what Cylindres, and Rhamboides  
What Quadrats, D●ag●amms, Isoce'les  
With other lines, and ●gures printed in  
Black, red, and yellow streaks upon the skin;  
These show its Nature. But yond with a Star  
So fairly marked, makes an ginger:  
Shouldst thou eat this which hangeth over us  
More cunning than was Aeculapius  
Thou'dst be; and skilful too in Chirons art  
If that, which hangeth on that bow a th'wart.  
But yond fair fruit which takes up so much room,  
Will make you know before what is to come:  
Of this did Baalam often f●ed, when he  
Did by our divination Pr●phe●●e?  
In former time this Apple was in use  
Much, when Delphean Priests did suck the juice:  
And on the next they fed, when they in verse  
Their Oracles ●id usually rehearse.  
But you five Apples which I show you now,  
And which do triumph on the upper bough,  
Shall be thy food: See here I'll reach them down,  
Make much of them, for now they are thine own,  
Well may'st thou prise them, Heaven nor Earth such fruit  
Can give, which may so well thy nature suit.  
These with thee take, and feed upon below:  
But first to thee I will their virtues show.  
This purple coloured one more cold than Ice,  
Or Riphae an snow, extinguish in a trice  
Will that Scintilla Love hath placed in thee:  
Then shalt thou wholly from his chains be free.  
Floods of temptations, nor whole streams of sin,  
Nor pleasures, which the World may draw you in,  
Are strong enough to doubt that little spark,  
Which closely gloweth in thy hollow ark.  
Well may they cloak it that it may not flame,  
But 'tis this fruit that must put out the same.  
This next although more black than pitch it be,  
Will firmly glue together Hell, and thee:  
A thousand chains shall sooner break, than this  
Resolve thee, of so strong a nature ' 'tis.  
With all Hel's Peers, and our great Prince you will  
By it hold highest Correspondence still.  
By this third, snaky-coloured one, below  
Thou shalt most strange-amazing Wonders do.  
Th' Eternal flames which wend above the sky,  
Unto the Earth thou may'st call by and by:  
The Hyperborean sconce thou mayst command,  
To aestuate the Sea to Mountains; and  
Mayst at thy bidding Taurus rend in twain:  
Or Atlas fling into the Western main.  
This reddish one bespotted thus with jet,  
The locked gates of thy senses open will set;  
Your quicker eyes although on Earth you stand  
Shall pierce the Centre of our darker Land:  
Then shall you see us when you please, and know  
How that your Prince, and we your Brothers do:  
Our shriller voices shall assault your ear:  
Your nose shall smell the sulphur of our Sphere:  
And our hot breaths, feel blowing in your face;  
Our Kingdom's dainties taste in every place,  
Banquet and deeply drink with us: so you  
May be on Earth, and in our Kingdom too.  
By this last teter one, all evil Spirits  
That b'longs to Hell, to please you with delights  
You when you please may call, nay if you will  
Ten thousand Legions shall attend you still.  
All that belongs tothth' Necromancy Art,  
And Conjuration 'twill to you impart;  
That at your beck from hence you may adjure.  
The blackest Fiend to be your servitor.  
jannes' and jambres, Simon and Faustus eat  
(Tho not to fill them) of this precious meat.  
See now what power thou'rt endued with,  
By these rare fruits plucked from the Tree of Death:  
The gold of Ined, nor Peru, not the Seas  
Rich Treasure purchase may such Fruits as these,  
The fabulized Hesperian fruit of old,  
Were dirt to these, although they were of Gold.  
Come now thou great Magician thou shalt go  
Unto the Body, which remains below;  
Our Pomp, and Power, thou hast seen, and I  
To you our Kingdom's nature did descry:  
You need no conduct hither now, for when  
You please, you my come visit us again.  
This said: he straight his body reassumes,  
And thus Hel's great Magician becomes.   

My Muse returned from the darker Sphere,  
Her garments rank of Sulphur smell I fear,  
Which may offend: with those strange sights, which late  
She saw affrighted, now sheled titubate  
Should she proceed: Like one which newly come  
From long restraint in some dark Dungeon  
Cannot endure the splendid Light, nor dares  
Sol's beams behold, so with my Muse it fares,  
Who newly flown out of the house of Night  
Dares not as yet describe the Orb of Light,  
Till that in jordan, she hath bathed her eyes.  
And Virgin Limbs, that she may brighter rise,  
New modulizing of his Harp again,  
To sing Heaven's Blisses in a higher strain.    
The end of the first Part.    

THE EXPLANATION OF AN Hieroglyphical Figure, SHOWING TH● MYSTERIES OF THE External, Internal, & Eternal WORLDS.  

The second Part.  

LOng mayst thou Phoebus pull my tender 〈◊〉,  
E'er I will my exalted notes for ●ear:  
My Muse belongs not to thy mitered Hill,  
Nor to thy teachings dos she owe her skill:  
She from the double-toped 〈…〉,  
Unto the flow'r-spread Hills of Paradise,  
And there inspired by the Angel's notes,  
Herself, and Music to their King devotes,  
Who with the verdant Wreath of Love, not Bays,  
Crowns the choice accents of her tender lays.   

Great Prince of LOVE! deign but to touch my tongu●  
With some small coal from off thy Altar flung:  
Inspire my Soul; ah let my words bespeak  
Thy Glory! through them Hearts▪ asunder break  
Gla●'d o'er with steel: Here highest Compliment  
'Tis to become thy happy instrument.  
O so entrance me that in Raptures, I  
May sing the glory of thy Majesty.   

The misty horrors of Eternal Night  
I'ave shown; the far surpassing joys of Light  
Let's visit now; a sight of much more worth.  
May then my teeming Muse with ease bring forth  
An happy issue! May my Numbers show  
The way to Heaven from this Earth below!  
How deare's Man's Soul unto the Prince of Light!  
Who all doth to his blessed Home invite,  
Where all the pleasures, and blessed joys of heaven,  
To crowned Saints by his own hand are given.  
Who would not Heaven acquire, if't only were  
T' avoid the terrors of the darker Spheat?  
Where howling Devils spitting fire, and flame,  
In Wrath, and fury against bright Hea●'n blaspheme;  
Where nought but Sulphur, Fire, and brimstone hurled  
About, gives light unto that impious World:  
Where pains Eternal in dark cares below,  
With ugly Devils thou must undergo.  
But what allurements hath blest Heaven to give  
To Souls that Chastely, and divinely Live!  
What Joys! what pleasures! what true happiness  
Do those blessed Souls in Paradise possess!  
One single grain whereof more value holds  
Than all the pleasures that this World enfolds:  
Ah! these are mixed with sorrows, those have none,  
Those are Aeternal, these are quickly gone.  
When that Earth's vainer Pleasures I behold,  
To heavens they seem like dung, to mounts of Gold:  
Or like a pebble to rich Diadems  
Beset with Diamonds, and more costly gem●●.  
Ah let me woe you from this Sphere to move  
Unto that glorious Orb of Light, and Love:  
What tho, the way be thither somewhat straight?  
The end ten thousand times will Compensate  
All Labour: 'Tis unwilling minds alone  
Find so much trouble, others they find none.  
Thine Eyes turn to the Hieroglyphic, see  
On the right hand the Orb, of Majesty,  
Of Light, of Love: this Paradise is called  
Which is with flaming Sword's of Cherubs walled:  
Which none can enter but those flames must pass,  
Which cleanse the soul: This manifested was  
Once in the Earth; and here another Day  
Its Royal Beauties shall again display.  
It has a being, and the Heavenly wise  
Upon his Earth, yet fire in Paradise;  
Where they like Angels (though in flesh they move)  
Enjoy the pleasures of Eternal Love.  
Here is the second Principle; here is  
The Orb of Light, of Love, of Heavenly bliss:  
Here is the Sun to New jerusalem,  
Which is the Light of it, the brighter gemm  
Whereof it is composed; this is the Day  
Which through the Eternal Mansions display  
Doth its Celestial Light: heavens 
* Christ's Humanity.  King he is  
As are the Saints, and Angels clothed with 
* The second Principle, which is the Life and light of Paradise,  this:  
Longest thou to dwell in this Celestial place?  
The way I'll show (helped by the Spirit of Grace)  
Which if thou follow'st certainly arrive  
Thou wilt, where Christ as King doth Reign, and Live.  
That we may show more plain unt● your eyes  
This milky way that leads to Paradise,  
We will suppose (as in the darker Sphere  
We did, so now we will exhibit here  
One as) a Pattern, by whose footsteps y●  
May view the way unto Alternity.  
An Angel's task it is; an Angel shall  
Conduct him therefore to the highest 〈◊〉.  
And to that highest Pitch (though reached by few)  
That on this Earth may be attained to.  
One than who doth in Truth desire to leave  
This mortal World, and to th' immortal cleave,  
Desireth Heaven unfaignedly; but yet  
Knows not which way his seeking face to ●et.  
Like one who lost upon a wild Heath, ●ees  
A hundred ways, and yet among all these  
He knows not which to choose, nor whether they  
May bring him home, or cause him farther stray.  
Now this he treads, but by and by retreads  
The same again, when that he sees it ●eads  
Him false; now this he tries, now that, but when  
He sees them false retreads them back again.  
Thus labours still in vain, but his desire  
To home doth not, although his 〈◊〉 do tyre:  
Night now approaches, now no 〈◊〉 he spie●▪  
Quite lost he grieveth, 〈◊〉 down, and ●ries,  
So 't fares with him, he ●ain his Soul convey  
Would unto Heaven, but cannot find the way.  
Benighted he's with sins, and errors 〈◊〉,  
So that no way appeareth in his view  
To lead him home: all Sects he has tried; his e●e  
More blinded is by ●heir formality.  
Thus lost he is; yet will not he give over  
Seeking; desire 〈◊〉 itself discover:  
His heart, and 〈◊〉 still running 〈◊〉,  
His mind to Heaven he thus 〈…〉  
O glorious Prince of Light, in whom there is  
Aeternal Comfort, and 〈…〉  
By whom alone all World's consist; my cries  
Lord hear, accept my Heart's 〈…〉  
Hast thou not promis●● 〈…〉  
I truly seek thee Lord, although I'm blind.  
Out of the midst of horrid darkness, I  
To thee eternal Light itself do cry:  
Lord I desire it appr●ath the Throne of Grace,  
To view the brightness of thy glorious fac●.  
All ways 〈◊〉, but all ways me deceive,  
And short of what I do desire me leave:  
Dark clouds 〈…〉,  
Earth weight 〈◊〉 down, so that I cannot 〈◊〉.  
But in this black obscurity I grop●,  
Having still with me my Companion Hope.  
Lord from thy splendour send one 〈…〉  
Which from this 〈…〉  
Unto the Orb of Light. My 〈◊〉 hear!  
Send one to guide me to this happy Sphere:  
What ever thou requirest 〈◊〉 obey:  
I come, O Lord! did I but know the way.  
A Heavenly 〈◊〉 straight comes 〈…〉  
Joy in his eyes, Love in his looks 〈◊〉 seen:  
His sudden coming 〈◊〉 him; his ●ight  
Soon fear expels, and bring extreme delight.  
About his Head a 〈◊〉 Glory flies,  
Enough to dazzle more than 〈…〉  
His own fair Orbs like 〈…〉  
Under two fair 〈…〉  
Pierched doth in 〈…〉  
A thousand arrows into 〈◊〉 Hearts,  
Which tipped with sacred 〈…〉  
Of Love to Heaven, and Hate to Earth beget.  
His yellow locks like 〈…〉  
Upon his 〈…〉  
From whence each 〈…〉  
Than all the Odour that ●sapn●  
Upon his lovely Front the 〈…〉  
Who admoration in all 〈…〉  
The new-fallen Snow 〈…〉  
As his soft flesh; 〈…〉  
Compare with 〈…〉  
His whiter Hand 〈…〉  
Two downy Wings upon his 〈…〉  
And which more colours than the 〈…〉  
His Body was 〈…〉  
Which as he went the 〈…〉  
With hasty steps 〈…〉  
The Ruby 〈…〉  
Unlocked, from whence these sweet words issued.  
O man! Thy winged 〈◊〉 have sped  
Before the Throne of Grace: heavens Majesty  
Hath sent me to thee on his Embassy;  
heavens King hath made thee a free Denizen  
Of the Celestial jerusalem,  
Where all wear Crown. Therefore prepare to go,  
And I the way that thither leads will show.  
Narrow, and straight at first appear it will▪  
And flesh will such asperities take ill▪  
It will both tedious, and unpleasing seem  
To flesh, but yet a Will resolved will deem  
It nothing; for the way to Heaven is  
After some time both full of Joy, and Bliss.  
Such happiness deserves some pains: yet set  
Great price on what you do with danger yet.  
This Earth alone doth make the way seem hard.  
Therefore resolve this first to disregard,  
If thou resolved art come; procrastinate  
Not now thy Time, next day may be too late.  
The then resolved cries out: I'll not defer  
The Time I'm ready sacred Messenger!   

Under the Covert of his downy Wing  
He takes him up, and through the air doth fling,  
Unto a Valley which high Rocks surround,  
Here he discharges him upon the ground.  
A pleasant Tempe did it seem to be;  
Here grew the Olive, and the Cedar Tree,  
The shady Beach, under whose Canopy  
Banks cushened with the verdant grass did lie,  
Adorned with flowers, and sweeter herbs: he thought  
The first flight him to Paradise had brought.  
But thus the Angel cries: You now are in  
The natural condition of sin:  
This place the World doth represent, and these  
Fine things you see its Fonder vanities.  
From hence a way you must find out, which found,  
Proceed be sure, and do not lose your ground.  
Nor make a stay: I at your greatest need  
Unseen will help you; now I hence must speed.  
This said fanning the gentle air, his flight  
He takes, and quickly passeth out of sight  
The left alone, a while the place doth view,  
But by and by upon a Bank he threw  
Himself supinely; in the grass doth creep,  
And e'er he was aware falls fast asleep. 
Natural states of man is sin.   
Whilst thus he sleeps a troop of. Fa●●ies come,  
Which round him dance triumphingly, while some  
Anoint his eyes with Poppy-Juice? and other  
With Soperiferous fumes his nosethrills smother,  
And out of Bottles some pour down his throat  
Somniferous liquor, from black L●th● brought.  
Long mayst thou sleep! Long mayst thou sleep! they cry,  
And never wake out of this Lethargy.  
But now the Time is come that all these Charms  
Must be dissolved, raped out of Satan's arms  
His Soul must be. A mighty clap of Thunder  
As if the▪ heavens and Earth were rend asunder,  
He hears, affrighted up he heaves his head,  
And as if newly risen from the dead  
He looks about, rubbing his scarce-oped eyes,  
When in a flash of lightning from the skies  
An Angel with an angry Countenance  
Descends: his hasty steps he doth advance  
Unto this supine Soul: one hand a goad  
Held, in the other a sharp-scourging Rod.  
With a loud voice I CONSCIENCE am cries he 
Conviction.   
Who must awake thee from this Lethargy:  
The pointed Goad into his flesh he ●lirks,  
Whilst with the other hand he sound jerks  
His naked Breast. This sleepy Soul at first  
Scarce feels the stripes: he than doth farther thrust  
The pricking Acus of his torturing Goad,  
And with his Scourge lays on a heavier load,  
Till that the blood from's flesh begins to spin,  
And still the Angel cries awake from sin.  
Throughly awaked he now begins to feel  
The torturing anguish of the pricking Steel,  
He now cries out; 
Acts 2. 37.  What shall I do? Oh! I  
Can't bear this pain! and up he starts to fly:  
But round about a Mist as dark as Night  
Fills all the place, only a little Light  
About the Angel shines, by which he sees  
His sad condition, and his miseries.  
But up he starts and in the dark doth run  
Here up and down, but yet he cannot shun  
The Angel's strokes, who where some e'er he goes  
Renews his torments with reiterate blows.  
And now all's former sins take shapes, and do  
Where e'er he goes appear unto his view;  
Against his face they fly: Tormented, he  
Cries: LORD from this sad HELL deliver me.  
Whilst thus tormented up and down he flies,  
At length a little shining Light he spies  
On his right hand; to that he runs, and there  
He finds a passage from this Valley: where  
When he had entered, by that Light he saw  
His former sins tied on both sides the way  
In black, and ugly shapes; he loathes them now,  
And fain would shun their sight could he tell how.  
Amazed he stands: What did by bosom deign  
Cries he; such ugly shapes to entertain!  
Where were my eyes, that their deformity  
And blacker shapes I could no sooner see!  
O wretch that I did ever these commit!  
Hel's sharpest torments I deserve for it.  
O I am in the Wrath of God my eyes  
Pour forth your tears: How didst Apostarize  
My Soul? 
Horror of Conscience.  In this deplorable estate●  
Expect no Mercy but God's deepest Hate.  
Oh with what anger the severer Judge  
Beholds me now! I cannot go nor budge;  
Where shall I fly? O! which way shall I run?  
Or where can I God's sharper Justice shun?  
I won't go back: Nor can I further go,  
And in this place I am as loath to stay.  
Drove to these straits what shall I do? too weak  
Frail flesh, and blood, and frequent sins bespeak  
Me, to perform those things the Law requi●es.  
O sad condition! O tormenting fires  
Of Wrath! O which way? which way shall I turn?  
Hel's scorching flames within my bosom burn!  
He thus perplexed a little farther goes,  
When that a Silver torrent doth oppose  
His hasty steps. No other way there was  
If he'll proceed but through those streams to pass.  
Must I no farther go! (cries he) Constrain  
Me not O B●ook! for to return again,  
No rather here I'll die: (upon the brink  
Thereof the lets his feeble body sink)  
Here shall my brinish tears increase your tide,  
And shall as fast as your dull waters glide.  
My eyes shall be your springs: you need not fear  
A want of waters whilst that I am here.  
If cold your streams with frosty fetters chain,  
My warmer sighs them soon shall melt again.  
Eyes open your sluices! Cataracts of Tears  
Fall down: 
Repentance.  preserved you have these many years  
Your sullen waters, against this time of need  
For to bewail my sad estate. O speed  
Into this gentle River; furrows make  
Upon my cheeks, where you your Currents take.  
Ah! Sins 'tis ye that cause these Tears to flow,  
Ye only are the cause of all my wo.  
'Tis ye who brought me to this sad estate,  
I now repent me, though I fear too late.  
My blubbered eyes now turn from you, I will,  
I hate you all, and fly you. Eyes your fill  
Now take of Tears: increase this River so  
That's streams may bigger than his Channel grow.  
Whilst he for's former sins a Ransom pays  
In Pearly Tears, and'spanting Heart doth raise  
Within his Breast, a tempest with his sighs,  
A Man he in the gliding River 'spies  
When to the Wast the greedy waters had  
Devoured, his upper part was meanly clad  
With a rough jacket made of Camel's hair,  
Which with a leathern Zone, upon his bare,  
And tender skin was girt: By this he knew  
'Twas john the Baptist, the Brook jordan too.  
Whilst with his vest the sporting waters played,  
Two Crimson leaves disclosing, thus he said.  
Art thou a Pilgrim to the holy Land,  
In which the New jerusalem doth stand?  
This then's the Way, no other way there is,  
But through this River to Eternal Bliss:  
Here in these waters must thou oftentimes  
Thy Body lave from all thy former crimes:  
Here wash thy Soul, from all the stains of sin,  
If thou intendest heavens high Race to win:  
This Baptism by me thou first must prove  
E'er thou attainest that of Fire, and Love;  
This doth prepare thee for the other; this  
Will cool that Fire which now raging is  
Within thy Bosom, for thy former sin;  
Here thou'lt ●ind Peace, and Rest: Step quickly in.  
His lips scarce closed were when the penitent  
Leaped in, and gladly to the Baptist went,  
Who there immerged him in the Crystal Tide  
A many times, when on the other side  
(Which melting Crystal in round bullas fall  
From's hair, and garments) placing him, he all  
Alone there leaves him: But within his mind  
He far less trouble, and more ease doth find.  
As if disloaded from a heavy weight  
Of gives, and fetters which he bore of late  
He feels himself; and like a Porter now  
Discharged of what his back did underbow,  
Himself doth stretch for ease. But by, and by  
A winged Post down from the Sky doth fly, 
Pardon of sin.   
In's Hand a sealed Parchment: this he doth  
To him present; th' outside a while he view'th,  
But opening it these words he written finds.   

We whose right Hand at pleasure all things binds  
And loses both in Heaven, and Earth: Great King  
Of all the Worlds; who unto Hell can fling  
All Mortals, and thence raise again; We do  
For our Son's sake who fupplicates for you,  
Remit, and Pardon all those sins to thee,  
Thou hast committed against our Majesty,  
And ou● most dear Son: Granted from ABOVE,  
Sent by Belief; and sealed by gracious LOVE.   

Down on his knees he falls, his eyes directs  
To Heaven, and both his clasped Hands erects  
On high: Dear Saviour! (cries he out) O how  
My prostrate Soul doth to thy Mercy bow!  
Lord! what am I that thou shouldst supplicate  
For me, poor worm? and from my sad estate  
Into a Bliss not thought on ravish me?  
O jesus! Thy Love is immense I see.  
O how I feel the blessed Effects of thy  
Blessed Mediation! To thy wounds I fly;  
Those sacred wounds, from which a Crimson tide  
Of Sanctifying, healing Blood did glide,  
By which thou hast appeased the Wrath of God,  
From me averted his chastizing Rod;  
And gained this Pardon for my sins. Oh! how  
I o'er my soul do feel it gliding now!  
How sweet it is! my melting Soul now could  
Dissolve; and Die a thousand Deaths it would  
For thee my Saviour. That I ever sinned  
It me reputes, against so sure a Friend.  
Oh now I see how I resisted have  
Against those motions that desired to save  
Me from my sins: how sensible I am  
Of my defaults! and now how full of shame  
Am I! but thou hast pardoned all. On fire  
My heart is now; to die I long: Require  
Now what thou wilt, I ready am, and will  
What e'er it be, though ne'er so hard fulfil.  
Ah Monsters, sins, on you my eyes I wink:  
Oh! how I loathe you when I on you think;  
I now abhor you, and as monsters do,  
Lest ye devour my Soul, eat all of you.  
But Christ has pardoned what I did commit,  
Now Eyes pour forth your Tears of Joy for it;  
Break up new springs, and from your watery Celestina,  
Rivers, and Seas of joyful tears expel.  
These are not bitter like your other cries,  
If He prized them, he these will better prise.  
Those flowed from Grief, but these from Joy do flow,  
By 〈◊〉 returns of Love these greater grow.  
These not from sin, but from blessed joys do spring,  
Tho' signs of ●rief, yet gales of Comfort bring.  
When barren grow of lympid Tears my eyes,  
Their want O breast supply with gro●ns, and sighs,  
Caused y the drawing in of what I long  
For: P●a●ses ever sit upon my tongue.  
All my Soul's faculties to him still move,  
Who so immensly hath, and doth thee Love.  
Whilst thus he chants upon his bended knees  
The song of Praise: he at a distance sees  
T●o striving with an equal pace to gain  
The place where he was: Wings the one sustain,  
With which she cuts the gentle air, her feet  
Scarce touched the Earth: th'other with garments light  
As ay●: painted with Anchors, was adorned  
And's swiftly run, and both os if they scorned  
To be out-vy'd by Eurus swimming came  
Unto the place where he was; Crimson shame  
Perched on his che●ks, when he perceived they were  
Two Heavenly Nymphs, and that they both did share  
Their free embraces 'bout his neck. The Dames,  
Perceiving it, discovered their Na●es.  
We are two Sisters FAITH, and HOPE they cried,  
Who from th' Imperial Towrs are sent to guide,  
And to support thee in this way, shouldst thou  
Selfly adventure here without us two  
Thou 't quickly languish: Hope will thy desire  
Nurse up, and keep thee that thou mayst not tires.  
Faith will support thee, and by her thou taste  
Shalt Heaven's Joys, before thou them enjoyest.  
Under both arms they take him up, and so  
Fast linked together, in the way they go.  
Swift 〈◊〉 seems to loiter in the air,  
A new-shot dait, nor swifter wind compare  
May with their pace: He by those Nymphs so born  
That scarce his feet upon the Earth doth spurn.  
The ruder way they left behind▪ and now  
Enter a kind of Paradise they do:  
Continual verdure still adorns the place,  
Which called was they told him GOD'S FREEGRACE.  
The Sun a lively splendour there did show,  
Warming with gentle heat: sweet flowers did grow  
On both sides as they went; the grassy floor  
With a Smaragdine Carpet covered o'er  
Did court their eyes, and in its lively green  
The sparsed flowers like pretty stars were seen.  
All sorts o'th' best Autumnal Fruits did sue  
With their o're-loaded-bending arms unto  
His Hand to cull their proffered store: delight  
And plenty both unto the Feast invite.  
Since here he entered a new vigour seized  
Upon his Heart, he feels it strangely eased.  
New streams of gentle oil fall down upon  
His Soul, he longs now after union  
With Christ his Saviour; his still warbling tongue  
Sings Praise; and hallelujah is his Song.  
Now from those everlasting streams of Love  
Which on his Soul do flow: he thus doth move  
His lips, and tongve, creating in the air  
Such vocal sounds as these. What may compare  
O God with thy free Grace? The Sun the Light,  
Nor springs their streams, nor the aerial bright  
Aura's their cool refrigeras so free  
Do give, as thou this liberal Grace to me.  
Not my deserts, but thine own Love, doth cause  
These streams of Comforts, and these gales of Joys:  
These beams of Grace, of Grace so freely given,  
Purcha'st by LOVE, by Love sent down from Heaven.  
These may obedience to thy Laws require,  
Obedient to be is my desire:  
It is my meat, for 'tis Obedience can,  
Convey the Nectar of the Gods to Man.  
O how I'm rapt, my eyes perstringed before  
Did 
* Christ.  thee beyond the fleeting Clouds adore!  
At what a distance did I comprehend  
Thee sitting at thy Father's dexter-Hand,  
But now I see (those eyes too thou hast given)  
That thou hast da●ed from the highest Heaven  
For to descend, and my poor worthless heart  
〈◊〉 Glorious Temple to Convert.  
Now need I not to da●t my weaker eyes  
Against the hol●●● of the vaster Skies:  
Now need I not seek to the deeps below,  
Now need I not beyond the Mountains go  
To find thee out; it is enough if I  
Thee in my inward Temple seated ' spy.  
Ah there thou art; Thy Beams of Light, and Love.  
Thy streams of Glory do thy presence prove:  
Thy gales of Comfort, Peace, and Joy, show clear,  
That it is Thee, and I he alone dwells there.  
A Malefactor when condemned to die  
Having no other Hopes, immediately  
Before his execution a Reprieve  
Comes from the Judge: How joyfully receive  
The welcome news he doth; when he doth know  
His 〈◊〉 he to the judge his Son doth owe:  
Who not his pardon only gains, but feasts  
Him at a Banquet with his noble guests.  
How hearty then are his acknowledgements!  
How strongly to his Service his intents  
Are fixed▪ how he to every one doth praise  
His Mercy, and his Bounty; and always  
Obedient, and officious is glad  
If he occasions has to serve him, sad  
If he has none: but by degrees (these heats  
By Time, and Pleasures vanquished) he forgets  
The dangers past, and what he owes to him  
That saved his life; at least the sense of them  
Is not so fresh, nor his desire as  
Strong for to serve him as at first it was.  
So our Celestial Pilgrim for a while  
With th'apprehension of his Saviour's smile  
Ravished, chants forth his praises, and with Joy  
Pours forth his Soul, which feeleth no annoy:  
And whilst that lively apprehension lasts  
How over-sweet his f●eer Bounty tastes!  
In this delightful way our Pilgrim now  
On each side held by Faith, and Hope, doth go:  
With so much ease, and pleasure moves he, that  
He thinks that he to Paradise is got  
Already; little dreams the Rocks that he  
Must pass before he there instated be.  
All things for to enjoy he seems, and saith  
He union has with Christ; and that by Faith  
He Heaven possesses, that the work is done;  
Before that it in Truth is scarce begun.  
His present Joys, and sweeter frame of spirit,  
Makes him suppose he doth all things inherit,  
Thinks himself safe; and carried thus at ease  
Betwixt two Nymphs, the way doth greatly please,  
So that by little, and by little, he  
About his heart feels a stupidity,  
His eyes are heavy, and his senses dulled  
With ease, e'er he's aware to sleep he's lulled.  
And whilst he sleeps he dreams he travels on,  
With that swift pace with which he first begun.  
This drowsy nap not lasting long he ' wakes,  
Rubbing his eyes, his lither limbs he shakes,  
And looks about, his sees himself alone,  
And those two Nymphs which him supported gone:  
The place of pleasure's vanished too; and now  
Dark clouds, and sadness hang on every bough.  
New troubles now arise, a deadness he  
Sees all about, more in his Soul doth see.  
But not unmindful of his journey, still  
He would proceed; but when he forward will,  
Instead thereof he backward steps, or else  
Upon one side: he knows not what he ails,  
Nor how to help himself.   

Anon he 'spies  
A Troop of fluttering Imps, into his eyes  
Some fly, and others perch upon his tongue,  
Some pierce into his brains, while othoes clung  
Unto his Finger's end. This Troop they call  
The Troop of shadows merely notional.  
His eyes more dark with Notions see the Hull  
And nothing else: His busy brains now full  
Of these pert imps, do set his tongue on wheels,  
Which tiring, strait his fingers itch he feels  
For to be venting of these Notions, that  
His overbusy working brains begat.  
And now he talks of Christ; his blood, his death  
His Life, and his Ascension, and doth  
Wander into the heights, mysterious  
He others, and himself beguileth thus.  
Our Pilgrim having slipped into this path,  
And having lost the Sister's Hope, and Faith.  
Begins to wander, and to room about,  
When on a sudden from a Bower slipped out  
A comely Dame, who thus bespeaks him, Know  
My name's Misapprehension. Sir you go  
Along with me, and I'll bring you where  
A many of your fellow Pilgrims are.  
He taken with Her beauty, and her speech,  
Without delay his Hand to her doth reach,  
Straight they passed through the Bower of Deceit,  
Into a place where many sat, their 
* Their Affections.  feet  
By the World's Spirit chained to their chairs, which she  
Told him were called Seats of Security.  
Before his eyes each had a picture placed,  
That represented all their Voyage past,  
By whom stood False-Persuasion wit his cheat,  
That their Regeneration was complete,  
And that if they ne'er shirred from that place  
They'd done enough: They could not fall from Grace.  
Charmed by Persuasion he's about to seat  
Himself in those bird-limed Chairs; his feet  
They are about to shackle, when his fair  
Tutelar Angel beat the gentle air  
With his displayed Wings, his radiant brows  
His glorious presence to our Pilgrim shows.  
Betwixt a frown, and smile, his Wings he shook  
About his eyes, and thence all Notions struck:  
The Scene strait vanished, and the comely Dame  
Misapprehension, slunk away for shame.  
What Pageant's this? (cried he) how cam'st to stray  
Into this Fal●e, from heavens direct●r Way?  
Wouldst thou have been ensnared thus? Is this  
The New jerusalem? or Paradise?  
Di●st thou not taste Heavens' sweet Ambrosia,  
Whilst thou continuedst in its righter Way?  
How cam'st tho● thence? how didst thou lose that Path?  
Where are thy Virgin-guides true Hope, and Faith?  
Dost thou not see the cheat thou wert about  
To enter? art thou willing to go out  
From this deadness of Spirit? and proceed  
In that true Path where thou must die indeed?  
His Knees straight kissed the Earth; his words with sigh●  
Were intermixed, ●is tears ●an from his eyes:  
I' have erred indeed I must confess: but how  
I hither came I do not rightly know.  
I thought I had to Paradise attained;  
So great the pleasure was, the which I gained  
Whilst in that Path I did my voyage make,  
That 't lulled to steep; and whilst I slept, forsake  
Me Hop●, and Faith both did; sure whilst I slept  
Ou● of that Path, into this way I crept.  
How willing am I to retrieve the way  
I trod before, would Heaven its Light display  
To help me hence: To beg can I begin  
Who was so lately pardoned for my sin?  
O Heaven I beg would if I dare to do't,  
My crime, and my unworthiness strikes mute  
My faltering Tongue; yet if it be thy Will  
O Lord! from begging, shame my lips sha'ned still:  
Show me the way, and with thy Light direct  
My steps, and though a thousand Mounts obstruct  
My progress, I (if strengthened by thy Grace)  
Through all will press unto thy holy place.  
Though I am weak, yet I am willing, Lord!  
Thou canst, and if thou pleasest help afford.  
Prostrate upon the ground he falls, his cries  
With true contrition winged, mount the skies;  
heaven hears, and pity takes: Immediately  
From thence descending he doth GRACE. espy;  
With her a troop of heavenly Nymphs, whose Rays  
With their bright lustre his weak eyes amaze:  
Sol shows less glory, when he heaves his head  
Dressed with Roses from his Eastern bed,  
Than this great Queen: her eyes more beamings than  
He, when he mounteth the Meridian,  
〈◊〉 chiefest splendour gives; than Cynthia  
When at the full she makes a second Day  
More ●air she is: And she that troop of hers  
Surpassed as Cynthia all the lesser stars.  
Her garments far more white than Riphaean snow  
Hid a more candid skin, her lips did show  
Nothing but sweetness, and when e'er she spoke  
Ten thousand chains fell from her tongue, which take  
All Souls that hear her captive; never yet  
Our Pilgrim's eyes so sweet a sight had met.  
Those glorious beams which shone about her Face  
Perstringed his weaker eyes, and made him place  
Them at her feet; which she perceiving drew  
Over those dazzling beams a Veil, that view  
Her he the better might: Two Rosy leaves  
Expanding (by the which her breath receives  
More than a Roseal sweet perfume, as it  
Passes those Portals) she these words did fit  
Unto's attentive ears. No sooner move  
Can Man, Petitions to the Prince of Love,  
But they are granted; and sometimes are sealed  
Before his tardy tongue has them revealed.  
Nothing but Love, mercy, and pity he  
Is unto all, and can no other be.  
Part of himself I am, and ever stand  
Pressed for these Embassies at his right hand;  
To none will he at any time deny  
(If they sincerely ask) my Company:  
I Queen am of that place of such delight,  
Whose heavenly Beauty recreates the sight  
Of all that enter there, and now I come  
To let you see unto jerusalem  
The heavenly, the true Way: such guides I'll leave  
That if you'll follow none can you deceive  
With false illusions, nor draw aside,  
But be you sure to follow still your Guide.  
Although you able are to comprehend  
The whole World in a thought; yet if you bend  
Your whole Imagination to conceive  
The Glory of jerusalem; bereave  
The Earth, the Seas, the Skies of all, what e'er  
May glorious, or beautiful appear,  
And with them frame a glory, all shall seem  
Unto the glory of jerusalem  
But as a grain of dust, to mighty Gems,  
Or as a Candle to the Sun's bright beams.  
That I may give thee some small glimpse of that  
Most glorious House, I have a Picture brought  
With me of it; and that I may invite  
Thee with its beauty to attained, a sight  
Thou shalt have of 't.   


