| |
| Gen. 1.6. | AGAIN spoke God; the trembling waters move, | |
| Part flie up in thick mists, made clouds above, | |
| The Fir- | Part closer shrink about the earth below, | |
| mament. | But did not yet the mountains dry heads show. | |
| Th’ allforming Word stretcht out the Firmament, | 5 |
| Psal. 104.2,3. | Like azure curtains round his glorious Tent, | |
| And in its hidden chambers did dispose | |
| The magazines of Hail, and Rain, and Snows, | |
| Job 38.22,23. | Amongst those thicker clouds, from whose dark womb | |
| Th’ imprison’d winds, in flame and thunder come. | 10 |
| Those Clouds which over all the wondrous Arch | |
| Like hosts of various formed creatures march, | |
| And change the Scenes in our admiring eyes; | |
| Who sometimes see them like vast mountains rise. | |
| Sometimes like pleasant Seas with clear waves glide, | 15 |
| Sometimes like Ships on foaming billows ride, | |
| Sometimes like mounted warriours they advance, | |
| And seem to fire the smoaking Ordinance. | |
| Sometimes like shady Forests they appear, | |
| Here Monsters walking, Castles rising there. | 20 |
| Scorn Princes your embroider’d Canopies, | |
| And painted roofs, the poor whom you despise | |
| With far more ravishing delight are fed, | |
| While various clouds sayl o’re th’ unhoused head, | |
| And their heav’d eyes with nobler scenes present | 25 |
| Than your Poetick Courtiers can invent. | |
| 2 Pet. 3.5. | Thus the exalted waters were dispos’d, | |
| And liquid Skies the solid world enclos’d, | |
| To magnifie the most almighty hand, | |
| Job 37.18. | That makes thin floods like rocks of crystal stand, | 30 |
| Not quenching, nor drunk up by that bright wall | |
| Of fire, which neighbouring them, encircles all. | |
| The new built Firmament God Heaven nam’d, | |
| And over all the Arch his windows fram’d. | |
| From whence his liberal hand at due time pours | 35 |
| Ps. 147.16–18. | Upon the thirsty earth refreshing showers; | |
| Job 26. | And clothes her bosome with descending Snow | |
| to the end. | To cherish the young seeds when cold winds blow: | |
| Ps. 18.8–14. | Hence every night his fatning dews he sheds, | |
| And scatters Pearls amidst th’ enamel’d beds. | 40 |
| But when presumptuous sins the bright arch scale, | |
| Job 38.27, &c. | He beats them back with terrifying hail: | |
| Which like small shot amidst his foes he sends, | |
| Till flaming Thunder, his great Ordnance, rends | |
| The clouds, which, big with horror, ready stand | 45 |
| Ex. 9.2. | To pour their burthens forth at his command. | |
| But th’ unpolluted air as yet had not | |
| From mortals impious breath infection got, | |
| Enlightned then by a superiour ray | |
| A serene lustre deckt the second day. | 50 |
| Gen. 1.10, &c. | Th’ inferiour Globe was fashion’d on the third, | |
| When waters at the all-commanding word | |
| Psa. 104.6–10. | Did hastily into their channels glide, | |
| And the uncover’d hills as soon were dried. | |
| In the same body thus, distinct, and joyn’d, | 55 |
| Water and earth, as flesh and blood, we find. | |
| The late collected waters God call’d Seas. | |
| Springs, Lakes, streams, and broad Rivers are from these | |
| Brancht, like life-feeding veins, in every land, | |
| Yet wheresoe’re they seem to flow or stand, | 60 |
| Eccl. 1.7. | As all in the vast Oceans bosome bred, | |
| They daily reassemble in their head, | |
| Which thorough secret conduits back conveys | |
| To every Spring, the tribute that it pays. | |
| Eccl. 1.4. | So ages from th’ Eternal bosome creep, | 65 |
| So lose them selves again in that vast deep. | |
| So Empires, so all other humane things, | |
| With winding streams run to their native springs. | |
| Rom. 4.22. | So all the goodness mortals exercise | |
| Eph. 2.6. | Flows back to God out of his own supplies. | 70 |
| Now the great fabrick in all parts compleat, | |
| Beauty was call’d forth to adorn the feat; | |
| Ps. 102.25. | Where Earth, fixt in the Centre, was the ground, | |
