Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Lucy Hutchinson (1620–1681). Order and Disorder. 1679.
Canto III
NOW was the glorious Universe compleat | And every thing in beauteous order set, | When God, about to make the King of all, | Did in himself a sacred council call; | Not that he needed to deliberate, | But pleas’d t’ allow solemnity and state, | To wait upon that noble creatures birth Psal. 8.6. | For whom he had design’d both heaven and earth: Gen. 1.26, &c. | Let us, said God, with soveraign power indued | Make man after our own similitude, Eph. 4.24. | Let him our sacred imprest image bear Psal. 8. | Ruling o’re all in earth, and sea, and air. | Then made the Lord a curious mold of clay, | Which lifeless on the earths cold bosome lay, | When God did it with living breath inspire, | A soul in all, and every part entire, | Where life ris’ above motion, sound and sense | To higher reason and intelligence; | And this is truly termed life alone, | Which makes lifes fountain to the living known. | This life into it self doth gather all | The rest maintain’d by its original, | Which gives it Being, Motion, Sense, Warmth, Breath, | And those chief Powers that are not lost in death. | Thus was the noblest creature the last made, | As he in whom the rest perfection had, | In whom both parts of the great world were joyn’d, | Earth in his members, Heaven in his mind; | Whose vast reach the whole Universe compriz’d, Eccl. 3.11. | And saw it in himself epitomiz’d, | Yet not the Centre nor circumference can | Fill the more comprehensive soul of Man, | Whose life is but a progress of desire, | Which still enjoy’d, doth something else require, | Unsatisfied with all it hath pursued Mat. 11.25. | Until it rest in God, the Soveraign Good. | The earthly mansion of this heavenly guest | Peculiar priviledges too possest. | Whereas all other creatures clothed were | In Shells, Scales, guady Plumes, or Woolls, or Hair, | Only a fair smooth skin o’re man was drawn, | Like Damask roses blushing through pure Lawn. | The azure veins, where blood and spirits flow, | Like Violets in a field of Lillies show. | As others have a down bent countenance, | He only doth his head to heaven advance, Ps. 144.12. | Resembling thus a Tree whose noble root | In heaven grows, whence all his graces shoot. | He only on two upright columns stands, | He only hath, and knows the use of hands, | Which Gods rich bounties for the rest receive, | And aid to all the other members give. | He only hath a voice articulate, | Varied by joy, grief, anger, love and hate, | And every other motion of the mind | Which hereby doth an apt expression find. | Hereby glad mirth in laughter is alone | By man exprest; in a peculiar groan, | His grief comes forth, accompanied with tears, | Peculiar shrieks utter his suddain fears. | Herein is Musick too, which sweetly charms Prov. 15.1. | The sense, and the most savage heart disarms. | The Gate of this God in the head did place, | The head which is the bodies chiefest grace, | The noble Palace of the Royal guest | Within by Fancy and Invention drest, | With many pleasant useful Ornaments | Which new Imagination still presents, | Adorn’d without, by Majesty and Grace, | O who can tell the wonders of a face! | In none of all his fabriques more than here | Doth the Creators glorious Power appear, | That of so many thousands which we see | All humane creatures like, all different be; | If the Front be the glory of mans frame, | Those Lamps which in its upper windows flame, | Illustrate it, and as days radiant Star, | In the clear heaven of a bright face are. 1 Joh. 2.26. | Here Love takes stand, and here ardent Desire Mat. 5.28. | Enters the soul, as fire drawn in by fire, 1 Pet. 2.14. | At two ports, on each side, the Hearing sense | Still waits to take in fresh intelligence, | But the false spies both at the ears and eyes, | Conspire with strangers for the souls surprize, Jam. 5.11. | And let all life-perturbing passions in, | Which with tears, sighs and groans issue again. | Nor do those Labyrinths which like brest-works are, | About those secret Ports, serve for a Bar | To the false Sorcerers conducted by Pro. 1.10,11,12. | Mans own imprudent Curiosity. | There is an Arch i’the middle of the face | Of equal necessary use and grace, | For there men suck up the life-feeding air, | And panting bosomes are discharged there; | Beneath it is the chief and beauteous gate, | About which various pleasant graces wait, | When smiles the Rubie doors a little way | Unfold, or laughter