As Jonah, issuing from his three days' tomb,
At length was cast, uninjured, on the earth;
So, from the virgin's unpolluted womb
Th'incarnate Word, That dwelt there, had His birth:
For He, who knew no taint of mortal stain,
Willed that His mother spotless should remain.
Christ comes, incarnate God, amongst us now,
Begotten of the Father ere the day:
And He, to Whom the sinless legions bow,
Lies cradled, 'midst unconscious beasts on hay:
And, by His homely swaddling-bands girt in,
Looses the many fetters of our sin.
Now the new Child of Adam's race draws nigh,
To us, the faithful, giv'n: This, this is He
That shall the Father of eternity,
The Angel of the Mighty Counsel, be:
This the eternal God, by Whose strong hands
The fabric of the world supported stands.