| Job 26.7. | A mantle of light air compast it round; | |
| Then first the watrie, then the fiery wall, | 75 |
| And glittering heaven last involving all. | |
| Earth’s fair green robe vi’d with the azure skies, | |
| Here proud Woods near the flaming Towers did rise. | |
| The valleys Trees, though less in breadth and height, | |
| Gen. 2.9. | Yet hung with various fruit, as much delight. | 80 |
| Beneath these little shrubs and bushes sprung | |
| With fair flowers cloth’d, and with rich berries hung, | |
| Whose more delightful fruits seem’d to upbraid | |
| The tall trees yielding only barren shade. | |
| Ps. 104.14. | Then sprouted Grass and Herbs and Plants | 85 |
| Prepar’d to feed the earth’s inhabitants, | |
| To glad their nostrils, and delight their eyes, | |
| Revive their spirits, cure their maladies. | |
| Nor by these are the senses only fed, | |
| But th’ understanding too, while we may read | 90 |
| In every leaf, lectures of Providence, | |
| Eternal Wisdom, Love, Omnipotence. | |
| Which th’ eye that sees not, with Hells mists is blind, | |
| That which regards not, is of bruitish kind. | |
| The various colours, figures, powers of these | 95 |
| Are their Creators growing witnesses, | |
| Ps. 90.5,6. | Their glories emblems are, wherein we see | |
| How frail our humane lives and beauties be. | |
| Job 14.2. | Even like those flowers which at the Sun-rise spread | |
| Es. 40.6,7,8. | Their gawdy leaves, and are at evening dead. | 100 |
| Yet while they in their native lustre shine, | |
| The Eastern Monarchs are not half so fine. | |
| Mat. 6.28,29,30. | In richer robes God clothes the dirty soyl | |
| Jam. 1.10,11. | Than men can purchase by their sin and toyl. | |
| Then rather Fields than painted Courts admire, | 105 |
| Yet seeing both, think both must feed the fire: | |
| Job 14.7,8. | Only Gods works have roots and seeds, from whence | |
| They spring again in grace and excellence, | |
| But mens have none, like hasty lightning, they | |
| 1 Cor. 3.15. | Flash out, and so for ever pass away. | 110 |
| This fair Creation finisht the third day, | |
| In whose end, God did the whole work survey, | |
| The Seas, the Skies, the Trees, and less plants view’d, | |
| And by his approbation made them good; | |
| Gen. 1.12. | In all the plants did living seeds enclose, | 115 |
| Whence their successive generations rose; | |
| Gave them those powers which in them still remain, | |
| Whereby they man and beast with food sustain. | |
| The | Thrice had the day to gloomy night resign’d, | |
| fourth | And thrice victorious o’re the darkness shin’d, | 120 |
| day. | Before the mediate cause of it, the Sun | |
| Or any star had their creation, | |
| For with th’ Omnipotent it is all one | |
| To cause the day without, or by the Sun. | |
| God in the world by second causes reigns, | 125 |
| But is not tied to those means he ordains. | |
| Hab. 3.17,18. | Let no heart faint then that on him depends, | |
| When the means fail, that lead to their wisht ends. | |
| For God the thing, if good, will bring about | |
| With instruments we see not, or without. | 130 |
| The fourth Light having now expell’d the shade | |
| Gen. 1.14. &c. | God on that day the Luminaries made, | |
| And plac’d them all in their peculiar sphears | |
| To measure out our days, and months, and years, | |
| Which by their various motions are renew’d, | 135 |
| And heat and cold have their vicissitude: | |
| So Springs and Autumns still successive be, | |
| Till ages lose them in Eternity. | |
| Sun. | The Sun whom th’ Hebrews Gods great servant call, | |
| Plac’d in the middle Orb, as Lord of all, | 140 |
| Is in a radiant flaming chariot whirl’d, | |
| Psal. 19.4,5,6. | And dayly carried round abut the world | |
| By the first Movers force, who in that race | |
| Scatters his light and heat in every place, | |
| Yet not at once. Now in the East he shines, | 145 |
| And then again to’the Western deep declines, | |
| Seeming to quench his blazing taper there | |
