Methinks I see a sight most excellent,
All sorts of birds fly in the firmament:
Some great, some small, all of a divers kind,
Mine eye affecting, pleasant to my mind.
Look how they tumble in the wholesome air,
Above the world of worldlings, and their care.
And as they divers are in bulk and hue,
So are they in their way of flying too.
So many birds, so many various things
Tumbling i’ the element upon their wings.
Comparison
These birds are emblems of those men that shall
Ere long possess the heavens, their all in all.
They are each of a diverse shape and kind,
To teach we of all nations there shall find.
They are some great, some little, as we see,
To show some great, some small, in glory be.17
Their flying diversely, as we behold,
Do show saints’ joys will there be manifold;
Some glide, some mount, some flutter, and some do,
In a mix’d way of flying, glory too.
And all to show each saint, to his content,
Shall roll and tumble in that firmament.
17 This is a scriptural idea of the inhabitants of heaven. Revelation 11:8, saints ‘small and great.’ Matthew 19:28: ‘The Son of man on his throne, and the twelve apostles on their thrones.’ Revelation 4:10: ‘Four and twenty elders on their thrones.’ Revelation 5:11: ‘An innumerable company of worshippers.’—Ed.
Bunyan, J. (2006). A Book for Boys and Girls (Vol. 3, p. 750). Logos Bible Software. (Public Domain)
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