LITMIR.BIZ

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Then time or motion, but to human ears

       Cannot without process of speech be told,

       So told as earthly notion can receave.

       Great triumph and rejoycing was in Heav’n

       When such was heard declar’d the Almightie’s will;

       Glorie they sung to the most High, good will

       To future men, and in thir dwellings peace:

       Glorie to him whose just avenging ire

       Had driven out th’ ungodly from his sight

       And th’ habitations of the just; to him

       Glorie and praise, whose wisdom had ordain’d

       Good out of evil to create, in stead

       Of Spirits maligne a better Race to bring

       Into thir vacant room, and thence diffuse

       His good to Worlds and Ages infinite.

       So sang the Hierarchies: Mean while the Son

       On his great Expedition now appeer’d,

       Girt with Omnipotence, with Radiance crown’d

       Of Majestie Divine, Sapience and Love

       Immense, and all his Father in him shon.

       About his Chariot numberless were pour’d

       Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,

       And Vertues, winged Spirits, and Chariots wing’d,

       From the Armoury of God, where stand of old

       Myriads between two brazen Mountains lodg’d

       Against a solemn day, harnest at hand,

       Celestial Equipage; and now came forth

       Spontaneous, for within them Spirit livd,

       Attendant on thir Lord: Heav’n op’nd wide

       Her ever during Gates, Harmonious sound

       On golden Hinges moving, to let forth

       The King of Glorie in his powerful Word

       And Spirit coming to create new Worlds.

       On heav’nly ground they stood, and from the shore

       They view’d the vast immeasurable Abyss

       Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wilde,

       Up from the bottom turn’d by furious windes

       And surging waves, as Mountains to assault

       Heav’ns highth, and with the Center mix the Pole.

      Silence, ye troubl’d waves, and thou Deep, peace,

       Said then th’ Omnific Word, your discord end:

      Nor staid, but on the Wings of Cherubim

       Uplifted, in Paternal Glorie rode

       Farr into Chaos, and the World unborn; For Chaos heard his voice: him all his Traine Follow’d in bright procession to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then staid the fervid Wheeles, and in his hand He took the golden Compasses, prepar’d In Gods Eternal store, to circumscribe This Universe, and all created things: One foot he center’d, and the other turn’d Round through the vast profunditie obscure, And said, thus farr extend, thus farr thy bounds, This be thy just Circumference, O World. Thus God the Heav’n created, thus the Earth, Matter unform’d and void: Darkness profound Cover’d th’ Abyss: but on the watrie calme His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspred, And vital vertue infus’d, and vital warmth Throughout the fluid Mass, but downward purg’d The black tartareous cold infernal dregs Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob’d Like things to like, the rest to several place Disparted, and between spun out the Air, And Earth self-ballanc’t on her Center hung.

      Let ther be Light, said God, and forthwith Light

       Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure

       Sprung from the Deep, and from her Native East

       To journie through the airie gloom began,

       Sphear’d in a radiant Cloud, for yet the Sun

       Was not; shee in a cloudie Tabernacle

       Sojourn’d the while. God saw the Light was good;

       And light from darkness by the Hemisphere

       Divided: Light the Day, and Darkness Night

       He nam’d. Thus was the first Day Eev’n and Morn:

       Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

       By the Celestial Quires, when Orient Light

       Exhaling first from Darkness they beheld;

       Birth-day of Heav’n and Earth; with joy and shout

       The hollow Universal Orb they fill’d,

       And touch’t thir Golden Harps, & hymning prais’d

       God and his works, Creatour him they sung,

       Both when first Eevning was, and when first Morn.

      Again, God said, let ther be Firmament

       Amid the Waters, and let it divide

       The Waters from the Waters: and God made

       The Firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,

       Transparent, Elemental Air, diffus’d

       In circuit to the uttermost convex

       Of this great Round: partition firm and sure,

       The Waters underneath from those above

       Dividing: for as Earth, so hee the World

       Built on circumfluous Waters calme, in wide

       Crystallin Ocean, and the loud misrule

       Of Chaos farr remov’d, least fierce extreames Contiguous might distemper the whole frame: And Heav’n he nam’d the Firmament: So Eev’n And Morning Chorus sung the second Day.

      The Earth was form’d, but in the Womb as yet

       Of Waters, Embryon immature involv’d,

       Appeer’d not: over all the face of Earth

       Main Ocean flow’d, not idle, but with warme

       Prolific humour soft’ning all her Globe,

       Fermented the great Mother to conceave,

       Satiate with genial moisture, when God said

       Be gather’d now ye Waters under Heav’n

       Into one place, and let dry Land appeer.

       Immediately the Mountains huge appeer

       Emergent, and thir broad bare backs upheave

       Into the Clouds, thir tops ascend the Skie:

       So high as heav’d the tumid Hills, so low

       Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,

       Capacious bed of Waters: thither they

       Hasted with glad precipitance, uprowld

       As drops on dust conglobing from the drie;

       Part rise in crystal Wall, or ridge direct,

       For haste; such flight the great command impress’d

       On the swift flouds: as Armies at the call

       Of Trumpet (for of Armies thou hast heard)

       Troop to thir Standard, so the watrie throng,

       Wave rowling after Wave, where way they found,

       If steep, with torrent rapture, if through Plaine,

       Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them Rock or Hill,

       But they, or under ground, or circuit wide

       With Serpent errour wandring, found thir

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