Yet being pregnant still with powerful grace,
And full of fruitful love, that loves to get
Things like Himself, and to enlarge His race,
His second brood, though not of power so great,
Yet full of beauty, next He did beget,
An infinite increase of Angels bright
All glistring glorious in their Maker's light.
To them the heavens' illimitable night
(Not this round heaven, which we from hence behold, Adorn'd with thousand lamps of burning light, And with ten thousand gems of shining gold,)
He gave as their inheritance to hold,
That they might serve Him in eternal bliss,
And be partakers of those joys of His.
There they in their trinal triplicities
About Him wait, and on His will depend,
Either with nimble wings to cut the skies,
When He them on His messages doth send,
Or on His own dread presence to attend,
Where they behold the glory of His light,
And carol hymns of love both day and night.
Both day and night is unto them all one;
For He His beams doth unto them extend,
That darkness there appeareth never none;
Ne hath their day, ne hath their bliss, an end,
But there their termless time in pleasure spend ;
Nor ever should their happiness decay,
Had they not dared their Lord to disobey.
But pride, impatient of long resting peace,
Did puff them up with greedy bold ambition,
That they 'gan cast their state how to increase
Above the fortune of their first condition,
And sit in God's own seat without commission;
The brightest Angel, even the child of light,
Drew millions more against their God to fight.
Th' Almighty, seeing their so bold assay,
Kindled the flame of His consuming ire
And with His only breath them blew away
From heaven's height, to which they did aspire,
To deepest hell, and lake of damned fire,
Where they in darkness and dread horror dwell,
Hating the happy light from which they fell.
So that next offspring of the Maker's love,
Next to Himself in glorious degree,
Degenering to hate, fell from above
Through pride (for pride and love may ill agree)
And now of sin to all ensample be:
How then can sinful flesh itself assure,
Sith purest angels fell to be impure?
But that Eternal Fount of love and grace,
Still flowing forth His goodness unto all,
Now seeing left a waste and empty place
In His wide palace, through those angels' fall,
Cast to supply the same, and to enstall
A new unknowen colony therein,
Whose root from earth's base groundwork should begin.
Therefore of clay, base, vile, and next to nought,
Yet form'd by wondrous skill, and, by His might,
According to a heavenly pattern wrought,
Which He had fashion'd in His wise foresight,
He man did make, and breathed a living spright
Into his face, most beautiful and fair,
Endued with wisdom's riches, heavenly rare.
Such He him made, that he resemble might
Himself, as mortal thing immortal could:
Him to be lord of every living wight
He made by love out of His own like mould,
In whom He might His mighty self behold;
For love doth love the thing beloved to see,
That like itself in lovely shape may be.
But man, forgetful of his Maker's grace
No less than angels, whom he did ensue,1
Fell from the hope of promised heavenly place
Into the mouth of Death, to sinners due,
And all his offspring into thraldom threw
Where they for ever should in bonds remain,
Of never dead yet ever-dying pain.
Till that great Lord of Love, which him at first
Made of mere love and after liked well,
Seeing him lie like creature long accurst
In that deep horror of despaired hell,
Him, wretch, in dole, would let no longer dwell,
But cast out of that bondage to redeem
And pay the price, all were his debt extreme.
Out of the bosom of eternal bliss
In which He reigned with His glorious Sire
He down descended, like a most demisse
And abject thrall, in flesh's frail attire
That He for him might pay sin's deadly hire,
And him restore unto that happy state
In which he stood before his hapless fate.
In flesh at first the guilt committed was,
Therefore in flesh it must be satisfied;
Nor spirit, nor angel, though they man surpass,
Could make amends to God for man's misguide,
But only man himself, whose self did slide:
So taking flesh of sacred Virgin's womb,
For man's dear sake He did a man become.
And that most blessed body, which was born
Without all blemish or reproachful blame,
He freely gave to be both rent and torn
Of cruel hands, who with despightful shame
Reviling Him, that them most vile became,
At length Him nailed on a gallow-tree,
And slew the just by most unjust decree.
O blessed Well of Love! O Flower of Grace!
O Lamp of Light!
O glorious Morning Star!
Most lively image of Thy Father's face,
Eternal King of Glory, Lord of Might,
Meek Lamb of God, before all worlds behight,2
How can we Thee requite for all this good?
Or what can prize that Thy most precious blood?
Yet nought Thou ask'st in lieu of all this love,
But love of us for guerdon of Thy pain;
Ay me! What can us less than that behove?
Had He required life of us again,
Had it been wrong to ask His own with gain?
He gave us life, He it restored lost,
Then life were least, that us so little cost.
But He our life hath left unto us free,
Free that was thrall, and blessed that was bann'd; 3
Ne ought demands but that we loving be,
As He Himself hath loved us aforehand,
And bound thereto with an eternal band,
Him first to love that was so dearly bought,
And next our brethren, to His image wrought.
Him first to love great right and reason is,
Who first to us our life and being gave,
And after, when we farèd had amiss,
Us wretches from the second death did save;
And last, the food of life, which now we have,
Even He Himself, in His dear Sacrament,
To feed our hungry souls, unto us lent.
Then next, to love our brethren that were made
Of that self mould, and that self Maker's hand,
That we, and to the same again shall fade,
Where they shall have like heritage of land,
However here on higher steps we stand,
Which also were with self-same price redeemed,
That we, however of us light esteemed.
And were they not, yet sith that loving Lord
Commanded us to love them for His sake,
Even for His sake, and for His sacred word
Which in His last behest He to us spake,
We should them love, and with their needs partake,
Knowing that whatsoe'er to them we give,
We give to Him by whom we all do live.
Such mercy He by His most holy reed 4
Unto us taught, and, to approve it true,
Ensampled it by His most righteous deed,
Showing us mercy (miserable crew!)
That we the like should to the wretches shew,
And love our brethren, thereby to approve
How much Himself that loved us we love.
Then rouse thyself, O earth! out of thy soil
In which thou wallowest like to filthy swine,
And dost thy mind in dirty pleasures moil,
Unmindful of that dearest Lord of thine;
Lift up to Him thy heavy-clouded eyne
That thou this sovreign bounty maist behold,
And read through love His mercies manifold.
Begin from first where He encradled was
On simple cratch, wrapt in a wad of hay,
Between the toilful ox and humble ass,
And in what rags, and in how base array,
The glory of our heavenly riches lay,
When Him the silly shepherds came to see,
Whom greatest princes sought on lowest knee.
From thence read on the story of His life,
His humble carriage, His unfaulty ways,
His canker'd foes, His fights, His toils, His strife,
His pains, His poverty, His sharp assays,
Through which He passed His miserable days,
Offending none, and doing good to all,
Yet being malic'd both of great and small.
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