Decoration H
Decoration I
THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY CROSSE.[25]
Tradidit semetipsum pro nobis oblationem et hostiam Deo in odorem
suauitatis. Ad Ephe. v. 2.
THE HOWRES.
For the Hovr of Matines.
The Versicle.
Lord, by Thy sweet and sailing sign!
The Responsory.
Defend us from our foes and Thine.
V. Thou shalt open my lippes, O Lord.
R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy prayse.
V. O God, make speed to saue me.5
R. O Lord, make hast to help me.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the H[oly] Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and euer10
shall be, world without end. Amen.
The Hymn.
The wakefull Matines hast to sing
The unknown sorrows of our King:
The Father's Word and Wisdom, made
Man for man, by man's betraid;15
The World's price sett to sale, and by the bold
Merchants of Death and Sin, is bought and sold:
Of His best freinds (yea of Himself) forsaken;
By His worst foes (because He would) beseig'd and taken.
The Antiphona.
All hail, fair tree,20
Whose fruit we be!
What song shall raise
Thy seemly praise,
Who broughtst to light
Life out of death, Day out of Night!25
The Versicle.
Lo, we adore Thee,
Dread Lamb! and bow thus low before Thee:
The Responsor.
'Cause, by the couenant of Thy crosse,
Thou hast sau'd at once the whole World's losse.
The Prayer.
O Lord Iesv-Christ, Son of the liuing God!30
interpose, I pray Thee, Thine Own pretious death,
Thy crosse and passion, betwixt my soul and Thy
iudgment, now and in the hour of my death. And
vouchsafe to graunt vnto me Thy grace and mercy;
vnto all quick and dead, remission and rest; to Thy35
Church, peace and concord; to vs sinners, life and
glory euerlasting. Who liuest and reignest with
the Father, in the vnity of the Holy Ghost, one
God, world without end. Amen.
For the Hour of Prime.
The Versicle.
Lord, by Thy sweet and sailing sign!40
The Responsor.
Defend vs from our foes and Thine.
V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord.
R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
V. O God, make speed to save me.
R. O Lord, make hast to help me.45
V. Glory be to, &c.
R. As it was in the, &c.
The Hymn.
The early Prime blushes to say
She could not rise so soon, as they
Call'd Pilat vp; to try if he50
Could lend them any cruelty.
Their hands with lashes arm'd, their toungs with lyes
And loathsom spittle, blott those beauteous eyes,
The blissfull springs of ioy; from whose all-chearing ray
The fair starrs fill their wakefull fires, the sun himself drinks day. 55
The Antiphona.
Victorious sign
That now dost shine,
Transcrib'd aboue
Into the land of light and loue;
O let vs twine60
Our rootes with thine,
That we may rise
Vpon thy wings, and reach the skyes.
The Versicle.
Lo, we adore Thee,
Dread Lamb! and fall65
Thus low before Thee.
The Responsor.
'Cause by the couenant of Thy crosse
Thou hast sau'd at once the whole World's losse.
The Prayer.
O Lord Iesv-Christ, Son of the liuing God!
interpose, I pray Thee, Thine Own pretious death,70
Thy crosse and passion, betwixt my soul and Thy
iudgment, now and in the hour of my death. And
vouchsafe to graunt vnto me Thy grace and mercy;
vnto all quick and dead, remission and rest; to
Thy Church, peace and concord; to vs sinners,75
life and glory euerlasting. Who liuest and reignest
with the Father, in the vnity of the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end. Amen.
The Third.
The Versicle.
Lord, by Thy sweet and sauing sign,
The Responsor.
Defend vs from our foes and Thine.80
V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord.
R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
V. O God, make speed to save me.
R. O Lord, make hast to help me.
V. Glory be to, &c.85
R. As it was in the, &c.
The Hymn.
The third hour's deafen'd with the cry
Of crucify Him, crucify.
So goes the vote (nor ask them, why?),
Liue Barabbas! and let God dy.90
But there is witt in wrath, and they will try
A hail more cruell then their crucify.
For while in sport He weares a spitefull crown
The serious showres along His decent Face run sadly down.
The Antiphona.
Christ when He dy'd95
Deceiu'd the Crosse;
And on Death's side
Threw all the losse.
The captiue World awak't and found
The prisoners loose, the iaylor bound.100
The Versicle.
Lo, we adore Thee,
Dread Lamb, and fall
Thus low before Thee.
The Responsor.
'Cause by the couenant of Thy crosse
Thou hast sau'd at once the whole World's losse.105
The Prayer.