doth them quite display, | And opening the Vermillion Curtains shows | The Ivory piles set in two even rows, | Before the portal, as a double guard, Pro. 25.11. | By which the busie tongue is helpt and barr’d; Eccl. 12.11. | Whose sweet sounds charm, when love doth it inspire, | And when hate moves it, set the world on fire. Jam. 3.6. | Within this portals inner vault is plac’t | The palate where sense meets its joys in tast; | On rising cheeks, beauty in white and red | Strives with it self, white on the forehead spread | Its undisputed glory there maintains, | And is illustrated with azure veins. | The Brows, Loves bow, and beauties shadow are, | A thick set grove of soft and shining hair | Adorns the head, and shews like crowning rays, | While th’airs soft breath among the loose curls plays. | Besides the colours and the features, we | Admire their just and perfect Symmetrie, | Whose ravishing resultance is that air | That graces all, and is not any where; | Whereof we cannot well say what it is, | Yet Beauties chiefest excellence lies in this; | Which mocks the Painters in their best designs, | And is not held by their exactest lines. | But while we gaze upon our own fair frame | Let us remember too from whence it came, | And that by sin corrupted now, it must Job 4.19. | Return to its originary dust. | How undecently doth pride then lift that head | On which the meanest feet must shortly tread? Eccl. 7.29. | Yet at the first it was with glory crown’d, | Till Satans fraud gave it the mortal wound. | This excellent creature God did Adam call | To mind him of his low Original, | Whom he had form’d out of the common ground | Which then with various pleasures did abound. | The whole Earth was one large delightful Field, | That till man sin’d no hurtful briars did yield, Gen. 2.8. | But God enclosing one part from the rest, | A Paradise in the rich spicie East | Had stor’d with Natures wealthy Magazine, | Where every plant did in its lustre shine, | But did not grow promiscuously there, | They all dispos’d in such rich order were | As did augment their single native grace, | And perfected the pleasure of the place, | To such a height that th’ apelike art of man, | Licentious Pens, or Pencils never can | With all th’ essays of all persuming wit, | Or form or feign ought that approaches it. | Whether it were a fruitful Hill or Vale, | Whether high Rocks, or Trees did it impale, | Or Rivers with their clear and kind embrace | Into a pleasant Island form’d the place, | Whether its noble seituation were | On Earth, in the bright Moon, or in the Air, | In what forms stood the various trees and flowers, | The disposition of the walks and bowers, | Whereof no certain word, nor sign remains, | We dare not take from mens inventive brains. | We know there was pleasant and noble shade | Which the tall growing Pines and Cedars made, Gen. 3.8. | And thicker coverts, which the light and heat Gen. 2.10. | Ev’n at noon day could scarcely penetrate, | A crystal River on whose verdant banks | The crowned fruit-trees stood in lovely ranks, | His gentle wave thorough the garden led, | And all the spreading roots with moysture fed. | But past th’ enclosure, thence the single stream | Parted in four, four noble floods became; Gen. 2.11. | Pison whole large arms Havilah enfold; | A wealthy land enricht with finest gold, | Where also many precious stones are found; ver. 13. | The second river Gihon, doth surround | All that fair land where Chus inhabited, | Where Tryanny first rais’d up her proud head, | And led her blood-hounds all along the shore, | Polluting the pure stream with crimson gore. | Edens third river Hiddekell they call, | Whose waters Eastward in Assiria fall. ver. 14. | The fourth Euphrates whose swift stream did run | About the stately walls of Babylon; | And in the revolution of some years | Swell’d high, fed with the captiv’d Hebrews tears. | God in the midst of Paradise did place . | Two trees, that stood up drest in all the grace, | The verdure, beauty, sweetness, excellence, | With which all else could tempt or feast the sense: | On one apples of knowledge did abound, | And life-confirming fruit the other crown’d. | And now did God the new created King | Into the pleasures of his earthly palace bring: | The air, spice, balm, and amber did respire, | His ears were feasted by the Sylvan Quire, | Like country girls, grass flowers did dispute | Their humble beauties with the high born fruit; | Both high and low their gawdy colours vied, | As Courtiers do in their contentious