The Nativity.

THIS is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heaven's eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,

That He our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

That glorious form, that light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of majesty.

Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid aside; and here with us to be,

Forsook the courts of everlasting day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

Say, heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein

Afford a present to the Infant God?

Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,
Now while the Heav'n by the sun's team untrod,
Hath took no print of the approaching light,
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

THE NATIVITY.

See how from far upon the eastern road

The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet:
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet.;
Have thou the honor first thy Lord to greet,
And join thy voice unto the angel quire,
From out his secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire.

THE HYMN.

It was the winter wild,

While the Heav'n-born child

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies: Nature in awe to him

Had doff'd her gaudy trim,

With her great Master so to sympathize;

It was no season then for her

To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.

Only with speeches fair

She wooes the gentle air

To hide her guilty front with innocent snow. And on her naked shame,

Pollute with sinful blame,

The saintly veil of maiden white to throw, Confounded, that her Maker's eyes

Should look so near upon her foul deformities.

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THE NATIVITY.

But he her fears to cease,

Sent down the meek-eyed Peace;

She crown'd with olive green, came swiftly sliding Down through the turning sphere

His ready harbinger,

With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing,
And waving with her myrtle wand,

She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.

No war, or battle's sound

Was heard the world around:

The idle spear and shield were high up hung.
The hooked chariot stood

Unstain'd with hostile blood,

The trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And kings sat still with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

But peaceful was the night,

Wherein the Prince of light

His reign of peace upon the earth began;

The winds with wonder whist

Smoothly the waters kist,

Whisp'ring new joys to the mild ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,

While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

The stars with deep amaze,

Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze,

Bending one way their precious influence,

THE NATIVITY.

And will not take their flight

For all the morning light,

Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence; But in their glimmering orbs did glow,

Until the Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.

And though the shady gloom

Had given day her room,

The sun himself withheld his wonted speed,

And hid his head for shame,

As his inferior flame

The new enlighten'd world no more should need;

He saw a greater sun appear

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Than his bright throne, or burning axletree could bear.

The shepherds on the lawn,

Or e'er the point of dawn,

Sat simply chatting in a rustic row;

Full little thought they then

That the mighty Pan

Was kindly come to live with them below,

Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,

Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.

When such music sweet,

Their hearts and ears did greet,

As never was by mortal finger strook,

Divinely-warbled voice

Answering the stringed noise,

:

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THE NATIVITY.

As all their souls in blissful rapture took:

The air such pleasure loth to lose

With thousand echoes still prolongs each heav'nly close.

Nature that heard such sound,

Beneath the hollow round

Of Cynthia's seat, the aery region thrilling,
Now was almost won

To think her part was done,

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling;

She knew such harmony alone

Could hold all heav'n and earth in happier union.

At last surrounds their sight

A globe of circular light,

That with long beams the shamefaced night array'd; The helmed cherubim

The sworded seraphim

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display'd,
Harping in loud and solemn quire

With unexpressive notes to heav'n's new-born Heir.

Such music (as 'tis said)

Before was never made,

But when of old the sons of morning sung,

While the Creator great

His constellations set,

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung,

And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the welt'ring waves their oozy channel.keep.