Would you the carrying of the babe escheat,
Bidding it cross the church on its own feet?
But if another's feet a babe demands,
How is't another's voice displeasing stands?
Rightly may innocent sucklings claim from you
All things which Sense mature itself would do.
Why should not one make good an infant's cries,
Powerless itself to supplicate the skies?

Cruel, dost snatch from babes the pledge of heaven
No surety be to thee in thy need given.

G.

XIII.

De Signaculo Crucis.

Cur tanta sufflas probra in innocuam crucem?
Non plus maligni daemones Christi cruce
Unquam fugari, quam tui socii solent.
Apostolorum culpa non levis fuit

Vitasse Christi spiritum efflantis crucem.
Et Christianus quisque piscis dicitur
Tertulliano, propter undae pollubrum,
Quo tingimur parvi. Ecquis autem brachiis.
Natare sine clarissima potest cruce?

Sed non moramur: namque vestra crux erit,
Vobis faventibusve vel negantibus.

Concerning the Sign of the Cross.

Why 'gainst the harmless Cross do you thus puff Reproaches keen and fierce and ne'er enough?

Not more precip'tate flee demons malign

Than you and yours before the sacred Sign!
It was of the Apostles no light blame

To eschew Christ's Sp'rit, breathing Cross's shame :
Each Christian, Tertullian styles a fish

From Baptism's waters in the sacred dish
Wherein when we are children we are dipp'd,
And thereby for life's warfare are equipp'd.
Who looks upon the arms of one who swims,
Nor sees the Cross in his outstretchèd limbs ?
I will not waste more time: your Cross will come,
Whether you welcome it, or meet it dumb.

XIV.

De Juramento Ecclesiae.

Articulis sacris quidam subscribere jussus,

Ah, Cheiragra vetat, quo minus, inquit, agam. O vere dictum et belle! cum torqueat omnes Ordinis osores articulare malum.

G.

Concerning the Church's Oath.

To sign the Articles when one was told, gout forbids my hand a pen

(

Ah,

to hold !'

O finely said! when all who order hate

Find rack'd articulations is their fate!

XV.

De Purificatione post Puerperium.

Enixas pueros matres se sistere templis
Displicet, et laudis tura litare Deo.

R. WI.

Forte quidem, cum per vestras Ecclesia turbas
Fluctibus internis exagitata natet,
Vos sine maternis hymnis infantia vidit,
Vitaque neglectas est satis ulta preces.
Sed nos, cum nequeat parvorum lingua parentem
Non laudare Deum, credimus esse nefas.
Quotidiana suas poscant si fercula grates,

Nostra caro sanctae nescia laudis erit?
Adde piis animis quaevis occasio lucro est,

Qual possint humili fundere corde preces. Sic ubi jam mulier decerpti conscia pomi

Ingemat ob partus, ceu maledicta, suos, Apposite quum2 commotum subfugerat olim,

Nunc redit ad mitem, ceu benedicta, Deum.

On Purification (=Churching) after Childbirth.
Childbearing mothers you object to find

In God's House, praising Him with grateful mind.
Perchance, since with such waves of mutual strife
The harass'd Kirk of Scotland still was rife,

[years,

No mother's prayers and hymns bless'd your young
And the neglect in your marr'd life appears.
But we, when children's tongue to God is still,
That parent should not praise Him, think it ill :
If for our daily food our thanks we raise,
For our own flesh shall we ascribe no praise?

Nay, pious souls for gain the occasion count [mount. When from meek hearts their prayers to heaven may 2 Printed 'quem.'

1 Printed 'Quae.'

So when a woman, conscious of the gloom
Of the pluck'd apple and the sorrowing womb,
Groans bitterly beneath the Curse's doom,
Rightly does she, escap'd from storm to rest,
Go to her kind Preserver, as one blest.

R. WI.

XVI.

De Antichristi decore Pontificali.

Non quia Pontificum sunt olim afflata veneno,
Omnia sunt temere projicienda foras.
Tollantur si cuncta malus quae polluit usus,

Non remanent nobis corpora, non animae.

Concerning the Pontifical Beauty (=decency) of Antichrist. Not 'cause of old poison'd with Papal breath,

Are all things to be flung straight out o' door;

If all misused things are due to death,

'Tis time our souls and bodies were no more. G.

XVII.

De Superpelliceo.

Quid sacrae tandem meruere vestes?

Quas malus livor jaculis lacessit,
Polluens castam chlamydis colorem

Dentibus atris?

Quicquid ex urna meliore ductum
Luce praelustri, vel honore pollet,
Mens sub insigni specie coloris

Concipit albi.

Scilicet talem liquet esse solem;
Angeli vultu radiante candent;
Incolae coeli melioris alba

Veste triumphant.

E creaturis sine mentis usu
Conditis binas homini sequendas
Spiritus proponit, et est utrique

Candor amicus.1

Ergo ringantur pietatis hostes,

Filii noctis, populus malignus,

Dum suum nomen tenet et triumphat

Albion albo.

Concerning the Surplice.

What have the sacred vestments done, I pray,
Which Envy thus assails as beast of prey,
Staining the Surplice's chaste hue, forsooth,

With venomous black tooth?

Whate'er's drawn from the heav'nly urn of Brightness,
Or Honour, men conceive of it as whiteness;
The sun around his glorious circuit turning,

Angels in splendour burning.

So the redeemed throng from Earth below,

Cloth'd in the blood-bought raiments white as snow; Yea look on Sheep and Dove, by whom Christ teacheth, The favour'd White still preacheth.

1 Ovis et columba. Columel. 1. 7. c. 2, and 1. 8. c. 8.