pride, | Striving which of them should yield most delight, | And stand the finest in their Soveraigns sight. | The shrubs with berries crown’d like precious gems, | Offer’d their supreme Lord their Diadems | Which did no single sense alone invite, | Courting alike the eyes and appetite. | Among all these the eye-refreshing green, | Sometimes alone, sometimes in mixture seen, | O’re all the banks and all the flat ground spread, | Seem’d an embroider’d, or plain velvet bed. | And that each sense might its refreshment have, | The gentle air soft pleasant touches gave | Unto his panting limbs, whenever they | Upon the sweet and mossie couches lay. | A shady Eminence there was, whereon ver. 19, &c. | The noble creature fate, as on his throne, | When God brought every Fowl, and every Brute, | That he might Names unto their natures suit, | Whose comprehensive understanding knew | How to distinguish them, at their first view; | And they retaining those names ever since, | Are monuments of his first excellence, | And the Creators providential grace, | Who in those names, left us some prints to trace; | Nature, mysterious grown, since we grew blind, | Whose Labyrinths we should less easily find | If those first appellations, as a clue, | Did not in some sort serve to lead us through, | And rectifie that frequent gross mistake, | Which our weak judgements and sick senses make, | Since man ambitious to know more, that sin | Brought dulness, ignorance and error in. Society. | Though God himself to man did condescend, | Though his knowledge to all natures did extend; | Though heaven and earth thus centred in his mind, | Yet being the only one of his whole kind, | He found himself without an equal mate, | To whom he might his joys communicate, | And by communication multiply. | Too far out of his reach was God on high, | Too much below him bruitish creatures were, | God could at first have made a humane pair, | But that it was his will to let man see | The need and sweetness of societie; | Who, though he were his Makers Favourite, | Feasted in Paradise with all delight, | Though all the creatures paid him homage, yet | Was not his unimparted joy compleat, | While there was not a second of his kind, | Indued with such a form and such a mind, | As might alike his soul and senses feast: | He saw that every bird and every beast | Its own resemblance in its female viewed, | And only union with its like pursued. | Hence birds with birds, and fish with fish abide, | Nor those with beasts, nor beasts with these reside: | According to their several species too, | As several housholds in one City do, | So they with their own kinds associate: | The Kingly eagle hath no buzzard mate; | The ravens, more their own black feather love, | Than painted pheasants, or the fair-neck’d dove. | So Bears to rough Bears rather do encline | Than to majestick Lions, or fair kine. | If it be thus with brutes, much less then can | The bruitish conversation suit with man. | ’Tis only like desires like things unite: | In union likeness only feeds delight. | Where unlike natures in conjunction are, | There is no product but perpetual war, | Such as there was in Natures troubled womb, | Until the sever’d births from thence did come, | For the whole world nor order had, nor grace | Till sever’d elements each their own place | Assigned were, and while in them they keep, | Heaven still smiles above, th’ untroubled deep | With kind salutes embraces the dry land, | Firm doth the earth on its foundation stand; | A chearful light streams from th’ ætherial fire, | And all in universal joy conspire. | But if with their unlike they attempt to mix, | Their rude congressions every thing unfix; | Darkness again invades the troubled skies, | Earth trembling, under angry heaven lies; | The Sea, swoln high with rage, comes to the shore | And swallows that, which it but kist before; | Th’ unbounded fire breaks forth with dreadful light, | And horrid cracks which dying nature fright, | Till that high power, which all powers regulates, | The disagreeing natures separates, | The like to like rejoyning as before, | So the worlds peace, joy, safety doth restore. | Yet if man could not find in bird or brute | That conversation which might aptly suit | His higher nature, was it not sublime | Enough, above the lower world to climb, | And in Angelick converse to delight, | Although it could not reach the supreme height? | No; for though man partake intelligence, | Yet that being joyn’d to an inferiour sense, | Dull’d by corporeal vapours, cannot