“Then shall thy ravisht soule inspired bee With heavenly thoughts, farre above humane skill, And thy bright radiant eyes shall plainely see Th’ Idee of his pure glorie present still, Before thy face, that all thy spirits shall fill With sweet enragement of celestiall love, Kindled through sight of those faire things above.” (ll. 284–290.) The “Hymne,” which celebrates the life of Christ on earth as a man among men, closes, as it had begun, with the mind in the presence of heavenly beauty. In Phineas Fletcher the term “idea” is not used, but the habit of thought is identical with that of Spenser’s. Christ is to be seen by the soul, not in his bodily form, but in his “first beautie” and “true majestie.” In the passage where these expressions occur Fletcher is showing the manner of the love we should bestow upon Christ for that which he has shown to us. He says that the only adequate return is to give back to Christ the love he has given to us. He then prays that Christ will inflame man with his glorious ray in order that he may rise above a love of earthly things into heaven. “So we beholding with immortall eye The glorious picture of Thy heav’nly face, In His first beautie and true Majestie, May shake from our dull souls these fetters base; And mounting up to that bright crystal sphere, Whence Thou strik’st all the world with shudd’ring fear, May not be held by earth, nor hold vile earth so deare.” (“The Purple Island,” VI. 75.) In Crashaw’s “In the Glorious Epiphanie of Our Lord God,” the elevation of the subject from a sensuous image into an object of pure contemplation is effected by conceiving Christ’s nature as that of true being according to the Platonic notion. The first image brought before the mind is that of the Christ child’s face. “Bright Babe! Whose awfull beautyes make The morn incurr a sweet mistake; For Whom the officious Heavns devise To disinheritt the sun’s rise: Delicately to displace The day, and plant it fairer in Thy face.” (ll. 1–5.) Soon, however, under this image of the face appears the hidden conception of Christ as true being unchanging and everywhere present. For Christ is addressed as “All-circling point! all-centring sphear! The World’s one, round, aeternall year: Whose full and all-unwrinkled face Nor sinks nor swells with time or place; But every where and every while Is one consistent, solid smile.” (ll. 26–31.)