* Vision.  APOCALYPSIS than  
She called, a Nymph that's much desired of Men.  
Her tresses hung like waves of gold upon  
Her shoulders; her transparent garments shone  
With far more lustrous beauty than a gemm  
Diaphanous; Earth's Beauties were in them  
With heavens intermixed: a curious Hand  
Had here the Sea, and there the stable Land,  
With Groves, and Rivers, Gardens, Founts, and Springs  
With all Earth's pleasures, and all living things  
Expressed: The Sun, the Moon, and Stars he might  
With all the Beauty of the heavens delight,  
Fully behold, wrought with Stones highly prized:  
The Heavens, and Earth were there Epitomised.  
So that she shone like the bright Evening Star,  
Or Phoebus mounted in his high-noon Carr.  
A Crystal Key with which the inward sight  
She did unlock, her left hand held; her right  
A scroul of Paper: This GRACE did unfold,  
That he might there jerusalem behold.  
His greedy eyes fixed on the Scroul did wait  
When her blessed hands would open the picture; null  
Ways the unfolding it, more dazzling beams  
Than could proceed o●t of a mass of g●mms  
Flew thence, and like the agile Lightning struck  
His eyes, perst●ng'd them, and his Body shook.  
Prostrate he fell not being able to  
Bear all those Beauties which together Flew  
From thence. This splendour is too great, he cries  
For to be looked upon by mortal eyes:  
heavens Eaglets only can behold this Sun  
And without striking blind their eyes, upon  
It gaze; How wilt perform thy word to me?  
Unless thou giv'st new eyes I cannot see.  
If that a shadow of its glory does  
Perstring thine eyes (says Grace) and 'maze thee thus,  
What will the full fruition of it do,  
When in its highest lustre it by you  
Shall be beheld? An Alabaster box  
Her snowy Hands with a cold Key unlocks,  
From whence she drew a sovereign eyesalve, made  
Of Purity; upon his eyes she laid  
The same, and bid him boldly view the Light,  
For that pure Salve from hurt would guard his sight.  
At her Command his baulmed eyes he now  
Erec'ts, and doth that glorious splendour view,  
Which doth proceed from the bright radiant gemm  
Of which is made the new jerusalem.  
A glorious City there he saw: the Pen  
Nor Heavenly Tongues of Angels, nor of Men  
Can it express; or half its Glory tell;  
Its beauties, other beauties all excel,  
More than the brightest gemm, dark glass, or far  
More than Gold dirt; or Sol the meanest star.  
Raped in a kind of ecstasy he moves  
In that bright splendour, round the City roves  
He with his eyes, taken with so much bliss  
His Soul out of his body wrapped is  
Himself among the Thorns he sees, and there  
Views, what his tongue to utter doth not dare.  
O glorious Beauty! (cries he out) one gra●●  
Of thee will more than recompense all pain,  
And trouble that we on the Eared endure,  
For to possess thee. O blessed Light immure  
My Soul for ever here, where reigns true Bliss,  
Where is true Joy, and where true pleasure is.  
Adieu vain Earth, and all thy foolish pleasure,  
Worse than Dung compared to this Treasure,  
And Joys I find. Ah what are Crowns to thee  
Lest particle of true Felicity!  
Lighter than chaff, of less esteem they are  
Than dung, if they with heavens bright Crowns compare.  
O how I'm rapt! O how I now esteem  
The glorious Vision of jerusalem!  
Grace smiling at his Rapture, warbled forth  
These words. This sight of such esteem, and worth  
Is, that to very few it granted is  
The favour to behold this sight of Bliss.  
Amongst those very few thou seest thou art,  
For ever then record it on thine heart,  
And let this Beauteous sight attract thee 〈◊〉  
That thou astray mayst not hereafter go.  
Nor think that thou already art in Bliss,  
This but a sight (and at a distance is)  
Of future happiness, which gain you may  
If you persever in the stricter way.  
But if backslide, and in your sins remain,  
This Heavenly City you shall ne'er attain.  
How vain the choicest of Earth's pleasures are▪  
If with the least of these, you them compare!  
Let this consideration beget  
A fire of constant sacred Love to it,  
So that thou mayst with greater ease press on,  
Till thou the harder way hast overcome:  
For if thou dost heavens Beauties contemplate,  
Earth's, in comparison to them thou'lt hate.  
Whilst to this sight thine Eyes are married,  
The way thou seest not that doth thither lead,  
It's glorious Beams o'te-shadow it, but I  
By vailing them exhibit to thine eye  
The way that leads unto this City will  
A thick mist straight doth her command fulfil,  
Which like a Veil hid those illustrious Beams,  
And now the way portrayed he sees: it seems  
To lie here over Rocks, through Valleys there:  
Here dark black Caves, there Seas of Blood appear;  
Here precipices thick, here thorns, here steep  
And stony places, there strong Watchmen keep  
The passages: a thousand dangers show  
Themselves along the way that he must go,  
If he to Salem will attain: His eye  
About he cast, no other way espy  
He could, so that necessity compels  
He that ways must, when there is no way else.  
Nor Rocks, not precipices, nor (cries he)  
Sanguineous Seas, now shall discourage me,  
Since I have seen those Beauties, which do Court  
My Soul; for which all dangers seem a sport  
Will: for 'tis fitting that Eternity  
With fleshe's hazard should attained be.  
Come I'm resolved, and ready am to tread  
This narrow Path which doth to Zion lead:  
I'll leave this World, and for my future good  
Fly over Rocks, swim thorough Seas of blood.  
This said, APOCALYPSIS than withdrew,  
And GRACE. her hand did to the Pilgrim show,  
A hearty Kiss on which he strait inferred:  
Unto the path from which he lately erred  
She him conducted, where stood HOPE, and FAITH,  
Who ran to him assoon as in the Path  
He came: To whom themselves the excused thus;  
For your deviating prey blame not us:  
'Twas your own fault; for whilst we with you kept  
We know not how into a sleep you slipped;  
So heavy than you were we thought you dead,  
And hating dead men's company, we fled:  
For always we do use to be so bold,  
To fly from Pilgrims if they lose their hold.  
Our tender wing cannot bear from Earth, Men that  
Fall fast asleep, or are inanimate.  
GRACE. from her Chore a trine of Virgins chose,  
Whom duty on their knees before her throws  
And fixing their bright eyes upon her face,  
The expect with Joy the Precepts of her Grace.  
Straight ways she with a beck commandeth them,  
To guide the Pilgrim to JERUSALEM:  
And constantly to 'bide with him, until  
He had attained sacred Sio●'s Hill:  
Her feet, and th' Earth thrice kissed they bow, and rise,  
Themselves presenting 'fore the Pilgrim's eyes:  
The first was 
* Truth.  Alethia, whose fair face,  
And all her body, shone like Crystal Glass:  
Diaphanous her garments were, upon  
Her shoulders hung a mantle like the Sun,  
Fringed with Gold, before with Azure tied,  
And two great Saphires upon either side;  
Which by reflection darted all about  
Such Beams that almost had the Sun put out.  
The next was trusty 
* Watchfulness.  Vigilantia  
In whose bright Orbs was seen a constant Day:  
Sprightly she was: her watchful eyes she cast  
About, lest danger might unseen be placed  
In any corner. In a vestment clad  
She was, in which more eyes than Argos had  
Were wrought: here white, black, grey, green, purple, sky●  
Coloured Siric composed a lively eye:  
Carnation, white, and yellow here, and there  
With artificial turnings framed an ear.  
A Pearly Coacha in her hand she held,  
Whose blast soft slumbers from her eyes expelled,  
Humility came last; where in the books  
Of her dejected, yet well-pleased looks,  
In blushing Characters might modesty  
Be plainly read: Wool clothed Humility:  
A stoll of Freeze she had, under her Paps  
A Leathern girdle did her garments clapse.  
A sacred Cross with both her hands she held,  
Fast to her breast; on which her lips still dwel'd:  
And though her face with lowliness was dressed,  
Her eyes an humble loveliness expressed:  
No shining Rays indeed adorned her head,  
But her bright eyes as great a lustre spread.  
After our Pilgrim had all three embraced,  
GRACE them about him, in this order placed.  
Before went Alethia, whose bright Ray  
Exhibited unto his eyes the Way.  
To his right hand Humility combined  
Was: Vigilantia to his left: behind  
Went Faith, and Hope, who always ready were  
At need on both sides, or afore t' appear,  
Proceed (said GRACE.) in greatest dangers still,  
And when you need have, I assist you will.  
O●r Pilgrim thus accompanied, with Joy  
Enters a narrow, and obstructive Way,  
At every step some rugged stone doth greet  
With har●h Salutes, his bare and tender feet:  
The more he hasts the more he titubates,  
The farther he proceeds the greater straits.  
But generous Humility befriends  
Him, with a Staff, to him her Cross she lends:  
On this he leans; goes now with more delight,  
For when he stumbles, it keeps him upright.  
Without the Cross it folly is to tread,  
The path which to immortal Crowns doth lead,  
Great opposition all the way he goes  
Both from his outward, and his inward foes  
He finds: but doth maugre their forces come  
Unto the Gate of Circumcision.  
A narrow Gate it was, on both sides were  
Hooks, Sickles, Sythes, and Lances that would tear  
The fleshly hide of all that entered by't:  
Over the portal this appeared in sight.  
O SOUL LET NOT THESE WEAPONS THEE AFFRIGHT,  
FLESH ONLY SUFFER MUST WHICH THEE RESTRAINS.  
THESE WILL BUT BREAK THY PRISON, GIVE THEE LIGHT,  
AND CUT IN TWO THY ADAMANTINE CHAINS:  
NO OTHER WAY THERE IS BUT THIS, AND THOU  
OR NOT AT ALL, OR NAKED MUST GO TH'ROUGH.  
What won't a desperate Rabble do, when: they  
See Death its Banners 'fore their eyes display?  
Extremity will make the Cowards fight,  
And of ● surpass the force of greater might.  
So now the Fl●sh, the 〈◊〉 and Devil view  
Their utter ruin if he enters through  
This Circumcising Gate. Nile's Catatracts  
Ne'er from the Mountains fell with greater cracks,  
And violence, than they upon him ●ush,  
Whose strong encounter did him almost brush  
Unto the Earth: But holding fast the Cross,  
He got upright, and had but little loss.  
They altogether him assault again,  
Over, and over: But (as in the main  
A sturdy Rock beats back the b●llows, and  
Immovable spite of their rage doth stand)  
Undauntedly our Pilgrim holding fast  
Unto the Cross: Them to the Earth doth cast.  
But subtle Satan skilled in Wars, well knew  
That stratagems more than plain force could do:  
He saw it was a Folly to assault  
Resolved Man, unless his will revolt.  
Therefore to bribe her Earth her Riches brought,  
And sent them to her by disguised Thought.  
A pack of Pleasures at her feet she flung,  
Another full of Honours: and a long  
Sack full of Riches: gallant Ornaments,  
Butts full of wine, and choicest meats, presents  
More costly promised to the Senses, and  
The Passi●●ns would they deal but underhand  
To stop the Pilgrim's voyage: If he do  
Pass through that Gate, ye all shall perish too  
She cried. At last she doth persuade the Will,  
The Senses, and the Passions to rebel.  
intestine foes are fa● more dangerous,  
Though but a few: than far more numerous  
Who openly their Banners do display:  
Forth ' others e'er we are aware betray  
Us to our Deaths. False will persuades him now  
For to consult before he passes through  
The Gate in sight: And as a Friend doth call  
Thought to the Council, who strait rips up all  
The fancied dangers he must pass, if he  
Pass through that Gate where was Austerity;  
And where he must Earth's Pleasures quite forsake,  
And over Rocks, and Seas a voyage take,  
Which few besides himself went in; when that  
At is Body's dissolution a Cut  
Far shorter he might make: The Senses then  
To rus●le in their discontent began,  
Accusing him that they who were his Friends  
He did intend to bring to cruel ends.  
The Passions than flow high, and Anger strait  
Told him he did intend to innovate  
Strange Laws amongst them; and their Liberty  
Should utterly be lost, and if that he  
Proceeded in that Way: and Flesh who was  
Their Friend was threatened most if he did pass.  
The Pilgrim thus befet, pale Fear, and Doubt  
With open wings came fluttering about  
His Ears: and now he staggers: TRUTH ●e sees  
Waits for him at the Gate. Down on his knees  
He falls, and cries for help: These chains Lord break  
The Spirit's willing though the Flesh be weak.  
A tender Infant's City ne'er Mother called  
With more maternal speed (that what it ailed  
She might know; doubting each Stone in the Way  
It's ●ender legs might to a fall betray)  
Then GRACE. new summoned by the Pilgrims Cry,  
Hasted down from her Throne of Majesty.  
Her Beauty made his adversaries start,  
The Will shrunk back and shwed a fainter heart.  
GRACE. though she could have with one single dart  
The stubborn Will pierced through her Steely heart.  
Laid by her threatening Weapons, and did show  
The suavity she ever used to do:  
And smiling, thus unto the Will she spoke,  
What is the reason that you would forsake  
The Pilgrim to his Bliss? Shall pleasures? sense?  
And Passions strong conspiracy from thence  
Detain you? 'tis the World and Satan that  
Hat● circumvented you into this Plot.  
All what they promise's are mere shadows, know  
That all things ●e so that are here below.  
Why fear this Gate? This will indeed conduct  
You to a higher Sphere; your Way obstruct  
Back to the Dunghill Earth: what then? if here  
You pleasures find, much more in that bright Sphere  
You shall unto Eternity enjoy;  
And there where is an everlasting Day  
You shall reside, enthroned in 〈◊〉 shall be  
One with that Will which first created thee.  
Shall Earth to Heaven be preferred? below  
How full of ugliness do all things show  
To eyes which heavens Beauties see; dung ne'er  
Did unto Jewels half so vile appear.  
Wilt thou not then forsake this world, and pass  
Thorough this Gate unto this blessed place?  
Let my entreaties of Love prevail so far,  
When for your happiness they spoken are:  
Be not a Captive to the world, but be  
One unto Heaven, and that is to be free.  
A thousand Rays fled from her eyes, as fast  
As from her mouth flew Word, with which they passed  
Into her Heart, wherewith such melting Love  
Like soft oil mixed with W●ne about they move:  
Down falls the will, and by her looks doth show  
That now she's willing through the Gate to go.  
The Will thus gained the Pilgrim values not  
The Senses, not the Passio●s, weaker plot:  
By her he ' d tame them whensoever they  
Shall dare t' appear for to obstruct his Way.  
Now Faith, and Hope anew their plumes do ●ear,  
And from him with their Wings brush Doubt and Fear.  
No longer now the World, nor Satan can  
Withhold him: their entreats, and Threats in vain  
Are? now he is resolved, and though they fling  
Themselves upon his neck, and 'bout him cling,  
He passes on, and through the Gate doth press.  
Those Hooks, and Sythes his heavy load redress:  
One pulls off Satan by the heels: The Spirit  
Of the Great World another ●ook doth light.  
All grosser sins, and vainer pleasures, by  
A Sith cut off, jumbled together lie  
Upon the ground: a I an●e the fl●sh rips up:  
And naughty thoughts cu● from the head do drop  
Unto the Earth: Flesh feels the worse smart  
Which pierced is unto the very Heart.  
Past through he views himself, extuberancies  
Which obvious were are all cut off he sees,  
But smaller wenns stack closer to his skin,  
And other hidden Griefs lay close within,  
Which hooks, nor Sythes had yet cut off, but these,  
A ha●der task, pared must be by degrees.  
For now he knows Mortality he must  
Lose ere he sees jerusalem the blessed.  
No sooner passed this narrow Gate, but they  
Enter an asper, and a narrow W●y;  
At first nor Trees, nor grass he found, nor did  
See any place for to repose his Head;  
Both sides with Rocks were walled, Asperity  
The one side paved, the other Poverty  
The way of SELF-DENIAL this they called,  
The Walk of Trial, where Obedience dwelled.  
The Stygian Proteus, varies shapes, more than  
The cloudy Pictures in the Sky; a Man  
There you may see, and by and by the same  
A Lion, Horse, and then a Bear become.  
So he who at the Circumcising Gate●  
In shape of Grosser sins pulled off of late,  
More Spiritualised becomes, like Anicus grows  
Moore strong by's falls; whilst to the Earth one throws  
Him in one shape, he rises up anon  
Clothed in another and as strong again.  
Like P● lives therefore with him we must Cope,  
With chains of Perseverance bind him up.  
Or else like Hercules this Anteus Crowd  
To Death, betwixt the Arms of Fortitude.  
We must not think but he will tempt us still,  
Until we come unto that sacred Hill  
Where we may say: Satan avoid, and know  
A Deity commandeth thee to bow.  
Then otherwise he shall not dare to do,  
Us then shall Angels minister unto.  
Long in this path our Pilgrim had not gone,  
But on a sudden he is set upon  
By a great satire; 
Lust●  on his back he wore  
The bristly Jacket of a new-slain Boar.  
His sleeves were hispid Goatskins; and upon  
His Crest a great bunch of Satyrion,  
Orchis, and Southernwood instead of plumes  
Waved: All his garments stunk of strong perfumes:  
The juice of Ash his Face besmeared, his hair  
With Nutmegs powdered was: his right hand bore  
A Shield in which was portrayed Pasipha▪  
Faustina, Messalina, Helena.  
I who have made the mightiest Monarches bow,  
Must I fight with so small a Pigmy now?  
I'll stop thy farther passage: cries he out:  
The first blow of this fair-faced Sword shall do't.  
Strait this salacious Monster from his side  
A Weapon drew, whose strength he oft had tried.  
At him he ran with it: But from the Sword  
His head the Pilgrim with the Cross to guard  
Did think, when strait the Sword conver●ted to  
A naked Nymph, who in that shameless hue  
Yet full of a fictitious Beauty, flung  
Her Ivory arms about his Neck, and clung  
Close to his Body, wrestling all the while  
To trip him up, yet in his face did smile.  
In the mean time the satire with his claws,  
Endeavoured to open his closed jaws,  
Having a poisonous Filtre in his hand  
The which he meant to make him swallow, and  
Fescinan Songs singing with Goatish breath  
The Pilgrim he almost stifled had to Death.  
Great danger was he in both Faith and Hope  
Strove till they weary were: The Will did Cope  
Being now resolved most strenuously, and now  
Her armed courage did to purpose show.  
But in his greatest danger, almost spent  
With this certation GRACE. assistance sent.  
A Nymph doth (one of her bright Train) appear  
Whom purple Wings of chastest Turtles bear  
From the polluting Earth. 
Chas●i●y.  More white than snows  
Her garments were, a Lillied Crown her brows  
Precinged; her neck a chain of Saphires, and  
No spots had ever her pure garments stained.  
In her sweet eyes Rare Modesty kept Court,  
Alternate blushes on her Cheeks did sport,  
Silence sat on her Tongue, and Beauty spread  
A lovely splendour, all about her Head.  
Of all the Nymphs the Pilgrim yet had seen,  
This in his eyes for Beauty seemed the Queen.  
Heart's could not choose but do her homage, not  
If Heaven Love, refrain from loving her?  
Day ne'er came forth out of the Eastern Gate  
With so bright face, or so immaculate.  
A Shield one hand did bear, where you might see  
joseph, Diana, and Penelope,  
Susa●na, and the Apostles Maid, who bore  
The World's Redeemer, and Him portrayed there.  
Green Lettuce sugared with Continence  
Upon a snow-white plate of Abstinence,  
Sharpened with Laborer; in her other hand  
She brought, and did close by the Pilgrim stand.  
As fair Aurora with the brush of Light  
Strikes down the Cobwebs of the sordid Night  
From off the face of Heaven every morn,  
The Light which did this Nymphs bright face adorn,  
Struck from the Pilgrim those black clouds of Lust,  
And to the Earth both Nymph, and satire thrust,  
Who getting up together slunk away  
From her, as Night steals from th' approaching Day.  
Then of the Salad to the Pilgrim she  
Gave, who enamoured was immediately  
Of her rare Beauty: strait his arms he throws  
About her neck, and till she had his brows  
Impaled, with her white Crown of Lilies, kept  
Her prisoner; which b'ing done the air she swept  
With Wings, that did a purity bestow  
Upon the ambient air where she did go.  
Scarce had he finished an hymn of praise  
Unto that potent King of Victories:  
But that an other opposite he saw  
Whose face seemed both the Heaven, 
Pride.  and Earth to awe.  
Upon a Steed he mounted was, whose hoofs  
Disdain the Earth, the air he proudly snuffs;  
And being reigned in, from's champing chaps  
Of milky suds a frothy River drops.  
The Rider far more proud, had on his head  
The Helm of Insolence, which was bespread  
With the fine train of the junonian Bird?  
The Belt of Arrogance his sides did gird,  
At which Ambition hung, the weapon that  
Had oft laid many mighty Princes flat.  
His looks spoke full disdain, scorn clothed his brows,  
And haughtiness his high-reared forehead shows.  
Big language dwelled upon his tongue, the Launce  
Of Power he in his right hand did advance.  
A Scarf of God besieged his arm; the East  
Had lent its Jewels to adorn his breast.  
He scorned to speak, but with his lofty eyes,  
From whence a flash of scornful Lightning flies,  
Which scared the Pilgrim, but affrighted he  
For safeguard runs behind Humility.  
She with the Cross as this proud Foe came on  
With blows reitterated beat him down:  
The Pilgrim then his glory, and his pomp,  
And's Lance of Power under his feet did stamp:  
And so bemauled him with his Cross, that he  
Feared no more this doughty Enemy.  
Cyclopian darts now rend the tumid Rocks, 
Wrath.   
A horrid roar against their entrails knocks;  
Where in the windings, with a new rebound  
It sends forth more than a Stentorian sound.  
The humble Valley quivers: Earth seems now  
To totter, and to be unstable too.  
Th' amazed Pilgrim fears, he thinks that Hell  
Could hardly have created such a Yell.  
The Sire of this he sees; a Polypheme  
Who did with Clouds of smoke the Heaven's dim,  
A walking Tower from whose nostrils came  
A scalding Whirlwind; from his eyes a flame.  
His right hand bore a Pine; his left a Shield,  
Where flaming Aetna in a sable field  
Was portrayed; On his lofty crest he wore  
A scaly Dragon, on his breast he bore  
A Tun of Iron: the neighbouring Rocks he down  
Kicked, that he might to walk have elbow-room.  
He opes his mouth the Postern Gate of Hell  
And these words bellows with a rending Yell.  
Where goes this Dwarf? didst never hear of me?  
My name is wrath, my left hand Cruel●y;  
My right is Power, to which all Hell below  
Obeys: with which these Rocks like Balls I throw.  
And what art thou? poor Pigmy! if I list  
To atoms I can crush thee with my fist.  
Dost thou know what thou dost? we did this Way  
Prohibit Men: how dar'st thou disobey?  
Thou hast awakened me, and now my power  
Thy Soul, and thee together shall devour.  
'Tis time to make thee tremble, for if thus  
Thou dost proceed, thou'lt Triumph over us.  
A score of Canons which with Sulphur strut,  
When they their flaming entrails vomit out,  
Scarce make a sound like that the Cyclops made  
To periodize his speech, when this he had said.  
Now thinks the Pilgrim, I am dead; who may  
Defend me? or this Monster's wrath allay?  
He had no sooner thought, 
Meekness.  but from the Skies  
A Nymph descending to his succour hies.  
Smother than Crystal was her Skin, more fine  
And soft than children's: or the Ser●an twine  
With which she clothed was; Her badge a Lamb  
Was, and like such a candid one she came.  
Her eyes spoke Innocence, her lovely looks  
Of Comity, and Gentleness the books  
Were: in her hand she held a glass of oil  
Which like a Zeilan Ruby shun the while:  
The Glass was Mercy; the Oil our Saviour's blood:  
Approaching near, she by the Pilgrim stood.  
This Prophylactic Oil alone, Cries she  
Can keep you from this Giant's tyranny:  
'Tis he that did the Lamb of Life deprive,  
But from that Death spr●ng this preservative,  
Whereby you may spite of this furious one,  
Pass on, and shun him, and by this alone.  
The Pilgrim strait the Glass of M●rcy took  
And drunk the sacred oil, fear then forsaken  
And blessed joy, and Courage took the field  
Humility was his A●acian Shield;  
Meekness gave him her Veil, and now the Wrath  
And all his menace were little worth:  
For all his Thunders fly too high to hit  
Him, who doth under Meekness ' umbra sit.  
What ever wound the Cyclops gave, was by  
That blood he drank recured immediately.  
Thus he passed on whilst that the Wrath in vain  
The air beat, but could not the Conquest gain.  
A little farther a strange Hag he met  
Whose mouth spat clouds of smoke as black as jet, 
Enus.   
Her nose the chimney for her Hellish breath  
An Aetna seemed, her eyes, sunk in like Death  
Two glaring Ovens were; her shriv'led cheeks  
Sunk like two Valleys, and as black as Styx.  
Her tawny Breasts like falling Mountains hung.  
Two mighty Serpents 'bout her middle clung,  
Two in her hands she brought, and from her head  
A thousaud Aspe● her Back and shoulders spread:  
She did with scaly Wings of Dragons fly,  
The one Detraction, th'other jealousy.  
Hasty she came, and from her mouth flew fumes  
Like smoke which from a Brewer's Furnace comes.  
Ten Paces yet she lacked, when that a dart  
From an unseen hand struck through her hellish heart:  
Down fell this Tisiphone, her black fumes fled,  
and she in her own gore lay buried.  
The Pilgrim cast his eyes behind, to know  
From whose brave Hand she had received this blow:  
W●ere he beheld a Virgin, at whose Feet  
All other Graces had took up their seat, 
Charity.   
And she as Queen of all the rest up stood  
As a tall Ced●r 'mong the underwood.  
Both Hope, and Faith before her humbled were,  
And did not scorn part of her Train to bare,  
A Garland crowned her Brows, her Golden tress  
Tied up, through a laun Caul its Beams did press,  
Which Rays about her sacred Visage spread,  
So that always both Light, and Heat she had.  
Her garments loose about her were; a flame  
Of harmless 〈◊〉 seemed t' issue from the same,  
And of so bright, and gentle Nature, that  
To be burnt by't, it a desire begat.  
Her hand the Bow held, whereby she had slain  
The foul Hag Envy, and dissolved her train.  
A Quiver hung, by a 
* A scarf.  Mitella tied  
(Powdered with opals, and with azure died)  
Under her left arm, where her arrows lay  
Which nothing could excepting Envy slay,  
Or suc● like evil Beasts, she always would  
Freely all others ills repay with Good.  
Kind unto all, never provoked, and still  
Loves all, 
2 Cor. 13.  bears all things, and can think no ill.  
An Ensign then, where she herself displayed  
Sa●, she unto the Pilgrim gave, and said,  
Let this your Standard be, to friend, and foe  
This glorious Flag displayed ever show.  
For who wants this, let him have what he will,  
The best and chiefest thing he wanteth still.  
For this blessed Boon, when he his thanks had paid,  
A farther progress in the Way he made.  
Still stony 'twas, obstructing blocks still lay  
At every turn, so that the tedious Way  
Seems every step more troublesome to grow,  
And when the end shall be, he doth not know.  
But lest he tyre, Dame Patience 
Patience.  whom he met  
To bear him up her helping hand doth set,  
Stooping she went under the pressing weight  
Of Crosses which upon her shoulders sat.  
And yet she doth not murmur; if you will  
Lay more, she'll bear the same with Patience still.  
Her feet were galled with Travel, not an oh!  
Or wry-distorted lip escapes her tho,  
Perched on her arm a gnawing Vulture stood,  
Yet she but smiled to see her Crimson blood  
Run circling thence; her fair-spread forehead, where  
Nor rag● nor frowns did ever dare t' appear,  
Was Crowned with Rocket: in her eyes serene  
Skies, in her Face perpetual calms were seen.  
Three leaves she from her Crown plucks, baulmed with  
The sovereign Medicine of her constant breath,  
She to the Pilgrim gave't; this Antidote  
He takes, Impatience is straight forgot,  
And though the Way doth rugged still remain,  
He with a quiet Soul endures the Pain.  
And now unto this rugged way inur'd,  
It seems not difficult to be endured,  
Pleasure from labour grows; more Joy he has,  
And more it grows the farther he doth pass.  
Rocks seem but pebbles, Pebbles scruples show,  
These could at first; those cannot hinder now:  
For whatsoever opposes in his Way  
He it with th' humble Earth doth equal lay.  
What sharp at first seemed, now seems sweet, Joy grows  
The farther in this rugged way he goes:  
Which is so pleasing, and such Comfort brings,  
That thus its sweetness in this Hymn he sings.   


* The world.  Adonian Gardens I despise,,  
These rugged Rocks more please mine eyes,  

* The way of self-denial & mo●nification.  This ruder path which leadeth to  
Jerusalem, surpasses you.  

* The Cross.  These Thorns, and bushes have more power  
To comfort than your july-flower:  

* The pleasures of the world.  Your Pinks, and Roses bow their heads,  
Unto these rough, and stony beds.  
This walk of flints shan't come behind  
Your smooth-rowled ones of sifted sand.  
Poor Walks! you please the Sense; The Mind,  
And Soul of Man here pleasures find  
The Waters which from Rocks spring here,  
I to your Marble Founts pr●fer:  
And Nymphs I have, which more do please  
Than your Caerule Naiades.  
Fair Groves of Pines, fair Beaches spread  
Like Canopies to ward my head;  
Crystalline brooks, sweet Meadows, find  
Green Arbours of sweet Eglantine:  
Walks where the Roses sweetly smell,  
Couches of Musk, and Camomile;  
And what some'r you yield, I find  
In the content of mine own mind.  
My soul was pleased once with you,  
But I do find the difference now;  
You to my sense did pleasure yield,  
But here with joys my soul is filled.  
I by experience now must own  
This Cross is better than your Crown.  
O blessed Cross by thee a Crown I●gain!  
O blessed Way I here find Joys in pain!  
And now this narrow Path, this Rocky Way  
Is entertained with delight, and Joy,  
Pleasures, and high content he finds in this,  
And Bliss receiveth in the Way to Bliss:  
Nor Stone, nor Rock now in his Way doth sit,  
But he or moves it, or crawls over it:  
And what somever Vigilantia spies  
That may annoy him he overcomes or flies.  
But yet the Tempter will not leave but tries  
And maketh use of all his policies,  
And like Vertumnus puts on every shape  
Ra●her than Man his cursed gripes should scape.  
Our Pilgrim now before his watchful eyes,  
A glittering Mountain in the Way espies;  
A Cross it spread, and just as he must pass  
Both sides the Way by it obstructed was,  
He must take notice of't, for like the Sun  
It with a bright refulgent Beauty shone.  
Indeed there lay the glories of the East,  
The Earth's choice Beauties there his eyes did feast:  
Decan had Diamonds sent, and Guine gold,  
Peru its silver; Pegu thither rolled  
Its Rubies; Pearl, and 〈◊〉 sent the Seas,  
Tanian Emeralds; Byrils Euphrates.  
Onyxes, Opals, Ind, and Arabia  
jaspers', and Sapphires, Cyprus, Cyane:  
What e'er was counted precious there was found,  
And with exuberance the Mountains Crowned.  
Next Riches, Honours lay, by heaps were seen  
The Robes of State, with Purple, Crimson, green,  
And Tyrian Scarlet, lined; Promotions  
To every Gown, and every Cap belongs;  
Gay pomp lay next, where bombycinian twine  
The labour of self-pris'ning worms did shine,  
Tincted in various colours cut in shapes,  
And fitted for the various minds in Apes.  
Here Pride his wardrobe had, and Lust his shop,  
Where Musk, and Ambergris lay hoarded up:  
Pleasures, and Earth's delights lay also there,  
The Palat's pleasures rarest Cates appear;  
The Brain's delight Books, mounted too on high,  
And what somever objects please his eye:  
And what delight the Earth affords, and what  
Earth's sons could wish, were blended here, and that  
With plenty, made a massy Mount, and spread  
A cross the Pilgrims' path, To Heaven its head  
It reared up; and for a while amazed  
The busy Pilgrim, who upon it gazed.  
But whilst his eyes read Lectures of delight,  
The Mountain seems to travel with a sprite,  
And opening at last its gaping womb,  
A twy-faced Hag doth from its intrai●'s come: 
Deceit.   
Her right hand held a Magic Wand, with which,  
She pointed to the Mountain, and her speech  
Directed to the gazing Pilgrim thus.  
O Pilgrim; Whither travel'st thou? Where does  
These Riches grow? the Honours? Pleasures? Pomps?  
(On which he that this vile Way travels stompes)  
Where are they but upon this Earth? Behold!  
These ●emms, this Silver, and this sulpid Gold,  
These Pleasures, Honour's, Silken garments, and  
These Ca●es, that all attend upon thine hand,  
Are not these rare? and wo●ld they not invite  
A Prince's eye? and surbet with delight  
All their Spectators? Where dost think there may  
Be ●ound, than these afford, a greater Joy?  
Is ●t not pity such things should be lost,  
That of the best, and highest pleasures boast?  
Is't not a crime for ●o desert such Gems?  
Isn't he a Fool that such things disesteems?  
View but their lustre, there's no other need  
To speak, that doth their worth and value plead.  
Why speak I thus to thee? Dost not thou know?  
All these things thou about to leave art now:  
This 〈◊〉 Way leads from the Earth where dwell  
These Rarities you see, and doth excel  
What ever you may hope to have; ●ools that  
Leave what is certain for they know not what!  
And thou art one; thou dost already find  
An asper-way: knowst thou what is behind?  
Had Heaven desired Pilgrims, not the worst  
Way, but the best he would have showed first.  
Pray view their Beauties once again; ar'n't you  
Quite ravished with their lustre? Tell me true.  
Nay, why such frowns? are you displeased then?  
You do mistake me, hear me once again,  
You think I'd have you Heaven desert for these,  
It seems you won't: But hear me if you please:  
I'll but propound a question unto you;  
Why may not you have these and Heaven too?  
You are a Saint; what then? Is God unjust?  
Then wicked men alone Earth's Riches must  
Enjoy? Shall God open his Cabinet  
Of nature, and his choicest Riches set  
Before the Wicked that Blaspheme his Name,  
And only them? At least the Saints the same  
Privilege may enjoy. Nature doth pout  
To hear you thus make her a prostituted  
She that has made the Saints her only heirs,  
The wicked share not, what they have's not theirs:  
The Saints it is: They rob the Saints: I moan  
To see your folly. Cheated from your own!  
Nay worse! To think them hurtful ills, and make  
That bad which God made good, and for your sake.  
Would God, o●'s Handmaid Nature, such bright gems  
Created have● and with so glorious beams  
Of Light, and Beauty given them, for to be  
Temptations to his Saints, heavens Progeny?  
Or rather was it not, ●to typify  
By these the lustre they shall bear on high?  
The end of their Creation then for them's;  
They then despise God's Gifts who do his Gems.  
Is th' intellect of Man (by which a Man  
We only from the Bruits distinguish can)  
A wicked thing? if wicked I have done,  
And those that think so, surely they have none. 
See these objections● answered, pag.  If good, then good it must produce; this Lace●  
Of Gold, this Gown, these hoods, this broidered case,  
It did find out; the Honours, Arts, and what  
You see, at first invented was by that;  
And more it daily doth invent. If these  
From good proceed, why they the Saints displease?  
Why rather did not God make Man a Beast,  
When by his understanding he's oppressed?  
And why doth it still use invention,  
If't only be for his destruction?  
Review these glittering things: what harm doth there  
That you despise them thus, in them appear?  
They're neither Wolves, nor Bears; nor will they bite,  
That you stands if you scared were a● their sight.  
Here take your choice, choose what you will; you may  
Take Gems, take ●ewels, then keep on your Way:  
These are not heavy, put them on and see  
How like an Angel than a Saint will be.  
Bright Alethia all this while stood by, 
Truth●   
Her Beauties hiding from the Pilgrim's eye:  
But now displaying of her splendid beams●  
Veiled all the brightness of the Mount, and Gems;  
Like 〈◊〉 T●ta● stepping from a cloud  
Wherein he did but now his Beauty's shroud.  
Her beams by faced Deceit de●ect, and showed  
Her double-tongue from whence s● ' her venom spewed.  
But to our Pilgrim from her sacred tongue  
Where Hibla dwelled, these admonitions sprung.  
Seest thou this Hag, this Pharmacentria?  
Who with her charms seeks to oppose thy way  
To Bliss, and to felicity, indeed  
Throughout the World her crafty Magic's spread,  
And dressed like me the World's vast stage she walks,  
Feigning my voice, and gestures when she talks,  
By her I oft have been abused, and she  
By simple hearts admitted is for me:  
An innocent Lamb they judge her by her skin,  
But she a ravening Wolf is found within.  
My words she with her lies doth mix, that so  
Blended, none may th' one from the other know;  
This is the Hag that would your Journey let,  
By this vain mount o● Dust, which here is set●  
And what's the World? its Riches? Honours? Pleasures●  
Compared to one grain of heavens better Treasures?  
There's no comparison that's fit enough,  
The one AEternal, th'o●her mortal stuff.  
No joys, no pleasures, but they mixed are,  
A grain of them, an ounce of Grief, and Care.  
And as for Riches vainer than the rest  
They be, by them your trouble is increased:  
Honours, and Pleasures, Riches in excess  
Had you, Death spoileth all your happiness.  
They are fine things indeed for grovelling Souls,  
Who dare not rear their Thoughts above the Poles,  
But those that once a taste of Heaven have had,  
Thinks these things vain, and their desires mad,  
This World, and what it doth afford esteem  
The Packthread to bind up the purchased Gemm. 
M●t. 6. 33.   
They Heaven seek first, and then the World is given,  
But Crablike Men Earth first, then seek for Heaven.  
Defy Deccit then, let her Hag-ship know  
Thou scornest all her Treasures here below,  
And that thou bearest such a noble mind  
To ' count them chaff that flies before the Wind,  
And at thy feet Earth's honoured Crowns to spread,  
Whilst to the heavens thou rearest thy lofty head.  
heavens Road's first paved with Pain, at last with Bliss:  
Hel's last with Pain, at first with Pleasures is  
Ah! sly Dece●t that Heaven, and Earth would join,  
When they were severed by a Hand divine,  
For who has Earth must Heaven forego, 
Mat. 19 24.  and who  
Heaven will enjoy, Earth must not cover too.  
Can he be worthy of heavens happiness,  
That will not Earth leave that he may't possess. 
Mat. 10. 37.   
Nor is Almighty God unjust, in that  
Earth's dross he to the Saints prohibits. What●  
Doth he not know what's best? He gives this Law  
Because he knows how apt the World's to draw  
Their minds from their Great God: Nor does the stain  
In Nature's Beauties, nor in Earth remain:  
But in Man's own depraved mind, 'tis he  
That turns what's pure, into impurity.  
Man's Intellect not evil is, 'tis true  
God did it Good create, but yet there's few  
But do abuse his Gifts; for whilst that they  
Such useless things invent, they should display  
Their understandings in the highest Sphere,  
Far from the reach of Earth; Behold they there  
Should the bright Eye of his Divinity:  
And would they fall from that Sublimity,  
Nature his Book they should have read, abound  
His mighty Wonders there they would have found.  
But 〈◊〉 spreading his most subtle trains  
With subtlety, and Craft hath filled the brains  
Of Man; so that his Wit is bu●ied still,  
In leaving Good, to find out Toys, and iii.  
Therefore the Saints may well displeased be  
With what ● ' invents for useless vanity.  
Beastly Deceit! though Man's Invention,  
Prove ofttimes means to his Destruction,  
The Fault's not God's, but wicked thine, the Devil,  
And's self; God made 
* The In● And tellect▪  it very Good, you evil;  
And he must it reduce again e'er he  
Enjoy can the bright Crowns of Purity.  
Nor are Saints cheated from their own; what can  
In all the Earth be rightly claimed by Man?  
Is not it all the Lords? may not he then  
As it shall please him, give it unto Men?  
Do wicked men possess the Earth, their gain  
Of that at last shall but augment their pain.  
What if it be the Saints by right? shall they  
If God requires to leave it not obey?  
He doth, 
Luk. 14. 33.  and knoweth what he does, they must  
Forsake that dross, and unto Heaven thrust;  
All must be left for Heaven, Hearts must be loo●'d  
From Earth, therefore Deceit has you abused,  
To make you think it is your right to wear  
Earth's Beauties on your back, or to appear  
So glorious: Thou wouldst appear to me  
More Luci●er, than Angel for to be.  
How prodigal Deceit is of her store!  
But thou this Mount despise must, and be poor,  
Defy Earth's Riches: Till from heavens blessed done  
Thou dost receive them, than they are thine own.  
When Heaven adorns thee with Earth's pride, than thou  
Shalt like an Angel truly shine below,  
Thou then shalt honour God, and every gemm  
Shall glory but to touch thy Garments him:  
All what thou dost here in thy passage meet  
To stop thy way; shall tumble at thy feet:  
No power have they then to hurt: And thou  
Regard them shalt no more than dunghills now.  
Till than thou leave them must, and follow the  
Most rare Example of Humility.  
With that she from her sacred Bosom drew  
A Picture, and reposed it to the view  
Of the Celestial Traveller, where one  
The best skill in the Graphic Art had shown:  
The Pencil guided by some hand divine,  
Had there tricked out the fruitful Palestine,  
Had showed Iu●aea, and jerusalem,  
The famous Temple, Iordan's Crystal stream,  
All G●l●ee, the Hamlet Nazareth,  
And Bethlehem, where God in flesh had Birth.  
His Life, his Miracles, his Death, and where  
He ●uried was, was rarely portrayed there.  
Be●old (said Alathia) here's the story  
Of the great King of Meekness, and of Glory,  
Who clothed himself with mortal flesh, and blood,  
And shed the same to do poor sinners good.  
This is the Pattern of Humility  
View this fair Copy, thou the ectype be:  
Consider the immensity of Love,  
Past the poor reach of Man, and far above  
His most capacious thoughts to Comprehend  
The depth of it, which to the very end  
Of Eternity doth reach, Immensity  
Of Love, and Oceans of Humility.  
With pious reverence turn here thine eye,  
Thy Saviour view in's Infant Majesty,  
See how Heaven smileth in his eyes, what Grace  
Already beameth in his sacred Face!  
Those Rays divine though veiled with flesh, and blood,  
Break through their Closure, and make bright their Cloud.  
O depth of Meekness! O great Caesar's fling  
Your Crowns, and stately Robes aside: The King  
Of great Olymp●s, and of all the Earth,  
Humility doth ●each you by his birth.  
See where he lies, his high-roofed Chamber is  
A despicable Stable; look how this  
Poor Crib supplies a Cradle's place; you see  
No gilded Cradle; here no Couches be.  
This Hay (grown soft by's sacred touch, doth own  
A happiness) serves for a bed of Down.  
The Crib's hard side a pillow is, alas!  
His Chamber-fellows are the Ox, and Ass.  
Darkness surrounds the Earth, and whilst 'tis hurled  
Through Hearts as well as Eyes, into the World,  
The Sun of Righteousness doth come, 'tis he  
That Day, and Light, and Sun to all must be.  
His Winter too, snow hangs on every bough,  
Tearts had their Ice, their ●nows, and Winter too,  
But in the midst of Hiems is the King  
Born that to Hearts, and to the World's the Spring.  
See Where his Mother the blessed Virgin on  
Her bended knees doth wait upon her Son.  
Nought but Humility can here be seen,  
In all the World's great King, and Earth's blessed Queen.  
See where the Virgin-mother 〈◊〉 about  
His sacred limbs, a clean, but homely clout:  
You see no Tyrian-ti●cted mantle there,  
Shining with Gold, no useless Veils appear,  
Broidered with Lace; a piece of homespun cloth,  
Is Va●l, is Mantle, Rug, and Blanket both.  
For lack of better A●as, see where spreads  
Upon the walls, busy Arachne's threads:  
See with what pains that careful Animal,  
With her best art labours to hang the Wall.  
Nought but Humility can here be seen,  
In all the World's great King, and Earth's chaste Queen.  
Although this birth with so much lowliness  
Accompanied, simplicity express,  
And of small value seem the ambitious Earth,  
heavens Choresters rejoicing at his birth  
S●ng this Antiphona: Salvation is  
Come unto Man by this blessed Genesis!  
Whilst others answer with a high-tuned voice,  
Rejoyc O Earth! both E●●●h and Heaven rejoice!  
Salvation now is come to you below,  
At Jesu's Name all heart's and knees shall bow!  
Whilst thus his great Name the Celestial Choir  
Resound, his mystic Birth they all admire,  
Eternity before, nor e●er shall  
Again, a Wonder see so mystical.  
Th' AEternal God takes humane flesh, and blood,  
And all what Man has, sin excepting had.  
O Wonder! wonderful indeed it is;  
The greatest Wonder●● e'er told was this.  
His ●nd was to redeem fallen man, but you  
May see his Life to be ex●●plar too.  
O ●io●s lowliness! See where he stands  
To be Baptised by John's less worthy Hands;  
See how the Crystal Streams his Limbs do kiss,  
From whence they take a far more purer Bliss.  
And if that any stains they have, from thence  
The sacred touch of his blessed flesh doth rinse  
Them clean; see how part of those gentle Streams,  
Loath to depart are changed to Crystal Gems,  
Which from his skin receive their lustre, they  
Melt into Tears when that they glide away.  
You see no glaring Gold, no gaudy Lace  
Upon his back, no Pedlars shops embrace  
His Holy waist; one seamlesse Coat supplies  
(To hide his Beauties from prophaner eyes)  
All Ornaments. O single Poverty!  
The Wing'd inhabitants of air, they be  
Not destitute of Nests, the Foxes they  
Have Dens, but he whereon his Head to lay 
Luke 9 58.   
Has not a place; Heaven and Earth's great Lord,  
Earth don't the favour of a Home afford.  
Now view his Court, they like himself are clad, 
Matthew ch. 10. v. 9, 10.   
Two coats, two scrips, two pair of shoes forbade  
They were; poor Fisher men, such chose he, they  
Happy forsake the World, themselves deny  
All things: The sinners, and the Publicans  
Are oftentimes made his Companions.  
The Supercilious Scribe, and Pharisee,  
Scorn him, and he his blessed Company  
Denies to them, their Pride, and wickedness,  
Are opposite to 's Worth, and lowliness.  
See here the mirror of Humility,  
See where he humbly on his knees doth lie,  
And though he Lord be, yet ●e thinks it meet  
For our example, to wash clean the Feet  
Of his Disciples, the slaves office thus  
He takes, who is Lord o'er the World, and us.  
See where he doth his Body break: O that  
You had but eyes to see the blessed meat  
He gives under those Elements of Bread,  
And Wine: His Body and his Blood is shed  
Thereby into their Souls; though from your eye  
'Tis hid, he gives his blessed Humanity.  
They on his Body feed, and I must tell  
You, here he wrought a mighty Miracle.  
All those who truly do receive this sood,  
Do feed upon his Body, and his Blood,  
Not by a notion? really they do,  
A Sacrament indeed; yet known to few.  
The mirror of all Pa●ience see: he that  
The Angels thought a Happiness to wait  
Upon, and at whose Call ten Legions would,  
His foes have into thousand pieces pulled,  
Is bound, and fettered; see what Majesty  
Reigns in his eyes mixed with Humility.  
See with what meekness he doth turn his cheek,  
Whilst it the wicked multitude do strike:  
See how he bears their buffets; where they spit  
Upon his Face, ● see how he beareth it  
Speaks not a word, but rather pities them,  
Who slay their own Souls in their murdering him.  
See where they mock him, how they press the blood  
With a Thorn'd-Crown from out his sacred Head:  
See how they scourge him here, the Crimson stream  
Blushing to see their Rage reproveth them.  
See how the whole World's sins are on him thrown,  
A spotless Lamb, who guilty is of none:  
But see their wickedness increased, lo here  
He 's Crucifi'd; see how the cursed Spear●  
Pierces his blessed side, O sacred spring!  
Which doth Health, Life, and t' all Salvation bring.  
Will they accept of it, this stream doth run  
Not for a few to sip, but every one  
Here drench his lips may, without price all may  
Drink of this stream, which from his side doth flow:  
See how it runs, how plentiful; the Blood  
Flows through the whole World, and becomes a flood.  
Ch●ist died for all; that Dogma is untrue  
Which says he died but for a very few:  
And those elected (partially) by God  
Before or Time, or Man had their abode.  
O strange! Shall God to Life some few Elect,  
And all the Wo●ld besides (O hard!) reject?  
Thus says the wicked then: If God has chose  
Me unto Life, I can't Salvation lose,  
Let me live how I will: If good I be  
If I'm rejected I no Heaven shall see.  
I'll take my swing in wickedness, for I  
As God decreed has, shall or Live, or die.  
'Tis true God from Eternity foresaw  
Who should be damned, and saved, but that no Law  
On such imposed: then this Election  
In Time is, doth Conditionally run,  
That they persever in Obedience,  
And Faith, if not they then may fall from thence.  
So all Elected are, not one debarred  
From Life; who otherwise do think, a hard  
And cruel master of the Lord make, rather  
Than a most merciful, and Loving Father.  
As God conditionally Elected All,  
In the same manner was our Saviour's fall  
For every one: nor must it follow then  
Because he died for all, therefore all men  
Must saved be, it Conditionally is.  
Suppose there were a Well so full of Bliss,  
That all Diseases it would remedy,  
And that it free for every one did lie,  
It is employed, though 't be for every one  
That 'tis for those that come, and those alone,  
Effectually: 'Tis just that they who will  
Not thither come keep their Diseases still.  
Nor doth God's Will depend on man's in this,  
Because God Wills it so, God's Will it is.  
This is that Living spring, whilst man remains,  
This still shall flow to wash his fouler stains,  
Without this he cannot be pure, nor come  
Where Christ is to the new jerusalem.  
O blessed spring! Water of Life! here we  
The highest words without Hyperbole  
May use; O 'tis the blessed Nectar of  
The holy Angels, and blessed Saints above.  
His flesh is there Ambrosia; 'tis by this  
We may attain an Apotheosis.  
By this blessed food all heavenly Souls are fed,  
And through the Earth it doth its Bounties spread:  
Think it not strange, if those may feed on't too  
Who live in India, and that never knew,  
Or heard of this blessed Iesu's dying day,  
Circumscribe not his flesh, and Blood I say,  
No one without it can be saved: 
See p.  O damn  
Not all that ne'er heard that he died for them.  
This Blood's a Living s●ring; poor souls impute  
This to themselves, and yet themselves pollute  
With beastly sins: His Blood hath washed us clean  
Cry they, and so continue in their sin.  
O sad presumption! whilst they crucify  
Christ in their Hearts, by's Blood we're saved to Cry!  
I say His Blood's a Living spring, and your  
Soul feed on's flesh must, drink his Blood most pure,  
If that Salvation you intent to have,  
'Tis that believe me that alone must save!  
What this his flesh, and Blood is, partly you  
Do know the same, and shall more clearly too,  
The farther in this way you go, 'tis that  
That every pious Soul doth animate.  
It is a Sacrament tongues can't express,  
'Tis Life, 'tis Virtue, Power, Holiness,  
By it all things subsist, it penetrates  
All things, all quickens, all things animates.  
The Angel's food, the same Humanity  
That sits at God's right Hand, the same that the  
Jews crucified, that ' rose again, and is  
O●● Propitiation 'tis the same 'tis this.  
Thou seest here his Life, and nothing there  
Did in't without a mystery appear.  
He bound was, spit upon, whipped, crucified,  
Pierced with a Sphere through his sacred side.  
Here Contemplate, all is 
* That it signifies some great mystery: not but that it was really acted and done upon the Earth and on the flesh of jesus our Saviour.  mysterious, and  
Man may by it his vast Love understand.  
See here, where he gives up the Ghost, here thou  
Upon the Wings of Contemplation now  
Mayst ride: O sacred Death! See where the Sun  
Obscured is; how Rocks do rend in twain:  
See how the Graves are opened; see where the dead  
Arise: O this, this is the Day they did  
So long expect; which oft in days of old  
The Prophets by their Prophecies foretold.  
Now trembles Hell, now all the Devils quake,  
Now suffers Luci●er, now Hell doth shake:  
For now the Light shuts up Hel's Centre; now  
The mighty Wrath of God is broken too;  
Christ underwent it, and for mortal man  
Through th' envious Wrath made now a Path again.  
He pierced the Principle of Wrath, and there  
Love, Wrath, and Light all reconciled were.  
O sacred Sacrament! these mysteries  
Are hid, and strange to more prophaner eyes:  
But I will more declare; attend and be  
An Auditor unto no one but me:  
I in the Scriptures dwell, there find you may  
What I declare as clear, as is the Day.  
When Adam fell in Paradise, O then  
He ' waked the Wrath of God against all men  
That should succeed, the Wrath then potent grew  
And like a wall barred up the way unto  
Blessed Paradise, all men excluded were,  
And 'twas impossible to enter there.  
This Adam saw too late; then was the seed  
The blessed seed of the Woman promised,  
Which should by being bruised in the Heel  
Of Death, break Wrath's strong head, and make him feel  
His mighty power: This Adam saw, and all  
The Patriarches, and Prophets, that 〈◊〉  
This should; in this they all rejo●●d: thus saw  
With joy old Abraham this blessed Day. 
john 8. 56.   
The fie●y Law to Moses given forth  
Was, represented by those 
* Exod. 20. 18.  terrors, Wrath  
The Zeal, and Justice of jehovah, and  
In which no man (but Christ alone) could stand  
So Moses could not into Canaan bring  
The Israelites; now learn we by this thing  
That 't must be jesus, who for all hath died,  
Who by great 
* joshua, or Jesus is all one n●me.  joshua was typisied.  
None enters Heaven till he that came from thence  
First entered had, 
joh. 16. 28.  'tis for the mighty Prince  
jesus the Saviour that this honour was  
Kept, 
joh. 14. 6.  and till he had not a man could pass.  
See then the work of this God-man, 
joh. 3. 13.  'tis He  
The second person in the Trinity, 
Eph. 4. 8.   
Who flesh endues, 
Psal. 61. 18.  such as you have, no foul  
Stain tincting it, in that an humane soul,  
Clothed with a Body, such as Adam had  
Before he with gross flesh, and Blood was clad:  
Three Principles entire he had, abode  
He then did for you all the Wrath of God:  
Then sweat he drops of Blood; this agony  
Endured was so that you all might be  
Saved from the Wrath he underwent; for M●n  
Unto the Father's Justice was he then  
A Sacrifice: his Soul for you abode  
In 
* In the Anger and wrath of God, which being quenched (as it were) by the Light and Love of the second Person sh●dding itself abroad, and by his Soul standing in the st●●d of the who●e wor●●s (or Adam's) in the anger of God endured the same ●till it had answered the Father's justice, or till that pricking sting of the Wrath was abated through the penetration of the Love or second Principle, and then the Devil, Hell was more strictly compressed and remained in the anger of God; and shall to all Eternity; but a Gate then was opened by Christ into Paradise, and the second Principle which was not before; and his breaking thorough with an human● Soul recovered what Adam had lost, and so unba●'d that way (which before was shut up) for all those that shall follow him: words extrea●nly darken this mysteste●ie, but to an understanding, and pure mind it shall be given.  Hell, and there quenched the Wrath of God.  
Through it a Way he made for every one.  
That after him to Paradise shall come.  