be | Refin’d enough for angels company: | As strings screw’d up too high, as bows still bent | Or break themselves, or crack the instrument; | So drops neglected flesh into the grave, | If it no share in the souls pleasures have. | Man like himself needs an associate, | Who doth both soul and sense participate. | Not the swift Horse, the eager Hawk, or Hound, | Dogs, Parrots, Monkies ’mongst whom Adam found | No meet companion, thinking them too base | For the society of humane race, | Though his degenerate offspring chuse that now | Which his sound reason could not then allow, | But found himself amongst them all alone. | Whether he beg’d a mate it is not known, | Likely his want might send him to the spring; | For God who freely gives us every thing, | Mercy endears by instilling the desire, Ez. 36.37. | And granting that which humbly we require: | Howe’re it was, God saw his solitude Gen. 2.18. | And gave his sentence that it was not good. | Yet not a natural, nor a moral ill, | Because his solitude was not his will | Opposing his Creators End, as they | Who into caves and desarts run away, | Seeking perfection in that state, wherein | A good was wanting when man had so sin. | For without help to propagate mankind | Gods glory had been to one brest confin’d, | Which multiplied Saints, do now conspire Heb. 12.23. | Throughout their generations to admire. | Mans nature had not been the sacred shrine, | Partner and bride of that which is divine; | The Church, fruit of this union, had not come | To light, but perisht, stifled in the womb. | Again ’tis not particularly good | For man to waste his life in solitude, | Whose nature for society design’d | Can no full joy without a second find, Eccl. 4.8, &c. | To whom he may communicate his heart, | And pay back all the pleasures they impart; | For all the joys that we enjoy alone, | And all our unseen lustre, is as none. | If thus want of a partner did abate | Mans happiness in mans most perfect state, | Much more hath humane nature, now decay’d, | Need of a suitable and a kind aid: | It is not good, vertue should lie obscure, | That barren rocks, rich treasures should immure, 1 Cor. 12.5–12. | Which our kind Lord to some, for all men gave, | That all might share of all his bounties have. Mat. 5.16. | Not good, dark Lanthorns should shut up the light 15. | Of fair example, made for the dark night. | Not good, experience should her candle hide, | When weak ones perish, wanting her bright guide. | Not good, to let unactive graces chill, | No lively warmth receive, no good instil | By quickning converse. Thus nor are the great, | The wise, and firm, permitted to retreat, | Betraying so deserted innocence, | To which God made them conduct and defence. | Nor may the simple and the weak expose | Themselves alone, to strong and subtile foes; | Men for each others mutual help were made, | The meanest may afford the highest aid. | The highest to necessity must yield, Eccl. 5.9. | Even Princes are beholding to the field. | He that from mortal converse steals away | Injures himself, and others doth betray, | Whom Providence committed to his trust, | And in that act, nor prudent is nor just. | For sweet friends both in pleasure and distress, | Augment the joy, and make the torment less. | Equal delight it is to learn and teach, | To be held up to that we cannot reach, | And others from the abject earth to raise | To merit, and to give deserved praise. | Wisdom imparted like th’ encreasing bread, Mat. 15.36. | Wherewith the Lord so many thousands fed, | By distribution adds to its own store, | And still the more it gives it hath the more. | Extended Power reaches it self a crown, | Gathering up those whom misery casts down. | Love raiseth us, it self to heaven doth rise, | By vertues varied mutual exercise. Rom. 13.9,10. | Sweet love, the life of life, which cannot shine, | But lies like Gold concealed in the Mine, 1 Cor. 13. | Till it through much exchange a brightness take | And Conversation doth it current make. | God having shew’d his creature thus the need | Of humane helps, a help for man decreed: | I will, said he, the mans meet aid provide. | But that he from his waking view might hide | Such a mysterious work, the Lord did keep Gen. 2.21,22. | All Adam’s senses fast lock’d up in sleep. | Then from his open’d side took without pain | A cloathed rib, and clos’d the flesh again, | And of the bone did a fair virgin frame | Who, by her Maker brought, to Adam came | And was in matrimonial Union joyn’d, | By love and nature