Nature

Summary

That Custom is a Second Nature, we

Most plainly find by Nature's Purity:

For Nature teacheth nothing but the Truth;

I'm sure mine did so in my Virgin-Youth.

As soon as He my Spirit did inspire,

His Works He bid me in the World admire.

My Senses were Informers of my Heart,

The Conduits of His Glory, Pow'r, and Art:

His Greatness, Wisdom, Goodness, I did see,

Endearing Lov, and vast Eternity,

Almost as soon as born; and ev'ry Sense

Was in me like to som Intelligence.

I was by nature prone and apt to lov

All Light and Beauty, both in Hev'n abov

And Earth beneath; was ready to admire,

Adore and prais, as well as to desire.

My Inclinations rais'd me up on high,

And guided me to trace Infinity.

A secret Self I had enclos'd within,

That was not bounded with my Cloaths or Skin,

Or terminated with my Sight, whose Sphere

Ran parallel with that of Heven here:

And did, much like the subtil piercing Light

When fenc'd from rough and boistrous Storms by night,

Break throu the Lanthorn-sides, and with its Ray

Diffuse its Glory spreading evry way:

Whose steddy Beams, too subtil for the Wind,

Are such that we their Bounds can hardly find.

It did encompass and possess Rare Things,

But yet felt more; and on Angelick Wings

Pierc'd throu the Skies immediatly, and sought

For all that could beyond all Worlds be thought.

It did not go or mov, but in me stood,

And by dilating of its self, all Good

It try'd to reach; I found it present there,

Ev'n while it did remain conversing here;

And more suggested than I could discern,

Or ever since by any means could learn.

Vast, unaffected, wonderful, Desires,

Like nativ, ardent, inward, hidden Fires,

Sprang up, with Expectations very strange,

Which into stronger Hopes did quickly change;

For all I saw beyond the Azure Round

Seem'd endless Darkness, with no Beauty crown'd.