Classic Poem

LAUDA SION SALVATOREM. THE HYMN. FOR THE BL. SACRAMENT .

I.

Rise, Royall S ION ! rise and sing
Thy soul's kind shepheard, thy hart's King .
Stretch all thy powres; call if you can
Harpes of heavn to hands of man.
This soveraign subject sitts above
The best ambition of thy love.

II.

Lo the B READ of L IFE , this day's
Triumphant Text, provokes thy prayse.
The living and life-giving bread,
To the great twelve distributed
When L IFE , himself, at point to dy
Of love, was his own L EGACY .

III.

Come, love! and let us work a song
Lowd and pleasant, sweet and long;
Let lippes and Hearts lift high the noise
Of so just and solemn joyes,
Which on his white browes this bright day
Shall hence for ever bear away.

IV.

Lo the new Law of a new L ORD
With a new Lamb blesses the Board.
The aged Pascha pleads not yeares
But spyes love's dawn, and disappeares.
Types yeild to T RUTHES ; shades shrink away;
And their N IGHT dyes into our Day.

v.

But lest T HAT dy too, we are bid
Ever to doe what he once did.
And by a mindfull, mystick breath
That we may live, revive his D EATH ;
With a well-bles't bread and wine,
Transsum'd, and taught to turn divine.

VI.

The Heavn-instructed house of F AITH
Here a holy Dictate hath
That they but lend their Form and face,
Themselves with reverence leave their place
Nature, and name, to be made good
By'a nobler Bread, more needfull B LOOD .

VII.

Where nature's lawes no leave will give,
Bold F AITH takes heart, and dares beleive.
In different species, names not things
Himself to me my S AVIOUR brings,
As meat in That, as Drink in this;
But still in Both one C HRIST he is.

VIII.

The Receiving Mouth here makes
Nor wound nor breach in what he takes.
Let one, or one T HOUSAND be
Here Dividers, single he
Beares home no lesse, all they no more,
Nor leave they both lesse then before.

IX.

Though in it self this S OVERAIN F EAST
Be all the same to every Guest,
Yet on the same (life-meaning) Bread
The child of Death eates himself Dead.
Nor is't love's fault, but sin's dire skill
That thus from L IFE can D EATH distill.

X.

When the blest signes thou broke shall see,
Hold but thy Faith intire as he
Who, howsoe're clad, cannot come
Lesse then whole C HRIST in every crumme.
In broken formes a stable F AITH
Untouch't her pretious T OTALL hath.

XI.

Lo the life-food of A NGELLS then
Bow'd to the lowly mouths of men!
The children's B READ ; the Bridegroom's W INE .
Not to be cast to dogges, or swine.

XII.

Lo, the full, finall, S ACRIFICE
On which all figures fix't their eyes.
The ransom'd I SACK , and his ramme;
The M ANNA , and the P ASCHAL Lamb.

XIII.

J ESU M ASTER , Just and true!
Our F OOD , and faithfull S HEPHARD too!
O by thy self vouchsafe to keep,
As with thy selfe thou feed'st thy S HEEP .

XIV.

O let that love which thus makes thee
Mix with our low Mortality,
Lift our lean Soules, and sett us up
Convictors of thine own full cup,
Coheirs of S AINTS . That so all may
Drink the same wine; and the same W AY .
Nor change the P ASTURE , but the Place ;
To feed of T HEE in thine own F ACE .
A MEN .