* Forty hours.  So long as Adam slept when Eve was made,  
So long he in the Grave and 
* Wrath of God.  Anger stayed.  
But then that Body pure angelical,  
That Earth of which Adam was made, the fall  
Not having yet Clothed him, with such as you,  
And other Mortals sprung from him, endue.  
This Body Christ assumed, the which did strait  
His Crucified Body penetrate,  
And wholly swallowed up, so that it then  
Could pass through 
* joh. 8. 59  Walls, and walk unseen by men;  
But when he pleased to show himself; 
* job. 20. 19  so all  
Bodies shall rise, this flesh, and blood and all.  
Such flesh and blood shall enter heaven. Now four  
Times ten days he remained, just, and 
* (i. e.) Before he was Glorified or ascended to the Father.  no more  
In Paradise; there tempted he withstood  
What flung down Adam like a rushing flood:  
Confirmed now, to 
* Into his glorified Body into a state beyond adam's in Paradise, which Adam lost by joining to the spirit of the outward great world: Now Christ would not be touched by Mary because he was not yet glorified, john 20. 17.  Heaven he ascends,  
In his Disciples sights, and there remains.  
See where they gazing stand, see where a Cloud  
His Body from their mortal eyes doth shroud.  
Now he to Glory goes, in is Company  
The Patriarches, and holy Prophets be,  
And all those who before him died, who on  
The promised seed did trust which was to come.  
Abraham the Father of the faithful Band,  
Dischargeth now his holy Bosom, and  
Close follows jesus with his blessed train,  
And so th' Imperial Court of Heaven they gain:  
And thus Angelical Bodies getting 
* If you ask where these were all this Time, questionless they were 〈◊〉 a quiet rest and Peace, or still silence, not where any pain or A●●●●sh was: which is the bosom of Abraham the Father of the faithful: But wheresoever they were, it is plain by Scripture that they were not entered into Paradise (where they are now) till they entered with Christ, and had not he died and broke this gate of Wrath shut by the fall of Adam, we could never have entered the holy place.  rise  
With joy, and with him enter Paradise,  
Where they in Heaven remain. In Heaven he is,  
The cause o● joys, of happiness, of bliss.  
'Tis he makes Heaven, and there where he doth stand  
Is Paradise, which is at God's right Hand.  
O mount not now beyond the clouds, for where  
The second Principle remains, 'tis there  
That Heaven is; nor can it be confined,  
Nor comprehended in thy darker mind,  
So that a local place thou in thy head  
Imaginest, when that its Court doth spread  
Through out the World; a way to Paradise  
And Heaven there is, and yet not through the Skies.  
T●●s Path ●ill lead thee th●●●er, thou shalt know,  
The Way not out, but into Heaven doth go.  
'Tis to the Centre thou must press, for there  
Heaven, and the glorious Angels will appear:  
There jesus is, and when he comes again,  
Not as before shall he in flesh remain,  
No more be Crucifi'd, but then ●e shall  
With his bright Glory swallow up this Ball.  
Then Paradise shall manifested be:  
This is the Day all Saints do long to see.  
Keep safe this Picture, and be sure that thou  
Continually do this bright Pattern view,  
Him only imitate; see now if that  
These things which here are offered by Deceit  
Are worth a grain of Dust, compared unto  
Those Riches that in Paradise do grow.  
Kick down Dec●it, and all her toys despise;  
Follow thou Me I'll show thee Paradise.   

Thus Alat●ia ends, the while his eyes,  
The Pilgrim to the perfect Pattern ties,  
On it they dwell; where they such sweetness found  
That to a meditation so profound  
And deep as may be, they his soul attract;  
That Life so spotless, and so pure to act  
He now desires, Christ now his Pattern is;  
And in his steps he seeketh after Bliss.  
Whilst thus his busy eyes 〈◊〉 to, and f●o,  
On that which Ala●●●a did bestow  
Upon him; all the circumambient air  
Began to glow, and seemed all on fire.  
The Pilgrim began to feel the glowing heat  
His Cheeks grew red, his Face, and Temples sweat,  
About he looks, to see from whence it came,  
When that he spies a Chariot all on flame  
Which two swift Coursers drew, their flaming breath  
Threatening to all that should oppose them Death.  
With a jehuan pace on wheels of speed  
Down the next Rock Horses, and Chariot slide,  
And up another ran, e'en to the top  
Before hot Zelus could 's swift Coursers stop. 
Zeal.   
Doubling their sturdy necks he back again  
Enforces them, with much ado refrain  
At last he did his furious Steeds, and from  
His Chariot did unto the Pilgrim come.  
His Robes were flames of fire, powdered with Hearts  
Winged with flames, struck thorough with flaming Darts,  
His eyes a piercing ardour sent, his Hand  
Bore both a steeled Lance, and flaming brand●  
The Pilgrim he accosts, and easily got  
With him to mount his flaming Chariot.  
Now glows his heart, and now a Champion  
For God he is, with sury he upon  
Deceit doth set; against the Mountain flings  
His Spear, tramples upon her finer things,  
Scatters her Gold, and silver; doth despise  
Her Honours, Dainties, Pleasures, Braveries.  
Under his feet he tramples that at last  
His flaming Brand amongst them all he cast,  
The fire takes hold consuming them to nought,  
The Mount it to a heap of ashes brought.  
What? cries the Pilgrim, shall a mount of dust  
To stop my passage unto Heaven, thrust  
Itself between me, and my God? so shall  
This brand what e'er opposes cause to fall.  
Nought stand between me and Heaven shall, if it do,  
This Spear, this Brand, this hand shall make it ●ow.  
The World, and all things I'll forsake, and I  
Father and Mother also will deny,  
And hate them too, 
Luk. 14. 26.  if they opposers be,  
And stand betwixt blessed Paradise, and me.  
Heaven 's in my eye, its Beauties are my prize:  
Heaven 's a Reward for him that Earth denies.  
My Way I am resolved to make Good,  
Although I stand up to the chin in blood,  
A fire agitates my Limbs, and now  
Both World and all things Zeal shall make to bow.  
This said, he hurries up and down the Way,  
His furious Steeds, cannot stand still, nor stay,  
What e'er appears the hotspured Pilgrim now  
Without examination makes to bow:  
The furious Steeds over the Mountains fly,  
Feeling the Reins lose on their necks to lie,  
And ready to praecipitate their Guide,  
Down the steep ridges of the Rocks they slide,  
Sometimes they're in the Way, sometimes they're out,  
Sometimes they backward run, sometimes about,  
And o'er the Rocks, their heady co●●se they take:  
Th'rough fire, and water they their voyage make.  
The next Way that appears he takes; and what  
He thinks is Good, others must bow to that.  
This furious Course makes him to lose the Way,  
And up and down at every turn to stray:  
What e'er he sees under his Censure comes;  
As well in judgements, as in Zeal he fumes.  
But whilst with Zeal he runneth up, and down,  
A Matron met him, 
Prudence.  on whose awful frown  
Sat a most comely Gravity, Serene,  
And free from tempests, her clear face was seen:  
Her eyes something of Majesty did bear,  
And over hearts did sweetly domineer:  
Her face enough of Beauty had; and she  
In all her make bore a just symmetry.  
Her clothes were grave, and decent, neither were  
They cut to all modes, nor yet singular.  
Her pace was grave, in every thing she did,  
A Dove, and Serpent, 
Mat. 10. 16.  seemed to be hid.  
Her right hand bore a Dove, her left did hold  
A Serpent, which i●s tail about her rolled.  
Meeting the Pilgrim from his hands she took  
The slackened reins, and thus her mind she broke.  
S●●y zeal-sparred Pilgrim! if thou safe wilt be  
Thou must commit the Reins of Zeal to me:  
In this rough pa●●, and between the Mountains, let  
Me be your guide, lest that you danger meet.  
Zeal drives so fast, that he will quickly crr;  
Unless my Dove, and Serpent draw the Carr.  
Those who without me go, become forlorn,  
Lose the right Path, prove to the World a scorn:  
Cast Pearls before the snouts of Swine; and feed  
The ravenous Dogs, with holy children's bread●  
Dangers incur, which they might fairly shun,  
Do what they by and by wish were undone.  
Admit of me and I will be your guide,  
I know which Way, how, where, and when to ride:  
●rust me and I will bear you in my arms,  
Untouched through the Multitude of Harms.  
That Majesty which beamed in her Face  
Constrained the Pilgrim to consent; a place  
Upon his right hand for her he provides,  
And now he soberly, and softly rides:  
Prudence is joined with Ze●l: nor does this want  
It's former hea●, but less extravagant,  
By that is made. He who will rightly move,  
Must first conjoin the Serpent and the Dove.  
Now safely goes our heavenly Traveller  
Nor from this blessed (though rugged) path doth err,  
Nothing appears that may obstruct his● Way,  
But it he even with the Earth doth lay.  
Dame Vigilantia all about doth seek  
For ●s foes; which found Zeal doth their powers break:  
Conquers them quite, and by their fall doth raise  
Trophies of Honour, and immortal praise.  
By halves God will not have his work be done:  
Nor must those falter who this Race do run.  
Clean must the house be swept to find the groat:  
All must be sold before the Pearl be bought.  
No Delilah must shave thy Locks: but she  
Must be o'ercome lest that she conquer thee.  
Though thus far thou art gone, as yet there may  
Some Delilah be left for to betray  
Thee to thy foe; let Vigilantia find  
Her out, then let Zeal all her powers bind,  
And cast her from thee; whatsome'r it be  
Thou 'rt loath to part with, Delilah's to thee:  
But when she conquered is, faster thou ' ●t move,  
On wings of speed, unto the Gates of Love.  
Thus Vigilantia to our Pilgrim brought  
His Del●lah, the which he little thought  
For to have parted with; and must she die  
Cries he, who did within my bosom lie?  
Yes, answered Zeal, God will with none dispense,  
Slain on the Altar of Obedience  
She must be e'er we farther pass: she slain  
He posteth forward without stop amain:  
With full Career he runs, and full of Joy  
Leaveth behind him all the rugged Way.  
He enters now a place where all about  
Light like the Sun, from bright Clouds issues ou●.  
By this clear Light he now begins to see,  
What hurtful rebels all the Passio●s be,  
And how the Senses hurt; irregular  
Affections also how they hurtful are.  
Therefore he these now takes to task: and first  
The Rebel Passions that oppose him durst  
He conquereth; these now his slaves become  
Who had so often Lorded over him.  
He will not kill them quiter because they may  
Be useful to him, whilst they him obeys  
Not merely Stoical; in order he  
Keeps them: He 's Lord, and they his servants be.  
Then all the Senses he doth Regulate,  
And their excursions wisely moderate:  
Makes them to know that he's their Lord, and they  
Are forced now his pleasure to obey.  
Carnal affections stoop: These Crucify  
He doth, lest they should draw his mind awry.  
Where he God's Image seeth most, he there  
Doth his affections (as in justice) share.  
By this same Light he also sees that he  
Can in the Earth own no propriety;  
All that he hath he offers to the Lord  
He 's but a Steward, and must nothing hoard  
Contrary to his Master's Will; but here  
Prudence directs him how his Goods to share:  
Else subtle Satan would step in the while,  
And with his tricks would him of all beguile.  
By this Light also he espies his flesh  
To be a Case made up of Earthly trash,  
A prison to his Soul; now he espies,  
Another Body in that Body lies:  
The inward man, which as the outward dies,  
Lives, gathers strength, and doth in triumph rise.  
This Body now he longeth to attain,  
And by the death of all things it to gain.  
Now every motion opposite must die:  
Flesh, and its Members he doth crucify,  
All things are sacrificed by Diligence  
Upon the Altar of Obedience ●.  
The fleshly body every hour dies,  
The spiritual doth as fast in triumph rise.  
He 's now diswedded from the World; He knows  
He 's not to be now at his own dispose,  
Therefore his Body, Soul, and spirit he,  
Doth consecrate to heavens high Majesty.  
All that he has to Heaven he offers, and  
All he retains comes from its bounteous Hand.  
Now joys surround him, Comfort is the Way,  
Nor Night is seen, all is a mystic Day,  
The Sun of Righteousness his brighter Beams  
Displays, and thorough his Heart his sweetest streams  
Of brightness run: his spiritual foes stand off,  
And dare not venture for a Counterbuff:  
They tremble now, 
chastity  and fear the world's grand tye  
Will be asunder burst by Chastity;  
For she appears unto the Pilgrim now,  
Who to her feet his humble Head doth bow●  
Her eyes gave flames, as pure as those which lie  
Beyond the blue Seas of the azure Sky:  
Her countenance a brighter Light did grace,  
Than that which shines in Diana's Face.  
But when her virgin Lips she opened,  
Th' encircling air with purity was spread;  
Thither their Purple Wings the Turtles move,  
To draw the ay● in, of the purest Love.  
The joining Corals happy Kisses break  
She did: and thus did to the Pilgrim speak.  
Hail happy Pilgrim! who thus far art from  
Earth's dirty soil, and foul pollutions come,  
Not far thou art from the blessed City, but  
Before thou thither come 'tis requisite,  
That thee, and I should join; therefore receive  
From me the Bounties that I daily give.  
Unless thou with my Mantle covered be,  
Thou never shalt the heavenly Salem see.  
Polluted eyes, polluted hearts, and hands,  
Must not come there: Heaven will admit no stains.  
Flesh must not enter Heaven; nor can you come  
Clothed with that into the secret Room,  
Where the grand Mysteries are revealed, by  
heavens gracious Prince, the Son of Majesty.  
The flesh's quickly-vanished pleasures foul  
With spots the clothing of the purest Soul,  
Spread clouds before her eyes, so that she may  
Not see the brightness of the purest day:  
And hang a Veil between her helmed eyes,  
And the blessed Ark of sacred Mysteries.  
'Tis I that must make white the Soul, and that  
Dark Cloud before her dull eyes dissipate:  
'Tis I must draw aside this Veil; 'tis I  
That lead the Way to heavens great Mystery:  
Christ doth all this by me; 'tis I that am  
Sent for to woe the Soul from flesh to him.  
I speak not now to those that are below,  
But unto such who would desire to know  
The highest secrets; who'd dull Earth forsake,  
And would a lofty flight to Heaven make:  
Who would converse with Angels, who would hear,  
The Heavenly Music of the inner Sphere.  
Who would the fruits of Paradise enjoy:  
To such I speak; such must make me their Way.  
The holy Angels who immortal be  
Are clothed with the Robes of Puri●y,  
Pure Chastity doth crown their brows, now these  
A ●pure, chaste Soul, and unpolluted ●ees,  
With such they love for to Converse; but give  
Their backs to such as do not chastely Live;  
They can't endure for to come near to those:  
chaste Souls they Love, their Love from likeness grows.  
But 'tis not good that man should be alone  
Without a Spouse; I have provided one  
For thee therefore, therefore the flesh forsake,  
And this into thy arms, and bosom take.  
Lo here a draught of that blessed Face I spread,  
To whom in time thou shalt be married:  
It is Sophia, she shall be thy Bride,  
The Spouse of Christ, and all the Saints beside.  
A Virgin she Eternal is, and I  
From her blessed Gift receive all purity.  
From her Arabia doth her sweets receive●  
She to the Lilies doth their Candour give;  
'Tis she the Roses with those blushes dies:  
The S●n his splendour 〈◊〉 from her eyes:  
The Silver Rivers do their Crystal owe  
To her, from her their purity doth flow:  
●Tis she that doth the Earth with beauties deck  
●'th ' Spring: and loads with fruit, and sheaves her neck  
I'th' Autumn: she adorns the Trees with Leaves;  
From her the Tulip all her gay receives,  
All the rare Beauties that the World do grace,  
Are the reflected shadows of her Face,  
They fade away, but hers do never fade:  
What is AEternal cannot be decayed  
By Time: she still is young no wrinkles dare  
Upon her everlasting brows appear.  
The variegated Cloud-reflected bow,  
Which doth so many lovely colours show;  
Earth's Gold, and Silver, and each brighter Gemm,  
Do but adorn her Garments lowest hemm.  
Her beauties are Celestial, mortal eyes  
Can't see her; who beholds her beauty dies.  
But thou the Picture of thy Spouse shalt see,  
Whom thou enjoy shalt to Eternity.  
She on his shoulders then her mantle throws,  
Whiter than Lilies, or the Alpin snows,  
Embroidered with Purity, and round  
About with Modesty, and Silence bound:  
APOCALYPSIS, who did on her wait  
She called, and bid her show the Image straight  
Of high Sophia the unspotted Bride,  
An azure Volumn her bright Hands untied,  
And then unrouling it, the Pilgrim sees  
Sophia's bright, and blessed Essigies.  
Go now and travel all Earth's Countries o'er,  
From Eastern Ind, to the 〈◊〉 ●●ore,  
Pick up the cream of Beauties, and from thence  
(Adding those past) extract a quintessence:  
Let now conspire in one Alchimechus,  
Apelles, Zeux is, and Pha●●hasius,  
Let their best skill be by their Pencils known,  
And let the mirror of their Art be shown,  
In the composure of a beauteous Face  
That may all others living quite disgrace.  
And let their Brothers with Poetic skill  
Surpass their Pencils with their better Quill,  
Let them with Ink their Wonders show, (who make  
Bright Heaven a lustre from that blackness take)  
In setting forth a Beauty, when all's done,  
As rotten-shining Wood unto the Sun,  
His Glorious splendour: so their works will be  
To that rare piece our Pilgrim here did so●.   

I dare not venture here for to depaint,  
The Beauties of that Face; the World's too scant  
To yield materials, and I words should want,  
How can her all-surpassing Form be penned,  
When her Idea none can comprehend?  
The soul that sees her, feels her, and her worth  
Is better felt than can be spoken forth.  
The fulvid Gold which is esteemed so rare,  
But the reflection of her golden Hair  
Is; All the Silver did its brightness get,  
And silverized was when it touched her feet.  
The Crystal Rivers were like Ink, she gave  
Them clearness when she did her finger lave  
In their dark streams: A drop fell from her Hand,  
Which being gave to the clear Crystals; and  
Th' oriental Pearls. She looked upon the Sun  
And ever since she with that splendour shone.  
She glanced her eye upon the Night's fair Queen,  
She caught that glance, e'er since she fair hath been.  
A spark flew from her Heavn'ly eye, it seems  
Tellus snatched that which essence gave to Gems.  
The air permitted was to kiss her Hand,  
Who ever since its sweetness has ●etain'd.  
Over the Globe stood black triumphing Death,  
Till she but tasted of her sacred breath,  
Prolific strait she was, and from her womb  
Oceans of Herds, of Trees, of Herbs did come.  
By it still all things live: The Pink, the Rose  
And each sweet Flower that on Tellus grows,  
Receive from her their odoriferous Fumes,  
Which emanation from her Body comes.  
Some of her Beauty down she flung below  
Which all things caught that now do Beauty show.  
Roses and Rubies which do rarely shine,  
Are but umbrella 's to her lips divine:  
Those Seas of Claret in the azure Skies  
Seen, when bright Sol down in the Ocean lies,  
Or Tyrian blushes, if you them compare  
To what buds in her cheeks mere deadness are:  
As far below the Beauty and the Bliss  
Seen there, as Earth to th' highest Heaven is.  
How can a Pen, or Pencil then depaint  
Her; without whom all things do beauty want!  
Her own hand 'twas that thus herself did limn,  
And by APOCALYPSIS sent it him.  
On this attracting Face our Pilgrim throws  
His eyes, his Soul thorough those windows goes,  
With so much joy that all her faculties  
Intentively assembled in his eyes,  
All other pa●ts left destitute; in this  
Capital City Oculipolis  
The So●l and all her train are seated; by  
That Beauty drawn into an Ecstasy.  
Whilst greedily with gazing eyes he ●eeds  
Upon the Beauties of that Face, there speeds  
Do●n from the Poles, a Heavenly Bowman, who  
The ●umid AEther all the Way he ●hew  
Warmed with a gentle heat: His Silver Wings  
Through the calm aequor of the air he swings.  
A pleasant spring upon his Face did bud,  
His head was shadowed with a golden Wood:  
In either Cheek the Roses white and red,  
Scarlet and snows symmetrically spread●  
His eyes two pleasant stars, whose a●●ects were  
More pleasing than Venus or jupiter.  
A chain of Sapphires bound his Ivory necks  
A snowy Mantle which gold Stars did deck  
Hung on his shoulders, and enclosed his waist,  
A gilded Quiver at his back tied fast  
Was; one hand with a silver Bow was filled,  
He under th' other arm a prisoner held.  
Chastity's Cupid 'twas, who went to fetch  
At her Command the Spurious C●pria● wretch:  
And catching him dealing his wanton darts,  
On sportful youths, and Courtly Lady's hearts.  
He hither brought him by Commandment  
Of is Mistress, to give him his punishment:  
Being he was her chiefest foe, and had  
His bainful poisons on her Virgins shed.  
●he, deigning not on him her eyes to cast,  
Bid her chaste Cupid slash his wanton waist.  
Binding his Hands (that oft had prisoners made)  
With his own Sca●● he to a Tree him tied:  
Robbing a 〈◊〉 of its boughs, a Rod  
He ●●de● and sound whipped this wanton God.  
He flayed his back, and with his wanron blood  
Died all the grass in ' Crimson where he stood.  
Then broke his bow, and arrows; His fine Quiver  
And Crown of Roses flung into the River.  
This done he let him lose: since which disgrace  
He ne'er was seen to come anear this place.  
Lost in the Face which he did contemplate  
O●r Pilgrim was, nor would he extricate  
Himself and if he could: He ne'er did prize  
●nough before, the blessing of his eyes;  
Ravished he was; but blessed CHASTITY  
Spoke to her CUPID with her speaking eye;  
He understood the Dialect; and drew  
A Golden arrow from his Quiver: Blew  
The Feathers were, the point was living flame,  
This notched in is silver Bow, he took his aim  
Like a good Archer of the Pilgrim's heart,  
And thorough the same he shot the flaming dart.  
A gentle Fire, and sweetly glowing heat  
The Pilgrim feels; his quicker pulses beat;  
Through his Limbs the living flames do spread,  
With pleasures joined not to be uttered.  
No blood ran from the Wound, he feels no smart,  
Although the shaft had cleft in two his Heart:  
Those flames made Wounds of Joy: healed those of pain,  
Dispelled all ills, did Life, and Health retain.  
A constant ardour now burns in his Breast,  
Being with th' immortal fire of Love possessed:  
And wholly swallowed up in them, he fries  
In pleasing Flames: becomes heavens Sacrifice.  
He lives in Flames; but they're chaste flames of bliss:  
He is in Love: but with SOPHIA ' 'tis.  
Is not it madness to indulge a Foe?  
Do men cry when they from their prisons go?  
Do men love chains, and fetters to suppress  
Their eager flight unto their Happiness?  
Yea, sure they do all this, who here do move  
In chains of flesh: and do such prison's love.  
The freeborn soul, were it not chained below,  
Above the Stars its nimble Fires would throw.  
See all the World at once, and swiftly run  
About the heavens, and clearer than the Sun.  
Had not the Pilgrim had a fleshly case,  
He longer might have seen SOPHIA'S Face:  
Alas! our Souls enchained to Dust, and Night,  
Cannot behold the splendours of that Light  
Too strong for flesh, and blood; Whose flames will be  
To flesh, as ●ove proved once to Semele.  
Our eyes without apparent hurt can't gaze  
Against the Sun: Nor can those heavenly Rays  
Of high Beatitude the Soul see here  
Married to flesh, long, 'cause that cannot bear  
The Soul's high flight, but that she suffers, so  
She holds the Soul, lest she should from her go.  
Apocalypsis well man's frailty knew,  
Therefore she blessed Sophia's Face withdrew,  
And veiled it from the Pilgrim's eyes: To whom  
Thus Chastity; whose words flew in perfume.  
Is not one glimpse of thy Celestial Bride  
More glorious than all the World beside?  
Didst ever taste in those dull stream● of Bliss  
The World affords, a pleasure like to this  
Thou hast received by a Vision? then  
How far more great wil't be! how ample! when  
Thou full fruition shalt enjoy! and be  
Blest with her Blisses to Eternity!  
When that thy Soul, clothed with immortal Day,  
Has shaken off these shackling Robes of clay!  
In Veils she now is forced to appear,  
'Cause Flesh cannot her ample Beauty bear.  
See that she only Mistress of thy Heart  
Remain; for she ' l not be content with part:  
Thou must not share it between Mortality  
and Her, she ' l bear no such indignity.  
If ever Mistress Hearts entire deserved,  
If ever to be punctually served,  
'Tis she: see then (although thou canst not merit  
One grain of what thou shalt by her inherit)  
That thou prove faithful to her Love, and she,  
Hers, with heavens Kingdom, will return to thee.  
Down bows the Pilgrim to the ground his Breast,  
And in these Words his constancy expressed.  
I know my frailty, and my weakness, and  
That I alone, and of myself can stand  
Not one poor moment: By the help of Grace  
Supported: First the Sun shall change his Face  
And glorious splendour into pitchy Night;  
Flames first shall cease for to ascend upright:  
The brinish Seas shall over Atlas flow,  
The Vine and Olive in Asphaltes' grow.  
First Sol shall rise out of the Western main,  
And in the japon Sea his flaming Wain  
At evening drench: December shall be May:  
And Trees in june shall sheets of snows d'splay:  
Noon shall be Night; Nature inverted be,  
Before I yield unto Inconstancy.  
Before I leave her whom my Soul hath chose,  
And her forgetting, to another close.  
Those ardent flames which now surround my Heart,  
Will so dispose me that I ne'er shall start  
From her to whom whilst in this flesh I breathe  
I do my Life, Heart, Acts, thoughts all bequeath.  
O noble Resolution! which doth move  
From those bright flames of Zeal, and ardent Love!  
Hell trembles when he hears th' inspired tongue  
Of valiant Souls resolved, to speak such strong  
Hel-battering Words, such sounds do quickly go,  
Both to the Angels, and the Devils too;  
Piercing both Worlds, sound quickly in their ears,  
Fill those with Joy, these with disturbing Fears.  
If the dull flames of the Idalian brat,  
In tired Souls most strangely operate;  
Making them bow unto their Idol-toy  
That from her presence they receive no Joy:  
And ' count the pleasures of a Crown less bli●●e,  
Than those they gain when they her Lips do kiss:  
If they so strangely Man can alter, so  
As for to make him all the World forego,  
For this one Idol, never feeling ease  
Longer then while he doth his Mistress please.  
Doth she but frown, Hell, nor AEternal Night  
In their worst shapes could scarce so much affright  
The trembling Lover; for her wrinkled brow  
More terrible than doth Avernus show.  
'Tis not her power he fears: But yet he can  
Not disobey; Love's a Magician.  
If by his power men dare to undertake  
The hardest things, and nothing of them make,  
If for their Loves their Lives they'll venture, and  
Be proud to spill their blood at their Command;  
Dye if they bid them, if such Love can cause  
So great obedience to his giddy Laws:  
If by his hidden, and abstrucer Art,  
Knowledge he doth to ignorants impart,  
Make Clowns prove Eloquent, nay Po●ts too:  
If thus, and much more this blind-God can do,  
What shall that Love do, unto which this seems  
As the worst Pebbles to the best of Gems?  
That Love divine whose fires immortal be?  
Whose constant Pleasures never changes see?  
That Love immense which filleth to the brim  
Capacious Souls? where may whole Oceans swim  
Of Joys divine, unutterable? then  
Shall not this draw Obedience from Men?  
Shall not this sweeten whatsoever may seem  
Bitter? make easy what is hard to them?  
Fear can do much, but Love much more can do:  
Fear false obedience gives: Love just and true.  
heavens Pilgrim now with these diviner flames  
Possessed, he alone to please Sophia aims;  
Love regulates him, now 'tis not for fear,  
That he to her such reverence doth bear●  
From Love 'tis his Obedience springs, and that  
The slavish fears of Hell doth terminate.  
Now all things easy are; no Seas can stop,  
Nor Mountains: those he swims, and these climbs up.  
Now in his breast a strong attraction he  
Feels draw'ng him up to Heaven continually.  
Now constant ardours burn within his Breast,  
And flames of Love give rest in his unresty  
He feels most blest Enthean heats surprise  
His soul, which make 't a living sacrifice.  
A pleasing Tincture through his Body flows,  
And like a Flower in Paradise he grows.  
All sorrows now are banished down to Hell;  
He nothing doth but Joys, and Raptures feel.  
The Seraphims indite some sacred Song,  
Which they decant by his Hymniferous Tongue;  
And modulating too those heavenly Lays  
His Harp, an Angel by his Fingets plays.  
Under the Covert of the Angels Wings,  
By Love inspired, aloud this Song he sings.  
Go Gnedian Idols spend your darts,  
On all Luxurious, pruriant Hearts!  
A nobler shaft has pierced mine,  
Which flames with Fires more divine.  
You may now shoot but shoot in vain  
Such ●ha●ts my Heart shoots back again.  
My eyes your Venom can't receive,  
heavens Queen a Remedy did give.  
Her Beauty dwelleth in my eyes,  
I therefore you, and yours despise.  
Fair Ladies all your Beauties spare,  
For in my eyes they sullied are,  
I Styx see in a Helen's Face  
Now I have seen a Deitesse.  
You Cyprian Lovers now no more  
Your beauteous Images adore!  
Cease now your fond Idolatry,  
Speak no more Lovers blasphemy:  
Fling in the Fire your wanton Lays,  
Which blushes in chaste Cheeks do raise:  
Cease your Encomiums, your bliss  
Mere mortal dust, and ashes is:  
A wrinkled Baucis all the while  
The glory wears of your high Style:  
Let fairer Souls a Goddess please,  
Whilst Bacca's join with Thyrsites.  
Had you but seen my heavenly Bride,  
you'd count all beauty's dung beside,  
A●d cease to idolise a Face  
Where white, and red 's the chiefest Grace.  
But my blessed Bride SOPHIA, is  
Both Queen of Beauty and of Bliss.  
Her Face shines clearer than the Sun,  
In his bright Chariot at Noon.  
Her Crystalline eyes are the glass,  
In which themselves the Angels dress:  
The Beams that cometh from her eyes  
Give Light to Heaven, and Paradise.  
Her ears the Seats of Judgements are,  
Immortal Fortitude her hair;  
Her Brows of highest Majesty:  
High Wisdom in her mouth doth lie.  
'Tis by her words the Angels Live,  
Her Breath doth Life immortal give:  
The beaming glory in her cheeks,  
With splendour heavens high Palace strike●.  
A Diadem her brows do tie  
Of Bliss and Immortality.  
Her sacred breasts the Fountains be  
Of Joy, and true Felicity;  
Amb●osia doth thence proceed  
The Heavily Manna, Angel's bread;  
Water of Life blessed Nectar streams  
Thence, clearer than the Crystal gems,  
In which as thorough Heaven it slips  
The Angels drench their Rosy Lips.  
Her arms, the Angels do enfold;  
Her Hands immortal Blessings hold:  
Upon her knees doth Pity sit,  
And Goodness cloaths her Legs, and F●●t.  
Her Garments are of Light divine,  
Which brighter than the Sun do shine:  
The blue, and starry Carpets spread  
For her blessed Feet upon to tread,  
Whose blessed touches pur●●ie  
The Body of the Crystal Sky.  
Such is my Bride, and now who dare  
With my Bride's beauty theirs compare?  
Sacred SOPHIA! 'tis in thee  
I place all my Felicity:  
Blest with thy sight; all things below  
Do very much deformed show.  
I cast my eyes to thee above:  
Ah I am even sick of Love! 
cant.   
Comfort me with thy fruit divine!  
Stay me with Flagons of thy Wine!  
Ah let me banquet now with thee,  
And spread thy Banners over me!  
Thou art the Rose of Shar●n, thou  
A Lily in the Vale doth grow;  
Thou a●t more fair than is the Sun;  
Thy Garments smell of Lebanon.  
My eyes unto thy Face I move:  
Ah I am overcome with Love!  
That Fire of Love which flows about  
My heart, whole Seas cannot put out.  
Not the black fear of dreadful Hell,  
To be obedient doth compel:  
Nor now those torments to eschew  
Enforces me to follow you,  
It is from thee, and not from thence,  
That springeth my obedience.  
'Tis Love of thee, not Fear of Hell,  
Which me to serve thee doth compel.  
'Tis not heavens blessed Joys that move,  
Or do entice me to this Love;  
It is not heavens high Crown, that draws,  
'Tis Love alone a stronger cause.  
Not heavens high Blessings I regard,  
I Love thee not for a Reward;  
Fling me to Hell, and if you will,  
Yet will I Love SOPHIA stil.  
These flames which kindle in my brea●●  
Shall never out until I rest  
Within thy bosom, and there be  
Enclosed to Eternity.  
Thus chants SOPHIA'S Lover; whilst his 〈◊〉  
Is warbling forth this Love-inspired Song●  
Love agitates with flames his noble breast,  
And spreadeth there a most delicious feast:  
The Crystal Water turns to blushing Wine:  
There banquet's PSYCHE, and her Love divine:  
Their meat is M●nn●, their Wine Nectar is,  
Their Banquet's Love, and everlasting Bliss,  
Hell never ' frighted him so fast to Heaven,  
Nor ever had Heaven such attractions given,  
As Love gives now; he every day a year  
Supposes till he doth inhabit where  
His blessed SOPHIA is: Nothing can move  
Him backward now, being drawn by force of Love.  
Forwards he runs, and to his Love he pray'th,  
That she would make a trial of his ●a●th:  
All difficulties past account he does  
As nothing, and as things mere frivolous,  
Not to be counted hard, so high's his Zeal,  
His Faith he longs with his Heartblood to seal.  
And now he thinks he A●●as could remove,  
And nothing ' counts impossible with LOVE.  
Satan indeed this noble Champion  
In these Love-furies dares not set upon,  
He stands a loof; The Pilgrim hasts a pace  
To gain the end of this Heaven twinning Race.  
He being heavens Favourite, and that he may  
Be even lost, and swallowed in a Sea  
Of divine Pleasures, and excessive Bliss,  
APOCALYPSIS she Commissioned is  
To open his Senses with her Crystal Key,  
That he aforehand may in Heaven be:  
By 
* Sophia.  her assistance she performed it strait,  
And opened his inner sense's fivefold gate.  
No sooner had APOCALYPSIS bright  
Fingers unlocked the Ga●es of 's inner sight,  
But he th' internal World beholds, and there  
Myriad of Angels in their proper Sphere:  
The Light World sees: whose chiefest rarities  
Display themselves before his inner eyes.  
Tempean pleasures co●rt his eyes; the Bliss  
Of Edenean garden's present is.  
All Paradise, and whatsoever there  
Growth, doth before his inner sight appear.  
The Angels in their glorious Robes of Light,  
Compassed with splendent Rays appear in sight,  
And things in Heaven unutterable, he  
In highest pleasure, and content doth see.  
The thick gate of his inner ear un●a●●'d  
No sooner was but he the voices heard  
Of the Angelical Core, whose sweeter Lays  
From dunghill Earth, to Heaven his Soul doth raise.  
Th' harmonious sound of Harps his ears doth fill,  
Proceeding from the blessed S●onian Hill,  
Which doth his soul with such sweet pleasure smite,  
That she is overwhelmed with the delight.  
Earth's duller Music, or that of the Spheres,  
●o this would be discordant in his ears:  
If they men's souls cheer with their melody,  
How more exceeding shall heavens Harmony!  
Th' inner AEthmoides being opened wide,  
Whole clouds of Musk straight thorough the passage slide,  
Paradysaical Odours; the Perfumes,  
Which from the Body of our Saviour comes,  
Press in: sweet Ambergris; perfuming Mirth,  
Which fills the inner World doth enter there.  
Pinks, Violets, Roses are less odorate  
Than these sweet Odours which assault the Gate.  
The Gust unlocked; the dews of Zion Hill,  
And Paradise upon his Tongue distil.  
The Heavenly Manna, the Celestial Cates  
Of Bliss, more sweet than Honey fare he eats.  
Nectar glides thorough his Lips, where more sweets reign,  
Than the Hymetian Honey-dews contain.  
Haphe unlocked, the heavenly touch of Love.  
Like gentle fire over his heart doth move:  
Th' Anoynted's Hand which doth distempers heal,  
Upon him laid, he sensibly doth feel.  
The Tincture which doth from Christ's Body flow,  
With great delight he feels on his to grow:  
Thus he in his five senses ravished is:  
He sees, hears, smells, tas●eth, and toucheth Bli●●e.  
Ravished with the excess of his delight,  
In Seas of pleasures he 's immerged quite,  
His soul drinks in the sweets; too much upon  
These Cates, feeds his Imagination.  
But whilst he banquet's at his fuller feast,  
His Angel to him from the Heaven's preit.  
Taking Sophia's servant by the Hand  
His mind by these he let him understand.  
Blessed Pilgrim, and Sophia's servant, thou  
Must not rest here, but farther still must go:  
These are but streams, and Rivulets of Bliss,  
Sophia she the only Fountain is.  
Here thou mayst bathe thyself, but canst not swim  
Until thou comest to the Fountain's brim:  
There are vast Oceans, there thou mayst remain,  
These are but easements for your griefs, and pain:  
These are but objects at a distance, these  
Are but refreshments, and to give you ease,  
To make thy Way the sweeter, till thou art  
Hid in the Closet of Sophia's Heart.  
Take not thou then too much complacency  
In these, which only but the Conducts be  
To greater happiness; and do but show  
The tithe of Bliss, which thou art going to.  
Press on therefore; ' count every thing but ●elf  
To the enjoyment of Sophia's self.  
Roused by his Angel thus, the Pilgrim hies,  
And towards the perfect mark he faster flies.  
But far he had not gone before he meets  
An adversary, who upon him sets,  
VERTUMNUS 'twas, less constant than the Wind, 
Imagination or fancy.   
In every shape seeks to disturb the mind.  
A sly Ulysses, cunning to deceive,  
Leading to error if you him believe.  
His clothes were of all sorts of Feathers made;  
With Windiness, and swiftness under-laid.  
About his waist hung certain Looking-glasses  
Which represented strange disguised faces,  
Upon his left arm certain Pictures hung:  
In which those things, which to the World belong  
Were pictured, there Beauty was displayed  
There Castles, Forts, Rivers, and Seas were made:  
There Cities, Towns, Countries, Villages,  
Wars, Battles, Peace, and such like things as these:  
What e'er Imagination's Pencil could  
Express, in lively figures there were showed.  
On his right arm Celestial Pictures hung,  
And whatsomever did to Heaven belong  
There portrayed was: There Angels, Seraphims,  
There Thrones, there Saints, and fie●y Cherubims ●  
There Paradise, there Light, Stars, Suns were seen,  
And all Celestial Forms, and Bodies drawn.  
Accoutered thus, he meets our Pilgrim, and  
To stop his passage stretched out his left hand;  
This sight was not like to his other foes,  
No valour this, but shifts, and cunning knows:  
He is no Champion but o'ercomes by guile,  
And e'er his foe thinks on him gives the foil.  
Like to the wicked Pontic Bithiae, that  
Children, and Beasts with their looks facinate,  
He doth bewitch; skilled in Cyrcean arts,  
From every Picture he his charms imparts:  
And whilst they strangely draw our Pilgrim's eyes,  
He in the mean time makes of him a prize.  
Our Pilgrim meeting this fine fellow, thought  
The Weaponless could have no mischief wrought.  
He takes great pleasure to behold the charms  
Which dangling hung at both his feathered arms;  
Those Pictures yield content, his wandering mind  
Treads in those Mazes, and no end can find:  
Thus he delays his Journey, and this let,  
His hasty Voyage maketh him forget.  
But his good Angel putting him in mind  
Of's Journey, bid him this Deceiver bind;  
For that he was a Foe, and sought to keep  
Him back, by causing him awake, to sleep.  
On him he set, but a hard task he found:  
This Proteus would not be so quickly bound;  
Stoutly they wrestle; but if on his arms  
He cast his eyes, ●e's taken with those charms:  
He varies shapes, and do he what he can,  
No sooner bound but he is loosed again.  
A Champion who hath often won the field,  
By Custom knows not how, at last to yield:  
Each Conquest adds new Life, and courage to  
His animated Soul; and makes him do  
More than can be hoped for: Our Pilgrim so  
Oft Victor, now will not faint-hearted grow.  
Here Faith assists him; and Perseverance  
Upon his Foes arms doth Ir'n chains advance.  
At last they bind his left arm, when his right  
He stretched out before the Pilgrim's sight:  
Those heavenly Pictures now he dotes upon,  
And brave Chimeras in his thoughts do run:  
They're all Celestial, cries he, who can choose?  
But on such heavenly Subjects always muse?  
These are but shadows, says his Angel, thou  
Unto the very substance must press to:  
And therefore first of all thou must o'ercome  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IMAGINATION:  
The Pilgrim seeing that he stopped his Way,  
And longing still SOPHIA to enjoy,  
After much struggling, flung him on the ground,  
And with Perseverances chains him bound.  
This Adversary being cast, he bent  
His course to Paradise, and forward went.  
Not far from thence his has●y steps did move  
Under the shadow of a silent Grove:  
The place was sacred to a Deity,  
Who with still silence would adored be.  
No babbling Echo in that Grove did dwell:  
No whistling Blackbird, no sweet Nightingale,  
No Bird at all came near those sacred boughs;  
The grass, nor bleating Sheep, nor mowing Cows  
Did feed; no living Creature did that blessed  
Place enter, to disturb its quiet rest.  
No ●●bble, chiding-Brook ran murmuring there,  
No Wind to move those silent Leaves did dare:  
About the middle of this silent place,  
P●tch'd on a mossy Hill a Couch there was;  
To this the Pilgrim went, and gently hurled  
Himself on it; As if another World  
He entered had, he found himself; a rest  
Seized on his working mind; both bad, and best●  
Thoughts banished were; disturbing fancy, or  
Imagination did not there discur.  
Asleep he was not, nor yet did he dream:  
Alive he was, but yet he dead did seem.  
His mind worked not on this, nor that: but he  
Raped was into a heavenly Lethargy.  
This is the Silent passive state in which  
God with his Finger Souls doth often touch:  
This is the sleep of jacob, this the Trance  
Of Paul, when he did to the heavens advance:  
This is the state, in which the Soul's blest tye  
Sees God (beyond Thoughts) Intellectually.  
This is the st●te in which SOPHIA will  
Souls (emptied thus) with her blessed Spirit fill.  
Then is the Soul made fit for to receive  
Those Bounties, which heavens blessed Hand doth give.  
For whilst thoughts do her empty vessels fill,  
Receive she can't heavens higher Bounties well.  
A Cup filled to the brim can hold no more:  
Nor stomach● meat desire, if full before.  
Then is the Soul fit to be wrought upon,  
And to receive heavens seal's impression.  
What in this state she doth or hear, or see,  
Must needs be true; she can't deceived be.  
Unutterable were those Sweets, which here  
Our Pilgrim felt; before his eyes appear  
The Beauties of the inner Worlds, and on  
His Soul divine irradiation  
Is poured: and now his soul with Constant eye  
Beholds true glances of Eternity.  
Pens are too weak for to express the Bliss  
Which in this silent state enjoyed is.  
Thunders, and Whirlwinds are not heavens choice;  
He softly whispers in a silent Voice.  
The Souls ears than are eyes; what Heaven then shows  
The Soul both hears, sees, ●eels, and truly knows.  
Deep is the sight when that no thoughts control,  
For Heaven than gives eyes to the passive Soul,  
Past reach of Reason than she flies, and there  
With a new Light sees demonstration clear.  
But on our Pilgrim passes, and (to ease  
Himself) oft rests in such blessed Groves as these,  
Which thick stood in the Way, there quiet rest  
From working thoughts his passive Soul possessed.  
And now unto this World he bids adieu,  
The inner World appeareth in his view.  
No new relations he receives, who from  
Spiritual ties, and heavens kind hand doth come.  
Those who do travel in the Way with him,  
By heavens Venture are his brethren.  
And Sisters, tied by a nearer Bond  
Than ever Earth, or Nature yet had donned.  
They are his Brothers, be they rich or poor,  
Who in their Hearts his 
* (i. e. Gods.)  Father's Image bear.  
Those are his Fathers, and his Mothers that  
Into Regeneration begot  
His Soul: Nature's Children do ne'er to their  
Parents, the Love which heavens to theirs do bear.  
Though he Loves all, yet there's degrees in Love,  
Some are more near, and some do farther move:  
As in the building of an House you see,  
Some stones do touch, while others farther be:  
Some are more near, some keep a distance, yet  
All to the Structure are exceeding fit.  
So Spirits joined are, in that divine  
And heavn'ly building they do thus Combine.  
Some they are nearer knit than others, thus  
john unto Christ the most beloved was.  
Here Spirits signatured alike conjoin,  
And in a mystic union combine:  
Here Spirits be espoused, and here they see  
That they meet helps unto each other be,  
Some can't receive from every vessel though  
Their thirsty souls drink what from others flow.  
One gives, another he receives, and he  
Gives to another, here's the harmony.  
Saints thus combined, are like a Tower, that  
Unshaken stands against the Devils shot:  
He fears such unions, therefore all his Art,  
And cunning, he still uses, them to thwart.  
O blessed union! whom God thus doth join,  
Let no man venture for to discombine.  
This doth produce a Love implete with Bliss,  
Which far above natural affection is.  
No Man but he that has 't the Virtue knows  
Of this Love which from pure union flows.  
Words can't expressed, that heart which feels it doth  
Know certainly that here I speak a Truth.  
The highest love of Friendship, which doth shine  
So bright 's the Image of this Love divine:  
The Stars alone that doth concatinate,  
Nature, and Grace bind fast this firmer state.  
He who this Love Possesses would rejoice  
(And with great joy ' count it an happy choice)  
To die, and suffer torments for his Brother,  
And lose his blood with joy to free another.  
In this state two are one: one cannot smart  
Feel, but it thrilleth thorough the other's heart.  
One can't be sad, but by a Sympathy  
The other's sinking Soul doth almost die.  
Joy never bloometh in the Face of one,  
But gladness in the other's eyes doth shine.  
Although ●eas, and a thousand Leagues do part  
Their Bodies, yet by sympathetic Art  
Their Spirits meet, 
Col. 2. 5.  and kiss, and do declare  
At the same moment, how each other fare,  
In the black lines, writ by each others hand●  
A flowing Fire of constant Love thy find;  
No sooner can their eyes be placed on them,  
But thorough them to their hearts, a flaming stream  
Of sweetest Fire runs: and every Line  
Unto that Fire, doth new fuel join.  
O blessed Love which from true Union flows!  
Thy sweetness none, but those that taste thee knows!  
Base Earthly Lust, and wanton Love's alloy  
Is all but d●o●●e: and counterfeited joy.  
Is mixed with them, hut here true sweetness is  
True Joy, and an unutterable Bliss.  
Our Pilgrim tasted this felicity,  
Whereby he found all earthly Harmony  
Below this sweetness▪ Sweets Affection  
But far more sweet is heavenly Union.  
In Bodies joining is Earth's Lovers bl●sse:  
In Soul's uniting heavens true Lovers is.  
Most justly did the Holy Spirit Call  
The Serpent the most subtle Beast of all:  
And though in subtlety he doth excel,  
His envy runneth with it parallel:  
This sets abroach that; this desires the ill;  
That's the Instrument for to perform it still:  
And where he can't do what he would to Man,  
He ' l show his Teeth, and do what e'er he can.  
Think you our Pilgrim, though so far he be  
Gone, past the reach of his fell Subtlety?  
No Hell must show his envy still, and to  
The very last try what his power can do.  
When he had tried all Stratagems in vain,  
The Pilgrim's union with the Saints to strain,  
To burst that League, which breaks the Leagues of Hell,  
And their united Forces oft repel:  
To spoil that marriage of Spirits, from  
Whose happy juncture sacred Powers do come,  
Which overthrow those Legions of the  
Great Prince of Hell, and all Impiety:  
To break that true-love's Knot, which only can  
Bind fast the hands of this fierce foe to Man.  
When he in vain to hinder this had tried,  
And saw our Pilgrim by an happy Guide  
Had it attained; he seeks some other Way  
In midst of all his Sweets him to betray.  
His envious eye beholds the Pilgrim's Soul  
Oft to carouse it in Loves sacred Boul,  
Where she whole streams of Nectar gulped down,  
Sweeter than Honey, or the Honeycomb.  
Down to his Stygian Kingdom goes the Foe,  
And there assembles all his Cooks below;  
Makes them to cull the fairest Fruit the Tree  
Of ills doth bear: First than Complacency,  
Then Covetousness, than Pride, than S●lfishnesse,  
Envy, and jealousy, and such as these  
He takes: and by a cunning Chemistry  
Draws out their blackness, and deformity;  
Extracts their bitterness, and makes them fair,  
Refined like Crystal, and as pure as air;  
But yet the poison still was left behind,  
Which stronger grew the more they were refined;  
From these a juice he drew, most fair, and clear,  
And up he mounteth to the Pilgrim's Sphere.  
Skulking behind a cloud this Serpent lay,  
And for an opportunity did stay  
To poison him: and VIGILANTIA did  
No sooner turn her back, and step aside,  
But to the Boul he stepped (for she alas!  
The noble Pilgrim's chief Pincerna was)  
And in he poured that Hellish juice; among  
heavens blessed Nectar mixing that poison strong.  
Th' unawary Pilgrim by and by the Cup  
Takes, and in is Nectar drinks Hell's poison up.  
Anon the several poisons begin to work;  
Whilst Satan laughing in his sleeve, doth lurk  
Unseen, to see the sport: Oh! how he smiled  
At the conceit of Man's being thus beguiled.  
The Pilgrim did not feel that he was ill.  
Or that Hel's poison did his Nectar spill:  
But now it began to work, he did not cast  
His eyes unto the Fountain but embraced  
Too much the streams: Too much Complacency  
He took, in the fruition of those high  
Gifts of the Spirit; too much dotes upon  
Visions, Voices, Spirits union,  
He fears to lose them, and cannot resign  
To Heaven his Nectar, or his gifts divine.  
Now to himself all Spirits he'd engross,  
He Covets gifts, and ' counts no greater cross  
Than for to lose them; thus doth covetousness  
Spring in his Soul in its refined dress.  
Pride started up, and though spiritualised,  
A curious clothing for his Soul devised,  
Wherein he prides himself; he 's not content  
Except that others know he 's eminent  
In all the Gifts and graces of the Spirit;  
He loves to be sought after for his merit:  
Clothed with heavens Pride of gifts, and graces, he  
Aspires, and would accounted something be.  
Next selfishness did operate, and that  
Self-Int'rest, and Propriety begat  
In Spirits, Gifts, and Graces: This doth seem  
For to belong to him, and none but him.  
Then Envy worked, and he is not content  
To see another be more eminent  
In Visions, Raptures, or the like; or that  
Others enjoy them, and he go without.  
Then jealousy spread thorough every vein,  
It's virulent poison fuming in his Brain;  
He every one suspects, and jealous is  
Left others rob him of what he Calls his.  
He fears to lose a Spirit; that another  
His gifts or Graces shining Light should smother:  
He jealous is lost his Lights be out-shon,  
Or that another's should eclipse his own.  
This Hell's refining poison spreading through  
His Breast, e'er he aware was brought him to:  
And thus the noble Stone was almost spoiled,  
When fort the Pilgrim had long stoutly tovled,  
That eye whose Rays pierce the Earth's Centre, and  
Sees to the bottom of the Stygian strand:  
Which spite of Night; and Hell's calliginous  
Mantle, beholds what ever Satan does:  
That Eye which every secret thought betrays,  
And to its self, hid actions open lays,  
That Eye beheld the spite of Hell, and saw  
Upon the Pilgrim's heart his poison gnaw.  
Nothing so soon as th' objects of the eye,  
Pity attracts for others misery:  
The ear so soon doth not affect the Heart  
With generous pity as the Optic part:  
He that 's all Eye, and every thing doth see,  
Can he w'hout pity view man's misery?  
No, he 's all pity, and his Bowels roll  
At every pang of an afflicted Soul.  
Poison i'th' Pilgrim's Breast no sooner flows,  
But he his pity, and his mercy shows.  
His Angel-guardian is Commissioned straight  
To show to him, the Stygian Prince 's hate:  
And against that poison which so strongly wrought  
In is breast, to offer him an Antidote.  
Glad of the message, down the Angel flies,  
Whilst sparkling Joy beamed from his sacred eyes;  
Glad to do service to heavens Servitor,  
He shows himself clad with refulgent air.  
In is hand he brought a Crystal Glass which ●●ll'd  
Was with pure Light, from heavens Alimbeck stilled:  
This he unto the Pilgrim gave, and bid  
Him drink it up; The which he straight ways did.  
No sooner had he gulped it down, but he  
Beheld his Error, and Hell's treachery:  
He saw the infestous poison, though 'twas clear,  
By this draught now his eyes far purer are,  
And can behold all its impurities,  
Which had caused all irregularities.  
This draught the Veil pulled off, and he espies,  
Where Hell's strong poison in heavens Nectar lies,  
So had he seen a noxious Serpent dwell  
I'th' green grass, and Toads in a Crystal Well.  
Startled at this sight: seal my eyes again  
He cries, or else from me this poison drain.  
'Tis better I were blind, and could not see,  
Then to behold an helpless misery.  
It is a double pain hard haps to bear,  
And seeing them remediless to fear:  
An unseen harm less dread doth cause? I pray  
Or take my eyes or this foul Ill away.  
It is thyself, the Angel doth reply,  
That to thyself must give the remedy:  
There is a pill will do't: I'll show it thee,  
If thou wilt take it freely follow me.  
The willing Pilgrim soon consents, they go  
Straight forward without turning in heavens Way.  
Now far they had not gone, e'er they came to  
A pleasant Green, whose lustrous verdant hue  
Cheered the Pilgrim's Spirit; and in the midst  
Thereof, he saw, a flaming Altar placed:  
And coming nearer fairly wrote upon  
The sides he saw TRUE RESIGNATION:  
'Twas to this Altar that blessed Abraham  
(The Angel said) to offer Isaac came,  
And here it is, and in th●se flames divine,  
And on this Altar thou must offer thine:  
Here what somever thou dost dearly prize,  
To Heaven must prove a pleasing sacrifice.  
'Tis true, thou didst pleasures, and sins once bring  
Unto the Fire: A fairer offering  
Now must th' Oblation be: As Earth by you  
Was offered up; so offer Heaven too.  
Not only Earth's, but heavens fair gifts divine,  
Thou on this Altar, must to God resign.  
Amongst those Flames (which were Aetherial)  
The Angel put his hand, and culled a coal;  
A Carbuncle set in a Ring of Gold  
Glowed as the Coal between his fingers hold.  
Lo here a Pill (says he) that doth contain  
An Antidote, against that deadly Bain  
Thou hast drunk down: in this one Pill there are  
The Lemnian Earth, and precious Bezoar,  
Treacle, and Mitridiate locked up: This pure  
Pill will effect not an Ac●sian Cure:  
Not all the drugs of A●sculapius  
Or Galen can do half so much as this.  
The joyful Pilgrim takes the flaming Pill;  
Which from his mouth down to his heart did thrill;  
No sooner was it ●in his Breast, but strait  
He Hel's soul Poison did Evacuate.  
That glowing Pill fired from his heart's fast hold,  
And utterly destroyed Hel's bainful Cold.  
Thus by the Heavenly Therapeutic, he  
Receives by Heat for cold a Remedy.  
Now bas●el'd Satan, with an hideous roar  
To Hell flies vexed, more than he joyed before.  
Shall Servants grumble to repay their Lord  
His own? or not be willing to afford  
Him back, what he lends them? Shall Stewards grieve,  
When their Lords at their hands their own receive?  
Why then doth man so often shrug, and pine,  
When God bids him his lend to resign?  
A careful Father that hath sent unto  
His Son some sums honestly to employ.  
Is it not requisite he should be still  
Exactly subject to his Father's Will?  
And that the money back be paid again  
With willingness if he require the same?  
Or should not that Depositum still be  
At his dispose without an injury?  
Now if the Father should behold his Son  
Squander his Coin, in evil courses run:  
Lose his Estate in Games! or be unfit  
To manage (for which end he gave him) it;  
Doth he do wrong unto his Child, if then  
He summons back his ill-used Love again?  
Then grumble not O Man! if Heaven shall  
What he has lent (if thou abuseed) recall.  
Thou nothing haste; why mak'st thou then such moan  
When God doth call for nothing but his own?  
Is it not better that thou willingly  
Thyself, and thine to heavens high Will shouldst tie?  
When that thou knowst none contradict it can?  
Yet such the frowardness of wilful Man  
Is, that although he knows God's Will be done  
Must, yet will he contrary to it run:  
Such is his stubbornness; and thus he ' l show't,  
To contradict God had he power to do't.  
God will his Will effect: This pleases Heaven  
Though, that Man's will should with his Will be even:  
That our wills should will nothing, but what he  
Would have: That his Command ours subject be.  
His will is the Daystar, the fairest Guide,  
Who follows it can never turn aside.  
That sanctified Pill of glowing fire  
Which did unto our Pilgrim's breast retire,  
Purged forth Hell's venom, and what ever might  
Unto heavens sacred Will prove opposite.  
He now is willing, what e'er he doth prize,  
To God in those bright flames to sacrifice.  
His clothes pu● off; and naked, (only clad  
With true subjection to the will of God,  
His Priestly Ephod) he gives to the flame  
What ever Heaven had freely given him.  
Those lustrous flames he with Ambrosia fed,  
And all his Manna on the Altar spread:  
His Oil, and Honey in the fire fries,  
And his choice Nectar proves a Sacrifice.  
Ah there he parts with all Heavn'ns' gifts divine,  
And them again doth unto Heaven resign.  
Visions, and Raptures in the flames he flings,  
His unions, and all those bubbling springs  
Of choicest Wine, his holy Gifts, his Powers,  
And Rapting Heats upon the flames he showers.  
His dainty Hymas, and Soul-bewrapting lays,  
And Heaven and all, he to those flames betrays.  
He doth himself of all his pride disrobe,  
Leaving himself as poor as naked job;  
His Heart, and will at last he there bequeathes  
And all his Riches to those flames he gives;  
And now having nothing left, with a profound  
Submission, his Lips do kifle the ground,  
While the sweet Fumes of this blessed Libament  
Are from the Altar to heavens nostrils sent.  
Abel's sweet offerings ne'er more pleasing were  
To God, than these our Pilgrim offered here.  
Nor did to Heaven a sweeter savour spring  
From the burnt flesh of Noa●'s offering.  
Nor Abraham's Ram was more accepted; nor  
Smelled sweeter Aron's Frankincense, and Myrrh.  
The spotless Lamb the offering for Peace  
Was not a gentler offering than these:  
North ' Oil, and Meal the offering of meat:  
Nor Salom●n's whole He catombs more great.  
Nor did all Aaron's offerings but show  
What Christ for us did; and what we must do.  
Heaven did not Aaron's offerings prefer  
To what our Pilgrim freely offered here:  
Nor was he more a Priest than he, who had  
All sacrificed to the Living God.  
Christ was a Prophet, Priest, and King: so we  
By him made Prophets, Priests, and Kings shall be.  
Our Pilgrim having offered all: upon  
The sounding Altar of his warbling Tongue,  
At last he offers Heaven this precious Song,  
Whose Airs like Mir●h, and Incense smelled strong:  
His Heart flew with his words: with open Ears  
Heaven, from such Tones the speaking Music hears.   