| While it enlightens the other Hemisphere. | |
| Thus he their share of day and night divides | |
| Unto each world in their alternate tides. | 150 |
| But then its Orb by its own motion roll’d, | |
| Varies the seasons, brings in heat and cold, | |
| As it projects its rays in a straight line, | |
| Or more obliquely on the Earth doth shine. | |
| And thus doth he to the low world dispense | 155 |
| Life-feeding and engendring influence. | |
| Moon. | This Lord of Day with his reflected light | |
| Guilds the pale Moon the Empress of the night, | |
| Whose dim Orb monthly wastes and grows, | |
| Doth at the first sharp pointed horns disclose, | 160 |
| Then half, then her full shining Globe reveals, | |
| Which waining she by like degrees conceals. | |
| Stars. | The other glittering Planets now appear | |
| Each as a King enthron’d in his own Sphear; | |
| Then the eighth heaven in fuller lustre shines | 165 |
| Thick set with stars. All these were made for signs | |
| That mortals by observing them might know | |
| Due times to cultivate the earth below, | |
| To gather fruits, plant trees, and sow their seed, | |
| To cure their herds, and let their fair flocks breed, | 170 |
| Act. 27.10. | Into safe harbours to retire their ships, | |
| Again to launch out into the calm deeps, | |
| Their wandring vessels in broad seas to guide, | |
| When the lost shores no longer are descried; | |
| Physicians to direct in their great art, | 175 |
| And other useful knowledge to impart. | |
| Nor were they only made for signs to shew | |
| Fit opportunities for things we do, | |
| But in their various aspects too we read | |
| Droughts, inundations, famines, plagues and wars, | 180 |
| By several conjunctions of the Stars, | |
| At least shewn, if not caus’d, through the strong powers | |
| And workings Astral bodies have on ours, | |
| Which as above they variously are joyn’d, | |
| So are their subjects here below, enclin’d | 185 |
| To sadness, mirth, dread, quiet, love or hate, | |
| All that may calm, or trouble any state. | |
| Yet are they but a second cause, which God | |
| Shakes over sinners as a flaming rod, | |
| And further manages in his own hands, | 190 |
| To scourge the pride of all rebellious lands; | |
| Falsely and vainly do blind mortals then, | |
| To them impute the fates and ills of men, | |
| When their sinister operations be | |
| Only th’ effects of mens iniquitie, | 195 |
| Which makes the Lord his glittering hosts thus send | |
| Judg. 5. | To execute the just threats they portend. | |
| Nor are they characters of wrath alone, | |
| They sometimes have Gods grace to mankind shown, | |
| Mat. 2. | Such was that new Star which did heaven adorn, | 200 |
| When the great King of the whole world was born. | |
| Such were those stars that fought for Israel | |
| When Jabins vanquisht host, by Gods host fell. | |
| Even those Stars which threaten misery and woe | |
| To wicked men, to Saints deliverance show: | 205 |
| Lu. 22.28. | For when God cuts the bloody Tyrant down, | |
| He will their lives with peace and blessings crown. | |
| Thus the fourth evening did the fourth day close, | |
| And where the Sun went down, the Stars arose. | |
| New triumph now the fifth day celebrates, | 210 |
| The perfum’d morning opes her purple gates, | |
| Psal. 19. | Through which the Suns Pavilion does appear | |
| And he array’d in all his lustre there, | |
| Like a fresh Bridegroom with majestique grace, | |
| And joy diffusing vigour in his face, | 215 |
| Comes gladly forth, to greet his virgin bride, | |
| Trick’d up in all her ornaments and pride; | |
| Her lovely maids at his approach unfold | |
| Their gaudie vests, on which he scatters gold, | |
| Both chearing and enriching every place, | 220 |
| Through which he passes in his glorious race. | |
| But though he found a noble Theatre, | |
| As yet in it no living creatures were, | |
| Though flowry carpets spread the whole Earths face, | |
| And rich embroideries the upper Arch did grace, | 225 |
