So told, as earthly notion can receive. Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven, When such was heard declared the Almighty's will; Glory they sung to the Most High, good will To future men, and in their dwellings peace: Glory to him, whose just avenging ire Had driven out the ungodly from his sight, And the habitations of the just; to him Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd Good out of evil to create, instead Of spirits malign, a better race to bring Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse His good to worlds and ages infinite.
"So sang the hierarchies: meanwhile, the Son On his great expedition now appear'd, Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd Of majesty divine; sapience and love Immense, and all his Father in him shone. About his chariot numberless were pour'd, Cherub and seraph, potentates and thrones, And virtues, winged spirits, and chariots wing'd From th' armoury of God; where stand of old Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged, Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand, Celestial equipage; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them spirit lived, Attendant on their Lord: Heaven open'd wide Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound, On golden ninges moving, to let forth The King of Glory, in his powerful Word And Spirit coming, to create new worlds. On heavenly ground they stood, & from the shore They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss, Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds, And surging waves, as mountains, to assault Heaven's highth, and with the centre mix the pole. "Silence, ye troubled waves ! & thou deep, peace. Said then the omnific Word,' your discord end. Nor stay'd, but on the wings of cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn; For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train Follow'd in bright procession, to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then stay'd the fervid wheels, & in his hand He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe This universe, and all created things One foot he centred, and the other turn d Round, through the vast profundity obscure And said, 'Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds This be thy just circumference, O world.' Thus God the heaven created, thus the earth. Matter unform'd and void: darkness profound Cover'd the abyss: but, on the watery calm, His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth, Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd The black tartareous cold infernal dregs, Adverse to life then founded, then conglobed Eke things to like, the rest to several place Departed, and between spun out the air, And earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung.
"Let there be light,' said God; & forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep, and, from her native east, To journey through the airy gloom began, Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun Was not; she in a cloudy 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 named. Thus was the first day even and morn Nor pass'd uncelebrated, nor unsung, By the celestial choirs, when orient light Exhaling first from darkness they beheld; Birth-day of Heaven and earth; with joy and shout The hollow universal orb they fill'd,
And touch'd their golden harps, & hymning, prais'd God and his works, Creator him they sung, Both when first evening was, and when first morn. Again, God said, Let there 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, diffused
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 he the world, Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes,
Contiguous, might distemper the whole frame: And Heaven he nam'd the firmament: so even And morning chorus sung the second day.
"The earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet Of waters, embryon immature involved, Appear'd not over all the face of earth Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm Prolific humour softening all her globe, Fermented the great mother to conceive, Satiate with genial moisture, when God said, 'Be gather'd now ye waters under Heaven Into one place, and let dry land appear.' Immediately the mountains huge appear, Emergent, & their broad bare backs upheave Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky: So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters: thither they Hastened with glad precipitance, uproll'd, As drops on dust conglobing from the dry; Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct, [press'd For haste; such flight the great command imOn the swift floods: as armies at the call Of trumpet, for of armies thou hast heard, Troop to their standard, so the watery throng, Wave rolling after wave, where way they found; If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain, Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill, But they, or under ground, or circuit wide With serpent error wandering, found their way, And on the washy ooze deep channels wore, Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry; All but within those banks, where rivers now Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train. The dry land, earth, and the great receptacle Of congregated waters, he call'd seas: And saw that it was good; & said, 'Let the earth Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, And fruit-tree yielding fruit, after her kind, Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.' He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd, Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad Her universal face with pleasant green; Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd, Opening their various colours, and made gay Her bosom, smelling sweet: & these scarce blown,
Forth flourish'd thick the clustering vine, forth crept The smelling gourd, up stood the corny reed, Embattled in her field; and the humble shrub, And bush with frizzled hair implicit last Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were crown'd, With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side, With borders long the rivers; that earth now Seem'd like to Heaven, a seat where Gods might dwell, Or wander with delight, and love to haunt Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rain'd Upon the earth, and man to till the ground None was; but from the earth a dewy mist Went up, and watered all the ground, and each, Plant of the field, which, ere it was in the earth, God made, and every herb, before it grew On the green stem; God saw that it was good: So even and morn recorded the third day.
'Again the Almighty spake, Let there be lights, High in the expanse of Heaven, to divide The day from night; and let them be for signs, For seasons, and for days, and circling years; And let them be for lights, as I ordain Their office, in the firmament of Heaven, To give light on the earth;' and it was so. And God made two great lights, great for their use To man; the greater to have rule by day, The less by night, altern; and made the stars, And set them in the firmament of Heaven, To illuminate the earth, and rule the day, In their vicissitude, and rule the night, And light from darkness to divide. God saw Surveying his great work, that it was good: For of celestial bodies first the sun,
A mighty sphere, he framed, unlightsome first, Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon Globose, and every magnitude of stars, And sow'd with stars the Heaven, thick as a field : Of light, by far the greater part he took, Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed In the sun's orb, made porous to receive And drink the liquid light, firm to retain Her gather'd beams, great palace now of light. Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, And hence the morning planet gilds her horns; By tincture, or reflection, they augment
Their small peculiar, though from human sight So far remote, with diminution seen. First, in his east, the glorious lamp was seen, Regent of day, and all the horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocund to run His longitude through Heaven's high road; the gray Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd, Shedding sweet influence: less bright the moon, But opposite, in levell'd west was set, His mirror, with full face, borrowing her light From him; for other light she needed none, In that aspect, and still that distance keeps Till night; then in the east her turn she shines Revolved on Heaven's great axle, and her reign With thousand lesser lights dividual holds, With thousand thousand stars, that then appear'd Spangling the hemisphere: then, first adorn'd With their bright luminaries that set and rose, Glad evening & glad morn crown'd the fourth day. "And God said, 'Let the waters generate Reptile, with spawn abundant, living soul; And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings Display'd on the open firmament of Heaven.' And God created the great whales, and each Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously The waters generated by their kinds, And every bird of wing after his kind; And saw that it was good, & bless'd them, saying, 'Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas, And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill; And let the fowl be multiply'd, on the earth.' Forthwith the sounds seas, & each creek and bay, With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals Of fish, that with their fins and shining scales Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft Bank the mid-sea: part single, or with mate, Graze the sea-weed, their pasture, & through groves Of coral stray; or sporting, with quick glance Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold; Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend Moist nutriment; or under rocks, their food In jointed armour watch. On smooth the seal, And bended dolphins play: part, huge of bulk, Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, Tempest the ocean: there leviathan, Hugest of living creatures, on the deep, Stretch'd like a promontory, sleeps or swims,
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