Whole Hecatombs of sins have I  
upon thine Altar laid  
Sin, Flesh, the world by me did die,  
By me their Death they had.   

I sacrificed them all to thee  
O King of Kings! O God  
Their savour to thy Throne did fly,  
And to thy blessed abode.   

I am a Priest become, for thou  
Hast made me one, and I  
My Mitre to thy Throne do b●w,  
And to thy Majesty.   

Here in true Resignation  
I offer unto thee:  
My Ephod's true subjection,  
My Girdle Purity.   

Upon that Altar I have laid  
All that I have, and now  
I have myself quite naked made,  
Unto thy Throne I bow.   

Those rich Attires which thine own hand  
Had decked me withal,  
I have pulled off at thy Command,  
And burned them at thy Call.   

More dear than my best Blood they were,  
Yet without grudge I give  
Them all into this blessed Fire,  
That I might naked live.   

Myself I truly now resign,  
My will is not mine own;  
My Heart, my works, my words are thine,  
Self now is fled, and gone.   

Accept my Sacrifice O Lord!  
But I can nothing Crave,  
My will is thine, my word, thy Word,  
I truly nothing hav●.   

I passive am, my will is slain  
Under thine Altar, I  
In true subjection do remain,  
And dying daily die   

Deny me Heaven, if it please thee  
I cannot now repine;  
For I subject now unto thee,  
My will is throughly thine.   

Confine me to the deepest Hell,  
Enchain me there for ay,  
If it please thee I'll think it well,  
And willingly will stay.   

Whilst on the Earth I dwell if thou  
All miseries dost give,  
I gently under them will ●ow;  
Contentedly will live.   

And if thou strik'st me blind or lame,  
Or deaf, or dumb, yet still,  
So long as from thy hand it came  
I entertain it will.   

Let all the World with scoffs deride  
Me, blast my better Name:  
Or set me up with praises pride,  
I still will be the same.   

Command me what thou wilt, I am  
how ready to obey,  
Nor Reputation, or shame,  
When thou bidst go shall stay.   

And if thou bid'st I'll cut my hair,  
I will the madman play,  
My hinder parts I will make bare; 
Ezek. ●.   
What e'er thou bid'st obey.   

I thorough the World will naked go.  
And thorough the Flames I'll run;  
If thou command'st it shall be so,  
Thy Will it shall be done.   

If thou command'st me to the Rack,  
I there will passive be,  
And when my very heartstrings crack,  
With Joy I'll yield to thee.   

If thou Commandest me to speak,  
I boldly then will do 't,  
Nor fear of Death shall silent make▪  
Nor cause me to be mute.   

In harder things than these, I Can  
Subject unto thy will,  
For now my own is th'roughly slain,  
I ready, thine fulfil.   

For now I can remain Content  
Without that glorious Blisle,  
Which once thy goodness to me sent,  
Since that thy will it is.   

Those Visions, Raptures, Prophecies,  
Those Gifts, and Graces all  
Those Hymns, those Ardours, Harmonies  
Can render at thy Call.   

All Unions with Spirits, I  
Without can gladly go:  
Can be content Continually  
Not that sweet Bliss to Know-worth   

I without Envy now can see  
Thy Gifts, and Graces given  
To others: and content to be  
In Hell, whilst they're in Heaven.   

I am not jealous, nor do doubt  
That others will rob me:  
I am Content to be without,  
Whilst others filled be.   

I am Content that others live  
In all thy Gifts divine:  
Whilst I myself am in the Grave,  
And to thy Will resign.   

Do what thou pleasest Lord with me,  
For I am truly slain:  
I being subject unto thee,  
At thy dispose remain.   

This is the state which Reason's foolish Schools  
Do nominate the Paradise of Fools,  
Because their high adored Deity  
Reason, 's cast down, and on the Earth must lie.  
When the holy Ark enters the Temple, than  
Dagon must fall, and break his Neck; so when  
Wisdom divine its Beauties doth display  
Upon our Souls, Reason much pack away:  
That is too shallow, for to Comprehend  
Those things which WISDOM'S Wisdom doth Command;  
It's a false Judge, and cannot truly see  
Beyond the dark Clouds of Mortality.  
The first degree in wisdom's sacred School, 
Paul's Epistle to 〈◊〉 Corinth. 1 co●. 〈◊〉 18.   
Is to be Wise, by first becoming Fool:  
Fool to the Earthly Reason, in Divine  
Wisdom, a Wise man by subjection shine.  
Mistake me not; I'll not have you put out  
The Souls bright Eye, and so become a Bruit▪  
I'd not have Reason banished from Men;  
Mere Animals indeed they would be then;  
But that our Reason pass not those Bounds given  
To terminate it, by the Hand of Heaven.  
But that our Reason should its weakness own.  
Confess that heavens Arcana's are unknown  
To her; That her weak eyes can't gaze upon  
The glorious splendour of bright wisdom's Sun;  
And not to dare with a proud scrutiny  
To search heavens secrets with her purblind eye.  
Our eyes are Lights unto our steps: but shoot  
Their Balls against the Sun, he ' l put them out:  
Reason's our Guide below; but when she flees  
Against wisdom's Sun she loseth both her eyes.  
Reason's illuminate, and soar's on high  
When wisdom dareth unto her an eye:  
Then, her eye passeth to the highest Sphere,  
Searcheth the deeps, and seeth Wonders there:  
But before Reason can this eye attain,  
She must acknowledge that her own are vain.  
This Lesson now heavens Pilgrim learned, and He  
Subjects his Reason to Divinity.  
He knows he must be born a new, and then  
He knows he must become a Child again.  
With such heavens Kingdom is implete: you know  
Children are Innocent, and harmless too.  
They're pretty Lambs, poor Tenderlings, their eyes  
The seats of Innocence, of Smiles the prize.  
They have no wills; you may do what you list  
To them: they are not able to resist.  
But if you h●rt them the defence you have,  
Their Tong●●s are, which with cries for pity crave.  
Set them down here they cannot stir, or go  
Till you remove them; they no evil know.  
The Devil cannot hurt them: they defy  
With pretty Innocence, his subtlety.  
They know no guile, they know no evil, nor  
Sin. They made fit for heavens Mansions are.  
The 〈◊〉 ●o such who gain the Childlike state, 
M●●. ●8 6.   
〈◊〉 hath already read their woeful fate:  
Th●se who offend such Babes had better be,  
〈◊〉 with a Millstone, cast into the Sea.  
They are his Care, his tender Lambs, who these  
Offend, do highly Ch●ist himself displease.  
O●r tru●-resign'd, and child like Pilgrim now,  
His, to 〈◊〉 's highest will doth bow:  
But whilst he at his Altar prostrate lies,  
His Angel speaking thus, Commands him rise.  
Arise thrice happy Pilgrim! Let us still  
Proceed, for that (I'm sure) is heavens Will:  
Thou almost fitted art, for to behold  
Those glories, which by Tongues cannot be told.  
Th●●ce bowed the Pilgrim, not to him, but God:  
And on they went in heavens illustrious Road.  
But by, and by, two flying Coursers brought  
Thither, at th' Angel's beck a Chariot:  
Into 〈◊〉 they went; no sooner seated they  
Were, but through th' Air the Courser's Wings make way:  
Earth 's left behind, and now they launched are  
Into the calm Sea of the gentle Ayr.  
The Angel's Pilot, guide, and Charoteer,  
Who upward drives, and from the Earth doth steer.  
A place there is not viewed by mortal eyes,  
Which 'twixt four Worlds just in the middle lies:  
Thither the Angel took his Course, and on  
A rising Hill, to Land his Chariot came.  
Alighting there, they mount unto the top,  
Where was an antique Cross erected up.  
After the Pilgrim round had viewed the place,  
And with his eyes sued to know where he was,  
The Angel then his long-kept silence broke,  
And this unto the holy Pilgrim spoke.  
This Hill on which thou standest doth lie between  
The four great Worlds; from hence all may be seen:  
Cast down thine ●ye, that which thou se●st below,  
Is th' outward World, from which we came but now:  
Where yo● ' dark mist is, upon thy lest Hand,  
The Devils dark internal World doth stand:  
Where yond bright Light on thy right hand doth shine,  
Is the Light World, or Paradise divine:  
Over thy head from whence that glory springs,  
The Mansion is of the great King of Kings.  
Th' Aeternal World: and thither 'tis, I know  
Thou pressest, and desirous art to go.  
Th'rough Paradise the way doth thither lie,  
Which e'er thou cann'st attain thou here must die.  
Here thou must crucified be, for that  
Through Hell thou must pass e'er thou canst come at  
Blessed Paradise: and dangerous it is  
To pass thorough Hell before you Death do kiss.  
Death will disrobe thee of whatever may  
In Hell's dark Kingdom thy brave progress stay.  
Thou must to all things crucified be,  
And no impediment retain with thee.  
For if thou bearest any thing, on which  
Wrath's mighty King his iron claws may pitch,  
He will torment thee, and enforced by pain  
Thou to this Cross return must back again.  
Thou canst not pass his Kingdom, until thou  
Thy Head to blessed Death, dost freely bow:  
For by this Death thou gainest thy Saviour's blood,  
Which thorough Hell thy passage will make good:  
Wrath's King may threaten then, but dare not d●  
For is ears, the least of injuries to you.  
But if thou ventur'st through his Kingdom, and  
No● Crucified here, thou canst not stand.  
Thou seest the Way, now if thou canst embrace  
A happy 〈◊〉, here is the Cross, and place.  
Ch●●st made Death easy; fear not then to die,  
But let this Mount, be thy Mount CALVARY.  
This said the Angel bid the place adieu,  
And through the smooth air in the Chariot flew,  
Leaving the Pilgrim to encounter Death,  
And to gain Life, by yielding mortal breath.  
The Pilgrim being left alone, unto  
The Cross he ran, and his sweet lips did glue  
Unto its hard sides; from his mouth there came  
Blessings, and hearty k●●●es mixed with them.  
About its sides his grasping arms did twine,  
Enclosing it as Elms the t●nder Vine.  
Blessed instrument by Death of Life, cried he,  
Man's gain, Hel's pain loss to Mortality,  
The zeal of Heaven; the blessed spoil of sin,  
The Key that shuts Hell out, and lets Heaven in:  
The Way to glory; and of Crowns the gain;  
The Bar to Death, and everlasting pain:  
To Death, but 'tis of Flesh, and Sin the Way:  
The Road to Life, and everlasting joy..  
Come Death; come Death, I now prepared am  
To Die, Come nail me to this Cross: O come,  
Come strike me with thy kill Dart! for I  
To give the Ghost up of mortality,  
Of Flesh, of Sin do long: Come here's my Heart  
Prepared to receive thy kill Dart.  
Thou shalt slay me, but when I yield my breath  
I Victor am: for my last foe is Death. 
〈…〉. 15. 26.   
DEATH then appeared: though terrible he seem  
To others doth, he pleasing showed to him.  
'Twas not the common Deafh, that takes away  
The little breath, we in this world enjoy.  
T was not that heap of Bones that frightful Death,  
Which digs men's graves, and robs them of their breath:  
That slays whole thousands every Day, and feasts  
His fleshless Carcase both on Men, and Beasts.  
No 'twas another Death, which yet would seem  
To some more terrible, and sierce than him.  
This Death's both foe, and Friend, a foe to all  
The sinful Man; Friend to the Spiritual.  
This kills the sinful Man, but durifies  
The outward; slayeth that, this rectifies.  
The sinful Man trembled to see the ●ace  
Of Death, and his vile execution place.  
O how he struggled, but it was in vain,  
The Pilgrim scorned him longer to retain:  
His willing arms he gave to Death, who strait  
Both Feet, and Hands with Nails did perforate,  
And fixed them to the Cross: and there, upon  
That Tree to true mortification  
He did attain; the Flesh, the World, and Sin  
Was slain: all which so long alive had been.  
This dying Swan, now drawing near his end,  
In such sweet notes his latest breath did spend.   

Vain world adieu  
No more on you  
I'll cast my dying eyes:  
This sacred cross  
Than all your dross  
To me 's a greater prize.   

Vain Flesh be gone,  
No longer on  
Your Beauties will I dote:  
The World, and you  
I bid adieu  
To sail in Death's safe boat.   

Too long I have been  
Alive to Sin  
But now upon the Cross,  
That life I'll leave,  
And Death receive  
Yet gain Life, by Life's loss.   

I have o'rethrone  
Temptation,  
And often given the soil  
But now I'll quell  
The Root of Hell,  
And 's nest in my breast spoil.   

By me hath sia  
Resisted been  
But now its root I will,  
Though, by the strife,  
I lose my life  
For growing ever spill.   

My Feet are nailed,  
(Affections quailed)  
Unto this Cross: my Hands  
(My active Life)  
Now ceaseth strife)  
Are bound with iron bands.   

Refined things  
May take their wings:  
And speed to others now,  
I passive am  
And dead become,  
To live I know not how.   

My Face grows pale,  
My Spirits fail,  
My dying breath doth fly,  
Hast Death, I pray,  
Take life away,  
For I do long to die.   

Death at these words struck thorough his tender heart,  
And Life, and death at one stroke did impart:  
Rivers of sinful blood ran down from his side;  
The sinful Nature groaned thrice and died:  
Flesh left the stroke, and was enforced to yield, 
Heb. 12. 4. Paul to the Romans, Rom. 6. 9 Rev. 20. 6.   
And to triumphing Death bequeath the Field:  
Thus he to Blood resisted: and did share  
In this first Death; nor doth he others fear  
Now he has tasted this; By this who fall,  
Fear not th' Eternal, nor the Natural.  
A pleasing Victim on the Cross he lay;  
heavens Sacrifice, and Death's most blessed prey.  
Go Hell and tempt him now with sugard Pills,  
Thrice gild, thrice dulcify your bitter ills,  
Use all your Art, use all your Eloquence,  
Conjoin your Words, and your false Excellence,  
Go all conspire in one him to deceive,  
See if he ' l either hear you, or believe  
Your subtle prating: Strength, and policy  
Together knit with all your subtlety,  
And see if either will admission gain:  
Away all your endeavours are in vain,  
Do not not you see he's dead? think you that he  
Then with your subtleties will moved be?  
Go spread a Table, and set on the Board  
The choicest viands fruitful Earth's afford;  
A thousand Cups with all her pleasures fill,  
Tempt him, and see if eat or drink he will.  
Away vain Idiots, you have lost your prize:  
Hell, and the World's cozened when Man thus dies.  
O blessed Death that seals our eyes, our ea●,  
Our mouth that they nor taste, nor see, nor hear  
Can, what Hell gives, or shows, or speaks to us:  
Thrice happy Man whom this blessed Death frees thus.  
A dead Man's wholly passive, what you list  
You may do to him, he cannot resist:  
So here our Pilgrim dead upon the Cross,  
At the disposal of his Father was,  
And truly mortified he hangeth on  
The Cross, until the ●ngel takes him down.  
Th' Heavenly Nuncio with Peace's Olive bough,  
And with victorious Palms, and Laurels, flew  
From the Aetherial Court; a wreath he brought  
Which can't be by Earth's Gold and Silver bought:  
It was a Branch of purest Gold, which he  
Commissionated, pulled from Life's fair Tree,  
To make a Garland for the Pilgrim's Head,  
And happily to crown with Life, the Dead.  
One Hand bore this; as precious a thing  
And 's Sacred he in 's other Hand did bring;  
A garment 'twas of Scarlet died in grain,  
Whose Tyrian blushes, Virgins blushes slain;  
The Pinks, and Roses as he passed by,  
Hung down their heads; to see a better dye  
Blushed for shame; but growing pale with spite,  
They (being outvy'd) themselves disrobed quite.  
This Garment tincted was in that blessed Blood,  
That Crimson spring, that deep died Scarlet flood,  
Which flowed from Iesu's sacred side, when he  
Died, that the sinful World might saved be.  
The Ermin-lined Purple which doth lie  
Solely upon the back of Majesty,  
Though covered over with Avacan Gems,  
To this rich Robe a simple Garment seems.  
Man, though he 's clothed, is naked without this;  
With this clothed, though he 's naked, clothed is.  
Unto the Crosse's foot the Angel came,  
And with his lovely eyes considers him;  
He sees the Pilgrim dead: the sinful man,  
Flesh, and its Members crucified, and slain:  
No ghastly sight this was; Death not enhance  
Did, those fresh glories of his countenance:  
This Death although he had made him freely bleed,  
Wrapped not his Body in his sheets of Lead:  
His eyes were sweetly closed, his cheeks did look  
Like those of the departing Feavour-struck:  
A dying Fire seemed there to lie,  
Which able was to court the nicest eye.  
From thence the helpful Angel takes him down,  
And with the Golden wreath of Life doth Crown  
His pious Temples: on his Head he pours  
Out of transparent Viols crystal showers,  
Pure water taken from the Fount of Bliss,  
Which every Limb from head to foot doth kiss,  
Which cleanseth every Limb, and part: And so  
The Stone's deep black converted is to snow.  
Stripped naked of his former rags, upon  
His back he puts the bloody Garment on:  
A Noble colour, White is turned to red,  
The Work's now almost throughly finished.  
Thus clothed, and dressed, to Life the Pilgrim came  
Another Man, and yet the very same.  
He looked as if he were new born again;  
His eyes saw now what he had never seen.  
His wand'ring Orbs on every thing do pass,  
As if enquiring in what place he was  
He saw a Region, which his eyes ne'er did  
Before behold; The Region was hid  
Before, but now lay open to his view.  
His speaking eyes the willing Angel drew  
For to declare what place it was: He broke  
Silence, and thus unto the Pilgrim spoke.   

Locus Purgatorius inter Mundos.  

OAvarice! for Gold, and Silver's prize,  
The golden Truth, thou ' hast turned to drossy Lies!  
Best things corrupted prove the worst of all:  
By Rome's false Limbo, doth true LIMBO fall. 
Optima corruptio est pessima.   
The Christian Churches first blest Founders sure,  
Their Streams delated from the Fountain pure:  
Heaven put that breath into their mouths, which they  
Inspired thus, to others did convey.  
The holy Ghost upon them breathed, nor was  
Their Words corrupted by an humane gloss.  
Then flourished Truth, and all our hierarchy  
Rejoiced so pure a Church on Earth to see.  
No pitchy clouds of error than did press  
'Twixt their eyes, and the Sun of Righteousness;  
The Truth shone then as clear, as doth the Sun  
Mounted in is golden Chariot, at noon.  
(Christ's Church sees clearly still where e'er it be  
Scattered, through others; and the Head is he)  
But envious Satan, when he saw Truth so  
Extremely spread, and o'er the World to grow;  
He sewed his Tares of Errors, and did blind  
With clouds of darkness, Man's true eye, the Mind.  
These faster than the true Wheat grew; this crop  
Of evil weeds, did soon the Wheat overtop.  
Darkness grew on apace; anon the Day  
Could not its Light but here and there display,  
Th'rough the small crannies of dark clouds: then 'twas  
Pride, and Ambition in Rome's Church took place:  
Then crept in all those Ceremonies; then  
The Truth gave place unto the wiles of Men.  
Then Avarice, with her hooked Talons made  
Such Laws, which turned Religion to a Trade,  
And for the Love of Money did disguise  
Fair Truth, and clothed her with a pack of Lies.  
Something of precious Truth; something of Day,  
Under disguise; under the clouds there lay.  
Your Silver ISIS about Chelsy's not,  
The same, as where his bubbling springs do put  
First forth their Crystal Heads near Thorlton, for  
Churne's, wondrushe's, and Cherwell's waters there  
And Tame's, Coln's, brent's, with his clear streams do run:  
So on the other side he entertain  
Doth Ock, Lad, K●nn●t, Surrie's Rivers too,  
Whose severe Waters with his mingle do:  
Yet with these may at Ch●lsy run the same  
Pure waters, which from his clear springhead came.  
So pure Religion's streams, by this time had  
With many of Hel's Stygian stream lets spread,  
Which were polluted with their Waters, yet  
Amongst them Truth's pure Crystal streams did ●●i●,  
But so bemudded that they scarce were seen  
But by those clear eyes who did dive for them.  
The snowy flower is mixed with the Bran:  
The chaff with Wheat; one sift the other fa●  
We must: not ●●ing them both away, and make  
Th' ●ne useless for us, for the other's sako.  
We must beware when that the Tares we cull;  
Lest we with them the wheat up also pull.  
Fifteen Cent'ries, and two decades of years,  
After Christ's death, from Isleben appears  
A Light by which Rome's muddy streams were seen,  
By which the Truth men strove to c●ll between  
Error's black clouds; But Zeal them so possessed,  
They her rejected, 'cause by Rome's hands dressed.  
So fearful were they of a Romish dress,  
That Truth they ' add rather leave, than her possess  
In that false Habit; many Truth's despised  
Were thus, because by Rome they were disguised.  
Among the rest, and not the least, this place,  
This Region which thou now beholdest, one was:  
And 'cause Rome's fopperies had obscured the Light  
Of it, forsooth they it discarded quite:  
And by the ears it from existence whorry,  
For fear of entertaining Purgatory.  
The Truth of it now testify thou mayst  
To others, now thyself thou seen it haste.  
It is not such thou seest as Rome doth fain,  
For th' all-corrupting Gold, and Silver's gain.  
This is the middle Region, and doth hide  
Itself between four Worlds, on every side  
They bound this place. Wouldst thou know who those be  
Who yonder up and down you wandering see?  
They are departed Souls, who had begun  
The holy Race to Sion's Hill to run:  
Who had Hel's broad Road left, and who in this  
heavens Path, some progress made had towards Bliss;  
But e'er their Nature's purified were,  
E'er they attained had to that happy Sphere,  
Which unto Paradise immediate leads,  
Pa●ca asunder cut their vital thread:  
Their parted souls then to this Region flew,  
Where they must perfect what they had to do,  
Where they till purified must remain,  
E'er they to Paradise admittance gain.  
Th'rough Hel's deep Centre must the Soul first pass,  
And thorough a Sea of Fire to that of Glass,  
Th'rough the first Principle (as thou anon  
Shalt see) Now if the Soul's not clothed upon  
With Christ's sanguinous Robe, the second and  
Most holy Principle, she cannot stand,  
But there is captivate, or beaten back  
Unto the Cross, t' endure the holy Rack,  
By putting off the first, that so she may  
With th' second Principle herself array:  
Then may the pass, and not before; Those who  
In flesh this holy Robe do not endue,  
But dying hold by Faith 's strong clue: are brought  
Hither, to finish what remains unwrought.  
The Way to Heaven is not so easy, as  
By poor beguiled Man imagined was:  
Strait is that Ga●e, and narrow is that Way, 
Mat. 7. 14.   
Which Mortals doth conduct to perfect Day:  
He that to press through this strait Gate would se●k,  
Must fling the World, and flesh from off his neck,  
They cannot enter Heaven with him; nor can  
Some Notions prove a Saviour unto Man:  
The Work must somewhere finished be; if on  
The Earth, to Heaven they go: if not till done  
It fully be they here remain: But those  
Wend strait to Hell, who Hel's highway had chose.  
Man calls God merciful, yet makes the same  
God, the third part of all mankind to damn.  
Hardhearted Man! dost thou not know there is  
An armed Cherub 'fore the Gate of Bliss?  
Dost thou not know that Paradise is kept,  
By Arms unwearied, Eyes that never slept?  
By a bright flaming Falchion, which enough  
Of terror strikes to keep the wicked off?  
Or tell me Man! hast thou yet never heard  
That Imperfection cannot pass this Guard?  
Nor flesh, nor blood can enter Heaven, nor can  
Ever come there the least imperfect man. 
● Cor. 15. 50.   
No Imperfections enter Paradise.  
If Man's not perfect then before he dies,  
(A some by no means grant) where shall he then  
Be perfect made, but in this Region?  
'Tis true, degrees ●ere in perfection are:  
None thoroughly perfect still he comes, where  
Mortality of immortality  
Is swal owed up: where he beholds the Eye,  
And Face of God without a Screen: to this  
None can attain whilst in the flesh he is.  
How few are there that to a perfect State  
Arrive, before Death Life doth terminate!  
To such a State I mean, in which they may  
To Paradise go, and make here no stay,  
When their Souls fly their Bodies: Souls must clear  
Be purged on Earth, from what they drunk in there.  
It is not Notions that the Work must do,  
It must be real, and done throughly too:  
This Work not in t●e Head, but Heart doth lie,  
That's most regarded by th' allseeing Eye:  
If they with Christ are truly risen, they  
When Dye, pass by this purging Region may.  
But tell me Man! what shall those Pilgrim's do,  
Who in heavens Way have gone, but come not to  
Be dead, and risen with our Lord, when by  
The Way they lose their mortal Life, and die?  
They are not fit for Paradise: What then?  
Must they be hurled to the Stygian Den?  
Must they be damned? with God's great Mercy rather  
Doth it not stand, to bring their Spirits hither?  
Where they may finish, what they had begun; 
* And stay   
And to the end of Sion's Race may run?  
Dost say 'tis by Christ's Blood they're purged? we know't:  
But dost thou know what time he ' l take to do't? 
Donec, longa dies, profecto temporis Orbe concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit Aethereum sensum, atque auraï simplicis ignem. Virg.   
'Tis he that doth it here; 'tis by his Blood,  
And in this place that they are purified.   

