THE HYMN OF THE HOLY CROSSE.[28]
I.
Look vp, languisting soul! Lo, where the fair1
Badge of thy faith calls back thy care,
And biddes thee ne're forget
Thy life is one long debt
Of loue, to Him, Who on this painfull tree5
Paid back the flesh He took for thee.
II.
Lo, how the streames of life, from that full nest
Of loues, Thy Lord's too liberall brest,
Flow in an amorous floud
Of water wedding blood.10
With these He wash't thy stain, transferred thy smart,
And took it home to His own heart.
III.
But though great Love, greedy of such sad gain,
Vsurpt the portion of thy pain,
And from the nailes and spear15
Turn'd the steel point of fear:
Their vse is chang'd, not lost; and now they moue
Not stings of wrath, but wounds of loue.
IV.
Tall tree of life! thy truth makes good
What was till now ne're understood,20
Though the prophetick king
Struck lowd his faithfull string:
It was thy wood he meant should make the throne
For a more than Salomon.