O Lord Iesv-Christ, Son of the liuing God!
interpose, I pray Thee, Thine Own pretious death,
Thy crosse and passion, betwixt my soul and Thy
iudgment, now and in the hour of my death. And
vouchsafe to graunt vnto me Thy grace and mercy;110
vnto all quick and dead, remission and rest; to
Thy Church, peace and concord; to vs sinners,
life and glory everlasting. Who liuest and reignest
with the Father, in the vnity of the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end. Amen.115
The Sixt.
The Versicle.
Lord, by Thy sweet and sauing sign!
The Responsor.
Defend vs from our foes and Thine.
V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord.
R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
V. O God, make speed to save me!120
R. O Lord, make hast to help me!
V. Glory be to, &c.
R. As it was in the, &c.
The Hymn.
Now is the noon of Sorrow's night:
High in His patience, as their spite,125
Lo, the faint Lamb, with weary limb
Beares that huge tree which must bear Him!
That fatall plant, so great of fame
For fruit of sorrow and of shame,
Shall swell with both, for Him, and mix130
All woes into one crucifix.
Is tortur'd thirst itselfe too sweet a cup?
Gall, and more bitter mocks, shall make it vp.
Are nailes, blunt pens of superficiall smart?
Contempt and scorn can send sure wounds to search the inmost heart.135
The Antiphona.
O deare and sweet dispute
'Twixt Death's and Loue's farr different fruit!
Different as farr
As antidotes and poysons are.
By that first fatall tree140
Both life and liberty
Were sold and slain;
By this they both look vp, and liue again.
The Versicle.
Lo, we adore Thee,
Dread Lamb! and bow thus low before Thee.145
The Responsor.
'Cause by the couenant of Thy crosse,
Thou hast sau'd the World from certain losse.
The Prayer.
O Lord Iesv-Christ, Son of the liuing God!
interpose, I pray Thee, Thine Own pretious death,
Thy crosse and passion, betwixt my soul and Thy150
iudgment, now and in the hour of my death. And
vouchsafe to graunt vnto me Thy grace and mercy;
vnto all quick and dead, remission and rest; to
Thy Church, peace and concord; to vs sinners,
life and glory euerlasting. Who liuest and reignest155
with the Father, in the vnity of the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end. Amen.
The Ninth.
The Versicle.
Lord, by Thy sweet and sauing sign,
The Responsor.
Defend vs from our foes and Thine.
V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord.160
R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
V. O God, make speed to save me!
R. O Lord, make hast to help me!
V. Glory be to, &c.
R. As it was in the, &c.165
The Hymn.
The ninth with awfull horror hearkened to those groanes
Which taught attention eu'n to rocks and stones.
Hear, Father, hear! Thy Lamb (at last) complaines
Of some more painfull thing then all His paines.
Then bowes His all-obedient head, and dyes170
His own lou's and our sins' GREAT SACRIFICE.
The sun saw that, and would haue seen no more;
The center shook: her vselesse veil th' inglorious Temple tore.
The Antiphona.
O strange, mysterious strife
Of open Death and hidden Life!175
When on the crosse my King did bleed,
Life seem'd to dy, Death dy'd indeed.[26]
The Versicle.
Lo, we adore Thee,
Dread Lamb! and fall
Thus low before Thee.180
The Responsor.
'Cause by the couenant of Thy crosse
Thou hast sau'd at once the whole World's losse.
The Prayer.
O Lord Iesv-Christ, Son of the liuing God!
interpose, I pray Thee, Thine Own pretious death,
Thy crosse and passion, betwixt my soul and Thy185
iudgment, now and in the hour of my death. And
vouchsafe to graunt vnto me Thy grace and mercy;
vnto all quick and dead, remission and rest; to
Thy Church, peace and concord; to vs sinners,
life and glory euerlasting. Who liuest and reignest190
with the Father, in the vnity of the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end. Amen.
Evensong.
The Versicle.
Lord, by Thy sweet and sauing sign!
The Responsor.
Defend vs from our foes and Thine.
V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord!195
R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
V. O God, make speed to save me!
R. O Lord, make hast to help me!
V. Glory be to, &c.
R. As it was in the, &c.200
The Hymn.
But there were rocks would not relent at this:
Lo, for their own hearts, they rend His;
Their deadly hate liues still, and hath
A wild reserve of wanton wrath;
Superfluous spear! But there's a heart stands by205
Will look no wounds be lost, no deaths shall dy.
Gather now thy Greif's ripe fruit, great mother-maid!
Then sitt thee down, and sing thine eu'nsong in the sad tree's shade.
The Antiphona.
O sad, sweet tree!
Wofull and ioyfull we210
Both weep and sing in shade of thee.
