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 |  |
Eternity an infant is become.
The strength of Israel weake, the word is dumb:
He whom the heauen of heauens cannot containe
In narrow bowels doth impent remaine.
Borne is he in a base vnworthy stall,
Who Vs advanceth to Heauens glorious Hall:
He who doth all things fill, fils not a Cratch,
Heaven vnto Earth, God vnto man doth match.
He who doth silly man like Angels make
An homely lodging with poore beasts doth take,
The Worlds Creator and Commander great
An Inne for loue or mony cannot get:
But from fit lodging they doe him expell,
Who with a word can lodge them all in Hell:
He cries to whom all hearts for helpe doe call,
He cannot helpe himselfe who helpeth all:
Even he from whom th'Angels their knowledge learne
His right hand from his left cannot discerne.
Who all things by his word vpholds, even he
By womans feeble hand vpheld must be
For feare of falling. And th'Almighty one,
Without his Creature cannot stand alone.
The way as yet the way to none can show,
The truth not yet can truth from falshood know,
Th'immortall putteth on mortality,
The everlasting life begins to die,
That by his death, he may that debt defray
Which man did owe, but none saue God could pay:
The soules Physitian is to death giuen over,
That so the sin-sicke patient may recover:
A desp'rate cure for despr'ate malady
The head must off, or the whole body dye.
Who is mans head but God? But ô how can
God dy? God may if he become a man;
God is become a man subiect to death:
A subiect which the Conquerour conquereth:
Because the children were of flesh compos'd,
Their Father would be in that flesh inclos'd:
That so by death he might orecome that evill,
Which had the power of Death, that is, the Devill.
The Angels nature he refus'd to take,
But man of Abrahams seed himselfe would make:
That in our Nature, he might him subdue
Who first our feeble nature over-threw:
That man on Satan might avenge mans wrong,
And them redeeme, whom he held captiue long:
For greater is the glory and the merit,
When feeble flesh orecomes a potent spirit.
The strength of Israel weake, the word is dumb:
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In narrow bowels doth impent remaine.
Borne is he in a base vnworthy stall,
Who Vs advanceth to Heauens glorious Hall:
He who doth all things fill, fils not a Cratch,
Heaven vnto Earth, God vnto man doth match.
He who doth silly man like Angels make
An homely lodging with poore beasts doth take,
The Worlds Creator and Commander great
An Inne for loue or mony cannot get:
But from fit lodging they doe him expell,
Who with a word can lodge them all in Hell:
He cries to whom all hearts for helpe doe call,
He cannot helpe himselfe who helpeth all:
Even he from whom th'Angels their knowledge learne
His right hand from his left cannot discerne.
Who all things by his word vpholds, even he
By womans feeble hand vpheld must be
For feare of falling. And th'Almighty one,
Without his Creature cannot stand alone.
The way as yet the way to none can show,
The truth not yet can truth from falshood know,
Th'immortall putteth on mortality,
The everlasting life begins to die,
That by his death, he may that debt defray
Which man did owe, but none saue God could pay:
The soules Physitian is to death giuen over,
That so the sin-sicke patient may recover:
A desp'rate cure for despr'ate malady
The head must off, or the whole body dye.
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God dy? God may if he become a man;
God is become a man subiect to death:
A subiect which the Conquerour conquereth:
Because the children were of flesh compos'd,
Their Father would be in that flesh inclos'd:
That so by death he might orecome that evill,
Which had the power of Death, that is, the Devill.
The Angels nature he refus'd to take,
But man of Abrahams seed himselfe would make:
That in our Nature, he might him subdue
Who first our feeble nature over-threw:
That man on Satan might avenge mans wrong,
And them redeeme, whom he held captiue long:
For greater is the glory and the merit,
When feeble flesh orecomes a potent spirit.
God is become a man. The joyfulst newes
That ever was or shall be, yet ensues:
No alteration neither diminution,
No losse no mixture here, much lesse confusion.
Becomming what he was not, he remaines
That which he ever was. Though man-hood gaines,
The God-head looseth not. To me he giues
Himselfe, and yet his owne he ever liues:
That which he was he is, yet once was not
That which he is. A nature he hath got
More then he had, and yet he still retaines
That which he had: And hauing both, remaines
But one: And though he take one nature more
Yet is he still one Person as before.
God he was still, not man vntill this tide,
Hence forth both God and man he doth abide.
A time there was when man he was not showne
But when he was not God, no time was knowne:
God before time, and in times fulnesse Christ,
Remaineth still, the greatest and the high'st.
