LITMIR.BIZ

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and the work ordain’d, Author and end of all things, and from work Now resting, bless’d and hallowd the Seav’nth day, As resting on that day from all his work, But not in silence holy kept; the Harp Had work and rested not, the solemn Pipe, And Dulcimer, all Organs of sweet stop, All sounds on Fret by String or Golden Wire Temper’d soft Tunings, intermixt with Voice Choral or Unison: of incense Clouds Fuming from Golden Censers hid the Mount. Creation and the Six dayes acts they sung, Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite Thy power; what thought can measure thee or tongue Relate thee; greater now in thy return Then from the Giant Angels; thee that day Thy Thunders magnifi’d; but to create Is greater then created to destroy. Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound Thy Empire? easily the proud attempt Of Spirits apostat and thir Counsels vaine Thou hast repeld, while impiously they thought Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw The number of thy worshippers. Who seekes To lessen thee, against his purpose serves To manifest the more thy might: his evil Thou usest, and from thence creat’st more good. Witness this new-made World, another Heav’n From Heaven Gate not farr, founded in view On the cleer Hyaline, the Glassie Sea; Of amplitude almost immense, with Starr’s Numerous, and every Starr perhaps a World Of destind habitation; but thou know’st Thir seasons: among these the seat of men, Earth with her nether Ocean circumfus’d, Thir pleasant dwelling place. Thrice happie men, And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanc’t, Created in his Image, there to dwell And worship him, and in reward to rule Over his Works, on Earth, in Sea, or Air, And multiply a Race of Worshippers Holy and just: thrice happie if they know Thir happiness, and persevere upright.

      So sung they, and the Empyrean rung,

       With Halleluiahs: Thus was Sabbath kept. And thy request think now fulfill’d, that ask’d How first this World and face of things began, And what before thy memorie was don From the beginning, that posteritie Informd by thee might know; if else thou seekst Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.

      To whom thus Adam gratefully repli’d. What thanks sufficient, or what recompence Equal have I to render thee, Divine Hystorian, who thus largely hast allayd The thirst I had of knowledge, and voutsaf’t This friendly condescention to relate Things else by me unsearchable, now heard VVith wonder, but delight, and, as is due, With glorie attributed to the high Creator; some thing yet of doubt remaines, VVhich onely thy solution can resolve. VVhen I behold this goodly Frame, this VVorld Of Heav’n and Earth consisting, and compute, Thir magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a graine, An Atom, with the Firmament compar’d And all her numberd Starrs, that seem to rowle Spaces incomprehensible (for such Thir distance argues and thir swift return Diurnal) meerly to officiate light Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot, One day and night; in all thir vast survey Useless besides, reasoning I oft admire, How Nature wise and frugal could commit Such disproportions, with superfluous hand So many nobler Bodies to create, Greater so manifold to this one use, For aught appeers, and on thir Orbs impose Such restless revolution day by day Repeated, while the sedentarie Earth, That better might with farr less compass move, Serv’d by more noble then her self, attaines Her end without least motion, and receaves, As Tribute such a sumless journey brought Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light; Speed, to describe whose swiftness Number failes.

      So spake our Sire, and by his count’nance seemd

       Entring on studious thoughts abstruse, which Eve Perceaving where she sat retir’d in sight, With lowliness Majestic from her seat, And Grace that won who saw to wish her stay, Rose, and went forth among her Fruits and Flours, To visit how they prosper’d, bud and bloom, Her Nurserie; they at her coming sprung And toucht by her fair tendance gladlier grew. Yet went she not, as not with such discourse Delighted, or not capable her eare Of what was high: such pleasure she reserv’d, Adam relating, she sole Auditress; Her Husband the Relater she preferr’d Before the Angel, and of him to ask Chose rather; hee, she knew would intermix Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute With conjugal Caresses, from his Lip Not Words alone pleas’d her. O when meet now Such pairs, in Love and mutual Honour joyn’d? With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went; Not unattended, for on her as Queen A pomp of winning Graces waited still, And from about her shot Darts of desire Into all Eyes to wish her still in sight. And Raphael now to Adam’s doubt propos’d Benevolent and facil thus repli’d.

      To ask or search I blame thee not, for Heav’n

       Is as the Book of God before thee set,

       Wherein to read his wondrous Works, and learne

       His Seasons, Hours, or Days, or Months, or Yeares:

       This to attain, whether Heav’n move or Earth,

       Imports not, if thou reck’n right, the rest

       From Man or Angel the great Architect

       Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge

       His secrets to be scann’d by them who ought

       Rather admire; or if they list to try

       Conjecture, he his Fabric of the Heav’ns

       Hath left to thir disputes, perhaps to move

       His laughter at thir quaint Opinions wide

       Hereafter, when they come to model Heav’n

       And calculate the Starrs, how they will weild

       The mightie frame, how build, unbuild, contrive

       To save appeerances, how gird the Sphear

       With Centric and Eccentric scribl’d o’re,

       Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb:

       Alreadie by thy reasoning this I guess,

       Who art to lead thy ofspring, and supposest

       That Bodies bright and greater should not serve

       The less not bright, nor Heav’n such journies run,

       Earth sitting still, when she alone receaves

       The benefit: consider first, that Great

       Or Bright inferrs not Excellence: the Earth

       Though, in comparison of Heav’n, so small,

       Nor glistering, may of solid good containe

       More plenty then the Sun that barren shines,

       Whose vertue on it self workes no effect,

       But in the fruitful Earth; there first receavd

       His beams, unactive else, thir vigor find.

       Yet not to Earth are those bright Luminaries

       Officious, but to thee Earths habitant.

       And for the Heav’ns wide Circuit, let it speak

       The Makers high magnificence, who built

       So spacious, and his Line stretcht out so farr;

       That Man may know he dwells not in his own;

       An Edifice too large for him to fill,

       Lodg’d in a small partition, and the rest

       Ordain’d for uses to his Lord best known.

       The swiftness of those Circles attribute,

       Though numberless, to his Omnipotence,

       That to corporeal substances could adde

       Speed almost Spiritual; mee thou thinkst not slow,

       Who since the Morning hour set out from Heav’n

       Where God resides, and ere mid-day arriv’d

       In Eden, distance inexpressible By Numbers that have name. But this I urge, Admitting Motion in the Heav’ns, to shew Invalid that which thee to doubt it mov’d; Not that I so affirm, though so it seem To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth. God to remove his wayes from human sense, Plac’d Heav’n from Earth so farr, that earthly sight, If it presume, might erre in things too high, And no advantage gaine. What if the Sun Be Center to the World, and other Starrs By his attractive vertue and thir own Incited, dance about him various rounds? Thir wandring

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