It was dear Pilgrim Man's stupidity,  
That me enforced to this Apostrophe.  
But now▪ I'll tell thee more: This is the place  
Which by Christ's Sermon once made happy was,  
When he to those who perished in the flood  
Repentance preached; and made 
* 1 P●t. 46  predictions good.  
'Twas to the dead departed souls that he,  
Bestoved his blessed! bounteous Charity  
After his own death, when he had in one  
By an Hypostatical Union, 
* 1 P●t. 3● 19, 19   
His humane Soul, and Deity conjoined,  
And not in No●h's time, as 
* Zach. 9 11, 12. Esay 61. 1. Mat. 12. 22. Nor in this world, nor in the world to come, shall they have pardon.  some divined.  
To Spirits, not to Men in flesh he spoke, 
* Scaliger.   
And did their Prison, than a Temple make.  
I would a question ask of peevish man,  
Who doth to Death, those you call Heathen damn,  
Seeing God almighty did with those souls bear,  
Who 'fore the flood would not his servant hear.  
But perished by the Waters, and did them  
Not to an everlasting Death Condemn,  
But to this Region brought their souls, where they  
Their Ransom might with true Repentance pay:  
Whither the Gentiles, (who but 'bate their name  
Do in morality most Christians shame)  
Who before Christ's time lived by Nature's Law,  
And conscientious unto what they saw;  
Who had endued a moral Honesty,  
Studious of that, and all Sobriety,  
Seeing that their Nature's dim taper had  
Only to walk by, though their Light was bad  
They walked as well, as that could guide; and though  
They wanted that bright Sun, which we do know,  
They God in some part knew: whether these be  
Condemned to Hell for all Eternity?  
Or whether God his Mercy has not shown  
To them, and brought them to this Region?  
Where they by Christ might saved be, seeing none  
Are saved but by blessed Him alone?  
Seeing the Lord's more merciful, than to  
Require of them, more than they ever knew:  
Being Transgression's not without a Law;  
And none damned for breach of what he ne'er saw;  
This I would ask Man, but I think that he  
Sarcasmes would return, not answer me,  
Let not the World presume, nor yet surmise,  
Because the Heathens works they equalise  
That they shall hith ' ● attain: God has an higher  
And brighter Light gi'n to the World; Require  
He therefore now doth at the Hands of Men,  
Far greater things, than he expected then.  
Man's Talents greater now: the Stars upon  
The Heathens only, now on Men the Sun  
Doth clearle shine: Who falls for want of sight  
God pitied; but will not now men have Light.  
But let's proceed for I have stayed too long  
To speak of what the World doth count a Song.  
The Pilgrim hearing this, his eyes withdrew,  
And bid the Spirits E●ga●lule adieu  
Now hand in hand they went, but strait they were  
Come to the entrance of another Sphere.  
The place seemed like a grave; 'twas where such dead  
As he was, used to be buried.  
The Pilgrim looked in, but in the place  
Nothing but a most horrid darkness was,  
Which equalised the pitchy clouds, which fume  
At black Avernus from Hel's horrid womb.  
'Twas Taen●●us or th' entrance into Hell,  
Or from the third, to the first Principle.  
But thus the Angel to the Pilgrim said;  
This is the grave in which no man was laid  
Before the mighty Son of God; 'twas here  
His sacred Virgin Limbs first laid were:  
Here was he buried, here must also thou  
Into this Grave, as he did, enter too.  
I'll be thy Guide, fear not, thy Coat will keep  
Off all the vapours of th' internal deep  
From hurting thee. This said, they both into  
That Cave of darksome Night together go.  
Fancy not Reader, that our Pilgrim crept  
Into some Cave, or down some Cavern stepped:  
Or that the Worlds by outward distance are  
Disjoined: they are contingent every where,  
And yet there is a Gulf between: but this  
The entrance is into that dark A●ysse,  
A sinking down from the third Principle  
Towards the Centre of the deepest Hell.  
The darkest pitchy Night that ever was,  
Her sa●ses could not to this horrid place  
Compare: This is the Fountain (when she lacks)  
Whence she expromes her jetty deep-dyed blacks.  
Here 'tis she dips her inky Mantles; Here  
In soot, or pitch she dies, what she doth wear:  
Hence she those black Screens has, which from our sights  
Oft times do hide heavens little twinkling Lights.  
But th' happy Pilgrim, and the Angel here  
In spite of all Hel's pitch their Way see clear.  
No Carbuncle, whose fiery Rays doth Night  
Chase from his presence, ever gave such Light,  
As that Purpurean Garment he had on,  
Which like ten thousand joined Rubine's shone;  
And those bright Rays which from the Angel's Face  
Calligenous Night did from their presence chase.  
Backward she flew, as they approached, and ●ell  
Just at the Feet of the great Prince of Hell.  
But as they onward went, a pointed Ray  
Beamed near the place, where all the Devils lay:  
Hell started back, and all the damned Crew  
Under dark inky waves together flew.  
Nothing mo●e terrible is to their sight,  
Than the least beaming, or a Ray of Light.  
Great PLUTO trembled, and his Throne did shake,  
He feared least Christ another Voyage make  
Might th'rough his Kingdom, to a●d pains to pains,  
C●oser Confinement, and more chains to chains.  
But having drunk a draught of Stygian Nectar,  
He ●wrod● grows: Am not I Hell's PROTECTOR?  
〈◊〉 he, Did not I dare at once to fly  
Against heavens own Face, and all his Hierarchy?  
Do I so many Legions Command?  
And do I here sneaking, and trembling stand?  
And dare not venture to see who these be,  
That dare to venture on my Hell, and me?  
That dare in Hostile manner thus invade  
My Realm, and Captivate with Light my shade?  
I'll see who 'tis: If 't be not him I fear  
So much, my looks shall hence all others scare.  
With that an hideous roar he gave, and from  
All parts of Hell Legions of Devils come,  
These hellish Troops follow their Princely Lord,  
Clothed with the darkest pitch Hell could afford;  
Each had a shield lined with ten thousand shades▪  
To keep off Light; when it their eyes invades.  
Yet not secure, each muscles up his sight,  
With Tartarus' black Lawns, and furs of Night.  
These met the Pilgrim, but no sooner had  
His eyes, and garment their blessed Beaming shed  
Upon these Troops, but they fall back, and rend  
Hel's strong Foundations, with the cries they send  
From their black throats: Rage issued from their eyes,  
And from their mouths and tongues fell Blasphemies.  
They knew that bloody Dye, that Robe was feared,  
The sight of it Dis, and his Troops thus scared.  
O who can paint the noise of Hell, the roar  
Great Satan gave the neighbour Pillars tore.  
Ten hundred thousand rattling chains did clink,  
Th'rough the place flew a Sulphurian stink,  
Thinking the Pilgrim with the stinch to choke:  
From their mouths flew Volumes, and clouds of smoke.  
This sight amazed our Traveller, the smell  
Of Sulphur, Brimstone, and of Nitre fell  
Out of those clouds; and all the stinking fume  
Fly'ng thorough the place, did to his nostrils come.  
His ears with curses, and with Blasphemy  
Were filled; the clouds which all about did fly  
Pressed thorough his lips, and touching there his tongue,  
With bitter horrid acritude it stung.  
Strange pricking atoms, which did touch his skin  
Invisibly annoyed him with their sting:  
Whole streams of venom rolled at his feet,  
Which mighty Pluto from his mouth had spit.  
But all this while with hideous roars, and cries,  
All the black Troops of Hell before him flies,  
Rattling their chains, and to avoid his sight,  
Wrapping themselves in smoky clouds of Night.  
But ●el's insernal mighty Prince, once more  
His flying Troops stops with an hideous roar,  
And Sak●ng his dire snaky Locks he cried:  
Y●a mighty Sons, and I great Prince of Pride,  
Why flee we thus? By my great Iron Rod,  
My Head, and Throne, 'tis not the Son of God  
Who loaded these Imperial Hands with chains,  
And whose great Power my imperial might restrains.  
This is some puny Saint, some sergeant,  
Whom Zeal hath hither brought with hasty feet  
To pass our Kingdom, unto Paradise;  
M● thinks we should not daunted thus agnize  
Hi● power: Ah! were't not for that cursed Coat  
He wears, how soon led cut his Saintships' throat.  
But seeing 'tis not Christ himself, I vow  
I 〈◊〉 to any of his Train to bow.  
He cannot hurt us, let us show him then,  
That we have power to drive him back again.  
Let's ' sright him if we can: Torment alas!  
To see our Foes thorough our own Realm to pass,  
Spite of our teeth! I am resolved to tri't  
With him, and though I ●al I'll show my spite,  
This said his rallied Troops their Horns do whet  
Upon a Rock of Adamant; and set  
Their stoutest courage up: great LUCIFER  
A beam of Iron in his hand doth bear,  
His eyes like Lamps were; from his nostrils flew  
Black clouds of smoke, his Whale-like mouth did spew  
I ●ames like a Furnace; and an hundred shoals  
Of melting bullets, and red glowing coals.  
His Iron Mace against a Rock he struck,  
And a great Lake of fire, and brimstone took  
●●s rise from thence, which spreading all about,  
Up to the knees he wadeth hurtless through't.  
Thus he appears, and thinks by this to 'fray  
Th● unmoved Travell●● out of his Way;  
●ut that bless●d Robe in which he was bewraped,  
The Pilgrim dauntless, and in safety kept.  
The hellish lightning from his Head was beat  
Back, by the golden Bays that compassed it:  
And maugre Hell, and all its power could do,  
Victoriously, unstopped he passed thorough:  
For Hell still dazzled at the Light he bore  
Flung down his fires, and ●led as on●e before.  
There was no Gild for Hell to fasten on;  
For if there had, Hell had the Conquest won:  
And if there had, the Cherub's flaming Sword  
To Paradise no passage would afford.  
For now he saw the passage filled with flame,  
Which from a supercilious Angel came. 
See more page 7 2.   
A mighty Sword he held, from whence a stream  
Of flaming Fire thorough the place did beam:  
Into 't our Pilgrim went, and bravely bold,  
Walked thorough the midst; and like seven times tried Gold  
Shone brighter than those flames. Untouched his hair  
Was, and the garment which his shoulders bare.  
To him bowed down the Angel-Centinal,  
And gave free passage to the brazen Wall.  
Now was his heart amazed, when he saw  
The separation placed by heavens hard Law;  
'Twixt man, and Paradise: on heaps there was  
A mountainous ruin of the sellid'st Brass,  
Which like huge Mountains heaped together, and  
As Monuments lay of some mighty Hand.  
For part of that great Wall (which was so high  
That its proud top our Pilgrim with his eye  
Could not attain) it was; now down, a Gap  
It left; which never could be mended up.  
After the Pilgrim all amazed had viewed  
That Sconce of Brass, he to the Angel sued,  
To let him know by what Hand built it was,  
And what strength had broke down that league-thick Brass.  
The Angel who such favours ne'er denied  
To him, after a little pause replied.  
You stand amazed at these ruins; I  
As much amazed at Man's impiety  
Do stand: for this immense and mighty breach  
To thankless man Aeternal Love doth preach:  
And yet ingrateful He, abase the Power  
Doth of his only and great Saviour.  
I tremble now I think how some men dare  
Speak slightly of him, who is heavens own heir.  
How some men dare, O horrid! to deny  
His Godhead: fearful! fearful Blasphemy!  
How some Men dare to say blest jesus did  
Do nothing for them, when he at Salem died.  
Would all such now were here to see the Power,  
He had, and how he was a Saviour,  
To all that ever saved were. Would Heaven  
Had me to trumpet This Commission given,  
through all the quarters of the World I d sound  
This act; th' effect of Love, and Strength profound.  
Would now the Winds th'rough every Land might blow  
My words, that all, what I tell thee might know▪  
That so they might ne'er hear blest Iesu's Name,  
But their proud Hearts, and Knees bow at the same.  
Consider well this brazen Wall; your eyes  
Are too too weak unto the top to rise:  
How thick it is! Behold how vast! What one  
Could ever climb o'er it, or break it down?  
Could all the World, and if they hither came  
With Catapults, or Tower-shaking Rams?  
Or their vast Bombards, damage this great Wall?  
Or a thousand shot make any sign at all?  
How vain would all their strength be! jesus then  
As more Love, so more strength had than all Men:  
'Twas his own Hand, and his own Hand alone,  
That made this breach, that pulled this Brass-wall down.  
Pilgrim attend! The Protoplast once did  
On Earth behold that Realm, which now lies hid,  
That Realm to which we press, blessed Paradise,  
Adam beheld on Earth with virgin Eyes.  
The first, and second Principles did lie  
Conjoined to the third, in Harmony.  
These were disjoined by Adam's wretched sin,  
And Harmony stepped out, and discord in.  
A sensual ●ast it was by which he lost  
That place, which Iesu's dearest Blood hath cost,  
For to redeem again for us, God's Wrath  
And Justice being awaked against them both.  
Both Adam, and his Eve; He them cast out  
From thence, then walled it, with this Wall about.  
The Guardian Cherubin be placed then, 
Gen. 3. 24.   
With a versatile Sword to keep out Men.  
O how the Devil rejoiced to see this Barnes  
To Bliss: Mine own (he cried) all Mortals are:  
None can break this I'm sure; none now shall see,  
Nor into Paradise admitted be.  
Was it not sure enough? what Man could pass  
Thorough this Fire, and o'er this Wall of Brass?  
And thus was Man excluded Paradise,  
But less obscure, and trulier thus it is:  
After that Unity had broken been,  
And Discord introduced by the sin  
Of Adam; straight the second Principle,  
Drew from the Third, and in its Aether fell:  
To its own Centre fled; the World bereft  
Of't, was as well as Ad●m naked left.  
Then the first Principle of Wrath was seen,  
Which straight the third, and second stepped between;  
Th'rough which till Christ no man could ever pass:  
This is the Cherub, and the wall of Brass.  
This is the flaming Sword, which turns about,  
To keep of Paradise all Mortals out.  
And thus excluded they had ever been,  
If Christ had not in Mercy entrance given.  
In fullness then of Time, down from above,  
To take an humane Soul came mighty LOVE,  
The second Person in the Trinity,  
(O sacred! and thrice sacred Mystery!)  
To make a way for poor excluded Man,  
Th'rough Hell to Heaven, for this end he came.  
This none but mighty He could do, and this  
Had ●e not done, Man ne'er had tasted Bliss.  
When he therefore the Cup of Wrath had drunk  
Upon the Cross, and into Death was sunk  
Into these deeps he came, and that Way too,  
By which from earth we hither came but now.  
The common Road to Hell this is not, still  
None this Way go, but against Satan's will.  
This is the private path thorough Hell, to Heaven,  
By Christ to those who his steps follow, given.  
This is the Path, by his blessed death made Good,  
Gained with pain, purchased with so much blood.  
This is the Path which Hell still strives to hide,  
Lest Mortals by 't to Paradise should slide.  
This is the Path which shows Christ's Power: It is  
The Path which leads from miseries, to Bliss.  
A spacious Road leads unto Pluto's Court,  
On the left hand; where Mortals much resort;  
Paved with pleasures, and external Bliss,  
With Riches, honours, and such baits it is.  
This Road brings to a Gate of Aebony,  
Whose lofty portals, mounted are on high,  
Whose wide-leaved Gates by Pluto's strict command  
Both Night, and Day, for ever open stand.  
So wide they are, a World at once may in  
Get, but a m●te cannot return ag'in. 
Noctes atque dies patet atria Janua Di●i●.   
Such is the Hospitality of Hell,  
Gratis all Men may there, for ever dwell.  
This is the Gehenna; this the Lion's Den  
From whence there can be no Redemption.  
This Road Christ's sheep do shun, for that Way is  
The way to Torment, not the Path to Bliss.  
Till Christ this Way made, there no other was;  
Therefore when first he came into this place,  
Hell was amazed; and its foundation shook  
Its mighty Pillars all asunder broke.  
Great LUCIFER fell from his Aebon Seat,  
And 's neck subjected unto Iesu's feet.  
The trembling Devils roared, and with a Yell  
Upon their faces before jesus fell,  
Then with ten thousand chains of Adamant  
He loaded them: and them of Room did scant,  
Ty'ng them move strictly to their Centre, and  
Enforcing them to yield to his Command.  
He broke the Power Hell had over Man,  
That by his might he might triumph ag'en.  
His eyes tormented Hell; his very breath,  
Asunder broke the cruel jaws of Death.  
The damned yelled, and his sacred Sight  
That cursed crew put int' an horrid fright.  
Then he the devils restrained, so that they could  
Not hurt tho●e who this path trod if they would.  
Then thorough the Cherub's flaming Sword he went  
Unhurt; to whom his Head the Angel bend  
Down to his Feet: the flaming Fire no power  
Had the least hair of his Head to devour.  
Scarce was there any thing that jesus did  
For Man's Salvation but 'twas typified  
Long e'er he came in flesh; and all before  
Of Note; some shadow of this Substance bore:  
And it was fit that heavens high Majesty,  
Should into Earth by Prod●ums ushered be.  
How did the Priestly Ceremonies too,  
His Office, and his Acts exactly show.  
How did the Prophets prophesy of Him:  
How was his acts praeacted e'er he came,  
But all in shadows; He the Substance was,  
And they all vanished, when he came in place,  
So did the brazen Serpent, show that he  
For Soul, and Body should Physician be.  
So did the scape-Goat to the jews declare,  
That he theirs, and the whole World's Sins should bear.  
So joshua, who to Canaan led the Jews,  
That Christ his lead shall to his Kingdom shows.  
So Dav●d, who Saul's fury did remove,  
Shows that Christ should Wrath overcome by Love.  
So Isaac offered did typify  
That offered jesus for the World should die.  
So jonas buried in the Whale did tell  
The World, that Christ descend should into Hell,  
And that he should arise again. And so  
Were Shadrach, Mesheck, and Abednego.  
When in the seaventimes heated Furnace they  
W'thout hurt or singing of their hair did stay,  
A Type of Iesu's walking thorough this flame  
Of Wrath; thorough which helped by his Power we came▪  
So Sampson's strength did Iesus typify;  
Who at his feet bowed Hel's great Majesty:  
And when on his broad shoulders he did lay  
Strong 
* Gaza in the Heb. signifies Strength.  Gaza's Gates, and bear them quite away,  
Of Christ's great power, and mighty strength He was  
A Type, who bore away these Gates of Brass,  
When Hell thought to imprison him: Alone  
He by his strength pulled this Brass Fortress down.  
For when that he came near, he put his Hand,  
Unto this Wall which as a Bar did stand.  
Between the World, and Paradise: strait shook  
Its strong Foundations when his hold he took  
On it; straight trembled every part, and down  
To Iesu's feet fell his high-crested Crown.  
Then was this breach made which you see, and then▪  
A way was made to Paradise again,  
Which had so long denied been, to all  
The progeny of Adam, since his fall.  
O glorious! yea thrice glorious happy Breach!  
By which fallen Man again to Heaven may reach!  
O Noble Work! O mighty strength of the  
Blessed Son of God's glorious Humanity!  
'Twas his Humanity this work did do,  
Or else no passage here had been for you,  
Nor for an humane Soul. O David's Stem!  
O jesus who died at jerusalem!  
Can any Man speak such fell Blasphemy  
To say that all that's saved, not 's saved by thee?  
Dear Pilgrim 'twas none but that Christ alone,  
That for Man hath wrought this Salvation:  
But ' count it not a vain Tautology  
If I once more relate it unto thee:  
Thus in a word it was. The blessed Love,  
Upon the Wrath its gentle self did move:  
Both Principles were reconciled: In one  
Were joined, in an happy union  
The first and second Principles; arise  
Immediately from them did Paradise.  
Thus Wrath, and Love by Christ we reconciled.  
Who brought forth Paradise, an happy child,  
Unto which place thou now shalt go; and thorough  
This happy breach, which Christ has made for you.    

Mundus Luminosus, vel Paradisiacus.  

HEre lacks an Angel's Tongue to Trumpet forth,  
In his best Lays, blest Paradise's worth;  
That by those sweet strains he a taste might give  
To you, what pleasures there for ever Live.  
Here lacks a Tasso, or a Bartas, or  
A Spencer's Muse, a Quarles, or Silvester:  
Or some such Laureate: But since their skill  
Is wanting to my Pen, accept my Will:  
For though my Muse can't reach their lofty vein,  
Childlike the Truth speaks in a stammering strain.  
Thus far she has waded, and she thorough must go,  
Although the style is for the Theme too low.   

The horrid Mansion of Aeternal Night  
Our Pilgrim now forsakes; the blessed Light  
Of Paradise his eyes salutes; the smell  
Of Arabia, drives back the sent of Hell.  
Thorough that breach made by the Hand of Love,  
Still by the Angel guided he doth move,  
And mounting up from that infernal pit,  
Upon the skirts of Paradise doth sit.  
O blessed rise! no foes he now may fear,  
For over Hell, and Death he 's Conqueror.  
This Resurrection is the first, and He  
That rises thus may ever happy be. 
Rev. 20. 6.   
Our Pilgrim's nostrils which Hel's horrid stink  
Of Sulphur had drunk, Odours now do drink  
Of Paradise; now from Aelysium  
Clouds of perfumes, and rapting smells do come.  
But whilst upon the very verge they stayed,  
Th' Angel unlocked his Ruby Lips and said.  
O newborn Pilgrim, thou the Grave hast seen,  
Thou knowst now what 'tis to be born again.  
This is the happy, and the blessed state,  
Where thou may'st say thou art Regenerate.  
Thou art a child become, and now must learn  
Those Lessons which thy eyes did ne'er discern.  
Whilst in the World, and in thy sins thou wert.  
Christ is thy Master, thou his Scholar art.  
But in one moment thou shalt profit more  
Now, than in all thy Life thou didst before.  
Thou here shalt gain more in an hour, than all  
The Scholars in their great Lycaeums shall.  
No vain Disputes shall studied be, by thee,  
But God, and Nature shall thy study be:  
To such as thee, he giveth leave to go  
Among his Treasures, and his secrets know.  
There 's not a Leaf, there 's not a spire of Grass,  
There 's not a clod of Earth, nor Tree, but has  
A Tongue to speak, which doth Arcana's show;  
But th' ignorant doth not their Language know.  
Nor can they know the clothing they have on,  
Till they wash in the Fountain of the Sun,  
O'er which the Golden Apples hang, but this  
By a ne'er sleeping Dragon, watched is.  
Defiled persons never can come to 't:  
Polluted hands can never tuck those fruit.  
To thee, and such as thee these things are shown:  
Who live in Paradise unseen, unknown.  
But let me warn thee Pilgrim, that thou mayst  
Not of that Tree, as once did Adam taste,  
Lest thou dost lose those Blessings which the Lord,  
If thou fall'st not, will unto thee afford:  
Those secret blessings which we do not dare  
For fear of curses to the World deelare.  
The Tri●une God hath generated from  
Eternity, in 's own Aeternal Womb  
Two Principles (so called because they be  
Th' out-spoken Word of the great Deity,  
So their PRINCIPIUM is (else they have none)  
Their breathing out, or manifestation)  
The Dark, and Light: That we call First, and This,  
The holy Light World, and the Second is.  
God in the First is known a Judge severe,  
Angry, and Jealous, Wrathful and Austere;  
But in the Seco●d he doth solely move  
In Light, in Meekness, gentleness and Love:  
The First gives being to the Dark-world, and  
The Light doth in the Second Essence stand.  
Nor can 
* First Principle.  that be called Evil: Harmonise  
The Second with 't, and it makes Paradise:  
For 'tis as 'twere the Life of it; its seat,  
And office there, is as in Man the heat  
Or Spirit, which his body quickens, and  
Maketh the joints so nimbly move, and Bend;  
But let this be w'thout its due Temprament,  
Unharmonized; and th' other humours spent,  
How soon it Rages, and to f●●e doth turn,  
And with intolerable Fevers burn  
Distempered Man: So the first Principle  
If separate, and that the Second quell  
Doth not its acritude; it then is like  
Nay, 'tis the Fire which doth the damned strike.  
In discord 
* In the inward ground of Nature, from whence our outward Sulphur, Salt and Mercury, as also other external things proceed, according to the opinion of that highly illuminated Man J. B.   
Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury,  
Is Hell: but Paradise in Harmony.  
For this end therefore did the mighty Lord  
Them Generate, that they might still accord,  
And Harmonized, might make this Paradise, In which should spring Aeternal Loves, and joys.   

Thus did the Tri-une God himself display  
In making of this place this Orb of Day;  
For here the Spirit's influence doth flow,  
And the great Wonders of the Godhead show.  
God willed not Hell then for the damned crew  
(Although their Fate Eternally he knew)  
Nor the black Devils did he so Create.  
In the first Principle, or Wrathful state  
No one he made: But a transcendent bright,  
And mighty Prince; He in the Orb of Light  
Or second Principle, Great LUCIFER  
Created; here also created were  
All other Angels: But he on the Throne  
Sat as a King, with great Dominion.  
To him we ●ll did Homage do, and he  
Ruled the Princes of each Hierarchy.  
And this was Heaven, th' Aeternal mansion  
Of God, where standeth blessed Iesu's Throne.  
Now here, and in this Principle of Light  
He only should have shown the Power, and might  
Of Love in Paradise; which then was, and  
Where the External World does now, did stand.  
But this great Prince of Light now Hel's great King  
Into that dismal Realm himself did bring;  
For in the fires mighty strength he flew,  
Scorning the Second Principle; subdue  
The same he would; into the First therefore  
He and his following Angels hurled were,  
Where they in Anguish, and the Fier's might  
Between the third, and second have their site:  
Where they for ever must endure with those  
Souls, who with that same Principle do close.  
Thus Hell did come to be: But we who stood  
Enjoy unutterable Sweets; the Food  
Immortal eat, the Heart of God, for that  
For ever sealed to us our blessed State.  
But now when Lucifer in Pride did rove,  
The first and second Principles did move,  
From whence a Third than came; the First did then  
To operate upon it straight begin,  
And like itself by its attracting force  
It Rocks and stones did form; its bitter source,  
The whole mass into such stuff would have brought,  
But that the second Principle then wrought,  
And harmonizing of the First begat  
A watery fluid substance, on which sat  
And moved the blessed Spirit, and from that  
He heavens did create, and separate  
From the subsiding Earth: The upper Sea  
He from the lower did divide: That's the  
Material Water, did divide from those  
Which being gave to them, from whence arose  
All that on Earth doth spring: It's truly said  
God made from Water all that e'er was made.  
And yet we can't it Water call: but yet  
Nothing can better be compared to it.  
The lower waters Congregate: The Earth  
Then to all Plants gave an apparent birth▪  
Thence Essence visible became, for these  
Stood in their forms in blessed Paradise,  
As the Ideas of what ever was  
Or shall upon this Earthly Globe take place.  
Thus is the World Aeternal, and shall be  
Never dissolved to a nullity:  
For the great God will ne'er annihilate  
The least thing that he ever did create,  
But yet the substance perish shall, but the  
Forms shall remain unto Eternity:  
Some in one Principle, some in the other,  
When all things shall return to their first mother.  
On the fourth Day, after the Third-Dayes even  
The Sun, the Moon, and all the Lights of Heaven  
Created were; the first Day's flitting Light  
Now fixed was, and in the Sun took site.  
The Heaven impregnates then the female Earth,  
And first her Seas to Fish, and Fowl gave birth.  
Assoon as God his mighty FIAT spoke:  
Then from the Earth all living Creatures broke,  
Made by the same Hand that the Earth had made,  
And from the Earth's own Mother being had;  
And yet the Earth was their own Mother too,  
They from her Mother, in her womb endue  
Four Elements, which when the FIAT was  
Spoke, Essence into living Forms did pass.  
And thus the World, and all things God had made,  
Was Good, and in 't no evil being had.  
But the bright Throne from whence the Prince of H●ll  
(As I have told you) into darkness fell  
Stood empty still, and to supply his place  
There not one Angel ' counted worthy was.  
Therefore conspire the Holy Trinity  
To make an Image of the Deity.  
This Man we call; to whom a Soul was given  
The perfect Image of the God of Heaven,  
He was ordained (for God did him prefer)  
●or to possess the Throne of ●uciser,  
Had he but stood. Of Earth this man was made,  
But not of such on which you Mortals tread,  
It is an Earth which may in secret 'bide  
Under the covering of your fleshly hide:  
'Tis such an Earth that Stone can penetrate,  
'Tis such an Earth as has in Heaven a seat:  
'Tis such an Earth as Man's blessed Saviour  
Put on, when he rose from the Grave in Power:  
As clear as crystal, and a● thin as air,  
As bright as Venus, or the Morning Star.  
F●om the same Mother of your Earth it came,  
In which there harmonized doth remain  
The quintessence of the four Elements,  
In which there are no disagreeing rents:  
Such was the Body of the first made Man,  
Such clothing his ennobled Soul had on.  
In this the Soul the Image of our God  
By th' Holy Spirit breathed in abode.  
His Soul (as you'rs are) was created from  
Three Principles, and from three Worlds did come:  
Of all she did partake, and seemed to be  
Conjoined Rays, or one Beam made out of Three.  
Man being thus created our great King,  
The Lord of all things, him to Earth did bring:  
Unto the newmade World; and there his God  
In Aeden bid him to make his abode.  
Then in that place this inner World so gay,  
It's everlasting Beauties did display,  
This place to which thou now art come, did there  
With all its lovely Beauties than appear,  
In this did Adam live, this is the place  
Which ever since was called Paradise.  
God had appointed this Felicity,  
In Aeden only at that time to be,  
Because he knew that Adam there would fall▪  
Which made him not to spread it over all  
The new made World: If ●dam had brought forth  
In innocence then over all the Earth.  
Had this World opened been, and which one day  
Th'rough all the whole Globe shall itself display.  
Aeden was not the Paradise, for there  
All sorts of Beasts, and other Creatures were;  
Satan had power to enter there, but in  
Blessed Paradise he, nor the Beasts were seen.  
Adam alone did dwell in Paradise,  
In Aed●n; Aeden held this World of Joys;  
Here Adam dwelled, and happy had he stood,  
For neither evil, nor the mundane good  
Should he have known; for whilst he here abode  
He should have pressed after the Heart of God:  
His mind to the Aeternal World alone  
Should have, and not unto the dark World flown,  
Nor to the earthly Orb: He should indeed  
The Wonders of the Light World have displayed.  
But down a precipice himself he hurled;  
After the Soul of the terrestrial Wo●ld  
He longed, which was the Tree forbid, and when  
He tasted the material fruit, he then  
Was captived by the Spirit of that Orb,  
And was endued with a fleshly garb.  
And had his Soul not lived in that suit,  
He had been metamorphized to a Brute.  
Thus Adam fell, thus Paradise and all  
His issue feel the effects of his sad fall.  
Thus Adam lost that Body which he had  
B●fore he with his fleshly one was clad:  
And so's Soul was, as all the Souls of Men  
Imprisoned are within a fleshly Den.  
To gain that Body than Man's work should be,  
Which Adam lost by the forbidden Tree,  
The which must clothe the Soul when she doth fly  
The Tabernacle of Mortality;  
If not she naked goes to Hell, and there  
Doth some black, horrid, after garment wear.  
Thus our King jesus when he triumphed had  
O'er Hell, and Death his humane Soul he clad  
With that b●ig●t ●ody, th● 〈…〉;  
Which co●ld appear although the doo●s were fast  
Among his Loved Disciples. In this place  
He 〈◊〉 days a●ter his rising was.  
Her● in th●s Orb he stayed, t●ll he did move  
Into the bosom of 〈◊〉 Love:  
T●ll his ●s●●nsion d●y, till he on high  
〈◊〉 into heavens Aeternal Glo●y fly.  
T●en 〈◊〉 Humanity he in the Th●one  
That 〈◊〉 di● once possess ●at down,  
And there he 〈◊〉 at God's right H●nd, and makes  
Atonement for his dear Beloved's sakes.  
O bl●ss●d jesus! were it not fo● thee  
Not ●ne poor mortal e'er could saved be.  
●ha● 〈◊〉 lost, thou hast regained, and now  
The Wo●ld waits when thou thy great Power wilt show,  
When 〈◊〉 in Glory wilt come from the skies,  
An● 〈◊〉 ●●nve●● into a Paradise.  
D●ar 〈◊〉 I declare these th●ngs to thee,  
That tho● fore 〈◊〉, also fore-●rm'd mightst be:  
Fo●t 〈◊〉 thou cam'st not here, as Adam did  
〈◊〉 to mortality, ye● here forbid  
Tho● 〈◊〉 to join unto the ●o●ld's great Sp'right:  
For t●o●gh tho● cann'st no● to Eternal Night  
Fa●● back; y●● thou that Body may ned endue  
Wh●ch otherwise may gr●nted be t● you.  
Yo● may not pass into the uppe● Sphere,  
To 〈◊〉 the ●lories, and the Wonders there,  
If t●at you should u●on the Orb below  
Offe● your Will, and thirsty mind to throw,  
Till 〈◊〉 shall flesh put off, Your mind and will  
After 〈…〉 press forward still  
〈◊〉, fo● there 〈◊〉 fixation, and ●here  
In ●l●●y all the 〈◊〉 new Bodies wear.  
〈…〉 the pleasure of that ●ove  
Which 〈◊〉 time thy fleshly cloath●s remove  
W●ll, a●d t●at tho● mayst never garments want,  
Unto thy Soul a glorious Body grant.  
〈◊〉 thy mind upon 〈◊〉 set  
That thou in brightness to her Court mayst get:  
She questionless whilst thou art here, will spread  
Her Bounty's, and shower down upon thy Head  
Her everlasting Graces; nought denied  
Shall be by her, who is designed thy Bride.  
But now survey thou shalt with thy own eyes,  
The splendid Beauties of our PARADISE.    

PARADYSUS.  
THis said he gave a Hand of blushing snow  
Into the Pilgrim's; hand in hand they go,  
In●o a Labyrinth of rapting sweets,  
Where Joy in an Ecstatic Rapture greets  
His welcomed Soul; where his amazed eyes  
Saluted are with such vatieties  
Of all delightful Objects, that he knows  
Not how for to Contemplate all he throws  
His Orbs upon. So pleasing was that Book  
That on which side he knew not first to look.  
Wit● cursory eyes at first them all he viewed,  
And then his sight a second time renewed.  
The air was there serene, no clouds did dare  
Upon his Caerule Marble Front appear;  
Ten tho●sand smiles lay wrapped in that blue,  
Which heats, nor colds, nor such strange changes knew▪  
One Temp' raiment, the which no storms assail,  
Nor winds disturb; a cool Zeph●rian gale  
Only salutes, was in that place; a still  
Crystalline Dew, such as from Hermon Hill  
Descends, fell on the Herbs, and Trees that there  
●n green, silver, and golden Robes appear.  
Such silver clouds as made a Chariot  
For jesus when he from Mount Olivet  
Flew to the Habitation of his Father,  
●id here, and there with lustrous splendour gather,  
Their Cynthean beams dispersing up and down,  
●n Circles, brighter than Ariadn's Crown.  
Th' Aeternal Heaven's glorious beamings shone  
Upon that Orb; an everlasting Sun  
To it they were, which never ' rose nor set,  
Nor changes here of Night and Day permit.  
'Twas always Day, 'twas always Noon, it was  
There always Sun shine in that springing place.  
All the Ideas of what we behold  
Upon this Orb, shone there in purest gold,  
In greater claritude, and brightness far  
Than the Night's Goddess, or the evening Star.  
O the sweet Joys our Pilgrim's swelling Heart  
Ready to burst, did to his eyes impart!  
The Lively Rays that darted were from them  
Told that his Soul now bathed In Joye's sweet Stream.  
A verdant Meadow first did cheer his eyes,  
With several coloured gay varieties;  
Amongst the green were sparsed here and there,  
Gold-tincted Flowers: Purple, silvered, fair  
Blue, Yellow, Orange, Lilied white, and red,  
With thousand Colours else the Earth be spread.  
So rare a show they made, so great delight  
They gave that our Pilgrim ravished quite.  
Alas our Rose though here she seem a Queen,  
To Death herself would blush, had she but seen  
How far the meanest Daisy here surpassed,  
And how her best blush by it was disgraced.  
Had but our Lily been compared to those  
Which there grew, she for shame her maiden snows  
In melting tears would on the Earth have shed,  
And sorrowful hung down her shamed Head.  
Alas brisk Pink, or sell, or Blush compare,  
But to the meanest of the flowers there,  
Thou wouldst be forced to yield the Palm to them,  
And seem, as do to thee base Daisies seem.  
Our sprightly Green-grass green, compared unto  
That Grasse's lustre bears a yellow Hue,  
And as much difference, or more is seen,  
Than is 'twixt Autumn's yellow, and Springs green.  
The Gold-striped Tulips which do court our eyes  
In the first Spring, with rare varieties,  
Are b●t the shadows of those flowers which Grace  
The Grass-green footstool of that happy place.  
The Angel pressing hard the Pilgrim's Hand,  
Seest thou (said He) how still these flnowers do stand?  
With what varieties they are endued?  
How Beauty by each other is renewed?  
How comely all in order placed, do praise  
Their great Creator with their unheard Lays?  
Just so the Saints do dwell, in this blessed Sphere,  
In such varieties, and Love appear.  
No dissonant murmurs from their mouths proceed,  
Nor doth their difference, a difference breed:  
For where would all their Beauties be, if they  
Should not in various works themselves display?  
All several beauties have, and yet they be  
Though several Beauties, One, in Harmony.  
But thorough that place where Heavenly Flora had  
The Earth Celestial, with her beauties clad;  
Where so many thousand painted Stars were seen,  
For ever fixed in a sky of Green,  
Run a soft River of dissolyed Pearl,  
Whose waves did into Crystal Ringlets ' twerle,  
Without the help of blasts, for none came there  
But what from Angel's mouths emitted were.  
The Fount from whence this Crystal River came,  
The Throne of God is, and the spotless Lamb;  
From thence those streams which doth this River feed,  
As clear as Crystal, soft as Wool proceed;  
From th' upper Region unto this they flow,  
Uniting Heaven above, to Heaven below.  
Down Crystal Rocks, the Crystal Waters glide,  
And pearly streams, o'er pearly Pebbles slide,  
Creating by their falls so pleasing noises,  
That they for Bases serve to Angels voices.  
On each side of the green-fringed banks there grows,  
The candid Lily, and the blushing Rose,  
Fairer than e'er the Earthly Valley bore;  
Pestum, nor Sharon e'er such sweets once wore.  
The bleeding Hyacinths, and fond Narcisses,  
Hung o'er the bank, whose Heads the water kisses▪  
Leaving her Pearls: for to renew their youth,  
The precious Tokens of her moister Mouth.  
Chaplets of Violets crowned the River's brink,  
Whose trembling blue heads of the Waters drink,  
And for each sip, their purple mouths receive,  
Th●y in requital their perfumes to give.  
Into the Crystal stream the Angel goes,  
And liquid Pearls upon our Pilgrim throws;  
In Li●es blest Waters, in this Living stream,  
Where 〈◊〉 on Waves ride he baptised him:  
Where 〈◊〉 kisses touched his skin, thus he  
Knew what with Wa●er 'twas baptised to be  
His Ruby Lips drenched in the Crystal waves  
The blessed Water he with joy ●eceives:  
He 〈◊〉 drinks, and now he'll thirst no more,  
After Earth's Riches, or her golden O'er;  
Her honours, pleasures, Gold, nor Silver, nor  
A thous●nd Earthly Diadems compare  
May with the least drop of this blessed stream:  
No, they are dung to it, they Gold to them.  
When out he came those Living Waves had thrown,  
He saw, his youth and purile days again  
Upon his back; his harder skin grew 〈◊〉,  
And his dimmed ●yes obstructing scales had dofed.  
His feebled joints, and leather nerves grew strong,  
He went in old but now he comes out young,  
He needs no Physic, this h●d all made good.  
H●s Health restored, as well as youth renewed.  
Such virtue has this stream, which when he knew,  
His head he humbly did to jesus bow:  
His Lips in praises blest his holy Name,  
Who him had counted worthy of the same.  
But on each side the River, smiling stood  
A Grove of Laurels, and of t●ller Wood;  
Whose bl●ssed branches seemed their heads to shake▪  
U●to the 〈◊〉 tones the waters make.  
All T●ees that we upon our Earth can spy  
Grew there, in their essential purity;  
The best of ours to the worst of them,  
Would as the Hawthern to the Cherry seem,  
Or as the Bramble to the precious 〈◊〉,  
Or as terrestrial Trees, to Trees div●ne.  
No evil Tree, nor quality was there,  
Divine (and yet substantial) they were.  
When near our Pilgrim came, he cast his eyes  
Upon these flourishing Trees of Paradise.  
An Emerald green upon their Leaves did dwell,  
Which never from their happy Branches fell:  
Some edged with silver, some were stripped with Gold,  
And Pearls instead of berries Bays did hold.  
No Tree was barren, not a fruitless bough,  
All sorts of fruit in purity there grew;  
Sweet blossoms mingled with the riper fruit:  
At once the Trees beware May's and August's sui●.  
A Crystal dew fell f●om th' Eternal sky,  
Which on the Leaves like Eastern Pearls did lie:  
A threefold suit the verdant ●ranches wore;  
For Pearls, fruit, flowers they together door:  
And when they moved, were by Angelic breath  
A showe● of Pearl they sent the heavenly Earth.  
But whilst ou● Pilgrim pleased with this sight  
Gazed on these Groves, a gale did gently smite  
The laded bows; from whose soft pressing them  
More than Arabian Diapasma's came:  
For every leaf as well as flower, and fruit  
Such odor yields, as we have none like to 't.  
Arabian gales which kiss the Spiceful Trees.  
Breath Hircish odours if compared to these.  
This gale of sweets did least the Pilgrims smell,  
And makes amends for those foul blasts in Hell.  
Led by his blessed Guardian, he Th'rough  
Those verdant, and thrice sacred Groves doth go;  
The boughs as he passed by a whispering make,  
And seem his welcome in their tongue to speak.  
The Path with a green Velvet Carpet spread  
Was; kissing Palms and Laurels o'er his head  
Arched a continual Bower; a pleasant sound  
More sweet than Philomelan strains, ran round  
The blessed Wood, for on the tender sprays  
Ten thousand Birds chant out continual Lays.  
But near the River stood a stately Tree,  
Who Queen and Mistress seemed there to be,  
The rest her servants, for they all stood there  
At a meet distance, ●or to honour her.  
This was the sacred Tree of Life, upon  
Wh●se boughs twelve sorts of fruit immortal hung.  
Spread was her arms, and lofty was her Head  
Each golden branch her neighbour seemed to wed,  
And in an happy Conspiration, made  
Upon th● grass a very pleasing shade.  
This was the Queen of Trees, the groves which there  
So flourished, by her immortal were,  
To her all Trees that in that place did grow,  
Their verdure, beauty, and their Life did owe.  
Strait, and superb was her blessed Bowl; each bough  
Was dressed in green, in gold, and silver too:  
A radiant lustre from whose Leaves did rise  
Which glittered through the groves of Paradise,  
Memphean Balsam, nor their Mummy, can▪  
So soon give ease unto distressed Man,  
Or from destruction preserve so long,  
As one blest Leaf which on those branches hung.  
No desperate Disease, no mortal Wound,  
There is, 
●ev. 21.  but for them straight a cure may found  
Be in the least piece of a Leaf pulled from  
This sacred, and Salutiferous stem●,  
The Panacea for all griefs; could men  
But it attain: the dead should Live ag'en.  
Alcinous's fruits, and the Hesperian,  
Apples of Gold, though ten times better than  
They were, are dung and dross if they compare  
With the immortal Fruit these branches bare.  
The fertile branches were for ever full,  
Although ten times a day the Angels pull  
The Fruit from every branch should, yet straight way  
As full again they would their arms display.  
To gather there would not decrease the store,  
The more you gather, they increase the more.  
So did Zarcphath's Widow's meal, and oil,  
The more they eat, the more increase the while.  
Here 'twas the Pilgrim in an ecstasy  
Fell, when the Tree of Life his eyes did see,  
No longer was he able to keep in  
His narrow heart the joys which there did spring,  
Ravished with the excess of the profound  
Content, and Bliss he fell unto the ground:  
His Soul then to his eyes was flown, and left  
All other parts had of her powers bereft.  
His eyes were fixed upon that blessed Tree,  
And through them his hungry Soul did flee;  
They both so fast tied to the blessed Fruit  
Were that he saw not those who now salute  
Him did; he minded not their soft advance  
Until the Angel pulled him from his trance.  
See here (and as he spoke he raised him up)  
The Heavenly Dryads, a Nymphean Troop  
Of the celestial Graces, hither come  
To bid thee welcome are, unto their home.  
This is their habitation, though they are  
Pleased sometimes to see the lower Sphere,  
Being thither sent, that they might helpful be  
To heavenly Pilgrim's, as they were to thee.  
At these words then the Pilgrim cast his eyes,  
Upon these blessed Nymphs of Paradise,  
But their bright lustre so perstringed his Orbs,  
That he could searce behold their Queen-like garbs.  
Their Beauties here at full they did display,  
For here 'twas lawful in this Orb of Day,  
Where they did fear no ravishment, that might  
Accrue to them by their rare Beauties fight.  
Should mortals so in Earth their beauty's spy,  
They would be subject to Idolatry.  
Hel's Stygian Hags, when they on Earth appear,  
Fictitious Bea●●ies on their Faces wear;  
And all arts use, lest mortal eyes should see  
Their horrid genuine deformity.  
But Paradises Nymphs dark Veils do wear,  
Because that Mortals can't their Beauties bear,  
So that on Earth, Hel's Hags more fair do seem  
With their false looks to blinded Man then them.  
So Lust, and Pride, so H●res●●, and so  
Craft, G●●le, and 〈◊〉 more fair do show  
To blinded mortals than Humility  
Truth, simpleness, and downright Honesty.  
But could Man see them in their proper Sphere,  
He ever after would judge rightly here.  
Tho●e have their faces dipped in pitch, for hair  
Ten thousand hissing, crawling Snakes they wear:  
But these, whose beauties last, and ne'er grow old,  
Shine brighter than the Sun, in Robes of Gold,  
Crowns on their Heads, for every one is there  
A Queen though servant in the lower Sphere.  
So they appeared now to our Pilgrim's eyes,  
Clothed in the colours of blessed Parad●●●;  
Resplendent Ha●o's round their faces spread,  
A Crown of gold, embossed with Pearls the Head  
Of every Nymph adorned; their Hair upon  
Their shoulders like the beams of Phoebus shone.  
Mo●e diamond sparkles in their eyes were seen,  
Than has the third Orbs fair, and glittering Queen.  
White, and red Roses in their cheeks did grow,  
Ten thousand t●mes surpassing those below:  
Smother, and ●edder than the Coral were  
Their Lips; their breath sweete● than spiced air.  
Most of them all below the Pilgrim had  
Acquainted been with; but now they were clad  
In Paradisaical Robes, now they did show  
W'thout Veils their beauties, them he scarcely knew.  
But whilst his wandering Light, encountered theirs,  
〈◊〉 in the head before the rest appears,  
And in the name of all, salutes him 〈◊〉.  
Ha●●appy Pilgrim! Welcome unto us,  
Welcome to us thou art, I to this pl●ce  
Thee welcome, in the Name of every GRACE.  
This is our Region, here's the place where we  
Do dwell; these Groves our habitations be:  
No flattery's here, no 〈◊〉, vain  
D●scordial welcomes: I did 〈…〉  
You know, believe me, as you have ever done,  
We do rejoice that we may wa●e upon  
You in this Orb: therefore once more I shall  
Thrice welcome bid you in the Name of all.  
With this she bowed, then clipped the Pilgrims' neck,  
And sealed a kiss of welcome on his cheek.  
To whom the Pilgrim smiling thus replied,  
Dear Truth I never started yet aside  
From what thou didst command, I did believe  
You still; who'd think that you would me deceive?  
You nor my Guardian here (● blame you both)  
Concerning this place told me all the Truth;  
Though what you spoke is true, that's not enough:  
For what things find I you ne'er told me of?  
Accuse us not replied Truth again,  
I hope you are no● such a Tyrant grown  
For to require us, that we should declare  
Those things to you which past our reaches are.  
'Tis not the Tongues of Angels that the joys  
And pleasures can declare of Paradise:  
And as it was beyond our power to show,  
So past our reach to comprehend them too.  
Then blame us not dear Pilgrim if we be  
Beyond, and better than our Word to thee.  
With this th' affresh embrace, but then came up  
To clip him too, all the nymphean Troop.  
Round him they run, and it a great while was  
ere his embraces to them all could pass.  
There Wisdom clipped him, Innocency hung  
Upon his arm; whilst Peace, and Meekness wrung  
His fingers: Faith, and Zeal held fast his Hand,  
Light, joy, Hope, Life together round him stand:  
Uprightness, and the fair Nymph CHASTITY▪  
Obedience, LOVE, and pure Virginity,  
Embrace him too, so Lowliness, and she  
Nymphs-Courage, and swee●-look'd Humility  
Did their devoyrs: Then Resignation,  
And Prophesy with others to him run,  
All do him hug; he doth as much desire  
The free embraces of this Virgin Q●●re.  
As long, as ardent their embraces were  
Nor could these outward signs their joys declare,  
As fael laid upon the rising flames  
A while depresses; but in higher stream●.  
It causes straight the depressed flames to rise;  
So Love increases by what satisfies.  
After their eyes had their tongues place supplied  
A while, that charming Organ they untied.  
And sprightly joy, the first of all must know,  
Whether that place would not a Taedium grow?  
For every man his native Country best  
(Said she) esteems, though he should daily feast  
In highest pleasures in another, yet  
His native home, though homely can't forget.  
Can Paradise make you forget the Earth  
A place so hugged by man, your place of birth?  
The Pilgrim smiling to the quaerent then,  
Sweetly, and nimbly thus returned again.  
Terrestrial things to those which heavenly are,  
No● Earth, to Paradise must we compare.  
Such difference is betwixt Earth's joys, and them  
As is betwixt Eternity, and Time.  
Were I in Egypt, or in Palestine  
With all delights; it may be I as mine  
Own native Albion (though there poor and mean  
I still should dwell) should not so well like them.  
But now I'm come upon this blessed shore  
I can long after Albi●n, no more  
Than those who in the highest Heavens be  
Can wish, or long the lower Orb to see.  
So far transcendent are these joys, that I  
Account the whole World worthless vanity.  
But your own Argument shall speak for me,  
And prove that this place can no Taedium be.  
Man loves his native Country best: And where  
Is that I pray you, if it be not here?  
He is a Pilgrim in the Orb below,  
His Soul from higher Spheres came down we know▪  
Therefore so restless is she there, to come  
From her low prison, to her native home.  
Then can I of this Country weary be,  
The genuine place of my Nativity?  
For Sin Man's banished, let him ●anish Sin,  
And to his home he may return again,  
No, think not Nymphs, that I can weary be,  
Of Paradise, and your blessed Company.  
But whilst this fair Corona stood, about,  
(Discoursing sweetly with) our Pilgrim, out  
Of a bright silver Cloud, an Angel ●●ept,  
Whose flaming Wings the spiced Aether swept:  
So Lightning breaks from the unparted Clouds:  
So ●ol himself from's nightly Robes unshrouds:  
But he did swifter than the Lightning run,  
And showed more glories then the Earthly Sun.  
His flaming Wings him swifter than a thought  
From the imperial skies among them brought.  
Unto him bowed the Graces all, and the  
Guardian veiled both his Wings, and bowed, his knee.  
The Pilgrim also would have bowed, but that  
Excess of lustrous Glories struck him flat  
Unto the Earth; for Mortal eyes could bear  
Not half those Beauties he about him ware.  
His Wings seemed flames of Fire, or burnished Gold;  
His Garments which down from his shoulders rolled  
Unto his feet, composed of pure Light,  
Thinner than air, than Ph●bus far more bright.  
Unutterably bright the splendorous Sun  
Was, that in's eyes and Lovely Visage shun:  
Volumes of streaming Gold hung on his neck,  
A Crown of tadiant Stars his front did deck:  
Meadows of Violets, Woods of Roses know  
No such perfumes, which in his breath did flow,  
But above all such Heavenly Majesty,  
And Power commanding sparkled in his eye,  
That had a World of Mortals seen his face,  
As dead they must have fallen in the place.  
But this Throne-Angel for the Pilgrim's sake,  
A Cloak of silver Clouds flung on his back,  
To hide his radiant Beams, which yet did flow  
Th'rough it, and made it like the Iris show:  
Such pleasing Tinctures to that Cloak they gave,  
That though less dazzling, yet it showed as brave.  
Repressing to his face's radiant flood  
He showed in beauty like to flesh, and blood:  
But Nature yet with her diviner art,  
In her best piece●, of his face came short.  
The Angel then stretched out his snowy right  
Hand (s●ow for softness and for perfect white)  
To th' Pilgrim, and lifting him up he broke  
Silence, and thus in Heavenly Accents spoke.  
Th' Immortal Prince of Glories, who of this  
Fair Orb is King, and of the Thrones of Bliss,  
At whose dispose ten thousand Crowns do lie  
Of Glories, Bliss, and Immortality;  
From whose free bounty we those Beams receive  
Which such irradiant lustrous brightness give.  
About whose Throne ten Millions such as I  
Stand ready, on his Embassies to fly;  
Hath sent me to thee, mighty Saint! that so  
Thou's Will, and pleasure from my mouth mightst know:  
He hath Commissionated me, that thou  
Mightst taste his matchless Love, and Bounties now.  
Therefore a Nuntius from the highest Sphere  
I come, to thee this happy news to bear.  
It is his Will, and pleasure now to prove  
Himself indeed the matchless King of Love.  
Thou precious art in his immortal Eyes,  
And Heaven itself he counts too small a prize  
For thee; therefore to bright SOPHIA he  
Intends that thou in Heaven espoused shalt be.  
For this end therefore am I hither pressed  
To celebrate this Heaunly marriage Feast.  
Down fell the Pilgrim on his humble knees,  
And bowing thrice his head re-echoed these.  
If Heaven's servants so perstringe the sight  
Of mortals, who can see the Fount of Light?  
What Beauties doth the King immortal wear!  
When that his servants such high Lustre bear!  
If that one beaming of a Star's so bright,  
What is the Sun the Ocean of Light?  
But what am I! that Heavens immortal King  
Should notice take on me, so vile a thing!  
That from his Palace the b●ight Court of Day,  
He should send down, a high 〈◊〉  
Whom I them more fi● to serve, such news to bear  
That mortal Man could never better hear?  
O I'm unworthy of the Dignity,  
But yet I da●e not heavens high Gifts deny,  
Since 'tis his pleasure that it should be so  
To him I passive bow my Head full low;  
Who can deny the blessed Gifts of Heaven  
When Crowns, and Thrones, and bliss Aeternals given?  
O Lord thou knowest what is hest for me,  
Since thou ' lt exalt me, I'll exalted be!  
As thou my joys O Lord dost higher frame,  
So greater strength grant me to praise thy Name.  
More would the Pilgrim there have said, but that  
The Angel raised him up to Celebrate  
Love's glorious Banquet; which blest Banquet was  
The Confarreation 'twixt him and his Spouse.  
Under the Covert of Life's blessed Tree,  
Upon the Leek-green grass this Company  
Sat down; each blade its top doth bow to them,  
Each flower seeks to kiss their garments hemm.  
There 'twas as if the flowers conspired had  
To star the place; or with their bravery clad  
This little spot above the rest; for here  
M●y's Iunes, and Augusts flowers together were.  
An hundred teeming Springs seemed here their flowers  
To have brought forth helped by the Midwife-showers.  
Their bowing Heads which did in clusters 〈◊〉,  
Their gallant tufts to purple Cushions fit:  
heavens Paranymphus first sat down, and the●  
The Pilgrim, and his Loving Guardian:  
The Paradysical Bevy in a Ring  
Upon the inviting flowers themselves did fling  
Making a circle, in whose midst was seen  
A round spot covered with Smaragdine green,  
Which Carpet garnished was with flowers, which 〈◊〉  
Into true True Love's Knots conspired were:  
A thousand Crystal drops of dew, the grass  
Lading, did silver; Gemm, and P●●●l the place.  
More pleasing Objects far our Pilgrim's sight  
To feast, and Banquet to the full invite;  
A Troop of Heavenly Dapifers they were,  
Surcharged with Chargers who the Feast infer;  
And with Celestial art the Dishes placed,  
The Pilgrim they with their attendance graced.  
The Pilgrim's greedy eyes now on the meat  
They brought, now on the bringers ravished eat,  
Sometimes to that, sometimes to these he tossed  
Them, and them in Beauty's Meandres lost:  
By's feeding eyes his Soul took her first taste  
Of the rare Sweets of this delicious Feast,  
Where the five Senses altogether dine,  
And filled are at once with meat divine.  
These were a Chore of Angels of that Sphere,  
Who in their brightest Robes to day appear  
To grace Love's Banquet; and themselves they clad  
With all the glories the Aelisium had.  
Yellow Electrum hung upon their hair,  
Whose aubourn threads conspired int' Circles were,  
Amongst whose gold-Rings silver spangles lay,  
Whose Starlike twinkling made a kind of day,  
And raised an Halos round about their Heads,  
Which Cynthian lustres gave to those bright threads:  
Whose golden Woods (whilst the Zephyrian shocks  
Ruffle the Volumes of their Amber-locks)  
Yield such a fragor, that all Arabia  
With all her sweets can't reach the tenth degree.  
Chaplets of Roses, mixed with Lilies, fair  
And purple Violets, bound their gold●n Hair:  
Under whose blushing shades the Day did rise  
From the bright beamings of their sparkling eyes.  
But in their cheeks Roses, and Lilies be  
Wedded together in just Harmony:  
And 'cause the Lily reigned in their hands,  
In their sweet Lips the Rose as Mistress stands.  
Upon their Fronts dwelled the all-charming Graces,  
An everlasting Hebe in their Faces:  
Their youth, and beauty strove, but by their strife,  
As friends, not foes they gave each other Life.  
But the fair Robes with which they then were clad,  
Of Paradises silver Clouds were made,  
Garnished with divers colours: less the bow  
O● fair Thaumant is to the World doth show:  
And far less Beauties doth it give, than those  
Which sweetly triumphed in their splendid clothes.  
In these fair Mazes lost our Pilgrim was,  
And to draw thence his eyes no power he has.  
But whilst in Beauty's Labyrinth his eyes  
Do tread, melodious sounds his ears surprise,  
Which prove a cliew to lead him from his gaze,  
And out of that into another Maze;  
His Soul but now did issue at his eye,  
Out of both eyes, and ears she now doth fly.  
For th' Angel having ta'en their Cue, by pairs  
The Hymenaeum sung in sweetest airs:  
The Waters, Groves, and birds do all agree,  
Echoing their Melos to their Symphony.  
The sweet Symplones with the Angels join,  
Marrying their voices in a Tune divine  
They sing this Hillulim: mortals below  
Did ne'er such sweet Harmonious Voices know.  
The schreeking Spheres were silent at that time,  
And by their music learned a better Chime.  