| And standards on the mountains stood between | |
| Bearing festoones like pillars wreath’d with green, | |
| The velvet couches and the mossy seats, | |
| The open walks and the more close retreats | |
| Were all prepar’d; Yet no foot trod the woods, | 230 |
| Nor no mouth yet had toucht the pleasant floods; | |
| No weary creature had repos’d its head | |
| Among the sweet perfumes of the low bed; | |
| The air was not respir’d in living breath, | |
| Throughout a general stilness reign’d, like death. | 235 |
| The King of day came forth, but unadmir’d, | |
| Like unprais’d gallants blushingly retir’d; | |
| As an uncourted beauty, Nights pale Queen, | |
| Grew sick to shine where she could not be seen. | |
| When the Creator first for mute herds calls, | 240 |
| And bade the waters bring forth animals: | |
| Gen. 1.20, &c. | Then was all shell-fish and each Scaly race | |
| At once produc’d, in their assigned place, | |
| The crooked Dolphins, great Leviathan, | |
| And all the Monsters of the Ocean, | 245 |
| Job 41. | Like wanton kids among the billows play’d, | |
| Nor was there after on the dry land made | |
| Any one beast of less or greater kind | |
| Whose like we do not in the waters find; | |
| Where every greater fish devours the less, | 250 |
| As mighty Lords poor Commoners oppress. | |
| Next the Almighty by his forming Word | |
| Made the whole plumie race, and every bird | |
| Its proper place assign’d, while with light wings | |
| All mounted heaven, some o’re the lakes and springs, | 255 |
| Some over the vast Fens and Seas did flie, | |
| Some near the ground, some in the cloudy skie, | |
| Some in high trees their proud nests built, some chose | |
| The humble shrubs for their more safe repose, | |
| Some did the marshes, some the rivers love, | 260 |
| Some the Corn-fields, and some the shady grove. | |
| That silence which reign’d every where before, | |
| Its universal Empire held no more, | |
| Even night and darkness its own dear retreat | |
| Could not preserve it in their reign compleat: | 265 |
| The Nightingales with their complaining notes, | |
| Ravens and Owls with their ill-boding throats, | |
| And all the birds of night, shrill crowing Cocks | |
| Whose due kept times, made them the worlds first clocks, | |
| All interrupted it, even in the night, | 270 |
| But at the first appearance of the light | |
| A thousand voyces, the green woods whole quire | |
| With their loud musick do the day admire; | |
| The Lark doth with her single carol rise, | |
| To welcome the fair morning in the skies; | 275 |
| The amorous and still complaining Dove, | |
| Courts not the day, but woes her own fair love; | |
| The Jays and Crows against each other rayl, | |
| And chattering Pies begin their gossips tale: | |
| Thus life was carri’d on, which first begun | 280 |
| In growth of plants, in fishes motion, | |
| And next declar’d it self in living sound, | |
| Whilst various noise the yielding air did wound. | |
| Various instincts the Birds by nature have, | |
| Which God to them in their creation gave, | 285 |
| That unto their observers do declare | |
| The storms and calms approaching in the air, | |
| That teach them how to build their nests at spring, | |
| And hatch their young under their nursing wing, | |
| To lead abroad and guard their tender brood, | 290 |
| To know their hurtful and their healing food, | |
| To feed them till their strength be perfect grown, | |
| And after teach them how to feed alone. | |
| Could we the lessons they hold forth improve, | |
| We might from some learn chaste and constant love, | 295 |
| Conjugal kindness of the paired Swans, | |
| Paternal Bounty of the Pelicans, | |
| While they are prodigal of their own blood | |
| To feed their chickens with that precious food. | |
| Wisdome of those who when storms threat the Skie, | 300 |
| In thick assemblies to their shelter flie, | |
| And those who seeing devourers in the air, | |
| To the safe covert of the wing repair. | |
