Goodness

The bliss of other men is my delight,(When once my principles are right:)And every soul which mine doth seeA treasury.The face of God is goodness unto all,And while He thousands to His throne doth call,While millions bathe in pleasures,And do behold His treasures,The joys of allOn mine do fall,And even my infinity doth seemA drop without them of a mean esteem.

The light which on ten thousand faces shines,The beams which crown ten thousand vinesWith glory, and delight, appearAs if they wereReflected only from them all for me,That I a greater beauty there might see.Thus stars do beautifyThe azure canopy:Gilded with rays,Ten thousand waysThey serve me, while the sun that on them shinesAdorns those stars and crowns those bleeding vines.

Where goodness is within, the soul doth reign.Goodness the only Sovereign!Goodness delights alone to seeFelicity.And while the Image of His goodness livesIn me, whatever He to any givesIs my delight and endsIn me, in all my friends:For goodness isThe spring of bliss,And 'tis the end of all it gives awayAnd all it gives it ever doth enjoy.

His goodness! Lord, it is His highest glory!The very grace of all His story!What other thing can me delightBut the blest sightOf His eternal goodness? While His love,His burning love the bliss of all doth prove,While it beyond the endsOf Heaven and Earth extends,And multipliesAbove the skies,His glory, love, and goodness in my sightIs for my pleasure made more infinite.

The soft and swelling grapes that on their vinesReceive the lively warmth that shinesUpon them, ripen there for me:Or drink they be,Or meat. The stars salute my pleased senseWith a derived and borrowed influence:But better vines do grow,Far better wines do flowAbove, and whileThe Sun doth smileUpon the lilies there, and all things warm,Their pleasant odours do my spirit charm.

Their rich affections me like precious seasOf nectar and ambrosia please.Their eyes are stars, or more divineAnd brighter shine:Their lips are soft and swelling grapes, their tonguesA quire of blessed and harmonious songs.Their bosoms fraught with loveAre Heavens all Heavens above;And being Images of God they areThe highest joys His goodness did prepare.

In making bodies Love could not expressItself, or art; unless it made them less.O what a monster had in man been seen,Had every thumb or toe a mountain been!What worlds must he devour when he did eat?What oceans drink? Yet could not all his meat,Or stature, make him like an Angel shine;Or make his soul in glory more divine.A soul it is that makes us truly great,Whose little bodies make us more complete.An Understanding that is Infinite,An endless, wide, and everlasting sight,That can enjoy all things and nought exclude,Is the most sacred greatness may be viewed.'Twas inconvenient that his bulk should beAn endless hill; he nothing then could see:No figure have, no motion, beauty, place,No colour, feature, member, light, or grace:A body like a mountain is but cumber,An endless body is but idle lumber,It spoils converse, and Time itself devours,While meat in vain in feeding idle powers,Excessive bulk being most injurious found,To those conveniences which men have crown'd.His wisdom did His power here repress,God made man greater while He made him less.

His power bounded, greater is in might,Than if let loose 'twere wholly infinite.He could have made an endless Sea by this,But then it had not been a Sea of Bliss.Did water from the centre to the skiesAscend, 'twould drown whatever else we prize.The Ocean bounded in a finite shore,Is better far because it is no more,No use nor glory would in that be seen,His power made it endless in esteem.Had not the sun been bounded in its sphere,Did all the world in one fair flame appear,And were that flame a real infinite,'Twould yield no profit, splendour, nor delight.Its corps confined and beams extended beEffects of wisdom in the Deity.One star made infinite would all exclude,An earth made infinite could ne'er be viewed.But one being fashioned for the other's sake,He bounding all, did all most useful make:And which is best, in profit and delight,Tho' not in bulk, they all are infinite.