Sequence 96. Of the Blessed Virgin

MERCY'S dew upon it showered
Jesse's sterile rod empowered
Fruit in plenty to bring forth ;
To the world that fruit hath given
Medicine, which this day hath driven
Ruin from the face of earth.

Though a maid becomes a mother, still a maiden
pure is she,
Safe in chastity's chaste dwelling still abideth
chastity \
When it taketh man into it, still the Godhead is
the same;
But when into God thus taken, glory doth the man-
hood claim.

As the hook, thus God is hidden 'neath the bait of
mortal man.

And the fierceness thus deluded of the fierce
Leviathan,
Who, while seizing on to swallow, as a worm, our
mortal race,
Is himself enticed and taken, and posterity hath
peace I
Nature, suffering variation
'Gainst the rules of generation.

Breaks her law ; a virgin's breast
Feeds her Maker, here embodied.

And the fulness of the Godhead
Is with hunger-pangs opprest.

Habakkuk this marvel pondered,
And thereat, awe-stricken, wondered.

That 'mongst cattle, cradled, lies, —
Though containing all, contained ;
And, though food, to feed constrained, —
One, Whose child His mother is.

Cries those infant lips deliver,
But the like were heard here never :
Whilst our Joy his grief displays,
Man, his sorrows o'er, rejoices,
Heaven's self joys, and angel voices
" Glory in the highest ! " raise ! Amen.