| Mat. 10.16. | The gall-less doves would teach us innocence, | |
| And the whole race to hang on Providence; | 305 |
| Mat. 8.26, | Since not the least bird that divides the air | |
| & 10.19. | Exempted is from the Almighties care, | |
| Whose bounty in due seasons, feeds them all, | |
| Prepares them berries when the thick snows fall, | |
| Cloaths them in many colour’d plumes, which vain | 310 |
| Men borrow, yet the Peacocks gawdy train | |
| More beautifully is by nature drest, | |
| Than art can make it on the Gallants crest. | |
| This priviledge these creatures had to raise | |
| Their voices first in their great Makers praise, | 315 |
| Which when the morning opes her rosie gate | |
| They with consenting musick celebrate; | |
| Again with hunger pincht to God they cry, | |
| And from his liberal hand receive supply, | |
| Who them and all his watry creatures view’d, | 320 |
| And saw that they in all their kinds were good. | |
| Then blest them that for due successions they | |
| Might multiply. So clos’d he the fifth day. | |
| And now the Sun the third time rais’d his head | |
| Gen. 1. | And rose the sixth day from his watry bed, | 325 |
| When God commands the teeming earth to bring | |
| Forth great and lesser beasts, each reptile thing | |
| That on her bosome creeps, the word obey’d, | |
| Immediately were all the creatures made. | |
| Like Hermits some made hollow rock their Cell, | 330 |
| And did in their prepared mansions dwell. | |
| The vermine Weazils, Fulmots and blind Moles, | |
| Lay hid in clefts of trees, in crannies and in holes. | |
| The Serpents lodg’d in Marishes and fens, | |
| The savage beasts sought thickets, caves and dens. | 335 |
| Tame herds and flocks in open pastures stay’d, | |
| And wanton kids upon the mountains play’d. | |
| Here life almost to its perfection grew | |
| While God these various creatures did indue | |
| With various properties, and various sense, | 340 |
| But little short of humane excellence, | |
| Save what we in the Brutes dispersed find, | |
| Is all collected in mans nobler mind, | |
| Who to the high perfection of his sense, | |
| Hath added a more high intelligence. | 345 |
| Yet several Brutes have noble faculties, | |
| Some apprehensive are, some subtile, wise, | |
| Some have invention and docility, | |
| Some wonderful in imitation be, | |
| Some with high generous courage are endued, | 350 |
| With kindness some, and some with gratitude, | |
| With memory some, and some with providence, | |
| With natural love, and with meek innocence: | |
| Some watchful are, and some laborious be, | |
| Some have obedience, some true loyalty. | 355 |
| Among them too we all the passions find, | |
| Some more to love, some more to hate enclin’d. | |
| The musing Hare and the lightfooted Deer | |
| Are under the predominance of fear; | |
| Goats and hot Monkeys are with lust possest, | 360 |
| Rage governs in the savage Tygres brest; | |
| Jealousie doth the hearts of fierce Bulls move | |
| Impatient of all rivals in their love. | |
| Some sportive, and some melancholy be, | |
| Some proner to revenge and crueltie. | 365 |
| The Kingly Lion in his bosome hath | |
| The fiery seed of self-provoking wrath, | |
| Joy is no stranger to the savage brest, | |
| As oft with love, hate and desire possest, | |
| Through the aversion and the appetite | 370 |
| Which all these passions in their hearts excite. | |
| God cloth’d them all in several woolls and hair, | |
| Whereof some meaner, some more precious are, | |
| Which men now into garments weave and spin, | |
| Nor only weare their fleeces, but their skin; | 375 |
| Besides employ their teeth, bones, claws, and horn, | |
| Some Medicines be, and some the house adorn. | |
| A thousand other various ways we find, | |
| Wherein alive and dead they serve mankind, | |
| Who from th’ obedience they to him afford | 380 |
| Es. 1.3. | Might learn his duty to his Soveraign Lord. | |
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