Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.
On the Nativitie of My SaviourXXIV. Benjamin Jonson
I
The Author both of life and light;
The angels so did sound it,
And like the ravish’d sheep’erds said,
Who saw the light, and were afraid,
Yet search’d, and true they found it.
That did us all salvation bring,
And freed the soule from danger;
Hee whom the whole world could not take,
The Word, which heaven and earth did make,
Was now laid in a manger.
Who made himself the price of sinne,
To make us heires of glory?
To see this babe all innocence,
A martyr borne in our defence;
Can man forget this storie?