happily combin’d. | Adam’s clear understanding at first view | His wives original and nature knew; | His will, as pure, did thankfully embrace, | His fathers bounty, and admir’d his grace. | And as her sweet charms did his heart surprise | He spoke his joy in these glad ecstacies, | Thou art my better self, my flesh, my bone, ver. 23,24. | We late of one made two, again in one | Shall reunite, and with the frequent birth | Of our joynt issue, people the vast earth. | To shew that thou wert taken out of me | Isha shall be thy name; As unto thee | Ravisht with love and joy my soul doth cleave, | So men hereafter shall their fathers leave, Eph. 5.31. | And all relations else, which are most dear, Mat. 19.5. | That they may only to their wives adhere; | When marriage male and female doth combine | Children in one flesh shall two parents joyn. | Lastly, God, who the sacred knot had tied, | With blessing his own Ordinance sanctified, | Encrease, said he, and multiply your race, Gen. 1.28, &c. | Fill th’ Earth allotted for your dwelling place, | I give you right to all her fruits and plants, | Dominion over her inhabitants; | The fish that in the floods deep bosome lie, | All Fowls that in the airy region flie, | Whatever lives and feeds on the dry land, | Are all made subject under your command. | The grass and green herbs let your cattle eat, | And let the richer fruits be your own meat, | Except the Tree of knowing good and ill, | That by the precept of my Soveraign will | You must not eat, for in the day you do, | Inevitable death shall seize on you. | Thus God did the first marriage celebrate Gen. 2.22. | While man was in his unpolluted state, Heb. 13.4. | And th’ undefiled bed with honour deckt, | Though perverse men the Ordinance reject, Prov. 18.22. | And pulling all its sacred Ensigns down | To the white Virgin only give the crown. | Nor yet is marriage grown less sacred since | Man fell from his created excellence, | Necessity now raises its esteem, | Which doth mankind from deaths vast jaws redeem, | Who even in their graves are yet alive, | While they in their posterity survive. | In it they find a comfort and an aid, | In all the ills which humane life invade. Psa. 127.3,4,5. | This curbs and cures wild passions that arise, | Repairs times daily wasts, with new supplies; | When the declining mothers youthful grace | Lies dead and buried in her wrinkled face, | In her fair daughters it revives and grows, | And her dead Cinder in their new flames glows. | And though this state may sometimes prove accurst, | For of best things, still the corruption’s worst, | Sin so destroys an institution good, | Provided against death and solitude. | Eve out of sleeping Adam formed thus | A sweet instructive emblem is to us, Psa. 121.3,4,5. | How waking Providence is active still | To do us good, and to avert our ill, Job 33.15–17, &c. | When we lock’d up in stupefaction lie, | Not dreaming that our blessings are so nigh. Deut. 32.36. | Blessings wrought out by providence alone | Without the least assistance of our own. Rom. 4.19. | Mans help produc’d in death-like sleep doth show, | Our choicest mercies out of dead wombs flow. Joh. 19.34. | So from the second Adams bleeding side 1 Joh. 5.6. | God form’d the Gospel Church, his mystique Bride, Tir[?]. 5.5. | Whose strength was only on his firmness made, Phil. 4.13. | His blood, quick spirits into ours convey’d: 2 Cor. 12.9. | His wasted flesh our wasted flesh supplied, Joh. 5.2. | And we were then revived when he died. Eph. 2.1, 5,6, &c. | Who wak’d from that short sleep with joy did view 2 Tim. 1.10. | The Virgin fair that out of his wounds grew, | Presented by th’ eternal Fathers grace Es. 53.5. | Unto his everlasting kind embrace: Act. 20.28. | My spouse, my sister, said he, thou art mine; Eph. 5.25–27, &c. | I and my death, I and my life are thine; Rev. 5.19[?]. | For thee I did my heavenly Father quit Joh. 17.9,10. | That thou with me on my high throne mayst sit, Psal. 2.8. | My mothers humane flesh in death did leave Cant. 2.16. & 4.10. | For thee, that I to thee might only cleave, 1 Cor. 3.22,23. | Redeem thee from the confines of dark hell, | And evermore in thy dear bosome dwell: Joh. 6.38,39. | From heaven I did descend to fetch up thee, Rev. 5.9,10. | Rose from the grave that thou mightst reign with me. Phil. 2.9. | Henceforth no longer two but one we are, Joh. 19.27. | Thou dost my merit, life, grace, glory share: Col. 2.13–15. | As my victorious triumphs are all thine, 1 Cor. 15.54,55, | So are thy injuries and sufferings mine, 21,22. | Which I for thee will vanquish as my own, Joh. 17.23,24. | And give thee rest in the celestial throne: | & 14.3. Eph. 4.9,10, &c. Rom. 8.17,18. 