VEXILLA REGIS. And from the nailes and spear Turn'd the steel point of fear: Their vse is chang'd, not lost; and now they moue IV. Tall tree of life! thy truth makes good What was till now ne're understood, Though the prophetick king Struck lowd his faithfull string: It was thy wood he meant should make the throne V. Large throne of Loue! royally spred 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 proue How much Death weigh'd more light then Loue. 35 In the Prayer," unto all quick and dead' is dropped, and reads the, not Thy,' Church. In line 55 Turnbull reads weakful, and, line 213, heed' for head,'- two of a number of provoking blunders in his text. G. VEXILLA REGIS : THE HYMN OF THE HOLY CROSSE, 1. LOOK vp, languisting soul! Lo, where the fair Badge of thy faith calls back thy care, And biddes thee ne're forget Thy life is one long debt Of lone, to Him, Who on this painfull tree Paid back the flesh He took for thee. 5 11. 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. With these He wash't thy stain, transferr'd thy smart, And took it home to His own heart. But though great Love, greedy of such sad gain. Vsurpt the portion of thy pain, ΤΟ 1 Appeared originally in Steps of 1648 (pp. 39-1): reprinted in 1652 (pp. 19-51) and 1670 (pp. 171-6). Our text is that of 1652, as before. See Notes and Illustrations at close of the poem. G. And from the nailes and spear 15 Turn'd the steel point of fear: Their vse is chang'd, not lost; and now they moue IV. Tall tree of life! thy truth makes good What was till now ne're understood, Though the prophetick king Struck lowd his faithfull string: It was thy wood he meant should make the throne 20 V. Large throne of Loue! royally spred 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 25 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 reioye't to proue 35 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 Liue, O for euer liue and reign The Lamb Whom His own loue hath slain ! And let Thy lost sheep liue to inherit 45 That kingdom which this Crosse did merit. Amen. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. These variations &c. as between 1618 and 1652, deserve record: St. i. line 1. 'badg' and 'larg' St. vi. line 2. Languishing,' which is the reading in 1618. Here, and in v. line 1, I have added 'e' to respectively from 1618. 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 pais.' St. vii. appeared for the first time in our text (1652). In the closing four lines, line 4, 1618, reads noticeably That Kingdome which Thy blessed death did merit.' The allusion in st. iv. is to the old reading of Psalm xevi. 10: Tell it among the heathen that the Lord reigneth from the tree. The reference to Solomon points to the medieval 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 1618, G. [THE LORD SILENCES HIS QUESTIONERS.J • Neither durst any man from that day aske Him any more questions, MID'ST all the darke and knotty snares, DALT amazement make them dala |