A MEDITATION ON
THE PASSION.
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THis is the day where I.N. R.I.ght well content,
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Our blessed SAVIOUR did himselfe present,
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A LIVING SACRIFICE our soules to free
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From sinne, death, hell, to live eternally.
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Awake my soule THIS DAY SHAL sacred be
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With Hymnes and Songs To his deare memory;
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Whose dolorous DeaTH our angry God appeas'd,
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And Lord remember nOw If thou bee pleas'd,
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For whome he suffered thUs, for whom These woundes
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By which his goary Bloud so muCH abounds,
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For men, vile me, hart rEnding stRIpes he bore
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With thorns his head, With nailes hiS flesh was tore.
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His lovelie, LillIe hands were sTretched wide,
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To wellcome death That entred at his side.
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As streames of bloud gusHt foorth and thus did dure
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The worst that wrath or Malice could procure.
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LORD, into pity turnE thine angrie brow,
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Say to my soule I am contented now.
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His death, thy life, his wouNdes, thy balme, shall be;
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His paynefull passion Pleades so powerfully.
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O King, o Christ, thAt didst thy life bestow
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For sinful wretches, gRant my life may show
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Such living fruites of zeAle, of faith, of love,
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To GOD, to gooDnesse, and the life above;
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Then loving, servIng, lauding thee at last,
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I may of ParadiCE sweet JESUS taste.
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This most excellent invention was done by an unknowne Author, and for the worthines of
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it, I thought it pity to let it be concealed or smothered in silence; for which cause it is Printed, and I
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have annexed to it these following Verses.
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Upon the good Thiefe.
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Let no man despaire, for, one was saved.
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HE that had long beene a notorious Thiefe,
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Was in Repentance and in Faith so briefe,
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That at the point of Death, in little space
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He gaind forgivenesse by our Saviours grace:
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In death he kept Christ Jesus company,
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Expressing Love, Faith, Hope, and Charity.
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By Love and Faith, he zealously believ'd
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His sinnes were pardon'd, and his soule repriev'd:
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And his fixt Hope did full assurance gaine
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Of free remission from eternall paine.
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He praid, Lord I thy Kingdome have forgot,
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Yet when thou thither comst forget me not:
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But though I still have ran astray from thee,
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Yet (in thy mercy) Lord remember me.
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Upon our blessed Saviour.
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Death brings life.
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HE that (of nothing) everything did frame,
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Was pleas'd to change his glory for our shame;
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He sinlesse was, yet sinne for us was made,
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And our three foes, Sin, Death, and Hell invade.
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Ther's nothing dearer since the world began
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To God, then is the soule and corps of man;
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When leprosie of sinne had us ore spread,
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That all were unto Satan forfeited,
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Then Gods blest Son came down, and on the Crosse
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He payd our ransomes, and redeem'd our losse.
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And as unto the blessed Thiefe he said,
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(When he to him with true contrition praid)
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He sayes to all that doe repent their vice
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That they shall be with him in Paradice.
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Upon the bad Thiefe.
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Let no man presume, for, but one was sa-
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ved.
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HE that would live accurst, accurst would die,
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Through want of faith his Saviour to apply:
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It was the bodies death he fear'd to die,
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Not soule and bodies death eternally.
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A longer, not a better life to have
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He wish'd, when he bade Christ his life to save.
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This wicked Thiefe did as the Jewes had done,
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Who said (if he be Gods eternall Sonne)
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Let him come downe, now from the Crosse, and we
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Will strait beleeve in him, that it is He.
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Ev'n so this Thiefe, with damned doubt said thus
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If thou beest Christ, then save thy selfe and us.
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But ten times happy had he beene I say,
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If that same doubtfull IF had beene away.
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