2 Tim. 2.12. Col. 1. Eph. 1. Joh. 1.16. Act. 9.4. Mat. 25.34. and forward.Heb. 4.13. | The Bride with these caresses entertain’d & 10.19,20. | In naked beauty doth before him stand, 1 Pet. 1.2. | And knows no shame purg’d from all foul desire Heb. 13.12. | Whose secret guilt kindles the blushing fire. 1 Pet. 1.10–12. | Her glorious Lord is naked too, no more | Conceal’d in types and shadows as before. Eph. 3.9,10. | So our first parents innocently did Heb. 8.5. | Behold that nakedness which since is hid, 2 Pet. 2.14. | That lust may not catch fire from beauties flame Mat. 5.28. | Engendring thoughts which die the cheeks with shame, Gen. 2.1. | Thus heaven and earth their full perfection had, | Thus all their hosts and ornaments were made, | Armies of Angels had the highest place, | Bright starry hosts the lower heaven did grace, | The Mutes encamped in the waters were, | The winged troops were quartered in the air, | The walking animals, as th’ infantry | Of th’ Universal Host, at large did lie | Spread over all the earths most ample face, | Each regiment in its assigned place. | Paradise the head quarter was, and there ver. 15. | The Emperour to his Victory did appear, | Him in his regal Office did install, ver. 19. | A general muster of his hosts did call, | Resigning up into his sole command | The numerous Tribes, that fill both sea and land. | As each kind severally had before | Blessing and approbation, so once more, | When all together God his works review’d, Gen. 1.31. | The blessing was confirmed and renew’d. | And with the sixth day the Creation ceast. | The seventh day the Lord himself did rest, Gen. 2.2,3. | And made it a perpetual Ordinance then Ex. 20.8. | To be observ’d by every age of men, | That after six days honest labour they | His precept and example should obey, | As he did his, their works surcease, and spend | That day in sacred rest, till that day end, | And in its number back again return, | Still consecrated, till it have outworn | All other time, and that alone remain, | When neither toyl, nor burthen, shall again | The weary lives of mortal men infest, | Nor intermit their holy, happy rest. | Nor is this Rest sacred to idleness, | God, a perpetual Act, sloth cannot bless. | He ceast not from his own celestial joy, Pro. 8.22, | Which doth himself perpetually employ 30,31. | In contemplation of himself, and those Mat. 3.17. | Most excellent works, wherein himself he shows; Joh. 5.17, | He only ceast from making lower things, 20,21. | By which, as steps, the mounting soul he brings | To th’ upmost height, and having finisht these Jer. 9.24. | Himself did in his own productions please, Psal. 104. | Full satisfied in their perfection, & 147. | Rested from what he had compleatly done; & 145. | And made his pattern our instruction, | That we, as far as finite creature may | Trace him that’s infinite, should in our way | Rest as our Father did, work as he wrought, Eccl. 9.10. | Nor cease till we have to perfection brought Heb. 6.1. | Whatever to his glory we intend, Phil. 3.19. | Still making ours, the same which was his end: | As his works in commands begin, and have 1 Cor. 10.30. | Conclusion in the blessings which he gave, 1 Joh. 5.3. | So must his Word give being to all ours; Ps. 119.9. | And since th’ events are not in our own powers, | We must his blessing beg, his great name bless, | And make our thanks the crown of our success. | As God first heaven did for man prepare, | Men last for heaven created were, Mat. 6.33. | So should we all our actions regulate, Col. 3.1. | Which heaven, both first and last, should terminate, | And in whatever circle else they run, | There should they end, there should they be begun, | There seek their pattern, and derive from thence | Their whole direction and their influence. | As when th’ Almighty this low world did frame, | Life by degrees to its perfection came, Heb. 5.12–14. | In Vegetation first sprung up, to sense | Ascended next, and climb’d to reason thence, | So we, pursuing our attainments, should | Press forward from what’s positively good, | Still climbing higher, until we reach the best, | And that acquir’d for ever fix our rest. | Our souls so ravisht with the joys divine | That they no more to creatures can decline. | As Gods Rest was but a more high retreat | From the delights of this inferiour feat, | So must our souls upon our Sabbaths climb, Es. 58.13. | Above the world, sequestred for that time, | From those legitimate delights, which may | Rejoyce us here upon a common day. | As God, his works compleated, did retire | To be ador’d by the Angelick Quire, | So when on us the seventh days light doth shine, | Should we our selves to Gods assemblies joyn, Job 1.6. | Thither all hearts, as one pure offring, bring Heb. 10.25. | And all with one accord adore our King. | This seventh day the Lord to mankind gave, Mat. 2.27[?]