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LOVE and CHARITY PRESENTED In a Copy of VERSES to his Worthy Masters in the WARD of St. Giles's Cripplegate without.
By William Briscoe, Bell-man within the Freedom.
For Christmass Day.
Y'Are welcome Masters all to Christmass Day,
Of which God send you all spiritual joy;
And fill your hearts with deep consideration
Of the great benefit of Man's Salvation:
So infinite the Sin of Adam was,
That God must come thus to redeem the loss:
Thus to be born, and afterwards to die;
None but Himself Himself could satisfie.
God's Love to the World.
Such Love the Lord unto the World hath showne,
In giving to us from his Bosome's Throne,
His equal and only begotten Sonne,
Th' assurer of Eternal Life to come;
And Great Redeemer of the World from Sin,
That none may perish that believe in him:
For not to judge the World sent was Hee,
But that the World by him might saved bee.
For Saint Stephen's Day.
Saint Stephen to the Churche's first renown,
Of Martyrdome this day obtain'd the Crown,
By murdering hands of the incensed Jewes,
Who did him falsly of Blasphemy accuse;
With battering stones against his Angel's Face,
His Soul flying glorious to her mansion place:
But left behind the vertue of his Prayer
Made for his heads-men, of which Paul had share.
Saint Stephen's Charity for his Enemies.
Christ's Charity was in his Sufferings much,
And Stephen's was in imitation such:
Father, saith Christ, forgive them of this fact,
For verily they know not what they act:
Like Charity enflam'd the prayer of Stephen
Made on his Knees to have them all forgiven
That actors were and furtherers of his death,
So the good Saint concluded his last breath.
For Saint John's Day.
Saint John above all other term'd Divine,
Having set forth his Gospel most sublime,
In boyling Oyl confirm'd the truth he wrott,
Anointed Martyr, but not hurt a jott:
Thence banisht, where he writ in Patmos Isle,
Of the last Times in high Prophetick stile:
Then what became of John, or how John dy'd,
I leave that for the Learned to decide.
Saint John's Love.
Christ who did love Saint John with love entire,
Enflam'd his heart with love's most holy fire:
A Virgin love deriv'd most pure and clean,
When on his Breast John's head in love did lean:
What time proceeding in Love's School Divine,
His Sacred Writings savour love each line:
And was in love by tryal of the fire
Crown'd for his love a Martyr in desire.
For Childermas Day.
Now Herod Warrs against the God of Hoasts,
In Bethlehem, and all throughout her Coasts;
Where a loud voice was heard of lamentation;
Rachel without regard to consolation,
Was weeping for her Children. Cruel deed!
To make so many innocent Infants bleed!
But being for Christ, the sacred act and voice
Made Abram's Bosome and all Heav'n rejoyce.
Christ's Love to Children.
Christ calling still, even in his Infancy,
Suffer the little Ones to come to me,
Confirms his love to little Children much,
That would in special first make choice of such
To bleed for him, and drink of his first Cup
Which was in Circumcision offer'd up;
Thousands in rage sent by th' incestuous Ramme
To be continual followers of the Lambe.
For New-Years Day.
On New-Year's Day was to the Virgin's Sonne
Th' old Sacrament of Circumcision done;
From whose divided Flesh did freely spring
His Babes new Blood in Sacrifice for Sinne:
Th' unloading of whose Veins at eight dayes old,
Man's promis'd full Redemption well foretold,
How bounteous his Good-Friday's Gift would bee,
That in his New-Years Offering was so free.
Christ's New-Years Gift in Love.
A bounteous New-Years Guift it was indeed
Which Christ this day out of his Veins did bleed;
To which no Creature possible could move,
But only Man the object of his Love:
Christ nothing thought too precious nor too much
T' engage for Man, his Love to Man was such:
If Christ on Man so much enamour'd bee,
Base is Man's love of any less then Hee.
For the Epiphany.
The Twelfth day after the Nativity,
Great was in Beth'lem the Festivity
Of the Three Kings, who after their long station,
Arriv'd the birth-place of the Worlds Salvation:
Whom though in meanest posture they behold,
Their Saba's Incense, and Arabian Gold
Offer'd with lively Faith, prostrate before him,
They for their Liege-Lord God & Man, adore him.
The Love of the Three Kings to Christ.
And as their Faiths, their Loves to Christ was great,
So far from their abode and Native seat,
To travel with hard labour and expence,
In a poor Child to seek Omnipotence:
To succour him that shivering was with cold,
Perfume his head, and load his hands with Gold:
With many accommodations more beside,
When Beth'lem a poor Lodging him deny'd.
For Candlemas Day.
Th' unspotted Virgin Mary on this Tide,
According to the Law was purify'd:
A needless Remedy if we consider
The Pureness of the Fruit she did deliver:
But Mary of her Issue stood in awe,
Who came in all things to fulfill the Law:
By which Christ teacheth us this Inference,
That Love is Mother of Obedience.
Love Christ, love his Precept.
He that by breach of Precept doth remove
Himself from Christ, abides not in Christ's love:
Christ's Precept is, That we love one another,
Who can love Christ that loves not then his brother?
Christ gave for us in love his precious Blood,
As we ought also for our brethren's good:
In this doth all Salvation consist,
However men divert it as they list.
Love and Charity the mark of a Christian.
The proper mark of a true Christian,
Is Charity and Love: the Wicked man
May Baptism have and Gift of Prophecy,
With Christian exercise he may comply;
Yea and receive the Body of our Lord,
And make the Name of Christ his usual word:
But Charity peculiar is alone
To the true Christian; wanting that, he's none.
Charity the Soul's Convoy.
Diviner comfort what to man can bring,
Then mutual converse betwixt God and him:
As when the Soul by prayer doth mounting fly
To Heav'n on wings of Love and Charity;
And stands by contemplation in the sight
Of God, who is the sphear of her delight:
No Tongue can speak the comfort; for by this
She knowes God, and prepares her way to bliss.
No vertue without Charity.
So gracious in Gods sight is Charity,
That all good Works without it do miscarry;
No Works perform'd of mercy at our door;
Should we distribute all unto the Poor;
Deliver up our bodies at the stake
To be burn'd only for Religions sake:
All these do nothing profit nor avail,
If love we want, if Charity doth fail.
Love God, not the World.
Who to this World doth his heart enthrall,
Must into one of these two Sorrows fall;
Either to love the thing he cannot gain,
Or else to lose what he hath got with pain.
Wherefore all Worldly affections, Man, resign,
And place thy love on that which is Divine;
Where love shall surely be for love returned,
And Joyes possest never to be adjourned.
Christ's Love to the Poor.
As Christ into the World came poor indeed,
So hath he left the Poor in his own steed,
Of whom, his Favourites, pronounce did Hee,
What's given to the Poor, is given to mee.
Can any Christian then deny for shame
To give the poor that ask it in Christ's name:
To give the Poor, for Christ's sake do not grutch,
They are Christ's friends, and will not you be such?
God's Love to the City.
What can declare the Mercies of our God,
More then the present sweetning of his Rod;
To set up LONDON in a cordial state,
After the Bitter Cup Shee drank of late;
Not giving her a Mortal Overthrow,
Although in Sin as much Gods mortal foe,
As those he left forsaken in His Ire,
To perish in the Torrent of the Fire,