Silence (Excerpt)
…….
An unperceived donor gave all pleasures;
There nothing was but I, and all my treasures.
In that fair world, One only was the friend,
One golden stream, one spring, one only end.
There only one did sacrifice and sing
To only one eternal heavenly King.
The union was so strait between these two,
That all was either’s which my soul could view;
His gifts and my possessions, both our treasures;
He mine, and I the ocean of his pleasures.
He was an ocean of delights from whom
The living springs and golden streams did come:
My bosom was an ocean into which
They all did run. And me they did enrich
A vast and infinite capacity
Did make my bosom like the Deity,
In whose mysterious and celestial mind
All ages and all worlds together shined.
Who tho’ He nothing said did always reign
And in Himself eternity contain.
The world was more in me than I in it.
The King of Glory in my soul did sit.
And to Himself in me He always gave
All that He takes delight to me me have.
For so my spirit was an endless sphere,
Like God Himself, and heaven and earth was there.
