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Though I uncircumscrib'd myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness which is free
To act or not, necessity and chance
Approach not me, and what I will is fate.
So spake th' Almighty, and to what he spake
His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without procéss of speech be told,
So told as carthly notion can receive.

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Great triumph and rejoicing was in Heaven,

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When such was heard declar'd the Almighty's will;

Glory they sung to the most High, good-will

To future men, and in their dwellings peace:

Glory to him, whose just avenging ire

Had driven out the ungodly from his sight

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And th' habitations of the just; to him

Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create, instead

Of Spirits malign a better race to bring

Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse

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His good to worlds and ages infinite.

So sang the Hierarchies: Meanwhile the Son
On his great expedition now appear'd,

Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of majesty divine; sapience and love

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Immense, and all his Father in him shone.

About his chariot numberless were pour'd

Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,
And Virtues, winged Spi'rits, and chariots wing'd

From th' armoury of God, where stand of old
Myriads between two brazen mountains lodg’d
Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now came forth

Spontaneous, for within them Spirit liv'd,
Attendant on their Lord: Heav'n open'd wide
Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound

On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.

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On heav'nly ground they stood, and from the shore
They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains, to assault
Heav'n's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
SILENCE, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then th' omnific Word, your discord end:
Nor stay'd, but on the wings of Cherubim

Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

Far into chaos, and the world unborn;

For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train

Follow'd in bright procession to behold

Creation, and the wonders of his might.

Then stay'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepar'd

In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure,

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And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just circumference, O world.
Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss: but on the wat'ry calm

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His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 235
And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Disparted, and between spun out the air,
And Earth self-balanc'd on her centre hung.

LET there be light, said God, and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure
Sprung from the deep, and from her native cast
To journey through the airy gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle

Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere

Divided light the day, and darkness night
He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

By the celestial quires, when orient light

Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;

Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,

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And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd

God and his works, Creator him they sung,

Both when first evening was, and when first morn.

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Of this great round: partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above

Dividing for as earth, so he the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule

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Of Chaos far remov'd, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:
And Heav'n he nam'd the firmament: So even
And morning chorus sung the second day.

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THE earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet

Of waters, embryon immature involv'd,

Appear'd not over all the face of earth

Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm

Prolific humour soft'ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,

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Satiate with genial moisture, when God said,
Be gather'd now ye waters under Heaven
Into one place, and let dry land appear.
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky:

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So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'd

As drops on dust conglobing from the dry;
Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,

For haste; such flight the great command impress'd

On the swift floods: as armies at the call

Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard, so the watʼry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where wave they found,
If steep, with torrent rapture, if through plain,
Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill,
But they or under ground, or circuit wide
With serpent error wand'ring, found their way,
And on the washy ooze deep channels wore ;
Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
All but within those banks, where rivers now
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters he call'd seas:

And saw that it was good, and said, Let th' earth
Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed,
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,
Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.

He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd,

Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad
Her universal face with pleasant green,

Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd

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