VII.

Hail, our alone hope! let thy fair head shoot Aloft, and fill the nations with thy noble fruit: The while our hearts and we Thus graft our selues on thee, 40 Grow thou and they. And be thy fair increase The sinner's pardon and the iust man's peace.

Liue, O for euer liue and reign The Lamb Whom His own loue hath slain! And let Thy lost sheep liue to inherit 45 That kingdom which this Crosse did merit. Amen.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

These variations &c. as between 1648 and 1652, deserve record:

St. i. line 1. 'Languishing,' which is the reading in 1648.

Ib. line 2. Here, and in v. line 1, I have added 'e' to 'badg' and 'larg' respectively from 1648.

St. vi. line 2. Our text (1652) corrects a manifest blunder of 1648, which reads 'wag'd' for 'way'd' = weighed. In 1648, lines 3-4 read

'Both with one price were weighed, Both with one price were paid.'

St. vii. appeared for the first time in our text (1652). In the closing four lines, line 4, 1648, reads noticeably

'That Kingdome which Thy blessed death did merit.'

The allusion in st. iv. is to the old reading of Psalm xcvi. 10: 'Tell it among the heathen that the Lord reigneth from _the tree_.' The reference to Solomon points to the mediaeval mystical interpretations of Canticles iii. 9-10.

I place 'Vexilla Regis' immediately after the 'Office of the Holy Crosse,' as really belonging to it, and not to be separated as in 1648. G.

[THE LORD SILENCES HIS QUESTIONERS.][29]

'Neither durst any man from that day aske Him any more questions.'

_St. Matthew_ xxii.

Mid'st all the darke and knotty snares, 1 Black wit or malice can, or dares, Thy glorious wisedome breaks the nets, And treds with uncontrouled steps; Thy quell'd foes are not onely now 5 Thy triumphs, but Thy trophies too: They both at once Thy conquests bee, And Thy conquests' memorie. Stony amazement makes them stand Wayting on Thy victorious hand, 10 Like statues fixed to the fame Of Thy renoune, and their own shame, As if they onely meant to breath To be the life of their own death. 'Twas time to hold their peace, when they 15 Had ne're another word to say; Yet is their silence unto Thee, The full sound of Thy victorie; Their silence speaks aloud, and is Thy well pronounc'd panegyris. 20 While they speak nothing, they speak all Their share, in Thy memoriall. While they speake nothing, they proclame Thee, with the shrillest trump of Fame. To hold their peace is all the wayes 25 These wretches have to speak Thy praise.

OUR B[LESSED] LORD IN HIS CIRCUMCISION TO HIS FATHER.[30]

1. To Thee these first-fruits of My growing death 1 (For what else is My life?), lo! I bequeath:

2. Tast this, and as Thou lik'st this lesser flood Expect a sea; My heart shall make it good.

3. Thy wrath that wades here now, e're long shall swim, 5 The floodgate shall be set wide ope for Him.

4. Then let Him drinke, and drinke, and doe His worst To drowne the wantonnesse of His wild thirst.

5. Now's but the nonage of My paines, My feares Are yett but hopes, weake as my infant yeares. 10

6. The day of My darke woe is yet but morne, My teares but tender, and My death new-borne.

7. Yet may these unfledg'd griefes give fate some guesse, These cradle-torments have their towardnesse.

8. These purple buds of blooming death may bee, 15 Erst the full stature of a fatall tree.

9. And till My riper woes to age are come, This knife may be the speare's praeludium.

ON THE WOUNDS OF OUR CRUCIFIED LORD.[31]

O, these wakefull wounds of Thine! 1 Are they mouthes? or are they eyes? Be they mouthes, or be they eyne, Each bleeding part some one supplies.

Lo! a mouth! whose full-bloom'd lips 5 At too dear a rate are roses: Lo! a blood-shot eye! that weeps, And many a cruell teare discloses.

O, thou that on this foot hast laid Many a kisse, and many a teare; 10 Now thou shalt have all repaid, What soe're thy charges were.

This foot hath got a mouth and lips To pay the sweet summe of thy kisses; To pay thy teares, an eye that weeps, 15 Instead of teares, such gems as this is.

The difference onely this appeares, (Nor can the change offend) The debt is paid in ruby-teares Which thou in pearles did'st lend. 20

VPON THE BLEEDING CRUCIFIX: A SONG.[32]

IIESU, no more! It is full tide: From Thy head and from Thy feet, From Thy hands and from Thy side All the purple riuers meet.

What need Thy fair head bear a part In showres, as if Thine eyes had none? What need they help to drown Thy heart, That striues in torrents of it's own?

Water'd by the showres they bring, The thornes that Thy blest browe encloses (A cruell and a costly spring) Conceiue proud hopes of proving roses.

Thy restlesse feet now cannot goe For vs and our eternall good, As they were euer wont. What though? They swimme, alas! in their own floud.

Thy hand to giue Thou canst not lift; Yet will Thy hand still giuing be. It giues, but O itself's the gift: It giues though bound; though bound 'tis free.

But O Thy side, Thy deep-digg'd side! That hath a double Nilus going: Nor euer was the Pharian tide Half so fruitfull, half so flowing.

No hair so small, but payes his riuer To this Red Sea of Thy blood; Their little channells can deliuer Somthing to the generall floud.

But while I speak, whither are run All the riuers nam'd before? I counted wrong: there is but one; But O that one is one all ore.

Rain-swoln riuers may rise proud, Bent all to drown and overflow; But when indeed all's ouerflow'd, They themselues are drowned too.