THE EPITHALAMIUM.  
AFter sad Winter springs the Spring,  
The Day thrusts, out the Night,  
Storm past the pretty Birds do sing,  
The Skies their musfling Mantles fling  
Away, and cheer Earth with their sight.   

After the floating Ship hath passed  
A thousand dangers, she  
Thorough the surging Waves, at last  
Doth Anchor in the Haven cast,  
And there rests in Security.   

So after an hard Pilgrimage  
Through Earth, and Hell, there is  
Joys that the Travellers engage  
For to forget their Earthly stage,  
And evermore remain in Bliss.   

This is the Day the Sun doth rise,  
The cheering Morn appears,  
And Light springs from SOPHIA'S eyes,  
Which blesseth all our Paradise,  
And joys unto this marriage bears,   

This is the Time of Joys, and Praise,  
True Laud therefore be given  
To Him, who is the Light of Days,  
Who to himself the Soul doth raise,  
And Earth despised, Wed to Heaven.   

SOPHIA is the Queen of Love,  
Her Joys Aeternal be:  
Blessed Souls within her bosom move,  
For ever taste the Bliss above,  
Enjoying all Felicity.   

This is the marriage of the Lamb,  
The Lamb of Purity,  
Who from the highest Heavens came,  
Brought forth Eternity in Time,  
That Souls this Wedding day might see.   

Fears are for ever wiped away,  
Sighs from their Breasts are fled,  
And happy evermore are they,  
Who can attain this marriage Day,  
And are unto SOPHIA Wed.   

All happiness attends on thee,  
No sorrows shall annoy  
Sophia's Arms thy Comforts be,  
Her Breast thy true Felicity,  
And in her eyes rests all thy joy.   

Blessed be this Day! thrice blessed is,  
This hour, this marriage Feast,  
For thou shalt Live in Paradise,  
In everlasting Joys and Bliss,  
And be by thy Love ever blest.   

Praise to SOPHIA than we give,  
And Hallalujahs sing:  
By whom we in this Sphere do Live,  
Who Souls from Earth to Heaven reprieve.  
And deigns them to her home to bring.   

Let Hallalujahs be our Song!  
O may Sophia deign!  
With her all-quick'ning Breath among  
Us, now to cast her odours strong,  
And on us her spiced showers rain.   

Hallalujahs to the blessed Name  
For evermore we sing.  
May it our warbling Tongues inflame●  
O thou who didst this marriage frame,  
Accept these offerings that we bring.   

Hallalujah, Hallalujah!  
Hallalujah we cry,  
Hallalujah, Hallalujah!  
Our Tongues for ever warble may,  
Thus unto all Eternity!   

