Christus Natus Est

O See! Mans Sauiour is in Bethlem borne,
His lodging base, he himselfe held in scorne,
The Cribbe at which the Oxe and Asse were fedde,
Mary (Christs Mother) makes her young Sonnes bed;
Yet see how Shepherds fall downe flat before him,
And how the Wise-men doe with guifts adore him,
Harke, what a heauenly Qurre of Angells sing
Sweet Carrols, at the birth of this new King;
O happy man! when thus, (thy Soule to saue,)
Christ comes from Heauen, and makes himselfe a Slaue.

See else that Pillar, where being naked bound,
Thy Christ had his flesh tore with many a wound
When a Cocke crowes, let it this griefe afford,
To thinke how Peter (thrice) denyed his Lord;
See Iudas Lanthorne, and see Iudas Pence,
See the Dice throwne, to vncloath Innocence;
See Pincers, Nailes, and Hammers, how they meere,
To naile toth' Crosse, Christs blessed Hands and Feet:
O Wretched Man! where Christ for thee thus dyed,
Let him not still by thee be Crucified.

Within this Rocke the Rocke himselfe is layd,
Who both the Tombe, and the Tomb-maker made,
A Man he was, was no such man beside,
None liu'd so iust, none so vniustly dyed:
He was in debt for nothing, yet did pay
The debts of all the World at a set day.
Neuer of Woman could so much be said,
When he was borne his Mother was a Mayd.
He many wonders wrought and this a chiefe,
A very bad Man, made he a Good Theife.
It happened well, he so by Iewes was Cross'd,
For all the Soules i'th World had els bin lost.
Thirty-three yeares be liu'd: Had not he beene,
No Christian vpon Earth had ere bin seene.
He dyed a King, yet was a Begger borne,
And wore (which no Kings doe) a Crowne of Thorne.
First went he to his Graue, from thence, to Hell,
Then vp to Heauen And there this King doth dwell.