The word made flesh the word remaineth still,
Nor is it emptied, though the flesh it fill.
Nor doth he of his highnesse ought abate,
Though humbly he descend to our estate:
But stooping to advance vs, who before
Were low, himselfe is nothing yet the lower:
And though for men, made sonne of man he be,
Yet still the Sonne of God remaineth he.
Two sundry waies indeed he is a Sonne,
As God, as man, yet not two sonnes but one.
That ever was or shall be, yet ensues:
No alteration neither diminution,
No losse no mixture here, much lesse confusion.
Becomming what he was not, he remaines
That which he ever was. Though man-hood gaines,
The God-head looseth not. To me he giues
Himselfe, and yet his owne he ever liues:
That which he was he is, yet once was not
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More then he had, and yet he still retaines
That which he had: And hauing both, remaines
But one: And though he take one nature more
Yet is he still one Person as before.
God he was still, not man vntill this tide,
Hence forth both God and man he doth abide.
A time there was when man he was not showne
But when he was not God, no time was knowne:
God before time, and in times fulnesse Christ,
Remaineth still, the greatest and the high'st.
The word made flesh the word remaineth still,
Nor is it emptied, though the flesh it fill.
Nor doth he of his highnesse ought abate,
Though humbly he descend to our estate:
But stooping to advance vs, who before
Were low, himselfe is nothing yet the lower:
And though for men, made sonne of man he be,
Yet still the Sonne of God remaineth he.
Two sundry waies indeed he is a Sonne,
As God, as man, yet not two sonnes but one.
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One way the Sonne of God, Sonne of his Mother
An other way, both waies one, not another.
The God-head so the man-hood doth possesse
That for the man God nothing is the lesse,
Neither by taking ours encreas'd he is,
Nor yet impaired by imparting his:
But by a way vnto himselfe best knowne
So takes he ours, as not forsakes his owne.
His glory not cast off, but laid aside,
To earth he comes, yet doth in heauen abide.
Even so some Prince or Lord of great repute
Laies by his owne, puts on a Servants sute,
Who, though a servants habit him invest,
Yet is not of his honour dispossest.
An other way, both waies one, not another.
The God-head so the man-hood doth possesse
That for the man God nothing is the lesse,
Neither by taking ours encreas'd he is,
Nor yet impaired by imparting his:
But by a way vnto himselfe best knowne
So takes he ours, as not forsakes his owne.
His glory not cast off, but laid aside,
To earth he comes, yet doth in heauen abide.
Even so some Prince or Lord of great repute
Laies by his owne, puts on a Servants sute,
Who, though a servants habit him invest,
Yet is not of his honour dispossest.
That golden eye which gilds the world with day,
Reaching to earth yet still in heauen doth stay.
So doth the sonne of God to vs arriue,
On earth, and yet with God in heauen doth liue.
And as my speach arriueth vnto thee,
Whose eare receiues it yet remaines with me,
So did the Fathers word to me attaine
And with the Father vnremou'd remaine.
Or as mine arme extended doth abide,
With joints and sinnewes to my shoulder tide,
So reach't the Lord his Arme to me in loue
Yet from himselfe he did it not remoue.
Which though he did both reach forth and retaine,
Though he loose nothing while I him doe gaine,
And in him all things, yet how could there be
More lowlinesse in him, more loue in me?
What honour should we yeeld to him who thus
Was pleas'd t'embase himselfe to honour vs?
Can we doe lesse then in our best tun'd layes
With holy Angels sing vnto his praise:
Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,
And let goodwill t'wards Christians never cease.
Reaching to earth yet still in heauen doth stay.
So doth the sonne of God to vs arriue,
On earth, and yet with God in heauen doth liue.
And as my speach arriueth vnto thee,
Whose eare receiues it yet remaines with me,
So did the Fathers word to me attaine
And with the Father vnremou'd remaine.
Or as mine arme extended doth abide,
With joints and sinnewes to my shoulder tide,
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Yet from himselfe he did it not remoue.
Which though he did both reach forth and retaine,
Though he loose nothing while I him doe gaine,
And in him all things, yet how could there be
More lowlinesse in him, more loue in me?
What honour should we yeeld to him who thus
Was pleas'd t'embase himselfe to honour vs?
Can we doe lesse then in our best tun'd layes
With holy Angels sing vnto his praise:
Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,
And let goodwill t'wards Christians never cease.
| The Blessed Birth-day | |