No commaes but thy stripes; no periods
But thy nailes, crowne of thornes, speare, whips,
and rods.

None other booke but thy vnclasped side,
Wherein's contain'd all skils angelical:
None other lesson but Christ crucified
Will I ere learne; for that is all in all :
Wherein selfe curiositie may find

Matter to please the most displeased mind.
Here, by our Master's nakednesse, we learne
What weeds to weare; by his thorne-crowned head,
How to adorn vs; and we may discerne
By his most bitter gall, how to be fed:

How to reuenge, by praying for his foes;
And, lying on his crosse, how to repose.

For when we read him ouer, see we shall
His head with thornes, his eares with blasphemies,
His eies with teares, his honnied mouth with gall,
With wounds his flesh, his bones with agonies,

All full and yet with all to heare him say,
So man might liue, he would thus languish aye!

THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

Now hath the great Creator, for man's sake,
The second Adam cast into a sleepe :

Whiles of his heart-blood hee his

make,

spouse doth

For whom his heart doth blood and water weepe: Which compound teares are turn'd to ioy intire; For his heart-blood effects his heart's desire. Which deere desire was our deere spouse to haue, To be co-partner of his griefes and ioyes;

Which when he wooke his God vnto him gaue, To comfort him in comforts and annoies;

Which when he saw, he held (most faire to se!)
Flesh of his flesh, bone of his bones, to be!
Now hath the monster, flesh-devouring Death,
Got him within his bowels: but though dead,
Looke how a woman groaning languisheth
In childbirth till shee be delivered:

So groaneth Death, who trauelleth in paine,
Till of his charge he be discharg'd again.

O! that all spirits of high intelligence,
By royall armies, would themselues immure
In my blunt braines; that by their confluence
I might expresse with nectar'd phrases pure
The praise that to this passion right pertaines,
Whose sacred vertue sacred vertue staines !
The vertue of this passion is of pow'r
Reuenges red to change to mercies white :
This passion's vertue is so passing pure,
That fowle to faire it turnes, and darke to light:
The landmarke to true rest, when troubles tosse
In sorrowes' seas, is Christ vpon the crosse.
Ye vnconfused orders angellick,

In order come to take this blood effuz'd.
Bring forth celestiall bowles, with motion quick,
To which this pretious blood may be infuz'd:

Let not one drop be lost of such rare blood,
That makes men passing bad exceeding good.

Couer this Aqua uite with your wings
From touch of infidels and Jewes prophane :
They haue no interest in this King of kings,
Whose blood they suck'd, which blood will be
their bane:

Make much thereof, sith but the least drop of it Is worth ten thousand worlds for price and profit. Yet let poore-spirited conuerts drinke their fill, And swill their drie soules till with it they swell : Such diuine surfetting is wholesome still; For noysome humors it doth quite expell.

Yea, though with griefe they swell and breake with paine,

Such griefe brings ioy, and makes them whole againe.

The elephants of yore,

inur'd to warre,

Before the fight some blood were vsed to see, Which them incenst, the more to make them dare: Then if a beast shall not our better be,

Sith Christ wee see quite drown'd thus in his blood,

We must endure the racke as he the rood. Fine founts he opens, whence doe gushing flow Red seas to drowne our blacke Egyptian sinnes, That they no more may seeke our ouerthrow : Then should we goe, like Israell's denizens, Through wasts of woes, orethrowing eu'ry let, Till we into the Land of Promise get.

XXIII.

THOMAS HOWELL.

THE OFFICE OF THE MINDE.

THE office of the minde is to haue power
Uppon the bodye, and to order well
The body's office yeke in euery hower:
It is of the minde to lerne the perfite skyll,
The vayne desyers that rise him by to kill,
Wherby the mynde dothe kepe his perfite strength,
And yeke the bodye vanquishe loste at length.
Now where the minde is drowned with desyre
Of suche delyhtis as to the body longe,
The boddy then moste nedes consume with fyer
Of raging lustes a boute the same thronge;
So that the minde is cause of bothe ther wronge,
To put it selfe out of the proper place,
And bring the bodye to so euel a case.

For thus the minde, that oughte of right to be
The teacher of the bodye to do well,
Doth make the same to euery euill agre,
Procuringe that it shoulde of right expell,
Wherby in bothe a mouinge blinde doth dwell;
Euen as within Narcyssus dyd remayne,
That through his shadowe to be soche agayne.