Their Heavenly voices charmed the Pilgrim's ea●es,  
With such like Songs, and animated airs:  
But now they double their sweet melody,  
And wrap him int' an higher ecstasy:  
For every one takes his celestial Lyre,  
And runs divisions on the silver wire,  
Gently their fingers chime the speaking Chords,  
To which they marry Symphonizing words:  
The Babe that sprung from this Conjunction,  
Was Ravishment, and Admiration.  
Earth's sweetest voices to their voices are,  
Like the hoarse squeaking of a newmade Car.  
〈◊〉, and Orpheu's skill surpassed was here,  
So was the charming music of the Sphere;  
Each whispering accent on its mounting wings,  
To Paradise's highest summet brings  
The Pilgrims' Soul; to heavens high Thrones she ran  
Raised by the measures of their JASIAN.  
Their Lydian strains his Heart exhilerate,  
And with divinest Joys it animate.  
But whether pleased him most their Tongues, o● Lyres  
He doubts; both charm him, and he both admires.  
Their Tongues, and Fingers sweetly there do vie,  
Epods the one, the other Melody  
Bring to contend; but being sweetly joined  
An happy Concord in their strife they find.  
For whilst thei● Scarlet Tongues in quavering Notes  
A sweet consent breath from their sounding Throats,  
And trembling strings their nimble fingers shake,  
And a Symphosiac Diapason make.  
Both gently strike the circumambient Air,  
And sweetly kiss, and feast the Pilgrim's Ear:  
Beauty his ●yes, his Ears their music feed,  
And out of both, by both's Soul's ravished.  
Whilst thus divinely learned measures they  
Upon their Timbrels, and their Harps do play.  
And whilst their prayse-tipt Tongues the echoing  
Groves, with divinest accents make to ring;  
Clouds of Perfumes, and sweetest Spices come  
From their mouths hollow aromatic room:  
These spice the air: musk ambergris and Myrrh,  
In one breath sweetly mixed together were.  
A gentle Z●pher mustered in a trice  
Together, all the sweets of Paradise,  
(For unto every Tree, and flower he flew  
Kissing them sweetly, all their fragors drew  
Into's inodorated mouth) and there  
With sweet Ambrosiac Odours filled the fire.  
Not all the Spices of Arabia,  
Aloes, nor C●sha, nor strong Spi●kaard may,  
With all the sweet Perfumes the Earth doth bear  
With these so redolent blessed sweets compare.  
Nor Cloves, nor Cinnamon's sweet fragrancies,  
Nor Liban's Cedars may compare to these.  
Perfumes of Roses, Pinks, and Violets  
Of sweetest Flowers, and of choicest sets.  
Of Lilies, Oranges, and every thing  
In Paradise, with every blast took wing,  
And sweetly joined take without offence,  
The Ivory portals of his smelling sense:  
This fresh assault of Odours strongly pressed  
To ravishment, the Pilgrim's smelling feast.  
But now the costly dishes that were there  
As'k him why they so long neglected were;  
Their Beauties promised that they there should meet  
More ravishments than he had tasted yet.  
Upon them all his doubtful eyes he cast,  
Musing on which he should begin to taste.  
Each with a several beauty courts his sight,  
And all to taste with equal force invite:  
But whilst he mused, a Cup filled to the brim  
The Angel took, and sipped, and gave it him:  
'Twas sprightful NECTAR such as Saints above,  
And all the angellic Chore to drink doth Love.  
Unto the brim the sparkling Liquor skips,  
And blushing deeper than the Pilgrim's Lips,  
Invites them to the Boul; they straghtways join,  
And down he takes that Boul of Heavenly Wine.  
Nor Spain, nor Greece, nor hundred-citied Crect  
Could ever boast of Liquor half so sweet.  
A golden Patin with Ambrosia,  
His beauties next did to his eyes display:  
On it he feeds: Madera sugars are  
Sut both in taste, and hew if you compare  
Them, to the Ambrosiac meat: a thousand sweets  
At every taste, his softer palate meets.  
The bread of Life stood in the second place,  
Whiter than snow, upon a golden Vase.  
Then Heavenly Manna in a silver plate,  
With littering Beauties did invite to eat;  
Like to the silver dewy drops in May,  
Congealed a little in the plate it lay,  
But so delicious was the taste of it,  
That he was ravished at every bit.  
This is the Angel's food, thei● daily Bread,  
By which for ever, they in Heaven are fed.  
Milk, Honey, Oil divinely mixed were there  
To nourish, Comfort, and the Spirits cheer:  
'Twas Virgin's Milk, and Virgin Honey too,  
Not fabled Iun●'s had so fair an hue,  
Which pa●'d Galaxia: Nor Palestine  
E'er flowed with Milk, and Honey so divine.  
The Muse's birds from every flower do bear  
Gall, if their Mel you unto this compare:  
Nor ever did the Haemetian Mountain hold  
Such dulcified streams of liquid Gold.  
Mincrva's Liquor bears a sooty foil,  
If once compared with this celestial Oil.  
Full Bowls of Heavenly Nectar crown the board;  
Cups full of Milk of the Ae●ernal Word  
Scaturiant stand, whose purer White outgoes  
The fairest Lilies, or the Alpine snows.  
The Cups to smile with liquid silver seem;  
Or Pearls dissolved; or Cl●opatra's gemm:  
But they more rich, and costly Treasures hold,  
〈◊〉 either liquid Silver, Pearl, or Gold.  
〈◊〉 Sugar, nor the Honey founts of Crect,  
〈…〉, could a mess make half so sweet,  
〈…〉 that 〈◊〉 Milk; for there  
〈…〉 sweets commixed were.  
〈…〉 crystal Phials, 〈◊〉 with the  
〈…〉, and of Purity  
〈…〉; whose Crystal Liquor shone  
〈…〉 all the silver of the Moon.  
〈…〉 Water of Aet●rnal Life,  
〈…〉 Fire's most happy Wife)  
Ta'en from that source, whose crystallized streams  
Pearl Life's fair Trees, Roots with their matchless gemm.  
The Springs of Bethlehem, which did David please,  
No better were than Mirah's unto these:  
The limpid jordan though so clear he seem,  
To these shows, as Asphaltes' shows to him:  
Sampson's strange Spring with which he quenched his thirst,  
Nor Mose's stream which from the Rock did burst,  
Could march these Everliving Streams, one drop  
Of these it was that made those Springs burst up:  
One drop of these fair Waves 'tis gives unto  
All Rivers, all the Crystal they endue.  
Neighbours to these Cups of Obryziam Gold,  
More precious than that of Ophir, hold  
Dew, far more sweet than that which doth distil,  
From the sweet flowers upon HERMON Till.  
From mystic SION'S sweetest flowers: this,  
By Angel's hands fresh daily gathered is;  
And all the Graces which did grace the Feast,  
These twice blessed Dews had by their Labour blest:  
For from fair Paradise's Trees, and flowers,  
They had shaken these (more than Argolic) showers:  
From off the trembling Leaves, they shook the drops  
Of purest Crystal into golden Cups,  
Where a thousand crowded Pearls into one rolled,  
Showed like a fair one clasped in ductil Gold.  
Deeply of these, the happy Pilgrim sips,  
And drenches oft his Nectarized Lips:  
All mortal Waters this Azanium  
Did loathsome, and distasteful make to him;  
And far more truly may this phrased be,  
Than the Italians Chris●i Lachrimae.  
His Tears, nor Blood were wanting there, for in  
Most sumptuous Craters did that Liquor swim,  
Whose taste, and colour did by far excel  
The sweet, and deep-dyed Cretian Muscadel:  
That sacred drink he also freely sips,  
Which adds more Scarlet to his blushing Lips.  
Besides all these upon the board did crowd,  
Of Paradise's Fruit a multitude;  
Whose sweetest looks, as well the eyes delight,  
As their deliciousness the appetite.  
No Salga●a's, nor yet Preserves express  
Can half the tithe of their deliciousness;  
Nothing of Earthly acritude was there,  
Nothing of sharp, or bitter did appear,  
〈◊〉 were delicious, and did sweetly vie  
For to delight, with their variety.  
All to excel the Pilgrim thought: His taste  
Still gave the style of sweetest to the last,  
Till he another tasted had; When it  
With sweet delight made him the last forget:  
So till he almost filled Was he guessed  
The last he tasted, still to be the best,  
But then at last he could not but confess  
His judgement lost in their deliciousness.  
Would that the Earth had colours that could suit  
For to express the beauty of the Fruit:  
Scarce can that Bow, seen in the clouded air,  
Its Opals with the shades of these compare,  
Nor the three-squared Glasses varieties,  
(Which doth at once both please and hurt the eyes  
With the reflection) can represent,  
The shade of Paradise's Compliment.  
Man may by these some faint reflections frame,  
But his Ideas can't come near the same;  
And those who have it seen do say they can't,  
Express the beauty of the meanest Plant.  
Our slick, and scarlet Cherties nothing were,  
Could they with blushes make themselves more fair;  
Should they stand by the fruit of Paradise.  
They would be robbed of all their braveries.  
The Honey-sweet, and Purple grape would grow  
Bitter, and lose her Purple garments too;  
Our yellow Apples with their painted cheeks,  
Would pale their yellow, and their golden streeks:  
All Iune's, and August's gallant braveries,  
One single Fruit our Pilgrim ●at ou●vies.  
Sweet Thymiamus and Arabian Spice,  
●welt in the sacred Fruit of Paradise▪  
So that at once those sacred Fruits did feast,  
Three Senses, both the eye, the smell, the taste:  
Between which three his Judgement was so tossed  
That he was dubious, which was feasted most.  
The sacred Graces which this feast did Crown,  
Had there a Heavenly Banquet of their own,  
Such food it was on which they daily fed;  
And this before the Pilgrim too they spread.  
'Twas fruit of Life's fair Tree, which they from thence  
Had taken for their daily sustenance.  
Their smiling joy's, and sacred Peace's fruit,  
With Hope's, and Faith's together sweetly suit:  
There were the apples of blessed Chastity,  
The daily Food of sweet Simplicity;  
The Fruit of Love, and that which Innocence  
Did daily feed on: That which Patience  
Most Loved; and that so satisfying meat,  
Which Meekness, and blessed Temperance did eat;  
Brotherly Kindness, Single-mindednesse,  
And many more which there his eyes did bless.  
The Lovely Fruit with such sweet charms did greet  
His fixed eyes, that he fell soon to eat  
On every Dish; so pleasing was the Food,  
The more he eat of it, the more he could:  
Its sweetness could not cloy, and every bit  
Gave satisfaction, and desire of it  
Increased at once; in every bit there lay  
Life-Honey, Manna, and Ambrosio.  
But now four trines of blessed Angels bring  
The second course of this sweet Banquet in;  
Each one between his Snow-white Hands did hold  
A Dish, whose metal purer was than Gold  
seven times tried o'er; the quintessence of that  
Would be less pure and immaculate:  
They were all framed of Gems of Paradise,  
Whose Sunlike Lustres did pers●tinge the eyes.  
Not Epicurean Feasts, nor the profuse  
Symposiums of wa●ton Syracuse,  
Nor Sybaritic, nor all Asia's fare,  
Might with what in those Dishes lay compare:  
No, if all Lands, and Seas conspired were,  
To feast a Monarch with their choicest cheer,  
And should they bring th' Hefperian golden Fruit,  
Or rob Alcinous' Orchard 'twould not do 't:  
Kings may command Earth's Dainties to their board,  
But such as these, nor Earth, nor Seas afford.  
Apples they were though not of ●assy Gold,  
Yet far more rich, and fair for to behold;  
Their full-blown Beauties did attract the eye,  
Cheering the Spirits with their bravery,  
For Gold, and Silver, and the blushing Queen  
Of Flowers, lay involved of Beds of green:  
The verdant Leaves espoused to the Fruits,  
Gave them green Mantles to their Pinky Suits;  
So all the dainties of sweet smiling May,  
With Autumn's fair exuberances lay.  
But whilst the Pilgrim's eyes content doth take  
In their fair looks: thus t' him the Angel spoke  
Immediately the Birds surcease their noise,  
To hear the sweeter music of his Voice.  
Now shalt thou by experience confess,  
The Way to Wisdom is through foolishness,  
At least by that which so the World doth Call,  
Who miscall all things ever since the fall.  
Thou hast by all a Fool accounted been,  
Who superficiously thy paths have seen;  
What greater foolishness can be to them,  
Than all the World, and its Sweets to contemn?  
Who leaves the World's High Ways though ne'er so wise,  
Still subject to Fool's Category Lies:  
But it O Pilgrim! granted is to thee,  
That Heaven 's Archimagus thou shalt be.  
Seest thou those Lovesy Fruits, whose Rosy dye,  
And hew, their Compliments show to thy eye,  
But when their inward virtues thou shalt know,  
Thou thou lt say one's worth exceeds all Earth's below.  
These lovely Fruits which are before thee spread,  
For thy sake f●om Life's Tree was gathered,  
jesus commanded that it so should be  
For to express his mighty Love to thee.  
And this excess of Love bespeaks, for why  
But very few did ever feed so high.  
But our great King now in these latter days,  
Some to the highest pitch of Power will raise,  
To match those Mortals who in Hell beneath  
Feed on the Magic Fruit o'th' Tree of Death:  
And as Hel's Powers increase so theirs shall rise,  
Who feed on Life's blessed Fruit, in Paradise.  
For once before Christ's great appearing Day  
Shall be; both Kingdoms shall their might display  
On the Terrestrial Orb: The Dragon shall  
Sore to the skies to have the greater fall.  
This is a special favour to thee shown,  
For though, that many to this place have flown,  
And that the long Arm of Humility  
Hath reached them many Fruits of Life's fair Tree,  
Yet these fair fruits they never tasted; they  
Could only with their eyes feed on their gay.  
Many may unto Paradise attain,  
And other Fruit of Life's blessed Tree may gain,  
And yet may not permitted be to taste  
These blessed Fruits, which thou so freely mayst.  
God's gifts they are, and his Arcana's be;  
The very choice of all his Treasury.  
All fitted are not for so deep a Feast,  
Christ the sole Giver knows for whom 'tis best.  
The Tree of Life hath divers sorts of Fruit,  
Which with all tempers, and conditions suit;  
All that may be for Man's own happiness  
All that come here may eat; but these oppress  
Peculiarly above the rest, the might,  
Glory, and strength of the great Prince of Light.  
The Tree of Life mounts up her towering Head,  
Unto th' Aeternal World, from hence doth spread  
Her laden Arms, and on her upper bough  
These Theamagical twelve fruits do grow;  
From thence these Angels brought them: what they are  
And what their Virtues, I'll to thee declare.  
O Man! Can Time contain Eternity?  
Or can it comprehend the Deity?  
Can God grow old, or feeble? Time, or age  
Immortal Srength, to languishment engage?  
Is God's all-powerful Arm now weaker grown,  
Than in those Ages which are past, and flown?  
That thou thus boldly (O degenerate!)  
That Miracles are ceased, dost predicate?  
ere since the World did from a Chaos spring,  
Upon its Theatre, God still did bring  
His acts of Wonder; spreading them abroad  
As Witnesses to all there was a God:  
All ages of the World can testify  
Those matchless Wonders of the Dcity,  
But why less frequent in these later times,  
Is cause of Mortals unbelieving Crimes,  
Faith now is wanting; whosoever hath  
That, may do Wonders: with a grain of Faith  
Rocks may be moved: the Seas divided, and  
Earth's floated o'er, the Ocean made dry Land.  
Man's unbelief, and much unworthiness,  
Has caused exuberant Miracles to cease,  
But yet these later days so barren grown  
Are not, but they true miracles have shown:  
The Romish Church (although Priests often fain  
Some; through the cursed thirst of rotten gain)  
True miracles has seen. O Man! despise  
Not all; because some Priests have forged Lies:  
For nothing is to thee more dangerous  
Than to say, what God doth Belzebub does.  
But to that pass men now adays are grown  
That they no miracles at all will own,  
But if ought pass beyond their apprehension,  
They straight cry out it is black Hel's invention;  
As if th' Immortal King to Hell had given  
The glorious Wonder-working Power of Heaven,  
Or had resigned to him his right, or swore  
Never to show his Arm of Wonders more.  
Long shall not Man retain these thoughts, for why  
As Lightning breaketh thorough the Crystal Sky,  
So shall miraculous Wonders have a birth;  
And with new Light illuminate the Earth;  
And show that heavens Magicians can do  
More than Belzebub, or his Mag● too.  
For those who eat shall on these fruits you see,  
Shall only God's true sacred Magis be;  
And these shall make them so: thou shalt be one,  
Their several virtues therefore shall be shown.  
Seest thou that Dish? 
Gifts of the Tree of Life.  those fruits in Scarlet died?  
Who seem to brave it in Pomona's pride: 
Gift of Tongues.   
Such is their virtue that they far excel  
In giving Eloquence the Clarean Well.  
Hermes himself less Eloquent shall be  
Than those, whose Tongues these tip with swavity.  
These tasted, straight the Tongue-tied sweetly speaks,  
And all impediments asunder breaks:  
Tongues stammering strings are screwed to Heavenly strains,  
The blattering Mouth the highest Measures gains:  
They to the Eater straitwayes do dispense  
The divine accents of true Eloquence.  
Rhetoric Honey through their Lips do speed  
And such are termed golden-mouthed indeed.  
Their virtue 's tied not to one Tongue alone,  
It the true Grammar of all Tongues makes known,  
And in a Moment the unlearned'st Man,  
Can teach the deepest Characters to scan,  
And make him speak all Languages that are,  
More smoothly than his own vernacular.  
To Mose's Mouth, the fluent A●●on, this  
Fruit granted was, for the Isachians Bliss:  
This sacred Fruits high Virtue, did imbue  
A many of the holy Prophets too,  
Whereby in charming Notes they did diffuse  
God's sacred Word unto the stubborn Jews.  
The holy Spirit when in cloven flame  
He on the Heads of the Apostles came,  
Touched their Tongues with this Fruits sacred juice,  
And of all Tougues they straightways had the use:  
Such is the virtue of this matchless Fruit,  
Unless by those that are adjoining to 't.  
But mark that next Dish, 
Of R●●son.  where green Leaves enclose  
Fruit which in scarle● Robes out-braves the Rose:  
So fulgent Rubies court, and charm the eye,  
When with clear Smuragds they invelop'd lie;  
The Pestum flower peeps through her infant Skreen,  
With paler bl●●hes, wrapped with duller green.  
The jayce of these impregnates straight the Brain,  
Not with discourses Kicksie, nor with vain  
Disputes: true Logic art it doth diffuse,  
And teaches Syllogisms how to use  
For heavens own interest: True Dilemmas too  
Can by infusion to the Taster show.  
This doth the understanding purge; the eye  
O'th' So●l, the Mind from Motes do purify:  
This Reason doth illuminate, and shows  
How the true Dialecticks Art to use:  
Reason's corruptions, spots, and fallacies  
This purgeth out: and gives it purer eyes.  
This giveth Arms unto Truth's Champions, and  
enables them in Dispute's Wars to stand.  
This unto Paul was borne by some of us,  
When He with Beasts battailed at Ephesus:  
By this at Athens, to the School he flew,  
And th' Epicures, and Stoics overthrew  
With solid Arguments. This means did show  
His persecutors how to overthrow:  
The jewish Rabbis, Gentile Doctors, Mute  
At last were made: against him was no dispute.  
That third Dish where in Seas of Beauties wallow  
The slick-skin fruits; 
Of wisdom.  bestriped with Red, and Yellow;  
Screening their Virtues, in a double fold,  
Of Crimson, Satin, and of yellow Gold:  
The ground is Gold, upon whose face is spread  
A thousand striplets of a grain-dyed Red.  
That Dish contains fruit of unvalued prize,  
Whose sacred virtue makes man truly wise.  
That Magic makes, and true Phi●●●hers,  
That ●isdo●, and true Knowledge still infers.  
Those Fruits unlock the fast-shut Cabinet  
Of Nature, and her Treasures open set:  
Nature's true ●ewels rolled in pitch do lie,  
Not to 〈…〉 by an Heavenly Eye  
And such an one these give: an Eye that looks  
Upon, and reads her most mysterious Books.  
An Eye that thorough Neptune's Region goes,  
And all things in his brinish Kingdom knows,  
An Eye that walketh thorough all the Mines,  
An Eye that to Earth's solid Centre shines:  
An Eye which doth perspicuously see,  
What virtues, in all Vegetables be;  
That the true Nature of all things that grow,  
From the tall Cedar, to the shrub, doth know:  
An Eye that from the Earth to Heaven doth rise,  
And rangeth thorough the mysteries of the Skies:  
That views the stations of the Wanderers,  
That sees the mansion of the Northern Bears:  
That knows the nature of those glittering Fires,  
That reads their Lectures: and heavens Hand admires;  
That knows their good, and evil influence,  
They on the World, and Mortals do dispense;  
That knows the causes of all natural things,  
Seas, and Earth's motions, and the Winds swift wing●;  
The streaming Metours, and the blazing Stars,  
The hairy Comets sad predicts of Wars;  
That truly sees, and knoweth all the parts  
O'th' Ptolomic, and Eucledean Arts.  
These sacred Fruits besides all these disclose  
Nature's hid Magic, which th' unwise oppose,  
The Ancients wisdom, whereby they could do  
Things wonderful, yet natural, and true;  
Not juggling tricks: nor by ill Spirits might,  
But by Dame Nature's just, and sacred Light;  
Almost extinct now in the World; unknown  
'Cause men have sought praestigiae of their own,  
And following airy Notions caught the shade,  
Whilst the true substance did their hands evade.  
Such are the Virtues of these Fruits divine,  
Which with such matchless lustrous Beauties shines.  
Of these the Father of the Faithful eat,  
Sucking true Wisdom from the blessed meat,  
And those who lived nine Ages to descry  
The Planets dances i● the azure Sky.  
Great Solomon that mighty Magus had  
His Wisdom and his Rnowledge from this food,  
This sacred Fruit was lovely to his eyes,  
For he this more than 's Crown, or Gold did prize.  
He wisely said, For all things there a Time  
Was; did but Mortals on the Earthly clime  
Exactly know the same, they would not err  
So oft, and toys to precious Gems prefer:  
Of Wisdom it no Mean part is to know,  
The means not only but the Time to do:  
For what these blessed Fruits so freely give,  
Men in all A ges after deeply dive,  
Nor is 't unlawful for them to do so,  
Did they true Time take, and right Ways to go;  
Else all is vanity: For what's all this  
If Man should know 't, and yet ignore his Bliss?  
On this the King pitched his Mind's clear eye,  
When he cried out, all things are vanity.  
What are these Jewels, though they Jewels be,  
If Man's not sure of Eternity?  
These are no means to gain the Heavenly Race,  
These are but Crowns for those that gain the space.  
They are unwise who first do seek those Arts,  
Before that they have circumcised their Hearts:  
For what they gain before is vanity,  
What afterwards our King doth sanctify.  
What men acquire, they usually abuse it,  
What Heaven himself gives, he shows how to use it.  
Let Man therefore the Time observe, and see  
To gain Heaven first: these but additions be.  
The World's eye who in twice twelve hours, 
Of Heal●ng.  and four,  
The mighty Moles of the Earth views o'er.  
In all her choicest Hortyards cannot see  
Fruits, half so fair, and precious as these be  
Which in that neighbour Dish inchant the eye  
With painted Robes, and fulvid bravery.  
Those are Panchresta's for all ills of Man,  
And who shall taste them shall Physician  
Be to himself and others; these impart  
Both Esculapius his, and Chiron's Art.  
As the Heraclian Stone draws iron, and  
To rubbed Steel imparts the same Command;  
So these with perfect Health do Man imbue,  
And t' others make him Health's Physician too.  
Simples from his Hand ta'en more virtues hold,  
Than Bezoar or dissolved Pearl or Gold:  
His touch, or Breath, or Word, or healing Eye,  
May Physical Medicaments supply,  
The Taster gaineth from these Fruits alone,  
The healing virtue, and the medicinal Stone.  
Raphi●l this j●yce 'mong the Fish's Gall did scruse,  
Which Tobit t' heal his Father's sight did use.  
Part of this Fruit was mixed with that Perfume,  
Which did the evil Spirit overcome.  
King Hezekia's Figs which healed his sore,  
This Fruits blest Liquor in their entrails bore.  
By this Aelia's Life bestowed upon  
The widow of Zarepta's stone-dead Son.  
By this Elish● did repress Life's flight,  
And raised the Son, of the good Shu●amite:  
Some of this juice he mingled with the Meal  
Which did the Prophet's poisoned Po●tage heal,  
This in the crystal streams of jordan lay,  
When they washed Na'man's Leprosy away:  
This mixed was with the Salt, which cured, the so  
Unwholesome Springs of pleasant jerico.  
This to the h●mm of our King's garment drop●,  
When by its touch the bloody issue stopped:  
This in his healing spital hidden lay,  
When that he an Opthalmic made of clay;  
Which eyes restored to the born-blind; and  
This in his Breath made whole the withered Hand.  
Great jesus our thrice blessed King did feed  
On all these Fruits which are before thee spread,  
When he did flesh endue; But He that Food  
Liked best, which most was for poor Mortals good,  
Therefore he this used much; for through his Breath  
Diffusing it; to Life he raised from Death:  
He tothth' Blind, Lame, Deaf, Dumb, Dead, power did give,  
To see, to walk, to Hear, to speak, to Live.  
To the 〈◊〉 Pool once every year,  
One of my Brothers of this Fruit did bear,  
Whose virtue to those Water's virtue gave  
The sad afflicted from their pains to save.  
Legs to a Cripple through this virtue Paul  
At 〈◊〉 gave; Cured Eutichus his fall:  
Healed himself; cured a possessed Maid:  
Made Vipers hurtless: cured where's hand's were laid:  
So the Disciples all; by this alone  
Became Physicians unto every one.  
That next Dish (pressed with its exuberance 
Of Prophesy.   
Of matchless Treasures, which their heaps advance  
Above the low sides of the Patten) seems  
The chiefest Archive of Celestial gems.  
How thrust it is, that it can scarcely hold  
Those silver apples in its purest Gold.  
Preachers upon this sacred food should feed,  
This makes Divines, to be divine indeed:  
This keeps the Eaters Mouth from speaking wrong,  
Gives sacred Truth a dwelling in his Tongue;  
So chimes that Member that she utters, what  
●o pass in after age's shall be brought,  
Makes Her so swift in Her predicting chime,  
That she out-flyes the swiftest wings of Time;  
By anti-Chronicles of things not done  
Forestals the ages of the World to come:  
Making his Lincious eyes to see so far  
Things yet to come (like God) as if they were.  
This to the Eater gives the golden Key  
Which doth unlock the Letter's mystery, 
〈…〉   
Which doth unseal the most mysterious Wells;  
Wh●ch doth reveal Gems hid in Parables.  
This doth unfold the mysteries of the Night, 
O● Dreams.   
Visions appearing to th' internal sight;  
When the eyes double-guarded por●a's be  
Fast locked up with Morpheu's Leaden Key:  
When Night o'er half the World in silence reigns,  
Then noted Dreams Court undisturbed Brains.  
These Fruits give oil which oynt the Tongue, 
〈…〉  and make,  
〈…〉 fervent, daily speak  
To Heaven: and render Essences so strong  
That in stout ardours move the heated Tongue,  
And with such fervour call on Heaven, that she  
Even forces him with importunity:  
Such flagitations don't with Heaven dissute,  
When they rise from the virtue of this Fruit.  
The Patriarch JACOB of this fruit did taste,  
Before he gave unto his Sons, his last  
Prophetic Blessings; wherein he relates  
In Hieroglyphics all their future fates.  
This fruit of Na●oh all the Prophet's fed,  
When Saul's fierce Nuncio's also prophesied:  
And Saul, this (though unseen) when pressing through  
His Lips, was also made a Prophet too.  
This all those eat who to the jews foretold  
That Mortals should their God in flesh behold,  
This gave them spiritual eyes to see, before  
He came; that jesus whom we all adore.  
This Fruit was rolled, in Ezekiel's Role,  
This fruit was squeezed into Esdra's Bowl,  
This in the Leaves lay of John's Book, which He  
Eat, with the promise He should Prophesy.  
This Fruit Christ his Disciples granted too,  
Whereby his words profunditly they knew.  
joseph, and Dan●el also of it eat,  
When of King's Dreams interpreters they sat.  
El●sha eat of this when he by Prayer  
Stopped up the watery Fountains of the air:  
When he again by fervent prayer's power,  
Cheered the dry Earth with a continual shower:  
When he from Heaven with like fervent cries  
Fetched Fire to consume the Sacrifice:  
When he from Heaven Celestial Flames twice drew,  
The which two Captains, and their fifties slew.  
Such is the virtue of that fruit you see,  
A Gemm more rich than all Mortality.  
But view the next Dish: 
Of Poetry.  Did a greater prize  
(And less than Heaven itself) e'er bless thine eyes?  
Could Aretusa's tempting fruit more please  
Spectator's eyes, with greater gay than these?  
Do● golden 〈◊〉 rising from the main,  
The gray-eyed Morn with deeper Scarlet stain,  
Th●● th●●hich blush's on their cheeks? or may  
H●s ●●ams gilled with a better Gold the Day?  
What ●harmes upon their cheeks do lie! but see  
Th●●●●qual measures raise the●r suavity;  
How sweet a method in their make was seen!  
See how their Gold, is checkered with green!  
How passing sweet their outward beauties shine!  
Nor are their inner beauties less divine.  
Too long I cannot on these Eulogize;  
Nor too much p●ayse their heavenly suavities.  
Heavens' Choristers when they begin their Songs  
Of praise; with this Fruits juice do oil their Tongue●:  
The sacred S●riphs when they tune the Keys  
Of their shrill Tongues, for everlasting praise,  
And Hallelu●ah's of this Fruit they eat▪  
Which doth their prayse-●ip'd Tongues on fire set,  
Whilst Sion's Harpers strike their trembling Chords,  
Marrying their Airs unto their quavering Words.  
All of us Love this Fruit, for it inspires  
Our Songs; inflames our Tongues with Heavenly Fires;  
Th●s Fruit it is which makes a P●et shine  
And makes his Numbers, and himself divine:  
This Fire inkindles in his noble breast,  
Which makes him Loves lascivious lays detest:  
Sup●-caelestial are his harboured Fires,  
His lays are tuned to the Angels Lyres:  
〈◊〉 divine, and spiritual Songs do bear  
〈…〉 Soul unto the highest Sphere;  
〈◊〉 P●●●mes, and rapting Hymns high Keys,  
F●o● g●aver Epods up do often raise  
His So●l; then with 〈◊〉 fury, He  
Makes Dis to tremble at his melo●y.  
In this fruits juice his lip● he drenches, this  
His 〈◊〉, and Hippocren● i●,  
One 〈◊〉 of this sweet juice can make him do,  
More than 〈…〉 Mu●es, and Apo●●o too.  
The King●● H●●per eat this blessed Food,  
When 〈…〉 Spirit he so sweetly chewed;  
By this inspired he wrote those Heavenly Lays,  
Those Hymns of Joys, and those Psalms of praise.  
This made the martyred Fathers often sing.  
When scorching Flames their burning arms did fling  
About their naked flesh; whilst furious kisses  
Sent their rejoicing Souls to lasting Blisses.  
That neighbour Patt●n which transparent seems, 
O● discerning of spirit's.   
Doth also hold inestimable Gems;  
They apples are, although unto our sight,  
Each one appears a big-swelled Ma●garite;  
The Persic gulf, not yet the Eastern Seas,  
Did ever Unions yield so fair as these:  
Not all the Children of the Cheripo's  
Could half the value match of one of those  
Fair radiant Globes: whose lustrous beamings forth.  
Sufficiently do testify their worth.  
These to the Eater give a Beam of Light,  
A more than Lynx's ●ye, a piercing sight,  
Which through the feigned Cloaks of Spirits can  
See their true shapes, although they false put on.  
Though Hel's ●rince should his swarthy hide paint o'er  
With Virgin Beauties; though such wings he wore  
As I have on: Should he Angellic clothes  
Put on, his visage paint with purest snows;  
His Snakes to Amber Curls convert; his brow  
His Horns pulled in with polished Ivory strew:  
His jagged Teeth in order set, and from  
His horrid Mouth breath nothing but Perfume,  
His knotty tail tie round about his waist,  
And over that ten snowy Mantles cast;  
Pair all his claws: hide his deformity,  
And ugliness, with borrowed brave●y:  
And strive his utmost, egged by cunning h●te,  
Our speech, as well as clothes to imitate;  
Yet will this Fruit discover his deceit,  
Lay open the Monster, and make known his cheat.  
The Eyes it gives cannot deceived be,  
They through false paintings and adornments see,  
Discern Impostors who usurp our room,  
Descry Wol●●● which in borrowed sheepskins com●:  
See Satan's blackness thorough his painted skin;  
See through his Angel's shape a Devil within.  
Those eyes it gives, are acuous, and divine,  
And know false borrowed shapes, from genuine.  
O how should Mortals for this fruit entreat!  
Which frees them from the Stygian monsters cheat,  
Which shows his fucoes, and his subtleties,  
Heretic Errors, and prestigious Lies,  
Which though he cometh in an Angels dress,  
Betrays him to his genuine ugliness:  
For want of this, good souls have been misled,  
And into ills l●y false shapes ravished;  
Those snares do most entangle which he uses,  
When Mortals he under our shapes abuses.  
By this blessed Paul th' imposture's shape espied,  
Although of Christ, and him he testified,  
And having seen him he to Hell betrayed  
Him, 
Acts 16.  and delivered the Divining Maid.  
By this the Infant Church had eyes to s●e,  
jesus from Idols, Truth from Heresy;  
The cunning tricks, and wondrous subtleties,  
Satan still used to blind the Heathens eyes.  
This then discovered his impostrous che●ts,  
Made known fair Truth, and his most foul deceits.  
The next though paleness in their che●ks appear, 
Of union and Communion with holy spirits departed.   
Less Lovely, nor of lesser virtues are:  
How sweetly kissing in the Di●h they lie!  
These are the Apples of true unity:  
This precious Fruit bears Adamantine glue  
Can chain a thousand Hearts aswel as two.  
With true-love Links fast in a Knot together:  
That Hell, nor all his Ramms shall break the tether.  
Betwixt Spirits this frames a true unity,  
And binds with bands of best Community;  
An hundred Hearts it can so fastly bind,  
That they shall seem but all one Heart, and mind.  
This can do more: for the dread stroke of Fate  
By this Friends hears linked cannot separate.  
It ties immortal gives, though Death can slay  
The Carcase, yet cannot take these ties away,  
For spite of Death (their Souls together still  
Being joined) they visit one another will.  
By this the Saints a sweet Communion have,  
With those who long since past the silent Grave.  
For Death, to a Communion spiritual,  
To such is no impediment at all.  
Those out of Bodies with perspicuous eyes  
Can see Hel's plots, and cruel subtleties;  
And to their Friends they oft permitted are,  
Those precipies timely to declare.  
By this the Patriarches, the Apostles, the  
Blessed Saints, and all the Martyred Fathers, be  
Alive to this Day, and by this alone,  
Man may with them still have Communion:  
Thus Friends divided by the Hand of Fate,  
By this alone are made inseparate,  
For this gives ties that cannot broken be,  
By the weak Hand of frail Mortality.  
All the Apostles of this Fruit did taste,  
Which linked their Hearts so fast.  
By this Communion with each other, they  
Kept, though they o'er the Earthly World did stray  
Apart; and those who did survive the rest,  
Communion kept with those whose Deaths were blest  
By martyrdom; which Courage stout did give  
To know the Bliss in which their souls did live.  
Thus blessed 
* Dyonsius Arcopagita, i● Ep●st. ad Tim.  Denis, joined in unity,  
After their Deaths did Paul, and Peter see,  
Crowned with glorious Crowns of sacred Light,  
Arrayed with Ro●es of more than snowy white.  
By this Fruit thus they after Death, with one  
Another held a strict Communion.  
That golden Patten which stands next to this, 
Of Union and Communion with holy A●g●●s.   
Of Fruits with brightness clothed the Arca is:  
Heave'n's brightest Tapers in the Skies do blaze  
With lesser Lustre; and less sparkling Rays,  
Than these: whose beamings and illustrious shine,  
Preach their own● Beauties, and their Worth divine.  
We much desire that man should seed on this  
Illustrious Fruit; for by this Fruit he is  
Acquainted with us: by this Fruit alone,  
We have with Him, and He has union  
With us: by this our several Hierarchies  
Our Beauty▪ splendour, and Attires he sees.  
To Man by this illustrious Fruit alone  
Our Care; and kind philanthropy is known.  
Here (could our Heavenly Joys permit us grieve)  
I could Threnodas sing, 'cause Men deceive  
Themselves; to think its any's Fault but their  
Own, that we do not now so oft appear  
As we have done in former Ages; No  
The fault's not Ours but theirs we do not so.  
The Reason why so oft we do not press  
From Heaven to Earth is Man's unworthiness.  
What else can Mortals think that it should be?  
Can't we be clothed with visibility  
With as much ease, 
This is the opinion of some: of others: See P. 49. 50.  as then, think they? or now  
Grown old with Time, do also lazy grow?  
Think they the space 'twixt Earth, and Heaven more  
Large, and wide drawn than in times before?  
Or do they think our Love diminished?  
Or that they of our helps now have no need?  
Or do th●y on our Maker lay the blame?  
That he to former Ages than to them  
More Love did show? think they him partial, that  
We did on those, and not on them do wait?  
Or do they think our King has more to do  
In Heaven for us, that he can't spare us now?  
What is't that peevish Mortals think? what e'er  
They think, it is their sins that keep us here,  
Sealed from their eyes; which hide this blessed Fruit,  
So that they know not which way to come to 't:  
For could they eat of it, 
Here is 〈…〉 and sig●●▪  they often would  
With pleasure us familiarly behold.  
In Ages past when we so frequent were  
With Men, and did in Humane shapes appear;  
Simplicity, and Innocency reign  
Did amon● M●n, they knew not how to gain  
By lying Miracles: their Natures all-  
Most like to overs were Angelical:  
But after Satan broached his vanities  
Which men sucked in; he under our disguise  
Of them deceived; so his delicious food  
They fed upon supposing it was good:  
So as their sins increased we disappeared;  
Whilst Satan of his Conquests Trophies reared,  
Which he by feigning Angels shapes did gain:  
Whereby we did to Man obscure remain.  
This now continues, so man thought at last,  
Our dispensat'on of Appearing past:  
And now he boldly if we do appear  
As we were wont, averrs we Devils are.  
But blinded he is ignorant that this  
Fruit, God's most sacred Fruit, and blessing is,  
Which still is free as e'er it was for Man,  
Were he but worthy to obtain the same.  
Of this fruit 'twas those holy Men did taste,  
With whom we had, in all the ages past  
Communion: for who do eat of it  
We are for them, and they for us made fit:  
We then to such shall not as strangers be,  
But much frequent each others company.  
That Royal Fruit which in that Dish doth lie,  
Whose very looks with Wonders, 
Gifts of Miracles,  maze the eye,  
In beauty, and in virtue shall give way  
To none, which fed thy blessed eyes to day,  
See but what charms are spread upon their cheek,  
Their hue, and make, their wondrous virtue speaks.  
This fruit indeed a faithless Faith expels,  
And giveth one of working Miracles.  
The Eater shall nothing too hard suppose  
To be effected by him: for by those  
Mountains may be removed, Seas made a Plain,  
And all the Champain floated with the Main.  
All living Creatures, and inanimate  
Obey his Word, who of this Fruit have eat:  
He miracles shall truly do, although  
Beelzebub's servants will not own them so,  
Or if they do, with belching Mouths outright  
They cry, they're done by their own Master's might;  
When by this Fruit they're down, which you behold,  
As also were true miracles of old.  
By this great Moses Power had to divide  
The blushing Seas: by this was jordan dried  
Twice by Elisha's Mantle: The Command  
Of joshua still enforced the Sun to stand.  
By this Fruit also great Amozides  
Repelled the Day's great Giant ten degrees.  
Of this Fruit also blessed jesus eat,  
When he so many Wonders did Complete,  
That many Volumes cannot comprehend  
The tithe of them: his Wonders have no end.  
By this the blessed Apostles did effect  
Their Miracles: Wonders with Wonders backed.  
Great Thaumaturgus when the Word he spoke,  
By this Fruits Virtue dried up a Lake.  
By this the latter age's not a few  
Have Wonders done; 
Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 7. c. 25.  and Wonders more shall do:  
For time draws nigh wherein this Fruit shall then,  
Not such a stranger be to Mortal Men.  
The next Dish holds five glorious Apples, that  
Man's five internal Senses animate, 
Gifts of seeing.   
The first whose beauties are so excellent  
That plunge Spectators into ravishment,  
Unlocks the crystal pylas of the eye,  
Permitting it heavens Beauties to descry.  
By that the inner eye hath oft a sight  
In sacred Visions of Aeternal Light  
Of this blessed place, and of the Throne of bliss,  
Where our great King's immortal Splendour is.  
By that we may be seen; by that the eyes  
Behold the inner-VVorld's varieties:  
And all the Spirits that created be,  
In all the World's perspicuously see:  
By this Elisha's servant's eyes unbarred  
Were, when he saw his Master's fiery guard:  
John's, Iame's, and Peter's when the on Tabor saw  
Elias, Christ; the Giver of the Law.  
The second that in yellow Ornaments,  
Doth ravish with a thousand blandishments, 
Of Hearing   
Continually a golden Key doth bear  
Which opes the Portals of the inner ear.  
Through which the Sounds of Paradise do go,  
And the celestial Harper's music flow:  
Through which the inner World's sweet Harmony,  
And all the Angels mystic voices fly.  
By this young Samuel's tender ears were bored:  
When he the voice heard of our Sovereign Lord.  
And divine Ioha's, when he did hear the voice,  
Like to the rushing of enraged Seas.  
The third which doth the Indian Nard excel,  
Or all the spice of Arabia in smell, 
Of smeling.   
The inner smelling Sence's gates doth wide  
Set open; through which Celestial Odours slide;  
Through which the sweet Perfume of Paradise,  
To cheer the Brain and Spirits sweetly flies.  
The fourth whose sweetness Honey far exceeds,  
With dews of Paradise the Eater feeds;  
By that the Manna of jerusalem, 
Of tasting.   
To taste is often granted unto him,  
By that his tongue on food divine doth taste,  
And's inner palate on heavens sweets doth feast.  
The last whose slicknesse far exceeds the silk, 
Of touching.   
Whose snowy whiteness far the purest milk,  
Gives to the Eater sensibility  
Of the Contactions of Divinity.  
By it he feels those pleasant thrillings, which  
His Soul with the extremest Joys enrich;  
Those burning tinctures of the deepest Love  
Which round his Heart with matchless pleasures move.  
Of these three last the holy Saints did feed,  
Being granted to them in the time of need,  
When persecution's mouth with all its power,  
Sought them with cruel torments to devour,  
Those than were Cordials to support the Hearts,  
Against persecution's cruel Flames, and Darts,  
The lowest Dish which doth conclude the Feast,  
Though it comes last, 
Gifts of divine Magic.  yet is it not the least;  
The Fruit it holds is of such price, and Worth,  
That it will lose much by my setting forth:  
Not all the Rhetoric an Angel has,  
Sufficient is, this precious Fruit to praise.  
This is the Fruit that maketh Mortal Man  
To be Iehovah's great Magician,  
Art- Magic this doth to the Eater show,  
And him with Heavenly Sapience imbue:  
Those Arts it gives are Sacred; and by this  
A true Philosopher the Eater is.  
In former Days this Fruit has frequent been  
With Mortals, though it now is scarcely seen  
Upon the Earth; for faithless they do call  
All Geocy, that's supernatural:  
As if that God in Earth resigned his Right  
Had unto Hell, or that his glorious Might  
Were to be tied, unto the poor dimention  
Of shallow Man's more shallow comprehension.  
This Art indeed to Man is scarcely known,  
For at his back he has the Substance thrown  
For to embrace mere shadows, or what's worse  
Arts which upon their Students pull a Curse.  
what's all the Knowledge that the World affords,  
But empty shadows, vain, and windy Words?  
This Art deserves the Name of Art alone,  
Although to Man it be so little known;  
In which are Depths, unfathomable, Seas  
Where greatest Wits may swim, and if they please,  
In which is something more than Notions; and  
Things that with the sublimest Wits may stand.  
Great Miracles this Magic-Art affords,  
Not caused by joining superstitious words,  
But in the true Name of jehovah all  
Wonders are done, if truly magical.  
But what's the Reason that this Art is lost, 
The abuse of Magic, and how the divine Magic comes to be lost.   
And with it all true Sapience almost  
Now in this latter, but yet wicked Times?  
'Tis Man who hath obscured it with his crimes;  
And subtle Satan by his cunning: who  
The Name of wisdom makes a bugbear too.  
Since Simon spoiled the Name of Magus, all  
Hell's Necromancers they Magicians call:  
A Name of Glory once, though now the same  
Is by the World used as a Brand of shame.  
What makes the World suppose, that there can be  
No Wonder done but by Necromancy?  
No action that is metaphysical  
But men suppose it diabolical?  
What makes them that they do themselves deceive?  
And that there's Magic that's divine believe  
Will not? 'tis cause the worldly Wise have sought  
To find it out and have effected nought.  
How many are there who have sought to find  
This sacred Fruit! yet they have proved blind,  
And by the Devils subtle tricks have been  
Turned from the Path, when they were rightly in.  
Some they two dozen years have sat, or more,  
(And were as wise then as they were before)  
Reading (so long until they could not see)  
The moldy Volumes of Antiquity:  
Toying amongst that antiquated ware  
To find the Stone of the Philosopher.  
But such because they sought, and sought in vain,  
With Lies maliciously the Truth arraign;  
And 'cause they miss have their Aim, thy cry  
There's no such thing: a mere deceit; A lie.  
Such great Ablep●ie doth in others brain  
Lye, that they cannot see, though it be plain,  
Before their eyes: and though it couched be  
In mystic, and yet plain Philosophy.  
True Books they have, but yet their blinking mind,  
Among those Truths cannot the true way find,  
No Philosophic Write, but they poor  
Upon them, read, and turn them o'er, and o'er:  
Plato they o'er and o'er so often turn  
Till with their Thummings he's in pieces worn.  
And so they also with their fumbling fists,  
Mouse all to pieces twenty Tresmegists.  
Then Plotinus so often is turned o'er,  
And sullied, that they can read no more.  
At last, their Patience being worn threadbare,  
With Aristotle they contented are;  
And on his Metaphysics grovelling lie  
Or soar no higher than the starry Sky:  
Having in him once mounted a degree  
Philosophers in fashion than they be:  
Then these are wise men: why? because they know  
The natural causes of some things below.  
Not thus content they wrangling Sophists turn,  
And at true wise men, and true Wisdom spurn.  
But others with an Appetite canine  
Fall to the Egyptian mystery divine  
Couched in their Hieroglyphics: but such bones  
They find to pick; that wearied; for the nonce  
They cry, these painted pictures of deceit  
Were only made Philosophers to cheat;  
That under them no mysteries do lie,  
Of Learning, nor yet of Divinity:  
Thus vainest Fools do still calumniate,  
Those sacred Relics which they can't come at;  
Barking against them, in an angry tune,  
Like churlish Curs that bait the fair-faced Morn.  
Another sort (as wise as all the rest)  
Their wits with the Arabian wise men feast,  
And all the modern Wise men, where with pains  
And diligence, they strive to crack their Brains.  
Geber so oft marked with their nails is spilled,  
And Lul with black interlines is filled.  
Arnold, and Riply with an hundred more,  
Are with notes in the margin scribbled o'er.  
From these now having gained a Theory,  
They practice for the stone in Alchemy;  
And having vapoured all their Coin in smoke  
Their good Opinion of the Stone revoke,  
Of whom some cry to others that they should  
No longer be with vain Opinions fooled.  
For by experience woefully they find  
There's no such Stone: And why? because they're blind.  
But others of them (who more spiteful are)  
Because that they themselves deceived were,  
Turn base Impostures, and the simple cheat  
By many a juggling, and prestigious feat.  
Thus by imposture full of filthy shame,  
They bring on Chymic Arts an odious Name.  
Others of them do full as bad, or worse,  
Cheating men's Wits as these do cheat their Purse,  
For these desiring for to get a Name,  
(No matter how, so they can purchase Fame)  
Would fain be thought for to have gained the Stone  
Which they forsooth will give to every one  
Out of their charity, but lest profane  
Men, and unworthy should this purchase gain,  
They must write in an aenigmatic style,  
Where they with simple sopperies beguile  
Their studious Readers; and in mystic guise  
Without control invent a thousand Lies.  
Then imitating some Philosophers,  
Who might have Truth's divine couched under theirs,  
They talk of Dragons, black, and green, and Red,  
Of mystic Virgins being brought to Bed,  
Of maiden's Milk of Caput Mortuums,  
Of black turned white; then when the blessing comes  
Their admonitions unto secrecy,  
Wish such like stuff and simple soppery:  
Where Men may sooner find a Mine of Gold  
Than in such Books a line of sense behold,  
Which being seen the World cries on them shame,  
And 'cause of them all mystic Writings blame:  
Thus by impostures tricks, and Knaveries,  
The Truth's entangled with obscurities.  
But others thinking these choice Fruits to gain,  
With tedious lucubrations, and pain  
Have courted Princely Plolomie to show  
Them, in what place among the Stars they grow.  
Then into Haly greedily they pry,  
And search the shining Records of the Sky,  
Visit the Poles; and all the Planets, and  
Those Volumes penned by the almighty's Hand;  
But missing there the thing they sought for, they  
Out of vexation fling their Books away;  
Or else turn Prophets, and prognosticate,  
Of Winds, Rains, snows, Subjects, and Ruler's fate:  
Who broaching ignorantly gross mistakes  
Make the Art evil spoken of for their sakes.  
Others there are which for this Fruit do seek  
In the Meanders of Arithmetic,  
Into those deep Arcana's down they dive  
In Number's grave burying themselves alive,  
Those speak by Figures, and by nods least they,  
Breaking their silence should themselves betray:  
What mystic Monad, perfect Quadrats, Trines,  
What double Numbers, and unlucky Signs  
Of odd conjoined Figures, and the like  
They have! which in 't amaze the unlearned strike:  
But some whose patience worn out with their Book,  
Into Pythag'r as can no longer look;  
(Whose suppositious pamphlets in his Name  
Which bring to that Philosopher great shame)  
Cry out all is Deceit that Numbers be,  
And all the Art but mystic Knavery.  
And thus the World by witness testifies  
Against the Truth hid in all mysteries.  
Others notorious in their Notary  
Art, juggle with as simple Foppery,  
Thinking this noble Magic may be took,  
From the Loins of some suppositious Book  
Of Apollonius, or of Solomon  
Which these blind Dotards, dote too much upon.  
These superstitious make a wondrous do  
With mystic Names of God, and words, not true,  
Merely invented with full sounds to awe  
The Ignorant, with superstition's Law.  
But when they see themselves beguiled by  
This pious-fac'd-deceitful Theurgy,  
They to the World with open mouth proclaim,  
Their own ablepsy, ignorance, and shame;  
Whereby the sacred Hebrew mysteries  
In Names too deep for them the blind despise.  
Another sort of Men there is, who do  
Long earnestly to be Magicians too,  
Tritemiu's and Agrippa's Books they get,  
By which each Note, and Character they set  
In their due place; their Crosses, Laments, and  
Their Pentacles must all in order stand,  
Their Tapors, Swords, and consecrated Oil,  
With other stuff (the easier to beguile  
Themselves) they fit; assaulting by and by  
The Camp of Devils with their Geocy.  
How easily to them doth the Devil yield,  
And let them for his gain to win the Field,  
Being commanded for a while, that he,  
At last a Tyrant o'er their Souls might be!  
But some repenting timely did impart  
Hel's cunning, and the Follies of that Art,  
By which the World so fearful grew, and fell  
To think all natural Magic came from Hell,  
So Paracelsus, nor Agrippa, nor  
More skilled in natural Magic could prefer  
Its Wonders to the World, but for their pains  
They branded were for Hel's Magicians.  
But others whom Hel's wretched Prince can gain,  
With a black union their dear Souls to slain,  
Dive to the bottom of Hel's Arts, and there  
Indeed great dark- Magicians appear:  
These Necromancers freely he endues  
With Wonder-working Power, his Kingdom shows  
To them: and triumphs greatly that he can,  
Make known his Power by the arm of Man.  
These can do Wonders, and the World amaze:  
Such might on Man, mighty Belzebub ●ays:  
Such was great jannes', such was Mambres, or  
Black Elymas, the wicked Sorcerer:  
And such was Simon, who oft backed a Cloud  
And through the Air road in his Chariot proud.  
These Men the World with such great fear infected,  
That mysteries divine became suspected,  
Science was lost, and Ceremonies all,  
Accounted were, or diabolical,  
Or superstitious, and the very Name  
Of Magic tainted, odious became.  
Thus divine Magic was obscured; and  
Men won't believe, that heavens almighty Hand  
Can by his proper instrument disclose  
His mighty Power, Hel's Magis to oppose,  
And that great Man, by Heaven enabled, show  
Can, as great Wonders as all Hell can do.  
But if such should appear the World would strait  
Them, Hel's black Necromancers nominate,  
Call us black Devils, or base Incubies  
If they but hear that Man our Faces sees:  
Thus you may see how Men themselves do cheat,  
With Fear, and the opinion of Deceit.  
Thus Truth, and the true magic that's divine,  
Wrapped o'er with pitch, alone doth inly shine:  
And is a Jewel locked up from the World  
That so much Dirt, and mire at it has hurled.  
But don't you wonder what the reason is  
That all (or most) men of their aim do miss?  
And that this sacred Magic still in spite  
Of all their search, 
Why so many have lost their labour in the search of the Stone.  is obscured in Night?  
Labour all things o'ercomes you think, and they  
Investigated it have Night, and Day;  
With toil, and sweat, pains indifagitable  
And all the forces that their wits were able  
To muster, for This searched have, and yet  
The knowledge of this Magic cannot get.  
The Fault's their own; for they wrong ways have took  
And the true Road to Bliss, and it forsook.  
Their ourself wit, and wisdom this have wrought,  
And from fair Truth's to errors paths have brought  
Them; 'Cause they saw the way that to it led  
Simple, and plain, therefore the same they fled:  
They this forgot: TRUTH doth all cover flee:  
That to be Wise, is first a Fool to be.  
Money, no● Wit may be the purchasers  
Of it; Obedience chiefly this infers.  
This Magic's sacred, holy, and Divine,  
By God himself hid from the World's dull eyen:  
Does Man then think that all his witless wit,  
And prying able to discover it?  
Unless God with his Finger show't himself,  
In vain they wast their wits, their Time, their Pelf.  
This then is one cause why so many fail,  
Because they do to their own wits entail  
The knowledge of it: for they never doubt  
But by their Wisdom for to find it out.  
But this Pearl God hath hidden from the eyes  
(In tenfold pitch) of all such Worldly-wise,  
And sooner may they crack their troubled Brain,  
Than one poor glimpse of this deep mystery gain:  
God doth it to a seav'n-sold Chest commit,  
And Prayer is one holy Key of it.  
Another Reason why this Pearl they miss  
Because they slight the sacred Scriptures, is;  
Trusting more to the Heathens Scriptures, than  
Those which contain all happiness for Man,  
As if (because their vain Philosophy  
They cannot in that blessed Writ descry)  
The true Philosophy that is divine,  
Therein with sacred Lustre did not shine:  
But those will find, who pierce the mystery  
A Philosophic, high divinity.  
The way to Bliss, and to this Magic, there  
Unsealed to eyes enlightened will appear.  
Man's Heart's deceitful, full of subtle wiles,  
Both others, and himself he oft beguiles,  
His Heart's corrupt, for though he seeks for Bliss  
A foul Colluvies at the bottom is:  
God this beholds, and whatsoever he seems  
To man, he sees his close intents and Aims.  
Many investigate this Pearl: But why?  
Some some selfish aims close in their Hearts do lie;  
But such must know, all self must laid aside  
Be, or they else shall ever be denied.  
FAME, and Renown infuse some short-lived hear,  
Which causes some upon this Work to set;  
Poor blast of Air which shuffles Man to Pride!  
That Man expect should to be satisfied!  
That God should yield to him, and not deny  
His Lust, and Humours vain to satisfy!  
He who hath aims besides God's glory, shall  
If clime unto this Art, but gain a Fall.  
How many 〈◊〉 the Philosopher's Stone  
(Part of this A●t, and but the meanest One)  
Out of mere Avarice, and hope of gain;  
Hoping it will be their God Aeschylane.  
These are the Spurs, wherewith themselves they rouse  
When they thorough Pains their dulled Spirits lo●se,  
But such at last, when their Spurs dulled are,  
Tyre, and yield up themselves unto despair;  
Who have no better Spurs than these, the mire  
They must go through their lazy jades shall tire:  
But the true seekers of the noble Stone,  
Have golden Spurs to spurious such unknown.  
These be the Reasons why so many miss  
The STON●; and their investigated Bliss.  
To thee dear Pilgrim need I not to show  
The way to Magic; 
The way to gain the divine Magic.  'tis the Way which you  
Have come, and there's no other Path which guides  
To this Celestial Art of Arts besides.  
'Tis not the selfish Wise man this can gain,  
'Tis not the Covetous shall this attain,  
'Tis not the thirsty after Glory, shall  
Be able once to touch this Magical  
And happy Fruit; from such it's safely kept  
By an huge Dragon, whose eyes never slept;  
Those who this Fruit will gain must first outright  
Overcome this Dragon in a single Fight.  
O man thou must Regenerated be  
Before thine eyes this happy Fruit can see,  
Fo● none but Children gain this Diadem;  
Children of Love: it is preserved for them;  
Children of Innocence; who washed are  
In bl●st Regeneration's Lavar fair.  
This happy Fruit by the free Hand of Heaven,  
To such Regenerated Babes is given:  
By which from Babes to an exalted pitch  
They ' ● raised, and so become Men wise, and Rich;  
Rich in those Treasures, whose most simple Gemm,  
The World doth, and its richest Riches shame.  
Th●s gift is Free, and yet it must be sought,  
Yet by true Resignation 'tis bought.  
God gives a portion small at first, but so  
As it Man uses, shall his Talon grow.  
But never let Man hope for this estate  
'Til is heart is pure, and Regenerate;  
You know great Riches, and high Honours are  
The Devil's strongest, unresisted snare,  
By which ofttimes he Souls doth overthrow,  
Who pious were, e'er they those B●●ts did know:  
Think you that God th●n int' Man's hands will put  
So sharp a Weapon his own Throat to Cut?  
Think you he will to him the Stone disclose,  
'Til how to use it for his good he knows?  
Nor knows Man how to use it till that he,  
(First truly Dead) Regenerated be:  
Then let all, who this Art investigate;  
In Soul and Body be regenerate:  
Then if they ask, they shall receive the prize:  
If Knock the sealed Door asunder flies:  
If seek, they find: if pray, they're heard: Thus I  
Have showed the true way to Felicity,  
The way whereby this Fruit may be attained:  
Whereby the much desired STONE is gained.  
He then who pure is, 
What a divine Magician is.  and Regenerate  
And blessed so, that he may freely eat  
Of this beatifying Fruit, he than  
Becomes heavens SOPHUS, or Magician.  
O those blessed Bonds which fast together tie,  
God, and the Soul, Man and the Deity!  
Nothing 's impossible for him to do,  
Who this blessed state, and pitch attained has to,  
For if to him, to God it must be so;  
His Will is God's, they are no longer two:  
He willeth nothing but by heavens own Will:  
Then what shall dare not his Command fulfil?  
He now is Sovereign over the World, and all  
Things, that therein are shall obey his Call.  
For by this Art of divine Magic, he  
May shroud him in invisibility:  
Walk on the Clouds: stand in a flame of Fire;  
And through the walls, if doors be shut retire:  
May walk upon the s●●liest Seas, while they  
Smoothing their rugged Fronts his feet obey.  
To him diseases bow their eager heads,  
And at his touch they leave their nasty beds  
And fly to Hell, from whence they came; for by  
His touch, and Word restored is Purity.  
Of Vegetables the true use he knows;  
The poison in each herb away he throws,  
And perfect Chemist by Spagyric Art,  
Hell from heavens Essence, Dross from Gold can part.  
Both Animals, and Minerals also,  
He not by guess, but perfectly doth know:  
As Man may in a Mirror see his Face,  
So he their virtues through their outward Case.  
No thing's unknown to him, all Arts that be,  
Unmasked are, and he views their Verity.  
Metals he may transmute: the Stone by which  
They are exalted to the●r highest pitch  
Of persectnesse he has: which will unfold  
The way to change all Metals into Gold.  
Not only Bodies are at his Command  
But all created Spirits also stand  
To do his Will: The sneaking Devils are  
If he Commands enforced to appear  
With louting Heads, and trailing Tails, and eyes  
Dejected, to behold themselves made prize:  
To see that Man, whom they triumphed upon,  
Now to have Rule and be a Lord o'er them.  
O they had rather to the darkest place  
Of Hell run, than behold their own disgrace,  
For if he cometh where they be, they run  
Into the lowest darkness headlong down;  
For they his eyes as much now hate to see,  
As the bright splendour of Eternity;  
For they behold him with that glory clad,  
As once themselves before they lapsed had.  
All Earthly Spirits also pressed do stand  
Ready to do, what he shall them Command:  
Those in the Fire yield a joint consent  
To wait upon him in their Element.  
Those in the Water, and the deepest Sea  
All his Commands are ready to obey.  
Those in the Air, and Astral Regions too,  
Their constant service at his beck do show.  
The holy Angels also do rejoice,  
And pleasure Him who is the Highest's choice:  
Thus all conspire to be his servants, and  
With speed obey what he shall them Command,  
Besides all these to him permitted 'tis,  
To enter Gods own Treasury of Bliss,  
In which he doth Arcana's deep behold,  
Not fit unto the World for to be told;  
The great Archaeus of all things that be,  
He doth in every World and Astra see.  
Divinely taught; divinely learned indeed,  
He heavens Ca●al, and mysteries doth read.  
And thus is heavens Magician a King  
Upon the Earth, to whom all Creatures bring  
Their homage due unto that Image, that  
In him appears, of the incorporate,  
And increated Deity: And thus  
Man is coequal with (nay more than) us.  
What Adam lost he gains by this new Birth,  
And is new-Crowned King, and God on Earth.  
And such a Godlike King was Adam: 
Those skilled in divine Magic.  All  
So should have been but for his fatal Fall:  
But few, and very few attain to this  
Great Pearl of Wisdom; Fruit of matchless Bliss,  
Now in these latter days: But Mortals may  
e'er long behold, the mighty lustrous Ray  
Of this fair Fruit; which I may call the Best,  
For in it is contained all the rest.  
heavens great Magician mighty Moses had  
Upon this Fruit by God's donation fed,  
When ●e those Wonders in the Name of God  
Did do in Egypt with his Magic Rod:  
That Rod which to a Serpent changed was,  
And which again into a Rod did pass,  
By this Fruit he God's MAGUS did become,  
Performing Wonders in his mighty Name:  
By this on Pha●oh, and all Egypt too,  
He seven fold Plagues, and seau'nfold Wonders threw.  
By this the Seas he parts, which Crystal wa●ls  
Become: the Israclites by this with Qualos,  
And Manna bright he feeds; By this a knock  
Opens the Springlets in the solid Rock.  
By this he Gold makes potable; his face  
With royal Rays, by this encircled was.  
Mos●'s successor by this Magic too,  
The strong-built walls of jerico o'erthrew.  
By it 
* Gidion.  jerubaal did overthrow  
The Midians mighty Host without a blow.  
jesus with Heavenly Magic also fed  
Four thousand people with seven Loaves of bread:  
By it he fasted forty days; he by  
The same did with invisibility  
Adorn himself, and 'mong a Multitude  
Of foes, unseen he passed through the Crowd.  
By it he walked on the Seas, and yet  
His soles the brinish Waters did not wet:  
By it although the Doors fast locked were,  
He could when e'er it pleased him appear.  
So Paul by the Celestial Magi●'s might,  
Deprived the Sorcerer Elymas of sight.  
So Peter when Hel's Magus S●mon flew,  
Thorough the Air, him from the Clouds he threw  
Unto the Earth, by heavens true Magi●'s Skill,  
Which Fall did both his Life, and Magic spill▪  
For Hel's dark Magic unto heavens must yield;  
Nor dar●s that come, when this is in the Field.  
With great-attention all this while attended  
The Pilgrim, till the Angel thus had ended:  
But ravished with the Knowledge of that Fruit  
(Leave 〈◊〉 given) he wi●h joy fell to 't:  
Fell to that Feast which was more excellent  
Than twenty thousand out-worlds' Compliment,  
That Feast which by heavens proper Hand was dressed,  
That Feast which by heavens sacred Breath was blessed:  
That sacred ●●nquet which installed the man  
heavens divine, and Arch-Magitian.  
O with what pleasure, and delight he eat  
On that Celestial, and thrice sacred meat!  
But yet with humble reverence he fed,  
Bowing to jesus for those gifts his Head,  
Confessing still his own unworthiness,  
Of that Felicity He did express.  
But seeing jesus by the Angel had  
Granted him leave to eat, he freely fed.  
Whilst thus the Pilgrim with a full content  
Of ●oy, and Blis●e, and highest ravishment  
Feeds on those blessed Fruits, an Angel from  
Th' Aeternal Throne doth to the Banquet come:  
The presence of this unexpected Guest,  
Startled the Pilgrim, and rejoiced the rest.  
Such Crowns of Glory sat upon his Head,  
Such beams of Light about his Garments spread,  
Such Heavenly Splendour flashed from his Eye,  
That made him seem heavens fair Aepitomy.  
With a fair speed he came, whilst the sweet air  
Waved the soft streamlets of his golden Hair,  
And ruffling his white Gown rubbed flame-tiped darts  
Against the tender Wounds of bleeding Hearts:  
For his fair Garment powdered was all o'er  
With flaming Arrows whose sharp points still bore  
Themselves against fresh bleeding Hearts; the Wind  
At every puff seemed cruel, and unkind,  
For those by clashing seemed to wound indeed,  
And these afresh to be inflamed and bleed.  
These were the Ensigns of the Sacred'st Love,  
At whose Command this Messenger did move.  
But in his right Hand, all of shining Gold  
Thick set with Rubies, he a Cup did hold;  
Immortal Amaranthu●'s made up  
Into a Purple Garland, Crowned the Cup.  
But in the Mazure's golden Concave lay,  
Of Wine of Love divine a blushing Sea;  
A deep drought of that Heavenly Nectar which  
Is broached for those who gain the highest pitch.  
The Purple streams which fruitful Tmolus yields,  
Th' exuberant Vines which crown the Massic Fields,  
The Purple Grapes that on the R●ene do grow,  
The scarlet Liquor that in Crect doth flow;  
Spain's sprightly Nectar, Greece's pleasant wine,  
Should they compared be to this divine  
Ambrosiac Liquor, all of them would prove  
But Gall, and Wormwood to this Wine of LOVE.  
Approaching those who feasting were, on the  
Choice Fruits excerped from Life's thrice sacred Tree,  
The Angel on the Pilgrim pitched his Eye,  
In which was placed a Throne of swavity,  
And reaching to him that Wine-filled Boul,  
From ●s fluent Tongue these melting words did roll.  
Take here (said he) a Cup of sacred Wine,  
Squeezed from the Grapes which grew on Iesu's Vine,  
That Vine which spreads her spacious Branches even  
O'er all the fair walls of the Court of Heaven.  
This is the new Wine which our Hearts doth cheer,  
Which bringeth gladness, and expelleth fear,  
This is Lov●'s sacred Wine in it doth move  
The very Spirit of the King of Love,  
Which is not flitting but for ever fixed,  
For he himself is with this Liquor mixed.  
Our royal King himself, commanded me  
For to present this Present unto thee.  
This said: the Pilgrim three times bowed, and  
The Goblet took out of the Angel's Hand,  
And putting to his Ruby Lips the Cup,  
With ravishment he drunk the Liquor up.  
Not all the Honey streams of Hybla may,  
Such gusts of sweetness to a Tongue display,  
As what the Pilgrim tasted in that Boul,  
As the Heav'n-nectarized Wine did roll  
Into the Breast; He never yet did meet  
With any Wine so ravishingly sweet;  
So that the pleasure did beguile his draught,  
For e'er he was aware he deeply quaffed:  
The Boul was big, but had it bigger b●en  
He would the bottom questionless have seen,  
For here he knew he might drink in excess,  
And without sin drink unto drunkenness,  
For who can blame those holy Saints (this Odd  
Expression pardon) who are drunk with God.  
No sooner had the Pilgrim drunk of this;  
But Living Flames of everlasting Bliss  
Surround his Heart, whose cliping without measure  
Yield Raptures, and unutterable pleasure.  
The Wine's quick Spirits move in every part,  
And corner of his Head, his Breast, and Heart,  
And piercing through each Limb, do cause them move  
In sweet Tr●pudiations of Love.  
Up starts he all inflamed (with that Flame  
Which drove from David's breast Love stifling shame,  
When he in an ecstatic Rapture danced  
Before the Ark of God, as it advanced  
Through all the Streets of fair jerusalem)  
Taking the Graces all, he danced with them,  
The holy Dance of Love: Nor can expressed  
Be, that sweet prickling Joy reigned in his Breast.  
His sense of feeling feasted to the height,  
And (as the rest were) swallowed in delight.  
Unusual Gestures forced him to rear,  
That he the better Love's excess might bear;  
For Nature 's weak, and strives to Congregate  
Those Spirits, which extreme Joys dissipate,  
For Her own safety; lest by flying out  
Too much, she should be quite left destitute.  
Thus Flesh, and Blood, the Soul's Cross always is,  
Depriving Her of Joys, of Sweets, of Bliss.  
Not all the Joys and Pleasures the Dull World  
On the most sensual Mortals e'er has hurled;  
Not all the Flesh's various pleasures, nor  
Foul Cyprian delights themselves compare  
May, with the smallest part of that delight,  
And pleasue, which the Saints poor Souls ●●cite.  
Vain are the World's Joy momentany too,  
heavens everlasting, undefiled, and true.  
O what Tongue able is to tell the pleasure  
The Pilgrim felt! Not all the Earthly Treasure  
Can purchase such delight; for the true God  
Himself descended in a flaming flood,  
Of Love, upon his Soul: Iesu's divine  
And sacred Body, couched in the Wine  
Itself in pieces broke upon his Soul;  
The sacred Spirit too, without control  
Descending, filled all his Soul about,  
With Rays of Light, and Love which nought could d' out.  
Whole streams of Love upon his Soul was poured,  
Festatic pleasures through the same were showered,  
Seas of delight; unutterably sweet  
Love-Extasies, his Soul together greet,  
So that he was quite overcome of Love,  
And did not know which way himself to move:  
Intoxicated, and o'returned quite  
He was, with Love's exuberant delight:  
The burning Tincture of the Heart of God,  
Rolled o'er his Soul a most delightful Flood,  
Which him transported into Rapts divine,  
So that he seemed like one made drunk with Wine.  
In this strong heat of his exultancy,  
He on the green grass swift about did fly,  
With all those Graces, who composed a Ring,  
And dancing round, this Hymn with joy they sing.   

Hymn.  
SAcred Flames of LOVE divine!  
In our breasts untainted shine!  
Feed upon our Souls! and let  
Them unto the stake be set!  
O Blessed Fires quickly come!  
We be prepared for Martyrdom!  
Blessed is the Soul that dies  
Unto LOVE a Sacrifice.   

Blessed JESUS from thine Eye  
There thrice sacred Flames did fly,  
Which now burn without control  
On the Tinder of our Soul,  
Blessed Fires! O consume  
What's prepared for Martyrdom!  
Happy is the Soul that dies,  
Sacred LOVE'S true Sacrifice!   

The Aetherial Flames that are  
Couched in the Welkin fair,  
Those that Crown the radiant Sun,  
Those which beautify the Moon,  
Are less fair than those which Come  
For to Crown our Martyrdom.  
Blessed is the Soul that dies,  
LOVE'S unspotted Sacrifice!   

O how raging! yet how sweet!  
Are those burning Flames which greet  
Our dry Souls, with scalding Kisses,  
Pains dispensing, with our Blisses,  
But such pains we wish to Come,  
That give Crowns of Martyrdom:  
Happy is the Soul that dies  
Purest LOVE'S pure Sacrifice!   

O our Souls are all on Fire!  
We consume in our desire,  
We desire what we possess,  
Waters but our Fires increase,  
Those bright Fires, which are Come,  
To Crown Souls with Martyrdom.  
O thrice blessed Soul that dies,  
Purest LOVE'S blest Sacrifice.   

O what lingering Death is this!  
Bliss inviteth us to Bliss;  
By these tastes of Love we be  
More enamoured of the Sea  
Of Abyssal Love, whence Come  
Flames, to crown our Martyrdom:  
Blessed is the Soul that dies,  
LOVE'S most willing Sacrifice!   

O what kind of pain is this!  
Which is sweeter than all Bliss!  
O 'tis pain intolerable,  
Pleasure yet unutterable.  
Such are the blessed Flames which come  
T' Crown us with Love's Martyrdom.  
Happy is the Soul that dies  
Thus LOVE'S Living Sacrifice●   

O we cry we cannot bear,  
Love's hot flames which domineer  
In our Breasts, and yet had we  
Damned to Hell far rather be,  
Than to lose these Flames which come  
To Crown us with Martyrdom.  
Blessed is that Soul that dies  
Thus LOVE'S daily Sacrifice.   

Fierce was the flame, and strong the happy heat,  
Which on the Pilgrim's chafed Soul did beat:  
Quick beat the pulses of his Noble breast,  
High was the Tide of LOVE, which still increased  
Its scalding waves, so that he thought he should  
Have lost his Life in that delicious Flood,  
Such were Love's Ardours, he could scarce forbear  
His fettering flesh, his free Soul's chains, to tear:  
How oft he mounted nimbly from the ground,  
As if his Soul some passage thence had found:  
How was he grieved to see he leaped in vain,  
To see his Body bring her down again!  
O how he wished that his Soul might be,  
Now from the shackling gives of Flesh set free,  
That she might spread her spacious wings, and fly,  
Through the wide Welkin of Eternity,  
Unto th' illustrious Throne of Christ, and there  
Among the Crowned Saints new clothed appear:  
But chiefly that she without Letts might move  
In the va●t Ocean of Aeternal LOVE.  
For whilst that Flesh her freedom did restrain,  
The more her pleasures was, the more her pain,  
To be denied her Liberty, that she  
Engulphed was not in that endless Sea:  
Streams could not now content her; the Abyss  
Of Love alone, must now complete her Bliss.  
O happy Souls which in such Flames do move  
And frying, thus LOVE'S blessed Martyrs prove.  
But whilst Love's Noble Flames heat every part  
Of is Breast, and make a Bonfire of his Heart,  
This blessed Pilgrim lifted up his eyes  
Unto the glorious East of Paradise;  
Where Worlds of glory rising from the place  
Amazing Splendour hurled on his Face  
And though it were all Day in Paradise,  
A Sun, and greater Day began to rise.  
A Light he saw, which springing from the East  
All Paradise's lustrous braveries blest,  
Adding new glories to those Beauties, that  
One would have thought could not have been more great.  
The Rosie-cheeked Aurora did embright  
The glorious womb of Day with no such Light;  
The Cynthian Goddess from the Orb did throw  
No such bright Rays upon the World below:  
Nor yet the flaming Giant of the Day,  
Such streams and beams of Light did e'er display:  
Ten thousand Suns, ten thousand times more bright  
Than ours, would not have paralleled this Light:  
Needs must it dazzling be; what mortal eye  
Can view the Splendours of Eternity?  
The Angels, and the Graces all, when they  
Behold it clap their downy Wings for ●Joy,  
And with due reverence thrice three times did bow  
Their Heads, and kissed the flowery Pavement too.  
As brighter Titan dims the lesser Stars,  
So did this Light devour, that light of theirs.  
As for the Pilgrim, on the ground he lay  
Obstupified with that glorious Day;  
But yet (with all th' advantage he could make)  
Of that illustrious sight a view did take.  
A crowd of Clouds begilded with the Beams  
Of the Aeternal Sun; whose radiant gleams  
Had pierced through them (so a small thin Cloud  
I oft have seen, when Sol himself did shroud  
His face behind it from my eyes, grow clear,  
And tincted through, a various colour were)  
Appeared far brighter than our Sun below,  
Dressed with more paintings than the Iris bow.  
This Mask of Clouds was the Auro●a too  
The Sun of Glory that close after flew;  
But pitching in the midst of Paradise,  
This bright (but yet a) Veil asunder flies,  
And gave free leave for every Eagle eye  
To see the bright Sun of Eternity:  
It was the Sun of Righteousness, who there  
Did in his glorious Ornaments appear.  
The Tongues of Men, nor Angels can unfold  
That Glory which the Pilgrim did behold.  
A stately Throne, more clear than Crystal glass,  
Burnished with Heavenly Gold, erected was,  
On which sat down Glories immortal King,  
From whom all Happiness, and Blisses spring.  
O glorious sight! who ' le not confounded be,  
To see such Splendour, and such Majesty?  
Upon his Head a starry fourfold Crown  
Irradiating sat, from whence flowed down,  
Fair, and soft Volumes of the purest snow,  
Which spread upon his sacred back full low.  
A fount of Light which filled all Paradise,  
With Sunlike brightness flowed from his eyes.  
His Paps were girded with a Golden Zone,  
Of more than Cynthian lustre was his Gown,  
In is Hand the Sceptre, wherewith he did sway  
The Worlds in Righteousness, and Justice lay.  
But O th' unutterable Majesty,  
And Loveliness that in his Looks did lie!  
A World of Wonders, and a ●on●rous Grace  
Were to be spied in his sacred Face.  
A Light more bright than tho●sand Suns, about  
His Throne did flow from whence it issued out.  
Behind was seen great Satan overthrown,  
Death, Hell, the Wo●ld, and all things trodden down,  
Under the glorious Lamb, who once was slain,  
But now in triumph doth for ay remain  
Death's, and Hel's darts were broke, o'er whom he stood  
Encompassed with an illustrious flood  
Of Light ineffable, displaying there  
His Conquest, written in a Banner fair;  
The blessed Cross in heavens bright Ensign shone,  
With streaming Gold, far brighter than the Sun?  
So what was once contemptible and base,  
Now stands in Glory in the highest place.  
There also seen were those, who had put on  
Their new Bodies, and gained th●ir royal Crown,  
And Sceptre, whom great jesus did install,  
Princes, and Kings, and mighty Lords of all,  
Sharing his Royal Sceptre, and his Crown  
(Such is his matchless Love) with every One.  
Thrice bowed the Angels, thrice the Graces, and  
Took up their places then▪ on either hand,  
Awaiting when they should Commanded be  
To any Office, by his Majesty.  
Th' amazed Pilgrim as yet prostrate lay,  
Too weak to view the Godhead's glorious Ray,  
But the same Light which his weak eyes annoys,  
His Soul filled with incomparable ●oyes,  
And still the flames of ardent LOVE did roll  
Upon the Altar of his sacred Soul.  
But by and by his Guardian Angel Came,  
(By jesus first b'ing bid to do the same)  
Who raised him up, and spread his downy Wing,  
Before his feeble sight, and so did bring  
Him to the Throne of jesus at whose Seat  
He fell, and ravished kissed his sacred Feet.  
Th' immortal King●strait took him from the place,  
And honoured Him with a divine Embrace,  
Sealed all the Joys, the Pleasures, Blisses, sweets,  
Upon his ravished Soul, an Angel meets  
With, in his blessed station: O high  
Exalted Pleasures of Eternity!  
The Pilgrim then to jesus would have Cried  
(〈◊〉 that the Rapt his Tongue had chained, and tied)  
That he unworthy was of all that Bliss,  
Those favours, and that matchless Love of his:  
And 〈◊〉 he would have had his Tongue confess,  
His constant frailty, and unworthiness:  
His Heart confessed it but his Tongue was mute,  
For Joys, and Pleasures would not let him do 't;  
For that Embrace unto his Soul did move,  
Enflaming more, and more the Fire of Love,  
Whose heats at last unto that height did come,  
That he received there a Martyrdom.  
Such matchless pleasures now enjoyed this Saint  
That neither mine, nor Angels Pens depaint  
Can: nor Man think who never felt the same,  
Who ne'er into Love's Arms, and bosom came:  
But such they were, and of such price to Him,  
That thou●and Worlds should not have purcha'st them.  
Nay such they were, he'd be content to gain  
Such Pleasures, with ten thousand years of pain.  
Therefore O Man! be wise: and let not this  
World's pleasures rob thee of Aeternal Bliss!  
Muse breath a while, and give me leave to pray,  
That I a Pilgrim too, may once enjoy  
Such happiness, and high exalted Bliss,  
Such Pleasure, Rapture, and such Joy as this,  
Then shalt thou sing, touched with Celestial Fire  
Of LOVE Divine, in sacred Notes, much higher  
Than these low strains: Thy Lively measures than  
Shall quicken up the drowsy Hearts of Men  
From their Lethargic sleep: True Joy, and glee  
Shall sweetly Couched in thy Number● be.  
True Joys, true Peace's, Rests, and Blisses King!  
I'll sigh, and mourn 'til thou sayest rise, and sing:  
Till thou sayest rise, and sing, I'll Sigh, and Mourn:  
By me the Cross (not yet the Crown) is worn.  
Lord when thou pleasest Crown my Soul; that I  
In Joy may Sing thy Praise Eternally!    
The end of the Second Part.    

