When _Ganymed_, himselfe was purifying, Great _Iupiter_, his naked beauty spying, Sent forth his _Ægle_ (from below to take him) A blest Inhabitant, in Heav’n to make him: And, there (as Poets feigned) he doth still, To _Iove_, and other _God-heads_, Nectar fill. Though this be but a _Fable_, of their feigning, The _Morall_ is a _Reall truth_, pertayning To ev’ry one (which harbours a desire Above the Starry _Circles_, to aspire.) By _Ganymed_, the _Soule_ is understood, That’s washed in the _Purifying flood_ Of sacred _Baptisme_ (which doth make her seeme Both pure and beautifull, in _God’s_ esteeme.) The _Ægle_, meanes that Heav’nly _Contemplation_, Which, after Washings of _Regeneration_, Lifts up the _Minde_, from things that earthly bee, To view those _Objects_, which _Faith’s_ Eyes doe see. The _Nectar_, which is filled out, and given To all the blest _Inhabitants of Heaven_, Are those _Delights_, which (_Christ_ hath sayd) they have, When some _Repentant-soule_ beginnes to leave Her foulnesse; by renewing of her _birth_, And, slighting all the _Pleasures_ of the Earth. I aske not, _Lord_, those Blessings to receive, Which any Man hath pow’r to take, or give; Nor, what this World affords; for, I contemne Her Favours; and have seene the best of them: Nay, _Heav’n_ it selfe, will unsufficient bee, Vnlesse, _Thou_, also, give _Thy selfe_, to mee. _Through many spaces, =Time= doth run, And, =endeth=, where it first =begun=._ [Illustration: IN SE SUA PER UESTIGIA UOLUITUR. ILLVSTR. XXIII. _Book. 3_]