The Preparative

My body being dead, my limbs unknown;Before I skill'd to prizeThose living stars mine eyes,Before my tongue or cheeks were to me shown,Before I knew my hands were mine,Or that my sinews did my members join,When neither nostril, foot nor earAs yet was seen, or felt, or did appear:I was withinA house I knew not, newly cloth'd with skin.

Then was my soul my only all to me,A living endless eye,Just bounded with the sky.Whose power, whose act, whose essence, was to see:I was an inward Sphere of Light,Or an interminable Orb of Sight,An endless and a living day,A vital Sun that round about did rayAll life, all sense,A naked simple pure Intelligence.

I then no thirst nor hunger did perceive,No dull necessity,No want was known to me;Without disturbance then I did receiveThe fair ideas of all things,And had the honey even without the stings.A meditating inward eyeGazing at quiet did within me lie,And every thingDelighted me that was their heavenly King.

For sight inherits beauty, hearing sounds,The nostril sweet perfumes,All tastes have hidden roomsWithin the tongue; and feeling woundsWith pleasure and delight; but IForgot the rest, and was all sight or eye:Unbodied and devoid of care,Just as in Heaven the holy Angels are,For simple senseIs Lord of all created excellence.

Being thus prepared for all felicity,Not prepossest with dross,Nor stiffly glued to grossAnd dull materials that might ruin me,Nor fettered by an iron fateWith vain affections in my earthly stateTo any thing that might seduceMy sense, or else bereave it of its use,I was as freeAs if there were nor sin, nor misery.

Pure empty powers that did nothing loath,Did like the fairest glass,Or spotless polished brass,Themselves soon in their object's image clothe.Divine impressions when they cameDid quickly enter and my soul inflame.'Tis not the object, but the lightThat maketh Heaven: 'tis a purer sight.FelicityAppears to none but them that purely see.

A disentangled and a naked sense,A mind that's unpossest,A disengaged breast,An empty and a quick intelligenceAcquainted with the golden mean,An even spirit pure and serene,Is that where beauty, excellence,And pleasure keep their Court of Residence.My soul retire,Get free, and so thou shalt even all admire.