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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse  »  7. The Father

Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.

Joshua Sylvester (1563–1618)

7. The Father

ALPHA and Omega, God alone:

Eloi, My God, the Holy-One;

Whose Power is Omnipotence:

Whose Wisedome is Omni-science:

Whose Beeing is All Soveraigne Blisse:

Whose Worke Perfection’s Fulnesse is;

Under All things, not under-cast;

Over All things, not over-plac’t;

Within All things, not there included;

Without All things, not thence excluded:

Above All, over All things raigning;

Beneath All, All things aye sustayning:

Without All, All conteyning sole:

Within All, filling-full the Whole:

Within All, no where comprehended;

Without All, no where more extended;

Under, by nothing over-topped:

Over, by nothing under-propped:

Unmov’d, Thou mov’st the World about;

Unplac’t, Within it, or Without:

Unchanged, time-lesse, Time Thou changest:

Th’ unstable, Thou, still stable, rangest;

No outward Force, nor inward Fate,

Can Thy drad Essence alterate:

To-day, To-morrow, yester-day,

With Thee are One, and instant aye;

Aye undivided, ended never:

To-day, with Thee, indures for-ever.

Thou, Father, mad’st this mighty Ball;

Of nothing thou created’st All,

After th’ Idea of thy Minde,

Conferring Forme to every kinde.

Thou wert, Thou art, Thou wilt be ever:

And Thine Elect, rejectest never.