. | Nor is it the least priviledge we have. Ez. 20.12. | And ours peculiarly. The Orbs above | Aswell the seventh as the sixth day move, | The rain descends and the fierce tempest blows, | On it the restless Ocean ebbs and flows: | Bees that day fill the hive, and on that day | Ants their provisions in their store-house lay, | All creatures plie their works, no beast | But those which mankind use, share in that rest: | Which God indulg’d only to humane race, | That they in it might come before his face | To celebrate his worship and his praise, | And gain a blessing upon all their days. | O wretched souls of perverse men, who slight | So great a grace, refuse such rich delight, | Which the inferiour creatures cannot share, | To which alone their natures fitted are, Heb. 4.9. | And whereby favour’d men admitted be & 12.22. | Into the angels blest societie. | Yet is this Rest but a far distant view | Of that celestial life which we pursue, | By Satan oft so interrupted here, | That little of its glory doth appear, | Nor can our souls sick, languid appetite | Feast upon such substantial, strong delight. | As musick pains the grieved aking head, Am. 8.5. | With which the healthful sense is sweetly fed; | So duties wherein sound hearts full joys find, | Fetters and sad loads are to a sick mind, | Till it thereto by force it self mure, | And from a loathing fall to love its cure. | God for his worship kept one day of seven, | The other six to man for mans use given; | Adam, although so highly dignified, | Was not to spend in idle ease and pride | Nor supine sleep, drunk with his sensual pleasures, | Profusely wasting th’ Empires sacred treasures, | As now his faln sons do, that arrogate | His forfeited dominion, and high state; | But God his dayly Business did ordain | That Kings, hence taught, might in their Realms maintain | Fair order, serving those whom they command, Rom. 13.3,4. | As guardians, not as owners of the land, | Not being set there, to pluck up and destroy | Those plants, whose culture should their cares employ. 1 Thes. 4.11. | Nor doth this precept only Kings comprize, 1 Tim. 5.8. | The meanest must his little paradise | With no less vigilance and care attend | Than Princes on their vast enclosures spend. | All hence must learn their duty, to suppress Pro. 19.15. | Th’ intrusions of a sordid idleness. & 10.26. | Who form’d, could have preserv’d the garden fair. | Without th’ employment of mans busie care, | But that he will’d that our delight should be | The wages of our constant industrie, | That we his ever bounteous hand might bless | Crowning our honest labours with success, | And tast the joy men reap in their own fruit, | Loving that more to which they contribute | Either the labour of their hands or brains, | Than better things produc’d by others pains. | Led by desire, fed with fair hope, the fruit | Oft-times delights not more than the pursuit. | For man a nature hath to action prone, | That languishes, and sickens finding none. | As standing pools corrupt, water that flows, | More pure, by its continual current, grows, | So humane kind by active exercise, | Do to the heights of their perfection rise, | While their stock’d glory comes to no ripe growth, | Whose lives corrupt in idleness and sloth | Which is not natural, but a disease, | That doth upon the flesh-cloy’d spirit seize. | Where health untainted is, then the sound mind | In its employment doth its pleasure find. | But when death, or its representer sleep | Upon the mortals tired members creep, | This during its dull reign doth life suspend, | That ceasing action, puts it to an end. | Lastly since God himself did man employ | To dress up Paradise, that moderate joy | Which from this fair creation we derive, | Is not our sin but our prerogative, 1 Tim. 4.4,5. | If bounded so, as we fix not our rest 1 Jon. 2.17. | In creatures which but transient are at best, 1 Cor. 7.31,20. | Yet ’tis sin to neglect, not use, or prize, | As well as ’tis to wast and idolize.
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