When the dear nailes did lock
And graft into thy gracious stock
The hope, the health,
The worth, the wealth215
Of all the ransom'd World, thou hadst the power
(In that propitious hour)
To poise each pretious limb,
And proue how light the World was, when it weighd with Him.
Wide maist thou spred220
Thine armes, and with thy bright and blissfull head
O'relook all Libanus. Thy lofty crown
The King Himself is, thou His humble throne,
Where yeilding and yet conquering He
Prou'd a new path of patient victory:225
When wondring Death by death was slain,
And our Captiuity His captiue ta'ne.
The Versicle.
Lo, we adore Thee,
Dread Lamb! and bow thus low before Thee.
The Responsor.
'Cause by the couenant of Thy crosse230
Thou hast sau'd the World from certain losse.
The Prayer.
O Lord Iesv-Christ, Son of the liuing, &c.
Compline.
The Versicle.
Lord, by Thy sweet and sauing sign!
The Responsor.
Defend vs from our foes and Thine.
V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord!235
R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
V. O God, make speed to save me!
R. O Lord, make hast to help me!
V. Glory be to, &c.
R. As it was in the, &c.240
The Hymn.
The Complin hour comes last, to call
Vs to our own lives' funerall.
Ah hartlesse task! yet Hope takes head,
And liues in Him that here lyes dead.
Run, Mary, run! Bring hither all the blest245
Arabia, for thy royall phœnix' nest;
Pour on thy noblest sweets, which, when they touch
This sweeter body, shall indeed be such.
But must Thy bed, Lord, be a borrow'd graue
Who lend'st to all things all the life they haue.250
O rather vse this heart, thus farr a fitter stone,
'Cause, though a hard and cold one, yet it is Thine own. Amen.
The Antiphona.
O saue vs then,
Mercyfull King of men!
Since Thou wouldst needs be thus255
A Saviour, and at such a rate, for vs;
Saue vs, O saue vs, Lord.
We now will own no shorter wish, nor name a narrower word;
Thy blood bids vs be bold,
Thy wounds giue vs fair hold,260
Thy sorrows chide our shame:
Thy crosse, Thy nature, and Thy name
Aduance our claim,
And cry with one accord
Saue them, O saue them, Lord!265
The Recommendation.[27]
These Houres, and that which houers o're my end,
Into Thy hands and hart, Lord, I commend.
Take both to Thine account, that I and mine
In that hour, and in these, may be all Thine.
That as I dedicate my deuoutest breath270
To make a kind of life for my Lord's death,
So from His liuing and life-giuing death,
My dying life may draw a new and neuer fleeting breath.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
In the original edition of this composition, as supra (1648),
it is entitled simply 'Vpon our B[lessed] Saviour's Passion.'
What in our text (1652) constitute the Hymns, were originally
numbered as seven stanzas. A few various readings from 1648
will be found below. Our text is given in full in 1670 edition,
but not very accurately.
Various readings of the Hymns in 1648 'Steps.'
I. Line 1. 'The wakefull dawning hast's to sing.'
" 2. The allusion is to the petition in the old Litanies,
'By all Thine unknown sorrows, good Lord, deliver us.'
" 8. 'betray'd' for 'beseigd:' the former perhaps superior.
II. " 1. 'The early Morne.'
" 2. 'It' for 'she.'
III. " 5. 'ther's' for 'there is.'
IV. " 6. 'The fruit' instead of 'for'—a misprint.
V. " 6. 'our great sins' sacrifice.'
VII. " 1. 'The Nightening houre'—a curious coinage.
In the 'Prayer,' 'unto all quick and dead' is dropped, and
reads 'the,' not 'Thy,' Church. In line 55 Turnbull reads
'weakful,' and, line 243, 'heed' for 'head,'—two of a number
of provoking blunders in his text. G.
VEXILLA REGIS:
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.
V.
Large throne of Loue! royally spred25
With purple of too rich a red:
Thy crime is too much duty;
Thy burthen, too much beauty;
Glorious or greiuous more? thus to make good
Thy costly excellence with thy King's own blood.30
VI.
Euen ballance of both worlds! our world of sin,
And that of grace, Heaun-way'd in Him:
Vs with our price thou weighed'st;
Our price for vs thou payed'st,
Soon as the right-hand scale reioyc't to proue35
How much Death weigh'd more light then Loue.
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 inherit45
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 mediæval
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.
Decoration F
[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 uncontroulèd steps;
Thy quell'd foes are not onely now5
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 fixèd 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 they15
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 wayes25
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 death1
(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 præludium.
Decoration D
Decoration C
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 lips5
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]
I.
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.
II.
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?
III.
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.
IV.
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.
V.