And what than this can be more plain and clear? What truth than this more evident appear? The Godhead cannot prize The sun at all, nor yet the skies, Or air, or earth, or trees, or seas, Or stars, unless the soul of man they please. He neither sees with human eyes, Nor needs Himself seas, skies, Or earth, or any thing: He draws No breath, nor eats or drinks by Nature's laws. VI The joy and pleasure which His soul doth take In all His works is for His creatures' sake. So great a certainty We in this holy doctrine see That there could be no worth at all In any thing material, great, or small, Were not some creature more alive, Whence it might worth derive. God is the spring whence things come forth, Souls are the fountains of their real worth. VII The joy and pleasure which His soul doth take In all His works is for His creatures' sake. Yet doth He take delight That's altogether infinite In them even as they from Him come, For such His love and goodness is, the sum Of all His happiness doth seem, At least in His esteem, In that delight and joy to lie Which is His blessed creatures' melody. VIII In them He sees, and feels, and smells, and lives, In them affected is to whom He gives: In them ten thousand ways, He all His work again enjoys All things from Him to Him proceed By them: are His in them: as if indeed His Godhead did itself exceed. To them He all conveys; Nay, even Himself! He is the End To whom in them Himself, and all things tend. THE ANTICIPATION I My contemplation dazzles in the End Of all I comprehend, And soars above all heights, Diving into the depths of all delights. Can He become the End, To whom all creatures tend, Who is the Father of all Infinites? Then may He benefit receive from things, And be not Parent only of all springs. II The End doth want the means, and is the cause, Whose sake, by Nature's laws, Is that for which they are. Such sands, such dangerous rocks we must beware: From all Eternity A perfect Deity Most great and blessed he doth still appear; His essence perfect was in all its features, He ever blessed in His joys and creatures. III From everlasting He those joys did need, And all those joys proceed From Him eternally. From everlasting His felicity Complete and perfect was, Whose bosom is the glass, Wherein we all things everlasting see. His name is Now, His Nature is Forever: None can His creatures from their Maker sever. IV