The Blessed Birth-day celebrated in some religious meditations on the Angels Anthem. Lvc. 2. 14. Also holy transportations, in contemplating some of the most obserueable adiuncts about our Saviours Nativity. Extracted for the most part out of the Sacred Scriptures, Ancient Fathers, Christian Poets. And some moderne Approved Authors. By Charles Fitz-Geffry. The second Edition with Additions |
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 | The Blessed Birth-day |  |
Behold a sonne as ancient as his Father,
Being without beginning both together,
Twixt whom and him this difference is alone,
That he the Father is, and this the sonne:
The one begets, the other is begot,
Yet th'one in time from th'other differs not;
For both a coeternall being had,
Ere time or any other creature else was made.
God alway was a Father, and was never
Without his sonne, who with him was for ever:
Whom of himselfe and with himselfe co-equall
He did beget, and likewise co-eternall.
The sonne begotten naturall we know
But how begotten Nature cannot show
Yet that we might beleeue though not conceiue,
God would in Nature some expressions leaue.
So, of himselfe the glorious eye of heauen
Begets a beame which with himselfe is even
In time in being: for the beame begun
In the same instant with his sire, the Sunne:
So from the spring a springing streame doth flow:
Which in it is, and yet doth from it goe:
So yeelds the Incense a sweet smell, and this
Both of and with and in the Incense is:
So doth the pregnant Minde a Word beget
Twixt whom and it, time doth no distance set:
The Sunne, the spring, th'Incense, the Minde afford
At once the beame, the streame, the smell, the Word.
Could not the Father doe that in his Sonne,
Which in the creature we see daily done?
What they by him in time performe, could he
Not in himselfe doe from eternitie?
But this eternall Son-ship scornes compare,
Who can his generation declare?
Before thou canst thy makers ofspring shew
Presumptuous man, first learne thine owne to know:
But how the Father doth beget the Sonne
The Spirit from both proceeding knowes alone.
What Times-creator did ere time decree,
Beleeu'd it may, conceiu'd it cannot be.
Admire, adore this mystery profound,
And vnto Father, Sonne, and Spirit resound,
Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,
And let good will t'wards Christians never cease.
Being without beginning both together,
Twixt whom and him this difference is alone,
7
The one begets, the other is begot,
Yet th'one in time from th'other differs not;
For both a coeternall being had,
Ere time or any other creature else was made.
God alway was a Father, and was never
Without his sonne, who with him was for ever:
Whom of himselfe and with himselfe co-equall
He did beget, and likewise co-eternall.
The sonne begotten naturall we know
But how begotten Nature cannot show
Yet that we might beleeue though not conceiue,
God would in Nature some expressions leaue.
So, of himselfe the glorious eye of heauen
Begets a beame which with himselfe is even
In time in being: for the beame begun
In the same instant with his sire, the Sunne:
So from the spring a springing streame doth flow:
Which in it is, and yet doth from it goe:
So yeelds the Incense a sweet smell, and this
Both of and with and in the Incense is:
So doth the pregnant Minde a Word beget
Twixt whom and it, time doth no distance set:
The Sunne, the spring, th'Incense, the Minde afford
At once the beame, the streame, the smell, the Word.
8
Which in the creature we see daily done?
What they by him in time performe, could he
Not in himselfe doe from eternitie?
But this eternall Son-ship scornes compare,
Who can his generation declare?
Before thou canst thy makers ofspring shew
Presumptuous man, first learne thine owne to know:
But how the Father doth beget the Sonne
The Spirit from both proceeding knowes alone.
What Times-creator did ere time decree,
Beleeu'd it may, conceiu'd it cannot be.
Admire, adore this mystery profound,
And vnto Father, Sonne, and Spirit resound,
Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,
And let good will t'wards Christians never cease.
| The Blessed Birth-day | |