The Preface

Infinity, when all things it beheldIn nothing, and of nothing all did build,Upon what base was fixed the lath whereinHe turned this globe, and riggalled it so trim?Who blew the bellows of His furnace vast?Or held the mold wherein the world was cast?Who laid its corner stone? Or whose command?Where stand the pillars upon which it stands?Who laced and filleted the earth so fine,With rivers like green ribbons smaragdine?Who made the seas its selvage, and it locksLike a quilt ball within a silver box?Who spread its canopy? Or curtains spun?Who in this bowling alley bowled the sun?Who made it always when it rises setTo go at once both down, and up to get?Who th? curtain rods made for this tapestry?Who hung the twinkling lanterns in the sky?Who? who did this? or who is He? Why, knowIt?s only Might Almighty this did do.His hand hath made this noble work which standsHis glorious handiwork not made by hands.Who spake all things from nothing; and with easeCan speak all things to nothing, if He please.Whose little finger at His pleasure canOut mete ten thousand worlds with half a span:Whose might almighty can by half a looksRoot up the rocks and rock the hills by the roots.Can take this mighty world up in His hand,And shake it like a squitchen or a wand.Whose single frown will make heavens shakeLike as an aspen leaf the wind makes quake.Oh! What a might is this whose single frownDoth shake the world as it would shake it down?Which all from nothing fet, from nothing, all:Hath all on nothing set, lets nothing fall.Gave all to nothing man indeed, wherebyThrough nothing man all might Him glorify.In nothing then embossed the brightest gemMore precious than all preciousness in them.But nothing man did throw down all by sin:And darkened that lightsome gem in him.That now his brightest diamond is grownDarker by far than any coalpit stone.

c.1685

ll. 1-2: Notice the pattern ¡§all ¡V nothing ¡V nothing ¡V all¡¨, introduced here, which will be repeated at various points throughout the poem to express the inexpressible power of God.

l. 4: riggalled; formed, grooved

l. 9: filleted; decorated

l. 10; smaragdine; green, the color of emerald

l. 11: selvage; a woven hem which prevents a fabric from unravelling locks; looks

l. 26: mete; measure

l. 30: squitchen; switch

l. 35: fet; made