THE EXPLANATION OF AN Hieroglyphical Figure, SHOWING THE MYSTERIES OF THE External, Internal, & Eternal WORLDS.  

The third Part.  

ONce more my sacred Muse doth take her flight,  
And on the top of glorious ZION light:  
Where she beholds those glorious wonders, which  
For ever the Aeternal World enrich:  
Those Wonders, and those Miracles of Grace,  
Which beautify, and splendorize the place:  
Those Wonders that are past her Skill to show,  
Which if she could, it were not fit to do,  
For there such glorious Wonders may be read,  
As are not lawful to be uttered:  
But what she may, and what she Can express,  
She shows unto you in a homely dress,  
Accept I pray, this Offering she brings:  
For Rapt with Wonders, all amazed she sings.   

O Thou Aeternal Everlasting Day!  
Illuminate my darker Soul I pray!  
O let her eyes be fixed upon thee,  
Thou King of Glories and of Majesty!  
Grant that she may behold those Wonders, that  
Th' Aeternal World, thy blessed Seat, decorate.  
O now inspire me with a Power divine,  
Put Life into my Numbers, sacred Trin●!  
That whilst heavens beauteous Glories, here I sing  
Unto your Throne I Souls may ravished bring;  
That whilst my own, wrapped in these Hea●s doth see  
heavens Splendour, and thy glorious Beauty, she  
May be united to the Lord! so close  
That nor the World, nor Hell the tye may lose;  
That while to others thus I sing, I may  
O Lord! not be myself a Castaway.   

Ho! Mo●us cease to Carp; Ho! Zoilus Cease  
Your scoffs, and taunts; Ho! Critics hold your peace,  
And say not now I Miracles rehearse,  
Beyond the lofty Limits of a Verse,  
Say not I write my Brainsick-Whimsies, Lies,  
Or Fables, or I merely Poetize:  
Ye are the Swine who grunting in the mire  
Would spoil the music of the sacred Choir,  
But for your dissonance, and grunt'ling noise,  
The World might often hear a Se●●ph's voice:  
Pigs think their whining best; the jetting Crows  
Themselves the fairest of heavens Fowls suppose:  
The Owls, and Cuccows, think their Notes to be  
〈◊〉 sweet as Philomel's sweet harmony.  
So you suppose your Canting best; and then  
Like snarling Curs, do Carp, and snap at Men.  
You be Swine indeed whose dull eyes still below  
Behold the earth, and hunt, and scent your trough;  
Your necks are too too short to view the Sky,  
How come you then to judge of things so high;  
Because some Windfalls on the ground you see,  
Think you no fairer Fruit hangs on the Tree?  
Swine can't look up; it is a Man alone  
Not slothful Beasts can pull the fair Fruit down.  
Buzzards are blinded by Sol's glorious Rays:  
Eagles unhurt against his splendour gaze.  
Here then are Pearls, but unto wise Men such,  
But wrapped in pitch least Swine such gems should touch.  
Pearls must not naked be exposed to Swine,  
(So said that mouth that wholly was divine)  
Lest that they trample, and despise the same,  
And Him, who so unwisely offered them.  
Therefore a wise Man cautiously shrouds  
Gems of great value in obscurer Clouds:  
And in the Pitch of Words those Pearls divine  
Hides, from the eyes of such perverting Swine,  
Which in their spendrous beauties otherwise,  
Should Vail-less be exposed to their eyes.  
But now me thinks I hear them Carp, and say  
How come you thus heavens beauties to display?  
And the Arcana's of the Aeternal Sphere,  
When you yourself never arrived there?  
If you should tell us that you were; we cry  
We are assured that it is a lie,  
For none to Heaven ever can attain,  
Whilst his kept-Soul doth in his Corpse remain;  
For when the Body's dead, the Soul than flies  
To Heaven (and not before) above the Sky.  
To such whose Breasts are with such thoughts implete,  
I shall (and in a word) this Answer ●it.   

Paul was alive and yet to Heaven he flew,  
Where he such wondrous mysteries did view,  
That as they were unutterable, so  
They were not fit ●or to be told below.  
The Patriarch Aenoch walked with God? and there  
Is Heaven doubtless, where he doth appear  
In Love, and Glory: so Aelias' went  
To Heaven before his mortal Spirits were spent.  
But such whose thoughts are thus; do heaven tie  
Unto a place above the star●y Sky,  
Such don't believe the Scriptures, which declare  
That also they within Man seated are:  
Indeed th' Aeternal heavens are boundless, they  
In Man, and out of Man themselves display.  
I say they be boundless; for the God of Bliss  
Is boundless, and they are where e'er he is.  
Nay Heaven (though strange it seem) is too in Hell:  
And there doth (as L●ght doth in darkness) dwell:  
As Night can't Day, as Darkness can't the Light,  
So can't Hell e'er comprehend the bright  
Aeternal Heaven: as't cann't excluded be,  
So not included by Demensity.  
Did Man himself but truly throughly know,  
He'd find all Wo●lds that are, within Him flow:  
Man's a deep study: and who M●n doth see  
Truly, and throughly knows all Worlds that be.  
'Tis very true if Heaven only were  
Beyond the blue Seas of the starry Sphere,  
Our Souls enchained below could never come  
Thither, till they had left their fleshly home,  
For that our Elemental Bodies are  
Too heavy, to be carried so far.  
But Aenoch walked with God on Earth, and so  
May Man on Earth be, and see Heaven too.  
O thou that gazeth on the Olympic Court,  
Fancying beyond it the Majestic Port,  
And Restful Haven of departed Souls,  
Whose breadth extendeth unto either Poles,  
Where mighty Mansions for the Saints do lie  
Spread over the vast, and starry Canopye:  
Carnal Conceits of splendid Palaces!  
〈◊〉 grossly Brain-deluded Images!  
Didst thou but know the Nature of a Soul  
Such fanciful Ideas thou'dst control:  
For nothing is more near than Heaven to thee,  
Wert thou not blind; hadst thou but eyes to see.  
The deeper into thyself dost go,  
The nearer thou still Heaven approachest to.  
For what's indeed a Souls departure hence,  
But motion from the Circumference  
Unto the Centre, let it Centre where  
It will, or in the Light, or darker Sphere?  
Hadst thou a Po●er granted thee to fly  
Ten thousand t●mes as far beyond the Sky  
As it is to 't; as far from Heaven thou  
Mightst be (God's Seat I mean) as thou art now.  
Heaven is spiritual (yet real too)  
So that our outward carnal Eyes can't view  
Its Seat: The Soul which is a Spirit may,  
Yea whilst its prisoner in this house of Clay:]  
Though I confess this Clayie Veil is such,  
That intervening it doth hinder much  
These outward eyes can nothing view but what  
Is gross, material, and Corporate:  
Rather more tru●y they do nothing view,  
(No more than the Perspective we look through  
Is said to see, for 'tis the eye, so) 'tis  
The Soul, and nothing else that views, and sees.  
What sees the Body, when the Soul is fled?  
The Organ still remains the same, though dead,  
Yet it no visive Power has, for why  
The Soul once gone, of no use is the eye.  
So likewise 'tis (as plainly it appears)  
The Soul that feels, that smells, that tastes, that hears.  
But now the Soul without a Body may  
Nor see, nor hear, touch, taste, or smell I say:  
Mistake me not I pray? I mean not now  
This Flesh, and Blood; this gross out-garment though  
For this indeed is as it were a foul  
Garment, unto the Body of the Soul:  
Which is its prison; and the fruit (which all  
Men bear) of Adam's fell, and fatal Fall:  
For this Imagination did endue  
This Body, when he put his mind into  
This extern Principle; which once shall be  
Int 's Aether swallowed to Eternity.  
Suppose you had a Robe of Lead made fit  
Unto your Body, and that put in it;  
Your Face, and Hands, all parts covered o'er,  
Against your eyes thick Glasses: as before  
You could not see; how dim the World would show?  
How heavily should you then move, and go?  
Could you so nimbly scud across the Plain?  
Or sprightly swim within the silver Main  
As you before did? should a wedg of Steel  
Fall hard upon you, should you not it feel?  
And should your glass eyes stopped be with clay,  
You could not then behold one glimpse of Day.  
But should you freed be from that Prison, then  
How fair, and clear would all things show again?  
Just so 'tis with the Soul: a heavy foul  
Garment, unto the Body of the Soul  
This fleshly Case is: whilst it foully decks  
It, 
* The Soul.  she doth labour under its defects,  
And must be subject unto them; then she  
If that the eyes be d'outed cannot see  
The outward World; let any part of this  
Organic Body be but aught amiss,  
She is afflicted with it; by this tye  
Of flesh she thus endures misery.  
But the Soul's Body is another thing,  
Which in, and through this fleshly Case doth spring,  
Not to be seen with fleshly eyes; so you  
May see the Sun, but not that Body view  
Which gives it splendour; so you view the flame,  
But not that Body which Lives in the same.  
For the true Elements they are not seen  
By eyes Corporeal; 'tis an outer Screen  
You view: the Body of the Soul likewise,  
From the unmixed Element doth rise.  
This is the Body that to Heaven doth fly,  
Who gains this Body, gains the Mystery;  
For thorough it he Heaven may view, though he  
In his corporeal Clayie House still be;  
Who fixes this may there for ever dwell,  
For he those Wonders views that Worlds excel.  
'Tis in this Body that the Soul doth see  
Th' immortal Glories of Eternity.  
'Tis plain that all, or most great Visions, that  
The sacred Scriptures t' us do nominate,  
Not with the outer were beheld, but by  
The Heav'n-beholding, and internal eye.  
What outward Eye can see a Spirit, unless  
He doth himself int' form, and matter press?  
What outer eye is able, then to see  
The Form, or glory of heavens Majesty?  
An Angels fain to veil his splendid beams  
With some gross matter, when himself it seems  
He will discover to th' extern eye of Man,  
What extern Eye can see the heavens glories then?  
With what eye did Elisha's Man behold  
The fiery Host that did them safe enfold?  
With what Eye was it that Eze●iel spied  
That glorious Vision by clear Chebar's side?  
With what Eye did he see jerusalem  
When he in Chald● captive did remain?  
With what Eye was it that great Daniel saw  
Himself (though then at Shushan) at Aelai?  
By what sight saw he (when sleep sealed his eyes)  
The great Creator in th' Aeternal Skies?  
And how could Steven with his outer eye  
See jesus sitting in th' Aemperial Sky  
At God's right Hand? You know the glorious Sun  
Which round this Orb in twice twelve hours doth run,  
By three times fifty, and sixteen degrees  
Exceeds the World: But who that Planet sees  
Deems him but small: How far beyond that Star,  
As they account th' Imperial heavens are  
You may imagine, when the space they ' count  
'Twixt Earth, and the eighth Heaven, to surmount  
Sev'nteen hundred millions of Miles and more,  
How vast a distance did Steven's eye therefore  
Behold our Saviour? But that eye by which  
He say, no bounds to it can distance pitch.  
Paul's eyes were closed; with what eye saw He  
The Glory then of heavens bright Majesty?  
Peter entranced was; with what eye Beheld  
He then, the sheet with clean, and unclean filled?  
And lastly with what Eye, and with what Ear,  
did divine john in Patmos see, and hear?  
If thus the Eye may Heaven see▪ also  
The Body of that Eye may thither go.  
It is not strange to them therefore that are  
Acquainted, with true notions of that Sphere  
Wherein I●hov●h, and the Angels be,  
That Man on Earth th' Aeternal heavens may see:  
For such do know how Souls abstracted may  
Be, from their House of impediting clay,  
And that whilst in their Bodies they remain,  
May Heaven (by Faith not only) here attain;  
And be conversant in the highest Sphere,  
Abstracted from the World though they dwell here.  
But least (because I here so stiffly plead)  
You should suppose I have been there indeed;  
I will confess (as ' counting it great shame  
To be accounted better than I am)  
That I not worthy have accounted been;  
O no I cleansed am not am enough from Sin)  
I am a Pilgrim and do thither wen,  
Strong is my Faith I shall come there: Amen!  
Assured I am, although a very few  
Attain (whilst here on Earth) this Court unto,  
That here on Earth it may attained be,  
Though Flesh, and Blood impeed its clarity.  
But you that ask me how I come to know  
Those things of Heaven which I here do show?  
Since (as I do confess) I have not been  
There, nor those mysteries that I speak of seen.  
Pray tell me also then how you come by  
Your knowledge of a Heaven beyond the sky?  
Were you e'er there; Yet confidently you  
Describe the place, affirm your notion true▪  
You'll tell the Joys of everlasting Bliss  
Describe the Glory that in Heaven is;  
And will you then (if you did never see  
The place you speak of) angry be with me,  
For doing what yourselves do daily do?  
You say 'tis UP to Heaven; and that is true:  
And is't not also INTO Heaven? you'll grant  
That God's the Centre of all things: and shan't  
The Centre which is inmost highest be;  
Or Up, or In it is all one to me:  
But this I know that Heaven (and also Hell  
Though separate) in every place do dwell.  
Although (as I confess) I have not been  
In Heaven, nor there its spendid glories seen,  
Yet I account it grace enough to be  
The Praec● of his heavenly Majesty:  
I may the Candle hold, and light the way  
Into the place of everlasting Day:  
I may the Mercury be to guide aright  
Celestial Pilgrims, with my glimmering sight;  
We may see right unto the Mountain's top,  
And point the way whilst we are getting up,  
Unto our fellow-Travellers, that they  
(if faster go they can) may see the Way:  
We Joy if by our means aright they move;  
Those that see more may thank us for our Love.  
That upper Globe which you see portrayed there,  
Doth represent the high Eternal Sphere,  
This is the highest Noblest, brightest, best,  
The Glory, Life, and Centre of the rest,  
The place of mighty Wonders, the divine  
Seat of the sacred everlasting Trine:  
The habitation of the blessed Saints,  
Where glorious Angels spread their heavenly Tents:  
Where stands Mount Zion, and the glorious Lamb,  
Where is SOPHIA, and jerusalem.  
This is the everlasting place of rest,  
The Heaven, the habitation of the blessed:  
This Man may find in the deep Centre, and  
How this through all devolveth understand.  
Here is the spacious glassy Sea; and the  
Crystalline Earth, the Air of Purity,  
The purest fire; which conjoined in one,  
The matter is of the Celestial Throne  
Of Everlasting Joys: This place it is  
The Empyreum, and the Seat of Bliss:  
GOD out of Nature Comprehended may  
Not be; a Nothing so to us I say  
He seemeth, but as he Himself doth show  
In the Eternal Forms of Nature, so  
We apprehend him can; The Father than  
Hath from Eternity begot the Son;  
This Birth's the Heart of God, which ever was,  
And though begot yet 't no beginning has;  
From whence proceeds the sacred Spirit, who  
From both begotten is Eternal too.  
All three distinct in Person, yet but One  
Aeternal GOD in a strict Union.  
This is the Mystery of the sacred Trine,  
Which in this everlasting Orb doth shine,  
But now the 
* The first Principle.  Father with a strong desire,  
Thirsts for the 
* The second Principle.  Son, from whence springs up a Fire,  
Which Fire not reaching God's most sacred Heart,  
Is full of Anguish, Bitterness, and Tart.  
This is the Fire that enkindleth Hell,  
Where all the damned, and the Devils dwell;  
But the same Fire, when that sacred LOVE  
Or 
* Second Principle.  Heart of God, itself to it doth move  
Straight blazeth forth, into a meek and Bright  
Joy, and desire of Aeternal Light?  
This is the Light of Heaven, and pleasant Joy,  
In which all Bliss is, not the least annoy.  
And thus O Reader! if thou are not blind,  
heavens Bliss and Joy, Hel's pain, and torment find  
Thou wilt to come from one deep Root; and even  
Perceive the true cause both of Hell, and Heaven.  
And thus thou seest how they together dwell,  
Hell hid in Heaven; Heaven in the midst of Hell;  
And yet so great a Gulf between, that they  
In Hell behold not the least glimpse of Day;  
Nor they in Heaven feel the least of woe,  
Their separation's thus Eternal too.  
Though Similes are too too base to show  
This Mystery of Mysteries of Mysteries to you,  
But that our weak, and duller eyes may see  
More clear by them think on this Simile.  
Take thou a lighted Tapor, put it out,  
The week thou ' lt see with Fire glow thr'owour,  
From whence a stinking vapour, and a Fume  
Displeasing to thy nostrils fills the room,  
The stinking glowing weik gives little light,  
And the Fire far doth differ from a bright  
And burning Tapor; Light the same, and then  
Thou'lt see the former darkness fled again;  
Thou'lt see a blaze which from the weik doth rise,  
With a bright splendid Glory 'fore thine eyes,  
Which Blaze without the Fire could not be made,  
The Fire's without that blaze a deady shade;  
The Heat, and Light distinct and several be,  
Though jointly they do in the blaze agree,  
Nor can the 〈◊〉 without the 
* I mean in the Tapor, for otherwise it were false, for heat may be without Light, and Light without Heat contrary to the opinion of the Peripatetics, learnedly proved by Sir Christopher Heyden,  Heat have being,  
But jointly in 〈…〉 agreeing  
They make that Glory, brighter than the Gold,  
Which in a lighted Ta●or we behold;  
But heavens splendorous Light doth not contain  
Such scorching heat as 〈◊〉 such L●gh●● remain.  
The Application's very 〈◊〉: 'Tis ●ven  
Thus 'twixt the Fire of ●ell, and Light of Heaven.  
For the first Principle alone makes Hell,  
But Heaven, when the Second in't doth dwell;  
The first is to the second even as  
The Fire which makes the glowing weik to blaze,  
From whence proceeds the Light, the joy, the Bliss  
That in the high Aeternal Heaven is.   

Here in this Sphere those mighty Wonders be,  
Which 〈◊〉 the sporting of the Deity,  
Themselves display: Wonders indeed they are  
Which do exceed Man's comprehension far.  
Here'tis that God himself t' himself displays,  
From whence the sense arises up in ●oys.  
A thousand thousand things for aye arise,  
AEternal Waters, and Eternal S●ies:  
Hence Paradise, and the internal Orbs,  
Do clothe themselves in their illustrious Garbs;  
Should all the Stars for Counters serve, they were  
Too few, to number all the Wonders here.  
Whilst I am wrapped in meditating them,  
I am amazed, amazement stops my Pen.  
Here Loves, and Glories do unite in one:  
Here is that three-times sacred Union  
'Twixt God and Man: betwixt the Deity  
And the immaculate Humanity;  
From whence the Lilies, and the Wonders grow,  
From whence the Joys of Love, and Bliss do flow,  
This is the marriage of the sacred Lamb:  
The Soul returneth here from whence it came,  
With the additions of Aeternal Bliss:  
SOPHIA to the Soul united is,  
The Soul to Her, the virgin Body here:  
Such are the Joys, and Blisses of this Sphere.  
Man of all Worlds is an Aepitomy,  
And with all Worlds that are he doth agree,  
Ah why should th' outward Captivate him so,  
As he the rest should not so truly know!  
That ah preposterous! th'outward World should have  
Most rule in Him, and all the rest in slave,  
Or hide them from his eyes, so deeply, that  
He thinks those Worlds, and He are separate.  
The outer Case of Flesh doth represent  
The outer world, in which the others vent  
Themselves: th' internal worlds themselves do spread  
About the Heart; th' Eternal in the Head.  
So are they placed in Man, and so they be  
In th' inner ground, as all the Wise do see.  
All outer pleasures of the World do stretch  
Themselves but to the Flesh, and do but reach  
The outer senses: Carnal pleasures flow  
In lower Regions, and are left below.  
Th' internal worlds are opened in the Breast,  
There Paradise, and all its Joys expressed  
Are; there likewise the darker Worlds harsh source  
Itself in Anguish, and in pain doth force.  
The sense of feeling lieth in that part,  
And Paradise doth open in the Heart.  
But what from this Eternal Sphere is shown,  
Within the Centre of the Head's made known:  
For there the eye, and ear are manifest,  
To which all sights and heavenly sounds expressed  
Are: all the Wonders of this higher Sphere  
When they are shown are manifested there.  
This is a Mystery unto those that know  
No other Worlds but this out- world below.   

But to our Pilgrim let us now return;  
Whose progress shall to those who will not spurn  
The Truth, make known some mysteries of this Sphere  
Which may be shown; but those that thus appear,  
For scorners sakes a little veiled must be,  
And yet our Veils are made of Tiffany;  
So that an Eye not altogether blind  
The sense, and meaning of our words may find.   

Our happy Pilgrim, who in Paradise  
In Bliss, and pleasure in Love's bosom lies,  
Feeling those pleasures that do scorn annoy,  
And breathing in the Fire of purest Joy,  
Doth Heaven already as it were possess,  
Seated in Bliss, and crowned with Happiness.  
But Love's immortal Prince doth now relate  
To him the glory of an higher state,  
He being fitted by the Prince of Love  
For this ascension, now must farther Move.  
O here it lies not in the Will of Man,  
For one step selfly forward move he can  
Not; here it must be jesus he alone  
Conveys the Soul to this Celestial Throne: 
Ioh● 15. I am the Door.   
Who whilst 'tis wholly passive, swiftly whurled  
Is, in Love's Coach into th' Eternal World.  
The silver Clouds of Paradise do meet  
In a Conjunction, and at Iesu's feet  
Conspire; who with the Pilgrim back, those clear  
Clouds, mounting thence into th'Eternal Sphere.   

But e'er the Pilgrim went the Graces all  
Approaching him into his Lap let fall  
Their Royal bounties all desiring He  
T' accept those small Presents would pleased be:  
For by their virtue he his subjects might  
Rule (seated in his Royal Throne) aright.   

FAITH gave her golden Shield beset with Gemnis,  
Whose sight Hel's mighty Monarch fears it seems,  
As much as Mortals did that Buckler dread  
On which was portrayed cursed Medusa's Head;  
For when so e'er he spies that glorious Shield,  
Screeching and howling he deserts the Field.   

A golden Anchor he received from HOPE,  
Which not the force of Hell could e'er pull up,  
When once 'twas fixed; upon the Billows ride  
He safely could, and all Hel's storms abide  
Without the least of Danger, and by this  
In midst of Storms, he in mist of safety is.   

ZEAL brought a Sword whose hilt with glittering Gold  
Shan; from whose two-edged blade flames sprightly rolled;  
The Stygian Princes flesh no Weapon but  
This terrible two-edged Sword can cut:  
This is the Sword of the blessed Spirit, and  
Hell for his furies can its force withstand.   

A Royal Mitre proffered PIETY,  
Which Crowned the Pilgrim's royal brows on high,  
The Helmet of Salvation it was,  
overlayed with Gold, and framed of solid Brass,  
Which all Hel's Thunderbolts could never pierce,  
Nor all his shafts, though they were ne'er so fierce.   

COURAGE a Breastplate gave of solid Steel,  
Through which he Hel's black Arrows could not feel,  
Of Righteousness it was, whose shining glass  
Retorted Hel's black shafts into his face,  
So that the more he seeks to wound his foes  
The more by's own shafts shall his damage grow.   

True JOY a Royal Robe presented, where  
All Paradise's flowers embossed were,  
Love framed the stuff, and Innocency wrought  
Into true True-Love-Knots all that joy brought.  
This Robe could not defiled be with sin:  
If Hell flings Dirt on't, it falls off again.   

An upright Staff UPRIGHTNESS gave for guide,  
A golden pair of Compasses beside,  
By which all Actions measured aught to be,  
Beyond whose bounds his steps ought not to flee;  
Whilst by that Staff and Compasses he goes,  
Hell nor the World did dare his Way oppose.   

TRUTH she presented him the sacred Writ,  
In which he might behold all things that fit  
Were to be done, and what to be eschewed.   

HUMILITY a Van to sift the Proud  
Actions, and Thoughts; to sift the Chaff and the  
Cockle, from the bright Wheat of Purity.   

OBEDIENCE a silvet wheel presented,  
By which all adverse Thoughts, to be tormented  
Were, and all Actions that did Rebels prove  
Unto the Laws, and Crown of sacred Love:  
By which close-grinding Wheel, the flower was ta'en  
From the enclosure of the fruitless Bran.   

But RESIGNATION gave a golden Cross,  
In which contained was not one grain of dross,  
Love's glorious badge, where all Opposers died,  
And where all humane Wills were crucified:  
A Cross on which who hung, were mounted even  
From Death to Life; from Earth to highest Heaven.   

〈◊〉 WISDOM gave a pair of Balances,  
Whose Scales th' impartial Hand of justice weighs;  
Whereby He able was to weigh aright,  
And the true Gold to know from what was light.  
All something gave, to whom his thanks b'ing paid,  
To th' highest Sphere Love's Coach its voyage made.   

Swifter than Eagles in a full Career,  
They mounted up into th' Aeternal Sphere:  
Such was their speed, such was their sudden flight,  
As it deprived Him of the Act of sight.  
So that he scarcely could denote, or tell  
What in that sudden wrapped to him befallen.  
His Soul inflamed with the purest Love,  
Did in Aliah's fiery Chariot move,  
Cutting their way thorough that unseen Sky  
Which fast together all the Worlds doth tie,  
Which is the Medium, whereby Souls do go  
Unto the highest Orb, from Orbs below:  
This way's the Ladder whereby Angels move,  
From lower Spheres, unto the Spheres above.  
This ● adder's basis fastly fixed is here▪  
Whose top doth mount into the highest Sphere,  
This is the Path of Souls, and who finds this,  
Hath found the way unto the Highest Bliss:  
But he that finds this, Iacob's 
* Mo●s oeuli c●b●l.  sleep must find,  
Or else he seeks in vain, and grasps the Wind;  
Celestial VENUS with a glittering Ray  
And beam of Light immortal, points the Way  
Unto the entrance of th' Aeternal Orb,  
Which began to glitter now with fires Superb;  
Whose lustrous Splendours the ●aint Pilgrim drove  
Into a stupor between the Arms of Love;  
Who there anointing with a Salve his eyes,  
Entered that Orb, and bid him see, and rise  
Within the Circle of th' Aeternal Sphere.  
Three Orbs of glory, and three worlds appear,  
Three several Mansions, outer, inner, inmost,  
Answering to Father, Son, and holy Ghost,  
To Light, to Life, and to Eternal Love:  
Myriad of Angels about which do move.  
Our holy Pilgrim having entered now  
Into th' Eternal World, himself doth bow  
Under the Ensign of that glorious Cross,  
Which in its glory there advanced was.  
A Silence unexpressable was there,  
Nothing but stillness in that sacred Sphere,  
For all that Orb, where now our Pilgrim went  
Encircled was with the One Element.  
Here he beheld the bright and sparkling Eye  
Of Providence, and of Eternity.  
Here He beholds those Wonders I confess  
My Tongue and Pen too weak are to express,  
And here he feeds upon those fruits that grow  
Upon the Tree of Life's superbest bough.  
Here He becomes a true Magician,  
Here He becomes in jesus Christ a Man.  
Here now his eyes are so illuminate,  
That they through all things that are penetrate.  
Here he in Silence waits upon that Eye  
Which sparkles in this Still-Aeternity.  
Words cannot speak this Bliss: nor I declare  
Can more; or if I could I should not dare.  
But now the goodness of a matchless Love,  
Commands the Pilgrim once again to move,  
Who mounting higher comes to that abode  
Which ever Echoes with the Name of God:  
The second Orb of the Aeternal World  
This is; arrived here his eyes he hurled  
On every side: on every side he saw  
Those beams of Light, and everlasting Day▪  
Which darted down from New jerusalem,  
With Life, Light, Glory did that Orb behemm.  
Here he beholds the glorious Lamb's abode,  
Here he beholds the sacred Heart of God,  
Here he beholds thrice blessed EMANUEL,  
Here he beholds where all the Angels dwell,  
Thousands of thousands sees he there to bide,  
Placed in their orders upon either side,  
And though that some higher than others were,  
In this respect, they all were equal there,  
In that they all were full there was no want,  
Though some had more than some, yet none did scant;  
So smaller vessels filled till they run o'er,  
Cannot complain if they can hold no more,  
Against another vessel, though he may  
Contain, it may be thrice as much, as they:  
When all are filled to the very brim,  
All are content, and all alike do seem.  
Thus largest Souls shall have the largest share,  
Of Glory, yet all full; no want is there:  
Love's measured, but by their Capacity,  
All are implete, and all but full can be.  
There Hallalu jahs soundeth in his ears.  
There sacred Songs of praise, and Joy he hears;  
There all the pleasure of Aeternal Bliss,  
In height of Glory, still triumphant is:  
Words are too weak: And these Arcana's shall  
Be known to none; Till GOD himself reveal.  
Great is his Love, and great his Wonders be,  
Those shall confess them, that this Orb shall see.  
But O the Bliss Eternal that doth move  
In constant streams, down from the Heart of Love  
Upon the Pilgrim's Soul: so strong the blisses  
Are, of Love's flaming, and berapting Kisses  
That down he falls before the sacred Lamb,  
Pressed with the impresses of Love's sacred flame.  
His heart's inflamed, and full of Love divine,  
His Face with radiant beams of Light doth shine,  
His Soul ●ndued with a Life Supernal  
Ca●n't die; for all his ●oys are now Eternal.  
O 〈…〉 are wanting here for to express  
The t●●usandth part of such an happiness.  
But one flight more, but one step more there is  
For to Complete our Pilgrim's Joy, and Bliss:  
Here he awaiteth for the Spirit his guide,  
That as ascended, so he glorified  
Might be; his eye now fixed is on thy Throne,  
Awaiting for that mystic Union,  
Which as with Wonder, so with joy, delight  
And everlasting pleasure fill it might.   

The time is come, and now by gracious Love  
He doth into Sanctum Sanctorum move,  
Into the holiest now of holiest, he  
Admitted is, where dwells the Deity  
In Light immortal, where the blessed abode  
Is of the sacred Trine, the Triune GOD.  
There in immortal Glory, great JEHOVE,  
There blessed JESUS, and the sacred DOVE  
Conjoined in one, make up the blessed TRINE,  
A mystery as sacred, as divine.   

Behold the Pilgrim now is come in view 
Rev. 12. 16, 17, etc.   
Of the third Orb jerusalem the New,  
With all her glories glittering in that Sphere  
Bridelike adorned doth to his eyes appear.  
Glories of glories doth adorn the place,  
The Wal's like jasper or the Crystal Glass;  
Four square the City is, on every side  
Equal: the length, the breadth, the height divide  
Int' equal parts. Both great and high the Wall  
Is, of this sacred and Celestial  
JERUSALEM; Her twelve Foundations  
Are laid with twice six several precious Stones.  
The first is JASPER; as transparent as  
The glorious Morning; or the crystal Glass, 
Augustine in Civitate De.   
Glorious Saint PETER'S great, and glorious Name  
Deeply insculpted is upon the same.  
The second SAPHIR, which doth court the eye  
With all the beauties of the Azure Sky:  
On which engraven is the name of PAU●▪  
The second beauty of this Heavenly Wall.  
The third a CHALCEDONY, which doth show  
Like flames above, and glowing coals below;  
Engraven deep the name of JOHN divine  
On it, doth with glorious splendour shine.  
The fourth an EMERALD whose Celestial  
And verdant glories beautify the Wall:  
There Zebedean JAMES his glorious Name  
With equal Lustre beautifies the same.  
The fifth's a SARDONIAE, whose blushing dies,  
The Wall as Phoebus doth the Morning skies:  
Alphean JAMES' Name is graven here,  
And with a wondrous Lustre doth appear.  
The sixth a SARDIUS is: which doth imbue  
The sacred Wall with more than scarlet hue;  
Blessed Saint ANDRE●'S holy name doth own  
A splendid place upon that blushing Stone.  
The seventh a CRYSOLITE whose Croseam beams  
Paint all the side with thousand golden streams,  
Saint MATTHEW'S Name most glorious to behold  
Shines there engraved, and wrapped in purest Gold.  
The eighth a BERIL of a glorious hue,  
Which paints the Wall at once both green, and blue:  
The name of SIMON doth itself display  
There graven deep; which shall remain for aye.  
The ninth a TOPAZ, which with Lustrous Rays  
And verdant streams, its beauty there displays.  
Saint BARTHOLOME●'S blessed name doth also stand  
Engraven there by an Almighty Hand.  
The tenth a CRYSOPRASUS, which is seen  
To paint the Wall at once with Gold, and green.  
Shining in Heavenly Lustre THOMAS his  
Illust'rous Name on it engraven is.  
Th' Eleventh is a HYACINTH, whose flame  
The golden splendour of the Sun doth shame.  
With blessed Saint PHILLIP'S name engraved thereon,  
Which glowing there seems written in the Sun.  
The twelfth an AMETHYST, whose blushing shine  
Out-braves the Rosy hue of Cretian Wine,  
Whereon the glorious name of blessed JUDAS,  
By God engraved in triumph there is showed.  
Her everlasting Gates were three times four,  
One entire Pearl doth serve for every door,  
On which in most resplendent Glory dwell  
The names of the twelve Tribes of Israel.  
The dainty streets pure Crystal doth enfold,  
And the whole City is of massy Gold,  
But yet transparent as the brightest Gemm  
Unto Spectators blessed eyes doth seem.  
Thorough the middle doth Life's River flow,  
Upon whose banks the Tree of Life doth grow.  
The glorious Splendour of the blessed Lamb  
Is Sun, and Moon unto JERUSALEM:  
The Glory of the Lord doth always sit  
There to embrighten, and o'ershadow it:  
Night's banished thence; the Lamb's resplendent Ray  
Endues it with an everlasting Day.  
The Lamb the only stately Temple is  
Of this great City of everlasting Bliss.  
O here remains the everliving Word!  
O here remains the Glory of the Lord!  
Lo there the Lamb upon mount Sion's top  
Triumphant stands with all his Virgin Troop:  
There all the Elders with their glorious Crowns,  
To Judge the world sit in their splendid Thrones.  
Lo there the everlasting SON of GOD  
Clothed with immortal Rays, makes his abode.  
Lo there the blessed Saints, and Angels be  
Clothed with Robes of Immortality,  
Whose glittering brows are Crowned with Diadems  
Chased with e'rlasting, and Celestial Gems.  
Here Glory, Praise, and Hallalujahs be  
Sung to the LAMB to all Alternity.  
Here is the Book of Life, the Heavenly Stone,  
The glorified Mame, th' immortal Th●one  
Of Bliss, and everlasting joys: And here  
The new, and glorified Bodies are.  
This is the secret Sacred Place; this is  
The glorious Kingdom of everlasting Bliss:  
This is the Mansion House, and the abode  
Of JESUS, and of all the Sons of GOD:  
O here's the Rock of Wonders, and here is  
The hidden Treasure of Aeternal Bliss.  
O here the Saints, and Angels shall for aye,  
The blessed Name of GOD resound with Joy:  
joy everlasting, and a joy that can  
Not comprehended be by sensual Man.  
Whilst thus with Joy implete, and Wonder too  
Our happy Pilgrim doth intently view  
The glorious beauties of this sacred place;  
He's now disrobed of his polluted Case,  
For no defilement, or pollution  
Can enter into new JERUSALEM.  
A Body clear as Crystal, Light as Air,  
Where the true Elements all mixed were  
In a just harmony, he now endues,  
His other body now no f●ces shows,  
But swallowed up by a blessed Union  
Is made more bright, and glorious than the Sun.  
Arrayed thus th' Aeternal Gate of Bliss  
Straightway unto our Pilgrim opened is,  
Through which he enters, to that sacred place  
Where without Vails he sees GOD face to face.  
Wonders of Wonders there he sees; which none  
Beholds, till they (as he) approach the Throne,  
That Throne of Glory, and Aeternal Bliss,  
Where our thrice happy Pilgrim seated is.  
Thus ends his journey, here for ever blest  
He doth implete with Joys, and Blisses rest.  
And here I too should end, I do confess  
With admiration of his happiness,  
And with Addresses to heavens Majesty  
That my poor Soul at last enthroned might be,  
And that she might for ever blessed move,  
In Joys, and Blisses in the Sphere of LOVE;  
But that my thinks I see your noting eye  
That Clouded Glory o'er this Orb doth spy,  
And speaking in its silent Language, now  
The meaning of it me commands to show.  
That represents GOD past the reach of Creature,  
Beyond the Forms of the Eternal Nature;  
GOD in himself: GOD in the Abstract; where  
We may say what He is not; but we dare  
Not say here what He is: for neither He  
Can Good, or evil, or Light, or Darkness be,  
Nor this, nor that here in this place; nor Can  
Nor ought to be searched into by Man  
Here as a Nothing He to us doth seem,  
Nor Can Man further knowledge have on ●im.  
Nor Man, or Angel a Commission has  
To dive into this abstruse secret Place,  
Therefore thine eyes withdraw, and be Content  
To know GOD as He will, nor represent  
Thou to thy mind, or in thy fantasy  
An Image of the glorious Deity;  
For never ought we heavens high Majesty  
To Form or Figure whatsoever tye:  
Therefore O man destroy all Images  
Of God, that in thy fantasy shall rise,  
This is the increated ENS of God,  
And an immense unfathomable flood,  
Where lest we lose ourselves we shall withdraw,  
Into this secret place no man e'er saw.  
Therefore O Reader I admonish thee  
That thou no farther search what God may be,  
For if thou dost, distracted in the end,  
Thou wilt confess, Man can't GOD comprehend.  
Withdraw thy Thoughts then, cease thouhere to pry  
Into the secrets of the Deity;  
GOD will not here be known; but yet he is,  
And will be known, upon the Throne of bliss.  
He will be known in NATURE increate,  
His Wonders there Man ought to meditate.  
Where He the Arcana's of heavens Majesty,  
With eyes of Truth, and with true eyes may see.  
O Reader therefore to the Orb ●f Love  
Your eyes, and meditations now remove,  
Where thou by constant Prayer mayst obtain  
A sight of what here under Clouds remain,  
And with clear eyes must see those things of worth,  
Which by my Pen are darkly shadowed forth:  
But yet accept my Labour and my Pains;  
My Heart examine, not my duller strains  
For if they any shall with Light befriend  
I joy: for that of Writing is   
THE END.  Deo soli Gloria Qui Nobis haec otia fecit.  
FINIS.   

Books printed for Lodowick Loyd, and sold at his Shop next the Castle Tavern in Cornhill.  

BUrt●ns Anatomy of Melancholy, fo.  
Pintos Travels to the East-Indies, fo.  
goodwin's Redemption-Redeemed, fo.  
Authority of the Scriptures, 40.  
3 Disputations with Mr. Powel, and Mr. Simpso●, 40.  
An Exposition on Romans 9 in 40.  
Of Infant-Baptis●●.  
A Vindication of Infant's Baptism in 40.  
B●hmes Misterium 〈◊〉, being an Exposition of 〈◊〉 in fo.  
His 3 Principles of the divi●e Essence in 40.  
His threefold Life of Man in 40.  
His Book concerning Election & Predestination, 40.  
40 Questions concerning the Soul of Man, Answered.  
On the two Testaments of Christ, viz. Baptism, and the Supper, 40.  
His Prophecies concerning the last Times, 40.  
His Book of the Incarnation of Christ, 40.  
His Great fix Points and small points.  
117. Theosophick Questions with Answers.  
Of the Heavenly and Earthly Mystery.  
A Prayer-Book.  
Of the Divine Vision.  
An Exposition of the Table of the three Principles.  
Of the knowledge of God and all Things, and of the true and false Light, being an Epistle.  
A Tab●e of the Revelation of the Divine secret Mystery, Behmes Way to Christ, in 12.  
The life of jacob R●hmens, written by Durand Hotham, Esq Mr. Tomb Artic. pede Baptism, 40.  
Mr. Horns Considerations of Infant's Baptism, 43.  
An Exposition of the 11 first Chapters of Io● by Mr. Caryl in 40.  
A Doubt Resolved concerning the Ordinances of Christ, by Mr. Willam Allen, 40.  
The Doctrine of Justification asserted and vindicated against Mr. Eyve, and Mr. Baxter of Kiderminster, by Mr. john Eedes Minister of the Gospel, 40.  
The Christians daily Walk in holy Scurity and Peace, by H. S●xden, 12.  
The Right use of the Promise, by jer. Lewis, 12.  
Three Questions of Justification, Christian Liberey, and the use of the Law, by Mr. Samu●l Forsh●● of Banbury, 8.  
A Treatise of the morality of the Sabbath by, Mr. Abbot, 40.  
An Exposition of the Canticle, by Tho. Brightman. 40.  
The Antiquity of Magic, and the Descent thereof from Adam, proved by Bugenius Philalethse, 80.  
Lumen de lumine, a new Magical light communicated to the World by the same Author, 80.  
Prophetical Prognostocks on the Wars of Christendom written in high Dutch, by Paulus Felgenhowre, Translated into English, in 40.  
The Protestants Practice, Containing the sum of Christian Divinity, written by a Reverend Father of the Church of England, 12.  
The whole ground of Physic and Chirurgery, by that great and famous Physician Daniel Sennertus Dr. of Physic, Englished by I. O. late of Trinity Collodge in Cambridge, 80.  
The Orthodox Evangelist, by Mr. john Norton of Boston in New-England, 40.  
The Chemist's Key, or the true Doctrine of Corruption and Generation, by that Judicious Artist Henry Nollius': Englished by Eugenius Philalethes.  
Short Arithmetic, or the old and Tedious way of Numbering, Reduced to a new and brief Method, by Edward Hows, 12.  
Philosophy Reform, or the great and deep Mysteries of Nature discovered, by that Learned Chemist and Physician Oswold Collins, To which is added, Paracelsus his Philosophy to the Athenians: Englished by Henry Pinnel, 80.  
A Book of Graces and Prayers for Children, 80.  
A Fresh discovery of the High Presbyterian Spirit, by Mr. john Goodwin, 40.  
An Epitome of Stenography, or an Abridgement and Contraction of the Art of short-Writing by Characters; being a Collection of what is useful, and the best in other Writess with other additions, by job Everard.  
The History of the Life and death of Dr. john Thauler, who lived at Coleu in Germany; in the year 1346. and who from a vain Conversation was miraculously turned to an Extraordinary Degree of holiness of Life, 80.  
An English Greek Lexicon, containing the derivations and various significations of all the words in the new Testament, with a complete Alphabetical Table, where the English words are put first and the Greek is joined together, with the several Interpretations of all the proper Names of Men, Women, Cities, Countries, Hills and Rivers. Published for the increase of Knowledge by joseph Caryl, George Cokayne, Ralph Venning, William Bell, Matthew Barker, William Aderley, Matthew Mead, and Henry jessey. Whereunto is also added an English Greek Grammar, by which the meanest Capacity may attain to a competent knowledge in the Greek Tongue. 80.