Or as a ship transported with the tide, Which in their passage leave no print behind. Of which swift little time so much we spend, Ere we the principles of skill attain. [strain, Or God (who to vain ends hath nothing done) God never gave a pow'r to one whole kind, Most eyes have perfect sight, though some be blind; Most legs can nimbly run, though some be lame. But in this life, no soul the truth can know So perfectly, as it hath pow'r to do: If then perfection be not found below, An higher place must make her mount thereto. REASON II., Drawn from the motion of the soul. AGAIN, how can she but immortal be, When, with the motions of both will and wit, She still aspireth to eternity, And never rests, till she attain to it? Water in conduit-pipes can rise no higher Than the well-head, from whence it first doth spring: Then, since to eternal God she doth aspire, She cannot be but an eternal thing. "All moving things to other things do move, So earth falls down, and fire doth mount above, And as the moisture, which the thirsty earth And runs a lymph along the grassy plains: Long doth she stay, as loth to leave the land, Yet Nature so her streams doth lead and carry, Within whose watʼry bosom first she lay. E'en so the soul, which in this earthly mould * The soul compared to a river. At first her mother-earth she holdeth dear, And doth embrace the world, and worldly things; She flies close by the ground, and hovers here, And mounts not up with her celestial wings: Yet under Heav'n she cannot light on aught For who did ever yet, in honour, wealth, Or pleasure of the sense, contentment find? Who ever ceas'd to wish, when he had health? Or, having wisdom, was not vex'd in mind? Then as a bee which among weeds doth fall, Which seem sweet flow'rs, with lustre fresh and She lights on that, and this, and tasteth all; [gay; But, pleas'd with none, doth rise, and soar away : So, when the soul finds here no true content, And, like Noah's dove, can no sure footing take, She doth return from whence she first was sent, And flies to Him that first her wings did make. Wit, seeking truth, from cause to cause ascends, Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends; Now God the truth and first of causes is; God is the last good end, which lasteth still; Since then her heavenly kind she doth display, And on no mortal thing can make her stay, And yet this first true cause, and last good end, As a king's daughter, being in person sought Yet she can love a foreign emperor, Whom of great worth and pow'r she hears to be, If she be woo'd but by ambassador, Or but his letters or his pictures see: For well she knows, that when she shall be brought Into the kingdom where her spouse doth reign; Her eyes shall see what she conceiv'd in thought, Himself, his state, his glory, and his train. So while the virgin soul on Earth doth stay, She woo'd and tempted in ten thousand ways, By these great pow'rs, which on the Earth bear sway; The wisdom of the world, wealth, pleasure, praise: With these sometimes she doth her time beguile, But she distastes them all within awhile, But if upon the world's Almighty King, She once doth fix her humble loving thought, Who by his picture drawn in ev'ry thing, And sacred messages, her love hath sought; Of him she thinks she cannot think too much; But when in Heav'n she shall his essence see, This is her sov'reign good, and perfect bliss; Her longing, wishings, hopes, all finish'd be; Her joys are full, her motions rest in this: There is she crown'd with garlands of content; REASON III. From contempt of death in the better sort of spirits. For this, the better souls do oft despise But if the body's death the soul should kill, |